Why did we win?

[trouble13]

Whatever helps the cultists sleep at night...

The attitude you have on display right now is exactly why I am indifferent to complaints from progressives. Everyone should take note of your post and remember it well next time you feel aggrieved about something and they give it as much much deference as you are showing now.

 

[eohrnberger]

The victimization of trump was pathetically easy.

There was legitimate criticisms, those which he needlessly brought unto himself.
There also was a great deal of not legitimate criticism, hell, down right sabotage if you ask me (anonymous sources with fabricated stories), as well.

It wasn't all one way or the other.

 

[Slavister]

Biden is not Trump and Trump stumbled dealing with COVID.

Because of Donald Trump and his incredibly poor handling of the COVID-19 Pandemic ... All else being equal, were it not for COVID-19, Donald Trump almost certainly would have won reelection.

I don't disagree with those above who've said Trump would have had a much greater chance of re-election if he hadn't been tested by COVID and found wanting. But it's perplexing in that this implies a fair number of Americans couldn't tell that Trump would fail (catastrophically, even) any major leadership test until they had witnessed it.

......because he was running against Trump. Covid was the last straw.

Someone (Carville perhaps) once said: “It’s the economy stupid.” With the destruction of the economy and no end in clear sight this cycle it became all about Covid. It’s the message Biden ran on and appears successfully. It was a gift to his campaign (never let a crisis go to waste). Absent it Joe would never had won, imo.

People are going to say that donald would've won without the pandemic. Maybe yes, maybe no, but we'll never really know. I personally think that he probably would have.

Yep. To think if he had worn a mask in March or even April, he almost certainly would have won. 18 square inches of cotton cost him the election.

Isn't it amazing that when COVID and other crisis would normally help incumbents (just like with COVID helping incumbents around the world), it actually made matters WORSE for Trump.

This shows once again why COVID mutated to being Trump Virus in this country.

He was supposed to benefit from this but he did so bad he suffered for it at the polls.

In short, I agree with @lwf:

Republicans had the advantage of incumbency plus an ongoing national crisis during the election. In theory, there should have been a red wave, as people seek familiarity during times of uncertainty and are traditionally loathe to risk changing leadership during such times. That there wasn't a red wave and that a Democrat was able to defeat an incumbent Republican says more about the Republican Party than it does about the Democratic Party.

 

[Connery]

Trump is the best thing that has happened to the Democrats in a very long time. I am a Republican and i voted for Biden. I did not want that lunatic Trump running this country a second time.

 

[trouble13]

Elevate your news sources please. We don't need four years of people bringing their factless assertions to this board trying to sell them as truth.

I have a reliable anyomous source, isn't that the standard progressives use or are we changing it now that its being used as a bludgent on a candidate YOU support?

 

[lwf]

Isn't it amazing that when COVID and other crisis would normally help incumbents (just like with COVID helping incumbents around the world), it actually made matters WORSE for Trump.

This shows once again why COVID mutated to being Trump Virus in this country.

He was supposed to benefit from this but he did so bad he suffered for it at the polls.

And all he really ever had to do was talk the talk. He didn't even really have to do anything. If he'd simply pretended to take the virus seriously, agreed with Fauci and the experts, and encouraged Republicans to social distance and wear masks, (In other words, if he'd just behaved like a marginally responsible leader instead of a persecuted victim) he probably would have won reelection. His fear of disappointing his conspiracy nut base is what cost him the election.

 

[Rhakron90]

We won the election. Now, why did Biden win? Thoughts?

Essentially all of the elite interests Trump spat upon in 2015 and 2016 banded together and ran a dedicated, four year long, multi-trillion dollar, disruption and PSY-OPS campaign against him. A lot of people - in the American underclass, and more affluent sections of the middle class, especially - were, apparently, receptive to that message.

Trump's a jackass, and, in combination with the constant stream of negative messaging above, that didn't endear him to the low information "But could I have a beer with him?" crowd.

COVID-19 came out of nowhere and wrecked the global economy in an election year. It also scared a whoooole bunch of finicky Boomers half to death. Again, in combination with the constant stream of negative messaging mentioned above, this hurt Trump badly. He became a lot of people's scapegoat for the crisis.

*Possible mail-in voting fraud. (C'mon, you knew that was going in there lol)

 

[Surrealistik]

We won the election. Now, why did Biden win? Thoughts?

Because COVID and because Trump was an epic **** up.

Biden certainly didn't win on the basis of policy and his vision/ambitions for the country given the staggering preponderance of his ads, messaging and campaigning amounted to 'Orange Man Bad'; the same demonstrably terrible strategy Hillary employed, and lost with in 2016.

If it weren't for Trump's disastrous mishandling of COVID, Biden would have lost, suffering the same sort of defeat Clinton did, 100%.

 

[Surrealistik]

I no longer consider that to be the right question, the real issue is why did the "blue wave" really just fade into nothing. Dems lost a few seats in the House, Senate is undetermined but not looking good for Dems to control, did not flip a single state government their way.

The bigger issue here for Dems is why so many out there look at the party and decided that Trump enabling Republicans are still a better answer.

If this is the best Democrats can do, 2022 should be a real concern for the party.

Perhaps "democratic socialism" and "defund the police" was not such a wise path to take. Nor was it well received to have the far left call silence as violence, but the riots not so much.

Neither 'Democratic Socialism' or 'Defund the Police' were anywhere close to Biden's advertising and platform; he ran on the same terrible 'Orange Man Bad' messaging Hillary failed with, so it shouldn't surprise that he underperformed with pretty much the exact same shit approach in 2020, especially when there were initiatives and policies with 60-70% support ( including bipartisan support ) or greater he could have campaigned on, such as marijuana legalization, a federal jobs guarantee, an infrastructure spend, a wealth tax on the uber rich, his own public option, free public college/skilled trades education, campaign finance reform and so on.

 

[The Mark]

We won the election. Now, why did Biden win? Thoughts?

Biden won because more people thought he was a better option than Trump.

Democrats lost ground in the house and didn't gain as much as they thought they might in the Senate because too few of the individual candidates were not considered better options than their Republican opponents.

Speaking very generally, it is my opinion that Democrats are too unwilling to confront Republicans and point out their flaws.

 

[j brown's body]

I no longer consider that to be the right question, the real issue is why did the "blue wave" really just fade into nothing. Dems lost a few seats in the House, Senate is undetermined but not looking good for Dems to control, did not flip a single state government their way.

The bigger issue here for Dems is why so many out there look at the party and decided that Trump enabling Republicans are still a better answer.

If this is the best Democrats can do, 2022 should be a real concern for the party.

Perhaps "democratic socialism" and "defund the police" was not such a wise path to take. Nor was it well received to have the far left call silence as violence, but the riots not so much.

When you consider that Biden supported funding the police through covid relief and Trump didn't, "path" might not be the best word for it. "Messaging" might be more apt.

 

[j brown's body]

You would have to itemize and document what you consider to be a failed leadership test, and then explain how those failures would have hurt the country economically, socially, and militarily.
Because, up until March 2020, the country was doing real well with everyone working who wanted a job and people saving and spending money to keep the economy humming.

It was pretty much that way in 2016 as well, although, we are much poorer socially than we were then. Trump masterfully exploits social media and the two sides living in their own echo chambers , and our society is much poorer for it.

 

[Geoist]

The attitude you have on display right now is exactly why I am indifferent to complaints from progressives. Everyone should take note of your post and remember it well next time you feel aggrieved about something and they give it as much much deference as you are showing now.

I don't need to create a fantasy world or worship a golden calf (or in this case, an orange pig) to be content and secure in my beliefs.

 

[Hamish Howl]

Because Trump's an incompetent **** who couldn't figure out that people stop cheering iconoclasm when times are actually bad.

Because he's a loser.

 

[skeptic llc]

You would have to itemize and document what you consider to be a failed leadership test, and then explain how those failures would have hurt the country economically, socially, and militarily.
Because, up until March 2020, the country was doing real well with everyone working who wanted a job and people saving and spending money to keep the economy humming.

The point was that when Trump faced a leadership test, COVID, he failed. How that has hurt the country is clear. The poster is confused by how many Americans thought Trump would *not* fail any serious leadership test he encountered.

 

[skeptic llc]

Because Trump's an incompetent **** who couldn't figure out that people stop cheering iconoclasm when times are actually bad.

Because he's a loser.

All that was true when he won an election, so it doesn't seem to explain him losing one.

 

[skeptic llc]

One thing is for certain. Trump has ruined it for any narcissistic, pedophilic, racist sociopaths who might want to run for President in the future.

Or he has shown them their path to the oval office. He did get elected in 2016.

 

[Paradoxical]

We won the election. Now, why did Biden win? Thoughts?

Is my calendar wrong? Is it December 14?

 

[skeptic llc]

Trump is the best thing that has happened to the Democrats in a very long time. I am a Republican and i voted for Biden. I did not want that lunatic Trump running this country a second time.

Truly, he is not. The man did so much damage to OUR country and institutions. That is not good for Ds or Rs. He remade the R party in his hateful image, which is also not good for Ds -- we don't want to bet everything on winning, we want both parties to be sane. And he showed how fragile our free society can be when a talented would-be authoritarian gets into power. None of that is good. Better that a reasonable R had won in 2016 and won again in 2020 than ... this.

 

[CaughtInThe]

Once again, the popular vote does count when winning the election.
Hillary won the popular vote, too, and she will always be on the outside looking in.

Q 2024

 

[CaughtInThe]

And all he really ever had to do was talk the talk. He didn't even really have to do anything. If he'd simply pretended to take the virus seriously, agreed with Fauci and the experts, and encouraged Republicans to social distance and wear masks, (In other words, if he'd just behaved like a marginally responsible leader instead of a persecuted victim) he probably would have won reelection. His fear of disappointing his conspiracy nut base is what cost him the election.

he literally fumbled and cost himself the election, thousands of Americans their lives and his supporters their pride and dignity.

 

[MikePrime]

The democratic party has won the election because of mail in voting. Without mail in voting Trump would of most definitely won the electoral college. Mail in voting will now forever become even more prominent in our elections

 

[skeptic llc]

Because of Donald Trump and his incredibly poor handling of the COVID-19 Pandemic that lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths, and the cratering of a steadily-humming home economy. All else being equal, were it not for COVID-19, Donald Trump almost certainly would have won reelection.

It definitely seems like this is true. I'm tempted to counter that Trump's approval ratings were remarkably steady throughout his presidency, including during COVID, so COVID made no difference ... but the razor-thin margin by which Biden won (electorally) strongly suggests that Trump's approval ratings always understated the level of support he had. I suppose one might argue that his COVID performance didn't hurt him -- that his supporters loved him being on the side of freedom to not wear a mask, or they believed him when he said how great he was doing, or whatever -- but it seems more likely that, on net, presiding over a ****show national response could not be a selling point.

 

[skeptic llc]

It also helps that Biden actually ran on agendas, plans, and projects to fix some of the mess rather than leading the drones into self-deluded chants like "lock her up" or "build a wall."

Did that help though? Trump never had a plan for anything, even in 2016, and he won once and came pretty close a second time. Are the voters who are informed enough to even realize Trump had no plans (or non-right enough to watch news sources that would report this) already in the blue camp regardless?

 

[skeptic llc]

Because Trump is an idiot. If he had been even somewhat decent he would have probably won.

Again, equally true in 2016, and he won then.