Failed roll for self-awareness

Maybe Democrats could have tried doing literally anything that people wanted
- "Wow you wanted the Democrats to do popular polices? You must be a Republican!"
- They were too cowardly to enact any change, and just tried to keep the status quo.
  Refused to act against an attempted coup by the previous president, and suffered for it, as they rightly should.
- Zionists are people. (Not good people).
- Everyone wants something. At least they're getting it now right?

Oh this again? Democratic Party: has our Neo liberalism, refusal to enact progressive policy, and backing of a genocide alienated progressive voters? Disenfranchised voter: damn it we told you a thousand times yes! Democratic Party: No it’s the voters who are wrong.
- Hey, hey, marketing yourself as Fascism Lite: Low Sodium as opposed to Fascism Original Recipe has to work at some point, right?
  
  Gotta keep tugging for those republican votes. We may need to adopt some republican priorities in order to get those voters, but its all for a good cause right?

This dumbass argument again.
You need an opposition party then. If you keep blaming the voters you are going to keep digging your own grave. In America you have only two parties and legit no opposition party. In this way guess what, FASCISM always wins.
Also Please honestly explain to me, how in the fuck is fascism lite ever going to beat fascism?
- Bro, DSA leaders have flat out said that that is too much fucking work. They could have a seat at the table, but that comes with the expectation that they will sit down, and in good faith, do some fucking work. But they don't want a seat at the table. They want to be handed the table, all the chairs, and the keys to the building table is sitting in, and then thanked for saving the world without having to lift a goddamn finger. Obama spoke very openly about his time in office, and said that in his first year he was full of fire and optimism, and was all gung-ho about getting Americans universal healthcare or at least get us on the path to it, and very quickly learned how to be pragmatic. He never gave up his ideals, never changed his values, but in his first year he learned that he couldn't just magically sign a paper and boom, everyone's on Medicare. He had to do stuff that most DSA people find boring or tedious, like sitting down with Senators and Representatives and working on a plan together to get something started.
- This place is a shit hole now. Everyday the front page is swarmed with garbage just like this. I'm done with this place.

¿Por Qué No Los Dos?
When it was the day of the general election and we were guaranteed to either get mainstream Democrat or Trump 2.0: The Revenge Tour, I could not morally justify any vote that didn’t minimize the chances of Trump winning.
But in the present day, and in the time leading up to the election, god damn the Democrats feel so worthless. Their party probably needs to be completely rebuilt even before the much much worse Republican party. You can’t have the Nice Conservative Party vs the Mean Conservative Party when the latter has gone off the deep end.
But also in the present day, it may already be too late. So keep on writing stern letters, insider trading, and raking in the fundraising while your desperate constituents still have some money and willingness to do something!
- Yes thank you, this is the sane response. Sitting here in my neighbouring nation wondering if we'll be facing invasion in the next year or two, I have no sympathy for people who couldn't hold their nose and vote for harm reduction. I just can't understand why so many Americans are too blind to understand that you can have harm reduction, AND oppose the democrats.
  
  Very true. I think we need to do our own version of the ratchet effect. In places that are solidly red we need to vote blue to lighten them up a bit. In places that are blue we need to start doing grass roots efforts to winning local offices and state reps that do represent our issues.

This is definitely a liberal take. I don't agree with those who didn't vote for Kamala, but removing responsibility from people running her campaign when there are obvious glaring issues such as retracting all populist messaging and appealing to non-existent right wingers voting against Trump was a real stinker to say the least. It's okay to blame politicians who didn't win for not winning.
- God, this is the take I want to see. I'll take criticism of my voting habits, but it should be proportional to my power. Democrats have more culpability.
  
  proportional to my power
  This is the thing that always kills me. My vote was 100% worthless. Completely performative, just throwing paper to the wind. My state was one of the few that actually went for Harris, my state governor is one of the few actually fighting against Trump, my city has so far done an excellent job fighting back against him, and none of the races were even really close. I'm sure there are many other people, in the other firm blue states just like mine, who couldn't stomach voting for genocide when they know their vote is just a gesture.
  
  You got a fascist elected. Hope your moral purity was worth it
- 100%

I voted for Kamala. My parents and grandparents did as well. I do not feel that the democrats were/are doing jack shit to court new voters. The party itself expects to just be the status quo and have people vote for it. Whether people want to admit it or not, the point of being a progressive party is to be... how do I put this... PROGRESSIVE.
- Oh yeah, make no mistake, the Dems are fucked.
  It's just that in '24 we had an option between "continue having a flawed democracy" and "put a literal fascist in power", and a lot of us are still sore over folks who insisted that choosing the latter was some form of leftism. They weren't a major force in the general electorate, but here on Lemmy, they were certainly loud, so a lot of bad feeling remains.
  
  The only argument for voting trump while thinking “left” that I can think of, is that all that anger and chaos leads to a big reform of the political landscape where there is a way for a more social system in the end
  But I’d consider that an extremely risky move..
  
  You clearly don't understand leftist thought. Voting for a cop, a warmonger and a complicit child-kidnapper is incompatible with many leftists' beliefs and values. Continued aversion to actually listening to criticisms of the Dems and DNC from the left is why your beloved party is crashing and burning.
- Very, very well put. I voted for Kamala as well, and this is what I'm trying to scream from the rooftops. The democrats seem to see the current populist moment as an excuse to phone it in. It keeps blowing up in the face, and they keep saying "oh well, I guess we need to move right / let the voters learn their lesson"
  
  That's literally the program which benefits their donors.
- The party itself expects to just be the status quo and have people vote for it.
  When the alternative was Trump and Project 2025, that's exactly what most should have voted for.
  But stopping DEI was more important than Social Security for the majority of voters
  
  Peope can't afford their bills and the Democrats were out there saying the economy is stronger than ever. They had no intention of helping people and you are shocked that people didn't go out to vote. If it's damned if you do, damned if you don't, most people will chose the latter
  
  I could be wrong about this: But I increasingly feel that the major issue for most of these people was economic instability - not making enough to make ends meet. But, out of a feeling of humiliation around saying “im poor” the message instead targets points of blame; either to potentially spare more dollars for themselves, or just genuinely to lash out at a world that’s succeeding without them.
  Doesn’t make the approach of their message in any way valid or okay. I’m just explaining that they needed an answer to their struggles. Trump gave them an elaborate lie about it, which to them was better than nothing.
- The democrats are a liberal party which is why they got almost 49% of the vote instead of under 1%.
- Dems didn’t need new voters. They just needed the same folks that voted for Biden in 2020 to show up in 2024.
  Too bad they were too racist and sexist to vote for a black woman.
  
  Lot of those people who voted in 2020 weren't Democratic voters. They voted for the Democrats that one time and then the Democrats failed to retain them. That's on the Democrats. I don't know how many times people can say it. It's a candidate and the party's job to earn people's votes. Earn them. There is literally no other way to do it. Democrats refuse to do that that's why they lose.
- the point of being a progressive party is to be… how do I put this… PROGRESSIVE.
  Their policies are progressive. They have a voting history proving they vote progressively. Joe Biden was an EXTREMELY progressive president.
  Yeah, the Dems should advertise better. But Americans should also not be braindead stupid assholes and do some goddamn homework.
  We had two options. A fascist regime or something 1 trillion times better. We shit the bed and went with fascism. That's not the Democrat's fault. That's dipshit American's fault.
  
  Yeah their policies are so progressive that the dick Chaney family endorsed them. Biden was so progressive that as soon as the supreme court repealed Roe v. Wade, he made an EO to protect the rights of women. Oh and of course how can we forget that he made college and vocational schooling free for everyone, and secured the rights of trans Americans to literally just fucking exist.
  oh wait. no wait he didn't do any of that. in fact I think he might've just held up the status quo of the time.
- "I do not feel that the democrats were/are doing jack shit to court new voters."
  This sentence structure obfuscates your meaning.
  
  they were not doing Anything and are still not doing Anything.
  hope that clears it up
  
  When your opponent is everything Mr Trump is, one would think
  economy slowly improving from covid
  protect human rights
  hold the line for the Supreme Court
  keep democracy safe
  .. so we can at least talk about other stuff
  would be enough. That was enough. It's a no-brainer IN A BINARY CHOICE.

Non-contributing rage bait. The Democrats were wrong. The Democrats still are wrong. And the Democratic presidential candidate was infinitely better than her opposition.
Nuance motherfucker do you speak it.
- Nuance motherfucker do you speak it.
  "If they dislike my party, they must support the other party, nothing else exists, right?"
  
  “If you dislike pancakes that must mean you LOOOOVE waffles right?”
  No bitch thats a brand new sentence wtf is you talking about.
  
  In a two party system, especially when there's no clear "I don't like either" option then yes, nothing else exists. When you don't vote you're not saying "I don't like either party" you're saying "I don't care which party wins". If you don't care which party wins then you're in support of both parties.
- Nuance motherfucker do you speak it.
  We now have definitive proof that most people do not.

Yeah that is the level of self awareness that created this bullshit. Fuck the Democrats. To be clear I voted for Harris but t Still think the Democrats suck
- Imagine posting this meme when just today the DNC have announced their “new” leadership and it’s just the same as the old leadership, and they’ve done absolutely nothing to push back against Trump this whole time.
  Just like they would have done nothing when Trumpists did a violent coup if the voting results were different.
  Liberals only differ from fascists in degree, not the kind of ideology they follow.
  
  Imagine posting this meme when just today the DNC have announced their “new” leadership and it’s just the same as the old leadership, and they’ve done absolutely nothing to push back against Trump this whole time.
  "But maybe next DNC chair you'll get a progressive! Vote for us and we'll give you what you want next time."
  
  they’ve done absolutely nothing to push back against Trump this whole time.
  What do you mean? Didn't you see their tiny signs last night? That'll sure show him!
  
  Degree of minorities murdered matters.
- You guys deserve trump.
  Like "the democrats weren't cool and sexy enough, and they didn't serenade me long enough, they didn't even have my favorite ice cream flavor".
  This thread is full of it.
  There's no campaign bad enough to justify electing the injecting bleach criminal.
  They just should have needed to come out, point at trump and say "if you don't vote for me you'll get him", turn 180 and go to sleep. And should have won like 80-20.
  
  I did say I voted for them, still frustrated
  
  Last night the Democrats official response the Donald Trump's speech was to praise Ronald Reagan. It somehow here you stand today defending them. Unbelievable
- See you might have voted for Harris but people who go online and read comments like "Fuck the Democrats" and "Democrats are Centrists" didn't. People didn't vote for Harris because of shit like your comment.
  
  People didn't vote for Harris because her campaign sucked ass, it's her and her staff who failed to convince people to vote for her, not people who voiced their dissatisfaction with her proposed policy. They need to do better, and if they do, then people excercising their freedom of speech on the internet won't sway votes away from the party. Idea that people shouldn't be allowed to complain about the genocide because it voices loudly the dissatisfaction over the party actions and that may lead to lower voter turnout is flawed to it's core. Those comments are the symptom of the problem, the sign that there is something wrong with the way they directed the campaign, not the source of it. You will get nowhere by silencing the dissidents, you need to take away their reasons to complain, not their means. Until Dems learn this lesson, they won't win elections again, not with the antiestabilishment vibes and lack of trust towards the government that are prevailent im USA. Not only this messaging of censure won't work, it will only piss off the electorate and alienate them further. Before the elections I have assumed that this campaign to shame people into voting was a psy op, but it seems like it's actually their position on the matter, which definitely makes me think they're controlled opposition at this point. They can't actually think this kind of messaging helps them in any way, right? This arrogant approach is specifically why Republican electorate hates them. If they want to win, like, ever, they need to work on that.
  
  Oh yeah, I'm sure it had nothing to do with people like you yelling at people that they're monsters for even slightly criticizing the DNC and Harris campaign.
  
  The idea someone would not vote because they read "Democrats are Centrists" online is funny to me.
  
  If a Democrat's billion dollar war chest can't stand against an anonymous online person saying "Democrats are centrists" maybe they shouldn't be centrists.

Did the DNC's strategy work? No? Then the Democrats were wrong.
It's their job to convince voters to vote for them. And if they won't take responsibility for failing at their job, then they're on course to do the exact same thing in 2028 and get the exact same results.
- Exactly. You know what I would like to see? I would like to see the Democratic Party act like parties due in many countries. The norm internationally is that if you are running a party, and that party loses catastrophically, that it is your moral responsibility to give up the reigns of that party. You had your chance. It didn't work. There are plenty of people out there with good ideas. Your opinions will still be welcome. Or, for a corporate example, if you're a CEO, and you crash the company's stock, you're usually going to lose your job.
  Anyone in a top-20 leadership position of Democrats in 2024 should simply be done with running things. They can't run as candidates. They can't serve party leadership roles. They can't serve on party committees. They can only participate as a regular party member.
  That's how the party should be run. One strike and you're out. Let the strong survive. We want the party to be a god-damned thunderdome.
- It’s their job to convince voters to vote for them
  Everytime this topic comes up it reminds me of incels whining no women wants them...
  They don't want to change anything, they don't want to compromise, they want a participation trophy for just existing. What's insane is that's been the strategy for the last three presidential elections.
  And if they won’t take responsibility for failing at their job, then they’re on course to do the exact same thing in 2028 and get the exact same results.
  The new DNC chair has been very vocal about what the problem is, how to fix, and is already running the same playbook that solidified his home state blue.
  The DNC is basically the chair, and we just got a much better chair than we've had in decades.
  
  That’s encouraging to hear.
  Can you share any links about the strategy changes you think will help?
- It’s their job to convince voters to vote for them.
  And it's the voters DUTY to inform themselves responsibly and make the best choice for the welfare of their nation. American voters failed to do so.
  
  We can't do anything about that, wagging your finger at voters will not accomplish anything. But we CAN do something about the party itself, the candidate, and the campaign strategy.
  Fixating on things we can't change is a way to deflect from having actual productive conversations about things that we can change. It's a way for the DNC to avoid taking responsibility.
  
  In other words, it's the voter's duty to perform a communist revolution. How well are you personally performing your duty, comrade?
- Did the DNC’s strategy work? No? Then the Democrats were wrong.
  The biggest flaw in the DNC strategy, it appears, is not appearing as a 'maybe rich' felony rapist traitor facing multiple election tampering and secrets cases, telling some bullshit story about magical prosperity for all.
  That's their flaw.
  
  The biggest flaw is not being inspiring. Like yes, Trump told a bullshit story, but at least he told a story, and that's what the DNC didn't do.
  Look at Obama in 2008 and 2012. He had an uplifting slogan of hope and change, and he focused his platform around a popular and easily-understood issue, healthcare reform. That's how to run a good campaign, we've done it before, we can do it again. We don't have to be blue fascists, we just need to be appealing.
- Did the DNC's strategy work? No? Then the Democrats were wrong.
  So you're saying that no matter what happens, it's never my fault. Yay!
  (/s)
  The voters faced a trolly problem. While Trump was busy tying more and more people to the track, the Democrats left a few on the track, and the voters decided that they couldn't stomach the choice, so they sat it out. And now we get this.
  The Democrats have blood on their hands, sure, but so does every person who didn't vote yet bemoans the Trump presidency.
  
  If you think the trolley problem has an obvious solution, you do not understand the trolley problem.

Yes, stop thinking and just follow the herd! That's surely the solution! \s
Thankfully I live in a state where my vote doesn't matter at all. jfc.
How many years can the libs keep this up?
- How many years can the libs keep this up?
  Until the collapse of society. (Three)
- Enjoy the turbo-genocide ethnic cleansing!
  
  I don’t enjoy it at all. Your glee is disgusting.

Broadcasts from the future:
Wednesday, November 8, 2028: The democrats, running a Mike Pence and Mitt Romney ticket, have just lost to the a copy of Grok 3 trained on the transcripts of all of Donald Trump's, uh, speeches, and its running mate, Eye Fuckskulls, the modern leader of the Aryan Brotherhood. After having a completely fair primary in which their super delegates all reported that they would vote for Pence on day one, and all the other candidates, each having won one or two states, dropped out and pledged their votes to Pence after he won the absolutely critical state of New Hampshire, the democrats were sure of their chances with this centrist ticket. Many democrats expressed befuddlement that they lost ground in every demographic, although some strategists see a glimmer of hope in that they managed to pick up sixteen disaffected Republican voters nationwide. Some voters seemed to think that the democrats didn't make a case for why they should vote for Pence and Romney instead of Grok/Fuckskulls, but democrats disagree. "It's hard to know for sure, but my guess is that it's time to move past unpopular far left policies like only executing 100 detained immigrants a day, annexing only half of Canada, and limiting involuntary Tesla Factory labor to only the poorest Americans" said one democratic strategist.
"Stupid fucking leftists, progressives, and non-voters, Pence/Romney 'Atheist Genocide But We'll Say Sorry While Doing It 2028' was the best chance we had at restoring the republic, the damage that Grok and Fuckskulls will do is immeasurable. I guess they're just going to have to learn to vote blue no matter who in 2032!" Yelled another exasperated democrat on the TrumpNet (tm), America's isolated and heavily censored internet network.
- I really enjoyed reading this, thank you for the satirical sci-fi of the bullshit we're stuck with of today.
  
  I'm pretty sure it's actually a broadcast from the future mate.

Both can be true you know
- We were going to eventually get a president that's doing what Trump is doing assuming we failed to organize. I just wanted more time to organize in the hopes that we could avoid all the pain and suffering that a president like Trump will cause.
  
  As somebody who's worked on leftist local campaigns, no amount of time was ever going to help us. A large majority of the American people want to stay on the globalist neoliberal train until it inevitably crashes. The only thing they can't agree on is the conductor.
  
  If only there was an organization, like, a big, established political party, that's been around for a really long time that could have done something, rather than people trying to organize last minute.

I voted for those assholes up and down. They still suck.

This is a problem with decision hierarchies. Usual election - if both parties have policies I can't support, then I vote for 3rd party knowing it's a protest vote.
HOWEVER : if the consequences of the election mean that a dictator and malignantly evil person (and their cronies) may get into power then the FIRST consideration MUST be that he doesn't get into power. So you vote for the most likely way that the calamity can be stopped.
It's shit, believe me, I know, but them's the breaks. The problem has been that people have treated this as 'election as usual'. The fact that sane people are still arguing over this is concerning.
!!A malignantly evil dictator has overtaken your government and is overtaking your country. You need to work together with the other sane people in order to stop this calamity.!!
- But... Eggs!

"Democrats are not doing enough to encourage people to vote for Democrats." is a warning, not a threat.
People who make and post memes like this seem to think that the people complaining about conservative Democrats and pointing out problems in the party are not voting for Democrats. I think they largely wrong about that. We are voting for all Democrats all the time, but warning you that your messaging sucks and you are not going to get the turnout you need. It is not our fault we were correct.
- Wrong! ANY criticism of the party means you’re a secret maga Russian plant. The democrats are perfect and don’t need to improve in any way!
  /s
  
  I mean, you certainly argue like a MAGA.
- Exactly. "Back the blue no matter who" is great and dandy in the months between primaries and the election, but at any other time it's a straight-up nonsense phrase. We're now well into the "Who'll be the new blue?" stage, and the last thing we need is to let some ancient, entitled, dem politician shuffle in and take "their turn" and for democrats to just go with it again. Now's the time to build a movement against the dnc establishment and for the progressive wing.
  I also don't really see the point in the meme and ones like it. The election already happened, and whether you personally blame voters or the dnc, either way it's the dnc's problem to fix or they're gonna go extinct.
  
  The point is we failed to promote the DNC in those months when it actually mattered and millions of people who voted for the party before stayed home instead. We need to promote the DNC, not just shit on them. We need to convince people to vote for those fucking mummies and those tech and science illiterate dolts because the alternative is worse and we need to scream that from the mountaintops "The DNC will protect you. The DNC will enrich your lives. Voting against the DNC is self-harm. The GOP wants DEATH for Profits."
- You're not promoting the party, it doesn't matter how much you vote for them if you actively dissuade others from doing the same.
- People who make and post memes like this seem to think that the people complaining about conservative Democrats and pointing out problems in the party are not voting for Democrats. I think they largely wrong about that. We are voting for all Democrats all the time, but warning you that your messaging sucks and you are not going to get the turnout you need. It is not our fault we were correct.
  This is true in the general population, but I just feel the need to point out that folks who explicitly weren't voting for Dems, as well as folks who were indistinguishable from MAGA talking points, were very prominent on Lemmy, which is part of the reason why you see a lot of this soreness still.
- It is not our fault we were correct.
  No. It’s your fault you’re not doing anything about it.
  Create a community for every state and win the midterms (where applicable). Start there.
  
  We are trying. I volunteer for campaigns and knock on doors for progressive candidates. And they get attacked by the kind of democrats who take most of their campaign contributions from property developers and car dealerships.
  If you are voting for the establishment and attacking anybody who brings up valid criticisms, YOU are not doing anything about it.
  
  Lemmy tradition: assuming everyone else is a keyboard warrior with no direct action.
- The whole genocide joe Gaza bullshit proves this wrong. There were plenty of ‘protest’ votes this round. But their protest issues were stupid because trump had worse direction on all of them but for whatever reason that was ignored and everyone focused on Harris and Biden. As if trump wasn’t just waiting to glass the whole place and turn it into a resort or golf course already.
  
  for whatever reason that was ignored and everyone focused on Harris and Biden.
  It's because Democrats have always been held to higher standards. Because we expect nothing from Republicans, because Republicans never deliver. Ever. So now all our expectations rest on Democrats and when you place all your expectations on one thing, it will always fail to live up.
  So Democrats have to be flawless while Republicans get to literally be lawless.
  Pretty stupid country we've got here. Signing our democracy away because one party can't be perfect.

As an outsider, I think you’re not on the side of the meme that you think you’re on.
If not voting for Trump wasn’t enough for Harris to win, she sure didn’t act like it. “Nothing to change” from the policies of the guy who was forced to step down wasn't what the people wanted to hear.
- I mean he was asked to step down because of the worry that his mental faculties, not due to his policies. Remember, it was right after his first debate with Trump. The following debate, Kamala roasted Trump.
  
  Yeah, except for the whole genocide thing. But mostly college kids protested that. You can just beat up those.
  
  Hold on, last election he refused to say so explicitly, but he repeatedly implied he wouldn't run for a second term and described himself as a bridge candidate. Then he demanded a second term at the last minute.
- Well, they sure have change now! Enjoy.
- “Nothing to change” from the policies of the guy who was forced to step down wasn’t what the people wanted to hear.
  This has been explained. Answering anything else was a PR trap.
  
  A basic move would've been: "I will move to have better policies than before. Rally with our party and we will commit to changing course for working class families."
  It could've been as empty a promise as her opposition made, but that would've been basic competant campaigning. Easiest trap to avoid ever.

The democrats were wrong, they fucking lost!
- The Party cannot fail, it can only be failed.
  
  spoken like a true cult member.

Even the existence of the phrase "vote blue no matter who" is a dead giveaway as to why the Democrats failed... Again.
You cannot run entirely on simply not being the other party. That is not enough to entice voters on the fence. You might think it is and those people on the fence are too stupid so they should just "vote blue no matter who", but clearly that hasn't been fucking work for the Democrats.
- You ignore one simple fact.
  The GOP always votes Red, no matter who.
  It takes two sides to have a reasonable discussion, but only one side to start a war.
  It's a war and you've been invaded.
  
  The GOP always votes Red, no matter who.
  They literally don't though. They voted for Trump because they liked him, not because he ran as a Republican. There's that phenomenon where Trump voters also vote for candidates like AOC or Bernie Sanders, so... Yeah.
  
  The GOP always votes Red, no matter who.
  How'd that work out?
  Seriously, if your plan is to follow the same path as Republicans, does that mean you think it's worked out well for them the last 20 years?
  Are republican voters being taken care of by their elected officials or did having no standards and excusing everything their party did just make it so the most corrupt candidate advances to the general?
  What is different about Dems that would make the result be literally the opposite, and how much more time do you think we should waste seeing if it works?
  Instead of running a charismatic candidate with a progressive which statistically results in the presidency, House, and Senate?
  Why not take the easy path that gets us what we want instead of the hardest path where we get the least reward?
  
  The fascist party always votes for fascists without thought? Who woulda guessed.
  Guess we gotta be fascists and vote without thought to beat them! Why has no one just tried to out fascist fascists before, it's so simple and you're so smart for coming up with that strategy.
  
  GOP also always picks a Republican head of the FBI when they're in charge. So does the Democratic president. Why is that?
  You may want to inform party leadership there's a war on, they been out here trying to pull a muscle reaching across the aisle.
  
  Except the GOP doesn't always vote red, not matter who. I am friends with several people who are still registered Republicans that did not vote for Trump either time.
  Fucking echo chambers are dangerous man.
- Trump begging to be king should have been enough. The fact that it wasn’t shows it’s not just ‘what the democrats do’ it’s that people are fucking stupid and hateful. Hell the VP doesn’t even know where this country came from. These people are not American. They’re traitors to the red coats and don’t even know what that means.
  
  The fact that it wasn’t shows it’s not just ‘what the democrats do’ it’s that people are fucking stupid and hateful.
  Well here's the thing: The average person does not, in fact, care about nebulous ideas like democracy. And why would they? Why did the democracy people do for them? Hint: The answer is nothing. That's why they vote Republican, because Republicans promise change rather than more of the same.
- That is not enough to entice voters on the fence.
  It’s your hellscape, fence-sitters. Idiots. If only you could have done something, any one goddamn thing to have avoided this gutting of democracy, this looting of generations of social capital, demonizing of progressive causes and the establishment of a russian vassal state.
  But I understand the candidate was not exciting enough to get off the fence.
  You coulda been somebody, Charlie, you coulda been a contender.
  
  Oh my God it's like talking to a brick wall with you people.
  The Democrats have been running on a platform of "we aren't Trump" for 3 elections in a row. They lost two of them.
  This loss falls on Democrat leadership far more than it falls on the people on the fence.
  The fact is the Democrats failed to convince enough people they were the better option. Mostly because they tried the same strategy against the same opponent 3 fucking times.

I’ve been voting blue no matter who for 25 years and it didn’t stop this shit
- 40 years and it's worse.
- Same.
  And I'll keep voting blue no matter who.
  BECAUSE LOOK AT THE ALTERNATIVE.
  
  Same.
  And I’ll hate it every time and expect nothing in return.

"What are you going to do vote for the facists?"
--stays home
"Wait..."
(In all seriousness, the two party system killed us. The first thing we should have could have fixed was ranked choice voting but they would never mandate that because it would break their hold. Also despite my joke above I did vote but I'm not going to get pissy with someone that didn't the problem is the party not the voter. Unless they voter actively voted red.)
- First past the post is a fatal flaw. I really hope the UK can ditch it someday.

The democrats objectively were wrong.
They lost the election.
That’s the only measure of right or wrong that actually matters.
They literally had only one job and they fucked it up again.
- They literally had only one job and they fucked it up again.
  American voters had one job. To responsibly inform themselves and make the best choice for the welfare of their nation. They failed to do so, again.
  
  We can’t control the American voters so complaining about them doesn’t actually accomplish anything.
  We can, however, change the Democratic party to better align with the voters.
  That should be everyone’s focus.

Elections are a popularity contest with weird rules more than anything....
But the DNC kept trying to force uncharismatic candidates with conservative policy down voters throats, and stole funds from state parties to focus on that costing us down ballot races making losing have even more consequences.
They haven't just been putting all our eggs in one basket.
They put it in the basket of a 20 year old shitty child's bike and then put Biden on and pushed him into the interstate.
Voter can't fail a party, but Dems have been failing their voters for decades.
I'm optimistic Martin will change that, enough to give him a fair shot and not just a month.
- Dems have absolutely been failing to be an effective political party, but good lord I'd rather have the milquetoast incompetency on democratic control of the government than this abaolute shitshow that Republicans have been running for the last... God it's only been a month and a half since the inauguration.
  
  Milquetoast incompetence makes them lose elections.
  Them losing elections allows republicans to have a shit show.
  Then the Dems get a modicum of power and do milquetoast incompetence again, and the cycle repeats.
  It’s been this way my entire life.
- Voter can’t fail a party
  Nope, but they can sure fail their country. And did.
  I'm an adult, so I'll take an uncharismatic candidate over a traitor felon rapist who deconstructs our federal government, destroys our allegiances, fucks up our economy, and bends the knee to Russia.
  But I accept that a LOT of Americans are simply children trapped in adult bodies.
  
  I’m an adult, so I’ll take an uncharismatic candidate over a traitor felon rapist
  Great.
  But like a whole shit ton of people tried to warn for the last year now, Biden/Kamala we're enough to beat trump.
  We'll need all the voters again, we won't need anyone that was involved in either of their campaigns though. So why shit on the literal tens of millions we need in defense of less than an airplane's worth of people who hightailed it back to their mansions?
  You get that, right? We don't have to run uncharismatic conservative candidates to beat trump, it's literally the worst option we have
  We can just run a charismatic candidate with a progressive campaign promise like we did with Obama. Did you forget that?

I'm still waiting for whatever the hell is supposed to happen after electoral politics has failed us, because it has.
I was told by people pushing for people to not bother voting in 2024 that voting was meaningless and that Trump would be no different than Harris. People told me that the solidarity of grassroots organization was the only way to see any real change, and that we had to reject the DNC at all costs. Well, we rejected it. What now?
PS: I don't even mean this sarcastically or to win internet points -- that are even more meaningless than on reddit -- on this site. I'm actually asking, what are we doing now that this happened?
- If you're genuinely asking some basic actions for a broad and general audience looking for political engagement:
  A lot of states have initiatives and referendums citizens can bring to a vote in elections. There may be a grassroots organization working on an issue you may align with. (Especially vote reform groups looking to introduce alternatives to how we elect our government.)
  Following this: Don't be a stranger to your local government. At least learn who they are if you don't. Your state reps and senators, your federal rep and senators, your kids' school superintendent, the elected sheriff. Vote in the primaries, the odd years, the midterms, the big presidential tickets. And this isn't 'just vote' advice. I mean vote for politicians pushing policies you agree with, regardless of party or incumbency. Don't be afraid to third party in a primary (if you can).
  Join community groups and socialize in meatspace. There may be community centers and libraries around you with things to engage with. As much as online spaces can help people feel connected or a shared or safe place, the politics and governance is maintained on the meatspace level of your neighbors. Your district is likely gerrymandered but it's worth finding out where you stand in the whole tapestry of American governance. (This one can be a huge hurdle, and I understand. Most of my community are military so progressives get like 200 votes per 10,000 pure military industrial zionism. I barely amount to this advice myself, FWIW.)
  
  Join community groups and socialize in meatspace.
  This is probably what I'm most interested in, but I find it to be a drag to even locate. I've gone to meetup groups and even helped organize a meetup group before but everything about them seemed pretty worthless. It could just be my particular circumstances or my particular location, but it seems like it's difficult to find any regular community group, and then any -- even sporadic -- activity outside of work mixers, happy hours, ticketed events, and concerts.
  At one point I took a look around the area for mutual aid groups and found only one -- and this was mid-pandemic when they were getting a lot of attention and hype -- and it didn't even appear to be active anymore. I think the web link I got was dead or something.
  My working theory of why this country is so far off the rails is multifaceted, but one big aspect is that meatspace is deader than myspace.
- Now you get to feel like a sucker for falling for blatant propaganda.

Their job is literally to get elected...

Or, you know, be the party that at least promises popular things, instead of the party that just exists in idle opposition.
At least we'll never have to worry about Dems after 2026. Maybe some better parties can take hold
- Maybe some better parties can take hold
  Parties are essentially dictatorships, and at the top of my list of things wrong with our system
  The good part of that, is the party can change even faster than trump can destroy America.
  
  Partie’s will always exist. They are a natural progression of people aligning their values. You can call them different names but a ‘group of politically aligned people’ will always form.
  
  Parties can be dictatorships, but should be a reflection of the ideal governance of the system they're trying to run. In the US certainly nearly all parties are oligarchical dictatorships, since that's just what the US has been from the start.
  Ideally we'd have a coequal party spring up or at least a co-op party. But I fear both of those are too complicated for American brains since even PSL has a fairly strict hierarchy based on funding potential instead of merit or internal democracy.
- Right? All they had to do was promise to Legalize weed, increase the minimum wage, put caps on rent increases, go after shrinkflation, make it easier to vote, say that healthcare is a human right, fight for unions, promise to help support people who currently can't afford to buy homes to be able to buy homes, and tax the rich and corporations more.
  Oh wait, Harris did all of those things. Democrats have had progressive policy, but voters keep voting against it. Because Democrats have to be perfect and cant also happen to have a couple shit policies. The moment they have a couple shitty policies, or don't have all the progressive policies people want. those are all that matter and that means Democrats are just the same as Republicans.
  
  The problem is they've been promising that for two decades.
  They're great at saying things, sometimes, to specific outlet while saying the opposite to their donors and other outlets. But they're terrible at doing anything. At all. After decades of lies, after decades of trying to push them left... The Harris campaign paid partial lip service and promised what Obama did in 2008.
  Also no, Dems are the same as Republicans because their goals, based on their actions and voting records, are exactly the same. Make rich people more rich, bust unions, keep the poor poor.
- Maybe some better parties can take hold

Honestly would still respect them more if they voted 3rd party over not voting.
- Sadly spoiling ballots with drawings of cocks is much harder with voting machines.
  
  The fact that you have voting machines just doesn't seem right to me
- Those really aren't any different than voting for Trump or not voting.
  If people really want to break the two party system it needs to start local and work it's way up. But everyone wants a solution tomorrow or not bother at all.
  
  They only want a solution all of a sudden in September on election year. It’s a clown show of nobody being interested till it’s way too late
- I'm a consequential so, to me, all of those people basically voted for Trump.
  
  If you voted for Harris / Clinton then you're just giving the DNC more power to push ineffective candidates we didn't ask for, which is an even greater vote for Trump.
  See? It works both ways.
  If you didn't vote for Trump, you didn't vote for Trump.
  The strategy to stop a lot of people from voting for Trump should be campaigning / education. It should not be to push people to vote for someone they don't want to.

Except for 2020 the 2024 election had the highest voter turnout so far this century. A lot of people were voting. Was it just more Trump supporters that turned up? He does have a way of stirring people up. He picks topics that make a certain type of person mad and that brings them out. Kamala could have responded by picking topics that inspired the left. Trump was offering a complete overhaul of the government and sweeping social changes (which he is delivering). Kamala was offering more of the same. I suspect he just brought out more people that otherwise wouldn't have voted.
And before you start blaming me for it, I, like most of us, don't live in a swing state. My vote literally didn't matter.
- I feel you're also ignoring the huge amount of free publicity that Trump go from TikTok, Instagram and X. Kamala, or any D, would not have gotten that extra power.
  
  Maybe dems would get more attention if they did something different from the other "party".
- Learn of the vast gerrymandering that occured since the last election and understand how it swayed the vote by 3-4% as planned.
- While you personally may not be responsible, it's been reported that low Democratic voter turnout played a large factor in the election outcome.
  Larry Sabato, the director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, acknowledged that Biden voters who swung toward Mr. Trump played a part in Ms. Harris’s loss, but pointed to low Democratic turnout as the larger factor.
  Later, the article highlights clear cases (in some swing states) where Democratic voter turnout would have made a difference.
  Where Trump gained a little and Harris lost a lot.
  Mr. Trump won Florida’s Miami-Dade County, becoming the first Republican to do so since 1988. But again, Ms. Harris’s loss was just as much of the story as his gain: Mr. Trump won about 70,000 new votes in the county, while she lost nearly 140,000. Other counties that Mr. Trump flipped had similar vote disparities. In 21 of these 77 counties, Mr. Trump received fewer votes in this election than in 2020, but the Democratic vote drop-off was much steeper. This happened from coast to coast, from Fresno County, Calif., to Pinellas County, Fla.
  Non-voters allowed Trump to win.

The biggest problem with the US is lack of proportional representation. Winner-takes-all elections have led to the inevitable outcome. It's also why in Europe the propagandists are trying to push for the same system whenever they can.

God Americans are insufferable. You pillage and murder the world and blame anyone but yourselves. Why don’t you actually do something useful?

~~Reddit~~ Lemmy users love their internet slacktivism. These mfers will type out a 10,000 word comment on a five year old post before they will vote.
- Yeah. Voting is
  biggest fingerquotes Michael Myers can muster
  "Activism"
  /s
  
  We agree that spending one's time typing internet comments is less effective than voting.

What done is done. Democratic voters PUT TRUMP BACK IN OFFICE to send a message. If the party leaders don't get the message, then 4 years of Trump were all for not.
- They won't get the message, and it won't matter now. Americans voted for their nation to formalize its oligarchy. From the current trajectory, I wouldn't hold my breath on this playing out in any accelerationist's favour either.

As a stien voter. I pretty much laugh at people that complain about Democrats loss. Yeah Democrats suck I don't vote for them because I don't want them to be legitimized. Also I push for approval voting system

ITT:
cake or death?
vanilla cake? Are you a moron?
some dude who chose not cake

Or maybe we won’t vote for a democrat or a republican either one so a non vote isn’t a vote your way