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lancebeet | on: Trump wins presidency for second time
It's interesting how bad the democrats seem to be at the game of winning elections. They continuously seem to pick bad candidates and poor strategies resulting in them losing the election when they seem to have had the general conditions for winning. This time, the elephant in the room is of course the late ousting of Joe Biden, but there were similar issues that (in hindsight at least) were obvious in the Clinton 2016 campaign. This pattern can be seen in other countries as well, where it's clear that one group knows how to play the game while other groups don't, but it's surprising to me that a massive organization like the democratic party wouldn't have streamlined this process.

It would be interesting to hear from someone more familiar with the inner workings of the democratic party why this is. I.e., if it's a cultural issue in the party, if it's economical, or if my view on this is completely off.

Prbeek | parent | next
"interesting how bad the democrats seem to be at the game of winning elections" Since 1992, haven't democrats had power for over 20 years as opposed to GOP's 12 ?
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walthamstow | parent | next
They regularly win presidential elections by the most obvious definition, the popular vote, but lose them on the EC, which is what actually counts.

The fact remains that more Americans vote Democratic than vote Republican, those votes are just badly distributed for the EC system.

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xyzsparetimexyz | parent | next
My view since 2016 has been that winning elections in the US is about telling a good story. Whether you're trueful or not doesn't really matter as long as people believe it.

Trump's story is pretty ridiculous, there's no way that his plans on how to fix the economy or the border or the whole department of efficiency thing work anywhere close to as well as he says. Regardless, his demographic believes it.

Kamala's story was a lot weaker, involved a ton of hard truths and concessions about things that people in her base care about such as Gaza. Additionally her story on the border was mostly the same thing as Trump's. If you like the border story, why not go for the guy pushing it harder?

Obama had a pretty good story in 2008 (the whole hope thing). Dems need to get back to that.

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sanderjd | parent | next
I don't think "have had the general conditions for winning" is at all accurate this time around. It was clear ahead of time, and much ink was spilled on it, but it's even more clear in hindsight that this cycle was always going to be a giant uphill battle. Incumbent parties all over the world have been and are having the same issue. We're all still going through a hangover from the pandemic.
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zimpenfish | parent | next
The Democrats are somewhat hampered by their focus on facts and rationality ("play fair") rather than spouting bullshit, conspiracy theories, and whatever bigotry is currently hot ("win at all costs").
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_ink_ | parent | next
The argument of the GOP was, Trump is better because the inflation was lower during his term. How are you supposed to counter this?
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bantunes | parent | next
The Dems exist to give you an illusion of choice. This has gone down exactly as planned, or why do you think rich donors play both sides? Do you really think the Dems are this naive and keep messing up without it being on purpose?

The opinion makers know if it wasn't this close there'd be visible backlash.

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23B1 | parent | next
Impossible to get a group of people that large to behave strategically.

So you're asking the wrong questions.

What about the democrats ideology is unpopular? Because that is what people are voting on, not strategy.

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andrewclunn | parent | next
What I always find interesting is how Democrats insist their failure is due to a lack of sound strategy. That is of course a strategy in and of itself to NEVER admit that it might be a refutation of their policies or (gasp) their values. Telling yourself you just lost because you didn't "play the game" is a cope. It serves its purpose though, as it allows ardent followers to avoid actual self reflection.
a1j9o94 | root | parent
Agree. American's hate out groups and want to punish them. This just shows who people really are.
itomato | parent
There is no Democratic Power Play.

There is not the same opportunity to exploit human weaknesses for Gain.

That’s the issue. When Dems control the amygdala they might have a shot.