1495
To those in countries where democracy might last another election - harm reduction is not optional
(lemmy.world)
this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2025
1495 points (95.8% liked)
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The Harris campaign tried to appeal to the centrists, and look how that turned out.
She looked at Biden who did left things and what did that get him? Lose the house for years 3 and 4. And polls showed he was going to lose. Aka the left never showed up even after getting some left things.
Harris ran on women's rights, mf'ing democracy, and while she didn't say it it was clear there would be continuation of student debt relief, green energy, EVs, infrastructure, etc. But it didn't work because "it's the economy, stupid". The left couldn't even show up for their own human rights.
Biden did very, very few "left" things. His policies were center-right. (For example, when the railroad workers threatened the economy with a strike, the left-wing response would be to temporarily nationalize the rails; the right-wing response would be to protect the railroad companies and remove the workers' ability to strike.) Progressives showed up to vote for Harris, anyway, as the numbers show. The mythical "centrists" did not.
Biden: Green energy, EVs, drug price control, PACT act, Chips act, student debt relief, build back better, etc. Rail. That's just of the top of my head. But it's always n n n not enough for the left. He did left things but the left wasn't going to show up. Every. Single. Time.
He did some lefty things sure, but most of those were dramatically weaker than they could and should have been. He also spent the majority of his efforts on right-wing policies.
You can keep complaining that it's not enough for leftists, and you'd be right. Someone who half-asses a bunch of leftist policies, and hardcore pushes a bunch of right-wing policies is not going to be supported by leftists.
Are you serious? The question is how do you get more left things? The answer is to reward the left things that happen. ~~Tell~~ Show them that doing left things gets you voted in.
Right now they are punished for the left things they do. So what's the logical course of action? Drop them and move to the center. To find voters that actually show up.
Cmon. This is simple.
They are punished because they sprinkle a couple of left things into a mountain of right-wing policies, and keep telling us that we should be grateful. When actually try to push left-wing stuff, they get massive support from voters. When they continuously push right-wing bullshit, they lose support.
Look at Sander's/AOC's approval ratings. Look at the Fight the Oligarchs rallys. Look at the BLM movements. Look at the NYC election.
Then look at the votes for the increasingly right-wing presidential candidates. Look at the approval ratings for those candidates.
Notice a correlation? When they lean left, they get more support from voters. When they lean right, they get less support.
How has moving to the center been working out? If moving to the center has been helping them get more votes, why do they keep losing in what should be easily-winnable elections?
Polls (effectively what they are) are idealized. I remember one person before the election kept saying "polls show people don't want fracking Dems just need to be against fracking and it'll be a landslide." Yeah fucking right, right until the GOP starts shouting "it'll raise raise gas prices, they're going to raise gas prices. Prices prices prices, inflation inflation inflation". Trump won on the economy. When the rubber meets the road, in actual elections, on the national stage, the left policy gets punished and hilariously by the left.
Oh yeah more on polls. I already covered it: ~~Tell~~ Show them that doing left things gets you voted in. Polls is telling (kinda). Votes is showing. Showing is orders of magnitude more important.
They only win when they go to the center. Here's my copy paste because I have this conversation so much.
Ok let's go through this chronologically.
Bill Clinton: After successive Dem losses Bill figured out "it's the economy stupid", aka center policy, not leftist policy. Plus when you run against an incumbent (Bush senior) you generally run from the center. So that's what he did. And he won.
Gore: After the population hopefully warmed up with Bill Clinton, he stuck his head out left with climate change. And bam he lost the election. Thanks 3rd party protest voters! Aka: The left never shows up.
Obama: So guess what Obama learned? Don’t stick your head out. He ran on broad “hope” and “yes we can” and having energy, hoping the ambiguity would be enough considering Bush’s disastrous wars. And he won.
More on Obama: So he enacted the ACA. That's great, right? The thanks Obama got for that was to lose the House of Representatives for year 3 and 4. And lose the House of reps again for years 5 and 6. And then lose both the House of reps and the Senate for years 7 and 8. He enacted left policy and: The left never shows up.
Hillary Clinton: So what did Hillary learn from the last 6 years of Obama? She learned that the left never shows up. So she only stuck her head out with a big position to left on the map room to climate change. She basically declared war on climate change. You know that big existential issue that all the leftists care about, right? The big important issue that the left says they want so badly, right? And guess what happened? Bam she lost. Thanks protest non-voters! Aka: The left never shows up.
Biden: Just like Obama learned from Gore, Biden learned from Hillary that you don't stick your head out left on anything. Not one thing. And he was running against an incumbent, so once again when you do that you run center. And he won.
Biden in office: But he did left things anyway. He did green energy, EVs, drug price control, PACT act, Chips act, etc. And what were the results? Lost the House of Representatives for years 3 and 4. Polls showed him losing the election to Trump. He enacted left policy and: The left didn't show up for midterms, and was not going to show up for the next election.
Harris: Harris ran on abortion rights, democracy and it was apparent she'd continue green energy. She relied on the left to show up for their rights and for democracy. They couldn't even do that. Aka the left never shows up. (Btw Bill Clinton was right, it's the economy stupid. Trump won on the economy.)
And people are amazed that they don't run a big left platform? Every time they rely on the left they lose. Every Single Time. And the next guy learns to go to the center to win. Because the center voters actually show up.
With this history, you’d be an absolute fool to cater to and rely on the left. Because. They. Never. Show. Up.
So how do you get them to move left? By giving them victories first. Consistent and overwhelming victories. Show them it’s safe to take policy chances. Because right now every time they run on left platforms or enact left policies, they lose.
Gore won the votes in election. The system wouldn't let him claim the win.
Yes, Obama gave a us the terrible ACA, which was drastically less than it should have been. He also abandoned most of his lefty campaign promses, and basically ran as a Republican, as he himself admitted. So yes, lefties didn't show up after that. Why would lefties be happy about a supposedly leftist candidate who self admittedly ran like a Republican?
Hillary lost because she is cartoonishly evil, and clearly campaigned on things that she had no intention of doing. She is practically the embodiment of the lying Corporate Democrats, so I don't see why you think she would get votes from the left.
Biden barely won when Trump was at his lowest. It took our lowest-approval rated president, at his worst time, for Biden to win. And once Biden got into office, he ran mostly to the right, with a few small leftist things sprinkled in. His approval kept declining as he continued to do right-wing things. Why you think a right-wing running president should expect to get votes from the left is beyond me.
Harris said she approved of, and would continue with Biden's mostly right-wing policies, all while chasing to the right after Trump.
You keep saying that leftists don't show up, but then point to mostly right-wing politicians, who run mostly right-wing campaigns and policies as your evidence. Meanwhile, actual leftists keep gaining popularity. We have plenty of evidence of voters showing up for the left, but we don't have evidence of politicians actually doing lefty things. It seems logical to me that when politicians pretend they are on the left, but end up moving to the right, that leftist-voters don't show up for them.
If left policy was this "if they just did it, it'd be a landslide" that the left keeps telling me, then gore would have been a landslide, right? Nope.
Obama. N n n n n n n n n n (how many n's should I have?) not good enough! This is a perfect example of how nothing will be good enough. Want more? They have to walk before they run.
Hilary: "I'll do this". You: "LIAR". How do I even respond to this, you're just shutting out reality at this point. No conversation can be had, so this is my last message.
Biden; Green energy. you: "RIGHT WING NONSENSE". Student debt relief. You: "MORE RIGHT WING NONSENSE". Repeat ad nauseum.
I was wrong, it wasn't n n n not good enough. You're just shutting out reality at this point. Ciao.
All of those are center-right policies, tinkering with the mechanics of a fundamentally neo-liberal system, when that system is slowly crushing us (57% of Americans living hand-to-mouth). Imagine why voters aren't fired up to come out and support a boost to, say, semiconductor research spending to strengthen U.S. supply chain resilience.
Called it: n n n n n n n n not good enough.
Want more? They have to walk before they run. Right now y'all don't even want the walking, you'd rather protest no vote in Trump lol.
Or: Aka you'll never show up, so why would they cater to you? Why would they cater to the voter who will quite literally never show up.
*Ps I also like how you don't respond to the rail bit, your whole big argument.
In what world is green energy right (sorry, center right) wing. This is... insane is the best word I can find. Ciao.