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Get a Grip, Democrats. You Can Still Win This | Washington Monthly (washingtonmonthly.com)

submitted 3 months ago by Rapidcreek@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

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[-] Chainweasel@lemmy.world 161 points 3 months ago

There are two things that will lose the election for Democrats if they don't get them under control.

Infighting and arguing over who the candidate should be.
The "All is lost" attitude.

If people don't stop fighting and trying to convince themselves that it's not worth it to go to the polls then this is game over.

[-] Xanis@lemmy.world 59 points 3 months ago

I feel as if not enough people are saying this.

Infighting is a bane. Back when I was on Reddit I got fucking downvoted into oblivion multiple times for pointing out that the Left's biggest problem, both now and historically, is how we can never agree on anything. That whatever faults the Right has, they will come together just to shit on someone else. If us on the Left stood up in unity we would be a literal human tsunami flooding the bullshit that is the Republican habitual diatribe. Second, and louder, is apathy, as you said.

Starting to wonder if throwing League of Legends level of insults at people might get them angry enough to vote just to show me what's what.

[-] Cosmonauticus@lemmy.world 34 points 3 months ago

It's because the Democratic party is a coalition. The Democratic party ISN'T LEFT. It's a party made up of moderates (right wingers) and liberals.

It's essentially two different political philosophies trying to operate within one party.

[-] macaro@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 3 months ago

Which is why ranked choice voting allows people to better represent their candidate preferences. All the variety of political opinion can’t be represented in two parties.

[-] aodhsishaj@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

First past the post got us in this mess and it sure as shit ain't gonna get us out of it. I'll take a straw poll over what our current system is.

Ranked Choice voting allows for the kind of direct democratic action as we just saw in France and what they finally got around to doing in the UK with the most recent elections.

However, it's against the best interest of the current politicians in power.

How do we get Ranked Choice on ballot when the DNC won't even use it in their primaries?

[-] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

The French are also FPTP, they just convinced most of the potential spoiler candidates to fall on their swords for the good of the nation.

[-] andxz@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago

The politics here in the EU are just as messy, there's simply a thin veneer of ..something, class, perhaps, that trump managed to completely remove from American politics.

What happened in the UK is a genuine bright spot, though. I couldn't stand Sunak, but at least he behaved like a fucking adult when the time came.

[-] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 8 points 3 months ago

It very much does feel like Trump gave the right permission to be their worst selves in public. The Republicans of the 90s and 00s were perfectly happy to use racism and jingoism and white grievance to win votes, but they either used dog whistles or pretended they were speaking an "uncomfortable truth". Now that it's been accepted that being horrible in public can make you president, they don't need to play that game anymore and they love it.

And all it took was that one little break. The European right is probably one successful brash racist away from being just as bad. There have been some close calls already.

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[-] lennybird@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

The other problem with Democrats is they have terrible fucking strategy. Then they get this bright fucking idea to take a page out of Biden's handbook. In what conceivable world was it a good idea to run an 81-year-old who all but promised to be a bridge candidate to a younger generation?

Yeah, guys, let's "rally" blindly around the guy for whom 75% of the fucking electorate find is not cognitively fit to run for a 2nd term. Real genius strategy. It's like they completely forget about low-info undecided swing voters.

It's like they ALWAYS employ the wrong strategy 2 cycles too fucking late.

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[-] Sc00ter@lemm.ee 18 points 3 months ago

The thing I'd like to see more of is people (outside of here) admitting they're voting for Biden even tho he's not ideal. We all know who trump is, and Biden gets a lot of flack, and I think it's going to persuade a lot of people from going out and voting.

People need to know that it's acceptable, encouraged even, to vote for the guy who isn't as bad, even if you don't like him. Just because you don't agree with everything he says or does, you agree with him more than the other guy.

Im in some groups with some trumpers, and I'll throw out memes making fun of trump, then they just say stupid incomprehensible things about Biden and I say "lol good one" and they don't know what the fuck to do

[-] dragontamer@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Infighting and arguing over who the candidate should be.

Agreed.

I don't care if its Biden, Harris, or anyone else you put up. But yall need to pick fucking somebody and stick with the pick.

I'm sticking with Biden and Harris in that order until someone gives me a better option. And after weeks following the last debate, no one has given me a seriously better option.

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[-] Orbituary@lemmy.world 125 points 3 months ago

It should not be this hard to beat Trump. I'm so tired of sub-standard candidates.

[-] just_another_person@lemmy.world 54 points 3 months ago

The minority party being allowed so much influence is the problem. We need more voting laws to stop this ASAP.

[-] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 20 points 3 months ago

Ranked choice works well in my city (San Francisco). Just wish it could realistically

given the political uphill battle

be applied to federal elections.

[-] Sconrad122@lemmy.world 16 points 3 months ago

The monkeys paw curls. Texas has implemented more laws to stop minorities from voting

[-] enbyecho@lemmy.world 16 points 3 months ago

It should not be this hard to beat Trump. I’m so tired of sub-standard candidates.

I'm pretty sure reasonable people everywhere have said that about populist candidates in general. And yet you have to ask, if they are so easy to beat why would any reasonable person either vote for them or not vote at all, even if the alternative sucks. Knowing the stakes, WHY?

[-] EleventhHour@lemmy.world 26 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Voter apathy in the Democratic Party is what will kill it. There are far more liberals than there are conservatives, but about half of liberals just don’t vote. It’s ridiculous and incomprehensible.

[-] enbyecho@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

Agree 100%

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[-] demizerone@lemmy.world 28 points 3 months ago

I 100% voting for Biden now. I hate this voting system.

[-] zephorah@lemm.ee 27 points 3 months ago

The worst part is cognitive decline is real. We’re seeing it.

Trump and Biden are only 3 years apart.

3 years.

The difference is, Joe surrounds himself with competence. He picked a VP who wouldn’t make a terrible President. He also doesn’t have shitty impulses to play with big government military toys at baseline that he’s falling back on right now.

Can we say the same for Trump? What does his less competent more impulsive at baseline ass do in full cognitive decline?

And yet we’re sitting in this geriatric hole. With a China-Russia-Korea alliance looming, plus whatever the fuck is happening on the daily in the Middle East. Our neighbors are cool, thankfully, but conflict doesn’t need to be neighbor based or on the same continent these days. Yea, we have shit in our own house and it stinks, but the rest of the globe isn’t going to stop existing while we fight it out.

Complacency and inertia are scary. And that’s what’s been running the DNC for years.

[-] timewarp@lemmy.world 19 points 3 months ago

Biden is being selfish period. If it is about the team, then why Biden. Biden gets on television saying only he can do it. That he is the only one that can beat Trump. If he is the CEO of the Democrats, then they can change the CEO and keep the same employees.

[-] zephorah@lemm.ee 8 points 3 months ago

You’re not wrong.

This is what complacency and inertia gets us, this horror show where we all need a good scream and cry. RBG was a Queen right up until she banked on waiting for Hillary before retirement. I get it, wanting the first female President to a point her replacement, but she fucked up, miscalculated. Even the best of us fucks up, and Joe isn’t firing on all cylinders any more. Expecting him to think as well as either of us, going forward, would be a mistake.

Jon Stewart podcast it was brought up that white male establishment guys like Joe probably arent capable of just handing power to a black woman. I mean, historically in America, how often have we seen that, if ever? Again, inertia rules the day.

A lot of things should happen, but inertia rules people. Some people go their entire lives and then die without ever really moving outside of the inertial force of their own little existence. DNC has exponential momentum gathered on its inertia, its like, oh shit, I just had an image of The Boys pop into my head, the scene where Hughie’s GF is killed by A-Train. Can the DNC stop? They’ve been running on this lazy momentum for a while now.

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[-] rsuri@lemmy.world 24 points 3 months ago

I feel like both parties are trying as hard as they can to lose this election.

[-] crusa187@lemmy.ml 22 points 3 months ago

Statement dreamed up by the utterly deranged.

Biden should have dropped out in ‘23 and allowed for a real primary contest. Instead he and his neoliberal ilk shouted down anyone talking sense, and now his ego will cost America everything. Congrats Joe, you’ll go down in history after all.

[-] aodhsishaj@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago

Assuming that is true; what's your proposal to fix this now?

[-] Boiglenoight@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago

Whitmer/Bootyjudge 2024

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[-] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

We broke it, and now it's your fault for not knowing how to fix it.

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[-] PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@feddit.uk 10 points 3 months ago

This will be a blight on his record like Ruth Bader Ginsbergs refusal to step down is on hers

[-] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 22 points 3 months ago

I'll say it to I'm blue in the face:

Either party can guarantee victory by running literally anyone except Biden or trump.

*Obviously not Hillary tho

If Biden steps down, trump is toast if he stays.

If trump steps down, there goes Biden's entire campaign.

[-] nerdschleife@lemm.ee 46 points 3 months ago

The crazies want Trump.

[-] audiomodder@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 3 months ago

Who are they going to vote for? If Trump isn’t the Republican candidate, you think they would vote for a Democrat?

[-] Stern@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago

They'd vote for Trump. We both know he wouldn't stop running. Vote splits, dems win.

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[-] Pelicanen@sopuli.xyz 12 points 3 months ago

Why are you so certain that people would instantly vote for a new candidate more than the incumbent president? I have only seen polls saying the exact opposite.

Regardless, time is ticking out. If a new candidate is gonna have time to build any sort of support or momentum, they need to get started yesterday and hit the ground running, the election is just getting closer.

[-] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago

I have only seen polls saying the exact opposite

An incumbent with what? A 34% approval rating?

Biden isn't a normal incumbent he's literally a historically unpopular incumbent...

And for months now polls have been showing a smaller gap between almost anyone else and trump.

Like, do you not understand this is Biden with the campaign and DNC behind him versus people who can't even say they're thinking about running yet?

You don't think that would give them even a 5% boost?

[-] bostonbananarama@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

I've seen polling that says that Michelle Obama wins by like 20 points, but I'm not stupid enough to believe that polling.

There's so much "not Trump" feeling in this country, but running a doddering octogenarian against him decreases those people willing to vote for "not Trump". I'm absolutely voting for the Dem candidate, but I have some very real concerns about it.

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[-] Etterra@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago

I mean I'm not going to not vote. Maybe I'm unusual, but I learned how to juggle being a nihilist without any hope with still doing the right thing a long time ago.

[-] Godric@lemmy.world 31 points 3 months ago

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[-] Rapidcreek@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

The case may be that no news development can dramatically change the race’s trajectory because the partisan bases for the two candidates are broad and firm, and the “double haters” in the middle will continue to double their hate.

If the contours of the race remained fixed, its outcome may hinge upon the quality of their two parties’ get-out-the-vote operations

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this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2024

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