YOU are speaking!
Have you made any poignant commentary on the recent election in the U.S.? Do you have a good response to liberals who are upset with the results or process of the election? Have you written or seen something as a comment reply/post that you think has standalone value? Did you see a new take or analysis you hadn’t previously considered?
Whether it’s a long idea with lots of context, or a short and sweet one liner, we want those thoughts aggregated here. This post is intended to be a resource for comrades to draw from when having actual discussions outside of Hexbear both online or IRL regarding the election.
Consider this a mini-effortpost aggregator. This is not for shitposts, but humor is completely acceptable if it helps make the point.
The real story here is that Trump won the popular vote. That signals an enormous shift in sentiment and culture, and should be the subject of any serious analysis here. This is nothing less than a catastrophic failure of the liberal project and liberal vision–a total implosion of the do-nothing “centrist” political consensus. Democrats have shown over and over and over again that they have nothing to offer the majority of Americans. The Harris campaign was just the apotheosis of the trend: courting capital and neo-conservative ghouls while jettisoning any talk of policies that might help people. This is not a winning election strategy. That should be screamingly obvious now. People are angry, hurting, and looking for anyone that even suggests they understand that pain and might do something about it, even when the suggested solutions make no sense. The only sane response to this result is a SWEEPING reexamination of the neo-liberal consensus. Liberalism in its current form has failed most people, and the Democrats have failed to articulate any message or position that appreciates that. Until someone in the United States starts articulating a positive vision with policies to engender some hope for the future–healthcare for everyone, housing as a human right, SERIOUS action on climate change–the far right will keep winning. They’re the only ones with ideas.
Now is the time to reach out to your liberal friends to help them understand that this is not a fluke, but the system working as designed. This failure by the Dems didn’t come out of nowhere. Lots of us on the left saw this coming a mile away, and can help make sense of it. They’re flailing and looking for an explanation. We have that. Help them understand. Help them see that we don’t HAVE to live like this. We don’t have to put up with only being given a sliver of political power every 4 years, with the threat of fascism hanging over our heads. The people at the top–the donor class, campaign managers, and beltway lanyard bros–aren’t worth your time. But your mom or friend who voted for Kamala and is devastated and confused by the loss of the popular vote definitely IS worth your time. Those people can be comrades. Give them a chance. Reach out and listen to their frustrations and concerns. Don’t be smug–be sympathetic. Talk to them about why they think this happened. Offer your perspective. Ask them why the Democrats raised over a billion dollars and still lost the popular vote. Ask if those might be connected. Ask why progressive voter initiatives–protecting abortion, sick days, wages increases, etc.–outperformed the Democratic presidential candidate so much in so many places. Ask what they think that means about the state of the electorate; does it mean most of America really is irredeemably evil? Or could it maybe mean something else? Ask if they really think Kamala Harris and “nothing really needs to change” is the best we can do, or the message most people need to hear. Help them see that it isn’t. Help them see that a better world is possible. Help them get organized. This is your chance.
Don’t be smug–be sympathetic. Talk to them about why they think this happened.
I’m so glad you (and many others) have included this part, because this is such a huge and important takeaway that gets so easily over-analyzed in online leftist spaces, and it’s exactly why I made this post.
The echo chamber effect will often have us losing sight of the actual goal, but god damn it just feels so good to be correct. That first hit of vindication after years and years of warning liberals that this would happen is euphoric, but extremely toxic if you let it slip into rhetoric.
Frankly, nobody likes to be wrong, and accepting that can take quite some time for some people. That’s why the most important thing to focus on is giving others the proper tools to analyze what happened. Being smug together can come later when they inevitably find themselves on the same side as you
Yeah, the place to be smug is here on Hexbear when we’re just talking to each other. If we’re trying to actually reach people and change their minds, its really essential that we restrain the natural urge to dunk. Remember that these people are heavily propagandized, and that many of them were voting for Kamala because they genuinely thought it was the only possible option for producing a better world. Believing that doesn’t make someone bad or dumb when they’ve been told it their whole lives by everything they’ve ever consumed. Rubbing their nose in it now is just going to alienate them from the left even further and make it easier for them to shift blame off of where it belongs and onto us. The goal is to bring new comrades into the movement, and we won’t do that by making people feel bad–we’ll do that by giving them hope that there’s a better way.
The real story here is that Trump won the popular vote. That signals an enormous shift in sentiment and culture, and should be the subject of any serious analysis here.
Yes! And we should emphasize early and often that the shift in the popular vote is not because the populace got 10% more fascister since 2020, it’s because (as you explain), of a total collapse in the faith in liberalism’s ability to address or keep in check more reactionary elements, or really offer anything of worth
