Why are you hopeful that donors will play less of a role in the 2028 primaries than they played in 2016, 2020, and 2024? Have elections gotten cheaper? Have small donors grown richer relative to rich donors? Have powerful people decided to hand over their power to unpredictable Bernie Bros and AOC Gals? |
I don’t disagree that the wisdom of crowds would be a lot better than the misguided Hillary, Joe, and Kamala donor-led coronations. But I doubt the donors are eager to share power with the hoi polloi. |
Oh look! Fake Dem troll is still hanging around DCUM. |
Most Americans have fallen for the “propaganda” that Democrats are softer on illegal immigration than Republicans are. Talking points to the contrary “we deported many! we proposed legislation!” have failed to convince any non Democrats. If we want to overcome our huge trust deficit with swing voters on this issue, we can’t afford any more “nuance.” We can’t be seen fighting against deportations or trying to slow them down. We can’t keep talking about previously proposed unpassed legislation. We need to embrace deportations, embrace border security, vote out sanctuary city mayors, and propose and pass border legislation SO TOUGH and so free of “pathway to citizenship for those already here” strings that MAGA will love it and Republicans will happily pass it. OR we can just accept that we’re the relatively more pro-illegal-immigration party and let the voters continue to see us that way. Either choice is fine. But the voters won’t let us have our cake and eat it too. If we keep claiming that Biden was “the REAL ‘tough on the border’ guy,” the voters will continue to think we’re not only pro-illegal, but dishonest about it too. We have to be realistic about what swing voters think of us and stop telling ourselves how wrong perceptions of us are. Only actions will change perceptions. Convoluted arguments won’t do it. |
It's called faith. I have more faith in the Dem Party righting the ship by 2028 than the faith I have in the GOP getting their poop together during the Trump era. We don't need a miracle. We don't need a generational talent to come along to rescue us. We just need a return to proper leadership. Some of this responsibility falls on the shoulders of everyday people using basic common sense so not to be duped into another Biden situation. We'll be able to beat the GOP Trump endorsed candidate with just about anyone in 2028 just as we did in 2020 but we can't afford to put our democracy in the hands of someone who will just immediately fumble it back to Trump's posse in 2032. After 8 years of a normal Dem in office, the GOP will get tired of losing and they'll shed the MAGA nonsense. |
Maybe so, but the American people, especially the swing voters we need, are VERY clear in their opinion that Democrats are the relatively more pro-illegal-immigration party. Maybe the American people ARE stupid. They are too stupid to be moved by our claims that we are actually tougher on the border. We can’t argue our way out of this one. We’ll have to SHOW how tough we are on illegal immigrants. We need Democratic deportation squads. |
No it is Democrats doing that. That is their policy. Mayorkas was impeached over it. Every Senate Democrat voted that perjury before Congress is not an impeachable offense and they refused to hold a trial. |
This all stems from very weak to non-existent leadership at the top for the Dems since Obama left office. Biden was a terrible communicator with poor leadership skills. His weakness allowed the GOP to control the narrative of the party that had the power of The White House which is unprecedented. The Dem party itself never had a platform, policy or messaging problem. They had a messenger problem. When a bumbling stumbling elderly person who can only muster the strength and courage to do 4 press conferences a year is your "leader" you're in big trouble. And here we are. Four more years of the orange idiot. |
I don’t like our chances. Our energy is much more focused on protesting Trump than on reforming our primary process or taming our mega donors. Maybe we’ll get a better mega-donor approved candidate this time, but I don’t see any reason to think we’ll get a primary-voter-approved candidate if the donors don’t like him or her. The lessons that you and I agree on from 2016 and 2020 did NOT drive improved primary behavior from the donors and party apparatchiks in 2924. Slow learners? Or is it just very difficult for rich and powerful people to ever conclude “we’ll make better decisions if I have less of a say.” It’s the truth, but it’s hard for them to admit it and even harder for them to let go of the wheel. |
2024 was an outlier election. Never before in our history had we endured a situation where an incumbent seeking a second term had their campaign collapse to the extent that they chose to back out of the race 3 months prior to the election. It could have been Lincoln, Reagan, or Obama who was forced into that replacement nominee role and they still would have had no chance at victory; even against a very weak opponent. Harris actually did fairly well all things considered. 2024 isn't comparable to any past or future election. |
The mega donors and party apparatchiks were involved in the decision to rerun an 80-year-old senile guy and prohibit a competitive primary and make sure RFK Jr got the Bernie Sanders treatment but worse. And they were involved in the decision not to run any kind of competitive process for the new nominee. Sure, it was unusual and not a model for the future. But it shows that the donors and insiders did NOT see the beauty of your idea of learning the lessons of 2016 and 2020 and letting the best candidate emerge from a free people’s primary with no donor thumbs on scales. I hope it will be different this time, but I see nothing suggesting it will be. And now we have the added problem that a lot of mega donors switched preferred parties this time. They are looking to ride the Republicans for multiple terms. So Republicans will be even harder to beat. |
P.S. I agree 2024 was an outlier, I agree no Dem could have won, and I agree that Kamala did quite well all things considered. I’m just saying no e if this justifies your hope, that I interpret as: “let’s do nothing and hope the DNC cancels the donors and empowers the people at the last minute without any pressure from us.” |
Hope doesn't require a leg to stand on. One very obvious thing working in the favor of Dems in the short term is the fact that Trump is currently POTUS. I can't imagine the GOP putting forth anything other than a Trump endorsed nominee in 2028. A Trump endorsed nominee will have as much chance of winning in 2028 as Trump did in 2020 which is basically zero chance. If Biden could beat Trump in 2020, we could nominate Bill Cosby and win in 2028 (but let's not do that please). The 2032 election will be a key turning point. Unless Trump magically starts doing everything right and becomes a reasonably popular POTUS, Dems will have the luxury of a 2020 easy election victory again in 2028. |
Why were you holding on these evidence before the election? The country voted. Suck it up. |
Delighted by this presidency. This is what we voted for! |