Now let’s hope we see some real change (and that isn’t advocating for a lurch left). I have my doubts real change is possible but you have to start somewhere.
Now let’s hope we see some real change (and that isn’t advocating for a lurch left). I have my doubts real change is possible but you have to start somewhere.
But you are right that real change is needed Democrats have taken just the first step in earning true victory they gotta pass stuff and get stuff done. That said the left basicaly have an undersized responsibltiy for this shift its mostly the moderates dems carrying in my opinion. Troy and Abdul are up +7 shift but are barely moving the needle when compared to Kamala's performance. Moderates though shift ruby red mage country over 25+ points in Texas, NC (especially), SC, and several other places.
I think the one exception is strangely enough florida Left candidates performed well but I think generally florida was kind of ignored this election. The money that went to Michigan probably could have won senate + governor in florida but hine sight :) I think the party actually came together more than it divided into leftist verse liberal
It also shows that a good chunk of the population does _not_ know it.
> Damn man, cutting off my leg seemed like a good idea at the time, but it turned out bad. But a while later, I wasn’t happy with my life, so I thought, what the hell, I’ll cut off the other one too, see what happens. That was bad too! So when my neighbor asked me if I want to burn my prosthetic legs as well, I said - NEVER!
Harris didn't lose because she was a lame duck, she lost because she wanted to appeal to the center and the right more so than the left. The race was close enough that the leftists she alienated by refusing to take a stand against Israel, alone, might have put her over the top.
>Harris had a more leftist voting record in Senate than Sanders https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/jul/28/kamala-harr...
and came across as rather dim. I watched her twice saying 300 million Americans died of covid. The figure was 300 k but if you can't do thousand vs million and not realise 300 million dying was unlikely should you be president?
My brother in Christ do you think people voted for Trump because he was the more intelligent choice? He says dumber things than that all the time, and puts them into policy.
Heck, let's make it bipartisan - Obama once said he campaigned in "all 57 states." Minor gaffes like this don't actually matter, they happen all the time. What matters is platform and policy, and the only people I've seen who had an opinion on Kamala Harris' platform were Democrats. The Republicans she wanted to court were never going to vote for her on principle, and the fence-sitters were too disillusioned and cynical to bother showing up.
I followed democratic strategist James Carville a bit and he said when Biden proved gaga that they should have a townhall for prospective candidates and choose the best and it was unamerican to just anoint some insider. If they had actually done that I think they would have found someone competent and won, but no and we have the current nightmare.
I think there needs to be a return to selecting people who are honest competent and represent the majority.
Indeed. One of the few people to know there’s a “b” in “dumb.”
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I hear all the time the corrupt DCCC/DNC sabotaged Bernie Sanders at every turn because big donors/uniparty yadaydayada...
If I could summarize the state of political debate in the USA it would be "incoherent".
I think the idea of qualified is correct, I think what's wrong is that Americans don't care about the quality of the people they elect.
When elitist people people throw qualification as an administrative CV measuring contest, the regular people are correct to teach a lesson and bring them down from their clouds to the earth.
The elitist idea of qualification is wrong. That's the beauty of democracy, it's the greatest educator. But elitists are not capable of learning, they'll only see what they want to see and blame "the regular people".
(I was raised feminist by my feminist mom and while I miss her terribly, some days I am happy she's no longer here to be depressed about what a horror show the U.S. has become.)
Harris got a ton of votes despite being unelected (remember she didn't win a primary) and unpopular. This woman excuse is a cope and borderline sexist. Look how many women won their races yesterday.
Everyone (including me) would prefer it to be about their pet issue, but at the end of the day people across the world pushed the "Things cost too much, let's try someone else" button in 2024. Things cost significantly more now, so they pushed then "someone else" button even harder.
If Trump didn't start the Iran war, Texas, South Carolina would still be red.
Ordinary people only voted blue because gas prices were hurting their bottom line.
Trump oversaw the US succumbing to COVID pandemic. People still voted for him second term. Biden led one of the most remarkable economic recovery in modern times. People still were convinced by endless propaganda that economy was in the shitter and voted him out.
Due to all the tribalism created by social media, US government has become like any other third world nation where every election cycle people just vote the opposition into power.
Good.
Not me, though I do expect this thread may get flagged, because... HN.
> I just want to say that nothing makes me more patriotic than having faith in my fellow citizens.
Same. It is also very heartening to see all of that (mostly Musk) Republican donor money totally lit on fire, and to see what appears to be a lot of black voters in the south coming out to stand up for their voting rights which the Republicans keep trying to strip.
> Now let’s hope we see some real change
Realistically the Democrats won't be able to change much in the next 2 years because of veto power, but just kneecapping Trump into a full lame duck is good enough for now. And they better start passing lots of real legislation that addresses the needs of the American public, EVEN IF THEY KNOW it is going to be vetoed. Make Trump and everyone around him (JD Vance, Rubio) own all the lack of progress directly in the run-up to the 2028 election.
And I expect at least some of the greater Trump orbit fucked up severely in leaving an illegal paper trail, because people new to corruption aren't very good at it. Especially at the cabinet hangers-on level.
Also, the Senate can and should fucking sit on any Trump Supreme Court pick until the next election.
Because fuck McConnell and his party for stalling Garland's nomination for 293 days. Thomas or Alito can be filled by the next president.
Would be nice, but even without that one of the best things about the massive Democrat win is that assuming they don't fuck it up (admittedly a big assumption) there is a very real chance that we're looking at a 10 year window where conservative justices are shut out of contention for nomination and/or confirmation.
And Thomas and Alito are both in their late 70s. Here's to hoping that they stuck around long enough to RBG themselves.
breaking the western alliance may prove to be
edit, rephrase: breaking all of the international institutions and norms that the US set up in the post-WW2 era, including severely straining NATO, may prove to be enduring.
The house and senate both flipping is encouraging, but pay close attention to what comes next. There is no end to the self-inflicted challenges that the U.S. now faces. Many of them must be dealt with urgently. However, Democrat commentators are already saying that it will be to their advantage in 2028 if a Democrat controlled Congress accomplishes nothing for two years because Trump veto'd everything. This is not acceptable.
The U.S. has destabilized the globe. The conflicts they have both started and exacerbated need to be resolved in less than two years. Don't let your leaders, whichever side they're on, play politics until the next election. The U.S. has started a lot of fires. It needs to put them out promptly before somebody else does. Americans probably won't like it if that happens. That would cement the fall from unchallenged global superpower to just another misbehaving middle power.
Unfortunately, that's almost certainly what's going to happen. They won't have a veto-proof majority.
This is where things might be interesting though. There are 19 republican senate seats up in 2028, some in states that already flipped or almost flipped.
Do they keep kowtowing to Trump after this or do they try and save their seat through bipartisanship. I dont think they will be as afraid of Trumps' maga party trying to primary them as they would to being the reason their state flips. That did not work out too well for republicans in Texas. Now they may lose Mississippi... Mississippi. If that doesnt wake them up to do their job they deserve to be replaced.
Well, kudos to you I guess, for having any hope at all. Mine is long lost. Democrat, Republican, it doesn't matter. Real change is a fallacy.
I suppose yesterday shows that the U.S. may have finally sunk low enough. But honestly, I'm not sure. I think there is a larger reckoning still around the corner…
- Obamacare
- ADA
- Prohibition of abortion (and alcohol prohibition, to go old school)
- War in Iran
- PATRIOT Act
- ICE off the leash
- Ukraine policy
- The EPA
None of these were inevitable; all were a consequence of the particular politicians voted into office.
And neither of the two political parties, have been able, or even truly willing, to to fix both. The European Welfare State isn't sustainable, but at least use Georgism to tax land (for healthcare and education), and maybe create a few Co-Ops/New Deals to let the common people work for a livable wage (Distributism is neither Socialism nor Communism).