How can anybody not know there is a primary held every 4 years?

Trump just won the popular vote. How well informed do you think the American public is? Why were there no debates?

Harris was apparently 2nd in the poll

In one poll for one day. As I said,she got some attention when she attacked Biden on race, then interest in her plummeted just as quickly.

Still, the fact that Harris was the Vice President made her the obvious choice of the 2024

Which is why a lot of people, including myself, were pissed off that they stuck her in the VP slot after voters rejected her. The obvious choice is someone who wins a primary. It’s Biden’s fault we didn’t get that chance, and it’s establishment scheming that put him in that position.

Warren not dropping out ticked me off too. But it wasn’t necessarily the reason Biden won. I think he got more than Sanders and Warren combined.

Final vote tallies are pointless in primaries. The press started treating Biden as the winner before half the country had even voted, and Bernie dropped out soon after. For the last two months, Biden was the only candidate in the race. (Though I believe Bernie won at least one state after dropping out.)

After Biden dropped out, having the elected delegates chose the nominee sounded like the most democratic option and the only option in line with the DNC charter.

I never claimed there was another way to choose at that point. However, Pelosi claimed that she expected a primary after getting Biden to drop, but that crashed when Biden immediately endorsed Harris.

The point I made was that Kamala was a choice of the establishment, not voters. Therefore, the fault is theirs. They did force her on us.

Elected delegates from a primary that most voters were never even aware of? Even Democrats who were aware knew full well that it was a pointless exercise. Can you even name another candidate than Biden?

You better go check your facts on the 2020 primary. She was only competitive for about one day after the debate where she went after Biden’s racism. She dropped out after reports that her staff imploded because of internal conflicts. This was almost two months before voting started! Oh, and Bernie actually did come in second.

Harris was chosen as VP because she was the establishment choice for President from the start. The establishment through a myriad of backroom deals (mostly brokered by Obama) got every establishment candidate to drop out the day before super Tuesday and endorse Biden who had been in last place of all the candidates still in the race. Biden payed for the help by putting Harris on the ticket. Bernie split the progressive votes with Warren (who quit campaigning but inexplicably refused to drop out) so Biden won.

Does any of that sound like democracy to you?

Trump and his clown show will be taking power. I’m not giving up.

I’m easily the most politically engaged person I know. If I wasn’t listening (though I was) then that’s a really bad sign. We need candidates that drive engagement.

Kamala had a lot going in terms of technocratic improvements that actually would provide some value for voters, but there was nothing transformative, and there was no interesting narrative.

The most interesting thing she did was campaign with Liz Cheney, so that’s what got the attention. She wanted to convince right leaning voters that she understood them, but instead communicated that she is just another neoliberal warmonger. It doesn’t matter that she might have threaded the needle perfectly in her rhetoric because she stepped into a narrative that said otherwise.

I keep hearing Jon Stewart thrown out there, but I’d be shocked if he could be convinced to run. He is definitely the template for what we need.

I expect she will be fine, but she has enough reason to worry.

Why the fuck would anyone respond to the comments you made here with any real analysis? If that’s what you wanted than you’re as tone deaf as Harris.

She lost to a carnival barker. Other than that, the campaign was perfect! Great news for the Democrats because they have the perfect formulae. (/s in case you missed it.)

Yeah, autocrats are well known for going easy on their former political opponents.

Oh, fuck off with that. The fault ultimately lies with a party that thrust a candidate on us that primary voters flatly rejected in the 2020 primary, then ran a Republican lite campaign strategy when voters have been demanding change for decades.

There’s no way in hell either Kamala or Biden’s egos left any room for them to want to lose. They tried to win and to please their patrons at the same time and found out the hard way that it’s not always possible.

Will we be nominating better voters next election, or should we try to nominate a better candidate?

Democrats ran another perfect losing campaign. Some people might say that losing makes a campaign definitionally imperfect, but that’s only sane people.

It’s too bad she didn’t offer any soundbites of truth. Her entire campaign was built around being inoffensive to everyone which meant saying nothing that might evoke meaning. Lies thrive in that environment.

Respect the norms!

I see that as two different categories. If I have to choose, then yeah, I blame Kamala. It’s ultimately the politician’s job to reach people. Kamala failed spectacularly, with the help of the party establishment and corrupt consultants.

What I said is that it stretches my compassion to have sympathy for Trump voters. The Republican brand is all about othering and blaming the powerless. Every Trump voter with two braincells was more than happy to see some other group suffer, assuming they themselves would be spared. Sure, I still have some level of compassion, but not a shred of respect.

Let’s just agree that it’s the ones who voted for Trump that are the problem, not anyone else. I don’t care what ethnicity someone is, but it really stretches my compassion to have sympathy with any Trump voters that suffer predictable results.

No, just the 1% who threw their vote away.

I understood. My point was that there is no similar link related to the autocratic regime of Bolsonaro. Autocrats can often be defeated electorally even once they gain power. I think the situation in the US is closer to Balsonaro in Brazil than Hitler in Germany.

Yeah, Germany is a model worth considering, but so is Brazil. Autocrats aren’t consistently capable of cementing their rule. Do what works for you, but I intend to stay and fight.