It’s certainly not obvious to many within the Democratic establishment sphere. historic_flawlessly_run_campaign

Exactly what it should look like next time is hard to say because it will to a large extent depend on the candidate and what issues have the public’s attention. There certainly should be a lot more engagement with independent media. Progressives had an early lead in that area, but that was mostly quashed by a coalition of Republicans and Democrats threatening regulation to get social media companies to dis-empower independent news in favor of corporate controlled sources. Republicans then spent a fortune promoting right wing channels while Democrats did nothing. This goes to the root issue that Republicans seek out engagement with their base, while Democrats avoid it as much as possible.

Another thing would be for Democrats to drop messaging with technocratic measures that don’t sync up with how voters feel about the economy. While the economy is technically in good shape, a lot of voters in any economy will be suffering. The message received becomes “we don’t plan to change our approach regardless of how the economy is working for you.” When interest rates skyrocket, the impact doesn’t go away once they are back under control. When inflation skyrocketed, Democrats tried to minimize the issue when they should have mirrored the outrage and focused on how Trump policies created it.

In the big picture, Democrats need to get serious about going after wealth inequality. This improved somewhat with Biden, but Biden was incapable of selling it, and Harris barely tried. She let Trump take the lead on working class economics and had to chase the “no tax on tips” and “no tax on Social Security”. Playing catch-up just made her look insincere. (Yes, ironic given Trump)

The American middle class has been under siege for decades, and they know it. It’s human nature that they need someone to blame. Republicans hand them immigrants, LGBTQ+ and DEI. Democrats step in on the defense, but they offer no competing villain. They could tell the truth and show how corporate money and Billionaires have bought legislation to give themselves an advantage over consumers, but Democrats don’t want to do that (for reasons you can speculate on). Democrats won’t even go after clear cases of Republican corruption with any level of conviction.

The town hall meeting Bernie did on Fox was a great example of how Democrats can reach a right wing audience with left wing rhetoric. Running to the center never works, but speaking to their struggles and frustration in a real way can.

It’s not like progressives haven’t been shouting the answer to this for the past 20 years, but here it is again from an apparently recent convert from within the Democratic establishment camp.

Voters to Elites: Do You See Me Now?

What it doesn’t look like is campaigning with Liz Cheney. It doesn’t look like sending Bill Clinton to Michigan to lecture Muslims on how important it is to fund Israel’s genocide. It doesn’t look like Biden’s garbage gaff. It sure as hell doesn’t look like Harris having no answer to the question of how she would break with the Biden administration. All of these failures might have been irrelevant were it not for 50 years of Democrats looking down their nose at working Americans. A lot of it is policy, but a lot is just a failure of messaging.

That’s good advice no matter what the political situation is. However, it’s pretty irrelevant in facing a Trump presidency. It does nothing for economic turmoil, crumbling infrastructure, etc. It’s also irrelevant to facing down federal or state force. If the cops want into your house and have legal cover, you aren’t going to stop them by force of arms.

Organize my community to do what? Refocus on what? Revolution?

Until the next election is cancelled, I plan on trying to win it. That means understanding how the Democrats failed.

And what useful action does this information enable us to take? Next election, should we nominate better voters?

We have the voters we have. We need Democrats that can reach those voters. Blaming them wins us nothing.

This is awesome. You just absolutely nailed the exact cause. Now all we have to do is what? Eliminate the voters? That sounds like the Republican plan to me.

Or maybe your plan is to convince the voters to do otherwise? Don’t you think the politicians have a tiny little bit of responsibility in that area?

Neoliberalism leads to fascism via a well understood pattern that’s currently repeating all around the globe. If you want better voters, then you need better Democrats.

You aren’t looking for solutions, you’re looking for someone to blame. Quit bitching and start working towards something better, or you’re as useless as the Democratic establishment.

Despite the obvious common root in “populism” and “popular”, I don’t think that’s a fair “nutshell” description of populism at all.

The central core of populism is opposition to an elite ruling class. Right wing populism tends to attack education and expertise which does fit loosely with your description, but left wing populism is more focused on wealthy elites. Wealth has always been a terrible proxy for merit or the ability to rule.

To be against populism you either have to disagree that we are largely ruled by a class of elites, or think that being ruled by elites is not a bad thing. Anyone that thinks elites are not in control of the economy and political system in the US is borderline delusional. Anyone who thinks the elites got there by merit need to learn a lot more about figures like Elon Musk, Trump, or the Clintons.

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Republicans are working on it in the US.

You are mistaken. This is a “Russia is pathetically weak” post.

Their interests aren’t generally all that aligned, so that helps. It’s pretty obvious that the garbage coming out of the cable news networks is at a minimum deeply sympathetic to American corporate interests, if not straight up misinformation.

From a US perspective, I see these tactics being used far more extensively by wealthy individuals and corporate interests than I do Chinese interests. Unfortunately, our government and especially our politicians are often directly involved in spreading misinformation and suppressing the truth. We need strategies that function outside of government to close the gaps between reality and public perception.

That’s an interesting take. Let me know if anyone lets you know that they decided to vote Biden because of voter shaming. I won’t hold my breath

I’m not sure why you assume I don’t know who’s pulling the strings. However, the impact of those who don’t vote is dwarfed by the impact of those who vote for the wrong candidates. I know it’s liberal orthodoxy to write off a ton of voters completely, but I think that’s a mistake.

If I have to blame voters for the predicament we’re in now, I would have to land on Biden voters in the 2020 primary. It’s hard to blame them though without blaming corporate mainstream media that lied constantly about electability in the general.

As for why Trump became president in 2016, I think the failures of the Obama presidency are pretty relevant. Obama ran as a reformer in 2008, and voters turned out for him in massive numbers. Then Obama betrayed them by being the most milquetoast establishment President possible.

There is plenty of blame to go around, but none of that interests me. What I care about is, what strategies might dig us out of this mess. Voters shaming is not a viable strategy, and it’s more likely to drive voters away than help.

The other big thing that voter shamers don’t get is that we don’t just need people to show up at the polls. Democrats tend to write off the youth vote because they vote in lower numbers than other demographics. However, when it comes to phone banking, knocking on doors, or marching in the streets, youth far outstrip other demographics. Enthusiasm is critical, and voter shaming destroys it. Whatever grassroots movement was behind Biden is utterly dead, and Zionist Biden is responsible.

The rise of fascism is always the result of a long strong of causes. In a democracy the final cause in that chain will always be voters, but I think it’s intellectually lazy to assume that makes the failure of voters “worse”.

Most of the voters who don’t show up are just disinterested in politics for a variety of reasons. I don’t think there area many that say “Oh, no, a problem! Better ignore it”!

Blaming voters might be somehow cathartic, but the voters you’re blaming aren’t going to care. That’s the way to go if you care more about assigning blame than actually addressing the problems.

100% the fault of a political class that puts the needs of donors ahead of all else. Fascism has always been the result of neoliberalism. It’s absolutely predictable. The best and the worst ballot choices that most people have all lead to the rise of fascism.

AIPAC is dumping a boatload of foreign money on American elections aimed almost exclusively at eliminating progressives from both state and federal offices. Where is Hillary’s gang and their hand wringing about foreign interference?

Justified genocide as collective punishment achievement unlocked!

It’s funny how one side of the conflict actively avoids critical civilian infrastructure, while the other focuses on it almost exclusively. It’s almost like there really are good guys and bad guys in this conflict.

Imagine the damage Ukraine could do to the Russian electric grid, given how ineffective Russian anti-air capability has proven to be. Talk about a target rich environment.

Austerity programs in the US have nothing to do with saving the government money. It’s literally the goal to make life worse for working Americans, this making them more subservient to employers.