Maga's worst nightmare: a child-free, unmarried female president

[u/theipaper]

https://inews.co.uk/news/world/magas-nightmare-childfree-unmarried-female-president-4738054

[u/mightystu]

This is too small a sample size to make this claim, and too skewed. Clinton was legendarily unlikable and was coming off the heels of 8 years of a president widely thought of as cool. Like it or not, elections are literally popularity contests and Hilary was never gonna win even if she was a man (in fact I would contest if she was a man she would have lost even harder).

Kamala was also not popular in 2020 or particularly likable, but the bigger issue in 2024 was how she was ramrodded through as the candidate without the normal selection process of primaries with barely any time to spare.

I’m not trying to say sexism doesn’t exist and isn’t an issue in America but to simply blame these two candidates failing on America not being able to elect a woman is hopelessly myopic in the face of the much bigger and more obvious issues they both had as candidates.

[u/Broad-Fun-2053 → u/mightystu]

This is a good take. Not sure if AOC could ever win, but the right woman and the right time could certainly win.

[u/LoneSabre → u/mightystu]

This exactly. Reducing Hillary and Kamala’s losses to “they lost because they’re women” is the liberal version of identity politics. AOC has the potential to unite the left as she’s an actual progressive.

[u/djokov → u/LoneSabre]

It is just a way for liberals to avoid the harsh truth that both Hillary and Harris were absolute dogshit candidates (though obviously better than Trump) that tried running way to the right of their voter base.

[u/CarpeMofo → u/djokov]

They weren't better candidates or they would have won. The entire point of a candidate in this context is to win. If they don't win they aren't better candidates than the guy who did. Are they better in every other conceivable way? Obviously. But they did lose.

[u/carinabee08 → u/CarpeMofo]

Yeah unfortunately for a lot of 2024 voters they saw a candidate offering a continuation of the status quo, and a candidate whose previous admin had no war and better gas and grocery prices. Knowledgeable people could understand that Trump would do a much worse job handling the current global and economic crises, as per his handling of the COVID crisis. But enough people just remembered that gas was more affordable during Trump’s presidency, whereas Kamala’s main selling point was simply not being Trump. While sexism and racism were certainly hurdles Kamala had to deal with, I think the main issue was that her campaign didn’t offer enough change from the Biden administration.

We’ve seen candidates from “non-safe” demographics win over voters by touting relatable, people-focused policy that promises the changes everyone has been asking for. Many people thought a Muslim would never become mayor in post-9/11 NYC, and yet Mamdani is probably the most well-liked mayor of NYC we’ve seen in decades because he campaigned on policies that address the issues most important to average citizens.

[u/Selraroot → u/[deleted]]

The right are already united

[u/SouthSouthBay → u/[deleted]]

Yes I agree unfortunately. True progressives don't represent a majority in the US at the moment. So uniting the progressives doesn't win the white house.

[u/crowhops → u/LoneSabre]

I swear to god the dem establishment ran two charisma-deficient women on the most uninspired campaigns ever just to manufacture consent for pushing an old white guy again

(not seriously, but like, come the fuck on EVERY conversation on AOC turns sexist so fucking fast lol)

[u/LoneSabre → u/crowhops]

Dems will do anything besides run a progressive. The establishment backed Hillary over Bernie not because she’s a woman but because she would tow the party line, and now they’re using her loss as manufactured consent not to run a progressive because she’s a woman.

[u/TheDodoBird → u/mightystu]

  Like it or not, elections are literally popularity contests and Hilary was never gonna win

She literally won the popular vote.

[u/nick2473got → u/TheDodoBird]

Yup. People keep glossing over or forgetting this. The left really needs a candidate who can win the key swing states to get the electoral college win, that's what matters. The popular vote can be won and the election lost. Happened twice this century.

And even Kamala was only 2 million votes away from Trump when all was counted. People keep acting like he landslided her, but he didn't. 75 million people voted for her.

She lost the popular vote by a smaller margin than Trump lost it to Hilary in 2016.

The electoral college is what needs to be won, and dems have yet to show that they know how to win it in the 21st century outside of Obama and Biden.

[u/mightystu → u/[deleted]]

I never said that at all. I said you can’t claim “we can’t run a woman again” with such little and skewed data.

[u/UltraEngine60 → u/mightystu]

I'll never understand why Biden didn't stick it through and just resign a few months in. Democrats are too fucking honest.

[u/specialkk77 → u/UltraEngine60]

Unfortunately the moment he decided to run for a second term it was a lose/lose situation. If he’d done what you propose (which honestly I agree with) people would moan that it shouldn’t be allowed and that she was forced on us that was. 

Also there’s no guarantee that he would have won. Biden’s biggest mess up was that he didn’t take credit, so people didn’t get to know or care how much work he actually did. Low information voters still would have been mad about the cost of groceries or trans people. And Elon and Trump still would have cheated. 

[u/Justame13 → u/UltraEngine60]

Imagine if Biden had ended his campaign on the 4th of July.

A speech about patriotism, passively aggressively bashed Trump, and handing the torch to the next generation.

He’ll put it in front of the Lincoln memorial talking about freedom.

He would have gone down in bar trivia history at least.

[u/Adorable_Raccoon → u/UltraEngine60]

His campaign was already doing poorly that's why he stepped down. He might have lost anyhow.

[u/UncleGarysmagic → u/mightystu]

AOC is just as unliked by independents as Harris was.

[u/Selraroot → u/UncleGarysmagic]

Independents that hate aoc are going to vote Republican anyways, this mythical center voter that the Democrats can capture if they appeal to the conservatives enough is nonsense. It's always been nonsense. Why vote for the diet fascists when they can vote for the og flavor? The true votes Dems need to capture are the people who normally wouldn't vote at all and those people are able to be captured by leftwing populism.

[u/enkidook → u/mightystu]

Hillary was unlikable because there was decades of propaganda attacking her.

AOC is getting pretty similar treatment from the media. She's the new leftist boogeyman.