Nameless Youkai · 14d
What are your thoughts on the election? Did you expect a Trump win? Did you think the polling was off? What do you think was the biggest factor in Harris's defeat? Inflation, association with the Biden administration, Gaza, immigration, young conservative men, identity politics, Hispanic conservatives, something else? What do you think the Democratic Party's new platform should be? Stop trying to reach Trump voters and instead focus on energizing their base and appeal to the economic left? Less focus on LGBT issues and more focus on young men and Hispanics? Do you think another Trump presidency will actually be as bad as people are saying it will be? Sorry for asking a lot of questions but you usually have a pretty reasonable views on these things and I want to know what you think.
I was predicting another 'electoral college' situation, then it became 10pm EST and, man, you just knew it was dead on arrival. It didn't even have the dignity to be drawn out until 3am or 10am EST.
Personally, the Harris campaign failed because of their refusal to separate themselves from Biden at a time where people clearly want something different. Her biggest gaffe, that I honestly thought sealed her fate, was her saying "I'm speaking" to the Gaza protesters at the DTW airport. This airport isn't that far from Dearborn, a city with a large Middle Eastern population, like, this was NOT the time and place to pull this shit. Sure, it was a 'girlboss' moment, but it just tells you that she was never serious.
You cannot base your campaign on "being the reasonable candidate that will unite this divided country", then fail the first step by refusing to listen to people. That's not how that works. Why go on the campaign trail if you refuse to compromise and don't have the courtesy to lie?
The campaign was so bad that Harris yard signs didn't pop up until the last possible month, while Trump yard signs had been up for months now, even after his comments on Detroit. They had billboards and commercials, sure, but the words in the sky are NOT the words on the ground, and I'm really not sure what 'pandering to moderates' and 'telling people that they're broke' was meant to achieve.
As for the Democratic Party, ideally, they should really appeal to the left and working class more, but the issue is that they would never let this happen because they're so plagued by lobbyist-funded moderates, you'd probably find them stuck in internal gridlock before they would allow anything of substance to pass.
I don't have any concrete thoughts on Trump's return, but it's obviously not an ideal scenario in the long term. I'd normally criticize fearmongering in election cycles, but considering the somber mood, it feels inappropriate to dismiss this as an overreaction because poorly thought-out policies will get people killed. I also have questions about the economy, foreign policy, and 'how far' they'll go in two years.
All things considered, being right sucks.
