What did Democrats do wrong?

[Emily's Cat]

It's peculiar that healthcare is conspicuously absent from Emily's Cat's post.

You know I post about health care a LOT, don't you? So why make a post that intentionally and maliciously insinuates that I'm trying to hide or avoid something? It's knowingly disingenuous, it's fallaciously poisoning the well... and I view it as being downright uncivil and disrespectful to purposefully post false information as a means by which to insult and denigrate a fellow member.

 

[Emily's Cat]

I may have misunderstood this part of Emily's Cat's post. I apologize if that's the case.
Could this be the kind of "line-jumping and cheating on the way in" that shouldn't be allowed?

Yes, dann. That's at least one of the kinds of line-jumping and cheating that shouldn't be allowed.

It's amazing what happens when you actually listen to people's actual positions instead of making malicious assumptions driven by your own rabid emotions and tendency to cast anyone who disagrees with your view as "the enemy".

 

[johnny karate]

Yes, republicans push for certain issues to become "hot button issues". There are 2 issues regarding that:

- Republicans probably have an advantage in that their message is probably simpler. "No men in women's sports" is a lot easer for someone to digest than "historically it has not been an issue and if you look at the statistics trans people have not been dominating as you think they would be".

It's not so much that their message is simpler, it's that they know how to craft messages that appeal to be people's prejudices and fears.

The whole point in bringing up the decades-long presence of trans people in sports isn't to suggest counter messaging, it's to point out that there wasn't an issue to message in the first place about until Republicans manufactured one.

- Republicans have been doing this for decades. Even if the democrats wanted to make up and push their own "hot button issues" it might take a long time. But they need to start winning sooner.

Democrats don't need to "make up" anything. They just need to push back much harder against the ◊◊◊◊ that Republicans have been making up.

First of all, Mamdani is the mayor of a city which sits firmly on the left side of the American political spectrum. On average they will be more receptive to progressive policies. But bhat works in New York may not necessarily work in (for example) Pennsylvania or Georgia (potential swing states that a president will have to worry about), or even in some of the smaller towns and rural areas of New York state.

Secondly, It should also be noted that the turnout for the mayoral race was only ~43%. Meanwhile, the 2024 election had a turnout that was 64%. In my opinion, smaller election turnouts favor candidates who have "fringe" beliefs that cater to a more passionate base.

Lastly, there were a lot of issues that went into the 2025 New York mayoral race. His chief rival (Cuomo) had sexual harassment allegations against him. And, while he was governor his popularity was below 50% at the end of his term. That probably played as much a role in Mamdani's victory as "support for Trans".

(Please note that am not against Trans rights. They should be protected from harassment, they should be allowed to play sport and use bathrooms according to the gender they identify with. My concern is the way that the issue should be handled by the democrats should they want to get power.)

I'm not saying that Mamdani won because he supports transgender rights, I'm saying he didn't lose because of it.

And sorry, the "New York is liberal" thing doesn't fly. The conventional wisdom has been that supporting transgender rights is unpopular with everyone, not just Independents and Republicans.

The bottom line is, a Democrat won decisively with a campaign in which he not only didn't run away from the transgender issue, but openly expressed support for transgender rights, an issue that the punditry class has been telling us is poisonous. Clearly, they were wrong.

"Popular issues" don't become popular out of nowhere and aren't etched in stone. Strong leadership can sway public opinion.

 

[johnny karate]

It's the Democrats who have changed their position on the trans issues, not the Republicans.

Fair point about Republicans. They've always been reactionary bigots.

 

[Trausti]

Fair point about Republicans. They've always been reactionary bigots.

Yikes. Saying you think boys shouldn't be in girls bathrooms makes you a bigot. The lefty mind is so warped.

 

[johnny karate]

Yikes. Saying you think boys shouldn't be in girls bathrooms makes you a bigot. The lefty mind is so warped.

Supporter of killing children with preventable diseases, freeing violent criminals, and protecting participants in a child sex trafficking ring has thoughts about other people having warped minds.

Also, literally just today a Republican member of the House in good standing announced to the world that "Muslims don’t belong in American society" with little or no pushback from the Republican establishment or right wing media.

So yeah, "reactionary bigots" is exactly correct.

 

[Brainster]

I'm not saying that Mamdani won because he supports transgender rights, I'm saying he didn't lose because of it.

And sorry, the "New York is liberal" thing doesn't fly. The conventional wisdom has been that supporting transgender rights is unpopular with everyone, not just Independents and Republicans.

Yeah, New York is totes not liberal. I fully expect Gavin Newsom and other contenders for 2028 to drop their reactionary, bigoted support for letting the sports organizations decide who can play women's sport.

 

[Trausti]

Supporter of killing children with preventable diseases, freeing violent criminals, and protecting participants in a child sex trafficking ring has thoughts about other people having warped minds.

Who are you responding to with this? Do you usually create make believe opponents when you can't formulate an actual rebuttal?

Also, literally just today a Republican member of the House in good standing announced to the world that "Muslims don’t belong in American society" with little or no pushback from the Republican establishment or right wing media.

What does that have to do with men in dresses claiming the right to get aroused in girl's bathrooms?

 

[johnny karate]

Yeah, New York is totes not liberal. I fully expect Gavin Newsom and other contenders for 2028 to drop their reactionary, bigoted support for letting the sports organizations decide who can play women's sport.

No one said New York wasn't liberal. Please try to follow along.

Newsom siding with reactionary bigots because he thinks he needs to do so to win elections is exactly what's wrong with establishment Democrats. Capitulation is a sign of weakness.

 

[johnny karate]

Who are you responding to with this? Do you usually create make believe opponents when you can't formulate an actual rebuttal?

The person who explicitly voted for and supports those things. That would be anyone who voted for Trump. I'm happy to provide evidence, if you'd like.

And dismissing out of hand what deranged cranks think is a perfectly valid rebuttal.

What does that have to do with men in dresses claiming the right to get aroused in girl's bathrooms?

You objected to me calling Republicans reactionary bigots. I was just providing evidence of my claim.

 

[Trausti]

The person who explicitly voted for and supports those things. That would be anyone who voted for Trump. I'm happy to provide evidence, if you'd like.

You really live in your own little world. Everyone else who is different is some awful caricature. So you voted for sexually mutilating children? Is that how this works?

 

[Brainster]

No one said New York wasn't liberal. Please try to follow along.

Newsom siding with reactionary bigots because he thinks he needs to do so to win elections is exactly what's wrong with establishment Democrats. Capitulation is a sign of weakness.

Good to see you acknowledge the weakness. Here's an article you should enjoy--it says that since moderate Democrats mostly go along with the progressives, there's no need to change positions on any of the thorny issues of our time.

On other issues, from government spending to fighting climate change to LGBTQ rights, the overwhelming majority of moderate respondents said that Democrats’ positions are “about right.”

My take is that he got it right in the headline:

Guess What Moderate Democratic Voters Aren’t Anymore? Moderate.​

Take a subset of Democrats who regularly vote in the primaries, ask them to describe themselves, and then act surprised when those who describe themselves as moderate or moderate-to-liberal turn out to be pretty liberal.

 

[arthwollipot]

You really live in your own little world. Everyone else who is different is some awful caricature. So you voted for sexually mutilating children? Is that how this works?

Speaking of "some awful caricature".

 

[johnny karate]

You really live in your own little world. Everyone else who is different is some awful caricature. So you voted for sexually mutilating children? Is that how this works?

No, how it works is the things that were explicitly, unambiguously part of the platform of the candidate you voted for are the things you voted for. Like anti-vaxxersim and pardoning J6 domestic terrorists.

Again, if you want me to provide evidence that those things were explicitly, unambiguously part of Trump’s platform, I’m happy to provide it.

 

[johnny karate]

Good to see you acknowledge the weakness. Here's an article you should enjoy--it says that since moderate Democrats mostly go along with the progressives, there's no need to change positions on any of the thorny issues of our time.

My take is that he got it right in the headline:


Take a subset of Democrats who regularly vote in the primaries, ask them to describe themselves, and then act surprised when those who describe themselves as moderate or moderate-to-liberal turn out to be pretty liberal.

I’m sorry you seem so troubled by this eventuality, but it’s kind of hard to be a moderate in the face of naked fascism.

Remember all the grievance politics of the last ten years telling us that Trump happened because liberals were mean to conservatives? Turns out pendulums swing in two directions.

 

[johnny karate]

Speaking of "some awful caricature".

Trump voters are against “sexually mutilating” children just not sex with children.

 

[arthwollipot]

Trump voters are against “sexually mutilating” children just not sex with children.

Yeah they'd rather make ◊◊◊◊ up about gender care than acknowledge their own far more serious problems.

 

[dirtywick]

i’m not getting into the trans stuff but the fact that the trump led doj and fbi is actively covering up information about him as it relates to an international sex trafficking ring should be near the top of your list heading into any future election

but they’re still figuring out jan 6 and the attempted election fraud in 2020. 60+ lawsuits and about a dozen audits all saying the same thing wasn’t enough, still wasting taxpayer money on old vendettas he was clearly wrong about. now the fbi is looking into it and uncovering evidence that, yeah, he lost

FBI obtains voting data from Republican Arizona lawmakers’ 2020 review that confirmed Trump’s loss

The subpoena opened a new front in the Trump administration’s expanding hunt for evidence that has never surfaced to support the president’s claims of widespread fraud.

www.adn.com

sorry i know this is the the bash the dems only thread, only reason a few people would even show up to participate. but its just confusing to me that the fence sitters still aren’t sure about this stuff, and i cant really make an informed opinion on what went wrong for the dems without figuring out how they got roped in by comically obvious lies from a child molestor

 

[johnny karate]

sorry i know this is the the bash the dems only thread, only reason a few people would even show up to participate. but its just confusing to me that the fence sitters still aren’t sure about this stuff, and i cant really make an informed opinion on what went wrong for the dems without figuring out how they got roped in by comically obvious lies from a child molestor

My contention has always been that understanding this mechanism is the only meaningful post mortem that can be done of the 2024 election. Everything else is just a product of it.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

Dems should run on the Slogan:" Where is the Money?", at least in purple/red districts.

Trump said that DODGE and the Tariffs have brought in trillions, not only removing the Deficit but probably all of US debt plus enough for a fat cheque for every American.

So Where is the Money?

Pretend that the money was actually there but s strongly imply corruption, with plenty of examples of vanity spending.

Americans have a Right to Know what Trump did with the tens of thousands that were meant for them, individually.