What went wrong?

JOE BIDEN

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There are DOZENS of threads about this. What compelled you start another one?

The economy

No, they didn't. Everyone who watched Trump rallies and monitored his media ecosystem could see the wind was in his sails. The issue is the silo-ing of political opponents into different ecosystems of content and perspectives. One side looks at Trump and sees something entirely different to how his supporters see him. The DL is a bubble of pro-Harris support. That's just not the reality of wider American society.

This didn’t need to be its own thread but Ok. Here’s the simplest reason.

Dems only win when they replace an unpopular Republican incumbent or unpopular Republican party (Jimmy Carter 76, Bill Clinton 92, Barack Obama 08, Joe Biden 20) or when they are the Incumbent prez and they are not unpopular (Bill, Barack).

That. Is. It.

Did Harris meet those criteria? No.

In clear hindsight we were fools to think Kamala Harris could win as a proposed 2nd term continuation of the Biden-Harris Administration, which is what her candidacy offered to the voters. A clear majority of Americans have been feeling unhappy toward the Biden-Harris administration and especially unhappy with Biden.

Her radiant smile and kickass debating skills were no match for the simple formula. Was she trying to defeat an unpopular Republican? No. Was she a popular incumbent? No.

… and scene.

I hope he trashes everything, they all deserve it, especially the white women who i hope have braincase-less retarded babies that die in front of them.

The Democratic Party leadership failed Harris and the country.

We underestimated just how shitty and ignorant most Americans are.

Me again at R5. The current silver lining to the horror before us is within this same simple formula.

There is a very high likelihood that in 2028 Vance will be a highly unpopular Republican incumbent nominee. Ripe for a decent Dem candidate to defeat. Assuming we still have free and fair elections.

Trump cheated. The election was rigged.

It isn't 'horror'. It's just an election in a democracy. He won, fairly.

Let's dial down the overblown rhetoric.

High inflation. Vote the incumbent out. It's simple. None of the rest of it matters (though it should, we should be concerned about electing someone who says explicitly he'll ignore our constitutional norms).

Dems need to reframe a lot of the messaging... but more than the substance of the messaging, they need to reflect on who delivers it, how it's delivered, where it's heard, what streams of information get to the voters we need to reach.

What if John Fetterman were smart? Like that...

What went wrong is that Democrats bought into a Big Lie. That big lie was that Joe Biden was a good President. He is not. You cannot follow a map if your compass is upside down. Replacing unpopular Biden with his VP was ALWAYS going to end this way.

R11, yes.... and no.

American elected someone who doesn't believe in the constitution. That person won election fairly. So pretending he didn't win, and pretending the American electorate chose him, isn't helpful to anyone.

However to pretend he is NOT a threat to the Republic, to our way of life, to our liberties (immediately for gay people), is dereliction of our civic duty.

I am an American citizen who believes in our Republic.... and will resist any caution to normalize Trump and that I should "dial down" my rhetoric. The rhetoric that needs to be challenged is that which claims that God helped Trump win so he can stop the gays and deport 20 million immigrants. Let's be calm and clear about this.

R13, so true. One can argue that Biden was in fact a great president- look at this or that accomplishment!

That’s irrelevant next to the question: what do the VOTERS think of him? Biden’s approval rating was like -12 going into the debate that destroyed him, and it was like -17 after. In other words 67% of us were thumbs down. That is as lethal as it gets and some of it did spread to his VP Harris when she replaced him.

Biden accomplished a lot of great things... especially in his first two years. (More progress to address climate change than any President in history, etc. etc.). But 1) the pandemic and modern life have kicked incumbents out around the world... ironically except in the places where authoritarians control the elections - Orban, Putin, Xi. 2) related: inflation from the pandemic and the general economic direction ... incumbents with inflation that was this high ALWAYS lose.

Hindsight blah blah blah: Biden should have declared himself a one-term president, and an open primary would have let the winning candidate get to the better brainspace in the American Mind...

And... mainstream media is useless. Fox is effective and all the other larger media sources are wastes of time. Dems need to figure the channels that work, not just that work now, but are going to work in 2026 and 2028.

1) Biden running for a second term 2) Not having primaries 3) Having a candidate tied to Biden's administration

If Bob Squarepants ran as for the other party he's be close or would win. Harris was a wonderful candidate; her mistake was taking the VP job with Biden in 2020. Of course she couldn't have known that, but thems the breaks.

Very simple.

It's not us. It's them.