Comment by krapp
1 day ago
The Democrats didn't lose because Harris didn't get a primary. Literally no one but Republicans who would never have voted for her to begin with cared about that.
Democrats lost because they keep triangulating and trying to appeal to centrist Republicans who either don't exist, or would never vote for them regardless. If Harris had distinguished herself from Biden by taking a firm stance against the Palestinian genocide - which was the single issue much of her base cared about - she would have won.
Also, Trump didn't win in a landslide. It was a close election, and Trump definitely won the popular vote, but the margins were still about 51% to 49%.
> Democrats didn't lose because Harris didn't get a primary
The point is Harris would have been replaced in a primary. Democrats needed a candidate who could call Biden out on his failures, namely, not taking inflation seriously (Manchin said so!) and completely flubbing it on the border.
> If Harris had distinguished herself from Biden by taking a firm stance against the Palestinian genocide
She would have lost worse in Pennsylvania and maybe picked up Michigan and had absolutely zero effect anywhere else because foreign policy wasn’t a material factor in this election. (It was a loud factor. But not in an electorally relevant way.)
I get the impulse to do this. My pet war was Ukraine. But neither was actually voted on because Americans don’t tend to think about foreign policy unless we’re actually at (or about to go to) war ourselves.
>Democrats lost because they keep triangulating and trying to appeal to centrist Republicans who either don't exist, or would never vote for them regardless. If Harris had distinguished herself from Biden by taking a firm stance against the Palestinian genocide - which was the single issue much of her base cared about - she would have won.
Everyone thinks that their one particular issue was the crucial one, but all the data shows that the issues that actually mattered were A) inflation and B) the border / immigration / crime / perception of disorder.
The only two Dem Senators that underperformed Harris were Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. The rest of the downballot had been running hard centrist on the border for much longer and with less baggage, and guess what, they did better.
<< The Democrats didn't lose because Harris didn't get a primary.
I can't tell if this is some weird cope, satire or honest to goodness opinion.
<< It was a close election, and Trump definitely won the popular vote, but the margins were still about 51% to 49%.
Just like the previous sentence fragment. Narrow facts are true, but manage to completely miss the picture.
You realize that some of those Trump supporters voted for a Black man with a Muslim sounding name - twice?
Kamala didn’t lose in Miami of all places because of her stance on Palestine. Nor did she lose every swing state for that reason.