Fred Wellman: I am going to spend time trying to figure out why people who are on our side stayed home.

[Dennis Donovan]

Fred Wellman
‪@fpwellman.bsky.social‬
This is why every vote matters. I’m not spending my time trying to understand MAGA’s ever. I am going to spend time trying to figure out why people who are on our side stayed home.

‪Steven T. Dennis‬ ‪
@steventdennis.bsky.social‬
23h
Looks like Democrats will end up ~7500 votes short of winning the House majority across three districts. That's the difference between having the power of the purse, subpoenas etc — or not — in a nation of 330+ million.

November 28, 2024 at 10:58 AM

This is why every vote matters. I’m not spending my time trying to understand MAGA’s ever. I am going to spend time trying to figure out why people who are on our side stayed home.

— Fred Wellman (@fpwellman.bsky.social) 2024-11-28T15:58:38.446Z

[OrlandoDem2]

1. Good! Why do Dems need to understand the racists and misogynists to reach out to them?

We should be connecting with our people - not theirs!

[hlthe2b]

2. Ours who stayed home... It really hurts...

But honestly, we have to take the media back to some small semblance of fairness. We are killed by BRO Podcasts, RW television media (beyond FOX), RW bastardization of social media/"X" and wall-to-wall trolls, including Russian plants.

Lies are pervasive and "swallowed whole..."

[JI7]

5. The bro politics is worse than Fox and Limbaugh

the bro politics appeals to guys that may have little interest in politics or policy views. But some girl rejects them or they see a woman promoted at their work and it brings out their bigotry and resentment which leads to support for Trump who has similar feelings.

[CrispyQ]

8. They always assume the white man passed over for a promotion that went to a woman or minority,

was eminently more qualified than the woman or minority. Every time. Never has the woman or minority been as qualified or deserving as the white man. IMO, a lot of them do the same stereotyping with abortion. Women who have abortions are young, sexually promiscuous women who are using abortion as birth control. The middle-aged woman who wants to retire in a few years & travel with her husband is never pictured.

[unc70]

3. NC was gerrymandered out of three seats

We went from 7-7 to 10-4. Those three extra Rs really hurt now.

[JI7]

4. 2020 was an unusual year

many people that vote democratic may not consider themselves to be "on our side". They were stuck at home and saw Trump telling people to drink bleach and wanted someone else so they can go back to living their life which involves very little attention to politics.

[moonscape]

14. But how did they forget the bleach? And why did

no other insanities take it’s place?

[DetroitLegalBeagle]

29. Pandemic is over

Their attention is on other things. They never cared about politics or trump, but with so much shut down in 2020, there wasn't much for them to do besides pay attention to politics. Situation is different now and they are back to ignoring it.

[Bobstandard]

6. Pander to the base for a change!

Instead of going after some mythical moderate undecided voter give the base red meat. When the base raises an issue, don’t just listen, do something about it.

For instance, polls showed 80% of Democratic voters wanted something done about Gaza. Response from the Democraticopolitical establishment? Crickets.

DU is the base. How many establishment Dem incumbents posted here?

Republicans pander to their base. Democrats ignore them/us —except for fundraising. Even now they’re ignoring legitimate concerns that the election was rigged. 7500 votes between us and the House and no establishment Dem wants a recount?

[La Coliniere]

9. It's so true that the Democratic power establishment

ignores the wants of the majority of Party members and needs to finally be addressed. We want universal health care, stop sending weapons to Israel, increase the cap on Social Security and yet our desires fall on deaf ears. Harris had some good policies that would benefit the working class but it wasn’t enough to entice the majority of voters to elect her. Neoliberalism needs to be jettisoned now. Democrats have to expose the real threats to democracy: corporate power and money in politics (Citizens United). The corporate Democrats have to be given their pink slips and Dems need to seriously address the needs of the working class like they haven’t done since FDR. They need to build a media platform that challenges the supremacy of the right-wing echo chamber so they can continually hammer home the real threats to democracy and progress in an effective and powerful way.

[JI7]

12. This is a fucking joke. They don't care about universal health care

if they didn't vote. Their position on Israel is about hatred of Jews and nothing else if they didn't vote .

We aren't going to pretend these people are concerned about policy issues.

[JohnSJ]

27. Thank-you. The stakes were never clearer this election.

[womanofthehills]

33. I think their hatred is of Netanyahu- as many Jews hate him too

Drs today who recently returned from Gaza hospitals talking about Palestinian little kids walking without shoes over rubble, cutting their feet and walking through sewage, feet getting badly infected, no antiobiotics , - large numbers of little kids getting feet amputated. Just one of the many horrors these selfless drs are reporting.

Crystal Ball on “Breaking Points “ - had their reporters interview black women who didn’t vote for Biden. Almost all mentioned genocide in Gaza as one of the reasons. Many of my liberal Facebook friends said they would stay home and not vote.

We are seeing this genocide on our phones every day now for over a year. My grandkids are horrified, I’m horrified, the world is horrified.

[JI7]

36. Most black women voted for Harris.

nobody id buying this bs . You claim these people care about Gaza but have nothing to say about thr leadership of Gaza itself. It's a fucking joke.

[JI7]

11. The base already votes democratic. And the base was not ignored

And Gaza has their own government. If you want something done about Gaza then go to those that are controlling it.

There aren't enough people in the base to win national elections.

[Bobstandard]

24. If you don't pander to your base, your base shrinks

It’s pretty simple.

[JI7]

35. The base doesn't need pandering to. Both Harris and Walzhad a good record

and anyone that is actually the base would easily vote for them.

What you steer describing is not the base and are people that support republicams .

[Elessar Zappa]

16. That's a good way to lose every election.

The base isn’t enough to keep us in power.

[Bobstandard]

23. You saw how the base didn't show up, right?

Look at the exit polls. Explain to me why a big piece of the base didn’t show up. Why weren’t they motivated?

I ’ll go first; because they and their issues weren’t prioritized. Issues supposedly appealing to ‘moderates’ and ‘independents’ and ’undecideds’ were. You know, the people who, in addition to the base, would have swung the election. Except the base was taken for granted so they didn’t show. That’s why we lost.

You know we lost, right? Again.

The base doesn’t come out when we bring knives to a knife fight.

[Kaleva]

21. The base votes in each and every election

Can't claim to be a member of the base if you decide now and then not to vote .

The issue is the need to expand beyond the core base.

[betsuni]

37. Republicans ignore and do nothing for their base, don't have to do a thing. Opposite of pander.

Their base is the same, same message: hate, fear, lies (they do nothing economic for them).

By the way,"Establishment" is a silly insult, same as elite, neoliberal, status quo blah blah blah. The Democratic base is large and diverse and there IS no one message.

"Politicians who make dishonest promises to restore coal ... Donald Trump ... won by astonishing margins. Although there are rural places that don't face the grinding struggle that Mingo Country does, it shares this devotion to the GOP with almost every majority-white rural county in the country. ... Democrats can't compete there anymore and the Republicans can take lopsided victories for granted. So, what do rural Whites get in return for all they bestow upon the GOP? Almost nothing. The benefits they receive are nearly all emotional, not material. They're flattered and praised, and then they get whatever satisfaction can be had from watching their party win office and having their enemies despair. ... Mingo County is suffering from a rash of economic, social, and health-related woes."

From White Rural Rage by Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman

The Democratic Party does the opposite, gets things done and then everyone except the real base (who know what Democrats are dong) whines and spreads misinformation. A lot of angry toddlers who need to be victims.

[bucolic_frolic]

7. They listened to our narrative of enthusiasm, last week surge, and how bad Trump was.

So ...... they thought we were winning especially when the polls were breaking our way, and no surprise they knew Trump was bad all along, so what else is new? We couldn't lose to him with all that momentum we have, could we?

We needed to demonize Trump with Project 2025 and Social Security scares.
We needed to play underdog instead of energy and enthusiasm.
We needed to put out polls saying we were losing and would lose if people didn't vote.

Those were narratives we controlled. We didn't scare voters enough.

[JI7]

13. No, they themselves would vote if they paid that close attention to politics

[moonscape]

15. The psychology of voting

defeats me.

There is your argument, but also the one that says people love being on the winning team and enthusiasm drives them to the polls. Positivity vs fear.

Both make sense to me.

[Polybius]

10. I think it's pretty easy to figure out

2020 had a pandemic, and there was very heavy emphasis voting by mail-in ballots. A huge amount of people who never voted voted in that election, because it was so easy. 4 years later, mail-in was a far less common option.

So a lot of casual voters didn't bother voting again.

[4catsmom]

17. we are our own worst enemy

critical of other Dems instead of presenting a united front - you don't have to go along blindly, but don't create the expectation from Dems that their candidate must be perfect

[ucrdem]

18. I am going to politely resist saying the obvious

because I want say Happy Thanksgiving to all my DU buds!

[Sancho]

19. they did not want the orange idiot....but....

the idea of voting for a woman, a minority, and an woman who was 1st generation immigrant was too much. They were brought up and poisoned, so they did not vote at all.

[Cha]

20. I know... it's Unreal... I cannot wrap my

head around that either.

WTF Dems who stayed home.

[Hekate]

31. I want to hear more about voter suppression, frankly...

Gerrymandering is easy to see. Ethnically cleansing voter rolls is right up there. Refusal to accept mail in ballots for a multitude of reasons.

And on and on it goes. I really want to hear about that.

[Cha]

32. Yes, there's the Voter Suppression and Purging

and Any Damn Way they Could CHEAT America. Putin Had to have Helped and Crackhead musk, of course.

Olga Lautman: The Russians are sending a message to Trump

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219772241

I'm thinking More will come out as Time goes on.

[ThePartyThatListens]

22. Who is the Democratic base?

Who are they?

[LeftInTX]

25. Many switched parties

In the Rio Grande Valley it was painfully obvious

2024


2020


2016

[duncang]

26. I put at least part of it to the sane washing.

Especially the morning and evening news. ABC, CBS, and NBC may not have the audience they used to. But everything in elections is percentages. I can’t remember a single instance of them mentioning project 2025. Or the disaster he was the first time.

[taxi]

28. Fred is out to learn everything he can about briar patches.

While it seems like a good idea, what does it matter how different each thorn is if each has the same effect? Inspecting each one is a fool's errand and not time that could be spent learning to avoid being in the briars. Maybe that's why he isn't a party leader. He is a distraction.
We need to focus. Fred can go back to the bushes while the party comes up with a strategy for us to follow.
ETA - there is a difference between being relevant day-by-day as an influencer and playing the long game

[Hekate]

30. I hope he spends some time figuring out how many votes were maliciously suppressed

[Paladin]

34. I don't want to hear their explanations for not showing up.

I want them to stay busy fucking themselves.