High on Our Own Supply

Whether on the left, or among liberals, very much including LGM commenters, we are all high on our own supply when it comes to the election and I think a lot of it is not really wanting to face what is happening in America. In terms of the left, there are so many people on social media who are effectively claiming this:

"If only Democrats would push my personal form of class warfare and also foreign policy they would win" is a consistently set of amazing takes given that the people who say these things can't get their own families to buy in to it. https://t.co/yI70QRWyyP

— Erik Loomis (@ErikLoomis) October 23, 2024

Of course this tweet has annoyed leftists, not that they have any real answers.

Meanwhile, in the kind of community people have here, people say crazy things all the time. DO YOU KNOW DONALD TRUMP IS A FASCIST. IF ONLY THE MEDIA WOULD REPORT THIS, HE WOULD LOSE!!! Why do you people believe this? Why do you think the New York Times matters so much? Why do you think people would care if they knew that TRUMP WAS EVIL? All the words spent here suggesting that if just the Times would report THE TRUTH that people would change their minds strongly suggests people here only know other people who read the New York Times already.

Moreover, why do we think that if only people knew, say, how Donald Trump was anti-worker that more union members would vote against him? Stephen Greenhouse, who I very much like, has been pushing this line. And it’s just not the case. They don’t care.

My friends, people are not paying attention to what you think matters. It’s all culture war, all the time. The real question is what Kathleen Belew offers here:

It's past time to stop reporting breathlessly on the fascism. We have to think about why, with all the fascism on full display, the election is so tight. Fascism only works with lots of people invested in it. This problem won't go away, regardless of the election outcome.

— Kathleen Belew (@kathleen_belew) October 22, 2024

This is exactly right. Leftists say that the public wants exactly what they want, but can’t organize anyone to do any of it. Liberals seem to think that institutions can save it, but they cannot. The real question is why is this stuff so appealing to so many people. The fight is not stopping that in an election. It’s stopping that in the minds of people between elections. This is why building real institutions matter. And the DNC is not an institution and neither are GOTV campaigns, though obviously those things are critically important. We need to bring people away not only from Donald Trump but from Dave Portnoy. We need our own propaganda networks and cultural institutions that make not being a fascist cool. We are nowhere near any of this.

I have no idea what is going to happen in the election. I don’t feel great about it though. In the end, I don’t think most people want what an actual Trump presidency is going to look like. There will be a future. But I won’t know how Harris could have won and neither will you. Whatever the answer is, it probably doesn’t reflect your personal political preferences. What we do need to spend more time on is figuring out why half the country wants Trump. And that’s not just about finding a decent candidate to run in the next election and the same ol’ never ending election cycle that isn’t solving any of these problems.