2024 is not the most important election of our lives.

[Loki Liesmith]

Increasingly it looks like 2016 was.

[Maine Abu El Banat]

1. Where is Susan Sarandon?

She said there was no difference between Orange Anus and Hillary. Has she admitted how wrong she was or is her nose still in the air.

[Greybnk48]

2. I think Bush v Gore may have been even worse

with the war and all. Gore and Hillary both won and never served as President. Too bizarre. It also laid the groundwork for using Republican bully tactics and gaming the votes modern style.

But Trump does win for being the worst thing that's ever happened to our country outside of the Civil War.

[ms liberty]

3. No. 2000 was the pivotal election, IMO. By 2016 it was too late.

[live love laugh]

4. ✔️

[In It to Win It]

7. 2000 was crucial. 2016 was an opportunity to stop the bleeding

[Elessar Zappa]

5. Yes but

we can’t go backward, only forward. So 2024 is now the most important election.

[elocs]

10. But did we learn the lesson of 2016 or will we repeat it?

Because the Left needs to turn out and vote for the nominee of the Democratic Party like it was their duty, no excuses.

[Elessar Zappa]

17. They seemed to have learned it in 2020.

Third parties didn’t do well in that election.

[live love laugh]

6. Whether 2000 or 2016 your point is it's behind us.

And people are as docile as ever—still engaged in bothsiderism and such.

*sigh*

[walkingman]

8. I know you can't change the past but I think the election of Reagan in 1980

changed everything. The GOP began it's "government is the problem" and used religion to carry the message. I seriously doubt we would have ever had either of the Bushes or Trump were it not for Reagan.

The Reagan supporters and their off-spring still control the GOP which has evolved into a fascism.

Our Democracy has turned into an Oligarchy.

[elocs]

9. I saw your title and 2016 was the one I thought of as well.

The Left was complacent and cocky. Too many thought Trump could never win, too many thought Hillary had it in the bag. Like in my state of Wisconsin that Obama easily won twice but Hillary narrowly lost in '16. In fact, Jill Stein of the Green Party received more votes here than Trump's margin of victory. Those votes overwhelmingly came from the Left.

How many from the Left just considered themselves too noble and righteous to bring themselves to vote for the lesser of 2 perceived evils so they didn't vote for Hillary? Too many.

Imagine an alternate universe where Hillary Clinton beat Trump. What a different America this would be now. Especially the makeup of the Supreme Court.

[Doc Sportello]

14. Your facts and reasoning are wrong - and devisive

I know some on here love to paint "the left" as the bogeyman in the same way the right wing does. Fact is if you take the 130,000 votes Jill Stein got in PA, WI and MI they don't come close to the 440,000 that the Libertarian candidate got in those states. If you're going to assign all of Stein's votes to Clinton, then it's equally reliable to give all of Gary Johnson's votes to dump and the asshole still wins.

This constant meme on here of the hated left costing Clinton the election is just more refighting of the 2016 primary and is petty and divisive going forward. It also ignores the mistake Clinton's campaign made in 2016.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/12/hillary-clinton-margin-loss-votes

snip

"But perhaps the most painful data point for Clinton is this: the Democratic nominee for president never made a single campaign stop during the general election, and largely neglected Pennsylvania and Michigan, too, while Trump canvassed all three states relentlessly. His furious, last-minute blitz throughout the Rust Belt to win white, working-class voters, combined with the lack of resources Clinton invested, essentially handed their combined 46 electoral votes to Trump. Instead, Clinton spent the last few weeks of her campaign expending resources in places like Arizona and Texas—states which went for Trump by huge margins. "

[Bettie]

11. Well, 2016 is past and unless you

have a time machine, looking back isn't going to change anything.

Look forward, to what we can do NOW rather than spending that energy being angry about something that happened in 2016.

2000 was a pivotal year too...if the counting had continued a whole bunch of horrible stuff wouldn't have happened.

We're in 2023 and looking forward to an election that will need all of our effort and attention. So, we can lament the past or we can do our level best to make sure we win.

[edisdead]

12. This post sucks.

I’m sorry but these kinds of posts really suck for me when I read them. “The damage is done it’s too late!!!”

Seriously there is nothing good that can come of a post like this on one of the most viewed democratic forums out there with the most rabid of democratic party faithful. What IS the point of posting such nonsense?

The most important election of our lifetime is THE VERY NEXT ELECTION!!!! ALWAYS! EVERY. DAMN. TIME!

Sorry to be a dick but seriously this debbie downer garbage has got to stop. We have momentum and we have the ability to right some wrongs when we vote and get into power.

[Doc Sportello]

15. You're absolutley right

This OP and replies are just more of the refighting of the 2016 primary that some on here can't get over. It serves no purpose except to remind us of a lesson that Biden's team knew in 2020: fight hard for WI, MI and PA.

[walkingman]

18. I think that our political history is very important.

It helps us understand how events in the past made things the way they are today. With lessons from the past, we not only learn about ourselves and how we came to be, but also develop the ability to avoid mistakes and create a better future.

I agree the next election is the most important one and based on the clear evidence of the last few years alone it is clear that out Democracy is under a real threat.

We do have momentum because Biden has had a amazingly successful 2 years legislatively and the economy remains strong but we do have headwinds because of inflation and interest rate increases. So there is a real chance that we could have a recession so it is really important for everyone to understand the real importance of not falling lies and deceit of the GOP.

We will be living with this SCOTUS mess for decades and it's time for us to take maintain control of the POTUS and take back the House in order to stop this madness. History tells us the consequences of failure are dire.

[SYFROYH]

13. It can get a lot worse if Trump winsn in 2024.

Every election is the most important election of our lives/

[Doc Sportello]

16. Ridiculous

If dump is sent back to the WH in 2024 then we will lose our democracy. He was held back in his four years but that won't be the case in 2025 as he seeks revenge.

[roamer65]

19. 2000 and 2016 were self inflicted wounds.

A failure of decrepit clauses in our aging Constitution, namely the Electoral College.

We can’t change the past, but we can change the future.

[Autumn]

20. If you want to live in the past go back to 2000. That was when the Supreme court stepped in

and nothing was done. Not a fucking thing.