They did help people, and did it about as much as the government could. Almost 16m jobs created, 6m more than pre-pandemic.

The issue was inflation, but that was global, and the US did better than most of the rest of the industrialized world in that regard. It is a complicated truth vs simple lies: you figure out how to get Americans to listen to the one and not the other.

You mean the railroad workers? Did you stick around to listen to the end of the story? Where scant weeks afterward, his administration negotiated a contract for the workers that gave them more paid sick days than they were asking for.

Harris did… exactly that. That was a huge part of her messaging.

The GOP controls the storylines that the media runs along: “Kamala just isn’t being specific about her policies” when she was robustly specific, and while Trump said absolutely zero specifics about anything and no one said a word about it.

The Dems have been putting workers first under Biden the whole time. Putting workers first more than any administration in decades. You guys just believe a bunch of bad press.

'Murica zealots who claim to love the Constitution have elected someone who wants to shred it. This is the darkest timeline.

The Inflation Reduction Act could hardly be less marginal. It is about as massive a thing that directly helps the working class in this country that the government is capable of doing. Right up there with the ACA which, shock, also brought by Democrats.

The reason the Dems lose is about messaging, and about media fear. Dems have a “we’re all weak so we need each other” message, while the GOP has a “you’re super strong and you’re being held down by the system” message. No need to prove it, and it sounds great to anyone with even a single complaint about anything.

The media fear is about fighting accusations of bias, which the GOP throws around as standard operating procedure. Lie about it all the time and people will accept it as true, and so the media treats the GOP with kid gloves. Pointing out lies gets called bias, instead of reporting the truth. The demands for “Harris to get specific with policy proposals” was a bunch of horseshit, because she was very specific. Trump gave no specifics, answered no questions, and skated on it all.

I cannot argue with someone so proud of their stupidity. Go for yourself.

We can disagree about Bernie. I think it’s deeply cynical of him to point the finger he’s pointing.

You are very right about simple answers vs annoying complexity, and this is a systemic problem the Democrats will always face. Being based in reality and choosing to try to solve actual issues instead of simplified strawmen means the Democrats never will have an appealing story to tell, for most folks.

Not under Biden.

Clinton fucked the party over with NAFTA, and sided with big business. Biden did not: Biden did more for workers and the working class than any other President since FDR.

But he doesn’t get credit for it, because people don’t pay attention. They remember he ordered the railroad workers back to work, and say it proves he’s anti-labor. They didn’t really follow up on the fact that a few weeks later, his administration helped get them the new contract that gave them more paid sick days than they had originally asked for. But the story was long out of the news by then.

I can’t stand idiot liberals who don’t read past headlines and drift with the news wind.

Your links are trash, and I’ve already dealt with them.

Am I supposed to be sad that the Dems fought to keep RFK Jr from being a useful idiot for the GOP, and tried to stop him from siphoning votes? You know, the guy who is now going to run amok in the Trump administration with his deranged ideas about healthcare, as a thanks for his efforts?

Am I supposed to be sad that the Dems fought against Jill Stein, a widely-known Putin-funded tool for years and years?

Fuck no. It isn’t a betrayal of the ideals of freedom, representation, and democracy to fight against obvious sabotage of the system. There are always fools like you who will do the GOP’s work, and try to stop the Democrats from fighting them from perverting the system. You’re a tool of your enemy and too dumb to know it.

There was nothing successful about this cycle. We live in a post-truth world, and it may be unfixable.

But pleasing the bulk of progressives (meaning idiot hippies who have nothing going on but attention for temporary media outrage) is not going to repair the Democrats. The Democrats can only succeed if there is a consensus reality, and there is no longer one.

You’re thinking like one level deep, but the real issues are much more difficult.

Everything the GOP does makes them stronger, and everything the Democrats do makes them weaker. This is because exploiting things makes money, and defending things costs money. There’s almost nothing the Democrats can do about any progressive issue that doesn’t also create huge numbers of Republicans, so pleasing progressives is generally not the winning strategy you think it is.

I’m more interested in solving these problems than I could adequately explain, but you, like most progressives, think about goals and not strategies or ancillary outcomes.

Oh, my sweet summer child.

Read a book.

That’s some nonsense from Bernie. Unions have fared better under Biden than any President for decades, and Bernie knows it. This is posturing image-burnishing for the naive; you think Bernie doesn’t market himself to all the young progressives? Then, when the cameras are off, he turns into a garden-variety Democrat, voting solidly with this elitist-run party every time, without pouting and making protest votes or anything like that.

So full of shit. The Dems have been robustly defending your civil rights this whole fucking time. Go check the ACLU’s legislative scorecards: you’ll find virtually every Dem rep and senator with a 100% voting record aligned with the ACLU, and almost zero GOP pols with a 100% grade (I found one senator on the 2020 scorecard at 100%). Some GOP pols, like Josh Hawley, score 0%.

The Dems do the damned work, quietly and diligently. Unions saw their biggest gains in decades under Biden. Real wages rose under Biden, more than inflation, and rose highest for the bottom quintile. There hasn’t been an administration in my lifetime (I’m 56) that has come close.

Young progressives are, for the most part, self-important shits that care more about posturing than actually knowing who is doing the most good for the most people, without conducting destructive purity tests on them. Young Progs don’t show up for midterm votes, and didn’t show up on Tuesday. Thanks for showing up in 2020, but what have you done for the world lately? Old fucks like me show up every goddamned time. Voting is a fucking duty, a bare minimum of effort that young progressives have to be wooed with flowers and candy into exerting. Go skip classes in a tent on the school quad without resulting in ANY CHANGE AT ALL, and preen for your Insta friends.

Yeah, Dems are going to fight against spoilers propped up by the GOP.

You’re an idiot to think they were anything aside from that.

As for Cornell West, https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/cornel-west-donation-harlan-crow-1234857237/

That’s bullshit. Dems win when turnout is larger. Turnout was significantly below 2020.

Dems have learned to never nominate a woman again, because this country is so fucking sexist.

Because we all know he will stop there.

GOP was setting the bar low for Vance before the debate, and he easily cleared it, so with low expectations, the consensus will be that he was fantastic. Walz was no surprise, he was fine, so I think folks are going to call it a slight Vance win. It won’t matter, neither got hit hard enough, it won’t move anything.

That’s an assholish characterization. And when I lived in Walpole, I had Ed Markey, too. I called his office a couple of times, said, “I vote for Ed Markey, and I want <…>” and they took down what I said, and my info, and I’d a letter reply a little while later.

My current rep is Adam Smith. He has actually been less responsive than other reps I’ve called, but I’ve gotten letters from his office after calling with my requests. And in talking to office staff, you can often find out how pressured they are over issues that constituents call about. They definitely care.

Tell them you’re withdrawing your support, and they’ll apologize, but you’re done getting listened to. They know it’s a waste of time.