Earlier this fall, one of Joe Biden’s closest aides felt compelled to tell the president a hard truth about Kamala Harris’s run for the presidency: “You have more to lose than she does.” And now he’s lost it. Joe Biden cannot escape the fact that his four years in office paved the way for the return of Donald Trump. This is his legacy. Everything else is an asterisk.
In the hours after Harris’s defeat, I called and texted members of Biden’s inner circle to hear their postmortems of the campaign. They sounded as deflated as the rest of the Democratic elite. They also had a worry of their own: Members of Biden’s clan continue to stoke the delusion that its paterfamilias would have won the election, and some of his advisers feared that he might publicly voice that deeply misguided view.
Although the Biden advisers I spoke with were reluctant to say anything negative about Harris as a candidate, they did level critiques of her campaign, based on the months they’d spent strategizing in anticipation of the election. Embedded in their autopsies was their own unstated faith that they could have done better.
One critique holds that Harris lost because she abandoned her most potent attack. Harris began the campaign portraying Trump as a stooge of corporate interests—and touted herself as a relentless scourge of Big Business. During the Democratic National Convention, speaker after speaker inveighed against Trump’s oligarchical allegiances. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York bellowe…
Read more@86NNY5QProgressive Left1mo1MO
Maybe someone should ask why Bernie is popular. My guess: Focus on economic issues of 90% of the population and identity issues way, way in the background. Punch at Jeff Bezos not the current social position of the median voter.
It's been popular for 8 years but any Dem that brings it up immediately gets completely stifled. These people deserve to lose and lose badly until they excommunicate the CEO class from the party. There isn't a single relevant constituency they help you with
@86NNY5Q1mo1MO
Remember the first week or two. She talked constantly about pre-existing conditions ("Remember what it's like to have those?"). That vanished without a trace after the consultants meddled.
You don't need to ask because it's incredibly obvious but the empty suits that run the party would rather condescendingly brow beat you about how well the stock market is doing
@SadRightistDemocrat1mo1MO
This whole thing reads like a disaster. Harris had a clear path—attack Trump on his corporate allegiances, go full populist—and instead, she gets talked out of it by big-money interests. The Democrats need to figure out if they’re the party of the people or the CEOs.
@Koala1965Green1mo1MO
Harris could’ve been a voice against corporate greed, but she abandoned her best weapon. It's frustrating to watch the Dems constantly cave to big business instead of standing up for working people.
@WingedFr33domForward1mo1MO
I think her grave was dug by Biden + other factors before she even ran. But I think candidates should do things people like and not do things they don’t like, and doing things people like didn’t always seem to be a priority.
@Gr4ssrootsLemurDemocrat1mo1MO
i'm not saying you're wrong, but i would like to see a bit clearer evidence that Kamala's messaging on market concentration, or the presence of Tony West, was a major factor in the outcome of this election
@7GBCTMMTranshumanist1mo1MO
I am not at all convinced there’s a scenario in which she could have won. I think the Biden problem + immigration/inflation was insoluble. What I think is malpractice is continuing to run on democracy when that messaging consistently performed much worse than populist messaging.
@B1ll0fRightsGregGreen1mo1MO
This was malpractice. There was plenty of evidence indicating that anti-corporate messaging was very popular. Tony West would prove a corrosive influence on Harris’ campaign and pull her away from a populist agenda.
@CrowCarolineSocialist1mo1MO
Amazing though that I am seeing so much animus directed at progressives and Bernie’s statement from big paid lib accounts
Dem establishment sees Bernie-ism as their biggest threat right now (as has been case for last decade but now openly)
@B1ll0fRightsGregGreen1mo1MO
Ah yes let's yell at one of the only democrats with a high favorability rating who is widely liked and trusted by the public rather than reflect on the fact that many democrats are not widely liked and trusted by the public.
This points to a deeper issue within the Democratic Party: they struggle to align their progressive rhetoric with their ties to corporate donors. Harris’s campaign was emblematic of that conflict. It’s a structural weakness the Republicans exploit every time
@7J7YMFVCentre-Left1mo1MO
I think Biden’s people have a point. He might have had a better chance because he connects better with the base. Harris never fully resonated, and her changing positions didn’t help. Still, the team’s post-election finger-pointing isn’t helping anyone.
Voters believed that Harris was a radical progressive. She had no credibility with voters whatsoever on tacking away from left. That she would’ve done better embracing progressive social and economic policies (which she did - anti-price gouging, tax the rich, etc) is nonsense.
@9ZC3F8Y1mo1MO
Voters didn't dislike those policies; in fact, they voted for them as ballot measures. Voters disliked that Harris was the one pushing them. If it was Obama or Buttigieg it would have been different.
@L0bbyistRalphSocialist1mo1MO
The Biden folks are right on this point...
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