Unlike 2016, when his victory over Hillary Clinton came as a shock to many Americans, Trump was no surprise in 2024. The Democratic Party had the benefit of four years to ensure that this would not happen again. Yet as in 2016, Democrats appear to have failed to win over the electorate in a race against a uniquely unpopular candidate — this time one with multiple impeachments, indictments, and criminal convictions.

The short-lived Biden campaign and subsequent Harris campaign opted to try to beat Republicans at their own game, by tacking rightward on issues such as immigration, criminal justice, and climate. After President Joe Biden dropped out, the Democratic Party rejected calls to stop providing arms to Israel’s war on Gaza. Instead, Harris touted the endorsements of conservatives such as Liz Cheney. The strategy was a ploy to woo moderates and conservatives wary of a second Trump term, but it may have alienated key voting blocs.

  • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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    15 days ago

    Honestly, I think they blew it back over the 4 years they barely did anything to lock him up. It took them the better part of 3 years to just get the freaking classified documents back. And they still don’t have them all back.

    They sat around all that time because they were afraid of being political. Well guess what. Now that fascist fuck is the next POTUS and it’s bloody political.

    • UsernameHere@lemmy.world
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      15 days ago

      They tried to impeach him and more. They were blocked by Congress. It was pretty clear that they didn’t have enough votes to do anything.

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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        15 days ago

        What does congress have to do with a fucking criminal trial on violating the National Espionage Act?

        • UsernameHere@lemmy.world
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          15 days ago

          What do democrats have to do with it? I was under the impression that you were talking about Congress not taking action to hold Trump accountable.

          • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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            15 days ago

            Yes, because the DoJ are “congress”.

            Biden is the head of the executive branch, and Marrick Garland’s boss.

            It took Garland two and a half years just to appoint Smith as special counsel. They sat around with their thumbs up their asses hoping trump would fade to obscurity because they were afraid of being “political”

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              15 days ago

              What would have changed by doing it sooner?

              And how is Merrick Garland working for democrats? I thought the FBI was non partisan?

              • rigatti@lemmy.world
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                15 days ago

                I mean, Merrick Garland is literally working for Democrats. But they tried to give it the appearance that wasn’t working for Democrats. That’s what the other poster is complaining about. Trump cases needed to be expedited, knowing that he would piss and moan and delay as much as possible. Now it’s too late because he’s going to be president in a couple months, and he can just pardon himself.

                • UsernameHere@lemmy.world
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                  15 days ago

                  If it were that simple why didn’t they just do it? Do you think they were conspiring to help Trump? Or do you think they were lazy?

                  Or is it the same situation it has been every single time Trump commits a crime and gets away with it, where he has weaponized his base to avoid consequences?

                  The latter is the obvious answer imo and even the FBI can’t stop the man with the Supreme Court on his side. Scapegoating the FBI seems odd here.

              • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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                15 days ago

                Did you really just ask what getting highly classified nuclear secrets back from a broke-ass billionaire with ties to both the saudis and Putin sooner would change?

                Also I already answered your second question.

                Biden was his fucking boss, and not doing his job is inherently partisan when it protect a politician. Make sense?

                • UsernameHere@lemmy.world
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                  15 days ago

                  If it were that simple why didn’t they do it? Do you think they were conspiring to help Trump? Do you really think they just said “I don’t want to do that today, let’s put it off for another time”?

                  I think if it were that simple they would’ve done it. But Trump has been able to avoid consequences for everything he has done so obviously it is not that simple to prosecute him.

                  I dont know why it is so hard for you to see that.

                  • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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                    15 days ago

                    If it were that simple why didn’t they do it?

                    It is that simple, the Jack Teixeira case shows how qiuckly and how simple it is to get a fucking warrant and get the documents out of the hands of people who have no business holding them.

                    Once you have the documented evidence recovered from the warrant it’s incredibly simple and iron clad to show that trump violated the law. having those documents is itself all the evidence you need.

                    as for what laws were broken That to is incredibly simple, and the simple fact of him having the classified materials after leaving office is iron-clad proof of his guilt. the text to save you click:

                    (a) Whoever, being an officer, employee, contractor, or consultant of the United States, and, by virtue of his office, employment, position, or contract, becomes possessed of documents or materials containing classified information of the United States, knowingly removes such documents or materials without authority and with the intent to retain such documents or materials at an unauthorized location shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than five years, or both.

                    (b) For purposes of this section, the provision of documents and materials to the Congress shall not constitute an offense under subsection (a).

                    © In this section, the term “classified information of the United States” means information originated, owned, or possessed by the United States Government concerning the national defense or foreign relations of the United States that has been determined pursuant to law or Executive order to require protection against unauthorized disclosure in the interests of national security.

                    Do you think they were conspiring to help Trump? Do you really think they just said “I don’t want to do that today, let’s put it off for another time”?

                    Their stated justification for their actions were “to avoid appearing political”. Which, given the blatant guilt (you saw the news-crew videos of the FBI agents dragging out the classified materials, right?) inaction is itself also political.

                    Any one with even so much as a single half-baked ethics training class under their belt would know that the way you avoid accusations of political bias isn’t to change how you do your job- it’s to do the job in the same way that you always would; and to document the shit out of doing your job that way for transparency. Sitting on your ass for two and a half years is inherently political when you would not do that for literally any other subject imaginable.

                    But Trump has been able to avoid consequences for everything he has done so obviously it is not that simple to prosecute him.

                    Because chucklefucks like Marrick Garland can’t be arsed to do their fucking jobs.

                    I dont know why it is so hard for you to see that.

                    Because you don’t want to

    • Omega@lemmy.world
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      15 days ago

      In 2016 when Trump supporters were declaring the economy fixed on DAY ONE. Or when Trump supporters were blaming inflation on the inflation reduction act, which was named after the ALREADY soaring inflation.

      They’ve been gaslighting Americans for the last 8 years. We overestimated Americans, just like Hillary did in 2016, and assumed they would see the obvious faults in logic.

    • Mirshe@lemmy.world
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      14 days ago

      Bingo. Garland has the same amount of blame as Biden and Harris. Biden should’ve thrown him out and replaced him with anyone willing to actually enforce the law regardless of “conflict”. Trump doesn’t wanna return documents after being asked nicely? An FBI raid or two should fix that. Judge Cannon doesn’t wanna prosecute and keeps stalling the case? Move the case to another judge, keep moving it until you find one who isn’t going to play games.

      The DNC’s perennial problem is that they’re so afraid of fighting dirty against a party that, since Nixon, has had little problem doing exactly that. I wanted a Democratic Party that was willing to go to the mat and meet the GOP where it was, rather than trying to take the high road, and for a few weeks it seems like we HAD THAT.

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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        14 days ago

        The sad part is…. That’s not even fighting dirty.

        Garland fucked around, and now we’re all finding out.

    • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
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      15 days ago

      Locking up Trump wouldn’t have kept the Republicans from winning. They’d have just found another candidate willing to say the same things.

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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        15 days ago

        I don’t know. it would have been hard for them to change the figurehead of the cult. it also would have sent a clear “Don’t do that” signal vis a vis insurrection and treason. Especially because Trump absolutely would have split the vote from jail.

        fact is Trump has barely seen any consequences at all for his actions, and now he never will, and that’s on democrat’s and Biden’s DOJ in particular. (And yes. Biden could have lit a fire under Garland if he wanted. Not doing your job is grounds for firing, even if Biden can’t dictate day to day or specific courses of actions.)

      • EleventhHour@lemmy.world
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        15 days ago

        One doesn’t guarantee the other. Trump had something special that nobody else seems to have. I doubt they could get that lightning in the bottle again.