It turns out misinformation did help decide the election: the misinformation coming from liberal pundits. They told Democratic Party leaders that voters who were unhappy with the economy were simply wrong.
When people tell you "I'm hurting!" the answer is NOT "What are you talking about, Jack? Things are GREAT!"
They WANT Clinton's lip bite and "I feel your pain!" It's LITERALLY the economy stupid.
Telling people 3% inflation is no big deal when it's compounded on top of 3% on top of 9% is how you end a political career.
The View gave Harris a lifeline when they asked her "What would you do different?" and she blew it with "not a thing that comes to mind."
Even if there was nothing she could have done differently, she could have said "We should have been more empathetic to critics of the administration, from Afghanistan, to inflation, to Gaza."
It wouldn't have MEANT anything, but would have given the appearance of meaning something, a tactic Democrats usually excel at. ;)
Promising to be four more years of Biden was an astonishingly idiotic move.
And it's not that Biden was an objectively terrible president. His administration did a lot of genuinely good things. But as you say, the Democrats completely failed to understand the degree to which the average voter is struggling.
Yes. These truths are things like the economy is improving but will take time, prices will never go back to what they were before Covid, man-made climate change is a real existential threat to human civilization, legalizing abortion results in fewer deaths than banning it, trans people exist, and institutional racism exists.
Some of the comfortable lies are that tariffs will fix everything, fuel prices will drop if we drill more, wars in Ukraine and Palestine can be easily ended with simple negotiation, and Project 2025 isn't the working plan for the Trump presidency.