Summary
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’ 2024 running mate, has suggested he may run for president in 2028.
Reflecting on the Democrats’ loss to Donald Trump and JD Vance, he admitted: “A large number of people did not believe we were fighting for them in the last election – and that’s the big disconnect.”
Walz said his life experience, rather than ambition, would guide his decision.
Though his VP campaign was marred by gaffes, he remains open to running if he feels prepared.
He’s the one who wanted to go hardball on Republicans and they couldn’t find anything to stick to him, as hard as they tried.
Dems can do worse and have done much worse.
Sad that this is what it took
I’m not convinced there will be an election in 2028…
There won’t at the current trajectory. There won’t even be midterms.
I remember Republicans checking out on elections back in 2018 because they bought hard into the Trump “elections are rigged” propaganda. The GOP lost seven Senate seats that year as conservative turnout plunged.
I wonder if Democrats will make the same mistake in 2026.
That makes no sense at all. 2018 was two years after Trump won in 2016, and he rarely claimed elections were rigged in 2016, because he won.
In 2020, however, he was gloating about how elections were rigged, and republicans did okay in the midterms later in 2022.
he rarely claimed elections were rigged in 2016, because he won.
He was highly outspoken in 2016 straight up until the elections closed, then did a number of interviews after the fact where he insisted he could have won in states like California and New York if the vote hadn’t been rigged against him. There was also a big wave of “RINOs are undermining the party!” discourse, particularly after McCain spiked the Senate vote on repealing Obamacare that lead to a ton of internal GOP drama.
In 2020, however, he was gloating about how elections were rigged, and republicans did okay in the midterms later in 2022.
The J6 riot was the product of four years of Republican discourse, insisting elections were rigged. Once Trump was out of office and banned from Twitter, his ability to amplify conspiracy theories was diminished. The Republican media machine was able to pivot back to a “We’re the majority! We’re going to flood the polls! Red Wave!” exuberance and away from the internalized defeatism post-2016.
Not sure about rigged, but honestly, depending on how the next few years go, it may be straight up dangerous for non-republican Americans to vote. While that’s by no means a certainty, people should keep an eye on any electoral changes made in their state.
If Republicans experience a route like they suffered in 2018, it will likely be due to the mushy indie republican-when-its-convenient voters breaking ranks in droves, just like they did in prior Dem wave years. That’s what Harris was banking on in 2024 when she paraded around her pet RINOs Liz Cheney and Jeff Flake. She just failed to understand that these wishy-washy voters are chasing less war and less disruption and more protectionist economics, something Trump was able to dangle over their heads (twice!) to win the GOP primary / national election.
Republicans don’t really seem to get it, either. Which is why they think the midterm after a wave year is the perfect time to put Grade A psychos all over the down-ballots and end up losing statewide in Alabama of all places as a result.
The “we won’t be having any more elections” crowd is heavily invested in a theory that Republicans can get their own base to sit down, shut up, and follow orders. But the last eight years of Trump should be an indication of the exact opposite. The party is being lead by the base, which means the prior generation’s power brokers like the Bushs and Cheneys and Bloombergs no longer have a place in it.
The one thing we have going for us is that Don’s dementia and age are going to increasingly make it difficult for him to hold his party together. And there is the chance one of those things will leave the GOP trying to field a new traitor to try and get the cult to consolidate around.
once he kicks the bucket, assuming they can’t find someone the republican base will support as fervently as trump, the entire party is done for, it will collapse into a blackhole of nothingness.
I’d like to believe that, I really would, but let’s be honest with ourselves. The current republicans (in leadership) aren’t stupid. They’ve gotten pretty decent at running with donald’s bullshit and spinning it. They also know that politics isn’t much different than sports teams for the vast majority of the voting public in america. They’ll not have trouble finding someone who is charismatic enough to spit verbal acid at opponents in a primary AND can be riled up against the demographic target of choice.
The only real challenge for them will be 1.) finding someone with donald’s ‘blessing’ or a connection to him to set it up as ‘taking over’ so the republican voters will find it so amazing, AND 2.) ensuring someone like musk doesn’t try to torpedo everything by using vast amounts of money to try to buy their way into the ring.
Just like the dems. Who will we vote for then, the greens?
no, the dems, because literally who else are you going to vote for lmao. There is always a budding dem/left leaning candidate, we will never have that problem, we don’t play as aggressively on that.
because literally who else are you going to vote for lmao.
Well, I’ll leave the entry blank. And I dont agree that theres always a budding dem candidate. The party is sickly and captured by the donors, particularly aipac. There is no way it magically becomes uncaptured without losing elections. So thats what I’m working on.
protest voting is definitely an option, although i wish it listed actual numbers. Kind of ruins the point if it’s just worthless to do.
Losing elections to the republicans? You mean the party that most lefties accuse the dems of being in bed with? Seems like a bold strategy. Do nothing and, when you do end up doing something, make sure it’s something that doesn’t actually do anything.
Kind of ruins the point if it’s just worthless to do.
My vote and other voters like me made the point to the DNC that if they ignore the will of a large enough segment of their base, they will absolutely lose the election. If everyone thought like you did, the DNC would completely ignore the entirety of their base. They clearly operate from a completely amoral calculation these days. They dont care about much of anything. Not law, not human dignity. Nothing.
The Harris campaign had to cover the governor’s tracks when he tripped up during a California fundraiser by stating that the constitutionally-mandated system used to select the president, otherwise known as the electoral college, “needs to go”.
How the hell is that a gaffe? It’s both the truth and exactly what people want to hear. Any lib who thinks like that needs to kindly keep their mouths shut for the next four years. This country needs radical change, the only choice you get is which one you want.
and exactly what people want to hear
It’s what people who care about democracy want to hear. That certainly isn’t everyone.
Him calling the GOP weird was not a gaffe but the campaign made him walk away from that language because it might offend potential turncoats. The fact he is internalizing the criticism worries me.
My only “problem” with the weird-comments were that they were overused. While it is certainly true, and Waltz had every reason to call it out, supporters often kept repeating it in the context of “look how triggered Republicans are by this”. After a while it gave me the same vibe as people shoehorning “let’s go brandon” into every situation.
context of “look how triggered Republicans are by this”.
If you want to shake the cult’s faith in their cult leader, then yes, you want to trigger them. They’re triggered because they sense the loss of innate, automatic strongman support.
After a while it gave me the same vibe as people shoehorning “let’s go brandon” into every situation.
Except that…worked?
One of the takeaways from the 2024 election is that if you have something that works, repetition is key for the idiot American electorate.
Yeah, interesting how the Harris campaign had all the momentum after the Waltz nomination, then pivoted back to neoliberal wonkiness and then crashed and burned again.
It was her perpetual problem too. She’d start out with energetic support for progressive policies, get momentum, and then a few days later (presumably after talking with advisors and donors) clarify that actually she didn’t mean it and what she really wanted was strictly limited neoliberalism. It’s why she failed in the 2020 primary and I wish she learned something from that.
Tim Walz unleashed would have won this.
He was hamstrug by Harris. He’s likely the dem’s best choice for 2028.
So of course they’ll run Newsome or Shapiro or Hillary Clinton again because they’re a bunch of idiots.
I think it’s important to work towards enabling more political parties between now and 2028. We need alternative voting systems like Alaska and Maine have, but in the other states as well. That is only really possibly through getting ballot initiatives passed in each state for something like STAR Voting, Ranked Robin Voting, Score Voting, or Ranked Choice Voting.
A different voting system enables us to move away from First Past the Post, which is what forces a two party system. By having this, there can be more smaller parties that more truly represent the values of each state that can work with the bigger parties. Plus, it opens up the door for the most liked candidates to not knock each other out over the least liked candidates when tallying the votes.
All that is needed in about half of the states is to get signatures to put ballot initiatives up for a vote. Through grassroots action we can make a meaningful difference, and get more politicians like Walz that actually care about us in office.
So are we going to vote for the lesser evil genocide supporter even in 2028
Walz was great in 2024. He had enthusiasm and actually answered the interviewers’ questions. I would have preferred the symbolic victory of a black woman president, but I like Walz better as an individual person. I think he could have won if he’d been the presidential candidate. Well, Harris won too, but I mean he could have won even with the voter suppression stealing all those democratic votes.
President Walz and Vice President Cortez is the future we need. But probably not the future we’ll get.
I would have preferred the symbolic victory of a black woman.
This is why DEI is getting bitchslapped the fuck off.
Is he going to play a centrists or actually move the needle?
Don’t need another “capitalist Harris”
Seemed like a genuine awesome dude, love what he’s done in Minnesota but I lack faith that in the democratic party he’ll do any good. That and he needs to work on debating…
Rather have AOC
That said better than most of the geriatric pandering democratic ineffective options. Even though he’ll be close to 70…
For wast majority of Americans capitalist Harris is actually rapid communist comrade Harris. For significant majority of registered voters her existence is a rampant leftist propane and seven steps too far.
USians are firmly on the rigth, and unless you fix that, all your exciting candidates will achieve jack shit.For wast majority of Americans capitalist Harris is actually rapid communist comrade Harris.
You don’t seem like you really have a grasp on US politics.
If we look into who holds all the power, I kind of do actually. If your metric is whatever you read on Lemmy, then yeah, Americans are all very progressive and cool and gay. But 75% of them chose Trump, so it might be that they aren’t cool at all, and it’s just vocal minority in a particular bubble.
Yeah, you’re still wildly uniformed. Trump got voted in with less than 50% of the vote from something in the vicinity of a third of eligible voters.
That’s my point. 50% of third of eligible voters voted against fascism. Everyone else either actively voted for, or passively voted for by not participating, which is just as bad.
That’s just not how you count votes. It wouldn’t be an overwhelming rejection of fascism if 1% more voted for Harris.
And you still didn’t even get the number right, which kind of reinforces how you never actually knew the proportion.
That’s how you count supporters. If a person of voting age in 2024 looked into whatever is happening and decided that they don’t care if Trump wins, they are firmly in the camp of the enablers, and they are just as guilty as those who actively voted for.
I don’t know where you got your numbers, I don’t care and it doesn’t matter. 25% is the most cheritable number if we assume half of the eligible population voted. There is no open and easily available statistics on that, so it’s all estimations. If yours is correct, the numbers are even worse, so I don’t know why you’re insisting on that, but that’s again doesn’t matter.
He’s got the stink of Biden/Harris on him, but he’s got four years to wash that off.
Let’s see if he does, or if he thinks cozeying up to establishment Dems is the ticket to victory.
Makes too many speaking gaffes. Can’t risk anything.
*Bring on the downvotes. Doesn’t change facts.
Too many speaking gaffes…
Look at our current sitting president.
We all know GOP has Fox and Co behind them. But Dems need to be 1000% perfect to even get Dem voters.
Oh man I can’t wait for right-wing/foreign propaganda to tell progressives what they should hate about Walz.
And don’t forget this from a russian propagandist in 2015 (archived reddit link):
“Once we isolate key people, we look for people we know are in their upstream – people that they read posts from, but who themselves are less influential. We then either start flame wars with bots to derail the conversations that are influencing influential people, or else send off specific tasks for sockpuppets (changing this wording of an idea here; cause an ideological split there; etc).”
I’m more interested in seeing if democrats hold honest primaries.
Or primaries at all.
Continue to pretend that every criticism from your left is from your right. It makes it easier to blame the left you hate when you lose to the right you admire.
Interesting response as well to that quote. How you feeling about the Republicans right now. Love or hate?
Continued hate. How about you? Still prefer trump to any progressive?
What do you think the R’s did wrong this last cycle? Do you think they legally cheated and maybe had some actual cheating by his minions? Or do you think they won it because the democrats did everything wrong?
they won it because the democrats did everything wrong?
This isn’t even up for debate. R’s won because D’s did everything wrong, at least during and post convention. Trump had an approval rating almost as low as Biden, and even with the incredible opportunity swapping out the candidate represented, they still managed to blow it. Its in the data.
Biden was dead in the water as far back as March of that year, but realistically, he never had a chance. I’ve posted the analyses here and can dig them up for illustrative purposes, but Biden’s probability of turning it around in March was coming in at between a 1:1000, to 1:10000 chance. It just wasn’t going to happen, and the sane among us were down voted into oblivion, banned from important subs, banned all over the place for pointing that out.
Once the candidates swapped, Harris was suddenly on a trajectory to wipe the floor with Trump. In the few weeks where we had meaningful data, before the convention, She was on pace to be in the range she needed to be in to take the game home in a lunch box. Her polling looked great, she had done no real damage to herself, and voters were mostly basing their estimates of who she was based on her 2020 primary campaign. Her trajectory was on base to be in the range of 50-55% by November in those models. Things looked really good.
Then… the convention happened. And she took all the wrong advice and made all the wrong decisions. She swapped out the progressive policies for neoliberal/ neoconservative polices. She refused to step away from Bidens deeply unpopular positions, which were many. She elevated Republican voices at the convention and silenced Gazan delegates.
And her polling tanked. She then proceeded to double down on these things that were deeply unpopular among Democratic voters. And thats the key. Doing almost nothing before the convention, and she was set to coast to victory. Every move she made after the convention was the wrong one, and cost her, substantially.
So again. This isn’t even a discussion. If you require this kind of enlightenment, you might want to just pay more attention on a regular basis because everything I’m putting out here is pretty much common knowledge and has been, since/ as/ when it all happened.
It just makes me so infuriatingly upset how right you were on just about all of it, btw. It was like watching a slow motion train wreck to watch them snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
As frustrating as it was to watch it from a distance, it was orders of magnitude more frustrating to watch members of our own community, u/jordanlund , and u/FlyingSquid, convert several high-profile subs into echo-chambers effectively devoid of dissenting opinions with regards to how the Democrats were performing, how successful they were being, and what it would take to win the election.
Its one thing when its happening at a distance, but these individuals did real damage, here, in our community. And it wasn’t unique to lemmy. It happened on almost all social media platforms and in mainstream and alternative media as well. I’ve got standing ban’s in c/world and c/political_memes from expressing the exact points I’m making here, when these things were happening. The campaign was largely shielded from the dissenting opinion that what they were doing wasn’t working, and it cost them the election. Even as late as October they could have pivoted/ re-calibrated, but they didn’t think they needed to because they weren’t hearing the opinion that shit wasn’t working. I think its just more painful when its your own community doing the scum-bag thing.
Democrats won’t win an election by ignoring and silencing legitimate criticism. They’ll need to deal with and elevate criticisms and discuss how they’ll be doing things differently. The constant and pernicious gaslighting, its why they lose elections. Or maybe the right phrasing is that they couldn’t win? The relevancy isn’t clear to be because I’m unsure we’ll have elections again.
There was so much on the line and they cost us everything.
