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Punish the Democrats, she says
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this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2026
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It shouldn't. It's basic harm reduction.
One side probably won't stop it, but they're on our side so there's a sliver of a cintilla of a chance we could pressure them into it.
The other side absolutely would not, vocally stated he would help accelerate it, and would laugh in our faces and do even more to accelerate it for no other reason than it made us mad.
The choice should have been obvious, even if I and everyone else would have preferred better options.
See people aren't exclusively machines.
I know people who felt that both sides at least tacitly supporting the genocide was so depressing that for their mental health they basically checked out of politics.
No, that response isn't helpful, but it's a very real thing that happens to real people. They needed a candidate that cared that people's lives were ending across the sea, and neither side offered that.
That hurt Kamala's chances in a very real way, and might even be the deciding factor for Trump's second term.
While you and I can look at this and go "Wow, that's not logical, she's way better than Trump", the Democratic campaign should have had political scientists and psychologists that knew about this well-documented phenomenon. I imagine they did, and ignored it, because siding against Israel would've cost money.
So while it's true that the choice was still objectively obvious, it's also completely true that the Democratic campaign absolutely mishandled it, because this isn't some new phenomenon, and group human psychology isn't unpredictable. It's also not the fault of those who didn't vote because of that.
D and R parties both need independent voters to win any election. For example, even if every D voted for a D, they would lose without independents voting for them in significant numbers. This has been a political fact for many years.
So... why did the Harris campaign target REPUBLICAN voters (instead of Ds and independents)? They wasted a lot of vital time on that ("He doesn't need to know who you voted for" etc), and they knew that they would lose if they did so.
She knew it too, Harris isn't stupid. She took a knee.
I'm not fully convinced the conspiracy is that deep, but also if hard evidence came out saying so, I wouldn't be surprised.
You don't have to believe my word, but answer this question. You are a Democratic veteran. You KNOW for a FACT that you need Democratic and Independent voters to win. Simple mathematics demands that you do so to win.
Why, oh why, would you pursue the Republican vote? They've never done this before in a Presidential election. It can't work. It's never worked before, anyway.
This was discussed openly during the campaign, tons of Republican outreach and advertising with the Harris run... why?
I cannot think of any other reason, I would actually feel a lot better if there was a logical reason, somebody help my troubled mind
I think they sorta reasonably might have thought kamala would be another Bernie, who was pulling republicans from trump during the primaries against Hilary. They thought kamala had that sort of appeal.
It's not sound logic, but I think someone in politics who doesn't understand what drew people to Bernie could see the parallels and conclude if they focus on it, they can draw those Republicans in.
And then acted entitled to the votes of a hostage electorate, just like Clinton did.
Reasonably? For what reason?
Bernie didn't win the Presidential election. He couldn't even win the nomination.
"Let's try something that has failed, instead of doing something fundamental that we have repeatedly used before to win elections."
"Let's try this idea! It's just Trump, who has won before. No worries"
Come on, she is not that stupid.
They are not that stupid.
Side note: They collected over a billion dollars for this failure (that we know of). New record!
yep, and the Dem leadership still support israel no matter what they do. They learned nothing and will try to set up the same voter hostage situation in every vote from now on.
Right? Makes that other comment under this seem more valid.
Just because humans are vulnerable to certain psychological effects, doesn't mean it's not the fault of those who were effected by them. Humans are also vulnerable to stress eating. That doesn't remove the blame from fat asses with no self-control.
And this person absolutely should have better self-control, whoever the fuck, sorry, TF she is.
And some candidates should be able to take a stand against genocide. Too bad you got your way and none were on the ballot.
Yes "my way". As an American jew I'm totally not horrified by what my supposed homeland is doing, and I certainly don't challenge anyone to call me a Jewish antisemite for saying "Fuck Israel". And I also don't still have to live with that complicit radioactive orange dementia patient as my fucking President because a bunch of pansy cocksuckers couldn't get off their knees and go fucking vote against him.
Maybe if democrats credibly supported something other than genocide, more people would have voted against him.
Or, maybe if she had been unequivocally anti-genocide or even anti-funding Israel without checks or guarantees from Israel first, she would have lost even worse. Sad to think about, but close to 1/3 of the US is irredeemable deplorables who have been shamelessly propagandized for over 40 years by hate media. Your own argument seems to distill down to everyone is a genocider. Can you really say that she wouldn't have lost more votes than she gained, and that the purity testers wouldn't have just moved on to a different issue they had with her and still sat out on election day?
They aren't ever going to vote for a democrat. They are not your audience, they are not your voters, and no matter how much you support genocide, unless you support it harder than trump, none of them will vote for you. Not fucking one.
Well, considering how many of you are still carrying water for a genocidal candidate more than a year after the election, I'm disappointed to say that too many members of the democratic party support genocide and nothing else.
I think that's the very reason that the party won't release its postmortem on the election.
All this has ever meant is "I have no standards and I expect you to abandon yours."
Yes. I agree, but unfortunately I'm not buddies with Nancy Pelosi or whoever the fuck picks these people, and I don't make the rules, I just live under them.
But you blame the voters instead of the politicians who refuse to represent them.
Yes. Because I also live in reality, where the lesser of two evils is often the only option.
And I hate everyone who manipulated events so that no one had the option to vote against genocide.
You just hate the voters.
Politicians lie. They say shit that they think will get them elected, and then make decisions once in office. For all we know, Harris has a modicum of morals, and would have put Israel in its place, despite what she said. We'll never know, because instead your non-vote was a vote for Trump, who absolutely was never going to do that. And now the country is falling apart, and the entire world hates us, for good reason. And people are being disappeared off the street, if not straight up murdered. So thanks for your moral outrage. It's partly responsible for this shit show. This isn't up for debate. YOU HELPED MAKE THIS HAPPEN.
I've been saying all over this thread that I voted for harris.
None of you give a solitary shit who anyone voted for. The only thing any centrist wants from the voters is enthusiastic support for your only policy: genocide.
But we've got a bunch of supposed leftists in this very thread talking about how they wouldn't vote for these types of democrats. These are people that obsensibly are self aware enough not to let their supposedly so well informed morality be determined by feeling bummed out about their options.
I don't expect miracles from the average, barely informed voter. I do fucking expect supposed informed leftists to not actively campaign against voting. I expect them to fucking understand this "obvious" situation. THAT is my main sticking point.
Yes, and white people get depressed about racism, so they just ignore what bums them out. Insane that a defense of online leftists amounts to "they just such smol bean, they too bummed for voting sad face".
At the very least maybe the Dem party should have been smart enough lie publically that they would censor Israel and reevaluate US support of Israel (even if they wouldn't actually follow through). It's almost like losing is preferable to risking any AIPAC $.
to do that in a democracy is beyond shameful.
You don't have to be invested at the grass roots or debating magats but you can still turn up at a polling station on election day, or do a fucking postal vote
If every election is a decision between the lesser of two evils and both evils become more evil over time then harm isn't actually reduced in the long run. This is why harm reduction is a failing long term electoral strategy.
People preaching harm reduction whose candidates only ever increase harm over the last offering know this. They're arguing in bad faith.
It absolutely is the best option, IF these are the only options. You don't get to constantly pretend that there's some obvious other solution without ever naming AND campaigning it. Basically, this entire thread is filled to the brim with online leftists hating on every possible option, propose fiire bombing walmarts, and then NEVER ACTUALLY FIREBOMB A WALMART.
It requires immense amounts of privilege to campaign for waiting for a better option to magically manifest.
Imagine there's an election with two candidates.
Both candidates have expressed that they will torture and kill you, specifically, r1veRRR.
One candidate will torture and kill you using environmentally friendly methods, the other will do so using fossil fuels.
Would you support the environmentalist candidate? Would you vote for them? Would you campaign for them?
And you're so happy that there were no other options.
We don't live in a world of "should", in the real world of course it is demoralizing and affects the vote turnout.
We all know the US government will back Israel no matter what... and the voters can only punish the incumbent party for doing so.
65% of Democrats don't want to finance Israel. Two thirds of their own party, that's massive!
Voter turnout will continue to fall; D and R parties will continue to lose voters (now down to 30% registered voters each) and the Independents will continue to grow (now up to 40% of voters).
Why? Because our major parties ignore what their constituents actually want, and we can only punish one party every term.
It shouldn't be that way, but it is.
The same people in this thread blaming voters for how Kamala Harris ran their campaign were the same ones insisting we had to run Biden as the incumbent, and calling you a bit or a school if you said they needed to be replaced.
We wouldn't have this outcome if the people who've made it their entire identity to blame voters had placed their frustrations with the party and demanded better, sooner, when it could have made a material difference.
The very fact that the Trolley Problem exists as a thought experiment and there is still active discourse over the correct solution should tell you why people didn't all feel that they had a responsibility to vote for harm reduction. You can't expect an election that resembles a famously divisive philosophical thought experiment to turn out with everyone arriving at the same conclusion, and it's pointless to dwell on the fact that everyone didn't fall in line with what you think is obvious rather than adjusting to the reality and acting accordingly. That means getting candidates elected in primaries that aren't going to put us in the same trolley problem come time for the general.
You can also put pressure on candidates mid-campaign to change posture.
I can tell you this, the Venn Diagram of the people itt blaming voters for the Democrats supporting a genocide in 2024, and the people who didn't want Biden to step down is basically a perfect circle. Its also the same circle which shielded Harris from any critiques on her support for genocide.
Nonsense.
Absolute nonsense, and the Palestinian Americans who voted 'undetermined' en masse during the Democratic primaries to send a message to Biden/Harris knew it too. The party made their choice between the people and an unpopular genocide. They chose genocide.
Perhaps. But that's not the world we live in. Demanding an electorate to suddenly change in a way it never has and start behaving like Homo economicus is only going to lead to further loses.
Honestly, people behaving like Homo economicus is how you get MAGA.
Think about it. Isn't Trump's pitch to voters ultimately an argument in rational self-interest? It's all "I'll make an in group and an out group. You'll be in the in group. I'll pull up the in group while pushing down the out group."
Racism and sexism are rational. Or at least they are rational from those that benefit from them. Think about a white male living in the Jim Crows South. Your life was made soooo much easier by racism and sexism. There were whole career fields where they were the only quarter of the population that were eligible for them. They were automatically in the top quarter of society, simply by their race and sex.
Anti-immigrant zealotry is rational. If you're a native-born US citizen working in the construction industry? Every legal or illegal immigrant being deported would cause your standard of living to soar. Economists would tell you that on net it will harm the economy. But if suddenly the pool of construction workers is cut in half, any US citizen who knows how to swing a hammer is now rolling in dough. That's the rational terror of fascism - every time another group in the "first they came for" poem is liquidated, someone ends up with their property, their jobs, their place in the social order, etc.
You NEED to have a respect for persons built into your ethical framework, or else you can end up justifying evils of all sorts, all in the name of the greater good. Hell, Dr. Mengele slept well every night, content in the knowledge that he was doing the greatest good for the greatest number.
The side of genocide, oligarchy and fascism?