Well, last night the democrats got destroyed. VA, a state which went +10 Biden, went red, and NJ almost followed. We could go over the ins and outs of what went wrong and all of the reasons, but I'm just going to get to what I consider to be the crux of the matter: democrats suck.
I've been saying it for a while. The dems go all in with culture war issues no one cares about, while simultaneously doing nothing to meaningfully improve peoples' lives. Biden was a hard pill to swallow, and no one, outside of the sliver of the electorate that showed up in primaries, wanted him. Even then they basically rigged the primaries via having all the other centrists drop out right before super tuesday to make it happen. Bernie WAS winning. But they wanted Biden so they organized to stop him.
And Biden is just as milquetoast and worthless as I said he would be. Sure he on paper wants to do some mildly (and I do mean mild) progressive things, but the dude isn't going to actually be the system fixer we need.
Theres a lot of reasons for this loss. Youngkin was apparently more distanced from Trump, causing those moderates the democrats have been pursing to shift back to the right. There was apparently a controversy over teaching critical race theory in schools that motivated the right against them. And while snarky neolibs will insist this isn't a problem and isn't the governor's job (ran into a few today online), the people don't know that. They vote on party line and feeling. And obviously, there was low turnout. Turnout went way down from 2020, and most of the lost votes were democratic votes.
The fact was, no one could be bothered to turn out, because why? The democrats were demotivated by all that's been going on. They're not seeing the democrats do anything, so they're like why bother. And then the republicans are fired up over cultural issues.
This is basically what I've been saying all year. Too much identity politics and culture war nonsense, and too little economic policy. When dems have to fight a culture war, they lose. I'm sorry, they do. The way the left wins the culture war is by being relatively moderate, framing the issues libertarianly, and making the right look stupid as they tilt at literal windmills that don't exist. But with the SJW left becoming the seemingly dominant strain, it gives the right a nice big target to attack, and dems do terrible. I was watching NBC last night and they were scratching their heads at why they were losing so many white and male voters. Isn't it obvious? The democrats do nothing to improve those peoples' lives. They shove idpol down peoples' throats, and they act so obnoxiously self righteous. And they learned all the wrong lessons from last night apparently. I'm already seeing the narratives forming. That Americans aren't uncomfortable talking about race and we need to do it more (speak for yourself). That racial ignorance is the reason the dems lost. Yes, blame the voters. The dems love to do that. They love to blame the voters for their own darned losses. You stupid white people railing against CRT, what's wrong with you? Why dont you get educated and vote democrats? CRT is only discussed at college level and higher.
Which is part of the problem. Democrats act like if people were educated on CRT they'd agree with it. Which isn't really true. Take me for instance. White male social science graduate, studied the theory, understand the theory, but has a complex relationship with the theory I've discussed here. I've always given some level of respect to the ideas academically, but the dems suck at messaging. And it is admittedly too high level for the American people. And the way the dems want to teach it in schools isn't about education, but indoctrination. And that turns people off. I understand the theory, but being a white male who is exhausted politically, I don't care. The thing is if you read enough about different theories and models for politics, you start understanding none of them are objective. And while i obviously have favorites, you cant just expect people to become educated and that they'll fall over the stuff. Marxists do the same crap with their "theory". Uh, I understand it, I still dont like it. Why? because it doesn't materially improve my life and because its cynically weaponized against my own interests. No one likes being told they're racist, or sexist, or privileged for merely disagreeing with someone. But the dems throw out those insults like crazy.
Heck, democrats always throw out insults like crazy. I admit I'm not innocent here either. I'm a hot head in political debates, and my track record with civility can be questionable. I go full dillahunty syndrome on people sometimes. It's a fatigue you get after you debate so much, that you just run out of juice. It becomes frustrating. The people are often using bad faith or otherwise hackneyed arguments. You dont wanna respond to the same point 100 times. You get exhausted, sure. But at the same time, the democrats just seem dishonest. They dont seem to understand theres a massive disconnect between themselves and many voters, and seem more intent on blaming the voters themselves.
And there's a lot of that going around too. "Just vote" they say. But we dont like the candidate, we say. They say "it's better than trump/the republicans." I say it doesnt meaningfully improve my life. They say vote anyway. I say no. They start attacking and insulting me for refusing to support their crap candidates. Uh, hello, I am literally a more marginal voter, not that I want to be, but I am, simply because the candidates are so bad. I'd turn out in every election if I felt it mattered. Id vote democrat if I thought I was getting something out of the deal. I'm not. I'm voting for explicit lesser evils who I dont like, and I'm told I have to support them or get a slightly greater evil. It's a joke. And they just don't get it.
I'm seeing democrats sweating for 2024, and I'm going to be honest, 2024 looks BAD for democrats. If the dems lost this bad in VA, and the election came so close that I literally didnt find out who won NJ until I wrote this article, then that's a bad sign. Those are fairly blue states. But the democrats' idpol and suburbanite obsessed strategy has flaws, and this is it. The idpol turns people off, and those moderates will swing back to the right in a heartbeat and only turned out for biden to stop trump. They can win against a polarizing enemy like trump, but otherwise they collapse. I've been trying to tell the dems this for years. I understood back in 2014 watching those mid terms that dems lose because they lack motivation. Because they suck and dont do anything. They dont even try. Thats the kicker. They literally dont even try. And its democrats who stonewall their own progress. If not Biden, then manchin and sinema.
But yeah, back to 2024. 2022, the dems will lose the house and maybe the senate. 2024, the dems will run Biden or Harris, although support for Biden himself seems weakening and there might be a contested primary. Still, i don't expect much to change. The fact is, there is no one else. Pete Buttigieg maybe. But that's it. The progressive wing has completely collapsed. Bernie is gonna be too old. He's gonna be 82, and while he seems to be in decent health, he would be going into his 90s by the end of this. He's done. And not to mention he kind of lost a lot of his integrity over his backing of biden IMO. Yang left the democratic party, and didn't poll well within it. I think most polls are 2-4% for him? It's a shame, I think his "forward" approach, a mix of social moderation and downplaying of the culture war combined with direct, simple solutions to the country's greatest problems make him the strongest candidate on paper. But the democratic culture is so broken they don't want him, and he left them as a result. The progressive wing has no one else. Nina Turner was an early name, but after watching her fold in the special election in Ohio, I don't think she could win a primary either. The democrats seem to be longing for something different than the joe biden's and kamala harrises of the party, but the party establishment, the propaganda, and the active reliable primary voter base keeps ensuring we get exactly that. Even though everyone else seems to have a strong dislike for these guys. So, honestly? if I had to guess, i think the dems are gonna get destroyed in 2024. They pushed moderation and culture war BS. We got moderation and culture war BS, turns out people don't like moderation and culture war BS, and the same demographics that trump pandered to to win on moderation and culture war BS like republicans better anyway. Surprise surprise. Meanwhile actual lefties and progressives and independents are so demoralized they don't show up.
Even worse, democrats are catching flak for stuff that isn't even their fault. COVID as it stands isn't their fault. The economy isn't really their fault either although republicans are quite successfully turning Biden into the next Jimmy Carter (economy wasn't Carter's fault either). People are blaming the supply shortages, the labor shortages, etc., on Biden. Biden didn't do crap. He just inherited a turd of a situation from Trump and it's blowing up on him.
Anyway, this should be no surprise, coming from me. I mean, I've been kind of going this way all year. I've been saying this all year. I've been saying it in a way for the past 5-6 years honestly. I haven't been happy with the direction of the democrats since 2014ish, and given I joined up in 2012, I've spent more time as a democrat and hating them than i did in actually liking what they're selling. And over the past year, I've just checked out. I support the forward movement for a reason. They'll never win, because people just end up flocking to the democrats no matter how much they loathe them anyway, but hey, I'd rather at least support something I agree with, ya know?
Honestly, the best we can hope for is a 4 way in 2024 between Trumper
republicans, anti trumper republicans, democrats, and the yang gang.
Maybe then we'll finally see a realignment between the parties. because
this isn't working. Politics is broken.
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