Would it be better or worse for a Democrat/leftist candidate to fucus more on left populist economic policies & pivot away from social policies & toward the economic policies? Why or why not?
it is always good for candidates to focus on real issues which reflect the immediate experiences of their constituents. People need to eat, afford a home, send their children to trusted schools, and have access to medical care.
It is also good that they promote logic and reason by refusing to abandon parts of the population bc it may feel “unpopular”. Fearmongering statistically irrelevant concerns as a way to alienate and punish people who live outside of a conservative viewpoint is always going to be worth fighting against.
Whenever someone mentions “abandoning social issues” I always wonder what type of person they would have been when women were fighting for the right to vote. I wonder if my rights would have been on the chopping block and seen as worthy of being discarded (but fun fact: a lot of them are right now). And because that fills me with sorrow, I refuse to do it to anyone else.
Honestly it’s hard to say. This is essentially what Trump is, after all, and it seems to have worked. But Trump also has a cult of personality (including a new religious movement or two) as well as the mainstream media behind him. And despite that Trump has still struggled, Democrats are not going to win pulling in Trump numbers because Democrats need to win by bigger margins.
The question ultimately is if Trump did well because of running a regressive and populist campaign, or if he did well despite it.
Also keep in mind that Democratic candidates may simply not be willing to throw minoritized people into the slavering bloody maw of regressive populism, even if it would be to their electoral advantage to do so. The sort of pivot you’re talking about probably won’t be enough to satisfy these people, after all, the Harris campaign basically already did this strategy of trying to move attention away from culture war issues.
Even if there is some big chunk of voters who want to hurt others but want progressive fiscal policy, maybe it’s for the best those stay swing voters rather than be catered to.
The trans policies that Democrats actually do focus on are not unpopular or costing us elections: things like “trans people should have the same legal protections as everyone else”, and “people all deserve respect”. These are not alienating positions or messages.
However, there’s the trans policies that Republicans tell people that Democrats do: stuff like force kids to be trans, deny parental involvement, don’t let sports governing bodies decide how to delineate gender divisions… and that stuff is alienating to voters.
So the problem here isn’t Democratic politicians having bad policies. The problem is an environment where Democrats are forced to respond to fiction rather than reality.
I don’t even think they need to pivot away, as they weren’t a top issue they discussed last time. They didn’t really ever engage economically, so they let the GOP dictate the discourse of the campaign.
They need to center economic policies and be loud. To add, the stock market is not the economy.
They need to pivot to kitchen table issues, like family leave, lower prescription drug costs, affordable housing, post secondary education, and wealth inequality.
Democratic party is center right economically. They appease progressive people to string them along with socially liberal stuff because they don’t actually want to implement left populist economic policy regardless of whether they’d win more elections doing so.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t vote for them over republicans but we should understand that the democratic party is not simply failing to achieve these policies. The democratic party has to substantially change if we want them to focus on those. They just want bare minimum welfare and guard rails for the sake of keeping order at best, hence we get all these watered down half-measures even when they don’t need to compromise with republicans.
That requires voting in primaries and local elections and so on to change the composition of the party and help remove the center right’s control over it.
Further we should recognize they’re shit at messaging progressive social policies because many of them don’t really care about or believe in them, they’re just a tool for maintaining a tenuous left/progressive-liberal alliance to them.
Democrats do not focus on social issues. Republicans accuse democrats of focusing on social issues. No Democrat ran on trans rights. The only time it came up is when republicans brought up anti-trans talking points or legislation. This is a Republican obsession.
Just look at the policies Democrats enacted when in power 2020-22: almost exclusively left-leaning economic issues that benefitted red states.
In terms of trans issues, I will say it is a bit frustrating to see Dems put more effort into stopping legislation that bans trans women from competing in sports instead of all the other awful shit he’s doing that affects the majority of Americans, including trans people.
The science hasn’t proven decisively that it’s safe for a trans woman to compete in women’s sports, & for now a ban is fine. however, it is such a non issue compared to everything else, Elon has more kids than trans women at the NCAA level.
Yes it’s a non issue that Republicans are using as a talking point, but to see them not do much to stop Trumps agenda except for that, does hurt Dems popularity.
Comments
The following is a copy of the original post to record the post as it was originally written.
Example: “Trans people worry more about universal Healthcare and cost of living than worrying about Trans sports.”
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
I honestly think the only people worried about “trans sports” are people on the right.
it is always good for candidates to focus on real issues which reflect the immediate experiences of their constituents. People need to eat, afford a home, send their children to trusted schools, and have access to medical care.
It is also good that they promote logic and reason by refusing to abandon parts of the population bc it may feel “unpopular”. Fearmongering statistically irrelevant concerns as a way to alienate and punish people who live outside of a conservative viewpoint is always going to be worth fighting against.
Whenever someone mentions “abandoning social issues” I always wonder what type of person they would have been when women were fighting for the right to vote. I wonder if my rights would have been on the chopping block and seen as worthy of being discarded (but fun fact: a lot of them are right now). And because that fills me with sorrow, I refuse to do it to anyone else.
Honestly it’s hard to say. This is essentially what Trump is, after all, and it seems to have worked. But Trump also has a cult of personality (including a new religious movement or two) as well as the mainstream media behind him. And despite that Trump has still struggled, Democrats are not going to win pulling in Trump numbers because Democrats need to win by bigger margins.
The question ultimately is if Trump did well because of running a regressive and populist campaign, or if he did well despite it.
Also keep in mind that Democratic candidates may simply not be willing to throw minoritized people into the slavering bloody maw of regressive populism, even if it would be to their electoral advantage to do so. The sort of pivot you’re talking about probably won’t be enough to satisfy these people, after all, the Harris campaign basically already did this strategy of trying to move attention away from culture war issues.
Even if there is some big chunk of voters who want to hurt others but want progressive fiscal policy, maybe it’s for the best those stay swing voters rather than be catered to.
The trans policies that Democrats actually do focus on are not unpopular or costing us elections: things like “trans people should have the same legal protections as everyone else”, and “people all deserve respect”. These are not alienating positions or messages.
However, there’s the trans policies that Republicans tell people that Democrats do: stuff like force kids to be trans, deny parental involvement, don’t let sports governing bodies decide how to delineate gender divisions… and that stuff is alienating to voters.
So the problem here isn’t Democratic politicians having bad policies. The problem is an environment where Democrats are forced to respond to fiction rather than reality.
I don’t even think they need to pivot away, as they weren’t a top issue they discussed last time. They didn’t really ever engage economically, so they let the GOP dictate the discourse of the campaign.
They need to center economic policies and be loud. To add, the stock market is not the economy.
They need to pivot to kitchen table issues, like family leave, lower prescription drug costs, affordable housing, post secondary education, and wealth inequality.
Democratic party is center right economically. They appease progressive people to string them along with socially liberal stuff because they don’t actually want to implement left populist economic policy regardless of whether they’d win more elections doing so.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t vote for them over republicans but we should understand that the democratic party is not simply failing to achieve these policies. The democratic party has to substantially change if we want them to focus on those. They just want bare minimum welfare and guard rails for the sake of keeping order at best, hence we get all these watered down half-measures even when they don’t need to compromise with republicans.
That requires voting in primaries and local elections and so on to change the composition of the party and help remove the center right’s control over it.
Further we should recognize they’re shit at messaging progressive social policies because many of them don’t really care about or believe in them, they’re just a tool for maintaining a tenuous left/progressive-liberal alliance to them.
“Charlie Brown I’ll hold the populist football and you try and kick it.”
To be honest… the only people making a huge deal about social policies are the people on the right.
Though, to be fair, the left is not great at addressing their attacks either.
100%.
The democrats NEED to change the message.
Democrats do not focus on social issues. Republicans accuse democrats of focusing on social issues. No Democrat ran on trans rights. The only time it came up is when republicans brought up anti-trans talking points or legislation. This is a Republican obsession.
Just look at the policies Democrats enacted when in power 2020-22: almost exclusively left-leaning economic issues that benefitted red states.
In terms of trans issues, I will say it is a bit frustrating to see Dems put more effort into stopping legislation that bans trans women from competing in sports instead of all the other awful shit he’s doing that affects the majority of Americans, including trans people.
The science hasn’t proven decisively that it’s safe for a trans woman to compete in women’s sports, & for now a ban is fine. however, it is such a non issue compared to everything else, Elon has more kids than trans women at the NCAA level.
Yes it’s a non issue that Republicans are using as a talking point, but to see them not do much to stop Trumps agenda except for that, does hurt Dems popularity.
I’m sure Trump will make such a mess of the economy that what Democratic candidates should focus mostly on will be obvious and take care of itself.
.