Thanks again, you do excellent commentary. About the silos, Democrats don’t even need to go to interior America. If the academic elite of Berkeley and San Francisco had driven their Teslas (or better yet, take Bart and buses) to the suburb cities outside Oakland, spend sometime with the people there, and listen to their conversations, they could had predicted the election results. I work two jobs (because I prefer the flexibility and because I live in the Bay Area and need the money to survive). Every other day I commute by Bart from the East Bay to SF and work with the academic elite at an elite educational institution. Most of them are full time with benefits but I am part time without benefits. Some of the days I am not in San Francisco, I drive around Alameda county and work as an instructional assistant sub. I sub for people in minimum wage jobs at a public school system in the East Bay. I work with mostly immigrants, many of them with masters and doctorates from foreign institution struggling to afford a roof over their heads. I could see the mismatch between the Democratic elite narrative on what was moving minorities toward Trump and what I was hearing. The same with my Chinese mechanic, whose brothers live (and vote) in Nevada. I really believe they are voting against their interests (how is my mechanic going to feel when all his supplies are hit with tariffs?). But I don’t even try to say a single word to my elite Democratic friends and coworkers anymore. I nod and agree as the easy way out of discomfort. When I tried in the past, I was lectured about how I, the foreigner, don’t understand America. The Democratic elites don’t really want to be informed, they just look for community and agreement, and when someone like me disagrees, we are singled out as the outsider. Some of us could open their eyes if they wanted to listen, but I see it as a lost cause.
My one objection is that the EC still sucks. A lot of votes still have to come in from CA, and I wouldn't be surprised if Harris closes the PV gap, even if she doesn't top him.
Abolishing the EC probably wouldn't have saved us, but it needs to go. Winner-take-all state EC delegations have been a failure and a cancer on our democracy since Jackson (a cancer himself) fought for them.
Sen. Bernie Sanders says these Dems don’t turnout bc they believe their party leaders and Dem-controlled government are too closely aligned with corporations. I agree.
I agree....but the Repubs are aligned with corporations, too! The Dems decided to focus on progressive "identity" politics (truly whackadoodle ideas) while ignoring the plight of the working class.
I wrote something similar, but I think you are letting Biden off too easily. During his first two years he choose not to address the border and to focus on an infrastructure bill that was financed through tax credits when we are $35 billion in debt. That was bad governance. And yes, Trump will likely be worse.
My view is we will ping-pong back and forth because no one is addressing the core issues. A balanced budget tied to taxes on the wealthy. A healthcare system that is dedicated to care and not profit. A economy which is not crushing the middle class and poor through gig jobs where people can’t make ends meet.
My fear is it will take a Great Depression type crisis to break the cycle.
To me, it feels inadequate to discuss these elections without specifically mentioning Evangelicals. You specifically mention black voters as reliable Democratic voters, but Evangelicals are similarly reliable Republican voters and *much larger*. The latest number I saw was 22% of the voters. They voted 82% for Trump, that means he only needed 41% among *all other voters* to win the popular vote. Put another way, any Democrat needs to win 60+% of all non-Evangelical voters to win. That is a big hill to climb. And I think that is the primary reason why these elections are all close.
I'm not sure what, if anything, Democrats can do to appeal to Evangelicals who think that "God chose Trump" as the "vessel" to carry out his plans on earth. Should they start pushing their own "God chose Harris" campaign? I don't see it.
Your point about the protest movement made absolutely no sense. People do not owe Harris or the democrats a vote, the democrats need to give ppl a reason to vote. Harris's campaign did the exact opposite of that with the young vote.
Democrats reaped what they sosowed for alienating basically all their base. It almost seemed like they wete trying to lose. very odd pro war and anti-progressive policy and talking points.
You are sympathetic to many voter groups in your points who did not come out for the democrats as a result of democrat neglect. all except the anti-genocide crowd for some reason.
Believe me, it makes sense to everyone but you. Biden won Dearborn, MI with 80% of the vote. This time Trump actually won it with 43% winning by 7 pts. Trump won Michigan by 1.5%.
The great irony is you guys were upset at Biden because you thought he was siding with Netanyahu to raze Gaza, when Biden was a source of caution, restraint and negotiation and really had little power to do much there. Instead, they just voted for the guy who's goal it would be to put luxury apartments (Trump Tower- Gaza!) for Israel on the ruins of where Gaza once stood. Explain to me how that makes any sense. You don't realize how counterproductive those protests really were to any of your aims.
2) The inflation cause by COVID took awhile to work through the economy.
3) When I say "COVID" I mean the COVID era spending bills. Many of which actually came after COVID or at least vaccines. Three of these passed on party line votes and mainstream economists (non hacks like Larry Summers) warned they would cause massive inflation but Dems didn't listen.
Thanks again, you do excellent commentary. About the silos, Democrats don’t even need to go to interior America. If the academic elite of Berkeley and San Francisco had driven their Teslas (or better yet, take Bart and buses) to the suburb cities outside Oakland, spend sometime with the people there, and listen to their conversations, they could had predicted the election results. I work two jobs (because I prefer the flexibility and because I live in the Bay Area and need the money to survive). Every other day I commute by Bart from the East Bay to SF and work with the academic elite at an elite educational institution. Most of them are full time with benefits but I am part time without benefits. Some of the days I am not in San Francisco, I drive around Alameda county and work as an instructional assistant sub. I sub for people in minimum wage jobs at a public school system in the East Bay. I work with mostly immigrants, many of them with masters and doctorates from foreign institution struggling to afford a roof over their heads. I could see the mismatch between the Democratic elite narrative on what was moving minorities toward Trump and what I was hearing. The same with my Chinese mechanic, whose brothers live (and vote) in Nevada. I really believe they are voting against their interests (how is my mechanic going to feel when all his supplies are hit with tariffs?). But I don’t even try to say a single word to my elite Democratic friends and coworkers anymore. I nod and agree as the easy way out of discomfort. When I tried in the past, I was lectured about how I, the foreigner, don’t understand America. The Democratic elites don’t really want to be informed, they just look for community and agreement, and when someone like me disagrees, we are singled out as the outsider. Some of us could open their eyes if they wanted to listen, but I see it as a lost cause.
Thank you! This demonstrates everything I have been trying to say. You are absolutely correct too.
My one objection is that the EC still sucks. A lot of votes still have to come in from CA, and I wouldn't be surprised if Harris closes the PV gap, even if she doesn't top him.
Abolishing the EC probably wouldn't have saved us, but it needs to go. Winner-take-all state EC delegations have been a failure and a cancer on our democracy since Jackson (a cancer himself) fought for them.
Sen. Bernie Sanders says these Dems don’t turnout bc they believe their party leaders and Dem-controlled government are too closely aligned with corporations. I agree.
I agree....but the Repubs are aligned with corporations, too! The Dems decided to focus on progressive "identity" politics (truly whackadoodle ideas) while ignoring the plight of the working class.
I wrote something similar, but I think you are letting Biden off too easily. During his first two years he choose not to address the border and to focus on an infrastructure bill that was financed through tax credits when we are $35 billion in debt. That was bad governance. And yes, Trump will likely be worse.
My view is we will ping-pong back and forth because no one is addressing the core issues. A balanced budget tied to taxes on the wealthy. A healthcare system that is dedicated to care and not profit. A economy which is not crushing the middle class and poor through gig jobs where people can’t make ends meet.
My fear is it will take a Great Depression type crisis to break the cycle.
As to your foot note, I expect Trump will begin to airlift arms to Russia to support his continued blitzkrieg through eastern Europe.
You don’t know what the word “blitzkrieg” means, do you?
YOu think Trump won't sent Putin arms and aid?
I know precisely what it means, and I suspect that we will aid and abet Putin's territorial transgressions.
You said “continued blitzkrieg”. What blitzkrieg is currently happening?
To me, it feels inadequate to discuss these elections without specifically mentioning Evangelicals. You specifically mention black voters as reliable Democratic voters, but Evangelicals are similarly reliable Republican voters and *much larger*. The latest number I saw was 22% of the voters. They voted 82% for Trump, that means he only needed 41% among *all other voters* to win the popular vote. Put another way, any Democrat needs to win 60+% of all non-Evangelical voters to win. That is a big hill to climb. And I think that is the primary reason why these elections are all close.
I'm not sure what, if anything, Democrats can do to appeal to Evangelicals who think that "God chose Trump" as the "vessel" to carry out his plans on earth. Should they start pushing their own "God chose Harris" campaign? I don't see it.
Your point about the protest movement made absolutely no sense. People do not owe Harris or the democrats a vote, the democrats need to give ppl a reason to vote. Harris's campaign did the exact opposite of that with the young vote.
Democrats reaped what they sosowed for alienating basically all their base. It almost seemed like they wete trying to lose. very odd pro war and anti-progressive policy and talking points.
You are sympathetic to many voter groups in your points who did not come out for the democrats as a result of democrat neglect. all except the anti-genocide crowd for some reason.
Believe me, it makes sense to everyone but you. Biden won Dearborn, MI with 80% of the vote. This time Trump actually won it with 43% winning by 7 pts. Trump won Michigan by 1.5%.
The great irony is you guys were upset at Biden because you thought he was siding with Netanyahu to raze Gaza, when Biden was a source of caution, restraint and negotiation and really had little power to do much there. Instead, they just voted for the guy who's goal it would be to put luxury apartments (Trump Tower- Gaza!) for Israel on the ruins of where Gaza once stood. Explain to me how that makes any sense. You don't realize how counterproductive those protests really were to any of your aims.
Ah, but you forget: there was a need to do something, and the protests were very clearly something.
Yeah it was something. How they conducted themselves and spoke was not good. But it was something.
Indeed. It hardened the middle and center right against the progressive left even more
https://substack.com/@ricknoz/note/c-75907561?r=ukln1&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
1) Dems were to blame for COVID.
2) The inflation cause by COVID took awhile to work through the economy.
3) When I say "COVID" I mean the COVID era spending bills. Many of which actually came after COVID or at least vaccines. Three of these passed on party line votes and mainstream economists (non hacks like Larry Summers) warned they would cause massive inflation but Dems didn't listen.
I believe this outcome is a result of the dems yet again being so desperate to put a woman in office. Against Trump, you need a bland white dude.
But the Democratic Party is more and more lacking of bland white dudes, and many of them like Sherrod Brown lost last night.