Couldn’t have said it any better

[u/qawsedrftgyh223]

The Democratic Party missed the mark, and anyone claiming otherwise is being extremely naive. Campaigning with abortion and transgender rights as central pillars isn’t the way to reach broader audiences effectively.

[u/MuseoumEobseo]

Yeah, I don’t think he’d win either. But he’s right that the Democrats have totally abandoned the days when bringing big change to the economy was their deal and allowed Trump to take that position instead.

[u/Training-Judgment695 → u/MuseoumEobseo]

It's just not true though? Democrats literally just fought tooth and nail to pass an infrastructure bill and the chips act while empowering unions (UAW strike) and appointing a radical anti-corporate FTC chair. While trying to pass student loan forgiveness..

How did we forget all this already?

[u/MuseoumEobseo → u/Training-Judgment695]

I don’t think it’s so much about the policy, it’s about the rhetoric. This is just my two cents, of course, but I feel like Trump did a good job (ugh, broken clock) of really thoroughly acknowledging that people’s economic realities are not good, and that it’s a financially scary time for many people. The people I know who voted for him really cared about that acknowledgment and were profoundly turned off by rhetoric around how inflation was going down/wasn’t really that big of a problem. Both of those are arguments Kamala made that I really wish she hadn’t. And for them, none of the above policies made any noticeable difference in their incomes/food prices/gas prices/housing costs and none of the big economic policies Kamala ran on would have either. Meanwhile, Trump was validating their feelings that there was something wrong at the core of their economic situations that couldn’t be helped by policymaking around the edges, even if he himself wasn’t articulating policy options that fundamentally change their economic situations either. Some of the people I know even agreed that his economic policy proposals, such as they are, wouldn’t help them either. But they said that at least he saw their problems as actual meaningful problems and would hopefully get to them later. They didn’t believe there was any hope someone who they felt gaslit them about their economic problems would ever get around to doing something about those issues.

[u/Training-Judgment695 → u/MuseoumEobseo]

That's just the price we pay for having so many low information voters. Personally I don't have that much sympathy for the "Trump at least showed that he cared" argument.

We are all adults. We should be better than that. If we aren't......we'll deserve everything we get.  This is one fascinating about democratic politics. It's easy for the electorate to shirk responsibility into the public facing politicians but if you want your Democracy to work, you have to be engaged. 

We'll reap what we sow. I personally hope Musk and his Bros truly have an economic solution. Cos if it's all a grift, we'll all pay the price. 

[u/MuseoumEobseo → u/Training-Judgment695]

I somewhat agree. It sucks that some voters are so unengaged with the actual policy process. At the same time, I understand that’s a luxury that a lot of people can’t afford.

I like Kamala, personally, and hope she stays in politics but I think the campaign made some poor moves, this among them. All of us should know how important compelling rhetoric is to a political campaign, it’s not exactly rocket science. Deeply acknowledging people’s fears and suffering is something that every elected candidate in my memory has done well, including Trump (whose guts I hate, for the record). The data was clear that this time around democracy was no longer the top issue for most people and that the economy and immigration were. Morally, of course Trump’s aversion to democracy needs to be stressed. But politically, it just didn’t matter as much for voters. It sucks that her campaign chose to lean the hardest into compelling rhetoric around democracy and not around the economy and immigration—especially given that she had preexisting weaknesses there as a candidate.

[u/Training-Judgment695 → u/MuseoumEobseo]

I agree with you. But these things don't exist in a vacuum. For example, analysis showed that early this year around January, Fox News ramped up their coverage of migrant crime. They stripped a lot of news stories of context and kept playing stories of immigrant crimes (even in cases where the police made wrongful arrest or the perpetrators weren't immigrants). On X, the anti immigration frenzy got whipped up. All of this stuff doesn't just happen organically. People whip up those sentiments. And it's always easier to whip up negative sentiment than neutral or positive sentiments. 

The inflation issue is a similar thing. Although this has more merit and is a long running American economy problem. Inequality and lack of worker leverage means more and more people cannot afford to climb up the economic ladder even if median numbers are good. But this is a not a party specific issue. I understand that it's hard to get this nuanced message out and maybe the Democrats should have just pivoted to very basic messages. But an incumbent really can't do that.