Toll of Democrats' Delusions -- The Atlantic -- more practical food for thought

[ancianita]

Last edited Wed Nov 13, 2024, 09:23 AM - Edit history (1)

One Democratic congressman wasn’t surprised by Tuesday’s election results.
By Michael Powell

...Representative Ritchie Torres, a New York Democrat, cut me off before I even finished my question: Congressman, were you— “Surprised? No, I was not surprised,” Torres, who represents a poor and working-class district in the Bronx, told me. “Much of my side in politics, and much of the media, was in a state of self-deception. We confused analysis with wishful thinking.” ...

“Donald Trump had no greater friend than the far left,” Torres told me, “which alienated historic numbers of Latinos, Blacks, Asians, and Jews with absurdities like ‘Defund the police’ or ‘From the river to the sea’ or ‘Latinx.’”
The result is the reality that Americans woke up to on Wednesday. The overwhelming majority of counties in the nation, even some of the bluest of blue, had shifted rightward. ... On the day after the election, I clicked through a digital election-results map of New Jersey. Biden in 2020 took New Jersey, a Democratic Party bastion, by nearly 16 percentage points over Trump; Harris won the state by a more parsimonious five points. Everywhere, Republicans sanded down Democratic margins. In the state’s northeast corner, across from New York City, Biden had taken prosperous Bergen County by 16 percentage points in 2020; Harris took the same county by three points. Far to the south, in Atlantic County, which includes the deteriorating casino capital of Atlantic City, Biden had won by seven points; Trump took it by four points.

Torres emphasized that in his view, Harris ran a vigorous and effective campaign, given the circumstances. He did not discern many missteps. Although she sometimes tossed up clouds of vagueness when asked about past positions, she was disciplined and avoided mouthing the buzzwords of the cultural left during her 2024 campaign. But she could not sidestep her previous concessions to liberal cultural fevers, as she discovered when the Trump campaign bludgeoned her with endless commercials highlighting her decision, during her bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, to champion state-funded gender-transition surgery for prisoners.
In recent election cycles, Democrats have invested much hope that “people of color”—the widely varied and disparate peoples long imagined to be a monolith—would embrace an expansive list of progressive causes and rearrange American politics. Politics, alas, is more complex than simply arranging virtuous ethnic and racial voting blocs, and Trump’s gains this year among nonwhite voters are part of a longer trend. Four years ago, even as Biden triumphed, a majority of Asian and Latino voters in California rejected a ballot proposition that would have restored affirmative action in education and hiring.

The party might pay some heed to Torres, the Bronx representative. A veteran of political wars, he is a progressive Democrat on economic issues and has taken much grief of late from left activists for his vigorous support of Israel. He noted in our conversation that he is strongly in favor of immigration, and his majority-Latino district has many hardworking undocumented residents who need his aid.But he recognizes that the national electorate, not least many Latino and Black voters, now seeks to ... tighten restrictions.
In an election year that fell decisively, disastrously short of utopian for Democrats, such advice registers as entirely practical.


Much more, non-paywall: https://archive.ph/APdfj#selection-1005.0-1017.131

[JustAnotherGen]

1. End Result?

America just had it's last free and fair Presidential election for at least a generation, if not more.

[Wuddles440]

3. So true...

and far too many of our fellow citizens are in denial about what has actually transpired in this most recent election.

[Scrivener7]

2. Nope. It wasn't inflation, it wasn't "cultural fevers." It wasn't because someone somewhere said, "Latinx."

It was racism and sexism. There is a certain percentage in EVERY DEMOGRAPHIC except Black women who voted for Joe and wouldn't vote for Kamala.

We need to recognize the racism and sexism within our own party. I get it that it's hard. I don't want to give up my dream of a woman President in my lifetime. But I have.

Please. We all know this. "Inflation" is racist cover language for "Not voting for a woman, and certainly not a woman of color." And this author has added "cultural fever" as another cover phrase.

Trump will trash the economy and no one will blink. He will cause the deaths of untold numbers of Americans and the media will applaud. Again.

It's racism and sexism. Among our own.

[ancianita]

4. It was all of that. And yes, even more, racism and misogyny as distrust of women as capable of being commander-in-chief

The viral millions of "your body, my choice" was likely the russia messaging targeted at insecure American males.

People don't understand the cause of inflation, and are told to blame it on the economics of the sitting president, when it's the corporate manipulation of pricing -- totally apart from market supply and demand, and totally political -- that corporate media tools politically use to make a Democratic president look bad. Then, regardless of how much information corrects this lie, it's too late to change the confirmation bias already in people's minds, and the urge in their hearts to blame someone they can see.

[Scrivener7]

5. And, if inflation was at 10% under trump, it would miraculously not bother them at all.

It isn't inflation. It isn't even the erroneous perception of inflation.

[ancianita]

6. Then what causes them to not care when it's under trump? We need to figure what benefit they get that makes inflation

under trump okay. What benefit do they get, or perceive that they get, that they think they don't get with Democrats?

Does he make their values feel like virtues?

[Scrivener7]

7. For many, for enough that if we had them we would have won, it is that he is a white protestant male, and for some

bizarre reason they don't perceive him as being too old.

It is as simple as that. The numbers show it.

For others, it is that he makes their disgustingness acceptable, but those will never vote for a Democrat.

[ancianita]

8. I see what you mean.

Last edited Wed Nov 13, 2024, 01:17 PM - Edit history (1)

Which brings to mind that those who voted for the not-so-old white male Biden, but who then switched to Trump, had been sold on the idea that the most highly qualified woman couldn't do as well as either. Emphasis on the white male part of your phrasing. Simple as that, indeed -- that a lawless man is still more valuable than a flawless woman.

[dalton99a]

9. Kick

Last edited Wed Nov 13, 2024, 01:24 PM - Edit history (1)

A week before the election, Marcel Roman, a Harvard government professor, explained on X that he and a Georgetown colleague had discovered that Latino voters deeply dislike being labeled Latinx, a gender-neutral term now widespread in academia. This term also came into use by Democratic politicians eager to establish their bona fides with progressive activists. Alas, voters liked it not so much.

This problem seems easily remedied: Refer to voters by the term they prefer—Latino, say, or Hispanic. Roman drew a different conclusion, calling for “political education meant to root out queerphobia in Latino communities.”

Professors might heed the words of Representative Ruben Gallego, a Latino Democrat who is currently wrapped in a tight race for a Senate seat in Arizona. Four years ago, I spoke with him about identity politics in his party. A progressive, Gallego is a favorite of Latino activists, who flock from California to work on his campaigns. He told me that he appreciated their help but warned them that if they used the word Latinx when talking to his Latino constituents, he would load them onto the next bus back to Los Angeles.

[FakeNoose]

10. I think it's more that Biden won crossover votes in 2020

... and Kamala didn't get those same crossovers in 2024. (Yes, I'm talking about mostly white, disaffected R voters.)

In fact, it seems a few regular D voters crossed over to vote for Chump this time. Also a few more regular D voters didn't show up at the polls for Kamala. We need to figure this out and that's what we'll be doing for the next couple of years.

One thing I know for sure ... the news media & pundits are NOT our friends. They're all currying favor with Chump.

[ancianita]

11. Fair points, but I'm pretty sure we haven't yet gotten to the point of having a clear demographic picture of that.

Time will tell. If there were shenanigans, those should be revealed, too. We'll know more in December.

[FakeNoose]

12. Agreed

We have to work quickly. They just announced that Matt Gaetz is going to be the next Attorney General.

[Blue_Tires]

13. Torres is way off the mark here...

"LatinX" and "Defund the police" are SOOOOO 2020...

Yes, the "Free Gaza" nutbars blocking traffic and tearing up their college campus green definitely hurt us, but they were *always* an op just in case anybody hadn't caught on yet.

[ancianita]

14. I hear you, but

those insults that seem "so 2020" to us stick with Latinos, which I think he's more in tune with than we are; totally agree with you about the Gaza protestors and the misinformation op that drove them.