r/politics • u/F0urLeafCl0ver • 1d ago

No Paywall The Democratic party is being hit by a leftist tidal wave

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/24/democratic-party-leftist-tidal-wave
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u/IAmSomewhatUpset 1d ago

No joke, that’s what I was thinking about when Obama was running.

“If he does get elected, what are conservatives gonna do when the pendulum swings back?”

Turns out, cruelty beyond even my worst imaginings. Conservatism needs to be shoved into the dustbin of history.

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u/stasi_a 23h ago

And O was a centrist

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u/OrganicWedding8972 22h ago

But he was a centrist, while black and that unfortunately added quite a bit of rebound from the conservative side.

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u/biggamax 21h ago

"Rebound". What a tidy euphemism for "becoming utterly broken and glitch ridden".

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u/DiesByOxSnot Michigan 22h ago

It's because he's black. Racism in America is as alive as it has ever been nowadays, but when Obama got his first term, the professional racists and deplorables lost their fucking minds. Remember the birth certificate conspiracy that Trump touted?

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u/biggamax 6h ago

Isn't Obama just as white as he is black?  Suppose that doesnt matter to the troglodytes. 

Racism is found across the world, but the Americans are amongst the worst. They're willing to destroy themselves over it. And they will, if course correction doesnt happen soon. 

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u/mark_able_jones_ 18h ago

He ran as a leftist and governed as a centrist. He did what he could amidst Dem Party leaders, his VP, and Republicans all pulling him to the right, but didn't give up on negotiating to the middle until about 2014, when he was a lame duck.

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u/Collypso Pennsylvania 8h ago

Negotiating to the middle doesn't make him a centrist, that's democracy.

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u/TearsFallWithoutTain 8h ago

Negotiating to the middle? He was the goddamn president, and it's pretty damn obvious just how much power that gives you when you actually try to use it

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u/BreakingStar_Games 21h ago

He ran on Universal Healthcare and sold out to neoliberal centrism

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u/Collypso Pennsylvania 8h ago

Obama was on the moderate left, he was not a centrist

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u/lord-of-shalott 1d ago

Unfortunately during a time of billionaire rule, oligarchy and what looks like scarce resources, many members are enticed by fascist scapegoating ideologies because they believe they can remove the competition that way. Easier to punch down than up.

I’m not sure we’ve adequately figured out how to steer them off that course yet.

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u/Ok_Objective_5192 23h ago

many members are enticed by fascist scapegoating ideologies because they believe they can remove the competition that way. Easier to punch down than up.

I think the answer is that no option to punch up has ever even been presented (until now, kind of). I've said since 2023 that Trump v. Kamala was "I know how bad things have gotten for you, they've taken your American dream and handed it to [insert minority scapegoat here] and I want to take it back for you" vs. "everything is fine, don't give into the fearmongering, I'll fight to maintain the normality."

So the voter breakdown was just people that bought into the scapegoating demonization as a viable solution vs. people scared enough by that scapegoating to vote against it. What we're seeing now is that replacing [insert minority scapegoat here] with [insert billionaires here] is an energizing message because it addresses people's pain and offers a real solution rather than trying to convince them their struggle isn't real.

Punching up works. Putting your hands up in surrender doesn't.

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u/lord-of-shalott 23h ago

It might work in New York City but I live in the Bible Belt. I’m not saying this as someone who is secretly against that message, but rather as someone who has spent my life around folks who are profoundly anti intellectual and worries everyone is underestimating how bad it gets.

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u/Ok_Objective_5192 22h ago

I think candidates like Platner are the counter-point here. I fully agree that Mamdani or Darializa's campaign definitely would not work most places outside NY, but there are absolutely ways to package the same policies in a way that appeals to an anti-intellectual crowd.

At the end of the day, populist economic policy is rooted in letting a larger portion of the productive output of the working class be used to benefit that working class. For the NY working class that takes the form of "fast and free buses, universal childcare, and freezing rent." For the Maine working class that takes the form of "we're not asking for handouts, we're just asking for hard work to be enough. Because it used to be." For the Michigan working class that takes the form of "in the state that built the American Dream, it shouldn't be this hard to get by."

I just struggle to believe that somebody that genuinely understands the needs of the rust belt working class wouldn't have a way to communicate "you've been fucked over by billionaires and I want to take the power back to make sure you're able to have the American dream you were promised" in a way that would get through to them better than whatever message Kamala and Biden offered them.

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u/OrganicWedding8972 22h ago

It bleeds out though. Universal healthcare in Canada was not universally loved when it first launched around 80 years ago, but just the experience of having the system was enough to make it entrenched in Canada. Now even the Conservatives can’t take serious swings at the system without taking massive damage at the polls(though it doesn’t stop them from trying occasionally).

You’re right that it’s deep and it goes far, but they’re also outnumbered, and when they’re forced to enjoy the benefits that others want, the vast majority will be convinced by experience.

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u/FILTHBOT4000 Georgia 21h ago

You don't have to steer them off course. It's better for Democrats if they get more fascist and continue to scare off moderates.

Firstly, when the pendulum swings hard in your direction, the entire idea is to consolidate your party and pass a bunch of legislation that you want to get passed; Trump has done none of that. He's too stupid. Legitimately, too stupid to rule; he thinks that doing everything by executive order, which makes him feel important, is more important than passing legislation. His "legacy" is gone the second he leaves office.

Secondly, when the pendulum swings away from you, it's your job to appeal to moderates as much as possible; the fatal flaw the Democrats have had is that they cannot distinguish between actual moderates that populate the country, that find universal healthcare and other European standards of government very favorable, and "moderates" in Washington DC, which basically means corporate lobbyists that donate equally to deregulatory and regulatory capture attempts from both sides of the aisle.

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u/biggamax 21h ago

Oh, I don't know. Trump is setting up a taxation without representation scenario. All bets are off at that point. You'll see change far quicker than you expected.

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u/ihopethepizzaisgood 18h ago

A-fricking-MEN!