I'm glad Biden won in 2020. I think he did some great stuff during his term, and some distinctly not great stuff. I think that the only reason he won the primary was because a critical mass of voters decided a Democrat can't win without appealing to conservatives and I think that is very, very wrong
I think what little enthusiasm Biden had evaporated during his acceptance speech, when he made everything about reaching across the aisle and coming together as a country and amnesty for a man that tried to do a coup. That weakened support with Democrats, and gained *nothing* with conservatives
We *never* gain a thing with conservatives, because they don't actually have policy positions or priorities. There is no goal they have that they will bend on some other issue to achieve. Their only goal is total dominance, and total control.
We can't ever win by appealing to that. Appealing to that IS losing. I firmly believe that we can win by going hard in opposition to it. I firmly believe that a candidate who comes out hard on no compromise, no quarter, no looking back will sweep a free and fair election. If we still have those.
I don't think that's wrong, but I think there are ways to appeal to *some* conservative-leaning voters without sacrificing anybody's human rights.
Sure, I think running on "here's how my policies are actually MORE fiscally responsible than the fascists" is good.
And "We will uphold the rule of law," and "we will take care of veterans."
In Biden's case, the thing that attracted some conservative voters was not being Trump, and thus representing the rule of law, which it turns out some of them, like Bill Kristol, sincerely valued.
I mean, I get why he did it. There are moderate conservatives in Democrat circles, and many of his voters in the 2022 midterms were exactly that. But yeah.
The problem is that the loosened conservatives would've voted for him anyway. And he should've still stuck to trying to appeal to progressives as well.
And I'm not talking the moral grandstander progressives, because screw them. I'm talking the sensible ones.
Right. And I think most of them *are* sensible, actually.
Part of the issue with 2024 is that there were too many people stuck on one or two issues, something Musk's team exploited for Trump.
I also think Democratic politicians are still operating on Jimmy Carter's bridge building policies...from the late-1970's. It made sense then, but that was almost 50 years ago. Times have changed.
Carter, for all his many flaws, was staving over Reaganism for as long as possible, which didn't end up working long-term. Reagan died when I was entering high school 21 years ago. His legacy has left a stain that The US is still trying to shake off. The DNC needs to understand that.
And then Bush/Cheney (but mostly Cheney) wiped themselves another stain just in time for everyone to shit themselves over the fact that we elected a black guy as POTUS and they've never forgiven America for it since.
Also Reagan was just Nixon with slightly better optics.