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“This is a collapse of the Democratic Party.” Consumer advocate, corporate critic and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader comments on the reelection of Donald Trump and the failures of the Democratic challenge against him.

Despite attempts by left-wing segments of the Democratic base to shift the party’s messaging toward populist, anti-corporate and progressive policies, says Nader, Democrats “didn’t listen.” Under Trump, continues Nader, “We’re in for huge turmoil.”

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[-] Sloogs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 5 hours ago

They said that in 2016 too after rigging things against populist grassroots candidates in favour of establishment Democrats and learned nothing.

[-] BigBenis@lemmy.world 6 points 6 hours ago

They choose their big money corporate donors over the American people and then are surprised when the American people chose big money over them.

[-] Dkarma@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

Over progressives. Progressives stayed home.

[-] HawlSera@lemm.ee 20 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

Good fucking riddance...

You fucked up a sure thing and let Trump win. There will never be a female president in my lifetime because Trump beats women.

[-] GhiLA@sh.itjust.works 4 points 8 hours ago

I wonder who the corporations will pay to represent us next time.

[-] inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 17 points 21 hours ago

Honestly I would be okay with it. They've been so ineffective and myopic that I've been done with the party as a whole for a while now.

[-] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 4 points 8 hours ago

Yeah, I just want a populist progressive party willing to make bold moves that can win

[-] dank@lemmy.today 73 points 1 day ago

Hope and change. That's the message Obama won consecutive terms with. The Republicans have always thrived on fear and insecurity--and hate, which is just ripe fear. To quote Yoda, "Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate." The red scare, the Southern Strategy, urban crime, WMDs, terrorism, immigrants, China--since the 1950s, Republicans have monkey-barred from fear to fear.

It's a natural fit for conservativism. What is conservatism if not the fear of change? And when you're afraid, you want a strongman to lead you, someone who takes pride in our military and law enforcement. Someone who shows no fear, who has swagger. It's also a perfect fit for someone like Trump who would as soon lie as breathe. When you're conjuring terrors, truth is just dead weight.

Kamala didn't run on hope and change. She ran on fear, too. She tried to beat Trump at his own game with none of the advantages of his shameless distain for the truth or a Republican Party and media ecosystem at home with fearmongering. She aped his disdain for immigrants and opposition to China, but of course her main bugaboo was Trump himself. Despite widespread dissatisfaction with our nation's current circumstances, she offered only stasis, while Trump offered revolution.

Non-college graduates know they're getting fucked. Trump says immigrants and China is to blame. Kamala has nothing to say. She could point to the billionaires, the tax dodging corporations, the thriving defense contractors, the predatory medical insurance and pharmaceutical companies, the monopolies bleeding consumers dry in every corner of the economy.

She could paint a vision of affordable healthcare for all, an end to medical bankruptcy, an end to college debt, a thriving green energy blue collar economy, free early childhood education, a guaranteed jobs program, a universal basic income.

She could acknowledge the people who feel left behind and say, "I hear you. This is what I'm going to do for you." Instead, her cries of fear just assured those folks that Trump really was going to fuck shit up fighting for them, that the people who sold them down the river are shaking in their boots. Of course, Trump isn't actually going to make their lives better, but he promised he would, and that's more than Kamala could be bothered to do.

[-] IndustryStandard@lemmy.world 13 points 12 hours ago

Republicans can blame immigrants, LGBT, black people, brown people, women and much more.

All Democrats had to blame was Trump.

Democrats can never beat Republicans in the blame game. They must offer hope. They can never beat Republicans in threatening despair.

[-] dhork@lemmy.world 148 points 1 day ago

He is an expert, after all. He's the guy whose 3rd party campaign in 2000 siphoned enough votes from Gore in Florida to flip the state (and the election) to Bush.

[-] Mirshe@lemmy.world 65 points 1 day ago

Uhhhh, wasn't that more due to Jeb! ordering the recount stopped? Like, I seem to recall reading that the recount WAS NOT COMPLETED, and the results that they had at that point had to be accepted, which just so happened to favor Bush.

Not saying Nader didn't siphon votes, but I seem to remember that there was actual skulduggery and not just "3rd party go brr".

[-] Hugin@lemmy.world 26 points 1 day ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

There was a lot going on. The final count used had bush up by 537 votes out of 5.8 million cast. The close margin triggered a recount and Bush dropped to 327 vote lead.

Nadar probably cost the democrats more votes then republicans by greater then that 327. But there were other things that hurt Gore. Some intentional some random.

There were ballot design issues. In areas where the butterfly ballot was used Buchanan (who was also a 3rd party candidate) got way more votes than elsewhere. So if you wanted Gore saw him under Bush and selected the dot below you voted for Buchanan. See below.

Bush. O

/ O Buchanan

Gore. O

In another democratic area the ballot had the presidential race split on the front and back page. 21,000 votes were invalidated because they had multiple selections for president.

There was a large purge of mostly black felon voters. 15% weren't felons.

Then there were lawsuits trying to stop and start recounts in both state and federal court. The state supreme court ordered recounts while they decided if the recount should be used. Then they decided the recount should be used and set a date it was du. Then the US supreme court stopped the recount. Several days later they decided there wasn't time for a recount and ordered the Bush ahead by 537 count to be used.

So honestly it probably took all the above to swing the final count to Bush from Gore. I'm guessing if any one had not happened Gore would have been president.

A personal note I live in Florida and that was the first election I voted in. My vote for president has never be closer to making a difference in who was president. It's shaped my views on elections and voting.

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[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 68 points 1 day ago

And people were saying the same stupid "Bush and Gore are the same" shit in 2000.

[-] Keeponstalin@lemmy.world 33 points 1 day ago

In the 2000 presidential election in Florida, George W. Bush defeated Al Gore by 537 votes. Nader received 97,421 votes, which led to claims that he was responsible for Gore's defeat.

However, Jonathan Chait of The American Prospect and The New Republic notes that Nader did indeed focus on swing states disproportionately during the waning days of the campaign, and by doing so jeopardized his own chances of achieving the 5% of the vote he was aiming for.

  • his wiki

Yeah fuck Ralph Nader for that. He definitely helped Bush win.

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[-] RandAlThor@lemmy.ca 132 points 1 day ago

They need to fire the leaders of Democratic party. Find new blood and new direction. Swing to the right didn't help them.

[-] dhork@lemmy.world 79 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

So they did that once, Hillary was all set to take the nomination in 2008 then this young charismatic guy took the nomination. Obama served 2 terms and the Republicans lost their mind over it....

..... but maybe the Democrats did too? Because Hillary still thought it was Her Turn in 2016, and there were a lot of machinations to make sure they didnt run a Socialist. Then I distinctly remember all the shenanigans to insure that Joe Biden got the nomination in 2020. And we all know what happened this year. I actually think Harris was a good candidate, I just wish she got the chance to prove it in a meaningful primary. (Edited to add: if she had lost a primary, all it would have meant was that Democrats would have found an even better candidate.)

The Democrats do have a deep bench of Governors and Senators who might make really good Presidents. They even proved that strategy worked in 2008. I wonder why they are so afraid to prove it in a primary.

[-] rishado@lemmy.world 27 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Disagree, Harris would not have been close to winning at all if there was a primary. Even Tim Walz would have absolutely smoked her in a primary.

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[-] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 48 points 1 day ago

But when Obama won the nomination the DNC didn't support Obama in the general.

So Obama ignored the DNC for 8 years and let it fester until 2016 when Hillary's primary campaign took control of it they shady backroom financial deals that resulted in her campaign getting approval over what the DNC did during the primary.

There was a brief window Donna Brazille got in leadership and showed everyone the receipts, then Hillary's people got back in control and Biden kept them.

With Kamala losing the DNC votes for it's own leadership, and will likely retain like they always do.

Obama has the chance to appoint progressive leadership to the DNC and fix the party, but instead he ignored it as a relic.

And we're still paying the price.

I wonder why they are so afraid to prove it in a primary

Because challenging the party favorite is career suicide when the party is corrupt.

If Obama hadn't won in 08 none of us would remember his name, and the party did nothing to help him because they knew if he won he could change leadership.

They got lucky and he choose not to fix the party

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[-] teawrecks@sopuli.xyz 8 points 21 hours ago

This is why I'm hoping that all the impending hardships reflect poorly on Trump's term, and he can merely serve as the Hoover to an FDR-like successor.

Would be great if we avoided all the unnecessary deaths along the way, but we wouldn't be human if we didn't insist on learning everything the hard way.

[-] littlewonder@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago

You've been subscribed to Hoover facts.

✨ Herbert Hoover was raised as a Quaker. ✨

[-] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

Yeah, he seems committed to collapsing a strained economy. It’s going to hurt. With any luck he’s going to struggle with his social control problems and focus on doing things that hurt everyone.

[-] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 35 points 1 day ago

The issue is the same with trump.

A lot of stuff is dependent on people "doing the moral thing".

The DNC is a private organization, and if they decide to keep making the terrible decisions they've been making, there's not a lot we can do about it.

Their platform for a decade has been "what are you gonna do, vote trump?"

So I really really think that today being the day after the election is the day we start talking about a third option in 2028. There's no reason to expect the same people who have been running the DNC to magically change this time or even just get out of the way for the best of the country.

We can't just "find new leadership" because when a Republican wins, the DNC votes for its own leadership and almost always elects the same kind of people if not literally the exact same people.

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[-] njm1314@lemmy.world 41 points 1 day ago

Maybe blowing up the Democratic party would be best for everyone.

[-] affiliate@lemmy.world 15 points 22 hours ago

that would only be true if there was something to replace it

[-] frezik@midwest.social 1 points 5 hours ago

I don't see much downside at this point. They can shamble along like a zombie inside a Republican dominated system at every level. That's their best case scenario.

[-] njm1314@lemmy.world 10 points 22 hours ago

Well I'd prefer more than one thing to replace it, but certainly this is one of the rare opportunities to do so.

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[-] peppers_ghost@lemmy.ml 69 points 1 day ago

Liberals would choose fascism over adopting left wing elements into the party. They've made their choice and will now live with it. Repeated failure by leadership to choose a candidate people actually like is what brought us here. Never forget that.

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[-] emanresu@lemmy.ml 42 points 1 day ago

Move on from the Democrats. It's over. They had their chance with Bernie.

[-] littlewonder@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

Everyone needs to take their anger straight to their local DNC office. Get involved and stop letting the centrist status-quo motherfuckers steer the party from the local levels. I'm also a member of my nearest DSA group but, until there's a viable option for third parties to complete in general elections, we need to hold our noses and trojan horse the Democrats to change them from within.

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[-] OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml 32 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Yes, the Democratic party is out of touch. They lost due to stubbornness - expecting Muslims to vote for Kamala without her making a plan to end the war in Gaza was a gamble that didn't pay off.

Now that the election is over, we need to focus our attention on third parties.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 32 points 1 day ago

Fuck you, Nader. We wouldn't even be in this mess if it wasn't for you.

[-] cygnus@lemmy.ca 32 points 1 day ago

Looking purely at vote counts, he isn't wrong. Trump lost about 3 million votes compared to 2020, whereas the Dems lost 15 million. There's certainly a lot of blame to lay at the feet of "both sides bad" people who didn't vote, but either way that's catastrophically bad turnout for the Dems.

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this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2024
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