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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • I love Bernie. I know he would have beat Trump in 2016. Both tap into populist sentiment, albeit on different sides of the political spectrum. The difference is Bernie wouldn’t have any of the baggage that Trump brings with the racism, misogyny, incoherence, etc. he would have won easily. I weep for what would have been. He would have been a champion for the working class, not the charlatan that Trump is.

    I think one thing that the Republicans did that Dems didn’t is they let the people pick their candidate. It’s that simple. They didn’t care how unpolished he was, his lack of pedigree, anything. There was no ideological purity test. They duked it out in their primary and let the people decide. Something for the Dems to learn from.




  • I see a lot of comments that basically summarize the constituent feedback as “well I guess they’re just stupid then, can’t wait til the leopards eat your face.”

    First, keep alienating these voters, sure. See how far that gets you in the next election. We need to be listening to and understanding these voters now more than ever if we are ever going to get out of this. Whether you like it or not, their vote carries as much weight as yours (maybe more depending on what state you’re in).

    Second, responding to economy concerns with “well actshually, the economy is amazing. What you mean is inflation” is about the worst response you can give. It’s incredibly dismissive. When someone is scared that they can’t afford a house, can’t see retirement, can’t buy groceries, they don’t care about GDP or stock market numbers. Whatever Biden tried to do to alleviate their concerns wasn’t enough. Inflation stopped but wages didn’t catch up enough. Trump promised to fix it. He is a charlatan but desperate people will cling to anyone who gives them hope. What they experience is a system so incredibly slow to respond to their needs that the "Fight for $15“ really should be the Fight for $30 at this point.

    The reason Trump and AOC are popular is that they directly speak to these concerns, whether they have a plan to fix it or not. Both speak of systemic change to make it happen. Establishment candidates don’t.

    What this election has taught me is that until the Dems learn to actually prioritize working class needs over identity politics they will lose. Every time. Look at how even women’s reproductive rights was not enough to get them to vote Harris, and yet on states Trump won where there were proposals to protect abortion access, those efforts were successful.


  • I don’t disagree. Just describing it from their perspectives. The root issue is that the entire political system is beholden to corporate interests and there’s not enough political will to change that. But the average voter doesn’t care about the system of government so long as they can afford to pay groceries and they feel that their interests matter. Whether neoliberalism, socialism, fascism, this election shows that the average voter cares less about the system than the results


  • Totally agree though I do think there’s some nuance in exactly what the status quo meant to each Trump voter.

    For Christian fundamentalists, it meant a secular society and abortion rights

    For the working class it was high inflation

    For young straight men (and their parents) it was a felt sense that they were being cancelled

    For the suburban voters it was the felt sense that we have porous borders and that our tax dollars were being used to support non-citizen

    Not all of these are accurate, but simply being told you’re wrong before feeling like the other person is taking you seriously is only going to drive you to folks who will tell you what you want to hear. And that’s where the disinformation comes in

    We have to do better at listening to the other side’s concerns and offering meaningful answers. I don’t just mean offering policy as a response, I mean they have to feel heard before they are going to be willing to listen




  • Not to defend churches in general, but the article headline here is pretty misleading in calling this guy a youth leader. He was a volunteer. And, to the church’s credit, when this came out they immediately began cooperating with law enforcement and even referred anyone with more info to talk to the police.

    I don’t like churches in general, but this one did as well as any other organization that has volunteers working with kids. They had background checks in place and did not try to cover anything up.