• lps2@lemmy.ml
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        12 hours ago

        Trying to get the middle in the most boring way possible. Dems will never learn that being the ‘safe option’ doesn’t get people out to the polls

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          11 hours ago

          Trying to get the middle in the most boring way possible.

          I mean, it was a lot of things. I don’t know about boring.

          Harris found one of the most universally reviled (ex-)House Reps and did Girl Power brunch interviews with her so that everyone would know the number one issue for a Harris Presidency was sucking up to neocon ghouls. If you have to ask how Donald J. Trump became the “Peace President” candidate in the year of our lord 2024, this was how. Jeff Flake, Bill Kristol, Cindy McCain, and the Cheney Cartel did spirit fingers at her on public TV on multiple occasions, while her own VP was confined to the cuck chair to just watch the trainwreck of a campaign flare out.

            • Ruxias@lemmy.world
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              10 hours ago

              Sometimes, your opponent is correct (or has knowledge to be gleaned from their propaganda, even if the outward conclusion is incorrect) and it’s an opportunity to learn and improve. Not for liberals though, with the reactionary drive to get “back to normal” or “make america great again”.

            • crusa187@lemmy.ml
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              10 hours ago

              Catastrophic failure in Democrat campaign strategy doesn’t make it right wing propaganda, it can just mean Dems (and their long-standing paid consultants) are bad at politics.

        • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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          11 hours ago

          I know I’ll get hate for this, but politics is often about playing a safe numbers game, and courting leftists is like herding cats.

          If you want to start winning elections, maybe be less like a herd of cats. Stop sniping at compatriots and form coalitions.

          • lps2@lemmy.ml
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            10 hours ago

            How’s that been working out for Dems? That’s the exact approach they’ve taken and have gotten humiliated at the ballot box. This isn’t about how far left they court, it’s about bold policy that actually helps the middle if they want their vote. Instead it’s vague platitudes and “we’re not as bad as the Republicans” without anything to back it up. So while it gets them points in opinion polls, it doesn’t translate to votes

            • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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              9 hours ago

              I didn’t say it was working. I’m not defending it, but it made sense on paper.

              To be fair, I think the Dems could have run Jesus himself and would have still lost. There was literally no good candidate on the face of the earth that would have placated progressives whilst also being someone moderates would have considered. And you need both to win.

              e: propaganda hasn’t only worked on the right – it’s also gone a long way to dividing the left into near-irrelevancy.

              • OptimalHyena@lemmy.world
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                9 hours ago

                Because most dems run campaigns like they are some frankenstein’s monster milquetoast anthropomorphic polling group. Have conviction, have some fucking opinions.

                • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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                  9 hours ago

                  Yes, because courting Dems is like herding cats. Leftists turn their noses up at a moderate, and moderates spook at the slightest whiff of leftism. Yet the right congeals like old yoghurt around whatever rotting mass says the right buzzwords.

                  • criscodisco@lemmy.world
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                    2 hours ago

                    And this is why we need to get big money out of politics. Smaller parties stand very little chance against these billionaire backed behemoths.

              • lps2@lemmy.ml
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                9 hours ago

                I’m not sure we’re on the same page. I’m not claiming she needed to move further left, I’m saying that using words to court the middle rather than policy doesn’t excite anyone and doesn’t get them to come out and vote. So doing talk show rounds, getting endorsements, etc at best move opinion polls but don’t impact votes and at worst only appeals to politicos who were already going to vote for her while turning off others

                • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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                  9 hours ago

                  using words to court the middle rather than policy.

                  Not sure what this means, since words are what you have when running for office. It’s not like she was president before (unlike the other guy, who we did have policy to look at, and still that wasn’t enough).

                  • lps2@lemmy.ml
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                    8 hours ago

                    No, you have policy proposals which she came in with very few (maternity leave, child tax credit, and removing the filibuster were the big ones) that addressed the economic security that the middle loves. She instead focused on culture wars, pointing the finger at Republicans in the Senate, and refusing to distance herself from Biden. Nothing in her proposals was exciting for the middle class and while her platitudes played well in opinion polls, 6.2 million less people came out to vote for her compared to 4 years prior. That’s a lack of excitement - people viewed her as more of the same rather than something new and promising

          • lps2@lemmy.ml
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            11 hours ago

            Tankies might hate Ukraine but most of the left is very supportive. My point around Cheney and Kamala campaigning together was that it only went for the middle but absent policy proposals that bring some energy, at best you get a bump in the opinion polls but don’t actually bring people to the ballot box.

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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              11 hours ago

              Tankies might hate Ukraine but most of the left is very supportive.

              “Tankies” were anti-war and staunchly opposed injecting heavy weapons systems into Ukraine back when Trump was doing it in 2018. Liberals ignored Trump’s repeated efforts to stoke tensions between Ukraine and Russia, because it didn’t fit the “Trump Cheeto Suck Putin Dick” narrative they’d fed themselves. Neoconservatives were the most supportive of the Ukraine conflict, because those fuckers never saw a war they couldn’t jill off to. And the apex of this insanity was outed genocidal fascist Yaroslav Hunka getting a standing ovation in Canadian Parliament.

              The neocons were so bullish on their war that they openly cavorted with the last living Nazis in order to sell it.

              My point around Cheney and Kamala campaigning together was that it only went for the middle

              There was no “moderate” voter who supported Kamala after Liz Cheney (a woman who couldn’t hold her seat in the safest Republican state in the country) endorsed her. What Liz Cheney offered Kamala was money from the Oil & Gas industry. She was a nine-figure bribe to abandon climate change policy. If Liz changed anyone’s vote, it likely cost Kamala winnable swing states.

              Nobody liked this bitch.

            • SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world
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              11 hours ago

              The fact that she is a black woman didn’t help out either with the left or right flank of the party I still think Biden would have beaten Trump a second time.

              • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                10 hours ago

                The tankies on .ml aren’t proof that the far left is like the far right.

                They’re proof that being in the same space on the authoritarianism axis causes overlap between otherwise disparate oppression enjoyers.

                  • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                    10 hours ago

                    Funny how you believe tankies/their apologists when they accidentally support your lazy pet theory but not at any other time and equate them with the anti-authoritarian Left at all times.

                    If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were engaged in pretty blatant cherry picking AND false conflation at the same time 🤔

      • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world
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        12 hours ago

        It was weird, but pivoting to poll tested messages, and refusing to shit on Biden, is probably what really sunk her. She was doing well early on when she was being fast and disruptive. Then she reverted to the boring old playbook.

          • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world
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            11 hours ago

            IMHO, the stupid bean counters got to her and they stared obsessing about messages, positions, and tactics that will give you a percent here and a percent there.

            They were playing way too fucking safe.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I’m the dictator

      ~ George W. Bush

      • UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml
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        7 hours ago

        “We need a Republican party that is principled and strong” - Joe Biden

        Strong enough for you yet Joe?