If I were in charge of the Party in ‘26 and beyond, I would point to economic left-populism (even syndicalism), an embrace of working-class young men, more tussling with old media, and an emphasis on civic nationalism as the way to go. These models aren’t my ideal candidates, but Dan Osborn did well enough in Nebraska to get 46% of the US Senate vote, and Ro Khanna astutely appeals to Rust Belt men by linking industrial tech, climate change and great power competition. It’s up in the air whether entryism can work to pull the Party left in 2026, but worth a try
For sure. They're complaining about not having Joe Rogan-type media, but they already do. The problem is the content of that media is "Support NATO" and not anything young men can be excited about.
Agreed. I’m a bernie to trump pipeliner but would return for aggressive left economic populism. The left is also going to have to tone down its more unpopular PC policing too.
I keep thinking about how Biden said "nothing would fundamentally change" when he was running for president. Jesus, he fucking run the year COVID began with this. And then things did fundamentally change and got way worse. Abortion rights is one, but supporting and financing a genocide is too horrific to even try and put it on a scale like this.
And, then! Kamala runs on "joy" while there's a genocide being live streamed for months. How blind can they be to reality?
But, as an outsider trying to understand what's going on, USA's entire electoral process is shambolic.
It'd be nice to see them use these last few weeks in office to sign a bunch of executive orders that would help mitigate the incoming shocks to the system that are no doubt coming (expanding SCOTUS, pushing through election & labor law improvements, etc.). Won't happen, but still...
Unfortunately, I think they won't because they're telling themselves they were "too far left." So they won't want to give any indication that they're woke.
They definitely are. They are sending more money to Zelensky and making sure Trump will keep doing more of the same by various poison pill methods one of which is this secret Senate ballot to make one of the RINOs succeed Turtle Mitch. Either Cornyn or that other guy will veto every bill that does not have money for Zelensky.
Joe discusses the one thing that IMHO isn't being mentioned enough in all of this election post mortem-ing going on now.
Trump hasn't gained support. Democrats simply lost support. Its really that simple.
Considering there is a sample size of 10M+ people who voted for Biden and not Harris, it shouldn't take Sherlock Holmes to find some of them and ask "So whats it gonna take to put you in a shiny new democracy in 2028 ?"
I'm always amazed legacy media aren't doing this. All it took was the calculator app to predict still uncounted votes and adding them to current totals, then comparing against 2020 totals. Once you see that, the "rightward lurch" narrative falls apart.
Ugghhhh, nothing makes me feel disempowered quite like the Ritual Cry Of The Defeated Leftist (“Organize, organize, local local local”). As someone chronically unable to form a meaningful relationship with a community and in a job where nobody is even attempting to unionize, it genuinely feels like I’m being told I’m not wanted—that there’s no room in leftism for a weird loner driven to socialism entirely by moral convictions (and a distaste for authority).
You're wanted! I'd encourage you to start by building connections with coworkers. Watch the shows they do, eat lunch with them, Slack them, whatever. The organization can come later. I think making outreach is the first move and unionization can come later.
Outreach is just kind of the one thing I can’t do because it requires making and maintaining genuine social connections with people and I’m just too ADHD+Autism+Introverted to handle any more than the 7 I’m already actively maintaining (some of them quite badly!)
In broad strokes: the GOP stays on message, and they get people out to vote. The left (and this is my team, btw) is too busy trying to "workshop" things and gets shiny object syndrome. We are lousy with unserious people and dilettantes. Here in WI, votes that went to Stein and RFK Jr. were enough to cost Harris the state.
Worth noting that the GOP also embraced early voting this go 'round, and the head of the WI GOP credited it in part for Trump's win. Meanwhile, plenty of left-leaning people that withheld their vote as some sort of high minded ideal. That vanity lets them say cool words on places like Twitter, but ultimately helped usher in whatever we're gonna see over the next 4 years.
I was using back of the envelope math, but the 3rd party totals were at least enough to cover the delta. Worth nothing that I only included Stein's & RFK Jr.'s totals in my equation. I'm not sure how much the other 3rd party candidate totals are.
I think my issue would be RFK voters are libertarian/rightists who don't like Trump or forgot he joined Trump. Stein is emblematic of leftist votes, but I don't think there's any ideological overlap between her and RFK, some I'm hesitant to lump them together.
Any thoughts on the statement Sanders put out yesterday? I'm guessing you have no more special insight that I do, but the tone was fairly pissed and it ended somewhat ominously... (in a good way)
I loved it. He's 100% right. Not just in this election but going back to Obama. The post-recession could have led to a New Deal-style coalition, which Dems would still be running on. A big part of this loss was Democrats staying home. There's multiple reasons, but I think "I don't know what this party stands for" is the leading one. An unabashed "we're with main street not wall street" would do that.
Saved and bookmarked. Probably one the best takedowns of Centrism I've read (the other being a similar piece David Graeber wrote about Labour's defeat back in 2019).
People need to recognize that Centrism isn't a good thing and needs to be defeated in order to defeat fascism.
Don't forget to sanitize your Youtube links; Everything after and including the &pp isn't necessary for it to work (I think that part is data collection or something but I'm not sure)
Great article! It’s been appalling watching my country drift into fascism—though I’m sure many in the Global South would tell us we’re simply seeing now what we always were. I intend to share it with friends and family.
A completely different take than the entire MSM, and the reason I read this publication as a conservative.
I do have a question for you though Joe.
How do you reconcile the data showing that progressivism is broadly unpopular?
Or do you simply reject that view, in favor of the concept you suggest in this article that it is the middle of the road position that turned off voters?
NYT article about unpopular progressivism just before the election:
I don't see any way in which progressivism has been rejected. It honestly baffles me when MSM claims this, given Harris ran to Biden's right on economics. Progressive ballot measures won all over the country, while unprogressive corporate liberalism lost badly. If I"m missing something, let me know.
According to campaign data, the most effective ads run by Trump’s crew were connecting her to her progressive 2019 positions.
The best performing of them being her support of tax payer funded sex changes for inmates.
The Trump campaign insiders I spoke to were running continuous ads simply taking clips from her 2019 primary positions. All of which were very progressive.
Also— you mentioned that AOC and Omar won their reelection bids, but AOC’s district swung 22 points to the right.
Ezra Klein even wrote that the Obama coalition is completely defeated.
The Free Press has a piece from a former operative talking about the Democrat party completely disconnecting from the working class.
Male Latino vote shifted 33 points to the right from 2020, and the black male vote has shifted 13 points to the right since 2016.
Such drastic shifts cannot be attributed to misogyny, as you correctly noted, but the question remains what is causing that shift?
My most recent article directly links it to progressive politics unpopularity.
Which is why I came to see your take, as it commonly is the direct opposite of my own.
I’m just trying to get a read on the full picture. As your position is very different from everything the mainstream is publishing.
I think progressivism in the context of culture wars (sex reassignment surgeries on children, defund the police, etc) is unpopular. Economic progressivism is more popular.
After the election the Democratic Party (my party) must rethink many of its policies as it ponders its future.
To have a chance at victory Democrats should try listening to the concerns of the working class for a change. As a lifelong moderate Democrat I share their distain for many of the insane positions advocated by my party.
Democrat politicians defy biology by believing that men can actually become women and belong in women’s sports, rest rooms, locker rooms and prisons and that children should be mutilated in pursuit of the impossible.
They believe borders should be open to millions of illegals which undermines workers’ wages and the affordability of housing when we can’t house our own citizens.
They discriminate against whites, Asians and men in a vain effort to counter past discrimination against others and undermine our economy by abandoning merit selection of students and employees.
Democratic mayors allow homelessness to destroy our beautiful cities because they won't say no to destructive behavior. No you can’t camp in this city. No you can’t shit in our streets No you can’t shoot up and leave your used needles everywhere. Many of our prosecutors will not take action against shoplifting unless a $1000 of goods are stolen leading to gangs destroying retail stores. They release criminals without bond to rob and murder again.
The average voter knows this is happening and outright reject our party. Enough.
I just believe the Age of Aquarius is over.All the parameters have been changed.Nineteen sixty-four is an oasis far away from today and it never will be again.
"Hey, I wonder what that guy who tried to tell me that I should be a socialist after they killed and tortured my family throughout the twentieth century is doing? Maybe he moderated and actually used his opportunity to speak with someone outside his bubble to more of people with ties Eastern Europeans and Slavs about the consequences of his ideology in practice?"
Reads article.
So no, you didn't. Instead, you decided to rail against "neoliberalism," use words like "the people" and placed your ideology-whose largest organization supporting it in America has less than 100K members-as the future, when incumbent parties lost across the world.
It does beg the question, what comes after Liberalism? I’ve been thinking a lot about this, because Trumpism doesn’t feel like an improvement.
The best I can come up with is a nation of villages. A move from putting the individual at the center of culture to replacing it with the community. It cam from thinking about what life was like in the Ottawa area before European contact. We have a lot to learn from the original people of turtle island, learning to live at a smaller scale is one of them.
That will mean distributing decision making power a little more broadly, focusing on the stability of businesses and institutions that form community, like coffee shops, swimming pools and libraries; building car-free centers and efficient transit connectors to other village centers and industry.
It will mean a focus on permanence and strength, building for centuries, not just decades. It will require everyone to participate in governance and have a stake in the future. It will also mean the breaking up of agribusiness and returning the land to small holder farm (this is maybe a post oil thing so, not a primary goal)
I have no idea what to call this movement. It has elements of Urbanism, but that excludes rural areas which need village support too. A lot of return to the land movements forget about cities…
Anyway, I haven’t really thought things through, maybe the name will come…
If I were in charge of the Party in ‘26 and beyond, I would point to economic left-populism (even syndicalism), an embrace of working-class young men, more tussling with old media, and an emphasis on civic nationalism as the way to go. These models aren’t my ideal candidates, but Dan Osborn did well enough in Nebraska to get 46% of the US Senate vote, and Ro Khanna astutely appeals to Rust Belt men by linking industrial tech, climate change and great power competition. It’s up in the air whether entryism can work to pull the Party left in 2026, but worth a try
For sure. They're complaining about not having Joe Rogan-type media, but they already do. The problem is the content of that media is "Support NATO" and not anything young men can be excited about.
IMO, you are really on to something here.
It ain’t a syndicalist/mutualist third party, but it’s the next best thing
Agreed. I’m a bernie to trump pipeliner but would return for aggressive left economic populism. The left is also going to have to tone down its more unpopular PC policing too.
Yeah, the Democratic party definitely isn't left.
I keep thinking about how Biden said "nothing would fundamentally change" when he was running for president. Jesus, he fucking run the year COVID began with this. And then things did fundamentally change and got way worse. Abortion rights is one, but supporting and financing a genocide is too horrific to even try and put it on a scale like this.
And, then! Kamala runs on "joy" while there's a genocide being live streamed for months. How blind can they be to reality?
But, as an outsider trying to understand what's going on, USA's entire electoral process is shambolic.
It really is astounding how inept they are. Not only soulless but chemically unable to win.
It'd be nice to see them use these last few weeks in office to sign a bunch of executive orders that would help mitigate the incoming shocks to the system that are no doubt coming (expanding SCOTUS, pushing through election & labor law improvements, etc.). Won't happen, but still...
Unfortunately, I think they won't because they're telling themselves they were "too far left." So they won't want to give any indication that they're woke.
They definitely are. They are sending more money to Zelensky and making sure Trump will keep doing more of the same by various poison pill methods one of which is this secret Senate ballot to make one of the RINOs succeed Turtle Mitch. Either Cornyn or that other guy will veto every bill that does not have money for Zelensky.
Joe discusses the one thing that IMHO isn't being mentioned enough in all of this election post mortem-ing going on now.
Trump hasn't gained support. Democrats simply lost support. Its really that simple.
Considering there is a sample size of 10M+ people who voted for Biden and not Harris, it shouldn't take Sherlock Holmes to find some of them and ask "So whats it gonna take to put you in a shiny new democracy in 2028 ?"
I'm always amazed legacy media aren't doing this. All it took was the calculator app to predict still uncounted votes and adding them to current totals, then comparing against 2020 totals. Once you see that, the "rightward lurch" narrative falls apart.
Bingo. The problem needs to be defined correctly before "solutioning" (sorry thats one of our favorite work-isms. :) is done.
Ugghhhh, nothing makes me feel disempowered quite like the Ritual Cry Of The Defeated Leftist (“Organize, organize, local local local”). As someone chronically unable to form a meaningful relationship with a community and in a job where nobody is even attempting to unionize, it genuinely feels like I’m being told I’m not wanted—that there’s no room in leftism for a weird loner driven to socialism entirely by moral convictions (and a distaste for authority).
You're wanted! I'd encourage you to start by building connections with coworkers. Watch the shows they do, eat lunch with them, Slack them, whatever. The organization can come later. I think making outreach is the first move and unionization can come later.
I really appreciate the sentiment, but…
Outreach is just kind of the one thing I can’t do because it requires making and maintaining genuine social connections with people and I’m just too ADHD+Autism+Introverted to handle any more than the 7 I’m already actively maintaining (some of them quite badly!)
You are wanted 💕 You can absolutely organize online and you can share the truth to counter their propaganda.
In broad strokes: the GOP stays on message, and they get people out to vote. The left (and this is my team, btw) is too busy trying to "workshop" things and gets shiny object syndrome. We are lousy with unserious people and dilettantes. Here in WI, votes that went to Stein and RFK Jr. were enough to cost Harris the state.
Worth noting that the GOP also embraced early voting this go 'round, and the head of the WI GOP credited it in part for Trump's win. Meanwhile, plenty of left-leaning people that withheld their vote as some sort of high minded ideal. That vanity lets them say cool words on places like Twitter, but ultimately helped usher in whatever we're gonna see over the next 4 years.
Did 3rd parties exceed the Trump-Harris delta? I haven't seen that yet.
I was using back of the envelope math, but the 3rd party totals were at least enough to cover the delta. Worth nothing that I only included Stein's & RFK Jr.'s totals in my equation. I'm not sure how much the other 3rd party candidate totals are.
I think my issue would be RFK voters are libertarian/rightists who don't like Trump or forgot he joined Trump. Stein is emblematic of leftist votes, but I don't think there's any ideological overlap between her and RFK, some I'm hesitant to lump them together.
😤
Any thoughts on the statement Sanders put out yesterday? I'm guessing you have no more special insight that I do, but the tone was fairly pissed and it ended somewhat ominously... (in a good way)
I loved it. He's 100% right. Not just in this election but going back to Obama. The post-recession could have led to a New Deal-style coalition, which Dems would still be running on. A big part of this loss was Democrats staying home. There's multiple reasons, but I think "I don't know what this party stands for" is the leading one. An unabashed "we're with main street not wall street" would do that.
Saved and bookmarked. Probably one the best takedowns of Centrism I've read (the other being a similar piece David Graeber wrote about Labour's defeat back in 2019).
People need to recognize that Centrism isn't a good thing and needs to be defeated in order to defeat fascism.
https://archive.ph/WIU5I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9afwZON8dU&pp=ygUWZGF2aWQgZ3JhZWJlciBjZW50cmlzbQ%3D%3D
Thanks Ben! I'll check out those links.
Don't forget to sanitize your Youtube links; Everything after and including the &pp isn't necessary for it to work (I think that part is data collection or something but I'm not sure)
Great article! It’s been appalling watching my country drift into fascism—though I’m sure many in the Global South would tell us we’re simply seeing now what we always were. I intend to share it with friends and family.
Thanks Mary!
Revolution ✊🔥
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1ENHP9uhZm/
This is the best analysis of the 'what went wrong ' question I have seen thus far.
Thank you! I'm glad it resonated. Just trying to make sense of the insanity.
absolutely excellent analysis
Thanks, Katie! I appreciate the encouragement.
A completely different take than the entire MSM, and the reason I read this publication as a conservative.
I do have a question for you though Joe.
How do you reconcile the data showing that progressivism is broadly unpopular?
Or do you simply reject that view, in favor of the concept you suggest in this article that it is the middle of the road position that turned off voters?
NYT article about unpopular progressivism just before the election:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/02/us/politics/election-2024-harris-progressives.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
I don't see any way in which progressivism has been rejected. It honestly baffles me when MSM claims this, given Harris ran to Biden's right on economics. Progressive ballot measures won all over the country, while unprogressive corporate liberalism lost badly. If I"m missing something, let me know.
According to campaign data, the most effective ads run by Trump’s crew were connecting her to her progressive 2019 positions.
The best performing of them being her support of tax payer funded sex changes for inmates.
The Trump campaign insiders I spoke to were running continuous ads simply taking clips from her 2019 primary positions. All of which were very progressive.
Also— you mentioned that AOC and Omar won their reelection bids, but AOC’s district swung 22 points to the right.
Ezra Klein even wrote that the Obama coalition is completely defeated.
The Free Press has a piece from a former operative talking about the Democrat party completely disconnecting from the working class.
Male Latino vote shifted 33 points to the right from 2020, and the black male vote has shifted 13 points to the right since 2016.
Such drastic shifts cannot be attributed to misogyny, as you correctly noted, but the question remains what is causing that shift?
My most recent article directly links it to progressive politics unpopularity.
Which is why I came to see your take, as it commonly is the direct opposite of my own.
I’m just trying to get a read on the full picture. As your position is very different from everything the mainstream is publishing.
I think progressivism in the context of culture wars (sex reassignment surgeries on children, defund the police, etc) is unpopular. Economic progressivism is more popular.
After the election the Democratic Party (my party) must rethink many of its policies as it ponders its future.
To have a chance at victory Democrats should try listening to the concerns of the working class for a change. As a lifelong moderate Democrat I share their distain for many of the insane positions advocated by my party.
Democrat politicians defy biology by believing that men can actually become women and belong in women’s sports, rest rooms, locker rooms and prisons and that children should be mutilated in pursuit of the impossible.
They believe borders should be open to millions of illegals which undermines workers’ wages and the affordability of housing when we can’t house our own citizens.
They discriminate against whites, Asians and men in a vain effort to counter past discrimination against others and undermine our economy by abandoning merit selection of students and employees.
Democratic mayors allow homelessness to destroy our beautiful cities because they won't say no to destructive behavior. No you can’t camp in this city. No you can’t shit in our streets No you can’t shoot up and leave your used needles everywhere. Many of our prosecutors will not take action against shoplifting unless a $1000 of goods are stolen leading to gangs destroying retail stores. They release criminals without bond to rob and murder again.
The average voter knows this is happening and outright reject our party. Enough.
Here, here!
I’ll take left wing economic populism and “right wing” (normal) policy on borders etc.
I just believe the Age of Aquarius is over.All the parameters have been changed.Nineteen sixty-four is an oasis far away from today and it never will be again.
"Hey, I wonder what that guy who tried to tell me that I should be a socialist after they killed and tortured my family throughout the twentieth century is doing? Maybe he moderated and actually used his opportunity to speak with someone outside his bubble to more of people with ties Eastern Europeans and Slavs about the consequences of his ideology in practice?"
Reads article.
So no, you didn't. Instead, you decided to rail against "neoliberalism," use words like "the people" and placed your ideology-whose largest organization supporting it in America has less than 100K members-as the future, when incumbent parties lost across the world.
https://www.marketplace.org/2024/11/14/incumbents-are-losing-around-the-world-not-just-the-u-s/
It does beg the question, what comes after Liberalism? I’ve been thinking a lot about this, because Trumpism doesn’t feel like an improvement.
The best I can come up with is a nation of villages. A move from putting the individual at the center of culture to replacing it with the community. It cam from thinking about what life was like in the Ottawa area before European contact. We have a lot to learn from the original people of turtle island, learning to live at a smaller scale is one of them.
That will mean distributing decision making power a little more broadly, focusing on the stability of businesses and institutions that form community, like coffee shops, swimming pools and libraries; building car-free centers and efficient transit connectors to other village centers and industry.
It will mean a focus on permanence and strength, building for centuries, not just decades. It will require everyone to participate in governance and have a stake in the future. It will also mean the breaking up of agribusiness and returning the land to small holder farm (this is maybe a post oil thing so, not a primary goal)
I have no idea what to call this movement. It has elements of Urbanism, but that excludes rural areas which need village support too. A lot of return to the land movements forget about cities…
Anyway, I haven’t really thought things through, maybe the name will come…