If by too leftist and too woke, they are saying that Democrats need to hit the identity politics a bit less, this is understandable.
Old school leftists have been saying this for a while. We need to protect at-risk groups, of course. But we cannot abandon the populism and we need to stop ignoring the class warfare (being conducted on the poor and middle class). It really is the economy.
If anyone is saying they were too leftist, as in the way it used to mean, there is no way the campaign went “too leftist”.
Are you referring specifically to this cycle, or Democrats in the past in a more general sense?
I don’t recall ever having heard Kamala bring up her race or gender. When asked about it directly in an interview, she said it’s no secret she’s a woman of color but never really followed up on it.
I do remember her talking a lot about her experience growing up in a middle class family or becoming a prosecutor, but does that really count as identity politics?
In general, and more recently. Yes, Kamala thread the needle quite well, I thought. One of the best examples is as you say - not taking the bait, but also selecting Walz.
It goes mostly beyond Democrats, TBH. There is a cultural thing going on right now, and honestly, I cannot help but wonder if it is part of the oligarchy’s strategy to specifically annoy and turn off a lot of people - meaning, some people just want escapism in their entertainment, and instead, they are often getting sanctimonious messaging that is so ham-fisted as to break the fourth wall. If they aren’t doing this on purpose with the intent of making more Republicans, they should know they are not really winning hearts and minds by seemingly going out of their way to try to ruin every single intellectual property with this stuff. Their attitude, even if they are losing literally millions of dollars in the process, seems to be to raise their middle finger to the fans. The people getting annoyed by this are not all racists, or misogynists or transphobic…but they might start voting with that bunch for the likes of donvict as a result.
So, a lot of this is entirely beyond the Democratic Party’s control, but I think they’d be better off if they made it clear they are for EVERYONE while distancing themselves from more sanctimonious messaging that looks like it is just engaging in blaming cishet white men for existing.
People struggling to make ends meet might just be getting tired of the culture lecturing on how “too many white men are being centered” in fictional narratives when they just want some escapism to escape from the miserable lives Republicans are making for them, and if they think the Democrats are here to pound the same message in, they are going to tune out.
