We are a lot tougher than that. We are the opposition.

We lost, and if you prefer not to figure out why, or prefer the party not figure out why, then resign yourself to continual losses.

We lost an election. We weren't victims of a crime.

society and government letting fascism and capitalism run amuck. Its been a decades long process that concluded last tuesday so its a little late to figure it out.

The politicians are not the victims.

I wish they were as worried about us as you are about them.

They lost, catastrophically, at the worst possible time. They had plenty of money and plenty of knowledge about the Republican playbook. They had all of the highly paid consultants they could ever need. That means they should know the landscape, the challenges. Progressive policies are supported by 60-80% to the population.

Yet they lose.

Job one, the bare minimum requirement, for the Democratic party is to prevent exactly the outcome we are now facing.

That's as difficult to overcome as the magat cult itself.

Even if true, how could any consultant be unaware of racism and misogyny in US society? How could they be unaware of what Trump was doing to a those flames? How could they be unaware of what was happening on social media?

The ads on TV and streaming services were a little too feel good to get their attention. I noticed that weeks ago. The ads also never countered all the misinformation and lies being presented about Harris's positions on issues. Unfortunately, a very old relative of mine succumbed to the bullshit she was watching and voted for Dump, the first time she has ever crossed over.

Good grief. Trump's entire act is about appealing to people's bigotry since he first ran a decade ago.

Trump is a misogynist and a racist and he appealed to racists and misogynists. The entire society is steeped in racism and misogyny, and that influences everything. No question.

But that has always been true, and it does not explain the disastrous performance by the party this cycle.

And last I checked, Biden is neither a woman or a minority.

however, had Biden taken my advice and not done that stupid debate, I could see it going differently.

His own team had him down in New York. It was not looking at all good.

Exit polls don't show that.

Obama lost white men by 27%; Clinton by 31%; Biden by 23%; Harris by 23%
Obama lost white women by 14%; Clinton by 9%; Biden by 11%; Harris by 8%
Obama won Black men by 76%; Clinton by 69%; Biden by 60%: Farris by 56%
Obama won Black women by 93%; Clinton by 90%; Biden by 81%; Harris by 84%

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/11/9/2284288/-A-First-Look-at-Exit-Polling-Data-Race-Gender-Age-and-Party-Preference

by playing the rw game of misinformation, propaganda, cheating whenever possible, voter suppression, threatening with violence, etc., etc., etc? The Dems are not like that. It is hard to beat the evil forces that control so much of the money and power in this country by playing fair. If you think the Dems could have done it better, I would love to hear your solution, keeping in mind the industrial scale of misinformation peddled by Faux News and other rw media outlets, as well as right out of the monster's mouth.

What you are responding to is nothing like what I actually wrote. I did not suggest "playing the rw game of misinformation, propaganda, cheating whenever possible, voter suppression, threatening with violence."

Welcome to DU.

Look at how the presidency and Congress have changed hands. It has been repeatedly over decades except when the Democrats held both houses of Congress for decades, especially the House.

I am sick of this nonsense of blaming Democrats for VOTERS' votes because it isn't true.

So should businesses blame customers when people don't buy their wares?

I am not "blaming Democrats," I am blaming leadership. They are supposed to represent you, yet here you are representing them and going after your fellow rank and file Democrats who are critical of the leadership. That is a big part of the problem.

I am not blaming voters, I am blaming the media, I am blaming the 1%.

Progressive politics 101: Punch up, not down. Blame the people with the money and the power, not those without.

Voters have a responsibility to do more than base their votes on social media posts. For instance if they checked the CPI they would know that the it has increased by about 3.2% for the last 12 months. Very easy to find with a simple internet search. I wonder if that fact would work in a commercial that even granny would understand. Perhaps I'm being a little optimistic. How about explaining causes of inflation in short ads? That's a little farfetched but maybe television ads with actual information would be worth a shot.

Whatever.

Welcome to DU.

We lost an election for a myriad of reasons. It’s not so cut and dry as “Americans are racist, sexist, idiots”, although some of them certainly are. If we’re ever going to win again we can’t just continue on the same path. And no, I’m not suggesting we throw vulnerable groups under the bus.

You also need to understand we won the White House in 2020, 2012, 2008, 1996, and 1992. It isn't like we haven't won the presidency for a century.

I am so tired of this silliness of blaming the Democrats for voter stupidity.

What people need to do is shut off the pundit shows and news networks. These "experts" don't know much of anything.

And democracy’s imperfections were on full display last Tuesday.

However imperfect, democracy is the only way to combat the fascist right.

Buyers’ remorse is already begun; by 2026 the voters will have tired of Trump’s corruption, chaos, incompetence, and criminality returning control of one or both Houses of Congress to Democrats – and the election of a Democratic president in 2028.

I don't know. Institutionalism is dead.

What exactly are we a victim of?

What we did clearly didn't work. We can blame everyone and everything but ourselves, but we'd just be lying to ourselves.

There are myriad reasons why we lost this election. Some of them are likely to be mistakes or miscalculations we made. No campaign is perfect and it'll take a while to deconstruct this result.

Until we can acknowledge some responsibility and stop blaming the election exclusively on others, we'll just keep losing. We're clearly still in denial.

And it's the economy/racism/inflation/misogyny/garbage press/oldster TV, stupid.

Then who is to blame?

Kamala and Biden ran good campaigns, but the people were conned again. Mostly by themselves.

Things could have been done years ago to try and correct the RW media or at least give it some competition, and more aggressive prosecutions of traitorous individuals should have happened too.

But if I am to interpret your post, any issue with not informing the voters or any cheating by the repubs must be fought by the Dem Party. They have the money, the people, the brains to fight this corruption…

I want everyone's post to be readable. I want to read and know your message.
It is helpful to use: proper punctuation, paragraphs, spelling ( I happen to be a terrible in spelling - thank goodness for spell check).

Thanks for not yelling at me!

It’s up to the Democratic Party to inform the electorate in every way possible. One way or another…

So, figure most Americans don't read anything but maybe the social media that reinforces their ignorant, bigoted personal feelings. And there ya are. Harris ran a flawless campaign, but when the majority insists on remaining ignorant because it makes them feel better... no hope.

Where is the Dem media countering the republican media?

I have been there. Where were you?

GOP pols pandered to the idiots who just didn't want to pay taxes. In the 70s, they watched local school boards and cultivated the board members with skills at propaganda. That was the real start of the problem. Reagan took that football and ran with it. Been the biggest tool in the GOP toolbox ever since.

Counter media? Takes money. Internet has made it a bit less expensive, but the battle lines had already been drawn up.

Stop blaming DEMs for the reality that too many people are too lazy, self-centered and STUPID to see thru/past the barrage of propaganda and 'tax cuts!' mantras TPTB have cultivated for decades to keep stupid people feeling ok about stupidity, racism.
It's not like history isn't full of cycles where the fools let the vile govern.

Where was Dem Leadership over the decades pushing better education? Getting on school boards? All I hear is repubs saying how awful our education and making sure it is.

No, it is the Dem Leadership, or lack thereof, that should have made education a priority - but they didn't.

What's upsetting is how Dems can blame everything and everyone else except for ourselves.

What's upsetting is so many voters are fucking stupid, ill-informed, racists idiots who can't read beyond a 6th grade level and can't think outside of their bible.

You know whos screwed? We are. Every elected politician, both parties, will be just fucking fine. We have the right to discuss and figure out what went wrong.

Feel free to lose your shit. It's a free country. For now.

This was an election held in a democratic country. There is NO need to Blame anyone for anything. The vote count speaks for itself. If you don't like it, live with it. It happened, and it's over. Most of us are not thrilled with the results, but that is part of living in a free country. You will not like how every election turns out.

I think there was more to it. Race and sexism played a part too.

Sickening!!

The reason is obvious and it isn't because she is a person of color.

The right wing control the print media, TV, podcasts and talk radio. Their messages are put out there 24/7. Rich liberals need to do some soul searching. We need them to step up. We need their help. When we had Air America we had balance.

Instead, how about your ideas on how we resist Agent Orange and his projectopolypse 25.

Stupid Dems.

Everyone has their own pet theory, but reality is … Trump voters are idiots. Period. One of the top google searches has been, “how do I change my vote”. Morons, through and through

In about my almost 70 years of existence, the Republicans have had about 5/6 more years of the presidency than Democrats. It has always been back and forth.

To hear all the wailing, you'd think we haven't won a presidential election in 100 years.

In the end, blame goes clearly to the voters who voted for Trump, and no, they were not the "majority of Americans" or the "majority of people of voting age."

All we tried to do is save democracy and save woman rights amongst other things and we somehow are to blame.

Yes we dems didnt save democracy in this election but that not because we didnt try.

But if we don't figure out that single issues and identity politics don't change partisan votes on election day we can stay in the wilderness.

To hear that says that Democrats never win elections. That is simply ridiculous.

This has nothing to do with "identity politics" except for the aggrieved white males who have lost their shit that they are actually losing an itty bitty bit of their unearned privilege.

We don't need their votes--ever. They can't be helped.

I'm sure he would give you an earful.

A fan of blocking people who say stupid things. Here is no different.

We tried to prevent it from happen. The people that voted for Trump are the ones to blame.

almost gotten to the point that I don’t read much here anymore for this very reason. I stick to looking at posts of photographs, pets, sports, art, and cooking.