“It wasn’t because Biden voters shifted to Trump—but because so many of them stayed home.”
We must not repeat this same mistake again. Remember to always vote in every election and consider volunteering to knock on doors. It can make a difference. There are elections that are decided with just a small number of votes.
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I just skimmend the article and the accompanying report. But the analysis of what happened is contrary to my understanding. As far as I’m aware voter turnout in swing states (aka the ones that are actually important) was actually higher in 2024 compared to the few last election cycles.
Compared to Clinton and Biden, Harris was able to draw from the not-voting pool in states, where it mattered. Just Trump did it better.
The conclusion, that following the populist narrative of your enemy instead of drafting your own looses you votes, may be right, but I think the analysis, how they got to that conclusion is not what actually happened.
Not a US citizen or particularly versed with US politics, so I would be happy to hear something contrary.
I posted a longer reply below about some of the exit polling and the pictures that kind of info paints. And yes, it’s in contradiction to this article.
Objectively, the last several federal elections had the highest turnout of voters in US history, including highest percentages of youth voters. There was a LOT more wrong than “Dem voters stayed home.” That’s the same tired BS they’ve been shoving down our throat for decades.
I immediately distrust any article or “study” published by a group who also claim to have the strategy to “fix” it and have an investment plan for “getting voters to the polls.” This smells a lot like attempt #4,497,349 to grab people’s money and run.
Trump ran a better campaign and got more votes. It’s as simple as that.
I think it came down to 2 moments
Trump getting shot in the head then standing up, raising his fist and yelling “fight!”. I dispise the man and even I thought that was badass.
Biden at the debate. He was clearly sunsetting in front of our eyes, rambling about golf scores and saying “and by the way” over and over like it was his mantra.
If Biden had stepped down and endorsed harris from the beginning, idk if trump could have pulled off a win.
That and dems shit the bed in their campaign like it was an olympic sport and they were aiming for gold.
Stack on that, a LOT of effort made by billionaires like Musk to subvert people’s attention spans towards political news. It was a concerted effort of bad-faith actors getting paid a living salary in other countries piling on Twitter to share and promote pro-trump propaganda, and so much sensationalized stories and arguments and overblown contention across all media, that most people just stopped watching or caring.
Exit polling, the only info that really matters, asked voters who they voted for and why, and the overwhelming responses were that people didn’t know who to vote for and just associated Biden and Harris with the administration that was in power when egg prices went up.
Seriously, eggs played one of the major motivators. And people are so uninformed or uninterested that they couldn’t really tell the differences between candidates. People don’t broadly read or watch news, they get like, an hour of current events from Facebook and Youtube shorts every week because they have to fucking work 7 days a week just to survive. I know like, a dozen people who fit this picture.
A quarter of the country can’t read. About half are uninterested in politics, and everyone else is too busy trying to stay alive when healthcare costs more than mortgages and bread is $7.50 a loaf.
people vote with their wallets first and foremost
“It wasn’t because Biden voters shifted to Trump—but because so many of them stayed home.”
I’m sorry but that is bullshit. That’s like saying that the protestor died because the gun released a bullet, completely forgetting that the police aimed at them in the first place.
Voters stayed home because they felt uninspired by whatever democratic candidates tried to represent. The thing is, i’m in europe and i do follow the news, but i barely ever heard any specific plans from Kamala. i never got the “oh wow that’s a good idea” thought, because there was poor communication, no exposure, etc. It’s all a bubble. If you’re inside it, it seems like there’s a lot of communication. But that communication doesn’t leave the bubble because it doesn’t speak the other’s language. It refuses to communicate with people who are not already on the same page. That’s why a lot of commenters are gonna reply to my comment, saying “no, actually, Kamala’s messaging was great”. Because they experienced it like that, because they actively seeked out the communication, and found it. But to the typical voter, who’s not specially politically involved, and not specifically seeking out the communication, they don’t get exposed to it.
On top of that what i’m strongly considering is that our political stances need to recognize that people really just want to live, both now and in the future. They want to have the economical perspective that they can buy nice stuff, and that the world is somehow gonna develop into a better tomorrow. A political party is gonna win exactly if it can provide these two to the people. That’s what we need.
I really agree that communication is where the American “left” is way behind. Both in terms of individual campaigns and as a whole.
The American “right” now has endless well-funded platforms to push messages and narratives. Podcasts, streamers, YouTube channels, news networks, social media accounts, etc. They also embrace AI to increase exponentially the amount of content they can shovel out. And they understand you need to use apolitical or quasi political interests as an entry point.
There are examples on the left of all of these, but not at the same scale and with the same financial backing.
her messaging was ‘let’s just keep doing what we are doing’. so if you liked Biden, yeah it was ‘good’. But if you didn’t like Biden or establishment Dem politics it was a nothingburger.
which was stupid and not want american voters wanted. they wanted change. Trump offered it to them.
THEN STOP FUCKING RUNNING CONSERVATIVE DEMOCRATS WITHOUT MEANINGFUL PRIMARIES
Not a meaningful reason to let a facist win.
Wow then good thing I voted for Kamala huh?
You’re making absolutely no sense to your point troll
A FALSE CHOICE FALLACY IS A FUCKING FALLACY
A quick reminder that most everyone wasn’t voting for the “cOnSeRvAtiVe dEmOcRaT”. We were voting against a fascist wannabe king.
That you people can’t understand that there is a difference is clearly illustrated in the article.
If you’re candidates only argument is, “I’m not the other guy” you’re going to LOSE
Don’t know why ppl are surprised we elected a wannabe dictator. The country was founded on genocide and slave labor
- It’s *your, and-
- LMAO.
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We can either burn showly. Or burn quick and get the fire over with.
So, you admins it was purposeful??
Put another Clinton up there and see what happens.
Y’all thought you knew what you was doing when you sniped Bernie.
We built you a revolution and you burnt it down.
Clinton Democrats are the real bootlickers. Who wants to be a part of that?
Absolutely hilarious!
You didn’t build shit bud. But there is no fucking way you’ll believe anything I have to say. Gonna block you now. I don’t have the patience to deal with people like you.
Guess I came off a bit strong. Although when I think about 2016, my blood boils. And then they did it again in 2024.
And the funny thing is, I relish the moment we get a woman president. Then these 2 corporate hacks phonied their way to the front of the line and set women back at least 2 decades.
UPDATE:
This really had me thinking and I see that kind of attitude of sticking your head in the sand is just going to give us Trump part 3.
This person won’t read this but anyone else reading this need to understand that if you run fascist light, then you will get the fascist and your candidate will go home crying again.
You want people to vote, then give them what they fucking want.
We’ve known since the day after election day something like 33 million fewer people voted, though.
These comments clearly show that people are completely fine to repeat the same mistakes that opened the door for a fascist to take up the throne.
Just report them as Russian bots cuz that’s what they are. They got away with this on Reddit. Let’s not let this stand on lemmy.
Naaah. They’re coddled here. Political correctness has gotten mods/admins so scared of making a mistake that they even protect a person using the well-known “attack helicopter” bullshit to antagonize the trans community.
I’ve been banned for calling this person out here.
Was also banned from a bunch of communities I don’t even post in for “bad jacketing” because I called out a well known troll that has tons of sock puppets.
Mods/admins are too chickenshit to make any big splashes here. Even when given proof.
It’s better than before but not everyone gets it yet. When you see a comment like that the solution is to acknowledge or understand their concerns and then explain why it’s still important to vote. The most common misunderstanding I see is that some people claim that both sides are the same because of one particular issue that is only a small part of what a candidate’s policies are. We can do a let’s look approach by asking them if they are the same on other issues and seeing if they are truly the same on the issue they are concerned about.
Or might be better to just educate people who are willing to learn instead of arguing with those who won’t.
Also with that said on more reflection I do realize that some of these issues are past grievances that people bring up and hopefully next time they will vote. For example I do think not having a primary did cause some people to stay home. We must not repeat that same mistake, the next primary must be done fairly.
I’d normally agree, but I’d say we’re way past that now.
What happens is we try and reason with these people when they clearly show no desire to see anything reasonably. They then scream at everyone and call them some some shit like “bLuEMaGa” and then have the nerve to whine when people don’t treat them with the respect they demand.
They don’t want to respect others, they just want to be respected. They don’t want to help others, they want others to help them. Their way or the highway. And it’s been this way from the beginning.
It’s entitlement.
I was here last election. I was among those trying to explain that no one was asking anyone to stand in an obedient line and ritualistically fall on their swords if the dems so much as asked-
We were simply asking for people to consider voting against fascism.
We were insulted, berated, disrespected and yelled at as if it was our fault Trump was even a candidate. Then they tried to prop up unknown and untested candidates that promised shit that was virtually impossible to achieve, like…. Abolishing prisons.
Not a single one of their spoiler candidates had a feasible plan to enact ANY of the policy they promised. And this isn’t from me, this is from pretty much anyone with a brain and authority on the subject.
So yeah… I’m done trying to reason with the unreasonable. They’re not going to budge on their rhetoric and nothing will change their minds. And I’m not the ass-kissing type.
The left is irreparably and permanently divided and these kids wouldn’t have it any other way.
Now, let’s see how quickly they all rush to prove my point.
they also report you and/or ban you if they are a mod. because if you don’t agree/respect their massive whiny entitlement you are literally ‘the enemy’ and must be silenced.
Yep. Definitely run into that before. And a few (who I won’t name) that actually try and bait you into saying shit that they can report you for.
If you want me to vote, then you need to stop nominating corporate puppets.
I’ve showed up at every primary, for example.
I guarantee you that for whatever district or race if you compare the Democrat and the Republican running in that race you’ll find that the Democrat is less corporate and cares more about the people than the Republican in that race does. Voting for the Democrat even the one who wasn’t your first choice in the primary brings you closer to where you want to be and helps shift the Overton window. Primaries typically happen every election cycle and eventually by electing enough Democrats flipping every seat you can will either result in the Democrat you believe is too corporate to shift their beliefs or will result in their ouster with someone who is less corporate.
if you compare the Democrat and the Republican running in that race you’ll find
This is the fucking problem, right here.
People dont make “”““rational””“” choices when they’re driven toward frustration and desparation, and democrats marketing themselves as ‘not republicans’ in lieu of offering any significant change is a massive source of that desparation.
The primaries are basically over by the time they reach my state.
I vote in primaries every year, it’s not just the Presidential election that has a primary.
I wouldn’t have thought that voting against fascism would have been something arms needed to be twisted over. But what do I know?
Everyone loves a good grassroots movement to outrage one another over!
Yes, please no shit candidates…ni one over 60 please. There is literally no reason to pick anyone in their 70’s. Sure the rules allow this, but please don’t. Also no repeats, no Clintons, bushes, trumps, Obamas, etc. There are plenty of other people with other last names. Bernie and AOC? Yeah I can get behind that. AOC would make a great president and Bernie can probably survive a presidency.
No one over 60… Bernie…
Bernie is 34 in his heart. He’ll be eligible when the time comes.
Okay, so AOC and Stephen Colbert?
Someone got it!
Early voters saved the Canadian election if only because they got in before FacistBook went completely off the rails with fake news. So get in early.
Maybe have a fucking primary and people won’t stay home.
Or, you know, vote, because fucking LUCIFER is on the ballot.
I can appreciate not wanting Lucifer to win but the average person doesn’t get motivated by lesser of the two evils, its not enough. The other guy has to make them want to get off their ass. Obama made people want to get out and vote. Trump did too, as much as I don’t like to admit it.
the average person doesn’t get motivated by lesser of the two evils
A huge number of choices in life are just that. So suck it up, Buttercup.
Your attitude isn’t very inspirational.
A Trump presidency isn’t either.
Eh, I’ll just sleep through it.
Life isn’t inspirational either.
In that case, I’ll find something else that’s inspirational. A relaxing walk by the lake, perhaps?
This person isn’t saying it’s not enough for them personally, they’re saying it’s clearly, obviously, per all evidence, not enough for MANY people - objectively enough to turn an election. So if you want better leaders you must motivate voters by giving them something to vote for. Lesser of two fascists pisses me off but I’ll hold my nose and vote. However, I also recognize this is a piss poor strategy since so many will not.
Why can’t you tell the people nominating corporate puppets to suck it up and fall in line?
Why does it always have to be the working class that suffers so rich people can be richer?
Why can’t you people be smarter?
If the voting public could be convinced of that Republicans would cease to be a viable party due to overwhelming voter turnout. But, well, Gestures to the last potus election
Problem is they know millions of votes are happening, and so how much does their vote really matter? Taking the time out of their life to stand in a long line to cast a single vote among millions… Doesn’t seem like it matters and other people will take care of it for them.
When they have something to bite for, they want to be a part of something. If it’s just about making sure the worst stays out, it’s a poorly motivated chore.
That is literally what made me vote. But they all suck for sure, other than a few.
And that just means we Americans get what we deserve.
It’s a civic duty. The only people to blame are ourselves.
I don’t think that puts enough blame on the assholes with money who are taking advantage of the system and intentionally tipping the scales
And one way they tip the scales is by pusing the message that, if the Democratic Partty candidate is less than perfect, don’t vote. And meanwhile, corrupt, bloodthirsty criminals on the R side get a free pass. And the purists are too stupid to see that.
And I say this in full awareness of the DNC’s role in gutting the effectiveness of the Democratic Party as an agent of change.
Vote the lesser evil if that’s all there is. But also organize and drive corporate shills out of the party leadership.
if the Democratic Partty candidate is less than perfect, don’t vote.
Uhh… no. This couldn’t be farther from the truth and you know it.
We don’t need ‘perfection’ we just need ‘good.’
I’m sorry you’re not smart enough to realize this, but the lesser evil isn’t good.
I’m glad trump won because otherwise people like you wouldn’t be upset. If you don’t learn from this election, then you’ll get the same results in the next one.
I gotta imagine a fair amount of opposition to stuff like early voting or vote by mail is rooted in the idea that the easier we make it the more likely folks will vote for the lesser evil.
You’re part of the problem.
And your rigid and unrealistic “principles” put Trump in office
Not really. It was the people selling out the working class.
Trump and Republicans sell out the working class way more than even the most boring DINO centrist/moderate Democrats.
Vote who is closest to your views, you’ll get closer to where you want to be.
And WHY DID PEOPLE STAY HOME?
I assure you that it is the party’s job to inspire people to vote and not the people’s job to inspire the party.
And it’s the people’s responsibility to vote.
Both failed. I definitely blame the losers who didn’t show up as much as anyone else, though.
Because the Democrat Party pretty loudly told people who supported an end to Palestinian Apartheid that they did not want their support let alone their input. That they thought it was more important to court Liz Cheney and other Republicans and lock the Uncommitted delegates out of the convention despite exceeding their goals by 10 times to show that not listening on this issue had enough votes on the line to close the 2016 Clinton-Trump gap, let alone the 2020 Biden-Trump gap that it got over halfway to. The party said they wanted more support from lean Republican voters than the voters asking for a Democrat candidate who would speak out against genocide, and, even with record turnout in one of the main states for the issue, the there were more voters for Trump then either of his previous runs. But, yeah, blame the voters, they only turned out at the second highest rate since 1908 (with only the 2020 election being higher) and even Democrats had better turnout among the voter-eligible population that any of the second-place candidates since the 60s (and better turnout than more than half of presidents since then as well). If you’re putting the onus on the relatively small proportion of non-voters instead of either the moderate showing of the Democrats, or, you know, the people that actually came out to vote for Trump, then you’re not really focused on the issue.
I’m saying that everyone who didn’t vote Harris is at fault. And very, very few people had a good reason not to.
Voting should be mandatory. I read about how other countries handle their elections and I notice that people in Australia and Brazil have far great satisfaction with their system. Part of it is they have laws that make voting easy and secure. Since voting is mandatory they receiving time off to vote.
Another advantage of making voting compulsory is it helps reduce conspiracy theories about people voting twice. Everyone knows that everyone gets one vote and they must use it.
Also jury duty which is also compulsory is much more of a burden than voting so if they can force you to do jury duty we can have everyone vote.
UBI paid out after you turn in your ballot.
You blame the poorest working class people and not the party that spent a billion on their campaign and still couldn’t convince anyone they were worth voting for?
I blame both.
But yes, I blame the losers who couldn’t be bothered to take the least amount of responsibility too.
I blame protest voters even more.
Jesus. Blame the fucking genocidaires and the billionaire kid fuckers instead
I blame them the most
Well keep in mind those “losers” might have a job that conflicts with their polling hours and have restrictive absentee ballots. It’s much easier for, say, retirees to vote than working poor.
I always show up to vote third party.
It is literally the people’s job to keep an insane lunatic from running the country. Because we didn’t the loss of USAID is going to net 5 figure deaths including many kids. Tell the thousands of kids you whacked sorry.
The country has been run by insane lunatics who kill hundreds of thousands for decades. Read your history. Both parties are part of the death cult that is necrocapitalism and they oversee the death machine. Biden had toddlers in solitary confinement at the border. Obama killed so many people in drone strikes. Reagan oversaw arms smuggling and death squad deployments. Bush obviously did Iraq. Obama and Hilary did Libya. Biden oversaw Gaza going off.
Voters didn’t end USAID. Voters stayed home partly because they realized that no matter who they voted for the government was going to kill hundreds of thousands of people in their name anyway. That kind of government doesn’t deserve a popular mandate.
Heaven forbid you tell people they have a civic duty no matter who is on the ballot.
Eh, really there should be a sort of virtuous cycle happening in that regard. But for sure it is the fault of the party here for choosing big money over its constituents
The party IS big money. The government IS big money. They didn’t chose. It’s structural. They literally cannot choose.
A party that is of the masses, by the masses, and for the masses is called a communist party.
Because Republicans intentionally tanked the vote by mail process that helped Biden win in 2020.
Man, such an interesting thing to do under a Democratic president who knew exactly what was going on and who was in office when the SCOTUS ruled that anything the president did while in office was legal. If only someone could have stopped those damn Republicans!
The President has zero control over local voting regulations.
Look at the POTUS today having “zero control” over local things and still actual effects on those local things, from education to AI regulations. Man, sure would love a POTUS that understood the kind of power they have even if it’s not official and use it to slow down the march to fascism.
But I guess voters should get out and vote for Democrats who openly state that they are totally powerless to stop fascism because of the rules.
Trump has TRIED to restrict voting, but like I say, the President doesn’t have that power.
He says he’s trying again, LOL.
https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/new-trump-anti-voting-order-coming-white-house-confirms/
Yes, exactly. Trump is trying. The Democrats instead say “oh no!! The Republicans are doing stuff! Voters, only you can save us!”
Meanwhile the Ds collaborate with the Rs to temporarily suspend the filibuster so they can pass a spending bill. Or they concede all leverage on empty promises that the Rs have been breaking for 30 years. Or they send their hopes and prayers and raise a fist on the steps of Congress but do abso-fucking-lutely nothing that materially changes the trajectory of the fascist wave.
But yes, blame the voters who can’t even afford health insurance in 2026 or who have been food insecure for years or who can’t buy homes or who have to pay 50% of their income in rent.
It’s the VOTERS who are to blame, of course.
By setting mailboxes on fire?
That was one tactic, I’m talking about the legal restrictions.
https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/seeking-info/ballot-box-fires
vs:
Partially because of relentless messaging on social media claiming that it was the only moral thing to do.
So someone outperformed the party on messaging? You mean the party spent its money incorrectly? You mean spending almost a billion dollars failed because of some “relentless messaging”?
Sounds like the party failed, again.
Jesus fucking Christ, I swear.
I know, right? If only we got mad at the people voting for the lesser-evil instead of getting mad at those who don’t fall in line.
But they clearly would rather have Trump than a progressive in office so that’s what we get.
I don’t think democrats know what the meaning of insanity is.
Way to Win pointed to three main problems that cost Democrats last year: Voters were upset not just about rising prices but about longer-term economic trends, and wanted change; Republicans and the far right have a built-in media advantage, thanks to years of investments, which made it harder for Democrats to break through; and movements on the left around issues like Gaza, racial and economic justice, and immigration weren’t aligned with the party.
Yea… Close…Not quite though. Basically, YOU HAVE TON FUCKING ACT YOU DIP SHITS! Do real things people can fucking believe in.
As it stand I still want both sides out of all the offices. When you actually represent me and the voters… Not some corporate lobby group, PAC, or persons with more money than sense but “We The People”, then I might vote for you.
Mamdani is a good start… If he follows through.
If the next Dem presidential candidate would refrain from getting buddy buddy with Republicans it would be a lot easier to put in the effort to overcome voter suppression.
This isn’t “voter suppression” in this case. They suppressed themselves.
Keep wasting your energy. Corporate dems love people like you.
Well, I think there’s definitely good reason to reach out to voters of all stripes. Including Republicans. But voters are different than politicians. By reaching out and inviting the politicians who enable the damage in amongst them. They just make themselves complicit.
Democrats would do much better if they reached out to their own voters at all. Not just dismiss them and pal around with other out of touch politicians.
Kamala’s not Good Enough
So you get Trump
"With every mistake We must surely Be learning "
-George HarrisonHave the day you voted for.
