The polls weren't even that great for Harris in the end, and even a small polling error in Trump's favor would lead to him sweeping the battlegrounds. AtlasIntel and Rasmussen were largely on the money (at least from a cursory glance in the high-profile races). A lot of Dems online were complaining before the election that GOP-favorable polls were "flooding the zone" and that the polling averages were underestimating Harris because of that. The "GOP flooded" polling averages ironically overestimated her big time.

< A lot of Dems online were complaining before the election that GOP-favorable polls were "flooding the zone" and that the polling averages were underestimating Harris because of that. Terminally online Dems were definitely seeking copium throughout the last month.

The polls weren't even that great for Harris in the end, and even a small polling error in Trump's favor would lead to him sweeping the battlegrounds. AtlasIntel and Rasmussen were largely on the money (at least from a cursory glance in the high-profile races). Admittedly, I took the bait on the Selzer poll as indicating something greater in the rust belt than was reality. I mean on issues like abortion. The Democrats polled well on that, and ran with it, and lost sight of the economy. Its the economy, stupid!

I'll pile on a bit more: when I first started paying attention to politics around 2004, the Democratic refrain at the time was that Republicans were too focused on "legislating morality" with things like gay marriage, flag-burning, or getting worked up over the Monica Lewinsky scandal. The idea was that you could be tolerant and disagree with gay marriage or flag-burning or life choices but that those were distractions from real issues that affect regular people, like the outsourcing of jobs from Ohio to overseas. That was 2004, ancient history at this point. But the Democrats no longer approach cultural zeitgeist issues with that degree of nuance. Instead, they're so eager to take the bait on things and that's how you wind up talking about how men playing girl's sports isn't real and you shouldn't be afraid of it because of X, Y, and Z reasons and by then the persuadable voter's eyes have rolled into the back of their heads and you're no longer talking about infrastructure projects or whatever.

Terminally online Dems were definitely seeking copium throughout the last month. Republicans are just as if not even more terminally online, just because their echo chamber was more influential doesn't mean that this is a legitimate criticism.

This election was a disaster for Democrats. What I've concluded from this is that the Democrats should stop trying to out-conservative the conservatives. Whoever we run should be a bit more to the left, and run on a more populist platform that appeals to the working class, whom Harris did horribly amongst. We should also get a better message on the economy, and work to debunk the Republicans' messaging on the issue. We banked on: - enough women turning out because of the abortion issue to get Harris through - enough Republicans voting "country over party" At the cost of alienating a lot of progressives, specifically over the issue of Israel-Palestine. And also at the cost of losing sight on the economy, and being unrelatable to much of the working class. And it didn't work. As the old saying goes, "It's the economy, stupid" Most Democratic policies are popular, it's the messaging and delivery that is the problem.

Expanding on a bit: When the economy takes a dive thanks to the huge tariffs against countries like Mexico and the deportations, I'll be here to say to all the people who voted for Trump thanks to the economy: "I told you so." 😊 And then 2026 should be a big blue wave.

You mean those tariffs Biden kept in place and that Tammy Baldwin, Bob Casey and Elissa Slotkin all ran on?

You mean those tariffs Biden kept in place and that Tammy Baldwin, Bob Casey and Elissa Slotkin all ran on? Trumps Tariff Plan Specifically....the one that wants to put a 200% Rate on Farm Equipment. I'd hedge my bets Dems don't have that plan

You mean those tariffs Biden kept in place and that Tammy Baldwin, Bob Casey and Elissa Slotkin all ran on? To be honest, I'm not the smartest guy when it comes to economics, but I know of 16 people who know what they're talking about (they're economists who won Nobel Prize) and they said that Trump's tariff plan will trigger inflation and raise prices. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/16-nobel-prize-winning-economists-say-trump-policies-will-fuel-inflation-2024-06-25/ I'm referring to Trump's tariff plan specifically, not tariffs generally. As for the three senators whom you mention, they were probably campaigning on that for political reasons, as the rust belt tends to be supportive of protections like tariffs, and they may have also been trying to promote themselves as politically independent from the national Democratic Party. It seems to have worked for Baldwin and Slotkin, but Casey is TBD.