What did Democrats do wrong?

[Brainster]

Are you suggesting it would be possible for someone to get a PhD in English Renaissance Literature without, along the way, acquiring serious expertise in mathematics and climate science?

Not to mention her mad skillz in Political Science and translating poll results for the unwashed masses.

 

[dann]

Republicans should think twice before poking fun at people's math skills:

A landslide? Just 0.15 percent of all voters determined Trump’s 2024 victory (The Hill, Jan 20, 2026)
How close, exactly, was the 2024 election?
President Donald Trump and his allies have called his win a “landslide” and “blowout.”

Trump Slams ‘Lightweight’ Jonathan Swan as He Declares Himself ‘BEST POLITICAL ATHLETE OF ALL TIME’ (Yahoo, July 11, 2026))
It's incredible! I win the Election IN A LANDSLIDE against the entire Dumocrat Party

Trump tries to show off his math skills, but flunks arithmetic (MS NOW, Feb 6, 2026)
The president doesn’t use numbers and statistics like an adult; he uses numbers and statistics that he thinks sound good and make him feel better.

However, that doesn't seem to be unusual for people "with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics.[78]"

RFK Jr claims basic math rules don’t apply to White House (The Independent on YouTube, April 24, 2026 – 1:29 min.)
Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr claims Donald Trump has a “different way” of calculating percentages as he tried to explain impossible discounts on prescription drugs. RFK Jr told a Senate hearing on Wednesday (April 22) that when TrumpRx, a government website designed to provide discounts on pharmaceuticals, cuts the price of a drug from $600 to $10, that is a “600% reduction.” Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren pointed out that, in fact, works out to a 98% reduction. President Trump has frequently made statistically impossible claims of reductions of up to “1500%.”

And let's not get into his language skills ...

 

[Emily's Cat]

Q: What did democrats do wrong?

A: Trump is stupid and bad at math.

 

[d4m10n]

Changing the subject worked so well last time around, let's just keep running that playbook.

 

[Solitaire]

The state of critical thinking has me concerned for the future of our species.

Good news. I finally found a survey on that very thing. Lots of Googling.

Critical Thinking In Instruction

Though the overwhelming majority (89%) claimed critical thinking to be a primary objective of their instruction, only a small minority (19%) could give a clear explanation of what critical thinking is. Furthermore, according to their answers, only 9% of the respondents were clearly teaching for critical thinking on a typical day in class.

 

[PitPat]

Bill to make daylight saving time permanent passes US House vote: ‘Americans are tired of the clock change’

Sunshine Protection Act has bipartisan support, including backing of Trump and some Democratic co-sponsors, and will head to the Senate next

www.theguardian.com

It's refreshing to see representatives reach across the aisle and deliver something truly important to the American people.

Is Sunshine Protection Act a joke name? Hard to tell.

 

[TragicMonkey]

Bill to make daylight saving time permanent passes US House vote: ‘Americans are tired of the clock change’

Sunshine Protection Act has bipartisan support, including backing of Trump and some Democratic co-sponsors, and will head to the Senate next

www.theguardian.com

It's refreshing to see representatives reach across the aisle and deliver something truly important to the American people.

It actually is a pretty good thing if they manage to get it passed. It's been tried many times before and always failed. The whole Daylight Savings Time thing was based on bad data to begin with, perpetuated with different bad data, and causes many more problems than it solves. And those problems get worse as technology advances: computers really don't get along with recording passages of time that contradict the notation of time.

 

[ahhell]

Bill to make daylight saving time permanent passes US House vote: ‘Americans are tired of the clock change’

Sunshine Protection Act has bipartisan support, including backing of Trump and some Democratic co-sponsors, and will head to the Senate next

www.theguardian.com

It's refreshing to see representatives reach across the aisle and deliver something truly important to the American people.

Is Sunshine Protection Act a joke name? Hard to tell.

Probably not a joke name unfortunately, at least it's not some ham-fisted acronym that spells out sunshine or some nonsense. It is a good thing though, so at least they've reached across the aisle to do something that isn't stupid.

 

[TragicMonkey]

Probably not a joke name unfortunately, at least it's not some ham-fisted acronym that spells out sunshine or some nonsense.

Special United New Standard Homogeneity In Notation Equalization?

 

[dann]

Can someone explain why this is bad for Democrats? Didn't Republicans crush the 2010 midterms in historic numbers because of the Tea Party? Not just at the federal level, but at the state level as well. And It carried tremendous consequences for the judiciary as well. Why wouldn't the Democrats want to wield that kind of power to push an agenda they believe would help the entire country?

Apparently, nobody, neither Democrats nor Republicans, can tell you why it's supposed to be bad. Unless, of course, it's because they think that policies like universal health care, social welfare, raising the minimum wage, the right to unionize, anti-corruption, reducing the political power of oligarchs, a wealth tax for billionaires, freedom for LBGTQIA+ people, etc. are baaaad!
Graham Platner: Political views (Wikipedia)

Meanwhile, in the real world, ...
Desperate Republicans Think This Will Make Voters Forget How Much They HATE Them (The Majority Report on YouTube, July 17, 2026 – 13:42 min.)

10:59–> There's a new piece in the New York Times, Platinum Platner Was Toxic. But Democrats Could Learn From His Politics. that has an interesting little discovery here, that I would clue in like Metaglacius Matt Iglesius and those types of folks, too. Because you often hear the Moderates say, Polling says that the Democrats are too far left. And this is a huge concern.'
Well, only 13% of Maine Democrats said Mr. Platner was too far to the left in a New York Times presidential poll, Sienna poll. And it's true that Platner wasn't DSA. DSA wouldn't have endorsed him. He wouldn't have got through the process given his biography. But his policies were – except for, I don't know, maybe even, I don't even know where the DSA is at on guns, but – not different from DSA. And yet he wasn't considered too far to the left. Mainly because, when people are responding to those polls and the Democrats are too far to the left, they mean that they're too professional class scolding and superior to them.
– Right, I mean that's how the party's branded itself. There has been an obuscation of what leftist politics actually is.

Platner Was Toxic. But Democrats Could Learn From His Politics. (NYT, July 15, 2026)

 

[dann]

Democratic Socialism in 2026

How it ENDS: Trump polling crash WORSE than Jan. 6 as Dem Socialists TROUNCE MAGA brand (MS NOW on YouTube, July 18, 2026 – 8:19 min.)

7:18–> Ari Melber: This chart, when you look at MAGA and a label that people would say actually makes them on a glance be more interested in supporting a candidate: MAGA is down to 27 below Trump.
Trump is about 29, which gives him leverage in primaries we've seen.
But the label Democratic Socialists now, Jason, beats those slightly.
This is a CNBC poll. That's our sister business network, business news.
What do you think about what might be a fracturing but also reflects a kind of a populist revolt against the economic business as usual, even beyond INFLATION.
Jason Johnson: THIS IS THE POLITICAL SCIENTIST OF ME. I'VE BEEN SAYING THIS FOR A LONG TIME.
DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM IN 2026 IS WHAT WE USED TO CALL GOOD GOVERNANCE IN THE 1960s.

I hope they're actually much better than what used to be called 'good governance' in the 1960s, i.e. the decade when Kennedy tried (and failed) to invade Cuba, escalated the Vietnam War, and his successor escalated the escalation.

 

[PitPat]

Yet another "party-defining" race. It's one of nearly 500 congressional races - a small handful of which had democrat socialists winning primaries.

Democrats look to key Senate race to define party – but ‘fed-up’ Michigan voters just want change

Daily realities of healthcare, prices and Gaza driving wave of anti-establishment sentiment among Democratic voters in closely watched contest

www.theguardian.com

 

[dann]

James Carville’s Brain Breaks After He Realizes He’s Always Wrong (Farron Balanced on YouTube, July 18, 2026 – 6:27 min.)
James Carville erupted in a profanity-filled rant after a string of progressive and democratic socialist primary victories, blaming the left wing of the Democratic Party for its past losses while reigniting the party’s long-running internal feud.

3:12–> But Carville was not done with just the Democratic Socialists. He also went after Bernie Sanders again for no reason. And he lied about it, saying,
"How did Trump win? I'll tell you how. Because goddamn Bernie Sanders is the reason that Trump is president. You hear me? Listen to me."
Actually, James, what happened was during the uh 2016 primaries, you were working for Hillary Clinton's campaign as one of the lead strategists. Your strategy, you James, was to elevate Donald Trump as the Republican nominee. You know, you wanted to run against him because, remember, he's the easiest to beat. We know that from the Wikileaks leaks in Hillary's emails.
Like, we know that. That is a thing that did happen.
You elevated Donald Trump and you're sitting there blaming Bernie Sanders for something you and your friends running Hillary Clinton's campaign did. You lying sack of Cajun trash.

Carville quotation from:

James Carville Slams Democratic Socialists: 'These People Are So ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ Stupid' (HuffPost, July 11, 2026)
The Democratic strategist railed against "left-wing idiots" for criticizing the party and blamed "insurgent" Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.) for Hillary Clinton's 2016 loss.

 

[PitPat]

Carville quotation from:

He's kinda been the party's Grampa Simpson for awhile now, hasn't he?

 

[TragicMonkey]

1. That dude's still alive?!
2. Disappointingly, he's not related to the ice cream cakes after all.

 

[dann]

He's kinda been the party's Grampa Simpson for awhile now, hasn't he?

“I used to be with ‘it’, but then they changed what ‘it’ was. Now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’ anymore and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary to me. It’ll happen to you!" (Abe Simpson on GoodReads)

 

[dann]

What did Democrats do wrong? What are most of them (allegedly) still doing wrong?
He should get better advisers than AIPAC and the Baileys!

I don't know if the Baileys still advise Schumer, but AIPAC appears to be getting desperate:

Marc Robinson on X, July 23, 2026
AIPAC understands that if they lose the Michigan primary, they're done. It will show that their support is now a liability not an asset and they'll become totally toxic among Democrats. This race is AIPAC's last stand, which is why they're throwing everything they have into it.

AIPAC spends nearly $30M on Stevens over Al-Sayed in Michigan Senate primary, its largest single-race investment ever (CBS News, July 20, 2026)
El-Sayed has made AIPAC and the tens of millions of dollars spent to support Stevens a centerpiece of his campaign. He and his allies have accused Stevens as being a mouthpiece for her large donors.
"She is nothing more than an employee of these billionaires," said Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is also campaigning with El-Sayed this weekend at rallies in Detroit, Lansing and Grand Rapids.

I don't know about the Baileys, but Schumer has picked his candidate, AIPAC-supported Haley Stevens, because of course he has: Schumer backs Stevens, sees ‘multiple paths’ to majority (Punchbowl News, June 11, 2026)

 

[Emily's Cat]

@dann would you kindly keep your spam in a thread where it's relevant?

 

[Donal]

It's not that AIPAC will be done. They will just pivot. They already diffuse their money coming in and going out through smaller groups that act as subsidiaries. They are pulling pages from the NRA's playbook. Instead of donating directly, they will direct donors where to send their money. Instead of endorsing a specific party or candidate, they will buy up ads framing issues in a way they favor and nudge the narrative in that direction. A lot more dark money PACS.

 

[TragicMonkey]

@dann would you kindly keep your spam in a thread where it's relevant?

If you honestly believe something is off-topic, report it.