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We Can't Keep Repeating The Same Mistake [1]

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Date: 2024-11-13  

It’s the same thing again.



After an electoral loss, we withdraw, angry at friends and family who’ve voted for the other side. We leave spaces we’ve inhabited. We go back to our own familiar echo chambers, and cheer on those who leave these same spaces.

The thing is though, that more of us that leave these spaces that were previously inhabited, these spaces now become an echo chamber for the other side. Our voices are gone from the public sphere.



Cutting off ties from friends, family, and coworkers for their different political views…..what purpose does that serve us in the long run when we need to win winnable races in the upcoming midterms? Who’s now speaking for us now that our voices are gone?

So many voters who supported Trump were misinformed. They didn’t know since they were in their own safe spaces, in their little media-watching cocoons, and anything we said otherwise about the reality on the ground sounded false to them.

And now we’ve cut them off. We’ve affirmed their misconception of the “intolerant” liberal who’s not open to opposing views. They may not be open to our views now, but they will soon. Why? Short term memory is an actual real thing with our voting populace.



The voters who turned out weren’t paying attention during the first Trump term. All they remember are the low prices, and they wanted to return to that. It’s frustrating that they would prioritize low prices over our democracy, but their financial suffering was real. The cost of housing, and the cost of grocery prices was what they experienced everyday. It hit them much more than the abstract concept of an authoritarian, and they didn't even know what that term meant.



We can rail as much as we want about the general American voting populace, but the reality is that there are more of the white working class voters than there are white college class voters. They’re currently the majority of voters. If we want to win elections in the long run, we have to be able to talk to them. We have to meet them where they are.



It’s not fair that there’s irrationality in our voting system, but there is. And it doesn’t serve us well to withdraw, cut off ties with people over political differences, and remove ourselves from these spaces we’ve inhabited.



The best thing we can do is to forge ahead, keep on speaking loudly, be open to people who have sincere questions, or want to know different information, and bring them onboard with us. It’s always been about addition in politics.



The worst thing we can do is to subtract ourselves now. In doing so, we’re doing the Republicans’ work for them.

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