RK need a firmer backup on the "received a bunch of money from the big crypto PAC" and I assume you can find Ruben on the record about his views on crypto if you do a bit of research. Please get back to us on both. Thank you.
I can't say too much about the matter (I was a little curious myself), but I do know that Chuck Rocha (of Bernie's 2020 campaign) was firmly behind Gallego this race. So for what that's worth.
Also, if unregulated crypto crashes (indications are there that it could, especially in a Trump admin), then I am hopeful that our progressive populist wing of the Democratic Party will be the first to bolt from it. A crypto crash will also help out crypto skeptics like Sherrod Brown (who I hope runs for Senate to replace JD Vance).
"Psyops goes after experts, science, democratic institutions so to try to create psychological means to create uncertainty and distrust to ready people for authoritarian influence."
"Victims obey psyops to commit treason through ideology, money, or blackmail."
"Humans are emotional, social beings, so Information overload looks for authoritarian certainty to relieve stress. First of all, we have states, we have governors, I live in Massachusetts which has a gay governor."
"People will lay down only if they believe they have to lay down, and I'm saying, come on we're Americans, we grew up knowing what Russia was like, China was like, we don't want to be Russia, we don't want to be just put into prison like Navalny and murdered, or poisoned, or have a plane blow up, so let's get real and roll up our sleeves and say 'Not on my watch'."
"I want to give people hope and to say, "You are not alone." We're Americans, we believe in the constitution, we believe in human rights, we believe in the rule of law, and anyone who wants to take away the rule of law and just say 'screw it, I'm the king', should irk us enough to action."
"Learn how to regulate your emotional states. Understand breathing is the most powerful way to change your consciousness. If you're feeling anxious, long slow exhales will calm down your nervous system."
"You need to be human. Get hugs, get kisses, eat well, get 7 to 9 hours of sleep, most people are sleep deprived and it's one of the BITE Model criteria of brainwashing. If you are sleep deprived you are not thinking clearly."
"We need people who are going to support independent journalism by subscribing."
"Lets destigmatize being ex-cult. Intelligent people can be hacked, there is life after cult, normalize it and let's connect with people who are in MAGA world so there's an off-ramp, you can share their stories."
"A technique Hassan shares with his clients is to have them visualize the cult leader to be a foot tall in diapers, so they're looking down and they laugh. Think of Donald Trump as one foot tall in diapers whenever you think of Donald Trump. It's gonna have a very different emotional attachment."
simon, good reporting on syria. not getting this slant from MSM. biden/harris should be all over this in media. nice that hopium looks at foreign affairs too! Dems on intelligence commitees should also be all over this in MSM. this is a big win. who knew???
Gallego's example of the Grand Canyon trip to visit a small group of Native American voters and how that generated media coverage was really great to hear. Trump is always using small-scale opportunities (visiting a factory and posing with the workers, the McDonalds stunt) which are immediately carried by all forms of media, so the reach is greater in the end. We can be doing this but in a more genuine way.
These interviews are so valuable. The insights that we are able to get from Sen-elect Gallego, Anderson Clayton, Ken Martin and (I hope) Ben Wikler and others are not something we get anywhere else. I appreciate everything that Simon is doing to help us understand what we need to do in order to fix the problems we saw in 2024.
Ruben makes a great point about the young vote - college campuses are only a percentage of that population. We need to engage with young people in community and technical colleges, those who are in apprenticeships and the trades, and those who are working rather than going to college. There is some great opportunity there.
I don't disagree, but when Dems here went to the local community college, they got maybe 3 students to show up. Community college students often have families, jobs, etc. So reaching them is going to require more than just going to they schools.
Also a minority of 18-29 year olds are in school, and many are out in the workforce, starting out in their careers and trying to make a living. We have to distinguish between students and young people. They are not the same.
According to Education Data Initiative, only 39% of American 18- to 24-year-olds are enrolled in college or graduate school. 74.5% of all 18- and 19-year-olds are enrolled in schools of any type. 30.0% of 20- to 24-year-olds are enrolled in school. 6.95% of Americans aged 25 to 29 years are enrolled.
When we think of people that age, we wrongly think almost exclusively about colleges probably because that's where we were at that age, and almost certainly where are kids were then. But look at the statistics - we're being out of touch if college campuses are our only strategy.
Hi Catherine - I have a career as a professor at community colleges and universities. You're right about events at community colleges. We need to contact faculty - particularly government, history, political science, but really anyone who cares about engaging youth, and ask them for 15 minutes of their class. I teach DEI and art history and have always allowed orgs registering young voters that time in my classes.
That's a great idea and I think we also need to reach these people on social media. The single mom who waits tables all day and then takes an accounting class at night probably relaxes for a few minutes before sleep by looking at social media.
As I struggle through my 2nd bout with COVID (Dec 2023 and now Dec 2024), I am seeking and finding solace where I can. Thanks Hopium community!!
Just want to share that I listened to Jamie Harrison and Hakeem Jeffries DNC Zoom meeting last night that I learned about from Hopium’s post yesterday. I did virtual cartwheels when I heard Leader Jeffries describe social security and Medicare as EARNED BENEFITS!!! Yes!!! We should never cede to the GOP framing of them as entitlements. Same for those who oppose choice. They’re not pro-life, they’re ANTI-CHOICE.
I will work my way through the interview with Senator Gallego and other recommendations.
Just read the Navigator summary. Not one mention of misogyny and racism as reasons for voting for Trump. I’m going to quote Robert Hubble: “As with all other analyses, I would begin and end with a simple question: Does the poll address the role of racism and sexism in the outcome? If not, ignore the poll and move on.” Nothing will be learned or fixed if we ignore the fact that 76 million people voted for a convicted felon and rapist who ran the most vile racist and misogynistic campaign in modern times while claiming it was the economy that motivated them. That doesn’t pass the credibility test when the economy of at full employment and 2 percent inflation at the time of the election.
I heard the same from every Black man of working age or younger I encountered; older Black men I knew seemed much more open to her. I kept hearing, " I dunno know man...." Heard it from some Hispanic men too. I actually knew more White guys that were open to her; but these are not typical...even though these were hunters and anglers with blue collar union jobs; they really hated trump and could see right through him.
I could not agree more. "Inflation" was the excuse this time, just like "her emails" was the excuse last time. And that's all they were, excuses. Inflation was down and the economy was great just like Hillary did nothing wrong via emails. But an excuse is an excuse. As someone who lives in a red area and interacts regularly with MAGAts, sexism and racism -- along with tribalism -- are the reasons so many Americans voted for the worst human alive over a good, decent candidate. I think too many Democrats, esp. those who don't live here in rural red areas, don't want to admit this. They think if they could just "find a way to talk" to red voters about the economy, things would magically clear up. It would be nice to live in a world of rational actors, but until we face what's going on, we're not going to be able to deal with it. Everyone should read the book "Dying of Whiteness."
Thanks so much for this. I think the Democrats caving to the pundit class’s charge that Dems need to learn how to relate to working class and red voters was a beta move if ever there was one. We should have been pointing out that the issue is that 76 million people voted for a convicted felon and rapist, and we should be very concerned about that. We should not be giving them cover for voting for Trump.
The MAGAts in my area are easy to "relate to." You just show up and call teachers and librarians "pedos," wear t-shirts that say "I'm a bigot" to speak at School Board meetings, talk about how women like to "kill babies," and carry your AK47 into the grocery store. A bumper sticker that says, "Open the pipeline and close the border" helps. Trust me, inflation was the excuse, not the cause.
agreed. not the economy. the best in the world. sexism, racism, xenophobia more like it. we dont need to understand them. dems dont need to go down the rabbit hole on why we lost with satan voters. but we do need to know why 6M dems did not vote for the dem tkt. that is essential. that was probably not sexism nor racism.
They were very squishy voters and were not planning on voting this year. They were largely Biden's margin. For reasons I don't quite understand ( I believe it is because Biden does look old and frail, I mean no shit ) Biden was never very popular; so we gave these voters a younger candidate but that really wasn't enough, because of racism and sexism. The poobahs that wanted Biden out, remember, did not want Harris as the nominee. They knew it would be an uphill slog with her, and they were right. Now we have every pick that trump makes being worse than the last; the latest is Dhillon, a Sikh woman who is an election denier. Well, at least trump has some diversity; he seems to have a few South Asian fans.
I agree that racism and sexism likely played an important role in the electoral outcome. If this weren't the case, how do we explain the Harris-Walz ticket underperforming Democratic Senate candidates in several swing (and non-swing) states? Nevertheless, these 'ism's' don't rule out the importance of other factors like the economy. Remember James Carville's sage remark that 'it's the economy, stupid.' Voters having a hard time economically due to inflation likely don't care about statistics showing how things are improving or are about to get better. And, then add in the MAGA/Russia bullhorn about how bad the economy is... and voilà. All that said, it is hugely worrying that a plurality of voters could simply ignore the missteps and corruption of Trump's previous time in office, his legal troubles, and malevolent character.
Thank you for the fascinating reporting on Syria. I thought Lawrence O’Donnell’s opening last night was interesting for explaining the history of the Brookings Institute vs. the Heritage Foundation. He went through Biden’s speech yesterday on his economic accomplishments with a relevant cabinet representative. Biden jokingly mocked himself for “stupidly” not signing his stimulus check, as Trump did. But it supplied another piece on the strength of Biden’s economy but the way it will unfold over years, making it harder to claim credit for.
Please can you explain this comment, Simon: "Perhaps my favorite part of discussion is the need for us to move beyond the advertising-based campaign model and encourage our Democratic leaders to be themselves and connect authentically to voters through legacy and social media. This is very consistent with our calls to modernize our approach to political communications and getting loud." Many of us are moving away from "legacy" media - which has failed us particularly regarding politics - and supporting new ways of communicating through independent media, like Substack and Bluesky. When you say, "modernize" our approach, what does that mean? Thank you.
Alexandra, not really sure why this is confusing. Please read my various posts on loudness and winning the info wars available through the link and watch the Interview. Politicians are still going to need to operate in both the legacy media space and in this new spaces we are building. You may have a choice but they don't, and Ruben discusses this in the interview.
Re: the DOGE, dictators rarely have "smaller governments". With all the "first day decrees" to decipher and implement, and looking for "fraud", and deporting people, it actually would take more federal workers.
Sure, but as long as those positions are filled by "their" people, that's fine. Again, 'small government" is the excuse. "Government is helping people we don't like" is the real reason.
Simon, regarding your discussion with Ruben and the shortcomings of the presidential campaign - how much of the failure to adapt to the information ecosystem would you lay on the Biden campaign and how much on the Harris campaign? Harris-Walz must have spent eye-popping amounts of money on rallies, but those reached huge numbers of people rapidly. Did that campaign have time to design all the types of messages that you and Ruben discussed? Did the Biden campaign squander time and opportunity?
Possibly bad news for American labor: Senator Manchin just gave Lauren McFerran a thumbs down, thus endangering the chances to lock in a Democratic majority on the National Labor Relations Board for the first two years of Trump’s term. By a vote of 49–50, the cloture on McFerran’s renomination to the NLRB failed.
(So frustrating that Schumer & Durbin utterly lack ability to whip votes for President Biden’s agenda!)
Edit: Senator Sinema did not show up for any votes last week, but she made a point of showing up for this one – and together with Manchin, voted against Democrats and Biden. Essentially, the two "Independents" showed their colleagues the bird. With their votes, they are essentially preventing pro-labor and pro-union decisions by the NLRB the next two years. Tragic!
And why did you lose that 51% coalition? Because Obama betrayed the middle class. Let us lose our homes while bailing out the banks. Likewise, not raising SS taxes on rich by making them pay on 100% of income like we do, by not addressing income inequality. Democratic Party betrayed us and Biden, who has been the best president since FDR for us, was perceived to be too old to continue the work, and the sharks circled and nothing could save Kamala from the oligarchs and the mainstream media suppressing the message of all the good that dems still could do. Some, remembering the betrayal, no longer believed the Dems were on their side.
how did Obama get re-elected then with 51% of the vote?
And a reminder that the housing crisis and Great Recession happened under Bush and Obama had to come in and clean up the mess. The idea that Obama and Dems allowed all this to happen is not correct, and I am surprised to see it mentioned here. Republicans caused the housing crisis and the Great Recession not the Democrats.
I was responding to why did we lose the young and Latino vote. One reason is the fact that they feel left out of the benefits of Dems getting elected. The rich still get (until Biden/Harris) the most benefits and the young feel left behind. Biden/Harris tried but couldn’t deliver enough to make up the disappointments. I am and will always be a Democratic voter, but they have a history of underdelivering and circular firing squads when they lose. Threw Biden under the bus. Harris also had to overcome reluctance at the way she got the nomination and misogyny.
You wrote those comments on a different thread David.
RK need a firmer backup on the "received a bunch of money from the big crypto PAC" and I assume you can find Ruben on the record about his views on crypto if you do a bit of research. Please get back to us on both. Thank you.
I can't say too much about the matter (I was a little curious myself), but I do know that Chuck Rocha (of Bernie's 2020 campaign) was firmly behind Gallego this race. So for what that's worth.
Also, if unregulated crypto crashes (indications are there that it could, especially in a Trump admin), then I am hopeful that our progressive populist wing of the Democratic Party will be the first to bolt from it. A crypto crash will also help out crypto skeptics like Sherrod Brown (who I hope runs for Senate to replace JD Vance).
"Think of Donald Trump as one foot tall in diapers whenever you think of Donald Trump"
LIVE: Trump Cult Expert Reveals PSY-OPS that Swung Election | The Weekend Show
https://www.youtube.com/live/WcxjsWnHtk4?si=RLFRz1Q-rS5zivXi
In a nutshell:
"Psyops goes after experts, science, democratic institutions so to try to create psychological means to create uncertainty and distrust to ready people for authoritarian influence."
"Victims obey psyops to commit treason through ideology, money, or blackmail."
"Humans are emotional, social beings, so Information overload looks for authoritarian certainty to relieve stress. First of all, we have states, we have governors, I live in Massachusetts which has a gay governor."
"People will lay down only if they believe they have to lay down, and I'm saying, come on we're Americans, we grew up knowing what Russia was like, China was like, we don't want to be Russia, we don't want to be just put into prison like Navalny and murdered, or poisoned, or have a plane blow up, so let's get real and roll up our sleeves and say 'Not on my watch'."
"I want to give people hope and to say, "You are not alone." We're Americans, we believe in the constitution, we believe in human rights, we believe in the rule of law, and anyone who wants to take away the rule of law and just say 'screw it, I'm the king', should irk us enough to action."
"Learn how to regulate your emotional states. Understand breathing is the most powerful way to change your consciousness. If you're feeling anxious, long slow exhales will calm down your nervous system."
"You need to be human. Get hugs, get kisses, eat well, get 7 to 9 hours of sleep, most people are sleep deprived and it's one of the BITE Model criteria of brainwashing. If you are sleep deprived you are not thinking clearly."
"We need people who are going to support independent journalism by subscribing."
"Lets destigmatize being ex-cult. Intelligent people can be hacked, there is life after cult, normalize it and let's connect with people who are in MAGA world so there's an off-ramp, you can share their stories."
"A technique Hassan shares with his clients is to have them visualize the cult leader to be a foot tall in diapers, so they're looking down and they laugh. Think of Donald Trump as one foot tall in diapers whenever you think of Donald Trump. It's gonna have a very different emotional attachment."
simon, good reporting on syria. not getting this slant from MSM. biden/harris should be all over this in media. nice that hopium looks at foreign affairs too! Dems on intelligence commitees should also be all over this in MSM. this is a big win. who knew???
Gallego's example of the Grand Canyon trip to visit a small group of Native American voters and how that generated media coverage was really great to hear. Trump is always using small-scale opportunities (visiting a factory and posing with the workers, the McDonalds stunt) which are immediately carried by all forms of media, so the reach is greater in the end. We can be doing this but in a more genuine way.
I read that Democrats lost Native votes everywhere but AZ. I bet NEAZ Native Democrats helped a lot - they are a very hardworking group.
These interviews are so valuable. The insights that we are able to get from Sen-elect Gallego, Anderson Clayton, Ken Martin and (I hope) Ben Wikler and others are not something we get anywhere else. I appreciate everything that Simon is doing to help us understand what we need to do in order to fix the problems we saw in 2024.
Ruben makes a great point about the young vote - college campuses are only a percentage of that population. We need to engage with young people in community and technical colleges, those who are in apprenticeships and the trades, and those who are working rather than going to college. There is some great opportunity there.
I don't disagree, but when Dems here went to the local community college, they got maybe 3 students to show up. Community college students often have families, jobs, etc. So reaching them is going to require more than just going to they schools.
Also a minority of 18-29 year olds are in school, and many are out in the workforce, starting out in their careers and trying to make a living. We have to distinguish between students and young people. They are not the same.
Very true. That is the difference that hands Trump the election, in fact.
Free pizza works.
I like free pizza, so I can confirm for students. For young people I don't know :)
But anyways, we're gonna need a lot of pizza :)
According to Education Data Initiative, only 39% of American 18- to 24-year-olds are enrolled in college or graduate school. 74.5% of all 18- and 19-year-olds are enrolled in schools of any type. 30.0% of 20- to 24-year-olds are enrolled in school. 6.95% of Americans aged 25 to 29 years are enrolled.
When we think of people that age, we wrongly think almost exclusively about colleges probably because that's where we were at that age, and almost certainly where are kids were then. But look at the statistics - we're being out of touch if college campuses are our only strategy.
Hi Catherine - I have a career as a professor at community colleges and universities. You're right about events at community colleges. We need to contact faculty - particularly government, history, political science, but really anyone who cares about engaging youth, and ask them for 15 minutes of their class. I teach DEI and art history and have always allowed orgs registering young voters that time in my classes.
That's a great idea and I think we also need to reach these people on social media. The single mom who waits tables all day and then takes an accounting class at night probably relaxes for a few minutes before sleep by looking at social media.
As I struggle through my 2nd bout with COVID (Dec 2023 and now Dec 2024), I am seeking and finding solace where I can. Thanks Hopium community!!
Just want to share that I listened to Jamie Harrison and Hakeem Jeffries DNC Zoom meeting last night that I learned about from Hopium’s post yesterday. I did virtual cartwheels when I heard Leader Jeffries describe social security and Medicare as EARNED BENEFITS!!! Yes!!! We should never cede to the GOP framing of them as entitlements. Same for those who oppose choice. They’re not pro-life, they’re ANTI-CHOICE.
I will work my way through the interview with Senator Gallego and other recommendations.
Be careful out there!
Just read the Navigator summary. Not one mention of misogyny and racism as reasons for voting for Trump. I’m going to quote Robert Hubble: “As with all other analyses, I would begin and end with a simple question: Does the poll address the role of racism and sexism in the outcome? If not, ignore the poll and move on.” Nothing will be learned or fixed if we ignore the fact that 76 million people voted for a convicted felon and rapist who ran the most vile racist and misogynistic campaign in modern times while claiming it was the economy that motivated them. That doesn’t pass the credibility test when the economy of at full employment and 2 percent inflation at the time of the election.
I heard the same from every Black man of working age or younger I encountered; older Black men I knew seemed much more open to her. I kept hearing, " I dunno know man...." Heard it from some Hispanic men too. I actually knew more White guys that were open to her; but these are not typical...even though these were hunters and anglers with blue collar union jobs; they really hated trump and could see right through him.
I could not agree more. "Inflation" was the excuse this time, just like "her emails" was the excuse last time. And that's all they were, excuses. Inflation was down and the economy was great just like Hillary did nothing wrong via emails. But an excuse is an excuse. As someone who lives in a red area and interacts regularly with MAGAts, sexism and racism -- along with tribalism -- are the reasons so many Americans voted for the worst human alive over a good, decent candidate. I think too many Democrats, esp. those who don't live here in rural red areas, don't want to admit this. They think if they could just "find a way to talk" to red voters about the economy, things would magically clear up. It would be nice to live in a world of rational actors, but until we face what's going on, we're not going to be able to deal with it. Everyone should read the book "Dying of Whiteness."
Thanks so much for this. I think the Democrats caving to the pundit class’s charge that Dems need to learn how to relate to working class and red voters was a beta move if ever there was one. We should have been pointing out that the issue is that 76 million people voted for a convicted felon and rapist, and we should be very concerned about that. We should not be giving them cover for voting for Trump.
The MAGAts in my area are easy to "relate to." You just show up and call teachers and librarians "pedos," wear t-shirts that say "I'm a bigot" to speak at School Board meetings, talk about how women like to "kill babies," and carry your AK47 into the grocery store. A bumper sticker that says, "Open the pipeline and close the border" helps. Trust me, inflation was the excuse, not the cause.
I believe you. I’m sorry you have to live in that culture.
agreed. not the economy. the best in the world. sexism, racism, xenophobia more like it. we dont need to understand them. dems dont need to go down the rabbit hole on why we lost with satan voters. but we do need to know why 6M dems did not vote for the dem tkt. that is essential. that was probably not sexism nor racism.
I think it could be sexism. I think there were similar numbers of Dems who sat out the election when Hillary was the candidate
They were very squishy voters and were not planning on voting this year. They were largely Biden's margin. For reasons I don't quite understand ( I believe it is because Biden does look old and frail, I mean no shit ) Biden was never very popular; so we gave these voters a younger candidate but that really wasn't enough, because of racism and sexism. The poobahs that wanted Biden out, remember, did not want Harris as the nominee. They knew it would be an uphill slog with her, and they were right. Now we have every pick that trump makes being worse than the last; the latest is Dhillon, a Sikh woman who is an election denier. Well, at least trump has some diversity; he seems to have a few South Asian fans.
Being an election denier is an admitted prerequisite for any Trump appointment. Arguably, being accused of a sexual offense is too.
I agree that racism and sexism likely played an important role in the electoral outcome. If this weren't the case, how do we explain the Harris-Walz ticket underperforming Democratic Senate candidates in several swing (and non-swing) states? Nevertheless, these 'ism's' don't rule out the importance of other factors like the economy. Remember James Carville's sage remark that 'it's the economy, stupid.' Voters having a hard time economically due to inflation likely don't care about statistics showing how things are improving or are about to get better. And, then add in the MAGA/Russia bullhorn about how bad the economy is... and voilà. All that said, it is hugely worrying that a plurality of voters could simply ignore the missteps and corruption of Trump's previous time in office, his legal troubles, and malevolent character.
Thank you for the fascinating reporting on Syria. I thought Lawrence O’Donnell’s opening last night was interesting for explaining the history of the Brookings Institute vs. the Heritage Foundation. He went through Biden’s speech yesterday on his economic accomplishments with a relevant cabinet representative. Biden jokingly mocked himself for “stupidly” not signing his stimulus check, as Trump did. But it supplied another piece on the strength of Biden’s economy but the way it will unfold over years, making it harder to claim credit for.
Called both Colorado senators about RFK jr, Hegseth, Gabbard, and Patel urging them to fight the nominations.
Please can you explain this comment, Simon: "Perhaps my favorite part of discussion is the need for us to move beyond the advertising-based campaign model and encourage our Democratic leaders to be themselves and connect authentically to voters through legacy and social media. This is very consistent with our calls to modernize our approach to political communications and getting loud." Many of us are moving away from "legacy" media - which has failed us particularly regarding politics - and supporting new ways of communicating through independent media, like Substack and Bluesky. When you say, "modernize" our approach, what does that mean? Thank you.
Alexandra, not really sure why this is confusing. Please read my various posts on loudness and winning the info wars available through the link and watch the Interview. Politicians are still going to need to operate in both the legacy media space and in this new spaces we are building. You may have a choice but they don't, and Ruben discusses this in the interview.
You need to do both types of medias, proportional to the amount of people who watch them. I think that's Simon's point.
Re: the DOGE, dictators rarely have "smaller governments". With all the "first day decrees" to decipher and implement, and looking for "fraud", and deporting people, it actually would take more federal workers.
Sure, but as long as those positions are filled by "their" people, that's fine. Again, 'small government" is the excuse. "Government is helping people we don't like" is the real reason.
Simon, regarding your discussion with Ruben and the shortcomings of the presidential campaign - how much of the failure to adapt to the information ecosystem would you lay on the Biden campaign and how much on the Harris campaign? Harris-Walz must have spent eye-popping amounts of money on rallies, but those reached huge numbers of people rapidly. Did that campaign have time to design all the types of messages that you and Ruben discussed? Did the Biden campaign squander time and opportunity?
Possibly bad news for American labor: Senator Manchin just gave Lauren McFerran a thumbs down, thus endangering the chances to lock in a Democratic majority on the National Labor Relations Board for the first two years of Trump’s term. By a vote of 49–50, the cloture on McFerran’s renomination to the NLRB failed.
(So frustrating that Schumer & Durbin utterly lack ability to whip votes for President Biden’s agenda!)
Edit: Senator Sinema did not show up for any votes last week, but she made a point of showing up for this one – and together with Manchin, voted against Democrats and Biden. Essentially, the two "Independents" showed their colleagues the bird. With their votes, they are essentially preventing pro-labor and pro-union decisions by the NLRB the next two years. Tragic!
Any Republican we could get?
I believe this was a straight party vote, with Manchin and Sinema voting with Republicans.
Yeah, but any possible even remote chance we could get someone like (I hate to say it) a Hawley? Somebody?
And why did you lose that 51% coalition? Because Obama betrayed the middle class. Let us lose our homes while bailing out the banks. Likewise, not raising SS taxes on rich by making them pay on 100% of income like we do, by not addressing income inequality. Democratic Party betrayed us and Biden, who has been the best president since FDR for us, was perceived to be too old to continue the work, and the sharks circled and nothing could save Kamala from the oligarchs and the mainstream media suppressing the message of all the good that dems still could do. Some, remembering the betrayal, no longer believed the Dems were on their side.
It was psy ops. It was them, not us.
how did Obama get re-elected then with 51% of the vote?
And a reminder that the housing crisis and Great Recession happened under Bush and Obama had to come in and clean up the mess. The idea that Obama and Dems allowed all this to happen is not correct, and I am surprised to see it mentioned here. Republicans caused the housing crisis and the Great Recession not the Democrats.
I was responding to why did we lose the young and Latino vote. One reason is the fact that they feel left out of the benefits of Dems getting elected. The rich still get (until Biden/Harris) the most benefits and the young feel left behind. Biden/Harris tried but couldn’t deliver enough to make up the disappointments. I am and will always be a Democratic voter, but they have a history of underdelivering and circular firing squads when they lose. Threw Biden under the bus. Harris also had to overcome reluctance at the way she got the nomination and misogyny.
It has become an article of faith for some people to trash Obama's legacy. Never hear r's talking about Reagan or W that way.....