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.

  • Verdant Banana@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    24
    arrow-down
    68
    ·
    edit-2
    1 month ago

    It is not the voters job to embrace a progressive modern platform nor is it their job to get themselves energized over said policies

    But both parties have shoved that false belief down voters throats that is the voters’ faults when they fail to deliver

    • orclev@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      60
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 month ago

      Not sure exactly the point you’re trying to make, but you’re half right. It is a politicians job to convince voters to support their policies, that’s true, but it’s also equally true that voters should support good policies. While it’s not their “job” to do so, they still suffer the consequences for failing to do so all the same. No matter how you slice it, people were stupid to not listen to Bernie all this time.

    • grue@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      49
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 month ago

      In a democracy, it sure as Hell is the voters’ job to do all that. And more, for that matter.

      In fact, the voters should be controlling the parties (if not abolishing them entirely), not the other way around!

      • MegaUltraChicken@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        18
        arrow-down
        8
        ·
        1 month ago

        No no no, the Democratic Party is some magical uncontrollable entity, we must abandon it, making progressive change infinitely more difficult.

        /s if it wasn’t obvious. Banana is a bad faith agitator. They desired a GOP victory.

    • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      26
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 month ago

      It was the DNC’s job to be clear about Bernie’s message. I voted for him in the 2016 primary even though I was bombarded with “radical socialist regressive left” Bernie articles in my social media feeds at the time.

      Unfortunately, most Americans don’t actively seek out information and just accept the picture painted by the news that’s fed to them.

      • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        18
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 month ago

        It was the DNC’s job to be clear about Bernie’s message.

        LOL the DNC has actively fought against Bernie’s message.

    • Tiefling IRL@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      16
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      1 month ago

      This is a systematic failure. Non-Harris voters are definitely at fault, but so is the DNC for moving further right and abandoning progressives and for sitting on their ass for 4 years.

      • Deceptichum@quokk.au
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 month ago

        You lot gave everyone Trump by refusing to listen to voters concerns.

        You apparently have still not learnt.

        • ThirdWorldOrder@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          1 month ago

          Lol I actually voted and voted for Harris. FWIW I’m also a former Republican who voted for Trump in ‘16.

          If I’m able to fucking learn then so will all these morons who stayed home and didn’t vote because of either their apathy or “principles”.

          Those people gave Trump the path to the White House again.

          • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            edit-2
            1 month ago

            Lol I actually voted and voted for Harris. FWIW I’m also a former Republican who voted for Trump in ‘16.

            Oh look, it’s the only voter Harris cared about.

              • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                1 month ago

                Why does it matter if Harris cared about my vote?

                Because seeking votes is what campaigning is.

                I did my job. Did you?

                I voted for Harris. Harris didn’t do hers. She ran to the right and alienated the left.

                Me and others like me warned what would happen as a result, and it was interpreted in all cases as trump support. Got called Russians so often that c/politics eventually made a rule forbidding it. Centrists thought they knew better. Thought that genocide had popular support. Thought that Dick Cheney’s endorsement was a win. No one likes Dick Cheney. Even Republicans hated him before the endorsement. The constant abuse aimed at Muslim voters left Trump an in-road that he exploited. Pretending that the economy was fine and that everything was better now, after all the inflation that it sure as fuck looked like the Biden administration just sat back and watched.

                Not to mention the very public failures of the Biden administration on labor: Failing to pass BBB, killing the minimum wage increase, and breaking the rail strike. The Biden administration earned the distrust of workers, and it doesn’t matter how fair you think that is. Harris didn’t do a damned thing to differentiate herself from him on this issue. More of the same was untenable, worse was the only alternative, so people stayed home because they weren’t being represented by either party, and one was insulting them and telling them that they weren’t struggling because the economy was working fine for billionaires.

                Hell, the only daylight between Harris and Biden was when she moved to his right. Promising to appoint a Republican to her Cabinet. Campaigning with Liz Cheney. Even Biden wasn’t that tonedeaf.

                We warned you. We kept warning you because we knew what was at stake. You were all so fucking pigheaded that you refused to listen.

                • ThirdWorldOrder@lemm.ee
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  1 month ago

                  No one wanted Dick Cheney’s endorsement lol. You are right about most of the points you are making. Unfortunately for the further left, america is about to get a lot more right now. The ideas that progressives are offering are just not resonating with voters while prices are going up up up.

                  Dems are going to have to start playing nasty if they want to compete now.

                  • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    ·
                    edit-2
                    1 month ago

                    No one wanted Dick Cheney’s endorsement lol.

                    Really? Because lemmy’s centrists sure seemed really fucking happy to have it.

                    Unfortunately for the further left, america is about to get a lot more right now.

                    Congratulations.

                    The ideas that progressives are offering are just not resonating with voters while prices are going up up up.

                    No. This is complete self-serving bullshit. The ideas that progressives are offering aren’t what Harris ran on. She ran against those ideas. She ran on maintaining an anti-progressive status quo.

                    Dems are going to have to start playing nasty if they want to compete now

                    Anything to keep from treating the left like humans with agency. And Democrats already play nasty. They just play nasty against the progressive wing of their own party.