Summary

Historians suggest Democrats might have fared better against Donald Trump by embracing the economic issues championed by Senator Bernie Sanders, who has long pushed for a focus on “bread-and-butter” concerns for working-class voters.

Despite Kamala Harris’s progressive policies, polls showed Trump was favored on economic issues, particularly among working-class and Hispanic voters.

Historian Leah Wright Rigueur argued that Sanders’ messaging on economic struggles could be key for future Democratic strategies.

Sanders himself criticized the party for “abandoning” the working class, which he said has led to a loss of support across racial lines.

  • @Etterra@lemmy.world
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    9920 days ago

    I’ve been saying that since the DNC fucked him over in the 2016 election. I voted for Biden, then Harris, but I never fucking forgot who’s to blame for the state of things now.

    • @SquatDingloid@lemmy.world
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      7320 days ago

      Berine had the biggest grassroots campaign I’ve seen in my time alive, bigger than Obama, more individual donations than any candidate ever.

      But the DNC knew if they ran a real progressive it would threaten their corrupt racket

    • LustyArgonian
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      1819 days ago

      I will never forget or forgive the DNC for 2016. I worked on his campaign. I went to the primary, in my state at the time a caucus, and felt the energy and excitement of everyone. He was the real deal. Unfortunately, he’s a little too old now.

      Other Dem campaigns often don’t invite their voters to help out like Bernie or Stacey Abrams - instead they ask for money repeatedly. I got a million texts for money this year. It’s giving “Election Christmas” in a capitalist way.

  • bruhbeans
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    7620 days ago

    The screams of “Dems need to move right” (not from Bernie, obv) are fucking clown shoes and hilarious. She was running around with Liz and Dick Motherfucking Cheney. There’s no more right to move to without literally just embracing Trump.

    But here’s the thing: libs keep cutting their noses off. Why would the actual left give the DNC the fucking time of day? They raise a billion fucking dollars, light it all on fire and go out to brunch. They co-opt movements like the Floyd uprising and metoo but leave everyone else to do the actual work. When we need bodies in the streets, when we need material support, when we fucking TELL THEM WHAT POLICIES WILL WORK FOR US, they spout some 1950s realpolitik bullshit and have some more wine.

    Biden: you’re immune. Have some fun with it. Show us you have skin I the game. $100 says he keeps up this “when they go low we go high” bullshit and does somewhere between nothing and the bare minimum.

    • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod
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      2420 days ago

      They raise a billion fucking dollars, light it all on fire and go out to brunch.

      This is the most infuriating part, and it made me happy I kept replying STOP to all their fucking “ZOMG 10X MATCHING” texts. They blew all that money and their political consultant cronies made out like bandits. They outraised and outspent Trump and have fuck all to show for it.

      • @goferking0@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1020 days ago

        Not only that,they’re still sending them to help with recounting.

        were on our knees to stop trump, by only fund raising not doing anything to actually deal with the issues

    • @timbuck2themoon@sh.itjust.works
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      19 days ago

      I mean, why would the DNC give he left the time of day?

      Passed biggest climate bill, forgave most student loans in history, rescheduled weed, etc. And yet? It’s never good enough nor enough to give them a chance to do more.

      All with a threadbare Senate majority with two “independent” dems and only two years of a house majority.

  • @blazera@lemmy.world
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    420 days ago

    They did listen to him, he endorsed Kamala.

    Progressive policies were on the ballot, they just werent endorsed by Bernie.

    • It’s amazing how much shit is obvious if one pays attention to the big picture and follow the current trends towards their natural conclusions

      This shit really was obvious all along, and I don’t even live in the US

  • @Carrolade@lemmy.world
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    4020 days ago

    We tried. Biden’s Build Back Better bill had a lot of pro-working class stuff in it. We just couldn’t pass it with Manchin and Sinema resisting.

    Details are important.

    • @moncharleskey@lemmy.zip
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      4220 days ago

      This is about messaging, not policy. Most people don’t really pay attention to actual policy, so it’s more about convincing your average Joe you’re working for them. Bernie had that, Biden and Harris didn’t.

    • @TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
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      3020 days ago

      I think the inherent problem with the build back better deal is it’s still framed within the neoliberal trickle down economics of post Regan America.

      Would it have increased some workers protections and child care, sure. But it would ultimately be a gift to the shareholders and owners of corporations able to tap into the 3 trillion dollars of funding.

      Americans are tired of progressive bills that vicariously improve their lives by further bribing the economic class that actually have their boots on our necks.

      People are tired of seeing headlines that the American economy is doing fine while they struggle to put food on the table. Nobody cares if your bosses retirement portfolio is breaking records when they have to pull overtime to maintain the same quality of life they had 20 years ago.

      • @Carrolade@lemmy.world
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        1120 days ago

        Funny when it was the more neoliberal, pro-business dems that shot it down, shortly before leaving the democratic party. There’s really not a whole lot of corporate profits to be found in here, though, despite the rampant misinformation floating around online. It actually raised corporate taxes, which is not a neoliberal policy position:

        https://schakowsky.house.gov/build-back-better-act#:~:text=The Build Back Better Act invests in securing universal preschool,and the universal preschool initiative.

        https://www.whitehouse.gov/build-back-better/

        • Funny when it was the more neoliberal, pro-business dems that shot it down, shortly before leaving the democratic party.

          Shot it down? The bill passed in 2022 after being modified to hell by special interest.

          There’s really not a whole lot of corporate profits to be found in here, though

          If it’s not going to be implemented directly by the state it means that it’s going to be implemented by private businesses. Those private business owners are going to walk away with the lion’s share of any money they accept from the government.

          It actually raised corporate taxes, which is not a neoliberal policy position:

          It’s almost like corporations aren’t a monolith of mutual aid and support. You don’t think Raytheon wouldn’t support raising some taxes if it meant they could funnel a ton of government funding towards the privatized military industrial sector?

          • @Carrolade@lemmy.world
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            220 days ago

            No, that is a false claim. It was not passed by the Senate and never became law. We can certainly criticize our neoliberal factions, but we should do it factually instead of weaving whatever narratives we find most convenient. Unless you’re confusing it with the Infrastructure bill, which did pass. They were linked at one time, but were separated after both failing became likely.

            https://ballotpedia.org/Build_Back_Better_Act

            • My dude… The inflation reduction act is an amended version of the build back better deal. What are you talking about?

              On July 27, Manchin and Schumer announced the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, the final result of these negotiations, surprising other congressional Democrats.[192] The bill, which includes provisions on tax, health care, and climate and energy spending, was introduced in the Senate as an amendment to the Build Back Better Act. On August 7, the Senate passed the bill on a 50–50 vote with Vice President Harris breaking the tie.[193] On August 12, 2022, the House passed the bill on a 220–207 vote.[194] President Biden signed it into law on August 16.[195]

              • @Carrolade@lemmy.world
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                19 days ago

                Fine, technically true I suppose. But when you gut something that comprehensively and change its thrust, I think it’s a little disingenuous to call it the same thing. It had all the workers rights stuff stripped out of it.

                edit: Disingenuous on the bill author’s part, not yours. Though tbf, they did rename it.

    • @timbuck2themoon@sh.itjust.works
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      219 days ago

      Yeah, and maybe if progressive voters showed up en Masse we wouldn’t have had to rely on those two. Imagine that progressives. Imagine that…

  • @Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
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    14420 days ago

    It is absolutely clear now. The DNC is a private company whose main function is to fund raise, period. If they also win an election then that’s great, but if it comes to a choice between winning and raising money, they will choose raising money. They will never move to the left to win voters if it will cost them fund raising opportunities from the center and right.

    • @undergroundoverground@lemmy.world
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      19 days ago

      Imo, you’ve got all the prices. However, I would put them in a different order.

      Short answer: Republican or Democrat, the candidate that spends the most wins. Therefore, fund raising is winning.

      There’s a small group of king-makers in the US and the candidate who offers them the most becomes president. Recently, the people who decide who gets to be president has started to include social media companies and amazon, who hosts half the Internet. Trump also cozied up to the American owner of the company the owns tiktok. Thats how he won. Trumps also great for social media engagement and news channel views.

      Even candidates who happen to be better than the republican candidate, no democratic hopeful worth being of “the left” will ever be given enough money to become the president of America. Even if they started from a position that would appeal to them, they would have to compromise on everything that made them that in order to be allowed anywhere near the Whitehouse by the American ultra wealthy.

      What you’re seeing isn’t the failure of the Democrats to correctly triangulate but the strength of the American ultra wealthy consent manufacturing machine.

      • @shadowfax13@lemmy.ml
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        18 days ago

        Republican or Democrat, the candidate that spends the most wins. Therefore, fund raising is winning.

        you do know that in all last 3 elections dnc outspent gop by more than 50% ? last time we raised less than gop was with bush in 2004. harris raised more than 1.6 billion while trump raised about a billion. 600 million extra money they get is for not having a candidate with anti-rich anti-establishment anti-israel policies. hillary was similar story yet we barely saw her campaigning compared to trump. where does all this money go ?

        compare that to jill stein who raised 2 million. dnc probably spent 10 times that money on just smearing her.

    • @OpenPassageways@lemmy.zip
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      1019 days ago

      I’m not thrilled with the DNC either, but I’m not buying this whole idea that they are shooting themselves in the foot on purpose. The DNC does better when they win elections.

      In previous elections, the candidate that raised the most money was more likely to win. Also, a moderate Democrat won the last election. They made the decisions they made in this election cycle because they thought it was their best chance of winning.

      I don’t have access to the data that they have to determine whether the leftist that Lemmy wants on the ticket could actually win the general.

      I’d certainly like to believe that it’s just that simple and all the DNC needs to do is put up a pro-Palestine Democratic Socialist and the election is in the bag… I just don’t know if that’s the reality on the ground. If that is not the reality on the ground, are the leftists that stayed home still committed to their protest? Or is there a point at which they would admit that we haven’t had a true leftist on the ticket because a true leftist is not viable?

      I hope someone can put together some clear data to answer that question soon… I’m afraid that a pro-Palestine Socialist will get crushed by AIPAC funded attack ads about Marxism and supporting terrorism that will really stick with moderates, and that no matter how energized the base is it wouldn’t be enough to win the general.

      • @Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
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        2119 days ago

        I am not saying that they are losing on purpose. I’m saying that they are making decisions about policies and candidates based on fund raising rather than on attracting voters. On purpose or not, they did shoot themselves in the foot by courting disaffected Republican voters. Everyone knew they were not going to win a lot of those voters, but they sure did rake in a lot of dough. I believe that is their primary motivation.

        • GladiusB
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          219 days ago

          I mean the Republicans are doing the same. Lining their pockets as they make decisions. Why is it so foreign to do with one costume rather than the other?