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Don't blame me, I voted for the other guy. (Politics General)

marinus18

I do hope the left knows to not be so cautious. Trump threw caution to the wind and just focused on building his base and appeasing them and it paid off. Harris kept getting distracted by the illusion of needing a “broad tent” which meant she tried to appeal to all which meant she appealed to none. All those ‘maybe’ voters she worked so hard to get didn’t come through for her in the end. You need a strong leftist base who see you as an ally against the capitalist establishment.
The lesson leftists should take away is that it’s pointless to try to appeal to people who are not going to vote for you.
Having a strong base that you can depend on is what is most important. Especially today with social media and so much distrust. Word of mouth from friends and family is one of the few influences people still accept. So having a strong base and keeping them engaged is key to success.
Zaknel
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Mods-Ezekiel 33:11
I gitta say, the ongoing trend on social media where people claim that the machines are rigged to turn Harris votes into Trump votes, or that ballots were burnt if they were for Harris.
It is truly a scene of irony I did not expect to see anytime soon.
Background Pony #10F6
@Zaknel
Russians will spread any information to destabilize.
Putin must’ve heard something from Trump that he didn’t wanna hear? Who knows.
marinus18

@Zaknel
That is not how voter manipulation usually goes. It goes by propaganda or by voter intimidation. You change people’s votes before they are cast or you stop them from being cast. Man-in-the-middle manipulations rarely happen as they are far more risky and less efficient.
You also have devaluing votes via gerrymandering and the electoral collage as well, they can also disregard ballots like they did in Texas where lots of voters were made to register again for arbitary reasons. The goal again is to either devalue votes or to disincentivize people from voting.
People who claim man-in-the-middle attacks don’t know how voter manipulation in the US works. I won’t say it’s utterly impossible but it’s something they would only do if they see no other option. They usually prefer semi-legal or at least more subtle methods than outright changing or destroying votes that are already cast.
Background Pony #A725
The Democratic Party needs to completely re-build themselves from the ground up in order for them to win again. I feel like they need to go back to the Obama days.
marinus18

@Background Pony #A725
Um, Trump followed Obama so clearly that is not the correct way of doing it.
They need a completely new approach learning from Trump. They need to go full socialist and throw caution to the wind, just build a super strong base of leftist voters who hate the megacorps and just build on that. Just abandon the idea of a large tent of supporters and focus on a strong base.
Also Obama was a fairly mediocre president all things considered. He gave tons of consessions to the right putting corporate scum in key positions like an oligarch in charge of the treasury despite the clear conflict of interest. Obamacare was also mostly a right wing policy with it envolving massive transfers of public money to private coffers. It also bound people’s healthcare to their employment giving capitalists even more power.
The affordable care act is something many on the left did oppose as they didn’t like rich people getting billions of taxpayer money nor forcing people to work on the threat of losing healthcare.
Background Pony #A725
They need a completely new approach learning from Trump. They need to go full socialist and throw caution to the wind, just build a super strong base of leftist voters who hate the megacorps and just build on that.
Um, Bernie tried to do that, he blew it by saying he was indeed a socialist. The United States does not like socialism.
Zaknel
Pixel Perfection - I still call her Lightning Bolt
Solar Supporter - Fought against the New Lunar Republic rebellion on the side of the Solar Deity (April Fools 2023).
Crystal Roseluck - Had their OC in the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
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Friendship, Art, and Magic (2019) - Celebrated Derpibooru's seventh year anniversary with friends
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Mods-Ezekiel 33:11
@Background Pony #A725
Obamacare was also mostly a right wing policy with it envolving massive transfers of public money to private coffers. It also bound people’s healthcare to their employment giving capitalists even more power.
The affordable care act is something many on the left did oppose as they didn’t like rich people getting billions of taxpayer money nor forcing people to work on the threat of losing healthcare.
Hence I do not like givernment intervention in such things. It usually doesn’t help because things like this happen.
marinus18

@Background Pony #A725
The democrat party didn’t form behind him like the republicans did behind Trump. If the republican establishment had rejected them hard from the start he never would have gotten anywhere. Bernie could have done things better too like using more of his online presence which is what I would consider his biggest shortcoming. He did succeed in building up a considerable online following but he wasn’t able to leverage that the way Trump did.
@Zaknel
This is not “government intervention”. The US had a much better healthcare system that didn’t have the capitalist middleman and was therefore way cheaper. Other countries also have more efficient systems. The affordable care act was done on behalf of the healthcare corporations, this isn’t government intervention but rather government subservience. Same thing with drug development which is entirely funded by the government but all the profits go to the private organizations.
Also though without Obamacare people would still have been bound to their employer for healthcare cause they would have needed money. It’s just that the government is supposed to prevent it’s people getting into such an exploitative situation and they didn’t do that. Government intervention was what was needed but instead we got government subservience.
With healthcare it’s most efficient to just cut out the middleman entirely. Just nationalize the entire system and have the government pay the doctors directly. Rather than having them pay the healthcare insurance companies who pay the private hospitals who in turn pay the doctors. Those 2 extra layers just add a lot of unnececarry costs.
marinus18

@igotnopicks
With that I actually kinda hope they change that. Tarrifs are good and have been a key aspect in pretty much every capitalist success story including the US. The thing is though Trump’s administration is way too incompetent to use them effectively to boost domestic production.
Tarrifs are just a tool and like with any tool it becomes destructive if you use it badly.
I think a tarrif on chips when the chip factories come online would be a very good idea.
Dustcan
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Dogs
Trump has named Kristi Noem to be head of homeland security.
This is going to synergize well with when RFK mandates all food must be roadkill, but pet owners are not going to have a fun time ahead.
marinus18

@Dustcan
Lowering food standards will also do a lot of damage to American exports. The low food standards of the US already has made most of their food banned in Europe and if the standards drop further other markets will likely follow. Trump’s ill thought out tarrifs were devastating for US farmers who exported to China and this time it looks like it will be more of the same.
Again I’m not against tarrifs and I think they are needed to protect workers and industry. But they need to be part of a bigger economic plan with many moving parts working in synarchy. You can’t just throw tarrifs around haphazardly.
Biden had a good one going with the chips act to make chips and the inflation-reduction-act to get more manufacturers to the US to use those US made chips. I think a tarrif on chips to protect the infant US chip industry is a good idea as well as of course extending those tarrifs to any chips made outside the US even if it’s by US based companies so that you don’t get outsourcing.
igotnopicks
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@marinus18
Here’s the thing with tariffs. The people have to pay for it.
Also note the people got what the sowed. Not all Tariffs are bad Tariffs.
The USA still has a tariffs on Chinese Steel. And Currently we are not buying their steel to help the US Steel market.
marinus18

@igotnopicks
The people only have to pay for it if it’s the only option. If there are alternative options with no tarrifs the price is small and usually good for the economy as a whole. Cause US companies pay wages to US workers and pay US taxes so they introduce more money into the economy. Really outsourcing is not just bad for workers but also for the country as a whole and the only reason it’s done is cause it allows capitalists to pay less taxes/wages but still sell their products for high prices.
Trump’s problem is that he put tarrifs on things the US had no domestic alternative for so it didn’t help the US economy at all. It just meant people had to buy the same products from the same foreigners just now at higher prices.
I can see him trying to introduce tarrifs on chips in order to take credit from the chip factories build under Biden. It seems very much part of his MO. Taking credit for the work of others.
Kazapsky
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Five scoops of ice cream
@Dustcan
Good for her. It should be seen as a badge of honor to commit heresy against Emperor Trump.
People licking the taints of the Cheneys of all people will never not make me laugh lmao.
Same logic as WW2. You ally with whomever you have to in order to oppose and destroy pure evil, no matter how vile said allies might themselves be.
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You know in regards with the backlash against inflation that caused Harris to lose, I actually don’t think it wholly due to the “sticker shock” effect, where despite inflation having slowed down and wage growth overall rising people still feel shortchanged as they have an internalised price they consider as fair
I think two more additional factors likely contributed to her loss in a big way, that wage growth wasn’t uniform and that Americans have actually been saving less
While wage growth has increased above inflation, it’s not uniform, lowest paid workers got the biggest pay increases but other wages from this sectors of the economy actually fell compared to the inflation rate
And then there’s of course the savings rate, Americans have actually been saving less than usual, I actually read an article where economists considered that a good thing because “it shows consumers are buying more so they are like, happier right?” however combined with a record high credit card debt may indicate this is due to financial struggles than Americans just really being confident in spending
And of course there’s how not all prices inflate at the same rate, but I don’t have any economic data to fully analyse that point further
Background Pony #B99F
Trump has announced that Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo will not be joining his administration, and there’s some reports that his team is trying to distance themselves from RFK.
Which is nice, but begs the question of who will go in place of them. Particularly RFK since apparently they only want to distance themselves after RFK made a public statement that he wouldn’t make a blanket vaccine ban. “Just” ban most.
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