Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib defeated her Republican opponent in Michigan’s 12th congressional district election on Tuesday, securing a fourth term as the only Palestinian-American woman in the US Congress.
The Associated Press called the race with just 18 percent of the votes counted.
Tlaib secured 77 percent of the vote, defeating the Republican Party’s James Hooper who received just 19 percent of the vote.
Her victory comes amid the backdrop of Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians so far and has been diplomatically and militarily supported by the Biden-Harris administration for more than a year.
Tlaib has been a vocal critic of the war, calling for the US to withhold weapons from Israel. Her opposition to the war on Gaza and support for pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses have drawn harsh criticism from both Republicans and Democrats.
Who could’ve guessed that appealing to far-right republicans — who are going to vote republican anyway — wouldn’t be a winning strategy?
Yeah, Democrats are always doing Republican-lite, then they’re surprised that doesn’t peel off voters on the right that will just always vote for the real thing anyway.
It is actually worse. It confirms the right wing standpoints and thus leads to a general societal swing to a more right-leaning worldview. This is basically what framing is. You can see this very well here in Germany, were basically the whole political spectrum nowadays presents views that would have been considered far right just 10 years ago.
But if you point this out on Lemmy, you’re a MAGA Trumper with six Trump dildos shoved up your ass and a fetish for fascism.
Got called a Russian bot multiple times for calling out the blue Maga people. Criticising the Democratic strategy is apparently the same as wanting Trump to win.
Oh it’s an absolute joke. The most recent is a guy speaking to me like I’m a misguided child who was fooled into spending my fun money on a rock.
No, dude, the Democratic Party isn’t progressive, and I’m tired of them demanding my vote while giving me the finger and making no progress. I still voted Harris, begrudgingly, but I’ve been “had” and “need to go rest and come back when I feel better.”
She ran a shit campaign and lost, and her policies offered little to the average American beyond “not fascism,” I’m not misguided, her and the Democrats fucked up. Like they always do.
The most recent is a guy speaking to me like I’m a misguided child who was fooled
This is how the left has been treating everyone who doesn’t toe the line for quite some time now, and then they act confused when losing their out groups to other parties. They told people their voices and opinions don’t matter, so those people took their voices elsewhere.
I’m trying to parse just what you’re saying here. Who are you referring to when you say “the left”?
What kind of rock? There are some pretty neat rocks out there.
Don’t forget you’re also a secret
jewRussian
They also make the mistake of thinking that in order to appeal to conservative voters they have to be conservative. I have more often gotten through to conservatives with socialist economics and anarchist political philosophy than I ever could when I was a liberal trying to sway them on cultural issues and basic welfare.
And after getting through to them they started to come around on the cultural issues too.
Yep, Trump got so many union members to vote for him even though he’ll probably get Musk to run the NLRB. Maybe they should’ve shouted that message from the rooftops instead? Instead they didn’t even let the Teamsters boss speak at the convention (he was allowed to speak at the RNC).
Fucking learn from this, DNC.
We need to go more to the right!
— Democrats, every time they lose
No, sadly, we probably need to stick to old white men. Just not as old as Biden was.
Like Obama?
He was half white, and male, 2/3rds of what appears to be necessary to win.
Not to mention the fact that it was 16 years ago when he was elected. I in college for the 2000 election and have been watching the slide since it was stolen. I told myself that we could swing back when Obama was elected, and thought we’d be ok last night too.
Nah, black people are cool. They have funny handshakes, bro. But an Indian president will need a couple decades more to win the racist vote.
In addition to Rashida Tlaib winning her district, Tammy Baldwin and Elissa Slotkin both won their states, when Harris lost. How does your narrative possibly make sense of that?
DNC response:
They will not. They will do what they always do:
- rely on people being pissed off enough after four years of Rep rule to vote for the Dems no matter what
- rely on a few select ‘free’ topics (abortion, LGBTQIA+ rights etc) to show how different they are, when they are mostly exactly the same when it comes to topics that matter to most voters daily (ie topics that affect them personally, like their own economic situation)
I recon the only thing that could actually make them shift to the left is strong opposition from the left, basically a left Ross Perot, if you want. One that collects all the votes of the people who were too disillusioned this time around to actually vote, and then basically says “Shift to the left enough, be a real alternative, and you can have these”. Without someone or a party like that, no, they will not change. They will continue to further the interests of billionaires, just like the Reps.
So, I’m just pondering here, but it seems to me that it’s a bad Idea to run an unpopular presidential candidate because when voters choose to stay home, they also take their down-ballot votes with them.
Very true. I was wondering why the GOP won the Senate but that makes perfect sense.
Tbh I’m not convinced there’s going to be an election 4 years from now
Then you don’t appreciate how effective a release valve from public frustration elections are
The ruling class will never give them up. They own both parties, why would they?
Don’t worry. You’ll get your patronizing pretend democracy again in two years.
To be perfectly clear, I’m not convinced we’re going to have free and fair elections anymore after this
you did not have them to begin with
Why would we start?
Did you vote for your candidate in the primaries? No? Hmm…
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Dont expect the Democrats to learn anything from this because their Billionaire donors would rather they lose by promoting policies that don’t threaten profits than win and cost the donors money.
Their billionaire donors don’t lose, that’s the point. Reps are following the same main purpose of allowing barely restricted capital accumulation.
To know what happens in US politics when the donors are seeing even the distant possiblity of losing one day, ask Black Panthers for example.
Im very familiar with the BPP and model my contributions to direcr action orgs around their principles as well as the desire to set up parallel power structure. Without the rank and file or our own power structures, there is no foundation or material support for revolution. We’re not even in a position where violence could help us yet. In short, unfortunatly, at this point it seems things need to get worse before they can get better, if they can get better.
This means not endorsing Harris was the correct political move for Tlaib.
Tlaib correctly understood that she needed to appeal to her voters to win. Donors have a lot of money but it turns out they do not get you elected. Getting votes does.
Do not support genocide. It is that easy!
It’s not that easy. Democrats have to go a lot more left than just “not genocide.” They have to actually give a shit about the conditions of the working class if they want the working class to support them.
That is true but Tlaib won by an overwhelming majority of 77% against 19%. Indicating most voters did not blindly pick D or R.
I need you to understand something: Gaza is not the only reason somebody might have voted for Tlaib.
That is undeniable. Her other progressive policies also appear to be very popular. 77%!
Democratic party is not a left leaning or even a centrist party. Most of right wing policy of Republican presidency is continued by the Democratic presidency.
We have a conservative party and a very conservative party.
We have two very conservative parties with one trying to shake their branding of being otherwise.
This makes me glad. I obviously wasn’t hoping for much from this election to begin with, but I’ve been finding a lot of silver-linings since the news started coming in. Shout out to Nebraska
and Floridafor their cannabis legalization ballot measures.Florida’s cannabis legalization ballot measure failed…
And thanks in part to Michigan voters, we have a president who will fuck over Gaza even more. Great success.
And so the voter blaming begins.
The voters are absolutely responsible for putting Trump into power. Anyone who facilitated that is fully responsible for whatever happens over the next four years.
Democrats are responsible for winning over voters.
The voters they kicked out at the DNC to make room in their big tent for the Bush administration, AIPAC all their corporate donors.
Ask those donors why they did not vote for Harris hard enough. Or the Republicans she was wooing over with Liz Cheney.
Doesn’t change what I said, though. Trump won because the average voter wants fascism.
Unless you are willing to criticize the Democrats they will not change this losing strategy. Admit they ran an awful campaign and push them to run on good policies next time.
I am willing to criticize the Democrats. There’s a lot I would have done differently.
But Jesus himself could descend from heaven preaching love for mankind and the American people would still vote for Trump instead.
The average American voter wants fascism, it’s as simple as that.
motherfucker you voted for fascism as well
One Cheney convert in a swing state is worth a dozen liberals like me in California lol. Swinging right is the rational political move for the leftmost candidate. Swinging left is the rational political move for the rightmost candidate, which is why we saw Trump clumsily try to soften his stance on abortion.
Which is why the Democrats massively won every swing state.
A few people in Michigan were not swayed by Liz Cheney. And the Democrats did not want them on stage at the DNC. Alas. Democrats clearly did not need those votes to achieve victory.
Look, it’s such an exhausting night, and I really do believe that you want to see a better world. I do too.
I’m just so shattered that we’re looking at four years of chipping away at the rights of women, LGBT, and transgender people. Four years of degrading all the checks and balances against the president. Four years of political retaliations going unchecked. Four years of aggressive anti-climate policy, inhumane border policy, and pandering to a Russia (and now North Korea!) that is also slaughtering innocents in Ukraine. Four years of middle east policy that is at least as bad as Biden/Harris’s, but likely far worse. And four years of slamming our economy with tariffs to “own the Chinese” I guess.
A vote for Harris was a vote to make things better. Not everything. Good lord she wasn’t the answer to so many major issues facing the US and the world. But it was an objectively better vote, by every metric, than a vote for Trump, or a no-vote. I just can’t argue any more on that.
How many times do you have to be confronted with the absolute, abject failure of that strategy before you start to question it?
Anybody who failed to vote Harris shares the blame, it’s fairly obvious lol
Change your nick to WeyounWatch an episode of DS9 maybe? Sisko is the literal embodiment of a person who is willing to make the tough choice that he personally finds unethical, but knows will be better for the world as a whole.
Like supporting genocide for a hegemonic empire? Again, that’s Weyoun, even his rhetorics about “tough choice for greater good” is neraly the same as yours, Weyoun.
Enjoy your fascist dictator then
Vote for me or everything is your fault!
Okay, make yourself more appealing to vote for.
NO.
For them to accept this they would have to value their principled fantasies less than the fascist reality they have enabled.
Why not blame Democrats for not meeting voters where they are?
I mean, I do? Trump massively outperformed Harris in swing states, so clearly Harris’s campaign wasn’t able to meet swing state voters where they are. Literally, these were the only people who matter in the US election under the current rules (sadly). Of course Harris swung right, and of course it didn’t work well enough, but not doing it would have been worse…
I hate politics as much as the next person, but god damn. Recognize the game is what it is, play it as necessary, and then move the needle where you can. Sheesh.
Maybe the ossue was Democrats trying to appeal to Republican voters, who would rather vote for Republicans and get everything they want instead of only some of what they want.
In many elections, that would make sense. But in this election, there was a sizeable group of Nikki Haley Republicans up for grabs, who clearly didn’t want to vote Trump if they could get an alternative. Is there a group of leftists who may have turned out in larger numbers if Harris had swung left? Yeah, maybe. But is that group anywhere near as large as the Haley Republicans, and are they present in swing states? No and no.
Clearly that failed, and will continue to fail. There is no sich thing as a never Trump Republican because he gives conservatives everything they want. Democrats will continue to lose until they vreak away from Regan style neoliberalism. They need to start offering actual solutions that benefit workers like universal healthcare, returns to pension plans, and housing reforms.
But how will they get that superPAC money then?
Short of putting boots on the ground or dropping a nuke there is no way to “fuck over Gaza even more.”
The one thing I’ve learned from experience w/ Donald Trump is that he finds a way to make things worse.
That’s a very broad statement that I can’t argue with because I have no intention to defend Donald Trump. Wiith that in mind I imagine anything he does to Gaza is just in line with what Biden or Harris would have also done but probably dumber. They had over a year to make us believe otherwise.
So then the logic here is “vote for a candidate who is at least as bad for Gaza, but will also fuck up the rest of the world”. Or “don’t vote for the candidate who will be obviously less damaging for the rest of the world, even though my action won’t help Gaza at all”.
Even if you assume Harris would have been just as bad for Gaza… I mean it’s patently clear that the only choice is to vote for the lesser of two evils and then raise hell that you need better policies from them.
The collapse of America would be less damaging for the rest of the world than its continued existence.
The only potential silver lining is the end of the American Empire. They already pushed BRICS into dedollarisation, and another 4 years of Trump will hopefully cause the EU to finally go their own way too.
Then again, this was already going to happen anyway and I would’ve rather seen someone sane manage this decline instead of Trump.
Voting for a lesser evil is still being complicit in some degree of evil.
Things can always get worse.
Things can always get worse.
Correct, even under Biden and Harris.
The only hope Gaza ever had was the Axis of Resistance, no matter who won they were facing annihilation and forced displacement. North Gaza is the blueprint for the rest of the Strip. Only if Israel is defeated can Palestine be free.
Trump was declared a winner before Michigan had a called winner for president.
Yes? I’m not saying Michigan handed him the election, I’m saying protest votes and no-votes played a big role. We’re fucked due in part to people who say “ooh that will show the DNC”
The DNC knew it already. They’d rather sink the ship than cede party positions to the people.
She knew how to keep her job.
The Associated Press called the race with just 18 percent of the votes counted.
WTF?
Not unusual, and not a bad thing. They called a number of races with less than that. If you’re taking your expected percentages with the voting samples you’ve got and your statistics and calculations say there’s less than a 1% chance the race will flip, you might as well call it. They’re pretty much never wrong when they make a call that early.
It also doesn’t actually matter because the AP isn’t who decides the winner.
I do have a problem with it slightly though, calling a result before pokls close elsewhere is problematic. All reporting should be embargoed until the last poll closes.
Not a bad idea, though I’d tweak it to say election officials can’t release information, since that preserves freedom of press.
Either way, it’s highly unlikely it’s ever affected the outcome of an election.
What was the breakdown of the district’s vote in the presidential election? I’m surprised that wasn’t included in the article. It seems extremely pertinent.
Well done! Elect an official that is likely to be deported because you just elected, “a dictator on day one who wants to deport 20 million people in the first 6 months, with no end in sight.”
You’re just like Missouri that just ended a statewide abortion ban, only to elect the guy that promised to ban it at the federal level.
Basically your state sold the rest of us out because of your pride, greed, and racism.
Another reason to love her.
Another reason to worry about her being deported
I hope she’s happy with the outcome.
I don’t think she’s happy that her own party’s presidential candidate failed to capture their own constituents by using trump as a scapegoat
Gaza gets wiped out even faster now on top of all the other bad things the GOP want.
Not that I believe that Gaza dissenters mattered at all in this election. I’d be amazed if even 1% of voters considered it a factor for their vote.
I think what you’re supposed to take away from this is actual left wing candidates who are against genocide did well this election. A big part of why Kamala lost is because she did not have high voter turnout from the left. She spent most of her campaign trying to appeal to moderate right-wing voters who did not vote for her. And she also did not get the turn out of the left because of it. She should have been trying to appeal to farther left voters by promoting actual left Wing ideas and not sicking the police on anti genocide protesters.
But hey it don’t matter, not like we’re ever going to get to vote again anyway
Wiped out faster? Based on the stern red lines that cannot be crossed put down by Biden?
Locked in the basement of your mind palace.
I think it gets wiped out at exactly the same pace
What is trump gonna do that Biden didn’t? He was giving the maximum money and weapons allowed every single week.
Let’s not pretend it wasn’t Biden who vetoed every single ceasefire resolution in the UN
I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see American troops helping in the genocide come next year.
Pyrrhic victory. She has her seat, but will likely have no ability to influence any positive change. A unified front was needed, a unified front did not emerge.
There was no “winning” divided. Now we all lose together.
Let the centre unify with the left for once. It seems to be the one winning.
Moot point. The opportunity has passed.
Real convenient how it’s always time to defeat fascism, no time to go left and once it’s a fascist in office it’s too late to go left, y’all ruined it.
Not a Democrat, just someone who understands that without unity during this election, we were always going to get this result.
Because a Tlaib endorsement would have made up for the millions of missing votes for Kamala?
And now blame Tlaib for all the Demopublicans losing.
Road map for me how she will be of any positive effect once the new administration takes power.
She’ll be in power, unlike Kamala
You forgot the quotes. “Power.” She’ll be a progressive member of the minority party under a fascist regime who has already signaled a complete lack of care for its political adversaries.
I’d argue that the two women are not far removed from one enother in the amount of power they will wield.
Then you’re an idiot and there’s no helping you
The feeling is mutual.
why should the left unify with a canidate who was at every option deciding to run farther to the right, a canidate who dicided a genocide was moraly ok? why is that something we should just accept
What we get to accept now is GOP control of the executive, judicial, and both chambers of the legislative.
Then it sounds like the center really fucked up, doesn’t it?
Sounds like anyone and everyone who couldn’t figure out that we weren’t beating fascism unless we stuck together really fucked up. Now we get to live with it.
The center/center-right was in charge and calling the shots. They were driving the ship and demanding conformance from the left. The left largely did conform. The strategic choices however were not made by them, they were made by the center/center-right. They should own their mistakes.
Which is it? There are so, so many progressives who can effect change out there, or most everyone to the left of the Dems conformed but it wasn’t enough?
You say as harris literaly said that she wanted class colaberation … a charicteristic that has been seen in every type of facism.
also if everyone was trying to beat facism why did Haris make no attempt to bring in the left she was hostile to it at every turn, even at the easiest part of saying “genocide bad”
There were two candidates who could win. I didn’t like either of them. That doesn’t mean one wasn’t closer to what I’d like to see for this country.
Now we have what we have.
