I think I agree on most of this. The democrats had terrible "politics" over the last couple of years and did themselves no favors when it came election time. I will be most interested to see how they handle their left flank - the one that seemingly abandoned rationality in refusing to turn out. In my mind, abandoning any appeals to that left flank would allow the Dems to conserve electoral resources, maybe gain some political capital through increased bipartisanship, and give them a better chance at moving towards the middle. There's no sense in appealing to a base that can serve to only cost you middle votes and even then can't be trusted to vote rationally. If they do that, and move towards the middle, that should force the Republicans to do the same and give every American more palatable options at the ballot.
Maybe also don't try to alleviate student loans for the few. That would also help, I think.
One of the many systemic problems is that primary elections have taken on outsized importance in selecting nominees. Primaries necessarily drive candidates to more extreme positions. None of the stuff that Republicans flamed Harris for was from this cycle. It was all from 2019.
I take your point, though, and I agree about pandering policy positions like the student loan thing — also not taxing tips and whatever the pandering position was on combatting price gouging. All of those are poorly-conceived.
The primary issue is real and I think its related to the 5-10% decrease in party registration numbers for Dems since 1990. The leaning-but-less-committed right flank of the base gets abandoned for the "squeaky wheel" left flank who disproportionately affects primaries. But, that's a party leadership problem and there isn't a lot to give me any faith that it'll become corrected in the next four years. Just in general, the party leadership pandering to the left flank is baffling behavior and probably loses them more votes than it gains. Are there no strategists in the room?
I dunno... Biden's having been selected as the party nominee in 2020 over a field of much more liberal candidates would suggest otherwise. I think party leaders on both sides just don't have much power at all anymore. This article is really old, but I have thought back on it many times when noodling this stuff: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/07/how-american-politics-went-insane/485570/.
Rank-choice voting is one idea. A few places are using it now. Supposedly it incentivizes consensus, but I don't think it's been in use anywhere long enough to show much in the way of results.
I'd prefer to get rid of party nominating altogether, but unfortunately doing so would presumably run afoul of the First Amendment's freedom of association. Political parties are afforded a great deal of protection and deference because of that.
Fair enough. Rank choice voting, just like anything, only works if the people use it with integrity and don’t try to get dirty. But of course, if you introduced a third party, the Dems and Reps would both consistently rank that party second to spite their enemies and it would win as a result. Meaning nobody would be happy. But I guess that’s compromise. Ha.
Thank you for this. I keep coming back to the idea that so many people keep seeking simple answers to complex questions. We don't live in a simple society.
I think I agree on most of this. The democrats had terrible "politics" over the last couple of years and did themselves no favors when it came election time. I will be most interested to see how they handle their left flank - the one that seemingly abandoned rationality in refusing to turn out. In my mind, abandoning any appeals to that left flank would allow the Dems to conserve electoral resources, maybe gain some political capital through increased bipartisanship, and give them a better chance at moving towards the middle. There's no sense in appealing to a base that can serve to only cost you middle votes and even then can't be trusted to vote rationally. If they do that, and move towards the middle, that should force the Republicans to do the same and give every American more palatable options at the ballot.
Maybe also don't try to alleviate student loans for the few. That would also help, I think.
One of the many systemic problems is that primary elections have taken on outsized importance in selecting nominees. Primaries necessarily drive candidates to more extreme positions. None of the stuff that Republicans flamed Harris for was from this cycle. It was all from 2019.
I take your point, though, and I agree about pandering policy positions like the student loan thing — also not taxing tips and whatever the pandering position was on combatting price gouging. All of those are poorly-conceived.
The primary issue is real and I think its related to the 5-10% decrease in party registration numbers for Dems since 1990. The leaning-but-less-committed right flank of the base gets abandoned for the "squeaky wheel" left flank who disproportionately affects primaries. But, that's a party leadership problem and there isn't a lot to give me any faith that it'll become corrected in the next four years. Just in general, the party leadership pandering to the left flank is baffling behavior and probably loses them more votes than it gains. Are there no strategists in the room?
I dunno... Biden's having been selected as the party nominee in 2020 over a field of much more liberal candidates would suggest otherwise. I think party leaders on both sides just don't have much power at all anymore. This article is really old, but I have thought back on it many times when noodling this stuff: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/07/how-american-politics-went-insane/485570/.
Rank-choice voting is one idea. A few places are using it now. Supposedly it incentivizes consensus, but I don't think it's been in use anywhere long enough to show much in the way of results.
I'd prefer to get rid of party nominating altogether, but unfortunately doing so would presumably run afoul of the First Amendment's freedom of association. Political parties are afforded a great deal of protection and deference because of that.
Fair enough. Rank choice voting, just like anything, only works if the people use it with integrity and don’t try to get dirty. But of course, if you introduced a third party, the Dems and Reps would both consistently rank that party second to spite their enemies and it would win as a result. Meaning nobody would be happy. But I guess that’s compromise. Ha.
I love hearing your always thoughtful, intelligent views.
Thank you for this. I keep coming back to the idea that so many people keep seeking simple answers to complex questions. We don't live in a simple society.
The results I see are that overall Trump received roughly the vote he did in 2020 and Harris received 8-10 million less than Biden received in 2020.