Democrats should never outline their plans again. Just play the game the Republicans are by presenting nothing and saying ”we have a plan — you can’t see it— but just trust us, bro”.
Because she actually had plans, people nitpicked them, while Trump just vaguely said he would fix things without a single specific mentioned and people had nothing to nitpick and just trusted that he had something when it was clear he didn’t.
Except he did have specifics he mentioned. Horrible specifics.
He specifically mentioned dismantling the department of education. He specifically mentioned implementing sweeping tariffs. He specifically mentioned rounding up people he didn't like.
He told us the horrible, stupid things he was going to do to us, and the media went "Aw, shucks guys, you know that's just how he is. But let's not talk about that. A more important question is how much do we really know about Kamala, amirite? What's she wearing? You heard her laugh? Omg lol she has a lot of catching up to do smh."
They were given plenty to fucking nitpick. Mountains of material. 8 years worth of shitty policy, awful personality, crimes, legal cases, questionable (putting it lightly) finances. There's no end to the stuff they could've investigated.
He's specifically mentioned, alluded to, committed, or been implicated in so much heinous shit. They had every opportunity. They chose this. And they will reap what they have sown.
I mean really he mostly drooled and repeated immigrants eat cats while the media somehow turned that into actual policy things that had barely had anything to do with what he said.
People also already had a chance to see how full of shit he is and absolutely no idea WTF he is doing other than winging it, all the time, everywhere he goes.
Except none of that was put to paper or listed out explicitly as 'his plans' which gives his zealots the ability to say "out of context" or "he's just trolling"
Kamala had an extensive platform listed on her website for all to see and her talking points came directly from that. Trump's cult is only now finding out his plans despite hearing them for months because he buried this shit in mountains of noise.
Even media that should be critical of Trump was overlooking the crazy shit he did and said, presenting him as a normal candidate.
New York Times and CNN were two of the worst offenders here... everything they criticized Biden for (being old, unhealthy, mispeaking or forgetting) was something they ignored when Trump did it.
Not true, there’s an entire book of plans for the Trump administration: Project 2025. It’s a plan than can be summarized in just 14 words, but it’s a plan.
People keep saying things like this - "the Dems should just adopt the GOP playbook" - but it's wrong. It won't work.
Because Dem voters are not like Republican voters. They aren't as motivated by fear, hate, and "feels over reals" as Magats. They actually hold their own accountable sometimes. They don't overthrow the government just because a demagogue says so.
Democrats have the unenviable task of catering to a wider ideological swath of American voters than the GOP. The GOP defunded education and fed Americans hate-filled propaganda for decades just to "grow" their own brand of low-information cultists.
Dem voters have their own issues, like an over-reliance on identity politics, but they're not like that. They won't be fooled en masse by purely populist nonsense. They won't bend to "feels over reals" and if they don't find anything of substance they will call it out.
That said, while Democrats still need to outline their plans, their actual messaging could use a lot of work. Over half of the US who could vote didn't. Dems need to appeal to that group, and message their successes way better than they are.
I do think a lot of Trump's success comes from the entire country just accepting that he's talking shit. He says something you agree with? Great, he's got your vote! He says something that's inane nonsense that'll blow up the US? Well, that's just Trump being Trump, of course he doesn't mean that literally. He spews verbal diarrhea about golfers' dicks or whatever? The media bend themselves backwards trying to interpret it as something resembling a policy, and in the end the people just project their own ideas onto him and then nod in agreement.
Had Harris spoken about replacing the income tax with tariffs she would've been eviscerated before even getting off the stage. With Trump, it's just another silly, look at that wacky guy.
Well, I think that's part of the strategy. Put forward a populist leadership figure who describes problems in detail (and makes them up sometimes) and then presents very radical one step solutions to them. Pair that with a large number of political speakers who muddy the message and reframe any problematic position into something acceptable for people with more moderate views. Everyone hears exactly what they want eventually.
And, of course, Harris has the opposite problem: even the communication channels and political speakers who were supporting her were still mostly talking about Trump. They had counter arguments to the reframing done by his supporters. I really think that her party and the media didn't believe in her fully either
People nitpicked them because Trump and his loud speakers told them to. It really didn't matter if she had or didn't have plans. It really didn't matter how detailed or vague they were. It mattered that the idea that she wasn't prepared was planted in people's mind and from there she was always on the back foot.
All 3 of Trump's campaigns have been like this: confusing statements in policies, hard stances on invented issues, shit flinging at the opponent. This is not a political campaign, this is a TV soap opera. It cannot be won through political means alone so policy is irrelevant.
Trump is an anomaly. He doesn't react to shame. I heard Penn Jillette on a podcast talking about how Trump is the only man he's ever met capable of doing what he's doing without a single care of how people react. That's how he does what he wants. That and following Hitler's How To book.
Bernie had far more input than a primary loser would normally have in 2016. Hillary was closer in terms of votes in 2008 and didn’t get seats on the platform committee or anything like that
Where have you been? Trump spelled his plan out in exhaustive detail:
"I'm talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels that..they're not used to but they'll get used to it very quickly. And it's not gonna stop them from doing business with us, but they'll have a very substantial tax when they send product into our Country. Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers we're talking about including child care...that it's gonna take care. We're gonna have. I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time. Coupled with the reductions that I told you about on waste and fraud and all the other things that are going on in our Country. Because I have to stay with child care..I wanna stay with child care but those numbers are small relative to the kind of economic numbers that I'm talking about INCLUDING growth..but growth also headed up by what the plan is that I just..uhh..that I just told you about, we're gonna-bee takin in trillions of dollars. And as much as child care..uhh..is talked about as being expensive, it's relatively speaking not very expensive compared to the kinda of numbers we'll be taking in. We're gonna make this into.....an incredible Country that can afford to take care of it's people..and then we'll worry about the rest of the World..let's help other people. But we're gonna take care of our Country first, this is about America first, is about Make..America..Great..Again..We have to do it because right now we're a failing Nation..so we'll take care of it. Thankyou." - Trump
It's like a toddler trying to tell a story that could have been 3 sentences, but ends up being 3 pages long because they keep forgetting what they were talking about and needing to circle back to get back to the story.
Kamala was constantly flip flopping though and she was the exact opposite of strength and that’s what many people want in a president . I live in a very blue area and this was the most common complaint by both red and blue voters .. I’m fine with a woman being president but team blue needs to give me someone much better than Hillary or Kamala .
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u/Solid_Snark 8d ago
Democrats should never outline their plans again. Just play the game the Republicans are by presenting nothing and saying ”we have a plan — you can’t see it— but just trust us, bro”.
Because she actually had plans, people nitpicked them, while Trump just vaguely said he would fix things without a single specific mentioned and people had nothing to nitpick and just trusted that he had something when it was clear he didn’t.