Blame the news media. They sane washed Trump.
Economy
This is Trump’s economy, you idiots. This is the fallout from his incompetence and malice. But heaven forbid voters understand basic principles which rule their lives.
i think you give too much credit to Trump. the economy has been rigged against the working class for a long time. it’s just getting progressively more brutal which makes people feel increasingly insecure.
an insecure working class elects strongmen who promise simple solutions
The best, simplest summation I’ve seen. Thank you. I’ve been searching for something to make sense of it and this is definitely it. Being forced into voting for the “least worst” candidate obscures where that path is headed by either candidate.
It’s the pattern in American politics that has existed since I was born: Republicans fuck the economy, Democrats do their best to fix it, people blame the Democrats for the bad economy and elect Republicans who fuck it up even more.
No, sorry, but you don’t get to say that four years later.
The economy got trashed in his last year… but remember how the sparse economic relief that were carried through the democratic congress got completely wiped out as soon as Biden took office? When the democrats took away the child tax credit childhood poverty doubled overnight. And you may say the cause of the inflation was Trump’s mismanagement (And it wasn’t. The supply chain breakdown would have happened no matter who was in office.) what was the democratic response? Fucking Chicago school.
What’s happening is the US empire is not so slowly rotting and material conditions are deteriorating. That’s independent of what party is in power. But both parties are wedded to capital. And voters are hopping from one foot to the other while standing on that hot skillet trying to find relief. You’re not going to find it without overthrowing capitalism. This is the barbarism we were warning you about.
And it wasn’t. The supply chain breakdown would have happened no matter who was in office
if i remember correctly, COVID brought our inflation up to roughly 6%. then the Ukrainian war took it the rest of way where it peaked near 9% (over 10% in my home state)
these things would have happened anyway, although choosing to prolong the Ukrainian war as long as possible most definitely increased inflation. people think we only gave 2 or 3 hundred billion, but realistically the American public has paid more than a trillion in the invisible tax that is inflation. hundreds of thousands of layoffs because of higher interest rates are also connected to this
Let’s not forget that a large part of the inflation, and especially on food and housing, was driven by pure greed and opportunism from the capitalists that control those basic necessities. And that’s something that could have been prevented with tools that capital permitted under Ronald Fucking Reagan.
it’s an eternal battle. every once in a while we pass legislation to try and reign in corporate power. like for example the anti trust act in the early 1900s
the issue is that public attention is temporary. eventually we move on to the next crisis and people forget. grow complacent.
corporate interest, however, is eternal. it’s persistent and never gives up. it keeps pushing, infallibly, in order to weaken the structures meant to reign in their power. whether by legislation/policy (AT&T and friends unilaterally killing Net Neutrality some years back, Disney signing into law expansion of copyright, etc) or through more subtle methods (buying politicians and getting people into positions of power that have no intention of enforcing the laws)
this is inevitably what happens with every democracy. eventually the vigilance fails and the structures of power are hijacked by opportunists.
although having said all that, I don’t think greed had much to do with the inflation we saw. Sure, some companies took advantage and raised prices more than they needed to just to inflate that extra juicy profit margin.
but realistically we’re headed to war and war means massive government spending which means inflation
You’re separating government from the capitalists and I don’t think that’s an accurate way of looking at the world. Capital will eat itself even more voraciously than it does right now without some mediating force on itself. Government isn’t a hedge against capitalism that mediates its excesses. It is a PART of capitalism that mediates its excesses. The anti-trust act wasn’t for us; it was for them.
But the reality that capitalism is a fundamentally unstable system can’t be fixed by blunting it. And as the rate of profit goes down, the very restraints that capital put on itself to ensure its survival must be destroyed in pursuit of that profit.
That’s the advantage of the 2 party system. There is no other way out except revolution. In most European countries there is still an irrational but valid hope for regular reform through regular political means. Those countries are fated to linger on like this a little longer.
Worse: Congress purposely intended for the president to not have direct control over the economy.
Ironically Republican presidents are the worst for the economy, https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/democrats/2024/10/the-u-s-economy-performs-better-under-democratic-presidents
It’s simple, and history has borne this out many many times.
In a bad economy, no one cares about your politics if you’re the candidate of change. There’s a reason why Harris spent two months repeating memes instead of defending Biden’s policies, because it’s impossible to defend the fact that you had four years to rule and there are more people working 2-3 jobs just to survive.
They knew they needed to appeal to workers. Instead, they spent most of the campaign repeating this meaningless platitude about joy to people who are being worked to death.
In a bad economy, no one cares about your politics
That’s no excuse for electing someone whose stated policies and politics will fuck the economy even further and faster.
Also, there were plenty of people who were never going to vote for a woman, no matter what.
If that’s why Kamala lost, then explain why Tammy Baldwin is winning Wisconsin and Elissa Slotkin is winning in Michigan.
Don’t forget immigrants who hate immigrants.
I’m sure that’s true too, but that’s not the reason she lost, and Democrats will continue to stack losses if that’s the narrative that they go with.
Democrats haven’t been ceding male voters to Republicans for 16 years because they hate women. It’s because, in the liberal and activist communities, it’s become customary and accepted to treat men like shit.
It’s because, in the liberal and activist communities, it’s become customary and accepted to treat men like shit.
this is just as dumb as the opposite “they didn’t vote for Kamala because she’s a woman”
people don’t like Kamala because she’s an extension of Joe Biden and Biden has been a failure. that’s why she lost. she offered status quo when people want change. the DNC is incapable of changing quick enough to avoid fascism
Plenty of people will also never vote for a black man, but that worked spectacularly for the Democrats the first time.
Then maybe don’t force a woman onto the ballot in “the most important election of our lifetime”. I’m all for progress, but you don’t win elections by forcing ideals upon people who won’t have them, and if this was truly the most important election of our lifetime, then the Democrats should have fielded their most appealing candidate.
Yeah if the DNC really gave as much credence to the vote power of racism and misogyny as they do when complaining about election losses, then why would they deliberately step on that landmine by selecting kamala only 8 years after HRC? It’s not like we think idealistic dreamers run the DNC right? That’s silly.
Why did Dems lose the Senate? Keep the house? Cuz its more than just Harris here… What we’re seeing is voter repudiation of the last 4 years.
I love how Economy is a high priority, yet they voted for the asshole known being the genius behind several bankruptcies. “The economy isn’t doing good, clearly we need someone who can fuck shit up to make it work!”
Unironically, I think that was the thought process.
Hard to vote for someone who is telling you all is well and the people that got the country here are competent and mean well, when the country is going through 5 different crises, all preventing you from living a decent life.
Exactly. Harris was tasked with defending and indefensible record. It’s that simple.
She didn’t have to defend it. This was an election to run over Biden until he was just a pile of goo. She could have came out with some strong contrasting policies, instead she gave some great sound bytes for Trump.
Healthcare: 8%
That explains why americans in America are provided with less(no at all) healthcare than american tourisis in fucking Russia.
This is what happens if any foreigner for example breaks bone in Russia:
- Emergency, including emergency specialized, medical care is provided to foreign citizens in case of sickness, accident, trauma, poisining and other cases requireing emergency treatment. Such medical treatment provided by state and municipal healthcare organizations is free of charge.
Specifically, state and municipal? Is there some other form of healthcare organization that can provide medical treatment?
Private clinics exist
It’s always about the economy. Every election period.
The economy is actually great. Most people just don’t have the brains to understand why when they feel like it isn’t. Sentiment is king.
What? Who is the economy great for? Many Americans are one missed paycheck from bankruptcy.
Which is exactly my point. Many Americans don’t feel like the economy is better in their own lives. But, overall, from a macroeconomic perspective, the economy is doing great.
This is the kind of out of touch thinking that is why Harris lost.
It literally doesn’t matter how great the economy is if people are struggling, and they are.
No one gives a shit about how much the GDP grew, they can about the price of eggs and milk.
Harris repeated biden saying the economy is great and ignored that there are people struggling and focusing in on messaging to help them.
I know her policies might have helped the average American, but no one reads policies anymore, unfortunately.
I’m a Harris voter.
The economy is stable and we’re at a new normal. People are hoping to take things back to how they were before even though that’s not how economies work.
If you look at the average salary, it has kept up or exceeded inflation, but it has taken some time to catch up. But again, it’s the sentiment. If people feel pooper, they are poorer, even if they are not actually poorer.
Looks a lot like lack of awareness to me. The price of pretty much everything has at least stabilized or is down from the peak. Individuals are better off today than recently.
However prices are shockingly high compared to four years ago. Many are worse off than four years ago. The economy is trending much better at the individual level but people can’t get past the four years of buildup to realize that it has turned around
Because too many people are selfish and think that things are bad so might as well make them worse.
When the most important is something that isn’t even real…gj America. Fools.
Immigration isn’t real?
Honestly, I hope Trump and his republican dumb fucks go through with their tariff plan to “save” the much improved economy. Americans deserve it.
I wanted Bernie some years ago but also believe that we deserve this.
Americans deserve everything that is about to happen.
Don’t disagree and I honestly hope all of their promises come true this time, abortion restrictions at the federal level, the gutting of government, putting Herschel Walker as the head of the DoD, all of it.
Americans will never learn unless they suffer.
As a german i can tell you that the learning effect doesn’t last forever either
Obviously. It didn’t even last 4 years for us…
TIL that trump is Leto Atreides II
Trump isn’t even 10% as competent as Leto Altreides II.
As an American, you’re right. I guess Trump won’t see consequences, but maybe the country will. And MAYBE voters / non voters will learn something.
The problem is the consequences are not immediate. This is like making a child sit in their room because they scribbled on the wall in crayon last week. They don’t have the capacity to make that connection.
If renewed inflation takes another four years to really build up, guess whose fault that becomes? If the climate gets worse over years, decades, generations, no blame here. If Russia invades the Baltic states after consolidating Ukraine, it couldn’t be due to appeasement here. If they succeed in replacing the merit-based civil service with partisan hacks whose only skill is “loyalty”, clearly it’s the swamp that needs to be drained.
I guess Trump won’t see consequences,
Probably not given his age, diet, and general level of fitness.
And even if he does live that long, I doubt he will remember it given his clearly declining mental health.
I feel kinda sad for them.
You should. Our country was just flushed down the drain by 37% of the voters who are all a bunch of dumbfuck morons.
Feel bad for the rest of the world who still rely on the unreliable American voters.
Eh. Russia doesn’t rely on American voters. We know Putin will draw 80% votes with 80% turnover.
I think we have to accept that the American electorate actually wants fascism.
It’s more that Harris did such a terrible job that even the other side being literal Hitler didn’t save her.
Bro, in don’t care how bad Harris is/was. If you prefer trump to her, it’s on you.
As always, mathematically not voting is equivalent to voting for the winner, since it’s a vote that didn’t change the result. So yeah. The above statement rings true.
As easy as it is to blame voters, the American electorate didn’t want fascism. That’s just false. Harris dug her own grave by actively discouraging voters who didn’t want fascism. This electorate is the same one that elected Biden in 2020 and (mostly) the same one that elected Obama in 2008 and 2012. They just wanted a real candidate and Harris wasn’t that.
Let’s give them leftist fascism and see how they react.
Leftist fascism is called communism.
They elected the candidate backed by Russia, which is still the shining beacon of a global superpower for the Tankies out there. So I guess Trump is a perfectly fine representative of fascism, left or right.
Another thing that’s barely on the chart: Foreign Policy, some fraction of which would be the genocide.
It just wasn’t the influential issue that much of Lemmy wished it were, and clearly not the reason Harris lost.
Foreign policy isn’t important to the workers, doing political work in my local area people will sooner talk about the dog shit sproon around theyre street or litter, the closure of public toilets or the removal of public bins as they all have a noticeable and tangible effect on day to day life. Sadly Gaza isn’t a broad issue to none gazans. I’m not advocating for this behaviour btw, just pointing out what I’ve noticed and spoken about in political circles.
Remember that people who considered foreign policy (aka Gaza) to be the most important didn’t vote. People who voted Harris did so because they either thought some other issue was more important or just didn’t care. I think you’ll get better insights from a “why didn’t you vote” survey. That said it’s definitely not the only reason Harris lost; it was her complete and utter failure at campaigning that allowed Trump to go around collecting swing states like they’re fucking MTG cards.
People who voted Harris did so because they either thought some other issue was more important or just didn’t care.
Or realized that Trump would be far worse for the Palestinians than any Democrat has ever been.
Worse maybe, but not for worse. That said that’s not really what I’m trying to say; my point is that people whose number one issue was Palestine overwhelmingly didn’t vote. Democrats went to vote despite Biden/Harris’s Israel policy, meaning they considered something else to be more important and so they wouldn’t answer this poll with “foreign policy”.
Exactly. For all the talk of the Palestine/Israel genocide being a reason people didn’t vote Harris, this poll certainly makes it seem like less of the issue. What the fuck happened? I’m genuinely ashamed to live in the States.
What the fuck happened?
Four years of a milquetoast, centrist Democrat telling the American people what they’re living isn’t the actual reality of the situation. Biden’s admin kept rolling out the “soft landing, economy is doing great,” schtick despite numerous news outlets reporting Americans don’t feel like it’s an economy working for them.
Then that Democrat finally stepping aside, too late for his constituents to have a say in who they want representing them. And then she ran on a centrist, return-to-the-status-quo platform that didn’t inspire the majority of Americans, who are so apathetic based on decades of being ignored by politicians they just don’t vote. Because what’s the point?
99.9% of US voters wouldn’t even be there if it wasn’t for genocide
Economy? Ah yes, let’s elect the person that wants to put 100% sanctions on literally everything. Masterful gambit sirs. Ya’ll can rot in hell!
Also side note, America’s economy is held up by cheap immigrant labor, so way to double dunk.
Why is there such an obsession with immigration?
Do you want to pick strawberries? It’s back-breaking and sucks.
Thinking back to the one debate he had with Harris, Trump blathered nonstop about immigration. He talks about it like a wave of moorish invaders sweeping across the land, pillaging. This is obviously a powerful Image if you can get people to believe it. And in some areas people have been feeling like American culture is giving way to Mexican culture as the population in their home towns shifts, so Trump’s rhetoric taps into something that was already there. And if we’re honest, border policy is a weird zone where many of the laws don’t make intuitive sense. America talks out of both sides of its mouth on the issue, historically. A lot of people are here illegally whom we depend on utterly to staff our economy. So their presence is in some way sanctioned, tolerated, but not fully legitimized in law. When someone comes along and articulates one clear direction on immigration, it sounds like someone is speaking clearly for the first time. Even if that direction is stupid, hateful, xenophobic, and economically unviable.
They’re convenient scapegoats that can’t defend themselves. “Look, it’s a witch! Burn it”
Never liked that argument. It’s essentially “Why, don’t you like immigration, dummy? Don’t you know immigrants are easily exploited to do hard labour cheaply?”
I’m not saying it isn’t true, especially in the west, but in my eyes, there are much more moral arguments for immigration.
Conservatives don’t care about that sort of morals. They only care about what affects them directly. Maybe that means they can’t find tomatoes or apples one day. Then they’ll blame some Democrat for the problem.
The obsession is because that’s the news friendly way of answering with “racism”.
This was what the UK discovered after Brexit
If you need a scapegoat, you pick one that can’t defend itself as easy.
Pretty weird that this tactic still works. It really shows how uneducated the masses are, and they’re about to become even less educated.
This is by design.
Sure, the unborn work for that too.
I just wonder what is so scary about immigrants to people?
They’re different, even if they’re very similar. The important part is that they look different, too, because if you talked about all the white immigrants taking the white-collar jobs people would have to actually think beyond just a face-value assessment. Brown is bad is a lot easier than person over there could be anything so I need to talk to them and form even a basic relationship with them to figure out what’s going on and by then I might not be able to hate them so absolutely.
Well they’re all lazy criminal welfare queens who are also taking all of our jobs somehow, don’t you read the right wing propag- I mean, news?
Being different is scary enough for those that lack education (either willingly or due to circumstances out of their control)
This is America, and they aren’t white. They don’t speak white.
Here comes the Democrats again. Complaining that their slaves are being taken away.
That was Florida in recent history, not the dems. “uhh can you latinos come back and work for us again?? no one is filling these jobs as you leave due to the recent legislative hatefest”
Conservatives don’t realize they have slaves, let alone rely on them. They pound the table about migrants while paying someone employing them to mow their lawn or renovate their house. Press them about it and they always tell you it’s none of their business how the people they contract keep the prices down.
Shut the fuck up moron. I absolutely want immigrant workers to have protections against being exploited, to be paid fairly and to be able to help us do work if they want to do it.
Having a bathroom nearby where they’re working? Not previously guaranteed. Think about what a poor idea that potentially is for the food you’re putting in your mouth.
What a limp-brained take.
The news says the Republicans are better at [the economy] because they are. How are they better. Because they are better for the economy. Who crashed the economy the last four times it’s happened Republicans. They’re so good at economy!
They’re never around for the rebound though. They leave the Democrats to pick up the pieces and the stupid fucks that voted for trump only see that gas was cheaper 5 years ago, so that must mean that trump’s economy was better!
Remember when gas was cheap because the entire country ground to a halt due to Trump mismanaging COVID? Those sure were the days…
