this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2026
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[–] Folstar@lemmus.org 31 points 3 days ago (2 children)

There is no evidence of a mass (or even mid) exodus of left voters in any recent elections. This narrative that has been crafted where Democrats blame the left for losing is societal cancer.

[–] BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone 25 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The left vote is both an inconsequential amount of voters that the Democrats shouldn't cater to at all while also being so large in size it's entirely responsible for them not winning.

[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 8 points 3 days ago

Really the problem is the Democrats haven't gone far enough right. The Republican party in their rush into actual god emporer fascism has left an entire quadrant of racist right wing voters completely free for the picking! Suckers.

I apologise for the dark satire. I do think a better world is possible. Sometimes it's just harder to see than others.

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[–] BigBenis@lemmy.world 24 points 3 days ago (2 children)

If we weren't stuck in this two party system, the Democratic party would have been made obsolete a long time ago.

[–] zabadoh@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

There really need to be viable 3rd, 4th, 5th+ parties, plus an expansion of the number of representatives at all legislative bodies.

The concentration of representation at the Federal and state levels has made it easy to be captured by concentration of wealth.

When the Constitution was written in 1776, the US had about 2.5 million people.

Our current population in 2026 of about 350 million makes the House statistically identical to the Senate in terms of power share per member.

The same goes for most state legislative bodies.

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[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 12 points 3 days ago (2 children)

And the Republican party too tbh. Tea Party, Maga, centrist neolibs, whatever the Mormons are doing, those are all their own brand of conservative

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[–] Zedstrian@sopuli.xyz 92 points 3 days ago (61 children)

Two years ago, Zainab Bibi Ahmed thought she had turned her back on the Democrats for good.

People like that helped get Trump elected. Harris was far from the ideal candidate, but she would have been far and away better than Trump.

[–] SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip 54 points 3 days ago (5 children)

Here's something I've wondered about for a while now: Why do some voters have to be assiduously courted, and it's a failure of the candidate if she doesn't win them over, while for other voters the blame falls on the voters if they don't fall in line and vote for the candidate?

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 29 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Why do some voters have to be assiduously courted, and it's a failure of the candidate if she doesn't win them over

Because that's literally the job of a politician running for office.

for other voters the blame falls on the voters if they don't fall in line and vote for the candidate?

Because of tribalist authoritarianism and gaslighting.

It's much easier to get away with ignoring the wants and needs of your constituency when you convince them that it's about teams, not policies.

[–] SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip 8 points 3 days ago

It's much easier to get away with ignoring the wants and needs of your constituency when you convince them that it's about teams, not policies.

This right here.

Mine was a loaded question. After decades of this stuff, it's entirely clear to me that the difference is that Democrats do not have policy to offer many voters, so all that they have to fall back on is team boosterism. If Harris did have something substantive to offer these Michigan voters, she and her supporters would've offered it.

But they didn't, so all that they had left is what we see: Blame and derision.

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[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 69 points 3 days ago (3 children)

You win with the electorate you have, not the one you want.

People are idiots. Expect this.

[–] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 87 points 3 days ago (37 children)

If it’s this easy to win them back and the Democrats couldn’t even bother, who’s the real idiot? They thought they could discard these votes and found out they couldn’t. Figure out how to continue treating them like people with understandable sorrow about the genocide in Gaza, or keep losing 🤷‍♂️

[–] subignition@fedia.io 63 points 3 days ago (10 children)

There can be more than one idiot in a given situation

[–] naught101@lemmy.world 29 points 3 days ago

Words to live by

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[–] goferking0@lemmy.sdf.org 22 points 3 days ago (1 children)

If it’s this easy to win them back and the Democrats couldn’t even bother, who’s the real idiot?

You've hit the nail on the head for why so many people have been upset and frustrated with how terrible the dems are. They'd rather lose votes to stay center than do anything that keeps voters voting for them

[–] ms_lane@lemmy.world 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Centre

It's the USA, there is Right and Far Right, you've never ever had anything close to a left wing.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

From were I stand (in Europe), it looks more like Hard Right (hardcore Neoliberals) and Fascists.

Mind you, here in Europe it's also shifted in that direction, just not as much as the US (except in the UK and Germany)

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 20 points 3 days ago (8 children)

What makes you think they were genuinely trying to win? They have no interest in changing the status quo. It's been very good to them.

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[–] Rat_in_a_hat@lemmy.ca 32 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

Didn't the DNC send Bill Clinton to Michigan and when confronted about the lackluster response of the DNC against the genocide, he started telling the attendees that it's Israel's right to the whole thing and they were there first? To a room full of Arab Americans?

https://truthout.org/articles/bill-clinton-sparks-outrage-for-racist-comments-on-gaza-at-harris-rally/

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[–] GolfFoxtrotLima@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Turns out Harris is a bad candidate

[–] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Turns out Harris is a bad candidate

And Americans are stupid.

Both these things can be true at the same time.

Harris also received 48% of the popular vote. She didn't win, but that kind of turnout doesn't make a candidate a bad candidate. There just happens to be a lot of Americans that think a felon rapist pedophile with one failed presidency under his belt was a better option.

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[–] Mongostein@lemmy.ca 20 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (6 children)

From an outsider looking in,

Trump may have been necessary to get America on the right track. Had they voted Kamala in, things wouldn’t change. She even said that on the campaign trail.

If you boil it down to the barest of reasons, Trump was voted in because people wanted change. He’s a liar, a scumbag, and a rapist, and as much as you and I think the other side is dumb as fuck for voting him in, both sides realize that change is needed.

Now that Trump has been allowed to fuck things up so bad it seems that Americans are actually learning how their political system works and doing what they should have been doing all along. (Mainly voting in primaries, from my POV.)

I hope the upcoming elections reel him in (Preferably all the way to jail) and you guys can actually get people working to improve the country. Keep it up, Americans.

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[–] MrErr@piefed.world 16 points 3 days ago (2 children)

It was Biden/Harris, that helped Trump get elected.

[–] Rat_in_a_hat@lemmy.ca 12 points 3 days ago

And before that the DNC encouraged Trump because they thought he'd be easy for Hillary to win against.

https://observer.com/2016/10/wikileaks-reveals-dnc-elevated-trump-to-help-clinton/

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[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 35 points 3 days ago

only because of the shutdown last year, most of the DNC made it clear they sided with israel, and by extension gop policies. if they resisted the shutdown longer the gop would suffer far more politically. the gop got everything they ever wanted from that deal.

[–] anon_8675309@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Be prepared. The propaganda machine is gonna be ramping up to full soon.

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[–] mlg@lemmy.world 18 points 3 days ago

I like how this comments section perfectly sums up the democratic party.

Two denialists who think he's fake and a copist about Harris's loss

[–] anarchy79@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Jesus christ with the gate keeping and purity testing... They are hurting the left, they are hurting us who try, and they hurt the Palestinian people.

Wait until they discover a single thing they don't like about Abdul.

[–] FlyingCircus@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

Asking your politicians not to support genocide isn’t a purity test.

[–] BigMacHole@thelemmy.club 9 points 3 days ago

They LEFT the Democrats? What happened to Vote BLUE no Matter WHO!

-People who said to vote INDEPENDENT when THEIR Blue lost the Primary!

[–] BigJohnnyHines@lemmy.ca 8 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

The left likes to pretend that only the right are easily manipulated but it’s pretty obvious that it impacts everyone regardless of beliefs, the packaging is just different. Not sure if there are easy solutions.

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