Failed roll for self-awareness

I voted for Kamala. My parents and grandparents did as well. I do not feel that the democrats were/are doing jack shit to court new voters. The party itself expects to just be the status quo and have people vote for it. Whether people want to admit it or not, the point of being a progressive party is to be... how do I put this... PROGRESSIVE.

The party itself expects to just be the status quo and have people vote for it.
When the alternative was Trump and Project 2025, that's exactly what most should have voted for.
But stopping DEI was more important than Social Security for the majority of voters
- Peope can't afford their bills and the Democrats were out there saying the economy is stronger than ever. They had no intention of helping people and you are shocked that people didn't go out to vote. If it's damned if you do, damned if you don't, most people will chose the latter
- I could be wrong about this: But I increasingly feel that the major issue for most of these people was economic instability - not making enough to make ends meet. But, out of a feeling of humiliation around saying “im poor” the message instead targets points of blame; either to potentially spare more dollars for themselves, or just genuinely to lash out at a world that’s succeeding without them.
  Doesn’t make the approach of their message in any way valid or okay. I’m just explaining that they needed an answer to their struggles. Trump gave them an elaborate lie about it, which to them was better than nothing.
Very, very well put. I voted for Kamala as well, and this is what I'm trying to scream from the rooftops. The democrats seem to see the current populist moment as an excuse to phone it in. It keeps blowing up in the face, and they keep saying "oh well, I guess we need to move right / let the voters learn their lesson"
- That's literally the program which benefits their donors.
the point of being a progressive party is to be… how do I put this… PROGRESSIVE.
Their policies are progressive. They have a voting history proving they vote progressively. Joe Biden was an EXTREMELY progressive president.
Yeah, the Dems should advertise better. But Americans should also not be braindead stupid assholes and do some goddamn homework.
We had two options. A fascist regime or something 1 trillion times better. We shit the bed and went with fascism. That's not the Democrat's fault. That's dipshit American's fault.
- Yeah their policies are so progressive that the dick Chaney family endorsed them. Biden was so progressive that as soon as the supreme court repealed Roe v. Wade, he made an EO to protect the rights of women. Oh and of course how can we forget that he made college and vocational schooling free for everyone, and secured the rights of trans Americans to literally just fucking exist.
  oh wait. no wait he didn't do any of that. in fact I think he might've just held up the status quo of the time.
Dems didn’t need new voters. They just needed the same folks that voted for Biden in 2020 to show up in 2024.
Too bad they were too racist and sexist to vote for a black woman.
- Lot of those people who voted in 2020 weren't Democratic voters. They voted for the Democrats that one time and then the Democrats failed to retain them. That's on the Democrats. I don't know how many times people can say it. It's a candidate and the party's job to earn people's votes. Earn them. There is literally no other way to do it. Democrats refuse to do that that's why they lose.
"I do not feel that the democrats were/are doing jack shit to court new voters."
This sentence structure obfuscates your meaning.
- they were not doing Anything and are still not doing Anything.
  hope that clears it up

This is definitely a liberal take. I don't agree with those who didn't vote for Kamala, but removing responsibility from people running her campaign when there are obvious glaring issues such as retracting all populist messaging and appealing to non-existent right wingers voting against Trump was a real stinker to say the least. It's okay to blame politicians who didn't win for not winning.

God, this is the take I want to see. I'll take criticism of my voting habits, but it should be proportional to my power. Democrats have more culpability.
- proportional to my power
  This is the thing that always kills me. My vote was 100% worthless. Completely performative, just throwing paper to the wind. My state was one of the few that actually went for Harris, my state governor is one of the few actually fighting against Trump, my city has so far done an excellent job fighting back against him, and none of the races were even really close. I'm sure there are many other people, in the other firm blue states just like mine, who couldn't stomach voting for genocide when they know their vote is just a gesture.
- You got a fascist elected. Hope your moral purity was worth it
100%

Did the DNC's strategy work? No? Then the Democrats were wrong.

It's their job to convince voters to vote for them. And if they won't take responsibility for failing at their job, then they're on course to do the exact same thing in 2028 and get the exact same results.

It’s their job to convince voters to vote for them.
And it's the voters DUTY to inform themselves responsibly and make the best choice for the welfare of their nation. American voters failed to do so.
- We can't do anything about that, wagging your finger at voters will not accomplish anything. But we CAN do something about the party itself, the candidate, and the campaign strategy.
  Fixating on things we can't change is a way to deflect from having actual productive conversations about things that we can change. It's a way for the DNC to avoid taking responsibility.
- In other words, it's the voter's duty to perform a communist revolution. How well are you personally performing your duty, comrade?
Exactly. You know what I would like to see? I would like to see the Democratic Party act like parties due in many countries. The norm internationally is that if you are running a party, and that party loses catastrophically, that it is your moral responsibility to give up the reigns of that party. You had your chance. It didn't work. There are plenty of people out there with good ideas. Your opinions will still be welcome. Or, for a corporate example, if you're a CEO, and you crash the company's stock, you're usually going to lose your job.
Anyone in a top-20 leadership position of Democrats in 2024 should simply be done with running things. They can't run as candidates. They can't serve party leadership roles. They can't serve on party committees. They can only participate as a regular party member.
That's how the party should be run. One strike and you're out. Let the strong survive. We want the party to be a god-damned thunderdome.
Did the DNC's strategy work? No? Then the Democrats were wrong.
So you're saying that no matter what happens, it's never my fault. Yay!
(/s)
The voters faced a trolly problem. While Trump was busy tying more and more people to the track, the Democrats left a few on the track, and the voters decided that they couldn't stomach the choice, so they sat it out. And now we get this.
The Democrats have blood on their hands, sure, but so does every person who didn't vote yet bemoans the Trump presidency.
- If you think the trolley problem has an obvious solution, you do not understand the trolley problem.

Non-contributing rage bait. The Democrats were wrong. The Democrats still are wrong. And the Democratic presidential candidate was infinitely better than her opposition.

Nuance motherfucker do you speak it.

Nuance motherfucker do you speak it.
"If they dislike my party, they must support the other party, nothing else exists, right?"
- In a two party system, especially when there's no clear "I don't like either" option then yes, nothing else exists. When you don't vote you're not saying "I don't like either party" you're saying "I don't care which party wins". If you don't care which party wins then you're in support of both parties.
- “If you dislike pancakes that must mean you LOOOOVE waffles right?”
  No bitch thats a brand new sentence wtf is you talking about.

"Wow you wanted the Democrats to do popular polices? You must be a Republican!"
They were too cowardly to enact any change, and just tried to keep the status quo.
Refused to act against an attempted coup by the previous president, and suffered for it, as they rightly should.
Everyone wants something. At least they're getting it now right?
Zionists are people. (Not good people).

Yeah that is the level of self awareness that created this bullshit. Fuck the Democrats. To be clear I voted for Harris but t Still think the Democrats suck

Imagine posting this meme when just today the DNC have announced their “new” leadership and it’s just the same as the old leadership, and they’ve done absolutely nothing to push back against Trump this whole time.
Just like they would have done nothing when Trumpists did a violent coup if the voting results were different.
Liberals only differ from fascists in degree, not the kind of ideology they follow.
- Imagine posting this meme when just today the DNC have announced their “new” leadership and it’s just the same as the old leadership, and they’ve done absolutely nothing to push back against Trump this whole time.
  "But maybe next DNC chair you'll get a progressive! Vote for us and we'll give you what you want next time."
- Degree of minorities murdered matters.
You guys deserve trump.
Like "the democrats weren't cool and sexy enough, and they didn't serenade me long enough, they didn't even have my favorite ice cream flavor".
This thread is full of it.
There's no campaign bad enough to justify electing the injecting bleach criminal.
They just should have needed to come out, point at trump and say "if you don't vote for me you'll get him", turn 180 and go to sleep. And should have won like 80-20.
- Last night the Democrats official response the Donald Trump's speech was to praise Ronald Reagan. It somehow here you stand today defending them. Unbelievable
- I did say I voted for them, still frustrated

Both can be true you know

We were going to eventually get a president that's doing what Trump is doing assuming we failed to organize. I just wanted more time to organize in the hopes that we could avoid all the pain and suffering that a president like Trump will cause.
- As somebody who's worked on leftist local campaigns, no amount of time was ever going to help us. A large majority of the American people want to stay on the globalist neoliberal train until it inevitably crashes. The only thing they can't agree on is the conductor.
- If only there was an organization, like, a big, established political party, that's been around for a really long time that could have done something, rather than people trying to organize last minute.

Broadcasts from the future:

Wednesday, November 8, 2028: The democrats, running a Mike Pence and Mitt Romney ticket, have just lost to the a copy of Grok 3 trained on the transcripts of all of Donald Trump's, uh, speeches, and its running mate, Eye Fuckskulls, the modern leader of the Aryan Brotherhood. After having a completely fair primary in which their super delegates all reported that they would vote for Pence on day one, and all the other candidates, each having won one or two states, dropped out and pledged their votes to Pence after he won the absolutely critical state of New Hampshire, the democrats were sure of their chances with this centrist ticket. Many democrats expressed befuddlement that they lost ground in every demographic, although some strategists see a glimmer of hope in that they managed to pick up sixteen disaffected Republican voters nationwide. Some voters seemed to think that the democrats didn't make a case for why they should vote for Pence and Romney instead of Grok/Fuckskulls, but democrats disagree. "It's hard to know for sure, but my guess is that it's time to move past unpopular far left policies like only executing 100 detained immigrants a day, annexing only half of Canada, and limiting involuntary Tesla Factory labor to only the poorest Americans" said one democratic strategist.

"Stupid fucking leftists, progressives, and non-voters, Pence/Romney 'Atheist Genocide But We'll Say Sorry While Doing It 2028' was the best chance we had at restoring the republic, the damage that Grok and Fuckskulls will do is immeasurable. I guess they're just going to have to learn to vote blue no matter who in 2032!" Yelled another exasperated democrat on the TrumpNet (tm), America's isolated and heavily censored internet network.

I really enjoyed reading this, thank you for the satirical sci-fi of the bullshit we're stuck with of today.
- I'm pretty sure it's actually a broadcast from the future mate.

Oh this again? Democratic Party: has our Neo liberalism, refusal to enact progressive policy, and backing of a genocide alienated progressive voters? Disenfranchised voter: damn it we told you a thousand times yes! Democratic Party: No it’s the voters who are wrong.

Hey, hey, marketing yourself as Fascism Lite: Low Sodium as opposed to Fascism Original Recipe has to work at some point, right?
- Gotta keep tugging for those republican votes. We may need to adopt some republican priorities in order to get those voters, but its all for a good cause right?

"Democrats are not doing enough to encourage people to vote for Democrats." is a warning, not a threat.

People who make and post memes like this seem to think that the people complaining about conservative Democrats and pointing out problems in the party are not voting for Democrats. I think they largely wrong about that. We are voting for all Democrats all the time, but warning you that your messaging sucks and you are not going to get the turnout you need. It is not our fault we were correct.

Wrong! ANY criticism of the party means you’re a secret maga Russian plant. The democrats are perfect and don’t need to improve in any way!
/s
- I mean, you certainly argue like a MAGA.
Exactly. "Back the blue no matter who" is great and dandy in the months between primaries and the election, but at any other time it's a straight-up nonsense phrase. We're now well into the "Who'll be the new blue?" stage, and the last thing we need is to let some ancient, entitled, dem politician shuffle in and take "their turn" and for democrats to just go with it again. Now's the time to build a movement against the dnc establishment and for the progressive wing.
I also don't really see the point in the meme and ones like it. The election already happened, and whether you personally blame voters or the dnc, either way it's the dnc's problem to fix or they're gonna go extinct.
It is not our fault we were correct.
No. It’s your fault you’re not doing anything about it.
Create a community for every state and win the midterms (where applicable). Start there.
- We are trying. I volunteer for campaigns and knock on doors for progressive candidates. And they get attacked by the kind of democrats who take most of their campaign contributions from property developers and car dealerships.
  If you are voting for the establishment and attacking anybody who brings up valid criticisms, YOU are not doing anything about it.
- Lemmy tradition: assuming everyone else is a keyboard warrior with no direct action.

As an outsider, I think you’re not on the side of the meme that you think you’re on.

If not voting for Trump wasn’t enough for Harris to win, she sure didn’t act like it. “Nothing to change” from the policies of the guy who was forced to step down wasn't what the people wanted to hear.

I mean he was asked to step down because of the worry that his mental faculties, not due to his policies. Remember, it was right after his first debate with Trump. The following debate, Kamala roasted Trump.
- Yeah, except for the whole genocide thing. But mostly college kids protested that. You can just beat up those.
- Hold on, last election he refused to say so explicitly, but he repeatedly implied he wouldn't run for a second term and described himself as a bridge candidate. Then he demanded a second term at the last minute.
Well, they sure have change now! Enjoy.

¿Por Qué No Los Dos?

When it was the day of the general election and we were guaranteed to either get mainstream Democrat or Trump 2.0: The Revenge Tour, I could not morally justify any vote that didn’t minimize the chances of Trump winning.

But in the present day, and in the time leading up to the election, god damn the Democrats feel so worthless. Their party probably needs to be completely rebuilt even before the much much worse Republican party. You can’t have the Nice Conservative Party vs the Mean Conservative Party when the latter has gone off the deep end.

But also in the present day, it may already be too late. So keep on writing stern letters, insider trading, and raking in the fundraising while your desperate constituents still have some money and willingness to do something!

Yes thank you, this is the sane response. Sitting here in my neighbouring nation wondering if we'll be facing invasion in the next year or two, I have no sympathy for people who couldn't hold their nose and vote for harm reduction. I just can't understand why so many Americans are too blind to understand that you can have harm reduction, AND oppose the democrats.
- Very true. I think we need to do our own version of the ratchet effect. In places that are solidly red we need to vote blue to lighten them up a bit. In places that are blue we need to start doing grass roots efforts to winning local offices and state reps that do represent our issues.

I voted for those assholes up and down. They still suck.

I’ve been voting blue no matter who for 25 years and it didn’t stop this shit

40 years and it's worse.
Same.
And I'll keep voting blue no matter who.
BECAUSE LOOK AT THE ALTERNATIVE.
- Same.
  And I’ll hate it every time and expect nothing in return.

Yes, stop thinking and just follow the herd! That's surely the solution! \s

Thankfully I live in a state where my vote doesn't matter at all. jfc.

How many years can the libs keep this up?

Enjoy the turbo-genocide ethnic cleansing!
- I don’t enjoy it at all. Your glee is disgusting.
How many years can the libs keep this up?
Until the collapse of society. (Three)

This dumbass argument again.

You need an opposition party then. If you keep blaming the voters you are going to keep digging your own grave. In America you have only two parties and legit no opposition party. In this way guess what, FASCISM always wins.

Also Please honestly explain to me, how in the fuck is fascism lite ever going to beat fascism?

Bro, DSA leaders have flat out said that that is too much fucking work. They could have a seat at the table, but that comes with the expectation that they will sit down, and in good faith, do some fucking work. But they don't want a seat at the table. They want to be handed the table, all the chairs, and the keys to the building table is sitting in, and then thanked for saving the world without having to lift a goddamn finger. Obama spoke very openly about his time in office, and said that in his first year he was full of fire and optimism, and was all gung-ho about getting Americans universal healthcare or at least get us on the path to it, and very quickly learned how to be pragmatic. He never gave up his ideals, never changed his values, but in his first year he learned that he couldn't just magically sign a paper and boom, everyone's on Medicare. He had to do stuff that most DSA people find boring or tedious, like sitting down with Senators and Representatives and working on a plan together to get something started.
This place is a shit hole now. Everyday the front page is swarmed with garbage just like this. I'm done with this place.

The democrats were wrong, they fucking lost!

The Party cannot fail, it can only be failed.

The democrats objectively were wrong.

They lost the election.

That’s the only measure of right or wrong that actually matters.

They literally had only one job and they fucked it up again.

They literally had only one job and they fucked it up again.
American voters had one job. To responsibly inform themselves and make the best choice for the welfare of their nation. They failed to do so, again.
- We can’t control the American voters so complaining about them doesn’t actually accomplish anything.
  We can, however, change the Democratic party to better align with the voters.
  That should be everyone’s focus.

But... Eggs!

God Americans are insufferable. You pillage and murder the world and blame anyone but yourselves. Why don’t you actually do something useful?

~~Reddit~~ Lemmy users love their internet slacktivism. These mfers will type out a 10,000 word comment on a five year old post before they will vote.

Yeah. Voting is
biggest fingerquotes Michael Myers can muster
"Activism"
/s
- We agree that spending one's time typing internet comments is less effective than voting.

Except for 2020 the 2024 election had the highest voter turnout so far this century. A lot of people were voting. Was it just more Trump supporters that turned up? He does have a way of stirring people up. He picks topics that make a certain type of person mad and that brings them out. Kamala could have responded by picking topics that inspired the left. Trump was offering a complete overhaul of the government and sweeping social changes (which he is delivering). Kamala was offering more of the same. I suspect he just brought out more people that otherwise wouldn't have voted.

And before you start blaming me for it, I, like most of us, don't live in a swing state. My vote literally didn't matter.

I feel you're also ignoring the huge amount of free publicity that Trump go from TikTok, Instagram and X. Kamala, or any D, would not have gotten that extra power.
- Maybe dems would get more attention if they did something different from the other "party".

Honestly would still respect them more if they voted 3rd party over not voting.

Sadly spoiling ballots with drawings of cocks is much harder with voting machines.
- The fact that you have voting machines just doesn't seem right to me
Those really aren't any different than voting for Trump or not voting.
If people really want to break the two party system it needs to start local and work it's way up. But everyone wants a solution tomorrow or not bother at all.
- They only want a solution all of a sudden in September on election year. It’s a clown show of nobody being interested till it’s way too late

The biggest problem with the US is lack of proportional representation. Winner-takes-all elections have led to the inevitable outcome. It's also why in Europe the propagandists are trying to push for the same system whenever they can.

First past the post is a fatal flaw. I really hope the UK can ditch it someday.

I'm still waiting for whatever the hell is supposed to happen after electoral politics has failed us, because it has.

I was told by people pushing for people to not bother voting in 2024 that voting was meaningless and that Trump would be no different than Harris. People told me that the solidarity of grassroots organization was the only way to see any real change, and that we had to reject the DNC at all costs. Well, we rejected it. What now?

PS: I don't even mean this sarcastically or to win internet points -- that are even more meaningless than on reddit -- on this site. I'm actually asking, what are we doing now that this happened?

If you're genuinely asking some basic actions for a broad and general audience looking for political engagement:
A lot of states have initiatives and referendums citizens can bring to a vote in elections. There may be a grassroots organization working on an issue you may align with. (Especially vote reform groups looking to introduce alternatives to how we elect our government.)
Following this: Don't be a stranger to your local government. At least learn who they are if you don't. Your state reps and senators, your federal rep and senators, your kids' school superintendent, the elected sheriff. Vote in the primaries, the odd years, the midterms, the big presidential tickets. And this isn't 'just vote' advice. I mean vote for politicians pushing policies you agree with, regardless of party or incumbency. Don't be afraid to third party in a primary (if you can).
Join community groups and socialize in meatspace. There may be community centers and libraries around you with things to engage with. As much as online spaces can help people feel connected or a shared or safe place, the politics and governance is maintained on the meatspace level of your neighbors. Your district is likely gerrymandered but it's worth finding out where you stand in the whole tapestry of American governance. (This one can be a huge hurdle, and I understand. Most of my community are military so progressives get like 200 votes per 10,000 pure military industrial zionism. I barely amount to this advice myself, FWIW.)
- Join community groups and socialize in meatspace.
  This is probably what I'm most interested in, but I find it to be a drag to even locate. I've gone to meetup groups and even helped organize a meetup group before but everything about them seemed pretty worthless. It could just be my particular circumstances or my particular location, but it seems like it's difficult to find any regular community group, and then any -- even sporadic -- activity outside of work mixers, happy hours, ticketed events, and concerts.
  At one point I took a look around the area for mutual aid groups and found only one -- and this was mid-pandemic when they were getting a lot of attention and hype -- and it didn't even appear to be active anymore. I think the web link I got was dead or something.
  My working theory of why this country is so far off the rails is multifaceted, but one big aspect is that meatspace is deader than myspace.

Their job is literally to get elected...

ITT:

cake or death?
vanilla cake? Are you a moron?
some dude who chose not cake

Or maybe we won’t vote for a democrat or a republican either one so a non vote isn’t a vote your way

What done is done. Democratic voters PUT TRUMP BACK IN OFFICE to send a message. If the party leaders don't get the message, then 4 years of Trump were all for not.

They won't get the message, and it won't matter now. Americans voted for their nation to formalize its oligarchy. From the current trajectory, I wouldn't hold my breath on this playing out in any accelerationist's favour either.

As a stien voter. I pretty much laugh at people that complain about Democrats loss. Yeah Democrats suck I don't vote for them because I don't want them to be legitimized. Also I push for approval voting system