Early Predictions 2028: AOC, Whitmer, Newsome or …?

[Anonymous]

We’re all just human, and none of this is all that new or surprising.

But we will need to become a little less holier-than-thou, a little conscious of our underlying motivations (our political beliefs really aren’t signs of vastly superior intelligence or morality), and a little more respectful of people whose votes we need, if we hope to halt the erosion in voter enthusiasm for our leadership.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In fairness, we aren’t ONLY motivated by status anxiety.

The more mercenary among us hate Trump for upsetting the establishment apple cart that has made federal government adjacency so lucrative over the decades

The misguided altruists among us are so motivated by desire to feel kind that they’ve been tricked into taking the side of the most extreme underdogs (illegal immigrants, gender confusion sufferers, etc) against their own families.

And the more “spiritual” among us have looked to politics and “Science!” as substitutes for the religions they’ve abandoned. Our media is pretty explicit about this, referring to Obama as a Savior and Fauci as a Saint.

So we Democrats are uniformly venal, narcissistic, and shallow? You just sound like a Republican.

[Anonymous]

We don’t like criticism, that’s for sure!

[Anonymous]

tl;dr:

How likely is it lawyers and lobbyists are the moral paragons of the country?

Not bloody likely!

Therefore, duh, our moral posturing doesn’t play well in Peoria.

[Anonymous]

So we Democrats are uniformly venal, narcissistic, and shallow? You just sound like a Republican.

These posts aren’t about all Democrats, they are about a particular type of affluent, vocal, virtue-signaling Democrat. Who are so full of themselves that they don’t realize the harm they have done to our party’s popularity.

Ask yourself: are ANY swing voters hoping to be instructed on climate change or trans rights or immigration benefits by DC lawyers and lobbyists? Of course not! But we keep publicly preening about how right and good our beliefs are and how stupid and bad everyone else is. Has this been helpful? No.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In fairness, we aren’t ONLY motivated by status anxiety.

The more mercenary among us hate Trump for upsetting the establishment apple cart that has made federal government adjacency so lucrative over the decades

The misguided altruists among us are so motivated by desire to feel kind that they’ve been tricked into taking the side of the most extreme underdogs (illegal immigrants, gender confusion sufferers, etc) against their own families.

And the more “spiritual” among us have looked to politics and “Science!” as substitutes for the religions they’ve abandoned. Our media is pretty explicit about this, referring to Obama as a Savior and Fauci as a Saint.

So we Democrats are uniformly venal, narcissistic, and shallow? You just sound like a Republican.

NP. Most "Democrats" aren't uniformly venal, narcissistic, and shallow. It's the comparatively small, upper middle class, mostly white, elite-school-educated striver subgroup of Democrats who are virtually all venal, narcissistic, and shallow. They spend their lives grasping at power and status symbols to prop up their superiority complex, and they have churned out an absurd number of terrible ideas. Unfortunately, they're the Democrats donors listen to when looking for what "the base" thinks, even though this power-adjacent subgroup is NOT representative. They're also the ones who translate donors' dictates into talking points and use that process to manipulate the party's direction. The Democratic party is going to end up made up only of these people and wealthy donors as everyone else leaves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If I were a climate scientist or a trans kid or an illegal immigrant, I would beg the annoying affluent progressives to stop talking about me and putting a target on my back![/quote
I have said for years that no greater calamity can befall a group than for the DC white liberal types to decide to play "ally" to that group. They behave just like parasites: Muscle out the legitimate stakeholders and take over the cause, gain power by pushing the most extreme ideas allegedly "on behalf of" the group, create massive backlash, and then detach to find a new group to parasitize, leaving the previous group at the mercy of an angry populace.

[Anonymous]

If I were a climate scientist or a trans kid or an illegal immigrant, I would beg the annoying affluent progressives to stop talking about me and putting a target on my back!

I have said for years that no greater calamity can befall a group than for the DC white liberal types to decide to play "ally" to that group. They behave just like parasites: Muscle out the legitimate stakeholders and take over the cause, gain power by pushing the most extreme ideas allegedly "on behalf of" the group, create massive backlash, and then detach to find a new group to parasitize, leaving the previous group at the mercy of an angry populace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In fairness, we aren’t ONLY motivated by status anxiety.

The more mercenary among us hate Trump for upsetting the establishment apple cart that has made federal government adjacency so lucrative over the decades

The misguided altruists among us are so motivated by desire to feel kind that they’ve been tricked into taking the side of the most extreme underdogs (illegal immigrants, gender confusion sufferers, etc) against their own families.

And the more “spiritual” among us have looked to politics and “Science!” as substitutes for the religions they’ve abandoned. Our media is pretty explicit about this, referring to Obama as a Savior and Fauci as a Saint.

So we Democrats are uniformly venal, narcissistic, and shallow? You just sound like a Republican.

The virtue signalers are narcissistic. And the mercenaries are venal. But the second and third groups mentioned here, the altruists and the spiritual, are good people, neither narcissistic nor shallow.

I'd argue that the "altruists" are just cleverer virtue signalers....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Cali slickster just can’t get out of his own way.

Why is he a slickster? Because he’s not morbidly obese and can blend his makeup?

Like Trump is enriching his family every day via crypto and movies no one asked for and his cabinet members are using private jets to visit their married and/or obvious spy significant others and you’re talking about parking.

NP.

Let’s discuss the personal winery he owns in Napa, and go from there.

Oh puh-leeze!

Millions of ordinary Americans own their own wineries.

Newsome is not at all bourgeoisie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Cali slickster just can’t get out of his own way.

Why is he a slickster? Because he’s not morbidly obese and can blend his makeup?

Like Trump is enriching his family every day via crypto and movies no one asked for and his cabinet members are using private jets to visit their married and/or obvious spy significant others and you’re talking about parking.

NP.

Let’s discuss the personal winery he owns in Napa, and go from there.

Oh puh-leeze!

Millions of ordinary Americans own their own wineries.

Newsome is not at all bourgeoisie.

Millions??? Do you have data for that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem for us isn't just that the candidates are uninspiring, it's also that our governing results are poor. We're the party of the teachers' union, but we aren't succeeding at teaching kids to read. We're the party of compassion, but our anti-homelessness spending enriches Democratic activists without ever reducing homelessness at all. We're the party of comprehensive immigration reform, but we let the border get overrun by millions of third-world illegal immigrants. We need some success stories. Newsom and Buttigieg and AOC and Harris don't have good track records to point to. There may be a few midwestern Democratic governors who have done better. We should elevate them.

An even bigger problem is US. The dcurbanmom types. The covid Karens. The SUV drivers who want to ban "climate denial" while we burn plenty of fossil fuels ourselves. We clearly, proudly, and obviously consider ourselves the moral, intellectual, and class superiors of all Republican voters, all less affluent middle class people, and everyone in flyover states. We think that religion is stupid but that climate and covid obsession is holy. 100% of our Senators voted to block a ban on men in girls' locker rooms. To the average swing voter, we seem crazy, haughty, and contemptuous. We have insulted everyone who ever dared to vote against Hillary, Joe, or Kamala, insisting that they are stupid racist Putin dupes.

We have to face the facts. The average American doesn't like or respect dcurbanmom types NEARLY as much as they used to. They reject our claims to moral, intellectual, and class superiority. They think we are preening, virtue-signaling, hypocritical, selfish fools.

We cannot continue to be "leading voices" in the Democratic Party and hope for success. We need to sit this one out. No more talk of climate or trans or the angelic undocumented from laptop class ladies. Maybe the African-American Baptist Church Democrats can run this next election and win back some swing voters. But the upper middle class striver progressives definitely can't. We've worn out our welcome.

That's the lesson of Trump's big win in 2024. His voters AREN'T actually brainwashed cult members. They see him more clearly and less emotionally than we do! They are well aware of his faults, and they are very disappointed in him. They were disappointed after his first term too! But they voted for him anyway. After the insurrection. After the impeachments. After the felony convictions.

Why? Because they trust US even LESS!

We've come to see our party affiliation as central to our status. No tacky Trump boat parades for us! But what this means is that we can't see ourselves clearly anymore. We think we're great and Republicans are subhuman. And we kinda think swing voters who dared to vote for Trump in any of the last three elections are subhuman too. Well, message received by the subhumans. They know we hate them because we keep telling them. So they won't be voting for us to lead them any time soon, thank you very much.

You are of course correct. However, the DCUM progressives who view themselves as superior while at the same time ironically sharing a blind religiosity with the most vehement of MAGA will never admit the truth of what you wrote. More to the point, they cannot admit the truth of what you wrote because to admit the truth of what you wrote would require an unacceptable blow to their self-identity.

Like with MAGA, when politics becomes identity, it is a disaster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem for us isn't just that the candidates are uninspiring, it's also that our governing results are poor. We're the party of the teachers' union, but we aren't succeeding at teaching kids to read. We're the party of compassion, but our anti-homelessness spending enriches Democratic activists without ever reducing homelessness at all. We're the party of comprehensive immigration reform, but we let the border get overrun by millions of third-world illegal immigrants. We need some success stories. Newsom and Buttigieg and AOC and Harris don't have good track records to point to. There may be a few midwestern Democratic governors who have done better. We should elevate them.

An even bigger problem is US. The dcurbanmom types. The covid Karens. The SUV drivers who want to ban "climate denial" while we burn plenty of fossil fuels ourselves. We clearly, proudly, and obviously consider ourselves the moral, intellectual, and class superiors of all Republican voters, all less affluent middle class people, and everyone in flyover states. We think that religion is stupid but that climate and covid obsession is holy. 100% of our Senators voted to block a ban on men in girls' locker rooms. To the average swing voter, we seem crazy, haughty, and contemptuous. We have insulted everyone who ever dared to vote against Hillary, Joe, or Kamala, insisting that they are stupid racist Putin dupes.

We have to face the facts. The average American doesn't like or respect dcurbanmom types NEARLY as much as they used to. They reject our claims to moral, intellectual, and class superiority. They think we are preening, virtue-signaling, hypocritical, selfish fools.

We cannot continue to be "leading voices" in the Democratic Party and hope for success. We need to sit this one out. No more talk of climate or trans or the angelic undocumented from laptop class ladies. Maybe the African-American Baptist Church Democrats can run this next election and win back some swing voters. But the upper middle class striver progressives definitely can't. We've worn out our welcome.

That's the lesson of Trump's big win in 2024. His voters AREN'T actually brainwashed cult members. They see him more clearly and less emotionally than we do! They are well aware of his faults, and they are very disappointed in him. They were disappointed after his first term too! But they voted for him anyway. After the insurrection. After the impeachments. After the felony convictions.

Why? Because they trust US even LESS!

We've come to see our party affiliation as central to our status. No tacky Trump boat parades for us! But what this means is that we can't see ourselves clearly anymore. We think we're great and Republicans are subhuman. And we kinda think swing voters who dared to vote for Trump in any of the last three elections are subhuman too. Well, message received by the subhumans. They know we hate them because we keep telling them. So they won't be voting for us to lead them any time soon, thank you very much.

You are of course correct. However, the DCUM progressives who view themselves as superior while at the same time ironically sharing a blind religiosity with the most vehement of MAGA will never admit the truth of what you wrote. More to the point, they cannot admit the truth of what you wrote because to admit the truth of what you wrote would require an unacceptable blow to their self-identity.

Like with MAGA, when politics becomes identity, it is a disaster.

I said as much in another thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem for us isn't just that the candidates are uninspiring, it's also that our governing results are poor. We're the party of the teachers' union, but we aren't succeeding at teaching kids to read. We're the party of compassion, but our anti-homelessness spending enriches Democratic activists without ever reducing homelessness at all. We're the party of comprehensive immigration reform, but we let the border get overrun by millions of third-world illegal immigrants. We need some success stories. Newsom and Buttigieg and AOC and Harris don't have good track records to point to. There may be a few midwestern Democratic governors who have done better. We should elevate them.

An even bigger problem is US. The dcurbanmom types. The covid Karens. The SUV drivers who want to ban "climate denial" while we burn plenty of fossil fuels ourselves. We clearly, proudly, and obviously consider ourselves the moral, intellectual, and class superiors of all Republican voters, all less affluent middle class people, and everyone in flyover states. We think that religion is stupid but that climate and covid obsession is holy. 100% of our Senators voted to block a ban on men in girls' locker rooms. To the average swing voter, we seem crazy, haughty, and contemptuous. We have insulted everyone who ever dared to vote against Hillary, Joe, or Kamala, insisting that they are stupid racist Putin dupes.

We have to face the facts. The average American doesn't like or respect dcurbanmom types NEARLY as much as they used to. They reject our claims to moral, intellectual, and class superiority. They think we are preening, virtue-signaling, hypocritical, selfish fools.

We cannot continue to be "leading voices" in the Democratic Party and hope for success. We need to sit this one out. No more talk of climate or trans or the angelic undocumented from laptop class ladies. Maybe the African-American Baptist Church Democrats can run this next election and win back some swing voters. But the upper middle class striver progressives definitely can't. We've worn out our welcome.

That's the lesson of Trump's big win in 2024. His voters AREN'T actually brainwashed cult members. They see him more clearly and less emotionally than we do! They are well aware of his faults, and they are very disappointed in him. They were disappointed after his first term too! But they voted for him anyway. After the insurrection. After the impeachments. After the felony convictions.

Why? Because they trust US even LESS!

We've come to see our party affiliation as central to our status. No tacky Trump boat parades for us! But what this means is that we can't see ourselves clearly anymore. We think we're great and Republicans are subhuman. And we kinda think swing voters who dared to vote for Trump in any of the last three elections are subhuman too. Well, message received by the subhumans. They know we hate them because we keep telling them. So they won't be voting for us to lead them any time soon, thank you very much.

You are of course correct. However, the DCUM progressives who view themselves as superior while at the same time ironically sharing a blind religiosity with the most vehement of MAGA will never admit the truth of what you wrote. More to the point, they cannot admit the truth of what you wrote because to admit the truth of what you wrote would require an unacceptable blow to their self-identity.

Like with MAGA, when politics becomes identity, it is a disaster.

I said as much in another thread.

I actually think the quasi-religiousity of the DCUM Democrat crowd is why the party is struggling to find a good candidate.

An ideal candidate will have to reach beyond the narrow confines of the DCUM primary voter group, but to do that, key identitarian positions that are dogmatic to many DCUM Democrats will have to be dropped. And I do not think many of the activists that get people elected in primaries are willing to do that. The Republicans are unfortunately still better at big tent politics, even with Trump’s enormous unpopularity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem for us isn't just that the candidates are uninspiring, it's also that our governing results are poor. We're the party of the teachers' union, but we aren't succeeding at teaching kids to read. We're the party of compassion, but our anti-homelessness spending enriches Democratic activists without ever reducing homelessness at all. We're the party of comprehensive immigration reform, but we let the border get overrun by millions of third-world illegal immigrants. We need some success stories. Newsom and Buttigieg and AOC and Harris don't have good track records to point to. There may be a few midwestern Democratic governors who have done better. We should elevate them.

An even bigger problem is US. The dcurbanmom types. The covid Karens. The SUV drivers who want to ban "climate denial" while we burn plenty of fossil fuels ourselves. We clearly, proudly, and obviously consider ourselves the moral, intellectual, and class superiors of all Republican voters, all less affluent middle class people, and everyone in flyover states. We think that religion is stupid but that climate and covid obsession is holy. 100% of our Senators voted to block a ban on men in girls' locker rooms. To the average swing voter, we seem crazy, haughty, and contemptuous. We have insulted everyone who ever dared to vote against Hillary, Joe, or Kamala, insisting that they are stupid racist Putin dupes.

We have to face the facts. The average American doesn't like or respect dcurbanmom types NEARLY as much as they used to. They reject our claims to moral, intellectual, and class superiority. They think we are preening, virtue-signaling, hypocritical, selfish fools.

We cannot continue to be "leading voices" in the Democratic Party and hope for success. We need to sit this one out. No more talk of climate or trans or the angelic undocumented from laptop class ladies. Maybe the African-American Baptist Church Democrats can run this next election and win back some swing voters. But the upper middle class striver progressives definitely can't. We've worn out our welcome.

That's the lesson of Trump's big win in 2024. His voters AREN'T actually brainwashed cult members. They see him more clearly and less emotionally than we do! They are well aware of his faults, and they are very disappointed in him. They were disappointed after his first term too! But they voted for him anyway. After the insurrection. After the impeachments. After the felony convictions.

Why? Because they trust US even LESS!

We've come to see our party affiliation as central to our status. No tacky Trump boat parades for us! But what this means is that we can't see ourselves clearly anymore. We think we're great and Republicans are subhuman. And we kinda think swing voters who dared to vote for Trump in any of the last three elections are subhuman too. Well, message received by the subhumans. They know we hate them because we keep telling them. So they won't be voting for us to lead them any time soon, thank you very much.

You are of course correct. However, the DCUM progressives who view themselves as superior while at the same time ironically sharing a blind religiosity with the most vehement of MAGA will never admit the truth of what you wrote. More to the point, they cannot admit the truth of what you wrote because to admit the truth of what you wrote would require an unacceptable blow to their self-identity.

Like with MAGA, when politics becomes identity, it is a disaster.

I said as much in another thread.

I actually think the quasi-religiousity of the DCUM Democrat crowd is why the party is struggling to find a good candidate.

An ideal candidate will have to reach beyond the narrow confines of the DCUM primary voter group, but to do that, key identitarian positions that are dogmatic to many DCUM Democrats will have to be dropped. And I do not think many of the activists that get people elected in primaries are willing to do that. The Republicans are unfortunately still better at big tent politics, even with Trump’s enormous unpopularity.

Agree. Who can win the primary is very different from who can win an election right now more than ever.