Why the American Left failed, and what can we learn from it.

[Enthusiastic Steward]

It is a bit like saying a pro golfer only wins a tournament by one stroke. At the end of the day only one walks away with the trophy. And what states did he win by less than 1%?

Wisconsin (0.8%), Michigan (0.3-4%), and Pennsylvania (0.7-8%). 46 electoral votes. Additionally Florida went for Trump by 1.3%.

I mean, all of this is irrelevant to the results, but more what I was getting at is that its a plausible scenario for the Democrats to learn absolutely no lessons and bumble their way into a win in 2020, as it stands now. I don't think this is a good thing, but I'm arguing its an entirely possible thing.

[Deleted]

That's not what the rest of the world calls a fail.
They lost the election, so what? That happens.
The other side destroyed itself, that is what we call a fail.

The republicans endorsed and recruited the most despicable humans on planet earth and they were still three million short.
What do you think is going to happen?

When endorsing the most qualified candidate in recent American history, and going against a massive clown, winning by anything less than 90% of the votes is a monumental fail. Democrats failed. Badly.
They failed to their country. They failed to the liberal international order.
Americans being easily persuaded by populism is not an excuse for their failure: it's them being disconnected with the people's wants.
What will happen is nothing much: the bipartisan status quo benefits them greatly too. They'll eventually get back in power. Be it through exhaustion after 8 years as is often the case, or through any of the multiple fuck ups that Trump is likely to fall through.

[Noradin]

The left/right spectrum is a perfectly fine system of political classification, point in fact.

The issue is that America's political system tends to encourage a fairly rigid bipartisanism. Which is not a fault in either of the major parties.

It might not be the fault of either of them but it is the responsibility of both of them that it never got changed into something more sensible.

[Packofcrows]

The left with all of its unions and regulations and rights and...etc did not fail. It just got overtaken by the businesses and $$$. It got thrown into a melting pot of greed and selfishness. That's it.

The present racism and ignorance events that have occurred are somewhat a leftover piece from the old days but I don't blame that on those 1960's issues. After all, it has been over 50yrs. The issue lies in the education system and lack of diversity in government.

[Deleted]

I thought this was an interesting read. The article focuses on this from a Canadian angle, but it's something that would be applicable in most western nations.

https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2017/08/1...n-Left-Failed/



The TL;dr of this story is that the American left basically had a schism and went from being an ideology that supported the workers of the baby boomer generation and those prior to being an ideology all about minorities. In doing so, by alienating the workers, the American left forced the workers into the far right ideology because conservative politics in America, especially with the advent of Trump, has put the focus back on American jobs and workers, and taken it away from the identity politics of the Democrats.

Lol when was the left ever in power to alienate workers?

[rhackin]

Interesting perspective...that all the modern leftist cares about is minorities and those who are not even citizens. Of course that turned off hard working Americans. I think this is related to how the left has such disdain for American exceptionalism. They tend to focus their attention elsewhere in the world. It will get even worse when people realize that the leftist's "compassion" for minorities is actually just deep-seeded racism based on the idea that some people are born inferior and need to be taken care of by the government because they don't have the capability to survive on their own. Extend the ideology of the Left to its conclusion and you have things such as eugenics, camps and termination of those with development disabilities. We've seen this happen before folks.

[Wyrt]

Interesting perspective...that all the modern leftist cares about is minorities and those who are not even citizens. Of course that turned off hard working Americans. I think this is related to how the left has such disdain for American exceptionalism. They tend to focus their attention elsewhere in the world. It will get even worse when people realize that the leftist's "compassion" for minorities is actually just deep-seeded racism based on the idea that some people are born inferior and need to be taken care of by the government because they don't have the capability to survive on their own. Extend the ideology of the Left to its conclusion and you have things such as eugenics, camps and termination of those with development disabilities. We've seen this happen before folks.

For American Exceptionalism to be a thing we kind of need to be exceptional. Which outside the military we just aren't.

[Boricha]

I don't see the democratic party as being particularly "left." They're less conservative than republicans, but fairly right wing when compared to politics around the world, especially when it comes to war and economics. In my mind, the American left failed because they don't have a party to represent them, and therefore no one to vote for on election day.

[Wyrt]

I don't see the democratic party as being particularly "left." They're less conservative than republicans, but fairly right wing when compared to politics around the world, especially when it comes to war and economics. In my mind, the American left failed because they don't have a party to represent them, and therefore no one to vote for on election day.

How can we have a left party when people like Obama get labeled as communists who are going to throw people in gulags?

[Gorgodeus]

If only the volume of votes mattered.

The last 2 Republican Presidents only won due to gerrymandering. The same goes for many in Congress, as well as many GOP governors. So the OPs premise of "the left failed" is incorrect. The crooked districting maps are what has failed the American voter.

[Wyrt]

The last 2 Republican Presidents only won due to gerrymandering. The same goes for many in Congress, as well as many GOP governors. So the OPs premise of "the left failed" is incorrect. The crooked districting maps are what has failed the American voter.

Gerrymandering doesn't affect the presidency or governorship. It affects the House and state legislatures.

[Zeth Hawkins]

They didn't fail, they got more votes than the opponent.

Interesting. When Republicans bring up Hillary, the common response is "She lost, get over it".

Not so when Democrats make mention of her, it seems.

[rhackin]

For American Exceptionalism to be a thing we kind of need to be exceptional. Which outside the military we just aren't.

Words from a blind jaded leftist. You can't even see what America has done historically and continues to do to advance the the entire world in terms of quality of life, technology, medicine, government. And yes, our mistakes have provided us the ability to develop solutions that have also helped set an example for the rest of the world. Some countries have taken lessons from America and have improved upon them or executed them better. But if America never existed, at best we'd be living in a world that looks and feels like the 1940's.

[Wyrt]

Words from a blind jaded leftist. You can't even see what America has done historically and continues to do to advance the the entire world in terms of quality of life, technology, medicine, government. And yes, our mistakes have provided us the ability to develop solutions that have also helped set an example for the rest of the world. Some countries have taken lessons from America and have improved upon them or executed them better. But if America never existed, at best we'd be living in a world that looks and feels like the 1940's.

So, basically you'd rather rest on the accomplishments of the past while the US sinks ever further into irrelevancy?

[Gorgodeus]

Gerrymandering doesn't affect the presidency or governorship. It affects the House and state legislatures.

For all intents and purposes, the Electoral college is exactly the same as gerrymandering when it gives one party a huge advantage.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

From my perspective the left failed because it went to SWJ on stuff that really didn't matter to many people besides a small select few. I mean we had months debating on where people piss if they dress like men or women for example. While I understand this really matters to a very small segment of the population that deals with it; for the most part people weren't aware of it or didn't care as long as it wasn't insanely obvious. But once you turn it into a big issue and stomp around the nation with it and throw it in peoples faces it forces them to come up with opinions and once stuff like this takes center stage over things like the economy, foreign affairs, and bigger issues like tax form / infrastructure / healthcare it gave the right a major advantage. So to a lot of people it boiled down to dealing with people that want to govern on issues that matter or where people pee pee. Granted I am zooming in on one of the issues here but the SJW movement just went to far to fast and it drove people into the arms of someone that promised them everything they wanted to hear and won't deliver on shit. In America if you want social change you have to accept that is going to be slower than most other places. We have a lot of religious folk that want to keep us in the 1500s in some cases. In the end the people will slowly adapt but if you expect them to over night accept cross dressing people in there bathroom with their kids for example.. its not going to happen.

[Alydael]

This is what happens when you have two political parties, the Dems and the Pubs, that refuse to cooperate or compromise.

They seek to divide us over any other issue that they can- even the stores you shop at, the business you support, tv shows, movies and the sports you watch.

We just had a candidate in the recent election call half of the country "deplorables." (She did, so stop it- get off the ideological horse and deal with reality for once).

Look at all the big issues: health care, education, all these "wars". Even with those huge issues that impact our society- they refuse to sit down at the table with one another and work out a compromise that would benefit us all.

In fact, all they seem able to do is to scream at each other like children.

If you hired a plumber and electrician and they came to your house and just fought and screamed at each other the whole time and didn't do anything- would you hire them again?

Garbage begets garbage. You don't get wholesome fruit from rotten seeds. This is what you "reap" when that is what you "sow."

This is the best they can do, don't vote for these two divisionist parties anymore and we can finally start moving forward and repair some of the damage these two parties have done to our country.

[Ivanstone]

From my perspective the left failed because it went to SWJ on stuff that really didn't matter to many people besides a small select few.

The left lost because they wanted the big prize at the exclusion of all else. Obama won in part because the Dems hit everything from top to bottom. Presidency to mayoral races. It also helped that the GOP shot themselves in the foot with Bush's fuck ups.

Hilary probably would've been a capable president but having the skills to be president is only half the battle. Its arguably less than half since Trump is clearly out of his depth but at least he engaged with his base during the election. Obama was good at the running for President part and was backed by a DNC who wanted to win every race.

You see SJW's now. I see the right whining about political correctness and "black culture" since the eighties. Nothing has changed except the labels. There is no fucking difference between "identity politics" and Willie Horton ads.

[Wildtree]

Well, you know...it does?

I mean, every other political race in the US is decided by that, and it's generally the indicator of who wins the Presidential race as well.

In any case, every single election people write stupid shit about how "The left failed" or "The right failed" and we're supposed to believe that it's just all over for them or something, and then the pendulum swings as it always does and suddenly the other side "failed"! Oh no!

Of the last 5 General Elections, the popular vote did not decide the outcome twice.
And that's only the most visual tip of the iceberg. The situation is even more drastic if you magnify into the states and look at the lines drawn by gerrymandering.
No, the majority vote means next to nothing in the current political landscape of the US.

OT: The American Left did not fail.
Stop with that death talk by the right on how bad of a state the Democratic Party, or the Left is in. It's not.
It's right wing republican propaganda tactics to talk the opponent dead. It's an ages old strategy, that works quite a bit, depending on the target groups' overall intellect. Some groups see right through, others buy into it.

[Phookah]

Of the last 5 General Elections, the popular vote did not decide the outcome twice.
And that's only the most visual tip of the iceberg. The situation is even more drastic if you magnify into the states and look at the lines drawn by gerrymandering.
No, the majority vote means next to nothing in the current political landscape of the US.

To teach my kids about democracy, I had them all vote on dinner. They picked pizza.

Then I made tacos and told them that it sucks we don't live in swing state.

(stolen from twitter)