Actually feeling annoyed at the democrats

[Newsenmum]

AIBU to just feel annoyed at them this time? I feel like they went about this election in completely the wrong way and like most politicians, really have no idea about the country they’re trying to unite.

• Biden. What a joke. I do actually feel sorry for him (for his aging and the way it was portrayed) but how on earth was he allowed to be reelected? It was so embarrassing and made them look so vulnerable as a party, And it took them far too long. And he was also accused of rape in his early days which the Trump-ists think makes him even worse as no one really talks about this.
• Kamala as a candidate. No way in hell was she going to be accepted. The state the country is in where someone like Trump was another option - she wasn’t a great choice (which is a sad thing as she is a very competent woman). She’s a women without children, alien in how educated she is.
• their campaign - felt quite wishy washy and focussing a lot on abortion rights. I feel like they were completely preaching to the wrong audience about this. People who were worried about abortion rights were already never going to vote Trump. So this was t a way to win people. The focus seemed very pro abortion which is too pro choice for most Americans (even a lot of people who think they are pro choice only like it in certain circumstances).
• Trump is seen as sone anti establishment hero. He’s ‘different’ whereas democrats are ‘one of the same’. They are ‘them’.

I don’t know, I think I’m just frustrated this time.

Give me strength the two shooters were republican voters by the way. His personality you mean like him he lies and then stated he wanted to see Liz channey shot, or the impersonation of a disabled journalist I remember from his last term yes we can see all past that apparently and he's not a great business man neither he woukd have had more money if he has put it in a savings bank . It's a fallacy read the details about him but sure thing we just like him because he's strong so strong in fact that putins a happy boy.

@CookieCrumbles23 I haven't said she had a better answer, I'm interested in what trump's answer was. I literally asked that one question out of interest. I think you may be right that Trump won on the economy because I can't think of any other reason that people would have voted for him other than they thought they would get richer.

I would rather vote for a potato than Trump. Yanks are going to Yank I guess. I don't think it's the Democrats' fault that a majority of America hate women/POC so much that they'd vote for that evil arsehole over literally anyone else.

They are saying it is about the economy but economists are now saying his tariffs will cost average Americans 4000 a year. She told the rallies this . Now they are saying if he does what he says interest rates will rise that includes here and potentially even more inflation for them and us . Lbc radio on iain Dale show tonight

You are totally correct the money would have had to be returned to donators - too much work and not enough time. They NEVER should have hidden Biden's incompetence/medical issues. There were moderate Democrats the party, who could have allowed to run, but to put Harris up there (who spent WAY more money campaigning than the RNC did for Trump) who didn't even get 7% when she tried for the nomination.

@Littlemissgobby oh yeah i think we are totally screwed. If people voted for him because they thought he would sort out the economy they've probably got another thing coming. But surely what must be the reason the swing states did vote for him? Why else would they?

Maybe, but misogyny and racism tends to be higher in working class and less well educated populations, and they are increasingly voting Republican now. So the Right in the US may have missed the window for getting a woman or POC in.

Of course there does. A lot of people are idiots. Doesn’t change the fact it’s been ruined for millions of Americans and the rest of the world though.

I don't actually think it's that much of a problem that Kamala was a WOC, the problem was that the Democrats position themselves as the lesser of two evils and don't offer any bloody change! The working class are on their knees in the US with cost of living, especially housing costs. She needed to desperately address that stuff.

I agree with a PP that quite frankly the pro/anti abortion stuff is a given with those 2 parties so it almost becomes a non issue because people already know that stance. People need to bloody house and feed themselves and wanted someone who said they would make sure that would happen and how they would do it. Basically "yes Harris I realise I can have marginally easier access to an abortion under the Dems but Trump is suggesting I'll have more money in my pocket and I am living in abject poverty even though I work".... that's what gets swing voters.

Incredibly frustrating and predictable. The reason Obama won was because he promised change (and under delivered, his healthcare reform was massively watered down in the end) and quite frankly Biden rode his coattails.

He was spot on in many points about the Harris campaign. There really was no substance to it at all. It’s probably the most accurate post mortum from someone who doesn’t like Trump that I’ve seen so far.

While I’m here I did post in one of the other threads an article breaking down demographics. (I’m too lazy to find it again ) Age wise it was Gen X and Z that came out for Trump. He picked up more Women. He also picked up Latino men in huge numbers and saw a nice gain with Black men.

ETA: He made a really good point about the size of government and the power it yields as a big issue that wasn’t addressed at all by Harris. Trump got the unlikeliest martyr for his cause. A squirrel named Peanut and a Raccoon named Fred. I honestly think the murder of these pets crystallized the issue of government control and overreach more than anything else could have.

It is because we can do so, not because of her gender or her skin color! No one has to vote STRAIGHT party lines; all state governors elected on the same year calendar, just as the House and Senate are timed.

Part of the problem may have been that there are some in the US who feel "Affirmative Action" went way too far, especially in CA. Harris didn't get there on her intelligence, her capability,...but because she got college funding, placement, etc due to her being a woman and of color. It can hurt someone if they check the box to climb to the top; just like it hurt Obama. Affirmative action went on so LONG some Americans began to RESENT and wonder just when it would be seen as discrimination. That happened this year: it is no longer allowed by schools, etc to use the fact a person is white as a reason to NOT offer equal treatment on admissions. To use QUALIFICATIONS, test scores, etc.

The Democrats should have courted Elon Musk. Trump didn't hesitate.

Just because a "shooters were Republican"😂ROFL. Just because one claims to be a Republican or is Registered a Republican or has voted Republican doesn't MEAN an American ALWAYS votes or LIKES the Republican candidate! Tee hee that is just making me laugh so much! What do you a person MUST be of the opposite party to hate the candidate you are looking to assassinate....or be PAID by a DEM who really does; or perhaps the shooters were just freakin CRAZY and DELUSIONAL? Liz Cheney (spelling corrected) who is seen as a "Benedict Arnold" by many in the US, who could never have gotten anywhere without riding on her father's coat tails; she shot HERSELF in the foot! (Meaning no one needs to shoot her, she did it herself; Trump said that because she cannot be trusted to run on loving her country, without personal gain).

I gave up watching at about 5.30am but just before I did, the BBC went to an interview with a Democrat donor called Lindy Li, who looked tired and fed up and probably for that reason, actually spoke with some candour and addressed the elephant in the room. Which was that Kamala Harris had been appointed as a default option, and that there might have been a better potential President available if there had been time to go through the normal process.

Harris was never the person to compete with Trump's outrageous verbal ramblings, in fact, she seemed to muster very little passion. Political journalists now refer to this a "Ming Vase" campaign style where the favourite is entirely focused on not dropping their precious lead. It worked for Starmer against Sunak, because Rishi had fuck all to boast about from his two years as PM. It didn't work for Kamala against someone who, for all his bullshit and incoherence, had presided over a successful economy.

Similar here really. Starmer won but with a low turnout and minimal enthusiasm..millions voted Reform, the Tories were done after 14 years.

How do you know what enthusiasm voted Labour i was happy that Labour got in millions voted Labour to . Unless reform works with the tory party they are split which splits the right vote

It is easier for people on here to blame it on misogyny or racism than accept that Harris just was not a good candidate.

This. Trump wone this election wit 72m votes, he lost in 2020 with 74m. And this become really significant when you see that Biden won with 81m, but Harris only got 67m.

The democrats lost 14m voters and also failed to win over the 2m who chose not to come out for Trump this time. This is huge.

I think there’s some misogyny in there, but mostly the democrats played to all the wrong issues, failed to recognise that poorly managed immigration and the economy were key. And, I daresay, that people are tired of so-called ‘woke’ policy guiding funding and legislation. The abortion issue is huge, but many states offered a vote on this separate to the presidential campaigns because it’s now a state matter anyway and, as another poster states, being pro-choice is not the same as being pro-abortion so their positioning was a miscalculation.

Well presumably some of those Trump voters voted Democrat when the candidate was Biden, so it is possible they would have voted differently for a different candidate - or possible that non voters would’ve made the effort to vote for a different candidate.

One other big thing to keep in mind is that Harris lost to Trump or just didn’t get union endorsements as democrats have in past elections. This should have been the canary in the coal mine. Democrats are losing the middle class. It’s taking longer for them to flip but it’s happening and this campaign may be the watershed moment.

I felt it all slipping away when the media was ablaze with "kamala IS brat"...puerile nonsense.

Is possible.

No, you are not being unreasonable.

The only thing more dismal than Trump
winning is the reaction from some progressives; a total lack of introspection or understanding or any genuine attempt
to understand why Trump’s tired old routine and bullshit attracted over 70 million votes. Instead we’ve just had the usual toys out of the pram response.

They spend too much time being mystified about how someone could vote for a convicted criminal, a misogynist, a racist, and not enough time trying to understand why Trump’s voters weren’t concerned about any of that, or still voted for him
in spite of it. 70 million plus people aren’t all idiots, racists, or hillbillies.

Love him or hate him (and I’m the latter), he presents a vision for America that a very large number of people buy into. Yeah, it’s all nonsense, but the Democrats didn’t present any alternative vision. They didn’t give disaffected people any sense that they agreed that things weren’t going well and there needed to be big changes. They dug their own political grave.

Yeh and Trump is bigly clever is he?

Agree with this. Just the same as Labour didn't really win our election, the Tories lost it.

Great post OP. I agree with your sentiments entirely.