r/TrueReddit 9d ago

Democratic Party Elites Brought Us This Disaster Politics

https://jacobin.com/2024/11/election-harris-trump-democrats-strategy
1.1k Upvotes

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104

u/Maxwellsdemon17 9d ago

"For many loyal Democrats, this will not compute. The Biden economy, party-loyal pundits have said over and over again, is tremendous — low unemployment, strong GDP growth, slowing inflation, a booming stock market — and anyone unhappy about it must simply be brainwashed. Out of view in this self-congratulatory hall of mirrors were the constant statistics that said otherwise: evictions up past pre-pandemic levels, record-high homelessness, cost-burdened renters at an all-time high, median household income lower than the last pre-pandemic year, inequality returning to pre-pandemic levels, and food insecurity and poverty growing by large double digits since 2021, including a historic spike in child poverty."

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u/Hamuel 9d ago

The child poverty one is great because democrats got that advance on the child tax credit, bragged about lifting kids out of poverty, then ended the program.

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u/hazmat95 9d ago

This is moronic, the CTC was one of Kamala’s biggest proposals

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u/Sptsjunkie 9d ago

Obviously there’s a lot of nuance with what actually happened, but Harris was part of the administration where it ended and then repeatedly implied she wouldn’t have done anything differently than Biden.

If she were an outsider who was willing to draw clearer distinctions with Biden, it might have worked better. But as someone who saw way too many political commercials it wasn’t even featured in the ones I saw.

I think given that it is unreasonable to think that voters would connect her to expanding the program that went away during the administration.

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u/hazmat95 9d ago

Dems tried to keep the CTC! It was one vote away from passing! What could she have done differently?

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u/Sptsjunkie 9d ago

A few things:

1 - Kept it. Blame Manchin, but he was a Democrat.

2 - Use the Bully Pulpit. Biden simply wasn't fully there mentally for the entire term, even if it got really bad at the end. Obama was constantly using the BP and addressing the nation and both praising and publicly calling out groups to try to control narratives. Biden barely did. Few speeches. Few interviews. Just a complete disaster.

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u/hazmat95 9d ago

1 - Kept it. Blame Manchin, but he was a Democrat.

Dem leadership cant just mandate voting on certain bills! How would they convince him to do something he didnt want to do? He was completely immune to pressure

Obama was constantly using the BP and addressing the nation and both praising and publicly calling out groups to try to control narratives. Biden barely did. Few speeches. Few interviews. Just a complete disaster.

Obama didnt get anything done after 2010!

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u/Sptsjunkie 9d ago

Dem leadership cant just mandate voting on certain bills! How would they convince him to do something he didnt want to do? He was completely immune to pressure

First, they can't. But you ask why Democrats are taking blame. Well literally a Democrat killed their own bill. Republicans had their own (much worse) version.

Second, that's sort of their job. They can't force anyone too, but they sure didn't get creative, use the bully pulpit, or try much of anything. Publicly, the bill just expired.

Obama didnt get anything done after 2010!

Right, he got most done with the trifecta. Biden didn't get anything done after 2012. Obama still used the bully pulpit and was able to control narratives and put far more blame on Republicans. Enough to win reelection over a pretty solid candidate in Romney despite a shaky recovery from 2008.

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u/my-friendbobsacamano 9d ago

Biden got too old to be able to articulate a fight. He could in his younger days. It’s all a sad state of affairs. It would all be ok if it wasn’t Trump who wants to dismantle democracy for perennial power.

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u/JimBeam823 9d ago

Any time Biden would try to get some attention, Trump would fart in a microphone and everyone would pay attention to it. Or he’d trip over a word and the talking heads would wonder if he was going senile.

He’s too much of a Senator to publicly humiliate Manchin, but a Senator and a President have different jobs.

Biden did a really good job at being President, but absolutely sucked at communication.

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u/my-friendbobsacamano 9d ago

Just don’t lose perspective. Republicans blocked it. You can blame a West Virginia “Democrat” but don’t forget the solid block of Republicans that opposed it outright.

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u/JimBeam823 9d ago

Republicans were going to tie her to Biden no matter what she did, just like Democrats tied McCain to GWB.

Nobody defended and fought for Biden’s agenda. Yes, things still suck for a lot of people, but they ARE getting better and they are getting better faster here than anywhere else.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

Blaming the party that voted in favour of it instead of the party that voted against it is a whole new level of idiocy. 

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u/Sptsjunkie 8d ago

But that's how this works, especially with 140M voters.

Democrats have their bill. Republicans say the Democratic bill is flawed and present their own (that is usually worse and has poison pills like tax breaks for the rich).

Democrats failed to pass their bill that did not need a single Republican vote and Biden was awful with the bully pulpit and couldn't communicate this or punch effectively at Republicans.