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dzonga | on: Trump wins presidency for second time
don't take the voters as stupid, don't impose candidates who can't 1 win a 1 horse race.

pretty much the democratic party has to introspect and stop blaming voters for their failed campaign.

walterbell | parent | next
Bill Ackman, https://x.com/billackman/status/1854019674385547454

> The Democratic Party.. lied to the American people about the cognitive health and fitness of the president. It prevented, threatened, litigated and otherwise eliminated the ability of other [Democratic] candidates for the primary to compete, to get on ballots, and to even participate in a debate.

formerly_proven | root | parent
Isn't that sentence literally true for the Republican party as well? So how would it be a differentiating factor?
walterbell | root | parent
There was a 2024 Republican Presidential Primary, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Republican_Party_presiden...
stouset | root | parent | next
And it turns out the voters don’t seem to actually care about the cognitive health of the President, nor do they seem to care about being lied to about it.
walterbell | root | parent | next
Joe Rogan's three-hour interview of one candidate got 40M+ views.
dialup_sounds | root | parent
Soon: "Terrence Howard nominated to head Department of Education"
j-krieger | root | parent
The Republican Party didn't hide the President of the United States from the public because he was no longer able to speak publicly.
ks2048 | root | parent | next
Yes, they do hide Trump's health reports from the public - or rather he never releases any information like other presidents do. Hell, he GOT SHOT and never gave any details of what happened.

I agree that Democrats denying Biden's cognitive decline was a disaster.

vkou | root | parent
The gibberish that routinely comes out of their candidate barely qualifies as speech.

The reality is, nobody who was wringing their hands about Biden's cognitive abilities, or his son's legal problems actually cared about either issue. If they did, they wouldn't have voted for an mentally declining criminal today.

refurb | parent | next
Agree 100%. The "am I wrong? no, it's the voters who are wrong!" is a sure sign the next campaign will flop as well.

A large percentage of Americans aren't interested in what the Democratic Party is selling. The party can either stick to their policies and live with these kinds of showing, or take some time to really think about what the American voter is looking for.

philistine | root | parent | next
I look at the grander picture. It’s not that the democrats aren’t connected, it’s that the American people are culturally bankrupt. The romans became decadent after all, culturally incapable of maintaining their empire and slowly declining in power and influence over Europe. The American idea itself is in decline.
noworriesnate | root | parent
> The American idea itself is in decline.

America isn't an idea any more than England is an idea. We're a specific group of people with a specific heritage.

philistine | root | parent
If you want another word: American culture is in decline.
skhunted | root | parent
I don’t believe you are correct. People who vote for a man as debased, self centered, sexually depraved, and criminally inclined as Trump are “wrong”. White men latched onto a horrible person as their savior. If that’s what they want then they deserve what comes. But the people who don’t want that should stick to their principles.

What does it say about Trump that so many of his lawyers and advisors ended up in jail and that so few former cabinet members endorsed him? What does it say about his supporters who cared not that he raped children with his pal Epstein?

Remember when Cruz and Lindsey Graham spoke honestly about Trump just before November 2016? Recall what they said then to what they say now. It’s a cult.

refurb | root | parent
> People who vote for a man as debased, self centered, sexually depraved, and criminally inclined as Trump are “wrong”.

Maybe you're too young to remember Bill Clinton?

He was accused of sexual harassment by a number of women (including a rape). His relationship with Lewinsky (22 years old), is highly exploitive in terms of the power he held over her career. While he might have supported women's right politically, he was certainly exploitive in his personal life.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton_sexual_assault_an...

There were also a number of "questionable business dealings" in his past. Arkansas land deals, Whitewater, almost impeached by Congress for lying.

But I'm sure you'll say "oh, those were just trumped up charges by the Republicans". Ok, then don't blame Trump voters when they think "oh, those were just trumped up charges by the Democrats".

So while people got worked up, he got re-elected handily.

It's funny to me when people entirely overlooked Clinton's life because they liked him as a President and they liked his policies.

You'd think the Democrats would know this.

skhunted | root | parent | next
The Clintons earned $120 million in 10 years after he was President. Hilary gave 30 minute speeches at Goldman Sachs for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Clearly these were payouts for repeal of Glass-Steagal and other policies. He was a predator and not deserving of the adulation he got. She became senator for New York by having it basically handed to her.

It would benefit humanity if people were taught to be consistent in their views. If they understood that extremism is when the cause is more important than the truth.

skhunted | root | parent | next
But I'm sure you'll say "oh, those were just trumped up charges by the Republicans". Ok, then don't blame Trump voters when they think "oh, those were just trumped up charges by the Democrats".

You’d be wrong. I don’t have your apparent level of inconsistency.

selimthegrim | root | parent
I am sure you’ve heard the phrase “Trump with a dictionary”
potato3732842 | root | parent
I never have but I think this is doubly funny since I've more than once heard Trump derided as "orange Bill Clinton" by hardline fiscal conservatives.
Maken | parent | next
As a foreigner, the Democratic party just lives of to crying wolf on the Republican party without offering any meaningful difference. And people have gotten tired of it, judging by the fact that Trump is not getting more voters than in 2020, but they are getting considerably less.

Maybe I'm a bit too optimistic, but rather than "people want Trump" I read all this debacle as "people want something different from the Democrats".

theshrike79 | root | parent
Nah, the problem is that Republicans have openly played a dirty game for almost a decade with ZERO repercussions. They flaunt the laws and conventions of politics and nothing happens.

Democrats still play by the rules for some reason and don't call out the shit done by the other party with simple enough terms.

gmueckl | root | parent
This. One side sticks to the rules and watches silently while the other side slowly undermines them.

At the same time, the Republicans have perfected the twin strategies of sowing distrust in neutral media reorting and playing the victim card consistently to everything, even their own attacks.

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mariusor | parent | next
I think the only lesson that Democrats can learn from the past three elections is that women have no chance at presidency. If anything, as an outsider, the campaign Harris led, seemed to reach vastly more people than Biden's.
vundercind | root | parent | next
I am 100% convinced a Republican woman could win. I was in touch with a lot of deep-red middle-of-the-country Republican voters and candidates for state and federal offices when Palin was the VP pick. Shooting-stuff-in-political-ads sorts. It was practically all they talked about. They liked her a ton better than McCain. I think they’d have gladly voted for her at the top of the ticket (granted, they lost that one, but I think an R woman could absolutely be elected President, probably more easily than a Democratic one).
mangoman | root | parent
That would be missing the forest for the trees in my view. I could see it having an impact, but when 60% of people say that the country is headed in the wrong direction, putting up a candidate who was in power the last four years just isn’t going to work. Biden would not have won a primary, and neither would she have
skhunted | parent
People who vote for a sexual predator, a conman, pathological liar, a felon, a cheat, and a person who obviously has narcissistic personality disorder are stupid. We are living in a tyranny of the stupid. He’s the President we deserve.
smallstepforman | root | parent | next
It clearly shows how bad the D candidate/policy is, such that people prefered the R candidate with all the flaws you listed. The eye opener should be why people rejected the D candidates.
thinkingtoilet | root | parent | next
It's not about policy though and it never was. There is no way the Democrats could have "policy-ed" themselves out of this.
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skhunted | root | parent
It’s a white nationalist backlash. They cared not about the messenger; only the message. It’s also the product of Russian disinformation. Russia has perfected the art of sowing division and faux outrage. We’ve done it to other countries so we deserve it in some sense. We’ll see a rise of toxic masculinity. Women exercising sexual autonomy and gaining power is not something snowflake men can handle.

Such is my belief. I could be entirely wrong.

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vetinari | root | parent
Everyone at this level of power is either psychopath or sociopath. So it's not like the voters have any choice in that.
skhunted | root | parent
For the most part. But one can vote for the party that is more supportive of human rights, the environment, etc.