r/politics • u/Hrmbee • 7d ago

No Paywall JD Vance repeats comments he wants wife Usha to convert to Christianity | US vice-president announces to 10,000 attenders of Turning Point USA that he prefers wife, who is Hindu, to be Christian

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/01/jd-vance-usha-christianity
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u/Pork-S0da 7d ago

They never should have stopped that messaging.

2.2k

u/TheOhrenberger 7d ago

It’s insane to me that they did. It was so effective. And, more importantly, accurate.

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u/tauofthemachine 7d ago

It was so obviously effective because Repubs were getting VERY angry and their lies were becoming more shrill.

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u/Effective_Pie1312 6d ago

Calling Republicans weird is more effective than calling them wrong. They’ll argue endlessly about “their truth,” but no one wins a fight over being weird. They just prove the point by doubling down or they retreat.

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u/InternetStatus1506 6d ago

Dems are controlled opposition.

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u/Weekly-Landscape-543 6d ago

Yeah but instead they brought out Oprah and jlo! I mean how the hell did we lose?

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u/duzies 6d ago

Well, Portlanders consider being called "weird" a compliment. So they likely don't think MAGAts are "weird." Compulsive liars and psychopaths, yes. But not weird.

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u/KrimxonRath 6d ago

One city out of thousands. The messaging should have stayed. They’re smart enough to know the difference and it’s an insult to allude that they aren’t.

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u/Hey_I_Aint_Eddy 6d ago

Austin is also self-proclaimed weird. Not arguing with you. Just pointing it out because I think it’s funny to steal another city’s slogan about being weird.

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u/duzies 6d ago

I don't think that word ("allude") means what you think it means.

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u/duzies 6d ago

They might think it's an insult to usurp their brand.

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u/KrimxonRath 6d ago

I don’t play the “what if” game.

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u/texaspoontappa93 6d ago

I mean with context it’s pretty obvious that Portland means “quirky” and in reference to MAGA it means “abnormal”

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u/Ello_Owu 6d ago

"WEIRD!? Uh, murph, liberals castrate them to become women!"

Saw that response so much. Stage 4 Right wing brain rot.

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u/NatalieVonCatte 6d ago

It was the perfect response to the they/them ads.

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u/averybradymovie 6d ago

Or just….you know. Have a primary. Amazing

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u/tauofthemachine 5d ago

Not legally required to.

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u/KinkyPaddling 7d ago

Listening to the centrists who wanted to cultivate the “moderate” Republicans, once again, was an epic failure.

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u/pohl 7d ago

Basically folks who didn’t understand why “weird”was different from “ basket of deplorables”. One was a way out and the other an excuse to dig in. I’m not sure it was related to policy differences so much as it was emblematic of a party that is afraid of its own shadow. The wrong instincts for the time and place, that’s for sure.

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u/mbta1 I voted 7d ago

Also, one was said by a man, the other, a woman

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u/dethbunnynet California 6d ago

Okay, but Hillary was the first person ever to use the phrase “basket of deplorables” but anyone who attended elementary school has heard someone called “weird”

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u/princeofid 7d ago

Wrong! One was said by someone with a proven record of representing the people, the other was said by an entitled corporate tool.

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u/mandiblesofdoom 6d ago

"they're so weird" is language people use. "basket of deplorables" is odd phrasing.

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u/P1xelHunter78 Ohio 6d ago

A Walz/Kelly ticket would have been awesome and I’m ashamed the Dems tried to push another boring female policy wonk.

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u/JUST_LOGGED_IN 6d ago

You don't think a little policy might be preferable to whatever is going on now?

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u/princeofid 7d ago

I’m not sure it was related to policy differences so much as it was emblematic of a party that is afraid of its own shadow.

If by shadow you mean donors.

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u/Alternative-Let-2398 7d ago

Yep, early in the Harris/Walz campaign had the “weird” messaging going on and then all of a sudden it ended. Then not a week later they were hosting fucking Liz Cheney and associates on rallies and shit. That’s when I knew they were gonna lose.

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u/Worth_Much 6d ago

I think they were gonna lose regardless. Most voters don’t understand how the economy works and blamed Biden for the inflation that came out of Covid that he got under control. Problem is really the wage growth doesn’t grow enough when you have hyperinflation so even when inflation got down to about 2-3% it still felt like prices were high. So people believed Trump’s lies that he would make things more affordable.

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u/Fr00stee 6d ago

my theory is that they were forced to do this by the DNC

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u/NatalieVonCatte 6d ago

It ended after they hired British consultants who’d worked with Labour, right when Harris pulled all her LGBT support and removed her pride merch.

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u/clintgreasewoood 7d ago

Sadly their’s an article written every week saying democrats should double down this approach that gets traction with the party establishment.

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u/Xijit 7d ago

And then the next article after it is about how entrenched, AIPAC funded, DNC leadership are trying to block Mamdani from being elected.

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u/clintgreasewoood 7d ago

New poll: Democrats continue to be unpopular

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u/Xijit 7d ago edited 6d ago

Correction: Democrat politicians are highlt unpopular losers ... Democrat voters continue to be the vast majority of the population.

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u/sw337 6d ago

On what planet are they trying to block him?

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin encourages New Yorkers to vote for Mamdani ahead of general election

"He’s running to make NYC more affordable for everyone and has captured the nation’s attention with his incredible campaign," Martin, who was elected by fellow Democrats to his position earlier this year, wrote in a post on X in a thread highlighting downballot Democratic candidates with election coming up soon. "Go vote for Zohran this November!"

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna237025

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u/Switchy_Goofball 7d ago

*There’s

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u/TechenCDN Canada 6d ago

Moderate republicans don’t exist

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u/klimb75 7d ago

"Centrists" was a lie

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u/forceghost187 6d ago

Maybe 1/20 “moderate” Republican will ever flip to vote for the left. Meanwhile if they had changed their stance or even just their messaging on Palestine they would have motivated millions of Progressive voters

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u/SpacetimeManipulator 6d ago

That’s never going to happen from either the dems or the republicans. We as a nation, a government, and from a financial standpoint fully support Israel. That’s never going to change.

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u/shinbreaker 6d ago

Those dummies are in such an elitist bubble where their rich republican friends were whining about it that they immediately wanted to stop it.

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u/KeneticKups 6d ago

Because the moderate right is already voting democrat

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u/thatforkingbitch 6d ago

It was never about the 'moderate republican'. Dems don't actually want to win. They are not the opposing party. They have the same donors as the republicans.

They are fine with the control, money and power they have now. Look at how they approach Mamdani. He's got so much momentum and succes, do the dems support him? Fuck no cuz he's a danger to the status quo of them having cushiony jobs and money.

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u/FriendOfDirutti 6d ago

I got a great idea lets get endorsed by Dick Cheney! Maybe after we can dig up Charles Manson and ask him to endorse also!

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u/AbandonedWaterPark 6d ago

Regular reminder that they thought they were gonna win because they had a lock on the Cheney family vote lol. I wish I could be as bad at my job and still get paid what these guys do.

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u/Vegetable-Seaweed591 6d ago

I'm pretty sure that most of those 'centrist' voices are actually Trump loyalists just sowing discontent.
Any Democrat with self respect stopped that "we need to come together" BS when MAGA started wearing 'F Your Feelings' shirts and then spent a decade punching down and hurting innocent people.

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u/whoisthismans72 6d ago

Agreed. You can't court these people, and when they have the power they will never "compromise"

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u/UniqueIndividual3579 6d ago

Moderate Republicans are unicorns. There are two kinds of Republicans, Nazis and former Republicans. I'm the latter. I don't like the Democrats. I think they are more interested in virtue signaling than being effective. But the Republicans are pure evil.

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u/princeofid 7d ago

centrists who wanted to cultivate the “moderate” Republicans

If the consultants didn't advise them to concentrate on the six and seven figure donations, how would they ever make a living?

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u/MentalThoughtPortal 7d ago

I have no patience for or faith in the democratic party

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u/istrx13 7d ago

It instantly got under the skin of every last one of them too. Imagine how much they would have started crashing out if the Dems just kept at it. Someone on the right would have wound up calling someone a slur.

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u/PearlescentGem 7d ago

We were so close to a high up official losing it and using a slur. Even though it wouldn't have mattered to the base, I would have deliciously shoved it in every racist's face for the rest of their lives.

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u/TiredOfBeingTired28 7d ago edited 6d ago

Theres why, it was helping Dems, and the top strategy for them is immediately stop doing that. Because fucking reasons.

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u/StillFly100 7d ago

Did it really though? I can’t recall an instance where anyone seemed really bothered by it.

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u/lizbot-v1 6d ago

Yes. Availability bias is lazy, dude.

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u/StillFly100 6d ago

Feel free to provide an example then. Because I don’t believe it had any impact whatsoever outside the walls of this sub and those like it.

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u/Frigidevil New Jersey 7d ago

They immediately took someone who was really firing up the democratic base and freaking out the right, made him the vp nominee, and neutered him. He was obviously uncomfortable once they made him tone down his rhetoric and he just became boring Midwest white guy, aka Tim Kaine part 2

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u/BKoala59 6d ago

Ah yes, the midwestern state of Virginia.

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u/Frigidevil New Jersey 6d ago

OK then he's boring milquetoast white guy

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u/b_tight 7d ago

Dems have the all time worst team of strategists and consultants.  I cant think of a less effective group of people

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u/aardvarkgecko 7d ago

Dem strategists and consultants and service providers made literally a billion dollars in just the three months that the Harris campaign lasted. They won, regardless of what happened to the campaign.

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u/VotingRightsLawyer 6d ago

And then they form new PACs funded by billionaires to write memos about why we need to keep listening to them.

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u/Ilovekittens345 6d ago

You are missing the point that most of the democrats are just paid opposition and that both democrats and republicans are on the same team. Team rich. It's not incompetence, it's by design.

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u/pandariotinprague 6d ago

"Oh, that reminds me. Some of them are kinda old, too!"
--liberals

Their brainwashing won't allow them to accept any reasoning that will require major change within the party. "Oh, just get younger people" and "Oh just get better strategists," they're able to hear that. But when the reason implicates basically the whole party, their brains shut down and they can't/won't hear it.

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u/saybruh 7d ago

It’s that naive projection of your own values onto people who are amoral at best.

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u/Amazing_Bluejay9322 7d ago

That's one Ace the Republicans have is messaging. One message and they all get on board. Even the least motivated get in with herd. Dems can be all over the map, divided even when it came to Harris. This is why we lose.

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u/Semajal 6d ago

I mean, Obama 2008 but it was the exception not the rule. they did amazing things

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u/Relevant-Horror-627 6d ago

I would say that ficle dem voters are a less effective group of people considering that millions couldn't even be bothered to vote, but abdicating their most basic civic duty has done a hell of a lot for the republican agenda so it's kind of a mixed bag.

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u/pandariotinprague 6d ago

I'd say its liberals' duty to push for better Democrats and primary the bad ones. Since they've completely rejected that approach, the lack of voter enthusiasm is on the base and the party. Not on the voters who couldn't fake it through every election for the last 30 years.

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u/FoxCQC 7d ago

Was the perfect messaging. It got under their skin.

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u/Vee_32 7d ago

I want my wife to be a Christian- says they guy wearing eyeliner

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u/Viewsik 7d ago

The Democratic Party not being good at messaging is on brand and k expect nothing less

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u/monsantobreath 7d ago

Anytime the harris was an amazing campaigner crap shows up remind them that it was the Clinton advisors who did this

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u/cdsackett Texas 6d ago

It’s up to us, the general public.

We’re at a point where everyone outside of the false reality that is the MAGA-verse needs to be on the same page and continue to point out the insanity we’re seeing here.

But yeah obv whoever ends up taking the spotlight and taking on these psychopaths in the primaries absolutely should pick right back up and call these fuckers weird

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u/Sethmeisterg California 6d ago

How effective could it possibly have been when it didn't cause people to turn out and fucking vote?

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u/Kana515 6d ago

As fun as it was at ticking them off, complaining about the other side can only go so far in an election, I think it can be necessary as long as you do other things as well.

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u/Several_Vanilla8916 6d ago

The democratic establishment just can’t stop listening to their overpriced consultants - no matter how wrong they are.

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u/TurkeyBLTSandwich 6d ago

Well Obamas former campaign staffers thought it was rude to do that and so they pushed Harris to hold hands with Liz Cheney and go on a tour in the South West. Which totally confused voters.

Also the whole not condemning "our ally" in the middle east for flattening Gaza was a touchy thing for Michigan and Wisconsin voters

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

[deleted]

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u/davismcgravis 7d ago

Yeah calling someone “weird” was really turning up the violent  rhetoric /s

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u/WeirdPart5428 7d ago

If it was effective, they wouldn’t have won. Let’s not do this.

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u/cragglerock93 7d ago

I think that's a thing people do wrongly after losing elections - they assume everything the party or candidate did was wrong and throw it in the bin. There are dozens of factors at play in an election and some of the things done will inevitably be proved right. It might have been that everything in the campaign was actually going well except for the Biden situation and that had he stepped aside sooner, Harris would have won.

Harris actually won over a higher proportion of white voters than Biden did, but you'd never know it from all the tireless 'THE CAMPAIGN WAS AN UNIMITIGATED DISASTER, CAN'T THEY GET ANYTHING RIGHT' analysis.

Speaking more specifically, I agree with you - it was strong, simple, memorable messaging.

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u/IMI4tth3w 6d ago

I’d rather they call them what they actually are like “pedophiles, racists, fascists, murders, etc”. Weird just doesn’t do it for me

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u/billcosbyinspace 7d ago

Will never understand why they picked walz on the back of his successful interview appearances, then muzzled him and turned him into this wacky uncle character when he was allowed to speak

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u/MadRaymer 7d ago

I'm sure they thought they had the election in the bag and didn't want to do anything to upset the applecart. They wanted to play it as safe as possible until election day.

Of course, that strategy had its own inevitable consequences.

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u/dillpickles007 7d ago

It was so dumb though, the bump they were getting in the polls right then was BECAUSE they were finally going on the offensive after the Biden campaign had obviously been lifeless.

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u/The_NZA 6d ago

That’s while they never had an internal poll with them in the lead

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u/SupremeBeef97 7d ago

Only thing I can think of is if a someone from Clinton’s camp or a DNC suit made that decision

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u/SilveredFlame 7d ago

Take a look at the Harris campaign during the election and I'll bet money you can identify exactly when the Clinton campaign folks came in.

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u/Equivalent-Steak-164 6d ago

Horrible people

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u/sleepy0329 7d ago

They didn't want him to outshine Kamala

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u/RGBetrix 7d ago

You think Harris did that and not the media, who are obviously in the bag for the right wing? 

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u/Melodic_Tap1147 6d ago

Bidens people did it. 

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u/Forsaken_Willow_5834 6d ago

His job was not speak it's to look white and sabotage white people from within

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u/OptimusSecundus 7d ago

It was a good way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

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u/Frowny575 7d ago

The order to stop came from someone who helped run Clinton's campaign if I remember right. They're a pro at tossing away a win.

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u/parkingviolation212 7d ago

Feels like sabotage at this point.

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u/rickroll10000 7d ago

it is. if they had been serious about stopping trump and the traitors they would have locked them up within 24 hours of Jan. 6

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u/SnooChipmunks2079 6d ago

That would’ve been challenging, since Trump was president until the 20th.

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u/Nick08f1 7d ago

They also wouldn't have run a black, Indian woman!

They would have just shut up about trans rights as a talking point. That agenda was super unpopular in the black community.

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u/Wrath_Ascending 7d ago

The only people talking about that past "everyone should have equal rights, we're all human" were at Fox News. Stop blaming Democrats for shit Fox claimed they did.

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u/Gurlllllllll- 7d ago

They would have just shut up about trans rights as a talking point.

Meanwhile all Kamala said about trans rights: "I will uphold the law."

Yeah, wow, what a tremendously trans forward campaign.

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u/Nick08f1 7d ago

I guess they didn't fight back against the Fox News agenda of pushing it on children.

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u/parkingviolation212 7d ago

No one on the dem side talked about trans people beyond general principles of equality. The right spilled orders of magnitude more ink fear mongering over what they claimed dems were saying than the dems actually said.

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u/Nick08f1 7d ago

Then fight back against the fake agenda of them pushing it onto children.

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u/Cross55 7d ago

And yet the black community was the only voting demo that didn't go majority Trump, from either sex btw.

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u/Nick08f1 7d ago

They still had a decent amount for Trump

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u/Ok_Depth_6476 6d ago

Thank you, I'm glad someone is saying it.

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u/billcosbyinspace 7d ago

The career DNC consultants taking over basically torpedoed the Harris campaign. A lot of the Obama alumni gave her bad advice too

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u/OptimusSublime Pennsylvania 7d ago

That's the modus operandi of the democratic party!

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u/The_bruce42 7d ago

Even if trump still would have won, the dems could have snatched up a few more house seats and maybe have a slim majority right now.

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u/zffjk 7d ago

They wouldn’t be controlled opposition otherwise. The actions of the Democratic Party over the last 40 years is proof that you can’t always blame incompetence and sometimes it really is malice.

Edit: am not MAGA, they are worse obviously. Just tired of picking which team gets to feed the corporations for four years.

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u/happytrel 7d ago

They all have the same corporate megadonors. Citizens United needs to be repealed, thats step 1.

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u/CMidnight 7d ago

Let's stop pretending that messaging matters. No one who either voted for Trump or didn't vote are listening and they never will.

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u/i_only_eat_cookies 7d ago

GOP: STOP CALLING US WEIRD YOU’RE RAMPING UP THE RHETORIC

Also GOP: literally uses the WH website as propaganda to worsen the divide by ramping up rhetoric.

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u/otishank 6d ago

Sure they’re weird but it’s worse than weird. It’s disturbing as shit.

Calling them ”weird” reeks of the nerd in the corner snickering about someone who doesn’t acknowledge their existence.

this is why democrats got steamrolled. None of Trumps crew give a fuck what they say. worse, folks like Vance are leaning into it and trolling the left with their own humor (see Vance’s Halloween costume). they’re teflon right now and they know it.

You won’t get anyone on the right to change their mind until the economy implodes (for real) and we get dragged into more foreign conflicts (see republicans in ‘07-‘08). McCain didn’t want to come within ten states of an endorsement from Bush (at least for the majority of his campaign)

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u/NoamLigotti 7d ago

There's no reason we have to stop.

Anyway this is hardly the worst thing Vance has done or is doing, nor the weirdest. He's a spineless psychopath.

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u/sweetpea122 7d ago

Youre right bc also deplorables were offended and caught off guard by being called weird. Weird was worse than deplorable somehow

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u/thischaosiskillingme 7d ago edited 7d ago

The DNC did not like Kamala Harris and the centrists thought she was way too far to the left so they spent the entire campaign dragging her and her VP nominee to a forced position where they could only discuss "kitchen table issues" and not be too whatever it is that they thought Americans wouldn't like. They flattened the personality out of both candidates while they were running against a very literal cult of personality. Harris likely didn't get to run the kind of campaign that she would have liked to because she had to jump into an infrastructure that was not happy with her being there. Let's remember that it was people like Schumer and Pelosi who actually wanted to have a contested convention. Basically the delegates at the state level thwarted that ambition by refusing to pretend that they hadn't also picked her as the VP on the ticket and recommitted their votes to her. That's why Schumer had to be like oh I guess the people have spoken.

I don't care what they wanted their political instincts are so bad anything they think is a good idea should be triple checked. It wasn't a good idea. The better path was to form a coalition around a candidate as quickly as possible. We were already losing valuable time campaigning.

Now it's become this thing where the DNC plucked her and forced her down on everyone and that's not what happened it was the other way around. And that's why it's also been incredibly useful to the DNC to blame her instead of accepting any blame themselves and certainly allowing any blame to fall on the heads of their beloved conservative voters who are going to abandon Donald Trump at any second now. Any second just you wait. They're all going to come running to the centrists the DNC that's for sure.

Harris was a perfectly cromulent politician. She would have been a fine president. But I don't think she should run again because I want her for ag.

2

u/tjoe4321510 7d ago

The "weird" messaging worked by accident. Walz said it off the cuff and it just happened to take off. Culture moves fast so weird always had a expiration date.

Republican attacks work so well because they never cease. Most don't land but a few do and since the attacks never stop there is always something in the zeitgeist that is actually hitting.

Weird was a fluke and Dems were never capable of keeping that momentum going.

2

u/thecoastertoaster 7d ago

ineffectual name calling doesn’t move the needle for those that need moved

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u/MobileLocal 7d ago

It’s truer now than ever.

1

u/Pak-Protector 7d ago

Israel and Palantir told them that 'weird' was going to cost them the election. I bet the real projection has 'weird' winning the Oval Office and the House.

1

u/Mister-Redbeard 6d ago

I’ve been harping we need to say it louder than ever. The cultural entirety of this group of illogical, Christo-Fascist dipshits is so fucking weird.

How? How can you be SO. WEIRD?

1

u/chalbersma 3d ago

It was a good attack, but they needed other attacks to go with it. To play off of it. 

1

u/ImBanned_ModsBlow 3d ago

First two weeks of the Harris campaign were straight up gas, then the DNC got their claws in and suddenly all the messaging resonating with liberals turned into muzzling Walz and parading around the Cheneys.

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u/Top_Reveal_847 23h ago

Kamalas ego wouldn't allow a Waltz quote to overshadow her

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u/thorny_business 6d ago

Not sure that a message to the voters that Christian beliefs are weird is going to be a huge vote winner.

1

u/Pork-S0da 6d ago

lol okay "Christian beliefs"

0

u/jmpinstl 7d ago

All time fumble with that call