Why are democrats so bad at politics?

I don't think they really care. Cory Booker just did a photo op with Netanyahu. These folks are cooked.

Because a lot of so called "Democrats" are gutless, spineless cowards ready to shovel 6 feet of dirt on the Party whenever they lose an election, and ready, willing and eager to play the blame game.

Fair weather voters, if you will.

Because they don't punch down at minorities, which is the bread and butter of every fascist everywhere. We're going through a phase were the American people seem to be super into that, there's nothing to do about it but wait it out.

Republicans honed their skills but being in the confessional minority election after election in the 70’s. It will take a complete rejection of the Dems for them to figure out how to politic.

Unfortunately for America, whenever the GOP gets in power, it does such a horrid job that Dems get back in as the default the next election

They are saying that. Why are you pretending they aren’t?

R5 - because OP and his ilk want to blame Democrats for Republican bad policies. They ARE doing things - it's just not covered much in the media.

The main question is how is the Democratic party supposed to engage with a lying, immoral party that refuses to obey the law and is never checked about their lies.

It's not an even playing field. If you're playing a game with someone who cheats and lies and the referee doesn't hold them responsible, how do you counteract that?

We have too many corporate Dems who are really just Republican lite.

Dems have always tried to be the rational, moderate party.

In the minority by population stats, the GOP has to come up with conniving ways to retain power.

So far, the GOP keeps winning

The Democratic Party might be too big of a tent—it would never produce a cult-like MAGA focus.

The people demand the Dems be more progressive but donors want it to support corporate interests.

The Dem politicians follow the money

Why are Republicans so good at fascism?

The issue is there ARE saying it, but corporate media doesn’t care. They want views and clicks, and Dump and his band of crazy Repukes suck up all the media space.

They're too busy glazing Israel and Netanyahu, OP. That's all the DNC cares about, that and stopping Mamdani from being Mayor of New York. They don't care about winning or serving their constituents. They just want that good AIPAC money so they can keep their cushy jobs in DC.

We are all completely fucked.

Because they serve a donor class that likes Republicans more but is only moderately uncomfortable with their cruelty.

[Quote] Why are Republicans so good at fascism?

Because white supremacy is the bedrock upon which the party stands

I'm in California and was just asked to do an online survey by some voters group. California has an independent commission that draws voting districts but the state legislature (overwhelmingly Democrats) is thinking of abolishing the commission so it can draw the districts itself. The survey wanted to know if I thought this was too partisan, and normally I would say yes. But right now I think Democrats can't afford to be principled on things like that. If Texas and Wisconsin can outrageously gerrymander their districts to be all Republican without the Supreme Court stepping in, I think Democrats need to do the same thing.

Too many national Democrats are doing business as usual, and the time for that has passed.

[Quote] Because they serve a donor class that likes Republicans more but is only moderately uncomfortable with their cruelty.

Moderately uncomfortable??!! Not uncomfortable at all.

When you’re making millions, who cares about cruelty to brown people?!

But why do we decide in advance that only Republicans can possibly get views and clicks? Why do we decide that the only possible role for Democrats is quietly tut-tutting and muttering about norms and institutions. Yeah, that shit is boring and is not fucking working. Maybe DON'T do that, just for the novelty of it all.

Instead we get the dems on Meet the Press solemnly declaring that the best thing Dems can do is stay out of the way on this whole Epstein mess. Fuck No! Get out there and holler loud and long about the scumbag Republicans and their scumbag leader with their fetish for fucking underage girls. Stop thinking that passive works, and like some long suffering wife, eventually they'll see the error of their ways and come back to us. Fuck that noise. Or really, Fuck that lack of noise.

[quote] tariffs are taxes on the american people.”

Harris made this point repeatedly during the campaign, including at the debate.

Nobody cared.

Then do something about it, OP. Run for office. Volunteer with your local party. Create a sign and march outside your local federal building. A thread on Datalounge does nothing to solve anything.

OP, they are doing that. You just aren't paying attention

They used to be quite good for decades and decades, OP. This is a rough time, but there have been rough times for Democrats before (like 1980-84--and even then a Republican was in the White house until 1992). It will change again once they cycle through better leadership and get rid of the dinosaurs like Schumer.

GOP is expert at picking scapegoats—Blacks, gays, trans, immigrants, women, Muslims, immigrants, and on and on.

All distracting us from the fact that the main point of the GOP is to move money to the wealthiest. It’s no coincidence that the most significant thing the GOP did in both Trump administrations was to pass the tax law, which shoveled money upwards.

In fact, since Reagan, $50 Trillion, yes Trillion, has moved from the middle class to the wealthy

Middle class is actually working class in America. True Middle class is actually upper class today. The average American lives paycheck to paycheck and doesn’t have $500 in the bank. Ironically, we’re not supposed to have a class system.

It’s a serious problem. As low as Trump’s favorability rating is, it’s currently “the Democrats” at large who are seeing a historically low favorability rating these days.

This doesn’t bode especially well for Nov 2026. I’m still optimistic that we (Ds) will take back the House — but the polling data is nonetheless telling us something and it’s not good.

I’ve the past fifteen or so years the game has simply changed, OP. The GOP has simply been better at adapting. The media used, the form of messaging, everything has changed more than we realize. And honestly, some democrats are very good at adapting, Harris I thought was fine, she just had limited time up against a 24/7 feed of lies

[quote]GOP is expert at picking scapegoats—Blacks, gays, trans, immigrants, women, Muslims, immigrants, and on and on.

This is a key feature of fascism. Fascism can't exist without scapegoats, the entire ideology is based on blaming other people for problems created by the people in power.

That’s my point r6. Democrats need to play down. Repeat stupid truths in plain language over and over again. Using the same language on repeat. They need to dumb it all down and go for the morons.

You hear dumb republicans like the in interviews the times did today with latinos who voted for trump. THEY REPEAT HIS DUMB TALKING POINTS. ALMOST VERBATIM. Because he repeats his dumbs lies over and over and over almost every chance he gets. It’s not that hard.

Time to go low. Not with lie. But with dumb, repeatable truths that people can process and regurgitate.

OP, I once started a thread called Why are Republicans Evil and Democrats Inept? And the crowd here ripped my head off listing the Democratic accomplishments over the past 100 years.

Democrats need to go for the jugular and stop whining, stop falling over themselves. This unfortunately has been a long standing theme.

We need a full on Fuck the Rich campaign. Everybody in the 1% should see a major tax increase, triple the taxes their currently paying in whatever form. And on top of that, remind everybody that the reason the Trump cult is fighting any info on the Epstein files is to protect rich pedophiles.

Also be very clear. The reason your local rural hospital has to shut down is so some rich cunt in New York or Silicon Valley can get a completely unnecessary tax cut.

Look at the DL reaction to Hunter Biden’s comments last week for a clue.

Op, I hope you didn’t expect any rational responses in this thread that would look at the Democratic Party with a critical eye to discuss its shortcomings and ways for it to do better.

[quote]We need a full on Fuck the Rich campaign. Everybody in the 1% should see a major tax increase, triple the taxes their currently paying in whatever form.

This doesn't always work. l lived in Portland for 20+ years up until last year (now I'm in California). Portland now has the second highest top marginal tax rates (i.e., tax rates on highest income bracket) in the country. The result has been (a) rich people are leaving Portland and (b) Portland's problems aren't getting any better and no one knows where the extra money is going.

You can tax the rich endlessly but what people want to hear is that their money is being spent wisely and efficiently. They're not going to support higher taxes on the wealthy just on principle; they're motivated by fairness but they're also motivated by good governance.

Some of you would be better suited in the other party. You keep proposing these one-size-fits-all all solutions that will never work in party made up of different factions. You all think that your way to be a democrat is the correct way without thinking about the other parts that make up the whole. All the time in these threads you see people saying, why aren't the democrats doing XYZ. Sometimes they are doing XYZ, but it doesn't get media attention. Sometimes they can't do XYZ because it will piss off another group of democrats.

Once again, if you're so smart, then run for office or volunteer and make some changes. Stop giving suggestions from behind a keyboard.

R31 and everybody, they shouldn't make the wealthy the enemy, the REPUBLICANS are the enemy.

Many who voted for Trump like that he's (supposed to be) rich because they identify with his crudeness ("he talks just like me") and thing they too can make it big like him. (Leaving out the part that Trump inherited his company). These bozos who voted for Trump like MAGA dislike "elites." There's a fine line here - the snooty elites vs the self made millionaires.

The policies are popular. We just need to figure out the messaging.

They're either too old or too progressive

[quote] We need a full on Fuck the Rich campaign. Everybody in the 1% should see a major tax increase

It needs to be a dollar value, like everyone earning more than $200k. I strongly support that.

Middle class people don’t resent the super rich. They resent the people directly above them. They see themselves working 9 to 5 making say, 75k a year, and they see some people making $400k who are also doing 9 to 5, and they see the $400k people flaunting their wealth. There’s a lot of resentment there to tap into.

We have been having a completely inane conversation for over 40 years that at this point comes down to: the rich are such sacred beings that they must get a massive tax cut every time Republicans get in power. There is no need for it. It accomplishes nothing for anybody who isn't rich. It just must be done because the gods command it. Nobody even bothered to defend the idea with bullshit supply side economics in this last round of tax cuts. It was just a given that the rich want them so it must be done.

There is no reason for the Democrats to play along with that shit and every reason to say, no, it's stupid, and in fact we are going to reverse that idiotic trend. Anybody who starts with the premise that deficits are bad or something is unaffordable, and immediately launches into some inane call for tax cuts, is completely full of shit, and Democrats have got to start by being much more blunt about that. Absolutely never buy into the premise that tax cuts for the rich do anything other than give more money to the rich. Whatever else you say after that becomes meaningless.

And yes, the rich and their stupid whims and "needs" and constant whining are the enemy, and we should be clear about that. Stop coddling fucks like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg. It's a stupid strategy and leaves Democrats just flailing around on the defensive at all times.

Democrats of today are closer to the Republicans of the past. They take their marching orders from corporations and big business. Populism is just a talking point. All they run on now is posturing and “at least we aren’t Trump”.

Someone needs to run on taxing the rich but ALSO on fixing our fucking broken democracy. Get the fucking money out of politics, ban gerrymandering, improve access to voting, admit DC and Puerto Rico as states, and, yes, pack the fucking court. Also, make Congress DO THEIR FUCKING JOB. Truman ran against a "do nothing Congress" and they'd be considered fucking workhorses compared to the lazy dipshits we have today.

They are the nerds and the Repugs are the jocks. Brains vs. brawn.

Broadly speaking, the Democrats feel comfortable ignoring their base and going all in on chasing "moderates" or the tiny sliver of persuadable Republican voters. It's just kind a cowardly and unambitious political party, even if they are 100x better than the Republicans.

And they do that R44 because the base can't be counted on to show up and vote. They need the moderates and "persuadable" Rs to take them over the top, because the base is too goddamned lazy or overly focused on purity tests to do the right thing.

They're average, but ineffective because the voting and non-voting public is so imbecilic and perverted.

There should be no campaign necessary to run against a criminal moron like Trump and yet after running the two worst campaigns in history he still prevailed.

There is no bottom in America and it is not Democrat's fault, it is the people's fault.

Democrats are very performative and what their donors want does not align with what the public wants.

Their donors are all billionaires who care more about Israel and its citizens than the US and its citizens.

R48 are you talking about Dems? Have you actually seen Repukes and how they kowtow to Netanyahu? I didn’t think so.

Because they think it’s wrong to openly call Trump a pedophile.

They weren’t always. Now I’m starting to think there really is only one party and they’ve been initiated to the way things will be if they don’t want to lose their jobs.

R49, "we're better than Republicans" is not a selling point. And yes, the Dems kowtow to Netanyahu too much, too, and it's turning off their base of voters.

If you love losing elections forever to the very same Republicans you're talking about, then I guess you can ignore that fact, but I want to win and we need a party that listens to its voters over its donors in order to win.

[quote]Why is nobody stating and repeating over and over that, “tariffs are taxes on the american people.”

Because it's not going to sink in when inflation is down from this time last year.

So far, tariffs have had little to no impact on inflation.

When they do, “tariffs are taxes on the american people" will have meaning.

Democrats usually win elections after Republicans tank the economy. However, many on this thread don't want to hear this, but it's not progressives who win elections. This country leans is center/right. That's why appealing to moderates is so important. Think back to every Presidential election since McGovern. A moderate Democrat will win.

Check out any Mamdani thread on DL to see why Dems keep losing. Dems keep losing because the donor class and their lapdogs always attack anyone to their left before anyone to their right.

Democrats win thankless elections and get thankless tasks and then get crucified in the next election r54. Progressives are trying to break that pattern. Progressives are trying to say, stop accepting that stupid deal. Stop being the tiresome bitches that relentlessly clean up after Republicans only to see everyone say "you guys suck ass for saving us" and to turn around and vote Republicans back in so they can fuck everything up again. Progressives are saying, maybe actually solve a few things with the kind of progressive policies that actually solve things and don't just set us up for another round of fuckers saying "not good enough, we're going with the fuckwad Republicans again."

R56 is correct. Democrats always squander power. Progressives want them to seize it the way Republicans do.

If everything was flipped and it was Joe Biden who tried to spearhead a coup on January 6th, do you think President Trump would fail to prosecute him?

Think about that. Democrats lose because they squander their power.

The Democrats stand for decorum and nothing else.

They don’t want to offend their corporate masters.

Who do you think gave Obama two terms, r45? The Democrats have been sucking up hard to moderates and they barely won in 2020 and lost in 2024. It's not a strategy with an impressive record.

They didn’t barely win in 2020, r60.

The Democratic Party pivoted years ago into a business model that’s supposed to make money even by losing. This is the post-Citizens United Supreme Court ruling reality.

They are functionally useless as a party and as a counter to the American Fascist party (MAGA/Republicans in general anymore).

Probably half of the upper echelons of the DNC could be executed by firing squad right behind the MAGA fascist filth - and it would be a net gain for society.

I’m not being hyperbolic. We live in times that make extremists of all of us.

I once read the bulk of America has Liberal views- but they are also less likely to vote.

The Democratic base is constantly looking for saviors, and then, even when they find someone to fall in love with, like Obama, they still have to be begged and pleaded with to vote. Then, when something like 2010 happens, instead of the base circling the wagons to help Obama and a Democratic Congress put the final polish on something like the ACA, they stay the fuck at home. Then they spend the next 15 years bitching about how healthcare is fucked up.

They bitch about the Supreme Court. When they had a chance to do something about SCOTUS, they couldn't bring themselves to vote for Hillary.

They didn't show up for Kamala because eggs were $100 a dozen, something about Gaza, and apparently, Joe Biden was too old and senile. And where are we now? Eggs are still $100 a dozen, nothing's really changed in Gaza, and our current president is old and senile. Hmmm...

And now the source of all the problems in the world is the wealthy, many of whom are Democrats, and old people, and moderates who don't think giving away everything, setting up state-run grocery stores, is going to solve the problems of the country.

And finally, white women, you all can rule the world if you really want to. However, you have to stop hating other women and stop listening to your stupid husbands and boyfriends. Think for yourselves.

Because they’re nerds, uncool, and incapable of saying anything original or originally, ever.

It’s really interesting. I agree with r65. We need to find a true original.

They can’t even wrap their heads around men not being able to become women. They don’t do science or reality just like MAGA.

[quote]I once read the bulk of America has Liberal views

I mean, the majority of Americans are pro-law enforcement, pro-gun, anti-illegal immigration, anti-DEI, mixed about Affirmative Action, and definitely anti-gender ideology. Democrats are pretty much in opposition to those positions.

Democrats are convinced that carrying water for the Gender Identity Movement over sanity, reason and the safety of gay children will eventually win them an election.

Rahm Emmanuel, apparently running for President, was served a gotcha moment on Fox News recently when they asked him, "Do you think a man can become a woman?", and he answered, "No."

Heads are exploding, but this is the beginning of hope people are waking up.

Talk about carrying water. Rahm Emmanuel specializes in doing that for republicans.

Off topic, of course, r70.

I'm reporting a fact, not endorsing him and my point stands.

The voting public already knows the correct answer to the question.

Over decades, I’ve begrudgingly come to accept the Leo Strauss position that the most rational leaders will never be allowed to gain power, so they have to hide their true objectives behind a populist front.

I really would prefer to believe in democracy, but that requires an educated or at least informed electorate. Americans prove to just be 2+2=5 idiots.

They very well may have voted based on immigrants and trans, but they will pay the price for that vote in actual dollars, less opportunity, and poor health. Just like they paid for the Iraq War, propping up the 1%, and climate change.

They need more women in position of leadership.

Totally agree, OP. Democrats must be clear and direct. Use simple language. When "they go low" don't "go high" -- go for the jugular. Loudly.

Don't talk about EPA policies, or cuts to the EPA, for example. Most MAGAts don know what an EPA is. Instead, talk about how Repugs love rich polluters.

Not enough joy!

They’re bad politics because they don’t play dirty. They don’t openly call out pedophiles or literal hillbillies who spew bullshit. “Oh we need to accept their differences.” Um no, you don’t have to accept shit.

Democrats definitely need to bring more joy in 2028. Joy in taking back the White House and Congress, followed by joy in eliminating the filibuster. An exhilarating restructuring of the federal judiciary to add 4 additional Supreme Court seats to match the number of districts. Exuberance in passing anti-gerrymandering laws that favor Democrats, in making DC and Puerto Rico states, in revoking tax exempt status from organizations that discriminate. There’s so much joy to be had.

I know you’re being a little sarcastic, but I’m a typical Dem, r77, and that joy stuff resonated with me. I remember the four miserable years with Dump, I didn’t want that again.