Wednesday November 13, 2024; 9:33 AM EST
- Reading Sam Harris' critique of the Democat performance in the 2024 Presidential election. There is a difference between being a politician and being politically smart. In this election Harris was the politician who in most cases was unwilling to take a stand for fear of being divisive. Trump was politically smart, willing to be make a clear stand about anything not really caring about whether he was divisive. Many people like him because he takes a stand, even if they don't agree with his position, and to them he comes across as very un-politician. #
- Ironically, I think a younger Biden was more like Trump than Harris, which is probably why he was not successful in earning the Democrat nomination when he was younger. For the sake of becoming President and for hope of remaining President Biden agreed to the will of the party. It's unfortunate that time caught up to Biden. I think in a rare moment of honesty, Trump would agree with my assessment of Biden, which might be why he seemed to fear him more than other Democrats. #
- In general, I think Democrats need to improve on the kitchen table issues that concern most Americans and how they handle cultural issues. With so many cultural issues if you intend to satisfy every one you are going to satisfy nobody. As Harris alluded to in the close of his critique, the challenge in dealing with extremism is that it is natural to provide an equally extreme response. Part of why the left is so much "louder" now is because they are reacting to the "volume" of the extreme response. It's Newton's third law of motion in politics. The problem is that the numbers of people with extreme views are fewer than those who tend to be in the middle and thus to win a Presidential election you have to gain the votes of the people in the middle. Numbers don't lie, Trump and the extreme right won this tug of war. #
- Democrats need to define a clear, small, set of core values and stick to them. For example, equality for all does not mean equality for some at the loss of equality for others. Many people who vote Republican are doing so because they see their rights being infringed and so are seeking the same level of correction as Democrats want for others. This is the core of the "she's for they/them and he's for you" message. #