To win back support, the Democratic candidate must offer a positive and coherent vision centered on care and progressive policies, rather than relying solely on anti-Trump rhetoric.
What would it take to implement even a part of the Nordic model social welfare here in the U.S.?
Not an economist, but I think it would take taxing corporations a fair share of the resources, human and otherwise, they enjoy.
So much wealth is misappropriated as undeserved CEO pay, and restructuring CEO pay even just a little to allow paying for greater corporate taxes will create enough revenue from taxes and implement social welfare for 100s of millions.
Housing support for families and individuals who need it, free healthcare for all, and free K-12 education for all should be a bare minimum. Moreover, if people are losing work and income due to AI, there needs to be retraining.
But why do all this? Why reduce suffering and misery? Less worry about money and health = happier lives = stronger bodies and minds = more resilient people = communities which can withstand shocks from natural or manmade disasters. In some way, having stronger communities ensures homeland security.
More than that, everything which supports the work of corporations relies on civilized society and the structure gained from civilization. These are the basics which are ignored in favor of shortsighted policy making benefiting only the greedy.
The rural population folks are pawns being manipulated by the greedy uber rich. In fact, they’re deliberately kept destitute and sick so they can’t move to other states, and they’re fed a constant stream of hate media to get them vote against their own interests. There’s no war but class war.
Sure. But that’s what it would take for them to stop voting Republican at this point. Death. Trump is a fascist, a rapist, a pedophile, a crook, and a moron, a literal East Coast Elite, and he still has their unthinking support.
This is not a path America comes back from without the only kind of disease that could kill rural citizens in greater numbers than urban:
A civil war.
That or Covid-25, bigger, better, and even more horrible but in some weird way that means they won’t take basic precautions to stop themselves from dying.
Like, just think beyond this election, right?
What are they going to say when they lose?
Are they going to go back to being somewhat reasonable neocons?
Or is this what every election for the rest of our lives is going to be? Neoliberalism vs fascism?
As a leftist, it absolutely boggles my mind how utterly naive and stupid other leftists and Democrats can be. No, you don’t need more great policies - policies are not going to win you the election. We already have great policies.
Republicans don’t give a flying fuck about policy. You know what they are really good at though? Fucking voting!
As much as I know you will hate to hear this, the only thing that is going to prevent you from Republican fascism next year is to spread the word and vote against these idiots who are poised to win in 2024. Do whatever it takes to get the apathetic voters out of their goddamn chairs and vote blue in November.
As much as I know you will hate to hear this, the only thing that is going to prevent you from Republican fascism next year is to spread the word and vote against these idiots who are poised to win in 2024. Do whatever it takes to get the apathetic voters out of their goddamn chairs and vote blue in November.
And never miss any election again - especially LOCAL elections, where your vote is likely a much larger fraction, and where the impacts are more likely to be clearly felt on your daily life. I actually get reasonably progressive democrats on the ballot here, and you probably do too. Go vote for them.
That is intentionally misrepresenting what he said entirely. His point was that policies don’t win elections. If they did, Republicans would basically not exist now.
Public image wins elections. Obama was only able to overcome American voters’ racial biases and win 2008 because of his public speaking abilities and building his character over the course of the years beforehand. He also actually did pretty well as a president, at least significantly better than the presidents since Reagan imo, which definitely secured him the re-election regardless of his incredible charisma, but no amount of good policies in his previous campaigns could’ve made up for charisma.
Since Biden just dropped out, it’s Kamala’s job now to secure the election by improving her public image. She’s already gotten on that to some extent by recently starting to emphasize how much she contributed to many of the key good policies throughout her Vice Presidency – it tells voters about what kinds of policies she supports, yes, but it’s mainly a way to tell voters “hey, I’ve been here this entire time, I’ve implemented all this amazing stuff despite it never breaking the news, I’m competent and fit for the job”; the image of efficiency & competence is more important than the actual policies themselves.
A “leftie” Project 2025 counterpart would just make most voters immediately think dems (and Harris) as more divisive and even petty/retaliatory. It’s stupid to think like that, yes, but voters are pretty irrational. This includes like at least 1/10 of the democrats’ voterbase (and I’d wager probably a lot more in important swing states with a high suburban&rural population like Michigan) which is basically slightly conservative middle-class centrists who would prefer progressive policies (excluding some of the socially progressive ““identity politics”” as they call it) but are easily pushed into “collaborator” territory if they feel like dems start being too “radical”, too “divisive”, too “virtue signaling”, etc. Such problems are inevitable when you brand yourself as “the party of compromise”.
I disagree. One thing I think Democrats have been missing has been a vision for the future. The closest we got was Obama’s “Hope & Change” which didn’t have any real meat to it. Having a clear set of policy goals that people can get excited about will drive voter turnout, thus beating the Republicans.
I see tons of people complaining that the Democrats don’t have any policies except “We’re not Republicans.” That on its face should be good enough, but since it’s not maybe doing something else would help. And don’t just make it for 2025, but a permanent change. Like how the Republicans worked for decades to overturn Roe v. Wade.
I think that not having or discussing policies is a feature not a bug.
It started with the GOP and the DNC pick up on it. The idea being that if you don’t talk about a policy then your opponent can’t attack you for it. Instead every election cycle politicians talk in big generalities and no real substance because it’s a safer strategy.
Ah sifting through the ashes of GND and BBB, or FOCA for that matter…
So-called “progressive” politics is a piss-poor substitute for radical politics.
Have you figured out why your precious liberal status quo is so accomodating to fascism yet, “progressive?”
Let me give you a hint, liberal - it’s because so-called “progressive” politics is a piss-poor substitute for radical politics.
Which of the suggested policies in the article would you consider to be radical?
From a German perspective, I don’t understand why you always talk about this. You are giving them more attention than they deserve.
WTF??
Let’s talk about your history 8 years ago…
One big conclusion of your last Trump disaster was “Bad attention is attention, too.”. That’s how your orange endangerer (is this a word? I hope so… You get what I mean) won the 2016 election. Trump insults someone => News article, Trump plans to do something => New article, Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump
Just stop talking about this guy… Why do I even know about this project 2025 bullshit in Germany? Not from our media… Just because progressive people (you use the word liberals) post about it all the time.
The worst case for trump would be everyone ignoring him.
The best case for him is everyone talking about him. It does not even matter whether it’s positive or negative… About the attempt to kill him, about his stupid project, about the wall, about his hookers, about the court hearings, etc. How many more Trumps does America need to understand this?
You know what. Fair enough. I apologize for my earlier comment, fucked in retrospect.
Kind of hard to do it though when our media is run by people with similar interests as Trump. Also kind of hard to do that when this man has the literal Republican party nomination. It’s all money. Until that’s out we need to speak out about this man’s ridiculous policies, agenda, and history. If we don’t his cronies (such as the daily wire) do enough water carrying for him to gain a foothold in people’s minds. I feel like educating the public on these policies is important, irregardless of the outcome. I hate vibes voting.
From my own experience (anecdotal I know) I usually have had success bringing up project 2025 to very far right people in my life. That seems to be a talking point that sticks with people, and it is effective.
I wish nothing more for people to take him as the unserious RFK like fart in the wind he should be. My very own state is probably trumps biggest fan. However until we get there you put a big bright spotlight on this cockroach and all the dirt and shit he has crawled in. Since our media won’t laugh him out of the race.
