I’ve often assumed Harris didn’t want to insult her boss by going against him, because I got the impression she was planning to give Netanyahu what for once she took over - especially with him escalating things further and further. Did anyone else get that vibe, or was it just wishful thinking on my part?
Despite the best economy in the world AND Netanyahu backing Trump.
The stupidity is off the charts.
The problem is the term.
Politicians and pundits talk about the economy referring to the stock market.
Citizens talk about the economy referring to the supermarket.
The US government can only directly affect the former, and most of our nation just can’t comprehend that.
Nixon attempted to freeze grocery prices for 90 days with an Executive Order. It resulted in emptying grocery stores and record inflation when the order expired. It was called the “Nixon Shock.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_shock
If you want the government to control the price of food, then you should probably move to a communist nation.
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/07/business/worldbusiness/07iht-controls.4.11735373.html
If you want the government to control the price of food, then you should probably move to a communist nation.
Don’t threaten me with a good time. /s
JK. The US being the US they’d immediately turn into north Korea before adopting real communist policies.
Uh, North Korea is very much not a communist country. It’s a totalitarian state whose name says they’re a “democratic republic”, and whose leadership claim is a flavor of communism, but it is absolutely nothing of the sort.
Edit: yeah whoops, I munged the semantics of your comment
That was my point. Most countries that try to become communist start off as soviet and then collapse into totalitarian dystopias because they consolidate too much power into the state and don’t have enough safeguards to prevent overreach. Russia did the same after the revolution. Enacting democratic votes and then ignoring them because communism wasn’t popular for the masses. It’s a fundamental problem.
Yes, but to be charitable to the people out there, they are specifically targeted by mega corporations to hole them up into a conservative-affirming digital content feed.
They are victims just as much as they are stupid.
By that logic nazi soldiers in WWII would be victims.
I don’t think the result of ignorance and stupidity are permissible.
They weren’t necessarily victims, but you can’t just write them off as evil monsters.
We need to understandwhy people could go along with it so that we can prevent it from happening again.
It’s like saying global warming is because we pissed off Almighty Zeus, and not doing anything else to address climate change.
It’s good you’re upset about it and admit it’s a problem, but we need to actually take steps to stop it.
For decades what non voters have said for the reason they don’t vote is “both parties are the same”. They’re obviously not, however both parties moving to the right isn’t differentiating them enough for enough voters.
The solution is Dems moving left so the difference is more obvious.
Why not both?
I completely agree that we should better understand the communication and behaviors that led to this divide, but entertaining another’s ideals in no way requires acceptance of them.
The solution is Dems moving left so the difference is more obvious.
The solution isn’t for the “the Dems” to do anything. Just as AOC and Bernie constantly say, the solution is to build an actual movement of the people.
Good luck in this country though, even supposed leftists and supposed anarchists waste all day everyday chirping that the dnc did this wrong or that wrong when the reality is that if we as a country were actually doing the work the dnc and maybe even the Democratic party would be irrelevant.
Electoralism (especially in a first past the post system) is going to get you exactly as far as we are right now.
It’s on an entirely different level today. Propaganda has always been useful for swaying public opinion, but we live in a world where an entire generation of the world’s most brilliant minds have been set to the task of optimizing ad revenue. And they certainly succeeded.
Unfortunately it turns out that “increasing engagement” virtually requires pigeonholing people into an ever-increasingly-radical echo chamber.
Psychology was a burgeoning field during the Nazis’ time. Now psychology is much more mature as a field and applied psychology is used in software to turn everything around us into a casino for the benefit of those at the top.
Yeah bruh, your head is completely fucked if you think that tariffs, labor shortages, and selling $8 trillion in bonds is going to help you out at the fucking grocery store. Idiots gonna learn, I tell you what. Pardon my use of the general “you”, I don’t mean you in particular.
I totally agree with you. People are just plain stupid, and right wing politicians are really good at grifting idiots.
Harris and Biden both knew they’d take a hit for taking AIPAC money and they decided they were ok with that risk. That seems pretty stupid to me considering how close elections have been and how 88% of Americans are against the gaza war crimes.
Yeah bruh, your head is completely fucked if you think that tariffs, labor shortages, and selling $8 trillion in bonds is going to help you out at the fucking grocery store.
Many people don’t believe that Trump will actually do the things he said he’d do, because it wasn’t that bad his last term and they see the reactions to his first election as hysterical in retrospect. Those that believe he will do the things he said – a minority in his coalition I think – are wingnuts that are in favor of those things.
It’s all stupid, and leaves out that the “deep state”, institutions, and moderating voices in his administration – which Trump is looking to eliminate in his second term – constrained him and kept the country largely business as usual despite his shenanigans. The adults in the room had the effect of saving us from a lot of Trump’s worst impulses, and for people who do not pay attention to politics this made the Trump-Pence administration retroactively palatable.
If this is the best economy in the world I don’t blame people for wanting to blow it up.
We’re still in recovery from covid, as is everyone else. As much as everyone likes to pretend it never happened, or it is ancient history, it’s effects are still being seen.
Which explains why every party that held power during COVID has lost elections since then.
Trump was in power at the start of the Pandemic and is widely held to have made things worse at the time. Whatever you think of Biden’s handling of Covid related issues since then, anyone that thinks that Trump was better or will be better is a fucking moron.
And since it’s a global phenomenon then people everywhere must be fucking morons.
Glad we can agree on that.
Yes a great deal of people are morons. Not most, but a fair deal more than 25 percent. The swing to the right is a global phenomenon because the pandemic and its recovery is a global phenomenon. The fact that the entire world struggles after Covid means you should understand that there is NO WAY to have made it all good immediately, else SOMEONE would have done it. But you can compare how well administrations handled it in part by how quickly they have and are recovering in comparison to other countries The US had recovered very well under Biden, which is why we are doing among the best economically among all nations now. But you and other void skulls are under the impression that if it wasn’t perfect or we aren’t completely back to normal after less than 4 years, the administration failed and should be kicked out even when we have done better than nearly everyone. You lot want to have the reins given back to the guy who already demonstrated he could not do the job competently even when he had a decent staff of intelligent and experienced people behind him. Now we are going to let him fuck it all up with a new band of neo nazi sycophants because your eggs and gas WERE expensive, are now LESS expensive, but aren’t YET less expensive enough fast enough. Remind me to collect your thoughts on the economy (and health, polution, international trade and relations, war, etc.) in 4 years.
You lot
Don’t lump me in with them. I voted for Kamala even though I hate this economy and knew she was going to be more of the same.
Don’t think that me pointing out that the economy sucks for most people and that’s why people didn’t bother to vote means I agree with them.
Right? Like, four years ago we had to shutdown big chunks of the world, inject trillions of Dollars of money into circulation to keep things vaguely moving, millions of deaths, logistical and manufacturing delays galore, and people are pissed that we’re not better off than we were before. So pissed that they want to take control from the people who have been turning it around and give it back to the people who fucked it up in the first place.
“But gas prices were lower in 2020” Yeah, because most people where under lock down, laid off, or sick, you dumb fucks.
I’m an essential employee, and a lot of my hobbies are solo outdoor activities. so things were pretty much business as usual for me. But I remember the first few weeks of lockdown, I already commute at kind of a weird time and in a not too congested area, so I never dealt with much traffic to begin with, but there was basically no one on the roads then, and I don’t think people realize how big the difference was because everyone was just stuck at home.
My car actually averaged a whole mile per gallon better than usual just from the lack of my already light traffic.
Same. I was installing equipment at shut down schools 30+ minutes away for months in 2020. Roads nearly empty, schools completely empty, restaurants either boarded up, or only doing delivery and takeout, sometimes out of makeshift windows where the front door used to be, stores deserted (except for Home Depot because everyone was doing DIY projects during shutdown so they had dozens of people waiting outside like they were at a night club except everyone was standing 6 feet apart). People didn’t go out.
The cognitive dissonance required for the economy being both the "best " and yet also people can’t afford bread is a privilege that people living pay check to paycheck simply can’t afford. Child poverty hit its all time low under Biden. Then it doubled under Biden . More American’s are living paycheck to paycheck than ever before: now a majority. Look at the memes and conversation happening in the memes here on lemmy. The struggle to afford basic goods and services is a constant theme.
When you gaslight people, telling them to ignore their lived experience and to “trust” an analysis of economy that clearly only serves billionaires: What do you expect that does to their trust in your rhetoric?
Just so everyone knows. Child poverty went down because Dems had enough power to expand the child tax credit as part of Bidens American rescue plan. The expanded credit then expired and Republicans have blocked passage of the renewed expansion. This is another thing where Republicans will do anything to harm Democrats including voting against extremely popular programs. I agree that it sucks the poverty went back up, but Dems reduced it and Republicans increased it.
The deciding vote on ending that tax credit was Joe Manchin.
He not only is literally not a Democrat anymore he was only one in name only when he claimed to be. (See: Sinema). Assholes.
Yes. It’s a bit like interviewing for your boss’s job while your boss still signs your checks. Your boss can still fire you or make your life miserable if you openly trash the job (s)he’s doing.
People don’t seem to understand that when you sign on to be someone’s VP you sign on to support everything they do in public, even if you offer different advice in private. She’s simply not in a position to call the shots, even if she thinks her boss is stupid. I have total confidence that in-office Harris would have made different decisions than on-campaign Harris.
Alaska.
Edit: Not to mention the fact that public statements by the VP that directly contradict the President could present very real national security risks and seriously undermine foreign policy and diplomacy.
Your boss can still fire you or make your life miserable if you openly trash the job (s)he’s doing.
Yeah, but her boss is Biden…
The worst that would happen is some journalist reports he mumbled something under his breathe.
If he wouldn’t do more about Bibi and Republicans, why would he do more if he didn’t like what Kamala said?
The State Department could step in with Biden and order her to stop as a member of the administration and one of the President’s official foreign policy representatives.
I seriously wonder where y’all come up with the notion that the Vice President can simply tell the President of the United States to go fuck himself. Obviously none of you served in the military.
Edit: More knee-jerk insta-downvotes from givesomefucks. I’m constantly reminded not to even try.
The State Department
Blinken?!
Next you’ll say Garland is going to finally do something lol
I seriously wonder where y’all come up with the notion that the Vice President can simply tell the President of the United States to go fuck himself.
She can disagree with him on policy.
It’s not normal but Biden literally did it with Obama about Israel’s abuse of the Palestinian people.
How would this be any different?
You’re getting downvoted because your understanding of the government is just made up. The vice president is an elected position, not an employee of Biden and not under some legal obligation to not contradict him. Until the Twelfth Amendment the vice president was just the person who got the second-most votes, often an actual opponent of the president.
Horseshit. The VP is chosen by the Presidential candidate to serve on his ticket, and does not run independently and so is not directly elected. They are indirectly elected. They can’t be fired, but they also can’t just go their own way, consequences be damned, because they are an official “representative of the President” of the United States.
JFC, don’t posture like this when you’re just guessing about how things work:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelfth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President…
It’s two separate votes. Presidents and vice-presidents running as a combined ticket is custom, but the vote in the electoral college is separate votes and doesn’t need to conform to the wishes of the president, and both the president and vice president are elected positions.
And to respond to your edit, you’ll note how that says “outside of those enumerated in the Constitution”. The VP just does senate stuff and succeeds the president if needed, but the president can give them other tasks to perform, just like they can give any random person in their administration. Those are at the discretion of the president, not the vice president’s position.
They’re just making excuses because they were happy with how Harris didn’t change on Gaza.
Once she was selected as the nominee she could have said anything she wanted. She’s only VP for a few more months.
Not as a representative of the US government receiving classified information, no. That’s absolutely not how this works.
she receives classified info because she’s the backup in case the president dies, not because Biden allows it or controls it. You are simply making stuff up and dont understand the role of VP at all.
Are you suggesting that its illegal for the VP to publicly disagree with the President?
In a way that could jeopardize ongoing negotiations? Very well might be. Or at a minimum could actively undermine arguments being made by the State Department so that they lose their leverage.
Negotiations. Ha.
Biden wasn’t negotiating shit.
By that logic any presidential candidate would be banned from disagreeing with the president on active foreign policy issues which is absolutely not true. There’s no legal reason why the VP can’t disagree with the president.
By that logic any presidential candidat
Any Presidential candidate in the current administration. Why do y’all keep skipping over that part?
Because your explanation didn’t demonstrate why that matters. Any candidate’s position can jeopardize ongoing negotiations if its contrary to the current admin.
The VP is very much at liberty to sabotage the current admin. There’s illegal ways to do it sure. Like if Harris said “Bibi openly admitted on a confidential line that he’s doing genocide.” That might be illegal because it was confidential. But she could say “I think Bibi is doing genocide. Biden doesn’t, but I think he’s wrong”. That wouldn’t violate any laws, even if it did effect negotiations. Remember the VP is an elected position, not a cabinet member. The president can’t fire them.
If you’re just speculating then its baseless speculation. You might be right, but you’ll have to point to an actual law to prove your point.
It’s total bullshit
When Obama drew a line in the sand on Israel/Palestine, Biden publicly and repeatedly told any journalist who would listen that the only way to deal with Israel is give them everything they want.
If Kamala can’t do it now, Biden couldn’t have done it then.
Instead he got rewarded with the party backing another presidential run despite him always performing terribly.
It sure as shit looks like it helped his career when he disagreed with the president as a VP
But “moderates” will always bend over backwards to defend pulling the party right when anyone left of Richard Nixon tries to move the Overton window suddenly it’s the end of the world.
There’s no logical consistency to it, just saying what makes them sound right in the moment.
She literally can. There’s absolutely nothing preventing any member of the government from lying for any reason, no matter what, unless they’re on the stand. Campaigning is not a court room.
No, you’re right, She absolutely was, and we dreaded what was coming for Israel with a Harris/Watlz victory and yet 80% of All American Jewish voters, voted for Harris/Waltz. 80%, Jews, overwhelmingly Zionist, were the strongest supporters by percentage of Harris/Waltz out of all white and ethnic groups in the United States besides African American Women.
Do you think roaming bands of Leftists, marching on main streets in ever major city in the US, and taking over university commons from coast to coast, in defense of Islamic Jihadi terrorists seeing to kill half the Jewish population in the world in Israel, while screaming “From The River To The Sea” scared the bejeesus out of just Middle America, or all of it?
But yeah, you’re probably right, you should try to run a Leftist AntiIsrael ProJihadi Progressive in the next election. That’s gonna work out great. You’re gonna get so many votes from Dearborn Michigan, it’s going to completely cancel out the other 95% of the country that votes against you. Brilliant.
Them she should have said that
Have people been keeping up on the news? Like privately Biden has been feuding with Netanyahu for months. It’s not like Biden is on board with what Netanyahu is doing. He’s been trying to change the course, but publicly attacking Netanyahu would have drawn a ton of fire from the right, which he was trying to avoid during the election season. It shocks me that people really think Biden is cheering this on.
Biden continues to approve arms sales to Israel, in violation of both domestic & international law. And Harris openly declared her intent to commit the same crimes.
I don’t really give a shit if he privately wagged his finger at Netanyahu.
People will believe what is convenient for them to believe.
Election season is over, why is he not going public?
Who is the fucking superpower here? The US could flex it’s muscles and Israel would have to obey. Biden actively chooses not to.
Yeah because last time that went oh so well
We don’t even have to think the dems are morally better overall and above supporting genocide. They just don’t want a full on war with Iran and increased tensions with Saudi Arabia and for this reason would harden on Israel before letting them annex the west bank which will inevitability lead to regional war. Thing would not be going this way with Kamala as president. Anyone who did vote for her out of protest is very privileged not to live in the West Bank. It’s time to call our representatives to push back on Trump expansionism in Israel. But I don’t have much hope at all.
It shocks me that people really think Biden is cheering this on.
Probably because Biden’s support of Israel is completely unconditional and not contingent in any way on their conduct. Yeah he may disapprove of their conduct, but this won’t affect material American support at all - that would be antisimetic or whatever. Because of this Biden’s tacit disapproval doesn’t matter. It can be ignored which is what Netanyahu has been doing. Stop sending arms and Israel’s government’s dreams of conquest will collapse within a week, probably along with this government. But that’s unspeakable, apparently, and the Israeli lobby in the US needs to keep it that way.
Now a government is about to take power that won’t offer any disapproval and could probably be talked into direct military action in the region. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see American aircraft bombing Gaza and the West Bank within 6 months. Embroiling the US even deeper into this is in Netanyahu’s interest and the trump government won’t mind going along .
He’s been trying to change the course, but publicly attacking Netanyahu would have drawn a ton of fire from the right,
Thank goodness they avoided pissing off the right, else Trump might have won.
So let me get this straight: I’m supposed to vote for someone who thinks it is too politically inconvenient to be publically against an ongoing genocide? Who is sending arms and aid to a nation committing genocide??
There were snipers on the roof of my college because of the pro Palestinian protesters. Pro Palestinian protesters get lumped in with antisemites due to just having human empathy. The voters needed something more than what we saw in the news: furrowed brows, hand wringing, and money sent for bombs. Palestinians die wretched deaths even if you feel real bad about it.
I can imagine the energy that we all could have felt if Harris/Biden had actually did the right thing.
I voted for Harris by the way. Not because I expected she’d end the genocide, but because Trump isn’t a statesman and can’t be trusted if we get dragged into war.
Wishful thinking. Presidencies are always doing less than promised, never more.
Sadly i had the same wishful thinking. Not that it matters mind you. Because she said she sided with Isreal, and wether she meant it or not at this point is moot.
So Trump was the obvious choice. Smart.
Biden/Harris supporting war crimes that 88% of the dems were against was “smart” too, eh. Lots of “smart” going on in our party lately. Or whats left of a party. Its been burned to the ground, and it needs to be rebuilt to repreent the will of the constituents not monied interests.
Lucky you got Trump instead then. He’ll sort it out I’m sure.
We really need AOC to step up and run in 2028, then pivot to the Senate for the rest of her political career.
There’s nothing left for republicans to say about her that they haven’t said about Hillary, Biden, or Kamala.
At least this way we actually energize our base and if we win we actually make progress. Keep up the momentum and we might finally be done with this shit show.
DNC in 2028: We’re finally ready to learn our lesson from 2016+2024 and listen to our base. We hear you loud and clear: “No more female candidates.” We will be reallocating AOC’s delegates to Chuck Schumer.
That was effectively the whisper campaign against Warren in 2020. Sure, she’s popular, sure, she’s pulling in plenty of money from small-dollar donors, and sure, she’s literally leading in the primary (for a very short period), but every single newspaper and pundit suddenly wanted to JAQ off about whether a woman could win. The answers started off “of course”, but if you ask people that question enough times, they’ll start to think it’s something they should be asking themselves.
No, I also felt like Harris felt she wasn’t allowed to veer too far from Biden since she was his VP, but had plans to change course more once she took over.
I had the same suspicion, but I feel that’s just as unreasonable as Trump voters saying, “I didn’t think he would actually XYZ.”
Why did they think Trump is going to help Palestine? He’ll give Israel a black cheque to end Palestine completely.
They don’t think that at all. It’s Trump by default and Harris has to convince to switch. It’s an unfair emotional battle. All of these opinions were “Harris not good enough, therefore Trump”, and Trump never had to clear the ‘good enough’ bar.
Harris not good enough, therefore Trump
For many people it was never trump, but it was a choice between Harris or leaving the presidential vote section blank, or voting third party. Just because you (@Randelung) equate any lack of vote for Harris as a vote for trump doesnt mean the rest of us think like that.
That’s kind of how it ended up working out though, innit? Harris actually lost the popular vote.
Fair enough. I didn’t consider not voting (or third party for that matter) as an option, but, as you say, that’s my subconscious bias.
“We can’t push policies that cause deflation! That will cause people to put off buying things and cause a economic recession, which will cause more deflation leading to a neverending ending spiral! Lets just hold inflation to 2% per year and hope people’s jobs eventually given them raises.”
We have been putting off buying things for years! Houses, cars, cloths, food - if the price goes down, no one will go ‘oh, I’m going to wait a bit longer and see if it goes down more’. No, we will buy like crazy! Every administration that ruled over this inflation spike - be them left wing or right wing - has seen their electoral chances tumble. But god forbid we see even a hint of deflation.
Deflation just doesn’t happen in a bubble though.
From my understanding the primary lever that can be pulled for this is the Fed interest rate. With a high interest rates you’re trying to decrease the amount of money institutions spend and rather increase the amount that they invest/save. As it becomes easier to make money by buying bonds than by reinvesting into your business. This in effect removes money from the economy.
The problem here is this means businesses also spend less on salaries, thus triggering layoffs. This then also has a downward pressure on inflation as the working class ends of being layed off as unemployment rises. This puts more and more pressure on businesses to cut costs as more and more people have less disposable income to spend.
This is the downward spiral that’s being referred to here.
In effect you can’t create defationary policies without causing high unemployment, at least in a capitalist society.
Take a look at the history of the Great Depression and the New Deal that helped the U.S. get out of it. Effectively the government had to create jobs to stimulate the economy as businesses couldn’t or wouldn’t shoulder that cost but the government could. As disposable income rose, so did spending and in turn inflation turned positive again as unemployment fell.
The main problem is that people don’t understand that the Vice President does not set monetary policy. Neither does the President. The Federal Reserve is supposed to be completely immune to political pressure. Fortunately, King Donald will do his best to put an end to that.
I happen to believe that the current policy was correct, and averted even worse problems - but that does not happen in a matter of months. If Trump somehow fails to fudge up the trajectory we are on, he will get to take credit for policies enacted during Biden’s presidency (again, not by Biden, but nobody will care).
I don’t think people answering a question on AOC’s Instagram account is a fair sampling of her constituents. Even though there are clearly idiots among her followers based on example responses, they’re still going to be skewed toward voters who are more interested in politics on average.
This doesn’t really tell us much.
I got the same vibe but it seems the ambiguity was a large enough liability.
Does Gaza mean they liked it so much they wanted to see it on steroids?
I’m skeptical she would have done anything differently than Biden in terms of Gaza. There was plenty of polling out saying that voters, especially potential Democratic voters, overwhelmingly would favor her more if she differentiated herself on Gaza. Once she got the nomination locked, there was nothing really stopping her from making some changes. Yeah, Biden would not have liked it, but what was he going to do, endorse Trump? Plus, he didn’t actually spend that much time campaigning. And as unpopular as Biden was, his endorsement really didn’t mean much.
My point is that Kamala had everything to gain and nothing to lose by changing her Gaza stance. She chose not to because she didn’t want to offend some very wealthy conservative donors. In the end, it didn’t matter. She still massively outspent Trump, just like Hillary did. What Democrats can’t realize is that fundraising dollars are less important than actual appeals to voters. Yes, fundraising is critical. But passed a certain point, ads lose their effectiveness. Once you’ve already spent a billion dollars, everyone has already made up their mind. At that point, it’s more about getting out your base. And the problem for Democrats is that the same policies that will make them very popular to wealthy donors also make them unpopular to the voters they actually need to win over to win at the national level.
Democrats should just focus on appealing to actual voters and forget the donor class entirely. They have proven that they can raise more than enough money in small-dollar donations to produce all the messaging they need.
Kamala wouldn’t have changed Biden’s positions because the only logical time to change your policies to appeal to voters is when you actually need to appeal to voters. I could see Kamala telling voters she’ll confront Israel, then turning her back on that plan after the election to appease donors, but there’s no reason she would change her policies after the point such a policy shift could actually help her. Donor dollars can come in at any time, but voters are only important during the campaign season.
What Democrats can’t realize is that fundraising dollars are less important than actual appeals to voters.
trump: “I’m going to fix everything for you and lower all you costs without any knock on consequences to you of the working class.”
DNC: “It is not nearly that simply, but I’m going to do what I can to improve your lives”
A GOP lie is cheaper than a DNC truth.
Then you run on:
“I’m going to establish national single-payer healthcare!”
“I’m going to break up the big grocery stores that are responsible for all the inflation!”
“I’m going to reign in and break up big tech!”
“My opponent wants to exterminate the Palestinians, and I will save them!”
“My opponent is a trans porn addict and is obsessed with them because of this. That’s why he’s always talking about trans people! It’s weird as fuck!”
As a politician, exaggeration and making promises you know are a stretch are fine. You are a politician, not a journalist. It’s OK to claim things that are aspirational.
This is what’s killing modern democrats. Trump is not afraid to state his ideal vision for the world and promise to fight for it, knowing full well he won’t even achieve half of it. Meanwhile, Democrats come up with these convoluted, slimy, meek programs that are dense tomes of policy papers only a few beltway consultants know or understand.
trump presented no concrete approaches except “tariffs”. Its easy to promise when there’s few to offend.
Then you run on:
“I’m going to establish national single-payer healthcare!”
And now you’ve alienated the powerful healthcare lobby
“I’m going to break up the big grocery stores that are responsible for all the inflation!”
And now you’ve alienated the powerful agribusiness
“I’m going to reign in and break up big tech!”
And now you’ve alienated the powerful tech companies
“My opponent wants to exterminate the Palestinians, and I will save them!”
And now you’ve alienated the powerful Pro-Israel groups
You could do all of this if you run as a powerful populist with a very engaged electorate. This last election showed that the electorate wasn’t engaged.
I find your fear of alienating monied groups to be troubling considering the outcome of standing with them was losing the election and the electorate longer term.
Also some of those groups like the “powerful Pro-Israel groups” are ethically indefensible, and standing with them should have been a no-go from the first milisecond based on principle.
This is surrendering before the fight has even begun. And that surrendering is why centrist democrats lose. Those powerful interests can bitch all they want. Will it cost you donors? Sure. But Kamala and Hillary both massively outraised Trump, and look at what good it did them.
What centrist muppets fail to recognize is that fundraising isn’t everything, especially on national races. Or more precisely, there is such a thing as marketing saturation. At some point, you’ve convinced everyone that can be convinced, reached everyone that can be reached. And the level of fundraising necessary to achieve that saturation is a level that can be achieved with small dollar individual donations.
Trump ran on, and won on, a promise to deport 20 million people. You think the businesses that profit from illegal immigration might put up some resistance to that? Take a look at Trump’s platform
Seal the border and stop the migrant invasion
That would doubtlessly anger the industries that depend on migrant labor.
Carry out the largest deportation operation in american history
See above.
End inflation, and make america affordable again
That would require price controls or anti-monopoly actions, which big retailers would oppose.
Make america the dominant energy producer in the world, by far!
The electric car and renewable power companies aren’t going to like that at all.
Stop outsourcing, and turn the united states into a manufacturing superpower
Those jobs were outsourced in order to make high profits; the companies doing the outsourcing will oppose this.
large tax cuts for workers, and no tax on tips!
Why give dollars to workers, when you could give them to wealthy and powerful interests? This is going to make some wealthy people mad.
I could go on. Trump ran on the message of a populist, and he won. He ran on things that would anger a large number of very wealthy people and corporations if implemented. His number one issue, illegal immigration? Aside from a the Border Patrol union, what powerful interest will actually benefit from mass deportation? Maybe the private prison companies will make some cash, but there are far more wealthy donors who benefit from illegal immigration than would benefit by mass deportation.
Trump promised all sorts of things. He promised things that his base wanted and that many corporations oppose. They’re things that I find abominable, but it’s what his base wants. And that is ultimately why he won.
And that surrendering is why centrist democrats lose.
Weren’t both Obama and Biden both Centrist democrats? If they lose how do you account for 12 years of the presidency. Even if we count the new trump presidency, that still means 66% of the last 24 years (counting until 2028 now) has been Centrist Democrats. If anything, your logic says that Centrist democrats win more often than not using this method.
Obama campaigned on a platform of change. He promised healthcare and (very importantly at that time) to pull troops from Iraq/Afghanistan. His campaign was very aspirational, even if his first term in office was not. That campaign won in Indiana and Ohio, to give an idea of the popularity of these ideas. Biden won by a very small nr of voters in the swing states running against a (at that time) very unpopular president.
Worldwide, we’re seeing electorates that are rejecting establishment candidates. It’s been that way since at least 2016, and really since the start of and response to the Great Recession. Obama ran as an outsider. He governed as a centrist, but he didn’t really run as one initially. And Biden only won because of the pandemic. If it weren’t for the pandemic, Trump would have won in 2020.
Agreed. Bidens history as a legislator is actually pretty loathsome. Its some sort of miracle that he was elected the first time.
If you think the DNC is doing what it can to improve people’s lives then you either live in a different universe or haven’t been keeping up with politics the last few decades.
The ACA, IRA, the largest gun control bill in 30 years, DACA, CARD act, Fair Pay act, repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, Juneteenth Nationally Act, Honoring out Pact Act, Respect for Marriage Act, Student Loan relief
All of these in the last 2 decades by DNC. Which one of those are you saying shouldn’t have been passed?
thats a pretty meager list for 20 years. They also Lost abortion, lost the courts, lost on progressive taxation, committed war crimes, expanded the police state, and faild to improve the minimum wage, and expanded the number of working poor.
That’s not an exhaustive list, just long enough to show that “Dems never improve anyone’s life” is just nonsense. And further, most of the things you go on to complain about them not doing are things they tried to do that got blocked by obstructionist Republicans.
I wonder if it would have been better for her to step down as VP when accepting the nomination. As a VP she couldn’t distinguish herself at all.
Sure she could have. VP cant be fired by the president and has no official duties beyond tie breaking in the senate. She didnt need to follow Bidens directions at all. Worst thing that could happen is that Biden could mean-girl it and ask some of his donors not to fund her. Thats about it.
You can be skeptical all you want, the votes speak for themselves and are all publicly available for you to look at. Biden was an anomaly going against his party.
What do you mean? Biden was an anomaly in his party by supporting a genocide. Harris was the same anomaly, as she stated she would continue Biden’s policies with no changes whatsoever.
No she didn’t? I do love me some revisionist history, though I think it’s a bit soon for that.
What planet are you living on? This is the entire reason she lost. When asked what she would do differently from Biden, she responded:
“There is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of – and I’ve been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact, the work that we have done,”
https://www.cnn.com/politics/harris-2024-campaign-biden/index.html
She didn’t want to change any of Biden’s policies when it came to Israel. Do you have any evidence that she intended to? Because she certainly never stated as such as far as I’m aware.
In March 2024, she called for an immediate ceasefire, citing the immense suffering of innocent Palestinians and urging increased humanitarian aid to the region. Whitehouse.gov
Harris has also advocated for a two-state solution, envisioning a unified Gaza and West Bank under the Palestinian Authority, with Palestinian voices central to the peace process. She outlined five guiding principles for post-conflict Gaza: no forcible displacement, no reoccupation, no siege or blockade, no reduction in territory, and no use of Gaza as a platform for terrorism.
She also called for an immediate ceasefire and hostage deal on Colbert Vanity Fair and in Vogue.
What of those are actually new policies? Has Biden ever come out in favor of Israel annexing the West Bank, or in favor of forced displacement? Of course not. They’re liberals, not Republicans. Centrist liberals like Biden and Harris want to talk, but that’s all they want to do. There is nothing you cited there that hasn’t been happily endorsed by liberals for decades, all while Israel tightens the screws on the Palestinians ever-tighter.
It’s all meaningless words and platitudes. While she’s SAID things that would be great to do, she has refused to actually use US leverage to DO any of those things. The Biden administration also talks about endorsing a two-state solution and all the things you mention. Again, Biden talks in fluffy glittering generalities when it comes to saving the Gazan people, but he refuses to actually back those words with actions.
What precisely, did Harris propose to actually achieve any of those things she’s laid out? What leverage would she use to force Israel to accept these?
nothing to lose by changing her Gaza stance
Except publicly undermining foreign diplomacy and presenting a national security risk by contradicting the President while secret negotiations are taking place. Which isn’t nothing.
secret negotiations
wishful thinking on your part.
By that logic nobody would be allowed to run on foreign policy.
Nobody in the administration who’s actively engaged in diplomatic negotiations during wartime, no.
I didnt say she couldn’t discuss foreign policy. She just can’t publicly condemn her boss while his surrogates are negotiating to end a conflict.
She didn’t have to condemn him, she could have just said “I feel we should be doing more and take a firmer stance saying that genocide is not ok”. Something as simple as that would have rallied a lot of the Arabs to her side.
I read this as almost exactly the same thing:
“And as president, I will do everything in my power to end the war in Gaza, to bring home the hostages, end the suffering in Gaza, ensure Israel is secure, and ensure the Palestinian people can realise their right to dignity, freedom, security and self-determination,”
Something as simple as that obviously didn’t work. I’m skeptical that your version would have moved the needle, and I’m sure she’s under strict orders not to call it a “genocide”, which is still and order from her boss, even if it’s wrong.
which is still and order from her boss
This is complete nonsense. The vice president isn’t duty bound to never contradict the president, especially when running to succeed him. When a boss orders you to do something that’s wrong, you can say no, particularly when you don’t need the job anymore and are already applying for a better one.
Harris didn’t say more on Gaza because she didn’t want to, whether due to personal beliefs or because she for some reason thought it was a better electoral stance, not because of all-powerful orders from Joe Biden.
I love the world you guys have concocted in your heads where everything’s made up and the points don’t matter, so the VP can go rogue. This is a fascinating view into the civic literacy of the average American.
The problem with it is that it was more or less the same thing Biden said and it’s been abundantly clear Biden does not care for a ceasefire. The Arabs wanted more than that. They wanted her to admit that what Israel was doing in Gaza and Lebanon was wrong. They wanted her to say that she would take a firmer stance than Biden would on Israel. They didnt want her to say that she supports Israels right to defend itself, or for Tim Walz to say he supports Israels right to expand its borders, or even to campaign with Liz Cheney. The icing on the cake was Bill Clintons very stupid attempt to justify Israels killing of civilians a day or two before the election. What she said clearly wasn’t enough and she repeatedly ignored them as well as the DNC actively trying to silence them.
I believe she did end up taking a slightly firmer stance a few days before the election, which is likely due to her not polling so well. I’m not sure if your quote is from that time or from before. But I think a lot of Arabs saw it as “too little, too late” kind of thing.
You’ll get no argument from me there. She tried to thread the needle and wound up pissing off both sides she was trying to court, albeit for very different reasons. Given the dynamic, I’m not sure there’s a message she could have put out that would have satisfied everyone, but I firmly believe she said as much as she could possibly say, and as delicately as she could possibly say it, to telegraph that she’d take a different approach once she was sworn in. It wasn’t convincing to a huge swath of voters who’ve made clear they prefer Trump, but coming from someone whose job requires a lot of delicate public diplomacy even when I’m talking about something I disagree with to people I don’t support, I saw the subtext very clearly. I’m sure she sees it the same way, but until we read her memoirs many years from now, I guess we’ll never know.
They really aren’t negotiating an end to the conflict though. That’s the problem. Biden wasn’t seriously trying to end the conflict, as he isn’t using to use a single ounce of US leverage to force Israel to the table. The Gazans are being massacred; they have plenty of incentive to come to the table and negotiate in good faith. The Israelis currently have zero incentive. Their territory is expanding while their adversaries are being exterminated; they’re doing great by this conflict. Israel has zero reason to come to the table, and the talks are just stall tactics and charades.
You state things unequivocally that you cannot possibly know and have no evidence to support, so it would be futile to try to evidence you out of that opinion. If you know everything about what’s happening in secret, then your powers are truly impressive.
I’m not claiming things I have no evidence for. The Biden administration has repeatedly and explicitly refused to make any US aid to Israel contingent on any improvement on the situation in Gaza.
The Biden administration has openly refused calls to use US aid as leverage against Israel, and all you can do is wave your hands and say, “hrr, umm, actually, you can’t know what went on behind the scenes, so maybe Biden did do that, but we just have no evidence of that.”
You are asking me to prove a negative. You are demanding that I prove that Biden HASN’T secretly used US leverage to rein in Israel. That is not how this works. If you want to claim that the US actually has tried to put the screws on Israel, YOU need to produce some evidence of that claim. So far, a least according to everything publicly available from all sources, Biden has given Israel a complete blank check. If you want to claim something contrary to all evidence, then you need to supply that evidence.
After all, it’s also possible that the Gazans aren’t being killed by Israel at all. Maybe the Martians are just coming and abducting all the Palestinians to Mars. And we don’t see the Martians, because they’re invisible. You have no evidence that there AREN’T Martians killing all the Gazans, so I guess it would be foolish to write off the idea.
I’m skeptical she would have done anything differently than Biden in terms of Gaza.
Likewise, but I also think there is a reason why we are seeing Israeli politicians talking about potentially annexing North Gaza and the West Bank now, after the election, and not 6 months ago.
Despite the multiple “lines in the sand” that have been crossed, I feel like Harris and Biden still had a breaking point with Israel, and maybe that breaking point could be moved closer to reason with continued pressure. I don’t know, I hate working in maybes.
But there aren’t even any maybes with Trump. He simply couldn’t care less what Netanyahu wants to do. Had he not been elected, and had Israel felt their ongoing support was a bit more conditional, I’m not sure we’d have these same sorts of plans being made by them. At least not so overtly
The timing of all this, as well as multiple conversations with Trump right after the election, can’t be coincidence. It suggests a green light was given, which would mean there was still caution while it was uncertain who would be in office.
We’ll never know now.
Likewise, but I also think there is a reason why we are seeing Israeli politicians talking about potentially annexing North Gaza and the West Bank now, after the election, and not 6 months ago.
But they were openly talking about annexing North Gaza and the West Bank 6 months ago
