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Tim Walz says he and Harris were too ‘safe’ during 2024 presidential campaign
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2025
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politics
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I thought it was that americans were to misogynistic and racist. Incl. a whole lot of Democrats that had no problems voting for Biden but couldn't be bothered to vote Harris.
"Thank you"
The Democrats seem to think misogyny played a part, yes, but I'm not convinced that this was the case. It's an easy excuse. But it glosses over a problem that Democrats have not been willing to face for almost 20+ years.
They are convinced that if they become the center, they'll win the majority.
The Harris campaign ran the same play as the Clinton campaign: I'm not Trump.
The only case of misogyny that I can see is that Biden ran the same campaign. But the problem with this argument is that we were in a Trump presidency. The effects of it were clear to voters. If you carry over this logic to Biden, Harris lost not because she was a woman but the effects of the Biden presidency was clear to voters.
Harris had the opportunity to come out as progressive. To go further than Biden. To guarantee colleges loan forgiveness for everyone. To come out against healthcare companies. To come out against the alt right.
But she didn't.
She played the same plays as Hilary: I'm not Trump. I'll save democracy. Israel is cool.
The sad thing is she could be leading the charge right now to help organize people against fascism. If she really learned any lessons from her campaign, she'd be with Bernie and doing tours to help people protest.
The DNC would rather eat crumbs that fall off the table than risk biting the hands that feed it (corporations). They have lost legitimacy in my book and will only support them as opposition to the fascists because there isn't another option. If a true progressive party gains momentum, you can bet that the DNC and GOP will work together to push progressives out.
Biden didn't, though. Biden ran a centrist-ish campaign, to be clear, but he also coopted many of Bernie's popular promises and generally ran on making things better for the average American. He promised a move left, while Harris promised a move right. They were not running the same campaign.
We're trying! There's only so much we can do. I'm in a deeply red district and trying to coalesce enough people to do anything liberal has been like pulling teeth
Nope. The Harris platform was more to the left than Biden. She was going to impose additional taxes on corporations and billionaires that went beyond Biden.
Even though Hilary always had a bunch of Muslim women in the background of all her crowds and identity politics helped sink her campaign.
it's everything. the democratic party since Obama was elected has been unwilling to grapple with that our populace is split between people who think racism is an ongoing aspect of the fight for liberation, people who think racism ended some time in the past like in 1864, 1920, 1950, 1970, or 1989, and people who outright engage with racist ideologies. democrats try to engage with an idyllic populace who generally means well when the actual populace is a bunch of colonizers.
our best bet for a president who can address all the problems of this political environment is basically the wokest white dude we can find. and the way tim walz is acting and behaving, he might be operating with the understanding that given bernie sanders' age, it might have to be him.
i ask everyone to do the following: pay attention to what tim walz does, but don't treat him as your savior. every liberation movement has required three figures: the violent revolutionary (think Malcolm X), the pacifist the respectability politics people are willing to engage with (think dr martin luther king jr), and the emotional/spiritual leader that soothes people who are hurting's souls (this leader usually goes unnamed because they are not looking for a position of power). you need to choose your role in our liberation movement as soon as possible and start agitating. and understand tim walz will never exit his lane of pacifist the respectability politics people are willing to engage with.
tim walz, also, for how much we love him, has blind spots and will say some ignorant shit in tho years to come. have grace and patience with him for as long as he will listen. america has a long legacy of politicians who entrench themselves in something dumb because when you have as many critics as someone in office has, the legitimate criticism tends to get buried under a mountain of unreasonable criticism.
Tim Walz wouldn’t win an election even if he ran unopposed.
The DNC needs a socially conservative but economically progressive candidate if they want to reclaim the narrative that they are the party of the working class. Tim Walz is already Tampon Tim to them. Like it or not, middle America wants to keep trans people in the margins. I know it’s awful to say, but they will need to keep fighting to win acceptance in society. The government simply cannot forc, coerce or even nudge people to accept them.
Well they are 100% dependent on the voters for that.
I disagree a lot that Dems need a "socially conservative" candidate. What they do need is a candidate who does NOT focus on identity politics and does focus on wealth inequality and all directly and indirectly related issues.
It's genuinely insane how many people keep thinking and saying this nonsense. Identity politics are a reason Republicans won but they are NOT the reason democrats lost.
If anything they lose every battle on identity politics because they keep ceding ground to the right wing. If they bit BACK - if they called a spade a spade, if they called out bigotry and actually supported and amplified minority voices - they would get more support. Not less.
It's becoming mainstream again to be outright homophobic and that's only possible because democrats insist on civility, "focusing elsewhere" and allowing right-wing assholes to run the conversation.
Don't get me wrong - economics is ultimately the true make-or-break for the country and the world - but abandoning allies and friends is a losing strategy. The less empathetic and open-minded the populace, the less likely they are to support any meaningful economic progress.
It’s kind of the same thing right? I mean when I mean socially conservative, I mean a candidate that when asked about trans right will say what Newsom said not too long ago. The fact of the matter is that the republicans rely on democrats staying mum about trans issues. They will spend hundreds of millions to stir up grievances that don’t really affect most of the voters but it stirs their emotions. If dems don’t address it directly, the voters think (rightfully), is because they agree with this agenda, so I won’t vote for the dem candidate because I do not want men in women’s bathroom.
You need a dem candidate that says he is not for that. The progressive wing might not like it, but the progressive wing is not gonna win the elections alone.
Liberals love to blame racism and misogyny for their own failings.
Yeah, I don't think those racist misogynists were going to vote for anything less than mass deportations.
I'm talking specifically about the millions of people who voted for Biden in 2020 but sat out Harris 2024.
Are these the same voters who support the Palestinian genocide? At some point we have to have the courage to stand for the right thing instead of pandering to our most cynical neighbors.
Not voting for Harris when you voted for Biden cannot be explained by anything that has to do with Palestinians.
If I believed what you were saying, then I wouldn't even bother voting.
In a democracy you always vote for the least bad option. There will never be a perfect party for every single person.
Not voting for Harris after having voted for Biden means choosing Trump as a better choice than Harris.
How's that working out for the Palestinians?