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Trump won for one overarching reason. A majority of those who voted wanted what he was selling - cuts to Medicare, Social Security, health care, men’s control over women’s bodies, tax cuts for the rich, and the mass deportation of a cohort of people who make huge contributions to America’s economy. On this last, I just gotta wonder who is now going to go pick the tomatoes, strawberries, etc in states where shade is denied and there are no hydration laws no matter how high the temperature goes? I don’t see American citizens clamoring for them now.

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Thanks to "The Weave" I am not so sure that people really knew what he was selling. From what I have read, what people heard was that Trump would be for them. Now, will he actually deliver? I seriously doubt it. I think there will be a LOT of buyer's remorse once Trump starts running the show. The question is will it matter or will the crumbs he tosses to his supporters be enough to placate them?

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Oh, he was very clear. he stated these goals in very clear sentences - over and over. I’ll terminate the constitution. Happy to leave abortion to the states, knowing about a third of the country has no, or very restricted access. I’ll use the Justice department to go after anyone who criticized me. Extend the tax cuts for the rich. Get rid of Obamacare. Get out of NATO. I’ll deport 10-15 million people (plans already in execution phase. I wonder who is going to pick all that produce?). Russia should get Ukraine.

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chump called these “the black jobs” and black students, cost to coast, from middle school through university, were targeted with hateful texts about being forced on a van to go to a plantation and pick cotton

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It’s also because voters would literally rather be ruled by people who want to slash their benefits than people who have contempt for them, their religion, and their nation’s history and traditions.

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In other words, they're okay with a cognitively impaired fascist felon so long as the price of eggs comes down.

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You know, you're not even wrong. But it's deeply pathetic that Democrats decided that the Trump era was the perfect time to stake out a bunch of leftward positions so alien to the average American that they actually got demolished by a cognitively impaired fascist felon.

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John, you raise exactly the point I've been making for a while now. You're not going to win elections by calling your opponents stupid/racist/ignorant, etc., or by adopting positions that make the average person in this country roll their eyes. If that's the plan, great, but then Democrats should be prepared for lots of (national) election losses or to barely win when they do get enough people out to vote (and I write this as someone who voted for VP Harris). That doesn't seem like a winning strategy to me, but what do I know?

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I’m so depressed that I don’t want to hear any more news.

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I have been thinking along the same lines. The ads that were very effective in my opinion were taxpayer funded operations for the transgender prisoners and the transgender boys playing on girls teams. Both of these positions are extremely unpopular with Americans. Then you add in the fact that Harris was linked with everything going wrong in San Francisco, the crime and wokeness. It was too much for the low info voter. When the pollsters found people thought the country was going in the wrong direction this is one of the leading ways despite people being reluctant to admit it. Of course the other factor was the fear of immigration. Republicans did an excellent job exploiting these two fears.

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Nov 8·edited Nov 8

This is a tricky one for the dems and one I’ve been worried had had the effect you just described. I am center left. I care deeply about young people struggling with anything, including sexual identity. However, as an older gen X woman, I know how hard it was to get our own sports. I absolutely resent any backwards movement in that area. It’s just another thing women get screwed over on! And of all the things we need to spend money on in this country, inmates’ non life threatening health care is not one. I understand it is a tiny amount of money. And I obviously did not let these issues sway my vote, but if you are on the fence and aggravated about ridiculous wokeism……

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Nov 8·edited Nov 8

I think what we call "wokeism" and Trumpism are extremely similar. Both are full of contradictions and sometimes absurd leaps of logic, both are social-media fueled, both feed on and fuel the other, both are extremely polarizing, and they're both fundamentally illiberal.

Trans issues are very new and the way they are framed, there is no middle ground that a cautious candidate like Harris could cling to. (Like "we want the hostages home and a ceasefire in Gaza.") So she evaded the subject, and reverted to legalistic evasions, and I think that hurt her a lot.

Here's an interesting thought: J.K. Rowling is a progressive person, and writer of one of the most popular books ever. Yet Harris couldn't campaign with her, because of one issue (where, despite some silly and overheated rhetoric, she's not out of tune with many people's opinions.) And yet Harris campaigned with Liz Cheney, whose father perpetrated one of the stupidest and most misguided wars in our country's history. Now, whatever your opinion on J.K. Rowling is, Dick Cheney will always be a far far worse person. We have gotten to avery strange place.

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I couldn’t believe that ad when I first saw it. While not offended by it, I felt that it would definitely go against her in certain areas where people would be offended.

Trump’s people knew exactly what they were doing with that ad. It was definitely a nail in the coffin.

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Totally agree with Chris. It's shocking so many seasoned political observers and analysts -- and Democrats themselves -- didn't immediately grasp the potency of this ad with multiple swing constituencies. "But abortion's a much bigger issue," I heard constantly from my Dem friends as we watched several versions of this ad run ad infinitum on regional football games day after day and weekend after weekend. This spot also surely boosted rural turnout. Yes, abortion and other issues "polled" higher -- but this spot played right in to all of the issue vagaries and evasions offered by the VP.

As Bill Maher presciently observed, "Kamala’s big challenge to win over the undecided voters is to convince them that she’s not part of what they suspect she might be, sort of a stealth version of the worst excesses of the left." This ad, coupled with her evasions, went a long way to filling in the blanks for her in a very pejorative way. just as Maher suggests.

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Ok, it was an ad, not helpful. Personally, I do not want to have anything to do with the blame game and especially when it comes to LGBTQIA2S . It simply is not the reason Democrats lost. Let’s not burden them with finger pointing. Their lives, hold a very uncertain, place in the future with the Republicans in power.

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Nov 8·edited Nov 8

Your concern is on point and shared. However, I think Chris is right that this does and has played a far bigger role than dems realize for quite some time. In order to win and protect this group

of folks, we need to understand- not blame.

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It's pretty obvious that the GOP is out of step on abortion, why can't you see that the excesses of "LGBTQIA2S" also angers voters, especially men? I roll my eyes when these groups come up with a new letter each year. Fortunately, there are only 26 letters in English so perhaps there's a limit to this madness, although the use of numbers is a cause for concern.

It wasn't enough for me to vote for Trump, as he is unfit for office, but it's weird and lame, as is most of the woke movement. Losing parties adapt or lose.

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There is lack of education and information on the right. I don’t know how the left can get any message out when they are drowned out by the constant stream of lies and misinformation being fed them and swallowed by Trump, his minions and especially Fox.

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The reason Harris lost was becoming evident before election,when pundits and pollsters started chortling about the inevitability of a Democratic win. Underdog status got voters motivated, a “sure thing” gave us a repeat of 2016 when folks stayed home. If everyone who voted for Biden had voted for Harris, today’s discussion would be entirely different. Chris, to his credit, decided not get on the bandwagon and was roundly criticized for it. Now, we need to stop with the dissection of things that have been rendered meaningless by Trump’s resounding win, and get busy with how to protect our nation from the damage that he’d like to inflict. Let’s stop looking backward at this ad or that speech. 2026 is coming, there’s going to be opportunity as the MAGA policies fail to deliver even close to what American voters wanted. They were energized by an “enemies list” but they were motivated by food prices and promises of lower prices and taxes that CANNOT MATERIALIZE because the policies stated will cost so much that every working class tax dollar will be necessary. Trump is not going to ding his cronies to enhance revenue. The actions will not reflect the promises. And 2028 is coming too. Wallowing in recriminations may seem useful in the moment, but resolve and careful planning are a solution. The media may have learned a lesson too, they need to keep a magnifying glass on every idiotic phrase, every policy failure, every action that threatens our Constitution. Let’s get busy. Chris’ “cillizzascope” will be more valuable than ever.

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founding

What we were selling, they just weren't buying.

All those expressions like selling ice to an Eskimo, they apply here.

We were hoping and praying for a decency miracle, and they cared more about the price of gas than transphobia or any of the other moral issues that we care so much about.

Chris is just pointing out the obvious. We need to listen. When you have one party completely taking possibly two surgeries in the entire United States and turning it into a major issue, we have got to come up with better answers.

90% of all buying is based on a emotion and only 10% on common sense. We had all the correct common sense answers, and soon the country is going to be devastated both economically and morally. But they have 90% of the emotion on their side.

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Nov 8·edited Nov 8

Look, I think it's fair to say that transphobia is disgustingly rampant and that Trump tapped into that transphobia to his (repugnant) benefit. But to claim this one ad somehow cost her the election feels a bit click-baitish to me. I certainly think there is a way for any candidate to openly express trans rights and acknowledge the disgusting amount of hate lobbied at them while still assuring Americans that their presidency would benefit EVERYONE, trans or not.

Not a big fan of this take. Though I will say that I hope it makes you realize the sheer volume of transphobia in this country.

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Also, the base should realize that even for those who support trans rights, most do not support sex change operations or hormone therapy for children, or the the above- mentioned sports issue, or taxpayer funded sex change operations for prisoners or illegal immigrants. I am sure many of those people voted for Trump. To equate concerns about the above as discrimination toward adults who are trans is alienating. Just as calling all people who voted for Trump racist ( many of whom were men and women of color) and all women who voted for him idiots for not “voting in their best interests” alienating and if Democrats dig their heels in on these issues they are making a mistake.

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Chris, have to disagree with the way you framed this the other day: "Arguably, the biggest factor was the years of middle American voters being assaulted with political correctness, pronouns, transgender rights, endless forms of equity, reparations, various oppressions and blame that led to an environment where the Democratic nominee literally embodied much of what angered voters most about the Democratic Party." You didn't say who was doing the assaulting. Middle America was being assaulted by right wing media, social media and memes (and I will add TV ads) about these issues. Sure, the issues are more progressive, but all that red on the map got bludgeoned every day, multiple times a day did not come from the left/progressives, etc. it depended on what TV, radio, internet, etc. they use for what may be called news. These "hot button" issues only became "hot" because the right made them hot. The right LOVES to find these divisive left leaning progressive cultural issues and talk about them nonstop. Know what else should be hot and discussed on right wing media? That the right are banning books in schools and libraries (and not only ones that talk about LGBQT+ subjects), that the right is altering history taught to our kids to meet their narratives, that the right wants to further restrict your rights (for example, their freedom of speech, freedom to vote, freedom to love and marry who you choose, freedom to have control of your own body, freedom to follow your religion and worship the God you love, freedom from gun violence, and your right to privacy, to name a few that the right is currently working on. I've said it here before, the Democrats have to get better at attacking the right's issues in the media methods those red counties are seeing (what’s the expression, meet them where they are). Loud, constant, and cruel in the examples, just like the right. But, please, I've lived with left progressive family and friends and honestly you may be shocked to learn that we don't sit around at night discussing our pronouns (or thinking of ways to turn little boys into litlle girls as Trump often said). But they sure do on Fox News. Over, and over, and over ......

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Lots of good comments all the way around today.

But, imho, messaging is and always has been the biggest issue. Regardless of the truth in Republicans messaging, they find the ones that work and they HAMMER down. Dems basically allowed Republicans to convince Americans that the economy is in decline and that America's city's are hellholes. And this was all done with relatively little counter-messaging.

Hire the world's best PR/crisis management firms. Have them dig in and identify messaging that resonates w/ voters and employ the ideas that are workable for the largest percentage of Americans to develop a winning coalition again.

I don't subscribe to the tactics used by Republicans, but it's hard to deny that they have worked to elect a candidate that was wildly unfit and unqualified ....twice! Time to switch up the playbook.

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I consider myself pretty liberal and supportive about how people want to live their lives and who they love. That being said, I am tired of hearing about pronouns and transgender athletes. Surely there are things that matter more to people as they go to the ballot box.

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Democrats didn’t bring those things up. Rs did.

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Campaigns are by nature adversarial. When the GOP brings something up, true or false, a campaign has to respond. The Harris camp said and did nothing.

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Then why punish the people who didn’t do it

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As I recall, the law quoted in the ad was a Trump administration law but they were able to hang it on Harris and not Trump.

What I am waiting for is the people that will now replace the migrants that pick our fruits and vegetables out in California. I am guessing that will end up being a shock to MAGA that they will have to literally stoop to such work.

I am reminded of a woman who shared a story about her fence project a week or so back. Her husband had come out to see the work and said to the owner whose pickup had a huge Trump sticker on it, "Nice crew you have here. Very hard working and skilled. I assume they are immigrants." The owner replied, "Thank you. Yes, they are immigrants here on five year Visas." Her husband then asked, "So, when Trump deports them, who will you get to build your projects?" She said the look on the owner's face was one of confusion and fear because apparently it had not dawned on him that Trump would do that.

These are the sorts of jobs that Trump is going to give to the people that supported him. He may have called them "black jobs" or whatever, but they are NOT the jobs that Trump supporters signed up for when they voted for him.

It is just going to be continuous shocks like those above to his supporters that he will have to somehow address. And maybe that is what Musk was alluding to when he told people that they would have to endure hardship to get to winning. The only problem is, Trump supporters are just cannon fodder to Trump & Co and they are never going to be the winners. The questions are, will they figure that out and how long will it take?

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You are correct about healthcare being provided to transgender inmates during Trump’s first term. The NYT article states that early on.

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Congrats to Trump and his team for demonizing the entire trans community that includes my son, whose very life could now be in danger because of the hate that is spewed by them. So yeah, this election was personal for some of us.

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