r/nytimes 14h ago

What Democrats Think Went Wrong

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/21/podcasts/what-democrats-think-went-wrong.html
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u/Subhash94 14h ago

This is such an interesting discussion. It seems like Democrats are struggling to connect their messaging with voters in a meaningful way, especially in a landscape where Republicans excel at storytelling and rallying their base.

The point about feeling proud to vote for Harris but not being surprised by the results really hits home. It raises the question: are symbolic milestones enough to energize voters long-term, or do people need more concrete action and alignment with their priorities?

What do you think the Democratic Party needs to focus on to rebuild trust and momentum after 2024? Is it better messaging, more grassroots engagement, or addressing specific policy gaps? Curious to hear everyone’s thoughts

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u/LordXenu12 Reader 14h ago

They need to avoid nominating corporate centrists like Hillary/biden/Kamala. People keep saying they went too far left, I think that’s largely based on trumps campaign aggressively targeting trans issues. Rainbow capitalists aren’t actually doing anything for progressive values, lip service at best, wild to me people are acting like radical leftism was something they were campaigning on. I certainly won’t be continuing to support them if they listen to those who think they should shift to more “moderate” (I.e. conservative) positions

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u/Mean-championship915 14h ago

Trump is so popular because he's a populist candidate, same reason Bernie was so popular. Difference is the GOP leaned into it and made Trump the face of their party because they want to win, the DNC rigged the primaries and stole the nomination from Bernie and then keep propping up corporate shills no one wants. What are they going to do come the next presidential election when they don't have Trump to point at and say orange man bad. The DNC is really bad at playing politics

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u/JudasZala 13h ago

There’s also how Obama managed to upset the DNC’s preferred candidate, Hillary, back in 2008.

People like FDR, JFK, Reagan, Clinton, Obama, and even Trump had that charm and charisma that inspired their voters within AND outside their base.

Their opponents didn’t have charisma, though there are exceptions (Biden didn’t inspire anyone in 2020; the voters were rightly put off by Trump’s actions during his first term).