Post AwXV81UiXF9AVIJF8i by clayfoot@mastodon.social
(DIR) More posts by clayfoot@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #AwXUdEuEcaGR7cZANU by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-07-26T22:33:16Z
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There has been a massive swing among young voters who started with tentative approval of the new president to a 40 point hole. One of the biggest approval swings I've ever seen.Democrats are taking this as good news. Well ...it is not bad news. It's not really good news either. A large segment of voters in the US who see nothing to vote *for* so they don't show up. I won't attempt to say *what* might make the difference, it'd be projection. Why not ask them?
(DIR) Post #AwXUwOmA9LhDEbvUjQ by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-07-26T22:36:44Z
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I suspect simple folding your arms and saying "see you should have voted" isn't going to do much. And I suppose I would caution against it because it's really annoying. It will be even more upsetting when some republican is elected again even as the numbers for all candidates are negative.
(DIR) Post #AwXV63czdFHCXdF86K by kirakira@furry.engineer
2025-07-26T22:38:26Z
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@futurebird parasitic democrats who only know how to campaign on "not as bad as the other guy" rubbing their hands together and cackling, not realizing nobody wants them either
(DIR) Post #AwXV81UiXF9AVIJF8i by clayfoot@mastodon.social
2025-07-26T22:38:46Z
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@futurebird What might make the difference: Mandatory voting. Australia has it, and a low turn out election still has over 80% participation.
(DIR) Post #AwXVBovRCz9agDcOum by burnitdown@beige.party
2025-07-26T22:39:29Z
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@futurebird after the fuckery the Democrats did during the election that just happened, why should anyone seek answers in electoralism? they point at people committing genocide while they gave passive approval to genocide while they had more power to do anything about it.politicians are not owed votes. electoralism is a hopeless dead end. there is no way to reform a system whose entire purpose is colonialism and genocide.
(DIR) Post #AwXVECaIDSB8dUrbVI by inquiline@assemblag.es
2025-07-26T22:39:55Z
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@futurebird DNC's smug "you have no alternative" stance is maybe not such a winning formula, but hey what do I know, I'm not a megabucks consultant
(DIR) Post #AwXVIL00s6rZtOrl8S by burnitdown@beige.party
2025-07-26T22:40:40Z
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@futurebird who enabled the Republicans? nothing has happened by accident or out of nowhere.
(DIR) Post #AwXVJMbQObDr9fr1hA by chris@abraham.su
2025-07-26T22:40:46Z
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@futurebird All the Dems need to do is reject identity politics, race wars, climate activism, and an obsession with LGBTQIA+ and Palestinian issues and they'll get their disaffected youth back.
(DIR) Post #AwXVRciCNyrXQwxfKy by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-07-26T22:42:23Z
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@chris What would they be "for" if they did all that?
(DIR) Post #AwXWdfid8E6EBlTKts by chris@abraham.su
2025-07-26T22:55:44Z
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@futurebird Workers and jobs. That's all that Americans care about. All the rest is rich people masturbating for clout.
(DIR) Post #AwXWknivlgy72h0ojY by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-07-26T22:57:04Z
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@chris Every politician says they care about jobs and workers. What policies for jobs and workers?
(DIR) Post #AwXWw7ZIKKNPm5u2Ay by jdp23@neuromatch.social
2025-07-26T22:59:03Z
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@futurebird what's interesting is that there's a test case for this. That's exactly what Mamdani did -- ask people -- and guess what, turnout jumped significantly. Funny how that works!That being said I think it's good news on the whole (although agree with you that it's not by itself good news for Democrats). I've seen quite a few scholars of authoritarianism and fascism point out that an autocratic government that only has support of 30-40% of people is a lot more constrained than an autocratic government with 60--70% support. As for the Dems ... well I was just looking at a WSJ poll that shows the Democrat party has a net -30% favorability. That's certainly not good news for them! But again societally it might be good news if it increases the likelihood of significant change within the Dem party or of alternatives taking a bigger role.
(DIR) Post #AwXXz692AyKeBNbS6q by chris@abraham.su
2025-07-26T23:10:48Z
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@futurebirdNo The left only talks about identity politics race issues climate change and free Palestine. That's why all of the populist leftists left and migrated to the populace right. All the ignored Bernie Bros bailed identity politics and joined Manga reluctantly.
(DIR) Post #AwXY2lknvkQM6G1Jzs by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-07-26T23:11:31Z
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@chris OK but what policies? That was the more important question here.
(DIR) Post #AwXYRjL82jgFqtuftQ by chris@abraham.su
2025-07-26T23:15:59Z
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@futurebirdThe only policies that are possible are the policies that maga seems to want to follow: nationalism, domestic production, some sort of domestic farming, extraction of minerals and oil and gas, and other kinds of things that are the equivalent of offshore oil riggers and salmon fisherman and other manly work that give people good pay for the strength of their back. Unfortunately, that's very nationalistic and populist and I don't think the Dems like that.
(DIR) Post #AwXYZImIgP5RmzEUrI by chris@abraham.su
2025-07-26T23:17:21Z
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@futurebirdThe only kind of policies that would appeal to the populous left are the kinds of things that the populace right are giving it. Anti-immigration. A little bit of America first. Nationalism. Populism. And a little bit of isolationism. The ability to make a good living using your body in a respectable and manly way. Not everyone can work with their mind. But, nobody wants to work for $5 an hour.
(DIR) Post #AwXZ7ThGar8JV0Athg by LightFIAR@med-mastodon.com
2025-07-26T23:23:31Z
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@futurebird And they've been asked! Most people want national health care--this found other intriguing data:https://thenationmagazine.substack.com/p/working-class-voters-are-not-centrists
(DIR) Post #AwXZ9lESMuSgSlmtVo by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-07-26T23:23:59Z
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@chris If Democrats abandon identity politics they lose at least 30 percent of their base. They might hold on to some of that if they were still "the party of unions" and had policies that support working class people.I don't see how they could gain votes from the right by just being a less extreme version of what the republicans are doing. If a voter wants white nationalism why would they go half-way?
(DIR) Post #AwXbx4clG3OUhinWfw by chris@abraham.su
2025-07-26T23:55:15Z
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@futurebirdYou added white. That's funny. Maybe you really do think that nationalism is racial. Maybe you think nation states are racial. Hmmm.Nationalism here isn’t racial—it’s about borders and belonging. Japan is Japanese, Germany is German, Mexico is Mexican—but ‘American’ is different. It’s a meta-brand: a citizenship club with walls, built on shared membership and contribution, not blood or ethnicity.
(DIR) Post #AwXdn4SBEmc1BgCsT2 by chris@abraham.su
2025-07-27T00:15:51Z
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@futurebirdYour 30% is really the elite 10% because Dems hollowed out their normie base. Most Americans—40–70%—are traditional workers. Dems went all-in on DEI, speech control, and mandates, alienating them. Populist leftists felt scolded, purity-tested, mocked for trades, and drifted to populist nationalist traditional MAGA—not the Grand Old Party country club Republicans—MAGA ran on the GOP ticket it's not Republican at all.
(DIR) Post #AwXfs1a5XoQXdQOaHI by jf_718@mas.to
2025-07-27T00:39:10Z
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@futurebird Younger voters show up in droves if someone actually listens to them and the challenges they face.Anyway, that's what the recent mayoral primary showed. But establishment Dems do not like that lesson one bit.
(DIR) Post #AwXnqrqX3H6Emq2vMO by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-07-27T02:08:35Z
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I'm curious if when you see poll numbers such as "80 percent of Republicans say X" is this obtained by *asking* "Are you a Republican?"Or is it based on either registration or longitudinal polls (expensive)If these are inexpensive polls it could be the former and I would expect that party identification might be more fluid than in the past.
(DIR) Post #AwXpkmxkUnwNoMeQ88 by johnzajac@dice.camp
2025-07-27T02:29:55Z
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@futurebird I don't think there's been a time in post-war politics when both parties were completely unresponsive, until now.I'm not even (just) talking about the 90M that didn't vote in 2024. I'm talking about how I'd guess that at least a majority of Democratic voters (>50% of them) hold their nose to cast that vote and feel nothing but contempt for Democrats themselves.Now that both elections and the law are meaningless, the future is gonna be *interesting*.
(DIR) Post #AwXsRA5X6c9xbYcmqO by tuban_muzuru@ohai.social
2025-07-27T02:59:57Z
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@futurebird They want hope.They're not getting it from all these turkey-neck oldsters still resting on their laurels - and won't let the youngsters have a voice.They're alienated from politics. They know it's a money game. Campaign cash has made a mockery of law and good government."We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope," -MLK