Bernie Sanders blames election loss on Kamala Harris choosing billionaires over the working class
Bernie Sanders blames election loss on Kamala Harris choosing billionaires over the working class
Sanders said while Joe Biden has been blamed election loss, it was ultimately Harris’s fault for cosying up to billionaires
I’m pretty far left of Harris ideologically and never really liked her or thought she was worthy of these powerful offices. I also never really expected that much from her. That being said, I was passionate about dropping Biden and supporting her campaign even at that late hour, given the immense implications of electing trump for a second term. I donated money, and rallied friends and family to get on board. Then she did that DNC speech and talked about the ‘strongest military’ yadda yadda yadda. All of that energy and enthusiasm instantly evaporated. Nothing she or her campaign did after that motivated any active support from me and I had to really fight off the urge to not vote for her. I’m entirely done with the Democratic Party as run by the current regime. Unless that party reforms, the US is absolute toast.
I was so excited after she picked Tim Walz. It was starting to look like the most progressive ticket in decades, she was ahead in the polls, and then she turned around and started campaigning with Republicans and CEOs. Total betrayal.
And yeah, she disappeared. I hear more from Biden and Obama than from her.
I never felt Harris actually stood for anything. This is easily the first election where I felt all the decisions made by the DNC were hard wrong - and I already thought the DNC fucked everything up when the turned on Sanders - but this time they really chose every bad option they could. A senior citizen that was absolutely having problems (outside the debate performance) and choosing an inclusivity* candidate that really had a checkered past of making climbing the ladder a priority while having no real policy gains or stances. Even in the lead up to everything, the other candidates were all but brushed aside. No real debate over policy or where the country was going.
She said whatever middle of the road thing needed to be said to appeal to enough people while leveling mealy criticism at best for the real problems, from Israel’s shitty war to attacks worker’s right in the US. We went from a candidate that should have never run again to a candidate that hadn’t given anyone a reason to want her to run at all at the last minute. And that’s awful, especially to lose against trump.
- I hate to even say it, but the fact is that the DNC wanted to run a black female. They banked on the (I can’t think of the word/name for it - people who want to do things for a minority community, but do so cluelessly, remove agency of the group, disregard the actual needs and culture of the group. Usually modestly wealthy white people making “programs” for minority communities) people to vote for the feel-good of voting a minority person up while not actually thinking that people would have needs and policy concerns that would influence their vote, or their willingness to vote at all. The DNC already had “protect the rich white people” as a top priority. They didn’t think people were smart enough to sense that, and everyone really had a feeling that the Democrats didn’t care about them anymore.
Edit: found it. It’s “white saviorism” or “white savior complex.”
Harris just disappeared, has zero interest in actually being a leader, has zero interest in spearheading a democratic movement, is doing jack shit to help make this transition easier through good will projects, she literally doing nothing, yet I’ve started getting please gib money texts with her name on them again… maybe if she hadn’t pulled a vanishing act we could at least talk but like, wtf is she even doing that she needs my money? I don’t even live in her state.
I see a lot of these postmortems and I don't know what combination of them is the actual truth, but I wasn't the slightest bit surprised when she lost. As soon as she got the nomination I thought it was likely.
For what it's worth, here is my take on her as one Californian that's had to deal with her since before 2010 when she ran for attorney general:
- Even before she ran for attorney general, I was constantly hearing about all kinds of awful stuff the SF district attorney's office was doing under her leadership even though I'm not from SF county.
- I was very disappointed when she got the nomination for attorney general because I didn't want her policies applied statewide. I voted against her in the primary but of course I held my nose and voted for her over the R in the general.
- I don't recall who I voted for in the 2016 primary for Senate but it wasn't her, or blue dog Sanchez. I think I barely tilted toward Sanchez in the general but I honestly can't remember. I was so disappointed in those choices that I didn't really give a shit. I thought we could do better in California than two conserva-dems, especially with the top-2 primary system.
- Never even considered voting for that cop in a presidential primary.
- Didn't like that she was the bottom of the ticket in 2020 especially considering Biden's age, but the alternative was clear.
- Of course, due to the alternative I voted for her in 2024 but without one iota of enthusiasm. I think I may have been more enthused to vote for John fucking Kerry, but that was a long time ago, it's hard to remember my feelings for a block of wood.
A small silver lining to her losing is I'll never have to hold my nose and vote for her ever again.
She lost because she just sucks. Whether an individual's reason for thinking she sucks and not being excited about her was based on misogyny, racism, her record of public service, her policy goals, or her personality doesn't matter. I didn't know anybody excited to vote for her. I knew some people excited to vote for a WOC, but not her as a person. A little enthusiasm was what was needed to turn the tide in the three states that mattered this time.
As soon as Biden dropped out too late for an actual primary, we already lost.
He is 100% right like always
Yeah, but Trump does the same. Kamala had better taxes planned for the working class and the poor. Trump also has a very poor track record. You can blame Kamala for not doing it right, but imo the issue is mass disinformation and people being extremily dumb.
A few posts down in my feed is a photo of children zip tied in immigration court and it is fucking disgusting. There would be other problems in a Harris admin. But maybe we wouldn’t zip tie little kids.
Proper headline:
“Harris Chose Billionaires Over Working Class; Voters Chose to Burn It Down Rather Than Submit to More Democrat Pretending”
If the choice is between a fast death with Trump and a slow death with corporate Democrats morphing into Republicans, can we really blame folks for choosing a fast death?
We need progressive, true left politics if we ever want to recover.
It's not just Kamala Harris, it is democrats in general. I get that they want the first woman president ... but its not going to happen in this political environment. Many Hatian immigrants that voted for Trump just because they don't think a woman can be president. Copy that ... Trump said these people are eating cats and they still voted for him. Hispanics? News flash, they are predominantly Catholic ... so Pro Choice doesn't go over well for them. Then people got angry because Kamala skipped the whole nomination prosses. Stuff like this is why she lost. Biden should have ran, then resigned after he beat Trump again.
Yeah. The DNC either don't realise, or refuse to realise, that electing Trump is not in approval of him, but expression of disapproval of the Democratic Party.
Corporate democrats #1 policy: protect the 1% at all costs
Yes, the Democratic Party is more subtle in regard to their support for oligarchs and corruption. With exception to Senator Sanders, the old coots should fucking retire. The election loss proved the AmeriKans are sucking down the Orange Kool-Aid and want the US Constitution to burn.
It is perfectly fine, in fact it would be incredibly refreshing & welcome, to admit...she was a shitty candidate. Fuck, she was so terribly bad. And Tim Walz was a bad pick, too.
Everything was fake. Every day it unraveled more. She was caught saying things like, "I am different than Biden, I am not Biden, do not let his presidency reflect on me." What would you do differently? "Nothing, I wouldn't change anything." Okay....so....how are you different if everything Biden did was totally great & you wouldn't do anything differently?? 🤡 Heavily paraphrased, of course, the convos were more detailed (which only made it worse).
It's fine to say Kamala Harris was a cringe candidate. Completely unwanted, unelected, unqualified. Biden bowed out & the DNC shoved her in; there is no logical reason to continue to own her as your candidate & representative. You don't bring dead babies to Passover. This is an opportunity to rebrand the Democrat Party, to refocus on issues that actually matter. That is to say....if anyone still gives a goddamn about the issues that actually matter.
I don't dislike Kamala, and Trump is a sociopath. I realize Joe Biden probably had cancer before he dropped out and that's why he dropped out. But I have to also say that voters probably didn't like the bait and switch approach where they suddenly felt they had to support her simply because she appeared as the candidate in the last legs of the campaign. I think diversity and female leadership is important, but probably asking undecided voters to go for a POC woman when that's not who they started out supporting probably didn't help. Old white centrists don't like that, and she didn't have time to build a campaign and show her skills like Obama did. Probably a good chunk of people straddling the line vote wise didn't love that. We had this happen in Canada recently with our new prime minister Carney, but he's an older white centrist dude, and we were clearly ok to hold our noses and do it to keep out the conservatives, but I think if it was someone like Kamala they might not have won.
If she wasn't going to be participating in a genocide, then she maybe could have won
I blame on dnc. They should not exist. We already have republican party if we need to vote for a party that works for billionaires. Unless AOC or Bernie, this country is doomed.
And wow Bernie is right again.
First time I don't 100% agree with him. I partially agree with Bernie here. Had Harris stuck with a more progressive ticket, she'd have stood a better chance; however, that doesn't explain the millions and millions of Americans that voted for a convicted criminal, rapist, kleptocrat, that claims to be for Jesus.
I’m not disagreeing with the fact that the Democratic Party shouldn’t be cozying up with billionaires, but I’m not convinced that the most significant reason for the Harris’ loss. I think misogyny played a role.
I think Democrats don't know how to create a zeitgeist of high-brow, uplifting pugnacity that punches through bullshit. "Oh you think 'boys' should be able to play in women's sports?" "It's a game!" "You sound pretty privileged to not have to think about scholarships for students to go to college!" "Shut the fuck up about peoples' genitals, and let's do something about people going to school. Let's prepare children for the real world in school while they're growing up, and if they want to go off to college after that, let's make that affordable."
The "Green New Deal" — do want to grow the economy with new industries? Do you know how much more expensive living with the consequences of climate change will be — do you like the cost of housing now?
"Poor people should have to work to receive help." — (1) They already do, and (2) shut the fuck up and stop calling yourself a Christian unless you want to at least pretend to know the tenets of your religion. You would have been whipped in the temple.
Stop giving Republicans so many opportunities to go on bullshitting without checking them. That won't immediately manifest the world we want to see, but it will at least shift the momentum.
No shit…
In other news, waterologists broadly agree water is wet.
She is a black women : Minus 500 Points for Gryfindor.
She walks in in a businessdress and looks as intimidating as the mortage lady from the bank: Minus 600 Points for Gryfindor
Her Party is made up from literal Fossils that won't give up power, even past 80, won't stop Making money from what seems like Stocktrading on privileged information: Minus 50 Points for Gryfindor.
She is as charismatic as Porridge: Minus 100 Points for Gryfindor.
Seriously fuck the bitch ass american racists and the democratic party that can't find a good candidate when so much is on the line.
Kamala Harris just chooses whatever she thinks will further her career. She chose poorly. She's just lucky the party was stupid enough to have elevated her to vice president even after her debate performance was so bad that she dropped out before the 2020 presidential race even started. Then the idiotic party elevated her again after Biden (another opportunist piece of garbage who was elevated by the party) was forced to step down after his embarrassing 2024 debate performance was obvious to even deluded party insiders.
In 2029 there will be a headline exactly like this one, the only variables are wether Bernie and elections will still be around.
The Schumer Strategy. They just can't give it up no matter how many times it fails. (they will try again)
Damn right Bernie. Kamala and Pete Buttigieg need to GTFO.
I'm with the DNC on this one. Bernie is just talking crazy. Americans dont care about money.
/s
There is a shocking amount of sexism and racism in here for Lemmy supposedly being left leaning.
Literally contrary to evidence people just want to blame it on their own subconscious prejudice I guess cause if they are struggling with it everyone else must be, instead of just listening to the answers that are given.
Bernie...