Vincent Oriedo, a biotechnology scientist, had just such a question. What lessons have been learned, he asked, from Harris’s defeat in this vital swing county in a crucial battleground state that voted for Joe Biden four years ago, and how are the Democrats applying them?
“They did not answer the question,” he said.
“It tells me that they haven’t learned the lessons and they have their inner state of denial. I’ve been paying careful attention to the influencers within the Democratic party. Their discussions have centred around, ‘If only we messaged better, if only we had a better candidate, if only we did all these superficial things.’ There is really a lack of understanding that they are losing their base, losing constituencies they are taking for granted.”
“We have set ourselves up for generational loss because we keep promoting from within leaders that that do not criticise the moneyed interests. They refuse to take a hard look at what Americans actually believe and meet those needs.”
This is a bad take that I keep seeing.
Yes, the DNC fucked up massively. They should definitely have done more to convince voters.
But the voters who voted Trump/3rd party/abstained because of that are also morons who fucked up massively.
Both things are true. The DNC’s glaring mistakes do not absolve the voters of their agency. The lesson isn’t that the dog-turd sandwich eaters are rational actors, it’s that the DNC needs to take into consideration people being irrational morons if they want to win. But at the end of the day, they’re not the ones eating the sandwich. Voters have their own lesson to learn.
That’s fine, I wasn’t saying the second thing was false. I wasn’t saying anything about the second thing at all.
The Democrats don’t get to choose what electorate they’re trying to convince. They must convince the American electorate. You can say whatever you want about the electorate but that doesn’t change the Democrats’ one job.
That’s certainly something.
I’m perfectly fine criticizing the DNC for screwing up their one job, but that doesn’t erase my disdain for the views screwing up their’s.
And in fact, I think all this focus on criticizing the DNC over the voters, here on lemmy, is counterproductive. It isn’t incorrect, but look around you. Do you think DNC leadership is hanging out here reading these comments? I doubt it. I know for a fact that there are voters here who thought boycotting Harris would accomplish something.
If you’re going to write DNC leadership to lay bare their inadequacies, have at it. But doing that here just reinforces the idea that the voters don’t have their share of the blame. It’s just circle jerking about how everything is the Dem’s fault. The only ones who benefit from that are the Republicans, salivating over the infighting.
Sorry buddy, literally no one cares about your disdain.
I criticize both the DNC and the American voters.
However, one of those things is much more capable of short-term change than the other. So criticism of that thing is much more valuable in the short term than criticism of the other.
Again, one of those things is in the audience right now, the other is not. Criticizing people who aren’t around to hear you has no value. You might as well whisper your complaints into a shoebox to tuck under your bed.
I encourage everyone to join me in writing their representatives detailed messages about their shortcomings, and proposed remedies. I encourage everyone to convince others to do the same. I encourage everyone to be politically active between elections.
I also encourage everyone to use their vote strategically on election day to slow the rise of fascism. Calling out ineffective strategy is part of that.