• SirEDCaLot
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    3 days ago

    No they aren’t, and with that attitude we will continue to repeat this mistake over and over and over.

    The people want change. A lot of change. You can work 40 hours a week and barely scrape by paycheck to paycheck, and it’s been like that for years. Housing is even more unaffordable.
    Nothing has changed for years.
    People are angry.

    Donald Trump taps into that. That is his whole message. That he is an outsider, he is not the status quo, he is the one who shakes things up. He does not listen to PR people. He says what’s on his mind. He is the closest thing to a Bulworth candidate we’ve had in quite some time.

    I personally think he is a liar and a criminal, but not everybody shares that view.

    What does Kamala have going for her? She is the vice president, next in line of a succession. There is no radical reform there. It is status quo. And let’s not forget that before Biden dropped out and Kamala was crowned successor, she was pulling very low even among Democrats.

    The problem is not that America refuses to hand the country over to a woman. The problem is that the DNC keeps putting forward the wrong people as candidates, and expects the whole nation to vote for them simply because they’re not Republican. It doesn’t work that way.

    My point is though, as long as you blame sexism or racism or whatever for Trump’s win, you hide the real problem and thus prevent it from being fixed.

    It NEEDS to be fixed.
    For the good of the country, we (Dems) cannot expect people to just vote for us because we’re not Republican. We need to offer them something better. Obama did that. That’s why he won. Hope, change, yes we can. That was something better. And so he defeated a real non-crazy Republican.

    Whoever is the next Democratic candidate, they need to do that. Offer a real message and a real plan. Not just ‘I’m not red’.

    • Sam_Bass@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      trump is the status quo though. he stands outside nothing except decency, morality, and tolerance. if he can make someone bow to him through fear and intimidation, thats what he does. if he cant do that he insults and denigrates and lies about. he is the most status quo fucker in the country

      • SirEDCaLot
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        2 days ago

        And you are doing the same thing that the other Democrats are doing, focusing on the steak rather than the sizzle. If you look at the things Trump has actually done in his life, most of it is just looking out for #1. And after his first 4 years, I don’t think we need another 4. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I was not impressed by his presidency.

        But that’s looking at steak. He may not have much steak, but he has an awful lot of sizzle in excess.

        You have a country that is (to continue the analogy) starving and malnourished. One candidate shows you a ton of sizzle and steam and flame and makes your mouth water. The other one just keep saying that eating red meat is bad for you.

        That’s why Trump won. You need to understand that for a lot of people, voting involves emotion and desperation. You see the factories you work at closing, hearing about a giant tariff on Chinese goods sounds fucking awesome. You work lower end jobs and see companies switching from full-time American workers with salary and benefits to part-time immigrant workers making minimum wage, closing the border sounds like a great idea. And that’s not because of racism, it’s because you don’t want to be competing for jobs with people who will accept minimum wage and live 10 to a flat so they can all send money back home. There is of course little or no steak behind the sizzle, Trump’s first term showed that. But to an emotional voter who is desperate…

          • SirEDCaLot
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            20 hours ago

            Once again, you’re looking at steak. Obviously sizzle doesn’t keep you alive. But someone desperate for meat is going to follow the smoke and fire and sizzle in the hope that there is steak at the bottom of it.

          • FrowingFostek@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            There are certainly mechanisms that can change this. Step one is admitting liberalism has become a caustic ideology to the majority of Americans.

            • SirEDCaLot
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              2 days ago

              Just like conservatism, the problem is what parts of it you push.

              Focus on divisive issues like gun control, open immigration, and hyper inclusion of any possibly marginalized group and you push people away.

              Avoid the wedge issues, and focus on things that will make everybody’s lives better, like honest government, social safety net, and good health care, and you bring everybody together.

              If you look at the entire range of issues, including the ones politicians don’t often talk about, you might find that Americans generally agree on more than they disagree on. But rather than focusing on those shared agreements and trying to build a better country, both parties are focusing on wedge issues where there is strong disagreement.

              • FrowingFostek@lemmy.world
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                1 day ago

                The issue here being wealth inequality. A problem where the conservatives and liberals have the same solution.

                • SirEDCaLot
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                  20 hours ago

                  So far that solution seems to be to ignore it as a problem and continue the policies that created it. Dems are a little better on unions, but neither one is addressing the systemic problem.

            • Sam_Bass@lemmy.world
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              2 days ago

              all political pigeonholes are guilty. not a single one operates wholly for the public good.