Surely we can learn from this?

If Kamala was a garbage candidate, what does that make Trump?

For bonus points, how is it not the voters fault considering any rational answer to the above question? You may open your book to look up topical issues like peace, climate, genocide, rights, hate, juvenile bullying, criminal bullying, felony conviction, bigotry (don't miss misogyny relating to to "garbage candidate", see above), and tariffs.

Unpopular opinion: Kamala was a solid candidate.

Biden was headed to a humiliating defeat. Another couple debates, and maybe he loses NY and CA and we have a Dukakis- or Mondale-level annhilation. Kamala stepped in and ran a solid campaign on very short notice. Trump didn't even have time to come up with a good nickname for her! She kicked his ass in their only debate, and he was literally too scared to do it again.

In the end, she lost by a couple hundred thousand votes in 3 states. She was wrong about Gaza and the economy, but PA, MI, and WI are credibly winnable in future elections. Kamala was not a garbage candidate.

Little bit of A, lotta bit of B.

Trump was the most garbage candidate in every way in the history of our country.

He basically coasted to victory.

Double-standards for days.

If voters bear no responsibility, do you really believe in democracy, or are you thinking about this as an issue to be solved by authority?

The self-righteousness of this discussion is a problem. Politics requires some humility, which we seem to be short of.

This is maddening. It will never stop. The democrats refuse to campaign on progressive policies, which are incredibly popular among the entire electorate (yes, also among republicans, see the recent ballot measures in Missouri on paid sick leave and higher minimum wage, for example), instead opting to position themselves as "republican light". They completely capitulate to republican messaging on pretty much every issue (border wall, fracking, pro war, etc), and predictably lose to the people who invented this messaging. And then comes the worst part: angry libs start blaming the electorate instead of the people who lost. It's not the lack of the dems even mentioning universal health care, no it's the trans people. It's not the genocide that the current democratic regime is committing, no it's probably actually latino voters. It's not the fact that the Harris campaign asks us to pretend everything is hunky spunky with the economy, offering nothing to relieve the 80% of the population who live paycheck to paycheck. Noooo you know what it's actually white women and muslims faults. You fucking morons.

Can't wait for the 2026 anti-transgender dem ticket, and the anti gay marriage ticket in 2028. It's gonna be great.

Cool, so, we'll see the voters in the primaries going forward, right? Unlike in 2016 and 2020, when they nominated said garbage candidates?

Who here actually votes in more local elections? Have you voted for the mayor or council members of your city? Sheriff? Literally any office lower than governor, senator or president of the entire country?

The top problem (garbage candidates) is literally caused by the bottom one (voters). There is garbage at the top, because nobody cares enough about the bottom.

Then again, it's not like Trump was ever a politician before running for president...

Perfection is the enemy of progress.

I can tell that many people in these comments have given up on every artistic skill they've ever tried to learn because their attempts were never good enough right out of the gate.

If the only reason you voted for trump as a form of ‘punishment’ towards dems, then yea that is on the voters. You should be voting for what helps you. Not to be a petty idiot.

Why do American voters dodge personal responsibility better than bullets?

It's kinda crazy to me that a sizable amount of people expect a perfect completely spotless candidate, or they don't vote and hand over the win to fascism.

In a rational world, Harris would have won without even doing a single rally, because the alternative is Trump and his cronies.

People generally don't realize that the only way to get an option to the left of the democrats is if Republicans no longer win elections. But with each "punishment", voters give the democrats, the Republicans' grip on power gets tighter and tighter, with more cronie judges, more gerrymandering, more voter purges, more ID rules, and more propaganda.

So, are the voters, or rather those who didn't vote, wrong? Fuck yes, for the reason that because of them, we now have Trump as the US president rather than him going to prison like he deserves. Of course they are wrong. How is that even a question?

The voters aren’t wrong. It’s the non-voters that are wrong. Democracy should never be collateral for a protest..

EVER.

makes me happy seeing politically intelligent people in the thread here.

These type of threads always suck for the first few days to a week though lmao.

It can be both.

I would have fought tooth and nail to vote for Bernie Sanders.

As it stood, we moved during the voting period. The wife and I were registered neither in our home state or our new state and couldn't vote. Where we moved was deep red and it wouldn't have mattered, but I would have liked to give a formal middle finger to the dipshit-elect.

This, but unironically.

Trump was so bad that in a sane world a desiccated cat turd shoukd have beat him

The fact Harris lost doesn't mean shes a bad candidate, it means we don't live in a sane world.

why so mad bro?

Um...

the voters kinda did the nominating...

Edit: To clarify what I mean. People who voted in the Democratic primary didn't exactly vote for Biden, but voted for delegates that pledge to vote to Biden at the convention. Those delegates then can vote for who they think the people who voted for them would want when Biden dropped out. The delegates decided the voters would've wanted Harris since shes the VP, and that's probably what the voter would've want.

If you argue that Biden only won the 2024 nomination because of 2020. Well yea voters voted for him in 2020 too. 🤷‍♂️

People need to vote in primaries.