In Reply to: Here's a differing view posted by mh on May 27, 2025 at 13:04:49
First, I think the aberration here was 2020. Biden won because the public got exhausted with Trump. They wanted to take a break and enjoy some piece and quiet for a change. That was not a factor in 2024.
Second, we have been having change elections since probably 2008. That was the year when the American Mythos completely collapsed. The only person to get re-elected since then has been Obama, who was lucky that (a) the realization of the death of the mythos in the public's mind was probably not settled in as much then as it has since, and perhaps more importantly, (b) in Romney, the Republicans ran someone who screamed status quo more than a sitting president. Republicans were not going to repeat that mistake again starting with 2016. They have been running a candidate since then whose biggest selling point is that he's outside the system (whether warranted or not).
Third, Every time Democrats run a candidate who embraces the pre-2008 world view on American economy and politics has lost with one exception, Biden in 2020, for which, I refer you back to my first point. Clinton 2016 and Biden 2020 and 2024, followed by Harris 2024, were all *defenders* of the status quo, which is not a good starting point in change elections -- except when the leading Republican president is either someone who's even more tightly associated with the status quo or has created a deep fatigue due to his desperate need for around the clock attention.
I insist that Democrats will continue to lose until and unless they face the total and across the board damage brought on by their embarce neoliberalism (going back to Bill Clinton) and their pathologically unwavering faith in the fundamental goodness of capitalism. Unless of course, the Republican candidate turns out to be a bigger fingernails-on-the-chalkboard candidate. Their way out is being bold and starting to dictate the terms of the debate, which are both completely achievable, only if they can somehow stop being afraid.
That's my take and I firmly believe in what I've said here.