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Summary

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has criticized the Harris-Walz 2024 presidential campaign for playing it too "safe," saying they should have held more in-person events and town halls.

In a Politico interview, Walz—known for labeling Trump and Vance as "weird"—blamed their cautious approach partly on the abbreviated 107-day campaign timeline after Harris became the nominee in August.

Using football terminology, he said Democrats were in a "prevent defense" when "we never had anything to lose, because I don't think we were ever ahead."

While acknowledging his share of responsibility for the loss, Walz is returning to the national spotlight and didn't rule out a 2028 presidential run, saying, "I'm not saying no."

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[-] btaf45@lemmy.world 17 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

Harris initially said she was going to "prosecute" the case against Traitorapist Trump but then never did anything like that. All she had to do to win was use way more aggressive rhetoric. She never used the phrase "Convicted Criminal Trump" or "Treason Trump" She never used the phrase "legally certified rapist Trump". She never pointed out that Trump hates the Free World and freedom and democracy. She never reminded voters that Trump had a 29% approval rating at the end of his term. She never pointed out that Trump is very disloyal to our longstanding core values. She never reminded people that Ted Cruz said that Trump "lies practically ever word that comes out of his mouth".

Dems NEED much more aggressive candidates. No more of that business as usual shit.

[-] aceshigh@lemmy.world 8 points 17 hours ago

Played it safe by not holding more in person events? What? They didn’t question the legitimacy of the winner when clearly there were outliers that needed to be investigated.

[-] octopus_ink@slrpnk.net 40 points 1 day ago

What they did was court Republican voters instead of Democrat voters, and neither Republicans nor Democrats were amused.

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[-] JoshuaBrusque@lemmy.world 41 points 1 day ago

That is just one of many many reasons the Democrats lost, too many to count or even list in this post. You might want to also update the platform to not gobble the balls of the billionaires and corporate class. Abolish the electoral college, gerrymandering (though there were efforts on this front; poorly executed), lobbying, and Super PACs. Should've expanded the Supreme Court or instituted term limits.

Basically put in any effort whatsoever to show they wanted to prevent the loss of democracy and they didn't do it. At least SAY things that would prevent genocide in Gaza, even if you don't mean it. Start playing by the same rules as the Republicans and there could have been a chance.

It's too late for any of that now.

[-] UsernameHere@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago

Dems never had the super majority to abolish the electoral college, gerrymandering or the other things you mentioned.

[-] VivianRixia@piefed.social 4 points 17 hours ago

Even if its not possible, campaign like its the goal. Tell us what you'd do with full approval from everyone and people might get motivated enough to vote to make that happen.

[-] jecxjo@midwest.social 7 points 19 hours ago

I agree that they and the dems in general are way too safe. But i wonder how accepting dem voters would be with a more aggressive candidate. I'm sure Millennials to Gen Alpha would probably be fine with it but i wonder if a good portion of the voters would poo poo a someone moving more towards the a more extreme (in presentation) candidate.

What if they made a hard line decision on a topic and held firm. The whole fracking thing is a good example. They should have just picked a side and stood their ground. instead it was 100% pandering to whoever was the loudest. Personally I would have voted for someone with conviction rather than someone who was waffling but I am not sure every other liberal voter would do the same.

[-] kreskin@lemmy.world 6 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

But i wonder how accepting dem voters would be with a more aggressive candidate.

We've been living through passive, fearful, reactive, business-led, "nothing will fundamentally change" dem leadership for decades. Theres no need to fear change at this point because we literally cant lose any harder than we are now. We have been teetering on the edge of dissolution for so long that people are starting to fear risking changing what shitty circumstanbes we have now. We couldnt be more pathetic as a party.

[-] jecxjo@midwest.social 3 points 17 hours ago

Agreed. I just have started to lose faith in the voters. Reps push hateful politicians and Dems don't seem to push hard for solid candidates.

[-] Katana314@lemmy.world 2 points 16 hours ago

The optimist in me wants to believe that the only reason they see "loudest responses" is because they announce that 2+2=4 and Empathy=Good, and everyone with common sense agrees, but doesn't bother saying anything. Meanwhile we've gotten thousands of screaming matches from sorely misled (and at worst brainwashed) voters who have been told by Trump that 2+2=8 and Empathy=Bad.

It doesn't absolve them for "tactically" shifting stances. But I've tried to do my part by calling my reps when they take a hard action that I agree with.

[-] crusa187@lemmy.ml 11 points 21 hours ago

Gee, it’s almost as if all that bribe money ehhem I mean campaign finance donations have corrupted and shackled the Dems into consistently losing strategies.

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[-] JimVanDeventer@lemmy.world 7 points 19 hours ago
[-] noxypaws@pawb.social 7 points 19 hours ago

Says a lot about how out of touch and relatively conservative they are that they think their behavior was "safe"

Safe for whom??

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[-] NotLemming@lemm.ee 9 points 20 hours ago

Too Zionist. After the trump riviera etc all sane people have to dump Israel entirely. They outed themselves. Zionists either stay there alone with no foreign aid or involvement, eject Netantyahu and all the assholes in government and pay reparations to Palestine and be welcomed back in the international community if they behave, or abandon Israel and the Zionists seek sanctuary in other countries.

[-] kreskin@lemmy.world 3 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

The crazy part of it is that jewish people are only ~2% of the US population, spread across both parties. And about 80% of American jews are zionists. So this country destroyed itself to promote the special interests of an infintesimal minority of voters pursuing a far right pet cause that included war crimes. Its absolutely insanity, so of course we lost.

[-] TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world 13 points 23 hours ago

The Democrats need to embrace populism to get into office, like they did with Obama in 2008. Remember, Obama wasn't the Democratic establishment's first choice, but as Obama's movement grew, they recognized that they could ride his wave back into power. Something similar happened in 2016 with Bernie Sanders, but in that case the Democratic establishment turned away from the candidate with the rapidly growing populist movement, because his language was much too explicitly and aggressively left populist for their comfort. This was a mistake. Had the Democratic establishment embraced Bernie's movement, I don't think Trump would have been elected in 2016.

I hope by now moderate Democrats realize a Bernie Sanders presidency would have been better than the Trump presidency. Many Democrats, apparently, didn't think Bernie was a better option than Trump, that they were both equally bad options. Again, I hope moderate Democrats recognize now that that thinking was wrong. Bernie would have become more moderate once in office, just like Obama. Because Bernie, like Obama, would have listened to the experts.

That's what the Democrats need to do: wait for a populist movement to form around a candidate, ride that populist wave into office, then the experts and technocrats can take over.

That all being said, Democrats also need to ensure that the experts and the technocrats are doing their jobs properly. Part of the reason these populist movements exist is because of the failures of technocrats and experts, failure to recognize the limitations or contradictions within their ideology. The technocrats must ensure that once they are back in power they are managing the country and the economy properly, so that the largest possible number of people can thrive, otherwise they will not be able to hold on to power.

[-] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 11 points 23 hours ago

Small correction: The DNC isn't employing technocrats and experts; they're employing neoliberals concerned first and foremost with extracting money from the poor and putting it in the hands of the rich. If they were concerned with improving people's lives they'd have implemented progressive economic policy like everyone with two braincells to rub together has been telling them to.

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[-] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 3 points 17 hours ago
[-] kreskin@lemmy.world 1 points 13 hours ago

Depends on what he does between now and election day. Its not currently a good sign that he's running with the fascist lite crowd instead of progressives.

[-] troed@fedia.io 13 points 1 day ago

I thought it was that americans were to misogynistic and racist. Incl. a whole lot of Democrats that had no problems voting for Biden but couldn't be bothered to vote Harris.

"Thank you"

[-] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 1 day ago

The Democrats seem to think misogyny played a part, yes, but I'm not convinced that this was the case. It's an easy excuse. But it glosses over a problem that Democrats have not been willing to face for almost 20+ years.

They are convinced that if they become the center, they'll win the majority.

The Harris campaign ran the same play as the Clinton campaign: I'm not Trump.

The only case of misogyny that I can see is that Biden ran the same campaign. But the problem with this argument is that we were in a Trump presidency. The effects of it were clear to voters. If you carry over this logic to Biden, Harris lost not because she was a woman but the effects of the Biden presidency was clear to voters.

Harris had the opportunity to come out as progressive. To go further than Biden. To guarantee colleges loan forgiveness for everyone. To come out against healthcare companies. To come out against the alt right.

But she didn't.

She played the same plays as Hilary: I'm not Trump. I'll save democracy. Israel is cool.

The sad thing is she could be leading the charge right now to help organize people against fascism. If she really learned any lessons from her campaign, she'd be with Bernie and doing tours to help people protest.

The DNC would rather eat crumbs that fall off the table than risk biting the hands that feed it (corporations). They have lost legitimacy in my book and will only support them as opposition to the fascists because there isn't another option. If a true progressive party gains momentum, you can bet that the DNC and GOP will work together to push progressives out.

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[-] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 16 points 1 day ago

it's everything. the democratic party since Obama was elected has been unwilling to grapple with that our populace is split between people who think racism is an ongoing aspect of the fight for liberation, people who think racism ended some time in the past like in 1864, 1920, 1950, 1970, or 1989, and people who outright engage with racist ideologies. democrats try to engage with an idyllic populace who generally means well when the actual populace is a bunch of colonizers.

our best bet for a president who can address all the problems of this political environment is basically the wokest white dude we can find. and the way tim walz is acting and behaving, he might be operating with the understanding that given bernie sanders' age, it might have to be him.

i ask everyone to do the following: pay attention to what tim walz does, but don't treat him as your savior. every liberation movement has required three figures: the violent revolutionary (think Malcolm X), the pacifist the respectability politics people are willing to engage with (think dr martin luther king jr), and the emotional/spiritual leader that soothes people who are hurting's souls (this leader usually goes unnamed because they are not looking for a position of power). you need to choose your role in our liberation movement as soon as possible and start agitating. and understand tim walz will never exit his lane of pacifist the respectability politics people are willing to engage with.

tim walz, also, for how much we love him, has blind spots and will say some ignorant shit in tho years to come. have grace and patience with him for as long as he will listen. america has a long legacy of politicians who entrench themselves in something dumb because when you have as many critics as someone in office has, the legitimate criticism tends to get buried under a mountain of unreasonable criticism.

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this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2025
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