Mastodawn

@mastodonmigration Unfortunately, presidential elections are always determined by independents in the middle, who are not inclined to vote for what they view as candidates at the far end. For example, polls showed that the entire complex of issues around sexuality and sports was an enormous turn-off for the middle, and pushed them enough toward Trump to make the difference. That's just the unfortunate reality. Middle of the road, safe candidates usually win, except in extraordinary circumstances (e.g., Biden's obvious denial of a steep mental decline). Remember, Trump won't be running again (no matter what he says).

4d ago

@lauren @mastodonmigration Not really. Turnout is a major factor. Democrats ignore (or spit in the face of) their working class, not-white-male base at their own peril (and all of ours, as the results of years of unpopular "safe" centrist Democratic candidates is fascism). Reduced turnout vs 2020 due to failure to sufficiently counter racist voter suppression and refusal to go against Israel and techbros hurt Harris more than a few suburbanites who supposedly voted based of fear of coed toilets.

@PedestrianError @mastodonmigration Harris sealed her fate with a single sentence, when she answered an interview question by saying she couldn't think of anything she'd do differently than the Biden administration had. Game over.

Mastodon Migration 4d ago

@lauren @PedestrianError

That was indeed a cringe moment. She was dealt a very difficult hand, being thrust into the race without enough time to create her own identity, or develop the rhetorical/campaign experience needed for a presidential contest. Feel it was actually lost long before when the Dems didn't have a real primary. Biden should have stuck to the one term plan and set the stage for the best candidate to emerge from a real primary. But that is all history now.

@mastodonmigration @PedestrianError The critical fork in the timeline was when Biden for whatever reasons (and I believe hubris was a key one) decided to break his explicit promise to be a one term president. Everything else flows from that fork.

4d ago

@lauren @mastodonmigration That was important... and set in motion by the desperate machinations in 2020 to make sure a centrist got the nomination even if it was a fading near-octogenarian centrist who had performed poorly in two previous presidential campaigns and had the albatrosses of the 1994 crime bill and votes for the Iraq war and Patriot Act around his neck. Just about anyone could've beaten Trump in 2020. They should have thought longer term.

@PedestrianError @mastodonmigration Yes. I say the following without liking it: Virtually any male, white, centrist Dem candidate could have beaten Trump, other than Biden.

@lauren @mastodonmigration Sure, as long as said white male centrist was under 65, not deeply tied to Biden, and willing to call a genocide a genocide, a fascist a fascist, and a billionaire a greedy thieving sonofabitch who needs to be taxed back down to earth. But I don't think whiteness, maleness, or centrism were necessary factors as long as the candidate was a skilled campaigner and didn't run every statement by a focus group convened by James Carville or one of his many clones.

@PedestrianError @mastodonmigration I don't think the quality of their campaigning per se would have really mattered. Just not enough time. Biden saw to that.

4d ago

@lauren @mastodonmigration Oh I meant if they'd been allowed to have a primary... but Harris came fairly close despite starting behind the 8 ball, mismanaging the campaign she had (including the totally unforced error you
mentioned + censoring Walz from saying stuff that was catching on), and having to deal with both sexism and racism. I think quite a few people could've won even in the short time caused by Biden's catastrophic hubris & the party's refusal to stand up to it until too late.