news 2024 US Election Megathread 🇺🇸🏛️

[Virgos Groove]

Joe Biden, the people yearn for a mandatory National Grass Touching Program

 

[HausOfPunk]

My MAGA aunt from Arizona is getting her life on Facebook right now. One pro-Trump post every few  months was tolerable but 6 per hour is too much. Time to finally hit that block button.

 

[BOOMBAYAH]

27 minutes ago, ctlp27 said:

If you think moving further left would be a win, that is a misinterpretation of the results.

There's a common belief that left-leaning parties, like the American Democrats, have to shift to the right to appeal to voters because they're perceived as "extreme." But I think this perception isn't truly about their policies being far-left or radical; rather, it's the narrative that "leftist = extreme" that has been created and reinforced, regardless of whether it's accurate. We can see this playing out today with the Democratic Party, but it's worth remembering that not long ago, the roles were reversed: the Republican Party was often viewed as extreme, while Democrats were seen as the "sensible" party representing empathy, morality, and care for people.
 

If we compare the two parties' platforms and rhetoric from 2008 to 2024, their core values haven't changed significantly—if anything, Republicans may have moved further to the right, while Democrats have edged closer to the center. Yet, the narrative around each has shifted dramatically. So, this shift in perception isn't so much about whether the policies are truly "left" or "right"; it's about who holds the power to define what's considered extreme or sensible. Political parties don't have to change significantly to be seen differently—it's about controlling the narrative.

Edited November 7 by BOOMBAYAH

[madonnas]

1 minute ago, Sannie said:

My wonder is, how does the Democratic Party get better at messaging with the media apparatus is not interested in echoing their messages? the media will jump on to help spread every Trump diatribe, but will barely utter a word about any of the Biden successes. The Dems don't have control of that apparatus and that's the most important aspect.

I fear part of it is that the last 10 years has called for bold moves and bold policy, dems just aren’t able to do that.  I know Biden bailed out Teamsters I know some of his successors but also he failed to really explain it in simple terms.  Sadly, too, a lot of his successes seemed like small steps in comparison to  inflation.  
 

Democrats also need a cute slogan … “build the wall” “Medicare for all” 

[Redstreak]

20 minutes ago, Gaia said:

Not saying she lost JUST because of Far leftists boycotting her, but majority of the negative posts about Biden/Harris on social media aren't even from republicans, they were from leftists about Israel/Gaza. 
 

Basically did exactly what Republicans wanted. Completely separated the party so while they all stood under Trump. 
 

Why would anyone be surprised about less votes this year when for the past year you guys have spewed how terrible Biden/Harris are and how voting for them is voting for genocide?

 

Well now you guys have Trump so when he gives Netanyahu the resources to "finish the job" don't come crying to the dems. You guys actively PUSHED for this outcome.

So be it, maybe you'll try something different next time

[Blankspace2010]

The amount of pro gay Trump supporters. Mental illness. 

[Bloo]

3 minutes ago, brutal said:

My genuine question to leftists is are you guys willing to make concessions on social policies if it comes with a strong pivot left on economic policies?

 

Imagine a scenario where the 2028 candidate is a younger 2016 Bernie, running on strong taxing the rich, M4A, more education funding. However, when it comes time to answer on something like trans issues they pull a Kamala and give a non/centrist-answer of "I believe they should follow the law". Would that turn you off and make you stay home on election day?

 

Because if you are not willing to make ANY concessions at all then how can you blame the liberals for thinking they won't have progressive backing either way so might as well try to run to the right on BOTH policies which is seemingly what the electorate wants (their thinking not mine)?  

This post suffers of a major misunderstanding of the left and also what the actual issue is in terms of political framing.
 

Leftists aren’t saying Kamala needs to run on social issues. The issue with Kamala is that neoliberals have a toxic habit to just run on social issues: “Elect me because otherwise Trump will abolish abortion nationally.” Regarding Kamala’s response to trans issues, the issue is that Kamala had an opportunity to reject right wing framing on trans people and responded with an answer that said nothing. She said something that transphobes will be able to spin and say “see, she supports gender reassignment on kids!” and that trans people can say, “wow, she just said to follow the law while laws criminalizing me are being passed.”

 

Do you see how this makes no sense? Had she said, “Trans Americans are human beings that deserve basic rights. The government needs to focus on issues afflicting all Americans and trans people are not what are preventing Americans from buying a home, from raising a family, from saving for retirement, from feeling secure enough to go into a hospital. Trans people aren’t the source of people’s anxieties, it’s the corporations.”

 

People need an enemy. The Republicans do this by serving up trans people and immigrants. The Democrats just do nothing in response or even worse than that, they join the Republicans in their framing. Kamala bragged about planning to build more of the border wall than Trump will. The left isn’t saying that’s bad because we are pearl clutchers on social issues. We are saying that’s stupid because you have no shot at convincing Americans you will be tougher on immigration than Trump—and for good reason. So why try that strategy? Be an alternative. Give an alternative explanation for why people feel the economy and the system as a whole are failing them. Don’t reinforce the Republican’s theory.

[If U Seek Amy]

5 minutes ago, Sannie said:

My wonder is, how does the Democratic Party get better at messaging with the media apparatus is not interested in echoing their messages? the media will jump on to help spread every Trump diatribe, but will barely utter a word about any of the Biden successes. The Dems don't have control of that apparatus and that's the most important aspect.

My personal opinion is this is where right wing takeover in content creation like podcasts has been so good for them. The media only seeks to induce rage for engagement. People are seeking real discussions (even if to us those discussions are idiotic). Kamala actively avoiding the main stream media often was smart. But what she failed at in regard to reaching out to people is not doing MORE of these podcast and talk show appearances. And Dems need to get more of these sorts of platforms going to make people feel connected with them. And don't make it about preaching about issues or talking down to people. Make it feel warm, inviting, open minded, and down to earth. If people want to listen to intellectual content, that is already out there, they don't need to be preached to. They want to feel heard and once they do Dems can them have a chance to share their messages to people now willing to listen. 

Edited November 7 by If U Seek Amy

[WildAmerican]

2 minutes ago, madonnas said:

I fear part of it is that the last 10 years has called for bold moves and bold policy, dems just aren't able to do that.  I know Biden bailed out Teamsters I know some of his successors but also he failed to really explain it in simple terms.  Sadly, too, a lot of his successes seemed like small steps in comparison to  inflation.  
 

Democrats also need a cute slogan … "build the wall" "Medicare for all" 

We're not going back!

[Relampago.]

11 minutes ago, Sannie said:

I think in theory you are right, but in practice far too many Americans have been brainwashed into thinking the leftist policies are akin to big, bad communism. I don't know how we can deprogram people from that mindset when it's a very American mindset at the end of the day.

 

Leftist policies are factually better for the American people in every way, but how do you convince people of that when the stuff they see online all day is telling them the exact opposite? Kamala ran on policies to help people buy homes and boost the economy and people still chose cheaper eggs and deli meat.

You keep advocating for it because it's the right thing to do. 

 

Like I said, a progressive movement is going to fail in 2028 most likely, but it's the only option to move forward to undo all this mess. And hopefully by 2036, the words "Medicare For All" will be so normalized and people will have become less afraid of it. But trying to tiptoe around pushing progressive policy by saying "Expand the ACA!" isn't working anymore. Push the envelope so people stop being so adverse to these claims.

 

Same sex marriage would have been seen in the same way— it wasn't popular. It took decades of talking about it, and now it's relatively normal. 70% of Americans approve of it, when just a few elections ago, it was sitting around 40%.
 

People want change NOW and yes, we should try to make that happen as fast as possible, but the Dems need to stop abandoning leftist policy just because it doesn't win an election on the first try. You HAVE to keep advocating for these things in order to combat the misinformation. 

[ClashAndBurn]

4 minutes ago, Achilles. said:

Considering her performance in 2020, I don't think Collins will be afraid to vote against the party line every now and then. Murkowski too. If we get the 2 of them, that's 51 votes to save Obamacare.

No? That'd be 49. John McCain is gone and there are no other moderate Republicans left

 

There also won't be any moderate Republicans to save Obamacare in the House either. Trump winning the popular vote by more than Bush gives him a massive mandate and makes it harder for rank and file dissent.

 

Obamacare and the Inflation Reduction Act are toast.

[Communion]

8 minutes ago, If U Seek Amy said:

Kamala lost because of the 4 years of inflation/high price

I think some of you don't understand what inflation is. You're speaking of it like a natural disaster. Like COVID almost. Like a hurricane came in and just blew Biden and Harris' house down and this was the best they could do. As though it's not an economic event that occurs due to multiple factors, some natural but many being choices. 

 

At least be like your ideological centrist peers and argue for more austerity. Argue we progressives caused inflation or something with COVID spending. It's easier to debunk you than just seeing you go "this was inevitable, oh wells <3".

 

Biden and Dems didn't have to cave to Republicans and kick 15 million people off Medicaid. 

 

They didn't have to cave and allow extended unemployment insurance to end. 

 

They didn't have to trash the expanded child tax credit. 

 

People didn't turn sour on the economy because inflation is a word repeated on news over and over. It was because the massive safety net that was built out under Biden's first two years during COVID was pulled out from under people's feet before they were ready cause Dems cave like always and conceded ground to Republicans instead of defending their agenda. 

Edited November 7 by Communion

[Tovitov]

Just now, Blankspace2010 said:

The amount of pro gay Trump supporters. Mental illness. 

It's really weird honestly how this happened honestly. 

 

There are tens of millions of socially moderate/liberal Trump lovers. From abortion to gay marriage to even trans people. This certainly isn't Regan's Republican party anymore, that's for sure. 

[*No Angel*]

The worst part for me is Clarence Thomas and his big back wench will just dance off in to the sunset. Shows that evil always wins. Makes me really rethink how I will live my life from now on. 

 

I'm changing my party to Rep so I can vote in the primaries since Florida is ruby red now. And I'll just worry about myself, I'm not voting to help the greater good anymore that's dead. As a healthy childless dog lady, I hope you and your kids legitimately starve when they cut funding and obamacare. I don't care and I mean it. I have a 1 year supply of over the counter birth control pills and when I run out of that I can easily get on a plane and get more. These backwood hillbilly hoes will suffer and I will laugh. When it really hits the roof I will sell my house to Blackrock or some other mega corp and live comfortably on an island somewhere in the Caribbean 

 

[HeavyMetalAura]

I have questions for the smarties in the room. I hear everyone saying the next President will appoint 2 more SCOTUS justices - apparently they will retire or one is suspected to die of diabetes? 
 

My questions are

 

1.) why can't we publicly pressure those two to step down now and appoint new ones by January? Does the process take longer than that? 

 

2.) Better yet, if we've know all year that things were looking good for Trump, why not pressure them to step down even earlier? Did we learn nothing from RBG? Are Democrats just bad at strategizing or was there something else preventing this? 

[Thuggin]

In hindsight "we're not going back" was maybe the wrong message for an audience of voters who primarily thought things were better in 2019

[Sannie]

1 minute ago, Relampago. said:

You keep advocating for it because it's the right thing to do. 

 

Like I said, a progressive movement is going to fail in 2028 most likely, but it's the only option to move forward to undo all this mess. And hopefully by 2036, the words "Medicare For All" will be so normalized and people will have become less afraid of it. But trying to tiptoe around pushing progressive policy by saying "Expand the ACA!" isn't working anymore. Push the envelope so people stop being so adverse to these claims.

 

Same sex marriage would have been seen in the same way— it wasn't popular. It took decades of talking about it, and now it's relatively normal. 70% of Americans approve of it, when just a few elections ago, it was sitting around 40%.
 

People want change NOW and yes, we should try to make that happen as fast as possible, but the Dems need to stop abandoning leftist policy just because it doesn't win an election on the first try. You HAVE to keep advocating for these things in order to combat the misinformation. 

I guess I don't disagree, but we're at an inflection point where I don't think we can wait until 2036.

 

As someone who lives in a bluer area of a deep blue state, the amount of "normal" people who are scared of what they've been convinced is communism, is insane. The amount of "normal" people who believed the cat litter boxes in school hoax, the "they're transing your kids" lies, etc. is truly, wildly astounding. These are normal, apolitical people view being on the left as "weak" even when they themselves would agree with most leftist policies. How in the ******* world do we change that? I can't think of anything.

[Tovitov]

6 minutes ago, ClashAndBurn said:

No? That'd be 49. John McCain is gone and there are no other moderate Republicans left

 

There also won't be any moderate Republicans to save Obamacare in the House either. Trump winning the popular vote by more than Bush gives him a massive mandate and makes it harder for rank and file dissent.

 

Obamacare and the Inflation Reduction Act are toast.

Hard disagree on both being toast. As I said, a 3 seat majority in the house is not going to cut it for massive overhauls of government programs. In 2017, the American Healthcare Act barely passed the house even though Republicans had a huge majority. They won't have that this time. 

Edited November 7 by Tovitov

[Redstreak]

19 minutes ago, Sannie said:

I think in theory you are right, but in practice far too many Americans have been brainwashed into thinking the leftist policies are akin to big, bad communism.

And yet we never push back, the response from leadership has always been to say "you're right, that *is* scary communism" and so then you just validate. Imagine an in your face candidate that loudly said "no **** you this is great and helps people actually"

[Sannie]

3 minutes ago, HeavyMetalAura said:

I have questions for the smarties in the room. I hear everyone saying the next President will appoint 2 more SCOTUS justices - apparently they will retire or one is suspected to die of diabetes? 
 

My questions are

 

1.) why can't we publicly pressure those two to step down now and appoint new ones by January? Does the process take longer than that? 

 

2.) Better yet, if we've know all year that things were looking good for Trump, why not pressure them to step down even earlier? Did we learn nothing from RBG? Are Democrats just bad at strategizing or was there something else preventing this? 

The Judicial Branch is a co-equal branch of the US gov't and therefore neither the Executive nor the Legislative branches have any power over "pressuring" a justice to step down. A justice could die on the bench if they wanted to. The two who are poised to step down are uber-right wing conservatives who will not step down as long as a Dem is President.

Edited November 7 by Sannie

[If U Seek Amy]

1 minute ago, Communion said:

I think some of you don't understand what inflation is. You're speaking of it like a natural disaster. Like COVID almost. Like a hurricane came in and just blew Biden and Harris' house down and this was the best they could do. As though it's not an economic event that occurs due to multiple factors, maybe being choices. 

 

At least be like your ideological centrist peers and argue for more austerity. Argue we progressives caused inflation or something with COVID spending. It's easier to debunk you than just seeing you go "this was inevitable, oh wells <3".

 

Biden and Dems didn't have to cave to Republicans and kick 15 million people off Medicaid. 

 

They didn't have to cave and allow extended unemployment insurance to end. 

 

They didn't have to trash the expanded child tax credit. 

 

People didn't turn sour on the economy because inflation is a word repeated on news over and over. It was because the massive safety net that was built out under Biden's first two years during COVID was pulled out from under people's feet before they were ready cause Dems cave like always and conceded grounds to Republicans instead of defending their agenda. 

I honestly agree with you 100%. Inflation while it caused the rising price issues (due to various reasons), Dems failed to properly mitigate. Yes they returned it back to normal (mostly now, not fully), but instead of supporting those struggling with such programs they just let them struggle. And that absolutely is a part of why they got abandoned. You can't avoid bad things happening, but you can fund such programs to support them until we get over it instead of funding Palestine bombings. Biden and Kamala are 100% to blame for their own loss. I'm not gonna say they completely failed on every front as leaders and make it black and white, but this is precisely why he had to step down and she lost sorry Biden/Harris! I voted for you but you had it coming 

[anti-bitch]

20 minutes ago, Sannie said:

I think in theory you are right, but in practice far too many Americans have been brainwashed into thinking the leftist policies are akin to big, bad communism. I don't know how we can deprogram people from that mindset when it's a very American mindset at the end of the day.

 

Leftist policies are factually better for the American people in every way, but how do you convince people of that when the stuff they see online all day is telling them the exact opposite? Kamala ran on policies to help people buy homes and boost the economy and people still chose cheaper eggs and deli meat.

Price control on basic food items would have been a policy proposal worth trying.

 

But yeah, leftism has been demonized always because it goes against profit-based individualism. But it is the answer if we want everyone to be ok.

 

I think leftism would work best if we lived in a society of women and gays only, lol. It feels like men make life a competition, rather than trying to help others.

[Tovitov]

Whatever happens, the 2028 primary is going to be fun. The accompanying thread is going to be an absolute mess though 

[Corso]

Kamala wasn't a real moderate/centrist, she was pretending to be one.  She was a San Francisco liberal who took far left positions in the 2019 primaries then flip flopped just for the 2024 election. That's what Trump's ads painted her as and they worked. The other reasons she lost is inflation, illegal immigration, and crime.

[Bloo]

4 minutes ago, HeavyMetalAura said:

I have questions for the smarties in the room. I hear everyone saying the next President will appoint 2 more SCOTUS justices - apparently they will retire or one is suspected to die of diabetes? 
 

My questions are

 

1.) why can't we publicly pressure those two to step down now and appoint new ones by January? Does the process take longer than that? 

 

2.) Better yet, if we've know all year that things were looking good for Trump, why not pressure them to step down even earlier? Did we learn nothing from RBG? Are Democrats just bad at strategizing or was there something else preventing this? 

These are great questions! The truth is, we could have done these things but the Democrats are too cowardly to do them. Back in 2012, there was a moment where people were trying to pressure Ruth Bader Ginsburg to step down due Obama being in office with a safe Congress, her age, her multiple cancer scares, and the importance of her seat and she called it sexism. She also wrote about how she wanted to retire at 90—she would go on to die at 88 (IIRC). 
 

Democrats are too loyal to the people that are supposed to work for us to push out a historic woman in the Supreme Court because “that’s sexist” is the de facto excuse liberals will often retort with. In fact, many prominent liberal writers made that same allegation of the calls for RBG to retire. This is why there is a lot of frustration with identity politics on the left. I call this tokenist politics, but the point is cogent nonetheless. There’s also an issue with idolizing Democratic political figures. 5 months ago, liberals were mocking leftists for saying Biden needs to step down and besmirching the idea that Kamala could run in his place because “omg she sucks and has bad approval ratings!” Now? I’m seeing so many examples of these same people asking about whether she can run 2028.

 

There’s a different flavor of cult of personality among (partisan) Democratic voters that prevents these types of conversations from gaining mass appeal.