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#kamala

10 posts10 participants2 posts today

To the people sharing #kamala "I told you so" memes, please be aware it hits me like this:

"Remember when #Biden hung on way past his expiration date and didn't do shit to prepare a successor even though Trump and one hundred GOP leaders promised they would stomp America into a fascist state the second he was out of office, and the #DNC also did fuck all to prepare, and then they ran a last-minute campaign on #vibes that, despite being surprisingly successful for a last-minute campaign, didn't get the job done, and then they and and every candidate except maybe Bernie disappeared while our country burned to the ground? Well, one of those people wants to say 'I told you so.'"

It's not a pleasant experience and I don't want to be reminded of the clusterfuck the Democratic Party has been for the past few years.

This goes for any similar memes featuring R.B. "I refuse to retire because I'm having too much fun" G. or H.R. "I am the DNC and also inevitable" C.

#memes#uspol#RBG

I found this #TED talk to be a very helpful framework for thinking about a variety of things: ted.com/talks/charles_duhigg_t

Most pointedly, #Democrats would do well to reflect on this. We're not having the same conversation, and that's why we're where we are. The nation isn't strictly divided on political lines, it's much more primal than that.

As much as #Trumpism is nakedly awful on its face, it's having an _emotional_ conversation (and to a lesser degree, a _social_ one). Most of us in #America are pissed off, even fully aware that #Republicans are to blame due to their policy priorities and laissez faire approach to damn near everything, all but ensuring immiseration for all but the rich.

What made #Obama and #Biden successful in their 2008 and 2020 runs? A variety of factors, to be sure, but both of those campaigns were having the same kind of conversation, selling "hope" after 9/11 and the Iraq war, and talking about the "soul of America" after the disruption of the pandemic and inhumanity of the prior administration. What made #Kamala fail? Again, a variety of factors, but she was almost exclusively having a _practical_ conversation.

When you have a deep, radiating hurt inside of you (i.e. most key issues driving the general malaise people have felt over the past few years), and someone's response to that is purely logical/practical, it only serves to invalidate and frustrate you, nothing else.

In that framing, it's easy to understand why people did what they did, whether they voted for either party, or not at all. Why would you choose differently if you feel that you won't otherwise have the conversation you want?

This is also why #Bernie, #AOC, #JasmineCrockett, #ChrisMurphy and others are resonating so much with people right now - they are having an _emotional_ conversation, which is exactly what people are seeking in such a painful and worrying time. Nobody is looking for marginal policy improvements or safe poll-tested messaging. They are tapping into the _emotional_ core of those trying to #resist.

BTW, I think this is also why #GavinNewsom went and stepped on his own dick - our #trans friends are in dire need of _emotional_ support right now, not _social_ discussions about an imaginary "common ground".