I don’t think that Democrats should turn away from their growing number of middle-class supporters in order to pivot to a platform that has no record of winning elections. The US economy is going to suffer over the next couple of years and the appeal of a “return to normalcy” party like the present-day Democrats will grow.
It’s worth considering why the Democrats failed to persuade the majority of voters that electing Trump in 2024 would be (among other things) an economic disaster, but nonetheless it’s going to be an economic disaster and voters won’t be happy. I expect that Trumpism will have no political future if (and that’s a big if) free elections are preserved.
When has a leftist campaign been run in earnest in a US election? Can’t remember any from the Dems in my lifetime, so I’m curious how it can have a record either way.
A good frame of reference would be FDR and the New Deal Coalition which dominated the electorate. They did basic social democracy and just kept winning.
I’m not convinced that Trump has done better against the Democrats than an ordinary pre-MAGA Republican candidate would have. It’s normal for the party in power to switch every eight years, and in that context the unusual thing about Trump is not that he won in 2016 but that he lost in 2020. Biden/Harris’s loss in 2024 is also unusual but so is running a senile candidate, forcing him to step aside far too late, and then replacing him with his vice president who has no significant accomplishments and no way to distance herself from his unpopular policies.
There is something important that Democrats need to change about their strategy, but that’s running candidates based on their appeal to the public rather than on their seniority within the party. I had hoped that they learned that lesson after Hillary Clinton’s failure but they didn’t. I think they will do well if they run a young, charismatic centrist like Bill Clinton or Obama in 2028.
I don’t think that Democrats should turn away from their growing number of middle-class supporters in order to pivot to a platform that has no record of winning elections. The US economy is going to suffer over the next couple of years and the appeal of a “return to normalcy” party like the present-day Democrats will grow.
It’s worth considering why the Democrats failed to persuade the majority of voters that electing Trump in 2024 would be (among other things) an economic disaster, but nonetheless it’s going to be an economic disaster and voters won’t be happy. I expect that Trumpism will have no political future if (and that’s a big if) free elections are preserved.
When has a leftist campaign been run in earnest in a US election? Can’t remember any from the Dems in my lifetime, so I’m curious how it can have a record either way.
A good frame of reference would be FDR and the New Deal Coalition which dominated the electorate. They did basic social democracy and just kept winning.
It doesn’t have a record either way - it’s an unknown.
As opposed to the piss poor record of Goldman Sachsmanism, which has now lost to Trump twice
I’m not convinced that Trump has done better against the Democrats than an ordinary pre-MAGA Republican candidate would have. It’s normal for the party in power to switch every eight years, and in that context the unusual thing about Trump is not that he won in 2016 but that he lost in 2020. Biden/Harris’s loss in 2024 is also unusual but so is running a senile candidate, forcing him to step aside far too late, and then replacing him with his vice president who has no significant accomplishments and no way to distance herself from his unpopular policies.
There is something important that Democrats need to change about their strategy, but that’s running candidates based on their appeal to the public rather than on their seniority within the party. I had hoped that they learned that lesson after Hillary Clinton’s failure but they didn’t. I think they will do well if they run a young, charismatic centrist like Bill Clinton or Obama in 2028.