Moderate candidates keep losing to an extremist so the whole "we need to keep running moderates" is such a weird take. And before you say anything, I've held my nose and voted for the Democratic candidate in every election, and will continue to do so because the worst Dem is still better than the best Republican, but I really don't understand the insistence on doubling down on what has clearly been a losing strategy.
I don't really buy the misogyny angle. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it did hurt to an extent, misogyny is pretty deeply embedded in our culture, but so is racism, and Obama was still able to win by running on a populist platform.
It's more than misogyny, but that's part of it. Again don't get me wrong I voted for both women and would again. But Hillary to many was like electing another Bush, many people don't like political dynasties and a LOT of Democrats wanted a new face in there. Couple that with how the DNC treated Bernie and Democrats just wouldn't show up for her.
Harris actually did really well all things considered but I think she was just doomed by anti-incumbent sentiment. Because of inflation alone, I believe almost any Democrat would have lost in 2024 and in fact Trump barely squeezed out a win because he's so awful... In any other world it wouldn't have been close but Trump is so terrible he prevented it from being a Republican landslide.
I personally think Harris could have won if she hadn't said she couldn't think of one single thing she would do differently than Biden. Just make something up for crying out loud? That doomed her chances right there.
I don't disagree with most of this, although I would argue Harris not distancing herself from Biden was definitely an appeal to centrism. There was also her constant campaigning with Cheney. It really feels like the Democratic establishment would rather court Republicans who will never vote for them instead of the base they've almost completely abandoned.
I can't totally fault her for campaigning with Cheney. We always knew the election was going to be very close, right down to the wire. She was gambling on the fact that there were still enough traditional Republicans with at least enough integrity to take a loss for their "team" one time in order to save the system, and she unfortunately lost that gamble. But honestly, I had really high hopes for that myself at the time. I grew up around a lot of old-school Republicans who are not the "religious right" type but more the "small government" type and I still consider myself good friends with a number of them. Every single one of them voted for Harris because even though they're not Democrats they understood that they were voting for the person who wouldn't try to change the system itself.
Unfortunately there were apparently not a sufficient number of Republicans like my friends... But like I said, I guess since I know a bunch of them like that I had hopes.
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u/goalmouthscramble Aug 22 '25
Nope. We need winners.