Harris only received five percent of Republican votes — less than the six percent Joe Biden won in 2020 when he beat Trump, as well as the seven percent won by Hillary Clinton in 2016 when she lost to him. While Harris won independents and moderates, she did so by smaller margins than Biden did in 2020.
Meanwhile, Harris lost households earning under $100,000, while Democratic turnout collapsed. Votes are still being counted, but Harris is on pace to underperform Biden’s 2020 totals by millions of votes.
No, I get all that, I’m just asking why progressives did vote for Biden but didn’t vote for Harris. Because all of this stuff applies just as much to Biden as it does to Harris, so why sit out the 2024 election but not the 2020 election? Was it the pandemic?
Pandemic was def part of it. People were actively dying as a result of trumps behavior.
Biden also tacked left a bit due to the fact warren/bernie had most of the votes in their camp during the primary.
It was a big part of his initial ‘single term’ promise. Which was due to pressure from the left wing that fine if we vote for you you’re a single term pres.
He could have managed a 2nd term if he didnt genocide, didnt break the rail strikes, and maintained more mental agility than a potato. Unfortunately he was adamant on both those things. Then harris walked in and was all ‘everything we did was beautiful! Vote harris!’
There was a collective sigh by people like me and most just checked out again and continued our local collective action support for each other. (This is why not having a primary is a huge downside for dems, removes the ability for us to build enthusiasm)
Some of us, the masochists, decided to try and raise the warning flags for Harris and friends that she was about to get fucked.
If the dnc eventually learns and gets a firebrand left wing to run that can strike the whistle just right not to scare most of the centrists you’ll see those voters very quickly return. But thats predicted on dnc learning, which is unlikely alot of us right now who can are putting in the time to get rcv or its like passed so we can build a viable 3rd party.
I see, that’s interesting. I really didn’t think progressives were a big part of either election outcome. And I should clarify, I am a leftist. I’ve been a member of a couple different socialist organizations, both DSA and the Socialist Party USA. I voted for Bernie in the 2016 and 2020 primaries. I just didn’t think there were enough of us in critical swing states to be the determining factor in any election. I suppose maybe I was wrong.
I get that you didn’t want to vote for Harris because she’s a milquetoast liberal technocrat, capitalist imperialist who supports genocide, but so was Biden. That’s Democrats, that’s who they are. I’m sorry, but if you really thought Biden was going to move meaningfully left or commit to just being a one term president, you were kidding yourself. I mean, why wouldn’t the Democrats think progressives were going to show up and vote for them in 2024, when the progressives showed up for them in 2020? I guess they know better now, but if you think the Democrats are going to learn from this election and decide to try to appeal more to progressives, again, you’re kidding yourself. In fact, the opposite is likely to happen, the Democrats will probably move further to the right. The Democratic party is not a socialist or even a social democratic party, and they never will be. Not in my lifetime, anyway.
laugh i never thought biden (or the dnc) was anyone but who he was. I was entirely unsurprised by his administration and this election cycle.
I dont particularly care if they move further right. Thats their decision. Just means they’re even less likely to get votes from people like myself. Its not really a threat. (Though thats unlikely in my state, nationally shrug)
I suspect by 2028 my state will be close or have rcv and third party work can begin. Shrug