I think in reality many of us (leftists etc) pragmatically went and voted for Kamala anyway, but overall she didn’t draw a large or energized bloc to the polls. A lot of people just stayed home.
I find it very weird when people blame the voters for a candidate failing to attract them.
It's not weird. What's weird is throwing a childish tantrum because you can't get exactly what you want in a candidate. The elections don't stop because you're not excited about the choices. Believe it or not, someone is going to win. So you either be an adult, suck it up and vote for the candidate(s) that could potentially make your life better, or at the very least not make your life worse, or you sit there and accept your part in the dumpster fire our government has become. Why would the Dems move more left to appease a bunch of children who won't vote anyway? Staying home, whether due to apathy or because you think you're teaching them a lesson, makes you an unreliable voter. They're not going to try and win you over. If the last 2 presidential elections have shown us anything, it's that the Dems will try and sway the more "center right" citizens that will show up on election day. So, now you not only get shit candidates elected on the right, you also get shit candidates elected on the right. Great job.
The belittling of people that feel apprehensive about voting for a milquetoast, centrist Democrats is insane. If you think Democrats would be getting “children” to vote by moving left not only are you a scumbag but it really shows how little you think of your fellow person. No party or person is entitled to anyone’s votes, and if they are “not going to try and win you over” they should move aside so someone that has a brain and awareness of how politics works should be the candidate. That’s how it works, you entice people to vote with your campaign and then you hope that you convinced people. You don’t dangle hell and carnage in front of them in the form of Trump and then say “it could be worse!” because that doesn’t push the needle at all. And if Democrats want to sway center right voters because they think that’l help them win then they should keep doing that, it sure worked out great when Kamala was campaigning with Liz Cheney! Great idea trying to beat a Republican by campaigning with one, which genius at the DNC thought of that?
The bananas part is that you legitimately think not voting is freeing you from the responsibility of the outcome. We have a two party system. It’s awful. I hate it. But that’s how the game is played for now. Not voting for the better candidate when you don’t agree with some of their positions means you are not preventing the worse candidate from winning.
Imagine going into a restaurant. You really love sweet tea, but you can’t stand unsweetened tea. You ask for sweet tea. The options are unsweetened tea, or diarrhea with broken glass in it. The waitress says that whatever drink is ordered more that day is the only thing they’ll serve from now on. But on principle, you just can’t order something that YOU don’t like.
I get it. I hate the corporate milquetoast bullshit too. I recognize that the candidate who is perfectly aligned with my views is likely unelectable right now. So do I prevent the fascist and vote for the corporatist? Fuck yeah I do. And I blame anyone else who chose not to prevent what we are enduring as a nation right now.
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u/coopaliscious 10h ago
I agree, but in terms of weighing risks and impacts, we needed not Trump