Let me start by saying that I supported Kamala Harris, and legitimately thought the odds were in her favor given the horrifying decisions that have passed through the Supreme Court, and the fact that the other candidate is literally a rapist-felon with close ties to known child rapists/traffickers, but it looks like im just an idiot. I'm mean Christ, many historically significant Republicans even backed her given the danger we as a country are heading towards...

Today I've been feeling the nostalgia of 2016, where again, I thought we had a great chance of winning but was wrong in the end.

With every fiber of my being, I want to think that we as a country are ready for a woman in the white house, but the results keep indicating to me that, unfortunately, many Americans may not share my sentiment.

Even totally disregarding that element, I think a bigger point is that the democratic party is just out of touch with the current atmosphere, are horrible strategists, and have in a sense "played fair" for too long.

I live in MAGA country, and my profession (across the country) is dominated by this demographic as well. In all honesty, a great deal of them will simply never be swayed, but they are certainly not the majority.

To get those on the fence to move to our cause, we need to start playing the game and backing more favorable candidates that talk with conviction and act on the things that working class Americans need. We bring up these topics, but the American people don't believe most of our candidates really mean it at a fundamental level. We've endorsed candidates that are widely seen as the lesser of two evils FOR 12 YEARS NOW.

At this point, those I know just expect another 4 years of unfulfilled and empty promises and it doesn't matter if "we tried". Those aren't results.

Over the last couple decades (in my oppinion), nobody has spoken with more heart and conviction than Bernie Sanders and even the non-MAGA Republicans I know admit that they would have voted for him in the last 3 elections if given the chance, and for good reason.

-Today, most Americans can't afford to live without working 80 hours a week. -Most Americans are one medical issue away from homelessness. -Many have to choose to either eat, ration their medications, or abandon that medicine altogether. -Young people can't afford housing and forego having families due to financial concerns and struggles. -Many young people think they'll never actually be able to retire. -There is no limit now on how much our corporate oligarchs can donate to elections. -Increases in productivity over the last 50 years have not translated to wage increases for your average American. Hell, the minimum wage hasn't even came close to keeping up with inflation. -By design, those profits/missing wages have instead been siphoned off to the top earners, where we now have the top 1% owning more wealth than the bottom 90%.

Most Americans are absolutely pissed and feel disenfranchised about our political system, party, nation, and think that in the end their vote doesn't matter.

Ultimately I think that this comes down to the fact that historically our democratic candidates make mild attempts to address these issues, speak about them with a lack of conviction, and once in office, fall flat on delivering even those partial measures. In my opinion, the working class doesn't believe that the democratic vote will really do anything outside of continuing the status quo and I don't fault them for that.

As your average american idiot, my recollection of events looks like the following after stripping all of the nuance and reasonable explanation from each event below:

-In 2016 we catered to the opposition and failed to fill a Supreme Court seat when given the chance. -Later in 2016, we endorsed a stereotypical politician (that was already a gamble given her gender unfortunately) and passed up the candidate who had incredible support among the working class in swing states. -In 2020 we went with a candidate who was clearly approaching retirement (even then), and narrowly won. -Over the next 4 years it became increasingly clear that the current SCOTUS is hyper-partisan and likely corrupt, yet it feels like the democrats did nothing about it. -Ultimately this lead to the loss of our historical freedoms and loss of promises made during the 2020 election. -Now in 2023/2024, despite knowing the very clear danger of Trump, our incumbent candidate waited so long to step down that it appeared our only option was a new version of our 2016 candidate. On top of this, our sitting president and 2020 candidate has generated such low approval ratings that even a perfect vp candidate would have had an uphill battle.

I think Bidens policies have been good and I think the facts and statistics show that as well. With that being said, all of this nuance and detail doesn't change the way people feel; and unfortunately, most of our population votes with their feelings and not facts (despite what some stupid slogan may say).

I know there are likely good reasons/explanations for all of what I have included above, but as your average uninformed citizen, all I see is that the above happened and we as a party failed to live up to what was needed. The DNC just can't seem to stop shooting themselves in the foot, and it's starting to appear hopeless and that our opinions, wants, and needs are irrelevant. Part of me is even starting to feel it's deliberate.

The republican party stopped playing fair a long time ago, but we continue to take moral high roads and not play them at their own game. To openly fight tooth and nail to get what's needed across the finish line.

While i mean no ill will to him, we as a party don't need another Jimmy Carter. What we need is a Teddy Roosevelt/FDR. The past is the past, but I legitimately think we had that with Bernie in 2016, and look what a mess of things they've made. The DNC has been sitting on a much more favorable candidate for 3 elections now and just can't seem to even entertain the idea. I've heard it's partially because he's not well liked internally/within the DNC, and I will always believe part of it comes down to the fact that he doesn't have approval from the corporate overlords that fund our elections/government officials. Regardless, the DNC has little to blame but themselves for their performance in the last few election cycles and it makes me sick.

I feel sick, apathetic, irrelevant, and ashamed of the mistakes and poor decisions that keep being made.

With a lunatic fascist in the White House, none of the previous guardrails/advisors of 2016-2020, and what's likely going to be a stacked Senate/House, buckle up for a wild ride. The only thing that relieves me is I fortunately don't have any children to worry about.