There were certainly votes lost in Michigan over Gaza, but even if every single Jill Stein vote was a protest vote (they weren't), it wouldn't have been enough for Harris to carry the state.

The tougher thing to parse is the reason why so many voters seemingly stayed home this cycle. I think there is a very reasonable argument that not enough people were excited about her message, even the base.

It's a lot easier for door knockers, phone bankers, and everyday democrats to talk proudly about their candidate if they can rattle off a list of great things their candidate will do. It's even easier if those great things hit people where they're hurting the hardest or is the moral thing to do (healthcare for the uninsured, ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, etc.). It's a lot tougher to get low propensity voters to show up on the harm reduction argument alone, especially if you brush past where they're hurting or concede too much ground on your moral positions.

The biggest issue for most voters appears to have been inflation and the economy, and while democrats were technically correct to say the rate of inflation has come down and American economic indicators outperformed most other countries in this post-pandemic period, that's all pretty meaningless to someone whose real wage growth didn't keep up with inflation these past few years. The "opportunity economy" and targeted small business tax cuts is a much tougher sell to someone working two+ jobs to get by.

The other issue that dominated the media was immigration. Democrats forfeited their moral position when they offered the republican wishlist border bill earlier this year. The argument that republicans weren't serious on the border because they didn't support the bill fell flat, and instead democrats were (rightly) criticized for abandoning their framing of the issue as a choice between deportation and amnesty, and their previous claims the border wall was racist.

All of that to say, democrats failed to connect with their own base on the issues that make them the party's best messengers. Add Gaza to the list of issues where Harris could have pivoted away from Biden, instead of running into the arms of the Cheneys to chase the mythical moderate republican voter.

Counting to five, too complicated for voters.

I think there's plenty of people to be mad at, more than enough blame to go around.

Biden could have chosen to be the transitionary president he "signaled" that he'd be by stepping out of the race 6-12 months earlier, and allowing for a full primary season for democrats to rally around a candidate and a platform.

The Harris campaign could have rejected the failed 2016 strategy of courting moderate republican at the expense of blue collar democrats, rather than champion the Cheney family endorsement, in spite internal protests.

I'm not willing to scapegoat just one person for this loss, this was the whole damn team. The DNC needs to realize that people vote when they're excited to vote. That whether they're door knocking or just talking to their friends, the base is going to get those low propensity voters out if they're bragging about some great thing democrats will do. And it's a lot easier when that thing is healthcare or amnesty (Obama), rather than small business tax cuts and a republican bill on the border.

The Harris campaign dropped that after the first month, even though it seemed to be the only thing that got under Trump and Vance's skin.

They got Geoff Garin, former Clinton campaign co-chief strategist, who told them to drop "We're not going back" - not forward looking enough (they didn't) and drop "weird" - too negative (they did).

We all have our anecdotal experiences. If you're a college student or graduate, going to school or working in an urban environment or coastal state, the data may not reflect your lived experience. But this has been the growing trend in national polls for some time now.

There's also an increasing generational component to this, as millennials age out of the 18-29 demographic. If you're a millennial, this shift may feel even more incomprehensible as millennials appear resistant to the typical conservative shift as they've aged.

I firmly believe that if any other candidate, in a primary or general election, either republican or democrat, had said this, it would end their campaign.

We have become so accustomed to Trump saying outrageous bullshit, that this will be forgotten in less than a week, and most voters will never even hear about it.

Twitch disabled the account following the Jan. 6 riot on the US Capitol in 2021 due to “the current extraordinary circumstances and the President’s incendiary rhetoric” before issuing an indefinite suspension two weeks later, according to a Twitch spokesperson.

Guess we'll all just collectively forget about this now that's he's the Republican nominee again ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

What is this stage set-up? Why is the British PM sitting in the cuck chair?

Add it to the pile.

Heard this one before. How long before we hear about his extramarital affairs and the abortion he paid for. It's always projection with these assholes.

EDIT: My bad, this guy just paid for his future wife's abortion. Rules for thee and not for me. Slightly different hypocrisy for this guy.

All research and successful drug policy

Shows that treatment should be increased

And law enforcement decreased

While abolishing mandatory minimum sentences

No they don't. How is this octogenarian the best option out of 340 million Americans to beat a septuagenarian with four criminal indictments that amount to over 90 felony charges?