(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . What went wrong, Part 1 [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-11-09 These are my comments on the Kos’ diary: What went wrong, Part 1 Let us start with this... Some people claim it was Gaza! The exit polls actually show that Harris won voters who thought the administration was balancing the crisis fine (59-39), won those who thought U.S. support for Israel was “too strong” (67-30), and lost those who wanted to do more for Israel (82-17). The reality is that the pro-Palestinian side was on the wrong side of public opinion, just 30% of the electorate. Green Party nominee Jill Stein, a darling of this crowd, barely got a half point. Gaza was not expected to show up in the exit polls, except at the margins. Biden-2020 voters who were pissed off about Gaza were either not going to vote at all, or vote 3rd party. Very few Biden-2020 voters were going to vote for Trump over Gaza. So, if you want to gauge whether Gaza was an issue, don't look at the exit polls. Instead, ask yourself the following question: Did Democrats get more votes in statewide elections in the swing states than Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket. And you have your answer: in AZ, MI, WI, NC and (I think) PA, Democrats got more votes down ballot than did Harris at the top. Was some of it sexism ? Sure. (Except when the statewide candidates are also female). or perhaps it was some of it. But not all of it. What the Democratic elites don't realize is that Gaza was not just about Gaza. Yes, it upsets progressives and liberals to see teenagers burnt alive; but we also see it as symbolic of the failure of the identity agenda. So where I agree with Kos’ diary is in the following paragraph where he talks about the failures of left-wing activism. I also think that some far-left activism was a serious liability. The Trump ad about Harris supporting taxpayer-funded transition surgery for prison inmates ran more than any other Trump ad because it worked. “Kamala is for they/them,” the ad said. “Trump is for you." It was so patently absurd that it cut through the clutter and validated claims that Harris was too radical. Discussions about defunding police, land acknowledgments, and pronouns—all of those come from a genuine place of trying to right historical wrongs and build a society built on tolerance, equality, and respect. Yet rather than build public support over time, like the gay rights movement did with marriage equality—strategically, intentionally, and gently bringing people along—activists tried to berate and shame the public into agreement. “Latinx” is so idiotic, I can’t even—and neither can most Latinos. The new version, “Latine,” isn’t any better. Pretending that the border isn’t a problem was … a problem. The bolding of “marriage equality” is mine. Start with that, and ponder that for a second. What were marriage equality activists asking for ? It was equality. Gay/lesbian marriages are to have the same legal sanctity as heterosexual marriages. Not any more, and not any less. That is a concept you can win on. That is why marriage equality won. You can't win when you are asking for special rights. Even if you think those special rights are to rectify a historic wrong. As an example, asking for trans-athletes to be included in women’s sports is a special right, in that it gives certain trans-female athletes a special advantage over hetero-female athletes. I don't mean to pick on the trans movement; there are similar examples from other special interest groupings as well. And that brings me back to Gaza. What is particularly galling about Gaza is that those people are being killed explicitly over their identities. Do you have any doubts that if the Palestinians would have been killed in this manner if they had been Jewish, for instance ? or if they had been white Europeans ? So for progressives like me, we were horrified to find that we are part of a Democratic Party that is a coalition of special interest groups, with each group asking for particular rights that apply to those identity groups only (to right a historic wrong, as Kos put it), but which turn a blind eye to others who are being outright killed over their identities. We had become the worst caricature of the Republican’s cartoonish idea of identity politics. Kos asks the question Meanwhile, a disproportionate amount of infrastructure spending was in red states and districts. Republicans, including the ones representing those states and districts, opposed that investment. How did those areas reward Democrats? By voting for Republicans in even greater numbers. Again, everything needs to be rethought. Why do you think that is. Gaza did crystallize the failures of identity politics, but it was a long time coming. Think of mask mandates. Or school closures ? Both were unsupported by science (at least once the science was clear), but were pushed by various special interest groups within the Democratic coalition. Once the stench of special interest identity politics attaches to enough policy initiatives, everything becomes subject to a reverse Midas-touch. Good policy initiatives are now perceived as being another example of the ruling elite trying to bribe you for votes. So, when you ask what went wrong? In my mind, the answer is simple. We went from asking for “equality” for all to asking for “special rights to right historic wrongs”. In particular, if your political approach requires you to look the other way, while kids are burnt alive in your name, then stop and rethink whatever it is that got you to that point. Trump is not even the worst consequence of that type of thinking. To win, we have to go back to asking for “equality”. As an example, I like FDR’s list of guarantees that kos ends with. What does it start with ? “Every American….has the right to..”. “Every American”. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/11/9/2284816/-What-went-wrong-Part-1?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/