• wpb@lemmy.world
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    17 days ago

    I literally see voters saying the Democrats were too left leaning

    Could you elaborate on this? I’m confused as to what those voters mean. Polling suggests that actual left wing ideas (universal health cares, higher minimum wage, etc etc) enjoy broad popular support. For example, Missouri (a deeply red state) passed a higher minimum wage and paid sick leave by ballot measure. Are these voters unaware of what “left wing” means, or are they unaware of public opinion?

    I’ve seen a couple of things in this direction as well. Joe Scarborough was complaining that the democrats are too woke, and that that’s why they lost the election. He was clearly advocating for throwing trans people under the bus next cycle. I’ve also heard a liberal buddy of mine say that democrats are moving with the American public, i.e., their right wing policies are a reflection of what the American public wants.

    Here on lemmy.world I see it more indirectly. The predominant sentiment is to blame the voters (“you didn’t show up”, “oh you just had to care about the genocide”, “look what you’ve done”). This operates on the false assumption that if the party changes their position to be more left wing (pro-peace, pro-healthcare, whatever) to woo the lost voters, they’d lose even more votes because the American public is so right wing.

    Where are you seeing it?

    • leadore@lemmy.world
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      17 days ago

      I think they’re making a distinction between policy issues and social issues. The policy issues are popular but the social issues not so much. I read that R’s ran a huge ad buy with an anti-trans ad that was very effective in swinging lots of male voters over to them. That’s one example of what they mean by the “woke” stuff. It scares conservatives and moderate dems–not the objective reality of the policies as much as messaging spin they put on it, designed to create fear and loathing. Like it or not, it’s effective.