politics

We lost in 2024 because of delusional thinking that we can bully people into voting for us. Convincing people to vote for your side starts with not being a rude pompous ass. It starts with not announcing that you know voter's wishes and beliefs better than they do. If voters get a whiff that you feel that you are entitled to their vote, they will punish your side out of spite. You can whine about this fact of human nature, but your whining won't help you win any elections. Elections have never been some dispassionate utilitarian balancing of policy platforms, and voters get annoyed when you pretend that they are.

Democrats lose when they forget that they're supposed to represent voters first and foremost. This is why white progressives usually fail when they go into minority communities looking for their votes. They'll try to brow beat racial minority communities. They'll say, "surely, our policies of government programs and redistribution are in the best interests of your community!" while at the same time not really trying to represent the issues those folks actually care about. Maybe UBI would be a great boon for members of a racial minority group. But that doesn't mean members of that group will vote for you, or that they have to. They may simply have other political priorities and would prefer politicians that will push for those priorities first. This is the difference between ruling and representing.

I have no doubt that attitudes like yours cost Democrats far more votes than the few progressives that actually stayed home. Your message is meant to browbeat people who are honestly almost always going to vote for your side anyway. But people who are more moderate see your message, see that you feel entitled to people's votes, and vote against Democrats as a consequence.

The number one complaint people have about liberals is "liberal arrogance." And this is a great example of the arrogance that causes Democrats to lose elections. You believe you've diagnosed all of society's problems. You believe you know the solutions to them. You believe you have all the answers. When other people tell you that their priorities are different from yours, and so your balance of issues are different from there's, you insult them, bully them, and try to shame them to vote for the Democratic candidate.

You are why Democrats lose elections. Your hubris dooms us all. It's condescending. It infantilizes voters who have a different ethical system than you do. And ultimately it shows that you want to rule people, not represent them. Liberal arrogance in its purest form.