With apologies to our many friends and posters outside the United States... it's time for another one of these! Culture war thread rules apply, and you are permitted to openly advocate for or against an issue or candidate on the ballot (if you clearly identify which ballot, and can do so without knocking down any strawmen along the way). "Small-scale" questions and answers are also permitted if you refrain from shitposting or being otherwise insulting to others here. Please keep the spirit of the law--this is a discussion forum!--carefully in mind.
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Notes -
The reason why is the Israel and Ukraine Wars, which serve as powerful wedge issues that break party lines, even as the DNC from a decade ago no longer exists.
In 2016, the DNC was able to double down because there was nothing particularly important that major Democratic constituencies or politicians wanted that Trump could give that they couldn't also get by opposing him. 2016-2020 was almost entirely domestic-focused, with few foreign policy priorities interfering. There was very little to gain for crossing the line, and so the party could be united in the name of anti-Trump by the still-credible Obama political machine who had only just barely had its first presidential failure by a narrow margin.
In 2024, the Obama political machine is in tatters. Key kingmakers (Obama, Pelosi, and now Biden) are out of politics and in many respects discredited as 3 of the last 3 Obama-machine candidates (Clinton, Biden, Harris) have cratered. The Democratic party is going through a major generational change, without the sort of iron-handed party control that Pelosi had on fundraising support. At the same time, the Democratic party has sunk substantial political capital into supporting Ukraine, and has had an internal civil war (complete with a Muslim voting block abstination) over Israel.
The DNC may try to double-down again, but that's different from the ability to. 2016 was a result of unexpectedly high Republican turnout in first-time deplorable trump voters, but 2024 has been a demonstration of low Democratic turnout. The political energy, the leadership and the unity simply are not there, even as major wedges are currently in the coalition.
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