In light of the recent election, it’s clear that the Democratic Party needs a significant leftward shift to better address the needs and concerns of the American people. The party’s centrist approach is increasingly out of touch, limiting its ability to appeal to a broader base and especially to young voters, who are looking for bold and transformative policies. The fact that young men became a substantial part of the conservative voting bloc should be a wake-up call—it’s essential that the Democratic Party broadens its appeal by offering real solutions that resonate with this demographic.

Furthermore, one major missed opportunity was the decision to forgo primaries, which could have brought new energy and ideas to the ticket. Joe Biden’s choice to run for a second term, despite earlier implications of a one-term presidency, may have ultimately contributed to the loss by undermining trust in his promises. Had the party explored alternative candidates in a primary process, the outcome could have been vastly different. It is now imperative for the Working Families Party and the Progressive Caucus to push for a stronger, unapologetically progressive agenda within the Democratic Party. The time for centrist compromises has passed, as evidenced by setbacks dating back to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 loss, the persistently low approval ratings for Biden since 2022, and Kamala Harris’s recent campaign, which left many progressives feeling alienated. To regain momentum and genuinely connect with the electorate, a clear departure from moderate politics is essential.

Non-American here, heard about Project 2025 a few weeks ago.

For people unaware:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025#Policies

What is the likelihood of those policies to happen?

Every self-respecting Democrat or leftist who cares about themselves or their family should own a firearm and know how to properly and safely use it. We're entering a time where it may be critical that you need to defend yourself. It is not out of the realm of possibility that you or your family may be targeted in the not distant future for your political leanings. We all know that the Republicans have guns because they never shut the fuck up about them, and we also know that in their wildest wet dreams Trump will let them run the streets gunning down anyone who is isn't white or anyone who voted Democrat. They have guns, they know how to use them, how are you going to defend yourself when they come for you?

If Dems want any chance of winning in 2026 (midterms), assuming we still have an election, there is only one path forward, and that is things that matter to Americans.

Economic issues that Sanders was successfully campaigning on in 2016 when he was thwarted in the primary. It's not important to fight over what happened that year, but his platform is 100% the way forward to progress.

As always, disclaimer that I'm not a US citizen.

You usually see quite a few people mentioning leaving the country if Trump would get elected, but how realistic are those plans?

Not to say it's not justified with the prospect of Project 2025 (see the other thread), but seems like a huge life change that is probably not possible for most of the people.

>WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans’ enthusiasm about voting in this year’s election has surged in recent months, with 69% of U.S. adults now saying they are “more enthusiastic than usual” about voting. This is up from 54% in March.

>Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are largely driving the surge in enthusiasm nationally. In March, 55% of Democrats and Democratic leaners said they were more enthusiastic than usual about voting; now, 78% are. Republicans and Republican leaners, who held a slight edge in enthusiasm in March, now trail Democrats by a significant margin, with their current 64% enthusiasm score up slightly from 59% in the spring.

What might be a catchy hit to inspire the hearts and reinforce the identity of its majority following?

Saw the results of the American elections today. I'm not American, but was following them very closely due to the impact they have on the world. The results went in a way that would make up my worst nightmares.

I was incredibly depressed and angry. I think almost everyone here shares the same sentiment. The next four years are very likely going to incredibly dark for everyone. Entire countries will likely fall to imperialist neighbors. Climate change will worsen. Zooming in to the US, disabled and queer folk will have an incredibly hard time now. More women will die due to abortion inaccessibility. It is very likely that people with preexisting conditions lose their insurance, thus increasing overall suffering and deaths. As I said, a very dark four years lie ahead for the world and Americans, both. Therefore, being depressed right now is absolutely valid.

I think there's a lesson that I learnt here. I spent a lot of time and energy on something that simply wasn't in my control. I am neither American, nor do I own news channels to broadcast propaganda suitable for my hoped outcome. Instead, I could've spent my time on other things, that are in my control, and would make the world a better place. Maybe adopting this mindset could help us?

Listen, I'm not saying that we should just all disconnect from politics. Not at all. All that I'm saying is that we probably should focus more on things in our control now. When elections come, vote. If the government is doing something stupid, go out and protest. Work on your little side project. Work on whatever it is you want to work on. Just try not to doomscroll social media. Doing that would just make you feel depressed and not end up helping anyone.

Therefore, here is what I've planned on doing now. Maybe you guys could find it useful, or maybe not.

• Only participate in politics that is in my control.
• Focus solely on my projects.
• Block all social media posts that talk about depressing/angering topics that I have no control over. I only use YouTube and Lemmy, so doing this is easy for me. On Lemmy, I have put keywords like, "Trump", "Harris", "Elon" and so on in my post filter. I also unsubscribed from all political channels that talk about politics that I have no control over.

As for the Americans who are going to suffer due to a Trump presidency, I am sorry that there are so many stupid people in your country. I'm sure you tried your best. Millions of American showed up to vote against Trump. So many participated in canvassing and so on. So many working class folk donated money to the Harris campaign. Money, that they could've spent on other necessities. You don't deserve this outcome.

However, the election is over. Trump has won. Doomscrolling social media is not going to help anyone. It's a bad outcome, but it is very likely not the end of the world. I don't think it needs to be said, but still- there's a lot more to life than politics. Just because a person that you wanted to win didn't win, it doesn't mean that you can't make the world a better place yourself. Grieve today and wake up tomorrow to focus on a project that you have control over.

AND PLEASE DON'T DOOMSCROLL.

[This is not an Original Post, But a Repost]

I've seen this narrative going around recently saying "16 million people didn't show up and that's why she lost" and it's wrong for two reasons.

1, Half of California hasn't even been counted yet. By the time we're done counting, we're going to have much closer vote counts to 2020. I'd assume Trump around 76-77 million and Kamala around 73 million. This would mean about 6-7 million people didn't show up not 18 million.

2\. Trump is outperforming Biden 2020 by a pretty significant Margin in swing states, lets look:

Wisconsin:

2020 Biden: 1,631,000 votes

2020 Trump: 1,610,000 votes

2024 Trump: 1,697,000 votes.

2024 Harris: 1,668,000 votes.

Michigan:

2020 Biden: 2,800,000 votes

2020 Trump: 2,649,000 votes

2024: Trump: 2,795,000

2024 Harris: 2,714,000

Pennsylvania:

2020 Biden: 3,460,000 votes

2020 Trump: 3,378,000 votes.

2024 Trump: 3,473,000 votes

2024: Harris: 3,339,000 votes

North Carolina:

2020 Biden: 2,684,000 votes

2020 Trump: 2,759,000 votes

2024 Trump: 2,876,000 votes

2024 Harris: 2,685,000 votes.

Georgia:

2020 Biden: 2,474,000 votes

2020 Trump: 2,461,000 votes

2024 Trump: 2,653,000 votes

2024 Harris: 2,539,000 votes.

Arizona and Nevada still too early to tell, but as you can see, if Trumps support remained completely stagnate from 2020, Harris would've carried 3/7 swing states with a shot to flip Pennsylvania too. Moreover, if she had maintained Bidens vote count in swing states she would've lost most states even harder with the exception of maybe flipping Michigan and Pennsylvania being closer than it was. These appear to be the only states with a genuine argument for apathy/protest votes.

The turn out is NOT lower where it actually matters. The news articles that said swing states had record turn out were genuinely correct, you were just wrong for thinking it was democrats and not republicans. Almost all the popular vote bleeding comes from solid blue states deciding not to vote and it would not have changed the outcome of this election if they did show up to vote.

I was just scrolling through some of the referendums...what exactly is going on here?

"Secret" is tongue in cheek.

We know people flash the white power hand sign when having their picture taken, as if it isn't a racist dog whistle.

The Bloods have a hand sign. I'm impressed that one can spell the entire word with one's hands.

Jeep drivers have a cutesy hand wave that signals a common identity with other Jeep drivers.

AFAIK there's no hand sign that espouses the Eat The Rich sentiment. There's an opportunity to create something new where one doesn't yet exist.

If "Eat the Rich" produced a secret hand gesture, what would/should it look like?

I understand the argument of "This doesn't help; instead write to your congressman or volunteer to burp newborns." I get that, but this is independent of that.

This truly belongs in AskLemmy but their (justified) temporary ban on US politics seems to discourage this question.

Stories that talk about all the bad things Trump has done are only seen by the left. This makes the left hate Trump and his supporters more, while the right feels increasingly "oppressed" by this hate. They run to their savior Trump and the viscous cycle continues. More media presence for him only adds to his influence, negative press possibly moreso than positive.

People on the left should ignore Trump and talk about real issues. It is the only way to defeat a sith.

...seems like a big issue

If you can, turn off your phone or computer and go vote!!! If you already voted, tell someone else to vote!!!

Less than 10 hours from now will decide if the US veers toward democracy or fascism.

I'm a bit confused why capitalists support Trump when he plans on doing stuff that I think would destroy the economy. Thinking of mass deportations and high, broad tarrifs.

I'm not sure if:

1. They just don't care because they have enough wealth to weather anything.
2. They don't think Trump will actually do these things.
3. They're dumb and think it won't hurt the economy.
4. They plan on trading wealth for more direct power. I.e. becoming oligarchs.
5. They have other ideologies (racism, Ayn Rand-ism, accelerationism, Dark Enlightenment, etc) that they prioritize higher than obtaining as much wealth as possible.

Or maybe some combination of the above, or something else entirely.

Edit: by "capitalists," I mean the "elite" like Musk and his other billionaire donors. But I guess it's a good question for smaller donors as well.

I sincerely don't know to what degree Trump and his crew may change the US, and by the looks of other countries, it could be as extreme as silencing the opposition by force. Are there any efforts to protect dissent? Can this be planned for and successfully fought back before it becomes a problem? Do you have a different view entirely?

| Sample: 5,109 | Harris | Trump | | ------------------------- | ------ | ----- | | | | | | Under $30,000 (12.0%) | 50.0% | 46.0% | | $30,000-$49,999 (16.0%) | 45.0% | 53.0% | | $50,000-$99,999 (32.0%) | 46.0% | 51.0% | | $100,000-$199,999 (28.0%) | 51.0% | 47.0% | | $200,000 or more (13.0%) | 51.0% | 45.0% |

<https://www.cbsnews.com/news/exit-polls-2024-presidential-election/>

While the democratic party definitely embodies liberal elitism in some ways, this shows that the commonly claimed “poor people vote Trump” really isn’t true.

Rich and Poor people seem to prefer Harris by a small margin, while middle class seems to support Trump.

The ignorance displayed in their experiment at the end of this video is amazing. Just shows that everybody lies about everything.

You never know if you might come down with the flu or have a family emergency on Nov5. Don't take the chance if you can avoid it and vote in person early!

After the latest failure of the Democratic party I have no confidence that they'll turn it around any time soon. We need a party with some actual policy recommendations that people can get behind. Simple solutions that the average voter can understand.. Here's my suggestions, and I'd love to know your opinions on what would be good here.

1. Tax the rich

   The top marginal tax rate during the golden age of american prosperity was 60-90%. It's currently 37%

   Fix the loopholes billionares and corporations are using to hide their money and gain those taxes back

   Given all the shenanigans the rich can do to hide their money, capital gains and alternative minimum taxes also need to increase

2. Strengthen regulations on corporations

   It's time to bring back trust busting, our anti-trust regulations have gotten too lax and corporations are doing whatever they want.

   Protect unionization attempts. We have some strong union protections that are completely being ignored and companies need to be held accountable for closing branches that attempt to unionize.

   Take stronger stances to prevent regulatory capture of vital protective agencies

   Too big to fail means too big to exist. Corporate bailouts should come with buying out a stake in the company or controlling it outright.

3. Housing and Cost of Living

   Everyday essentials are outpacing our income. Housing costs have skyrocketed to be unattainable for just about anyone. Corporate interests and investment groups should not be gobbling up our single family housing supply just to sit on them as assets and bleed people by continually raising the rent. Add an exception to this for new development especially for multitenant buildings to encourage the continued growth of the housing supply.

4. Get money out of politics

   Ban government insider trading. Members of Congress should not be able to trade individual stocks. Broad market funds are fine but no more directly profiting off of legislative actions.

   Reverse Citizens United. Corporate bribery needs to be limited

5. Simplify the Tax Code

   Other countries are way ahead of us here, they do the math and send the check. No need to keep things complicated just to keep the accountants busy and TurboTax happy.

6. Legalize Marijuana

   For a single issue party this is a little outside the scope, but it's a broadly popular position that would also increase tax revenue and decrease expense of prosecuting such a minor crime

Things not to focus on:

Ignore the culture war stuff. It's the billionaire's way of scaring moderates and dividing leftists. Trans athletes are what, like a dozen people at most. I'm sorry for the people this directly affects but it's better to not move forward than to keep moving backwards. Ideally we take a libertarian stance of keeping the government from meddling in people's personal lives.

Global policy. Look we need to maintain our alliances and trade agreements, but it's time for america to look inward and fix itself before it starts playing world police again.

Environment. This one is difficult, but it just wasn't a key factor in recent elections. As with global policy we should continue what we can (ie the Paris Climate accord) but let other countries lead the way on solutions and technology for this and come in and benefit when we can.

Forming a new party is difficult and incredibly costly. It would take the hard work of thousands of people across the country, and odds are it will just steal some democratic votes and amount to nothing. So this is all merely hypothetical, but I wanted to get people's thoughts on it

I just sent this to Biden & Harris via the White House contact page https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/. I share in case you would like to add your voice and may find it helpful to have a pre-existing template to use or edit. Please feel free to share with others as you see fit.

Best, Atelopus-zeteki

I would like to add my voice in the call for a recount of the 2024 presidential election. I would also like to ask that you conduct a full investigation into tampering, interference, and fraud for this election.

· 32 bomb threats were called into democratic leaning polling places in swing states, causing them to be closed for extended periods of time on Election Day.

· At least one bomb threat was called into a vote counting center.

· Polling locations were closed while voters were still in line to vote.

· Multiple Ballot drop boxes were set on fire, in democratic leaning areas, losing thousands of ballots.

· Many voters reported not receiving mail in ballots, while districts apparently had not sent thousands of them.

· Hundreds of people in swing states are reporting that their votes have not been counted or even have never been received, though they were dropped off/mailed on time

· Some voters also reported instances of their outgoing mail not being picked up after placing their ballot in their mailbox.

· Voters also reported having their ballots invalidated for reasons such as invalid signatures, and given no chance to fix it.

We cannot allow election interference. Please order a recount as soon as possible.

The American people do not trust the results of this election. The people are concerned that there is outside interference – from foreign governments and from private corporations at least – in our election. We are concerned that this was not a free and fair election. We are concerned that we are being lied to and a dictator is trying to take over our government. I am begging you to do everything in your power to stop this from taking place. Thank you very much for your time and attention to this matter.

Hey Gaza / Free Palestine guys,

I'm pissed about the Kamala loss but that's not important right now. I need to know what media you were using.

Where did Free Palestine/ Gaza memes and discussions start?

I'm worried that the discussion is a right wing disinformation campaign designed to make us tear each other apart. I cannot find any legitimate politician (even far left ones like Bernie Sanders, AOC, etc. etc) that would have pushed the message of 'Joe Biden / Kamala is just as bad as Trump on the issue of Gaza'.

The only ones who would push that message are right wing trolls who try to separate us. So now I want to track down and confirm my suspicions. Who meme'd this? Where did you hear it? Was it Twitter? TikTok? Reddit? Facebook? Instagram?

No real changes here, next date to watch is Thursday, September 26th:

If you're trying to keep track of where we're at in the Trump prosecutions:

Updated 09/06/2024

Washington, D.C. 4 federal felonies January 6th Election Interference Investigation Indictment Arrest&nbsp; <- You Are Here Trial - The trial, originally scheduled for March 4th, had been placed on hold pending the Supreme Court ruling on Presidential Immunity.

The Supreme Court ruled that the President does enjoy limited immunity for "official acts", it now returns to lower court to determine what, if any, of his acts leading up to 1/6 were "official".

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/01/politics/supreme-court-donald-trump-immunity/index.html

On 8/27, a new federal grand jury re-indicted Trump on all four counts in a hearing this time excluding evidence barred by the Supreme Court.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/trump-indicted-federal-election-interference-case-supreme-court-immuni-rcna168503

"Judge Chutkan set a date of Sept. 26 for prosecutors in the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith, to submit an opening brief to her on the question of immunity."

"Judge Chutkan told Mr. Trump’s lawyers to respond to the government’s submission about immunity by Oct. 17. She also told them to finish making their arguments for why they need more discovery information from the government by Sept. 19."

"In her order, Judge Chutkan, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, set a deadline of Oct. 24 for Mr. Lauro to make a formal request to file the motion about Mr. Smith’s appointment."

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/05/us/politics/trump-election-case-jan-6.html

Conviction Sentencing

New York 34 state felonies Stormy Daniels Payoff Investigation Indictment Arrest Trial Conviction <- You Are Here Guilty, all 34 counts. Sentencing - Originally scheduled for July 11, 2024, then September 18th following the Supreme Court's ruling on Presidential immunity, sentencing is now delayed until 11/26, after the election.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/06/nyregion/trump-sentencing-delay-ruling.html

Georgia 10 state felonies Election Interference As of 3/13/24 - Judge McAfee cleared 6 charges, 3 against Trump, saying they were too generic to be enforced. As of 3/15/24 - The case may proceed, but either Fulton County DA, Fani Willis and her office or Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade must remove themselves due to the appearance of impropriety. Investigation Indictment Arrest <- You Are Here All 19 defendants have surrendered. Trial - October 4th, 2024 hearing has been set to determine if Fani Willis can remain on the case. Three defendants, Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell, and bail bondsman Scott Hall, have all pled guilty and have agreed to testify in other cases. Conviction Sentencing

Florida 40 federal felonies Top Secret Documents charges Investigation Indictment Original indictment was for 37 felonies.   3 new felonies were added on July 27, 2023. Arrest <- You Are Here Trial - The trial had been set to begin May 20, 2024, but was subsequently delayed indefinitely by the judge, and has now been dismissed outright under the claims that the prosecutor was not Constitutionally appointed. https://www.reuters.com/legal/judge-tosses-trump-documents-case-ruling-prosecutor-unlawfully-appointed-2024-07-15/

Jack Smith appealed Judge Cannon's ruling on Monday, 8/26 to the 11th circuit.

https://www.npr.org/2024/08/26/g-s1-19642/special-counsel-jack-smith-judge-cannon-appeal-trump-classified-documents Conviction Sentencing

Other grand juries, such as for the documents at Bedminster, or the Arizona fake electors, have not been announced.

The E. Jean Carroll trial for sexual assault and defamation where Trump was found liable and ordered to pay $5 million before immediately defaming her again resulting in a demand for $10 million is not listed as it's a civil case and not a crimimal one. He was found liable in that case for $83.3 million.

There had been multiple cases in multiple states to remove Trump from the ballot, citing ineligibility under the 14th amendment.

The Supreme Court ruled on March 4th that states do not have the ability to determine eligibility in Federal elections.

https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/video/united-states-supreme-court-overturns-colorado-supreme-court-donald-trump-ballot-ruling/

Men aged 35-64 are Trump's leading demographic. Republicans control nearly 100% of talk radio.

No concern whatsoever for qualifications, only loyalty. The Empire is rising.

Please support whatever local journalism you have in your area, if you have any. Financially if possible / subscriptions. They are one of the few organizations that give a voice in support of the public good, and very rarely receive the thanks and gratitude they deserve.

Many areas no longer have local journalism and are controlled by large corporations (most local TV news for example). In that case there is not much that can be done unless you are a journalist yourself.

The media is arguably a 4th branch of government that can help to maintain a system of checks and balances.

Now is a great time for if I were there hypotheticals, so here's mine.

Once it was decided to run Harris and push Biden out, they should have gone all the way and used the 25th amendment to let Harris become president. This would have effectively separated her from Biden while still allowing her to take credit for the good stuff. She could have instructed the DOJ to start investigating price gouging now, and campaigned on needing to win to keep it up.

The 100ish days wouldn't have been enough for wholesale replacement, but it could have created a concrete message of this is where I want to go. A campaign focused on already delivering is a positive message people could get behind as well.

If you’re concerned about Trump’s nominations, the most impactful thing you can do is to reach out to your US Senators and voice your opposition. A large volume of brief phone calls do make a difference at strategic times. Immediately after a nomination announcement is one of those strategic times, because they are figuring out how/whether to respond publicly. Democracy must be fought for even after elections have ended.

Contacting Senators from both parties also matters right now. The prevailing message in the media is that Dems need to cater even more to Republicans to win the next election, they need to hear your voice if you disagree with that.

The most effective phone calls take less than a minute: say your name, your city or ZIP code, and what you support/oppose, maybe a sentence on why. You’ll be marked down on a spread sheet that is discussed at the daily office strategy meeting.

Other actions like brief emails, meeting in-person at the district office, meeting in-person at the DC office, can also be effective, but take more time and energy. Emails aren’t always read right away like a phone call must be answered for example. And you generally need to make an appointment for an in-person meeting.

Mass phone calls are a tactic used by the NRA and other powerful lobby groups. Getting a lot of their group’s members to voice their opinion is the key to their success…perhaps to the point of making an office fearful of the backlash via phone calls for going against them.

Relevant John Oliver segment

Find your Senators' contact info

Obviously i don't think it would be feasible to send everyone into space, but just as a thought experiment.

This is probably a bad idea, but I'll give it a whirl.

More of a recommendation, I suppose, but curious if anyone else has read & has thoughts on it.