That's the thing though, it doesn't matter if people like your policies or not if at the end of the day they still decide to cast their vote against you and what they perceive you to stand for.

It's less that they dislike Democratic policies per se and more that the dislike the "idea" of your party. As you say, it's vibes. The Democratic platform was seen as "the status quo" by a population who are pissed off and want change. 

Trump was able to speak to that discontent, much as Biden rode the wave of people pissed off with Trump in 2020.

Sure, but perception -- what people think they are calling for, is totally different from their platform -- what they are actually calling for. This wasn't a rejection of the Democratic platform, as you originally stated. Their platform is popular and fine. It's a rejection of their ability to project a message and act against opponents who outright lie. 

Living in a swing state, the commercials from the GOP side were things like "Kamala supports paid transgendered surgeries for criminals." "Border czar Kamala wants to protect rapist and murderer illegals." And other wacko shit that I can guarantee the overwhelming majority of people don't support. 

Democrats were punished for inflation that was something every developed country in the world experienced because the stimulus that caused it was necessary for more people to not die of COVID, and to prevent a global recession. A large part of that stimulus happened under Trump in 2020. 

The Democrats aren't my party by the way. I am a left-wing independent who votes for Democrats out of them being a lesser of two evils, but honestly probably disagrees with them 40% of the time. 

Party rather than platform would have been the better term then, I will amend.

Maybe I am naïve but I think most people don't believe the more wacko insane shit, (many people clearly do, I just doubt it's a majority) and more that most people care more about their own immediate comfort and wellbeing than issues that they don't feel affect them personally.

It's easy for people who struggle to put food on the table to roll their eyes at a lot of leftist ideals or issues and decide to stick it to a party that they see as not doing enough to help them, regardless of whether the alternative is any better.

I'd say that the Democratic Party's message this year (and in fact since 2022) toned down quite a bit on cultural issues. They won in 2020, the same year "defund the police", "abolish ICE", and other sentiments were common among a third of the base. That is when the Democratic party and its base were most "woke". 

Their main thesis and message this time was that Trump posed an existential risk to democracy. Which isn't untrue or trivial, but obviously most Americans who voted don't care. 

Kamala heavily de-emphasized  being a women or a person of color (unlike, for example Clinton, who obsessed about being the first woman president.) When people asked her about Trump's racism directed to her, she would say things like "this isn't new for him" and then just move on. 

The real problem is that in the last month of her campaign all Kamala did was try to court Bush Republicans/Neocons, who barely exist anymore, and ignored the working class part of her base. She did have good economic policies that would benefit the less-educated working class, like removing education requirements for federal positions that don't need them, or the first time homeowner subsidies, but these policies didn't get media presence. 

If there were an actual primary last year, she could have distanced herself from Biden and have her policies better communicated. That's probably the biggest mistake. Biden should have dropped out last year and allowed for a real primary. 

They did mostly avoid "woke" issues in her short lived campaign, yeah, which was definitely the right call, but the resentment built up by that movement over the last several years was still there, and the right's messaging smartly connected the two.

And yeah Biden should never have stood for re-election in the first place. There wasn't much Kamala could do at the very last minute, in the minds of too many she represented a continuation of an unpopular regime. The party was a damaged brand by that point.

Trump isn't evil if you want to use a moral alignment kind of compass.  He is just more so amoral.  His ethics fit what suits him much more than most people.  And he seems to have done many shady things in recently.  So to hell with Trump.  I hope he burns.  

He has also been very lax wrt Russia and its aggression towards Ukraine.  Ryuu can explain it much better but he's also praised Putin and mocked zelensky.  I think that he's got some kind of agreement with Russia even though it will never be proven.  If Trump is going to officially be an isolationist towards Russia, whether he has agreements or not, the real question is what will happen with China in his final term.  Will China invade Taiwan?  This would be the ideal time.  They have a president who doesn't want to meddle with foreign affairs, much less against communist ones.  All trump cares about is the border.   

The problem is that Taiwan produces 90% of the world's semiconductors.  You can do the math and realize that they could start charging out of the ass if they have that monopoly over the rest of the world, and fvcking over everybody.   

This is very worrisome to me.  

Agreed.  Simplify the message, focus only on things everyone benefits from and repeat the message over and over.  

I had a mentor teach me how to present to get someone to buy into my idea.  He had a 3 point presentation view:

1) tell them what you are going tell them 

2) tell them

3) tell them what you told them

Complexity kills liberals because they don't repeat messages.  How many times did trump repeat his message on things like border?  

I further agree they go too far in appealing to specific sub groups, which simply pisses another group off.  

It is all too much.  Focus will win them them the next election.

Edit

Only concern I have is NY and Cali were closer than FL.  Sounds crazy but true, granted votes are still being counted.  Meaning I don't think liberals can wait till next election cycle to rebuild their messenging.  They need to start sooner than later.  

Some US general expects China to strike in 2027 and talks about them already preparing their army and spending more for military despite their lower economic growth in the past few years. It would fit perfectly into Trump next legislation period.

As the US was spot on with the invasion of Ukraine beforehand, I take such warnings quite seriously.

You are 100% correct and I agree with you, but that has been happening for much longer than 2021.

Inflation (as a % of price increase) had been happening long before that but people could not see it through the official number because how the inflation official number is calculated, which does not take into consideration the increase in prices for assets and some other stuff. The money printing machine has been going crazy since 2008 and this is why you see this unnatural increase in stocks and real state. There is where the money ends up going. You know this, but average joe does not. 

The effect just got worse since then, as trump 1 and Biden just went even crazier with spending. Usually it would be the republicans asking for more spending control but even they dont care anymore, it doesnt win votes anymore. Stock market and real state markets do not make sense anymore, and for a long time. But at least the impact was concentrated in these areas.

Then with covid and the stimulus packages and supply chain disruptions shit just hit the fan, because now the money was going straight into average joe pockets, real cash instead of QE, for an economy that just didnt exist for a period. Inflation just exploded all over the world. And I agree with you, the other option would be MUCH worse. In the end all countries in the world except for a few went for the same approach. Monster inflation. Trump elected again.

And he will keep on spending like crazy I am sure. Inflation wont go down. Prices wont go backwards without a recession. Salaries wont magically go up to compensate for it. Average Joe got fucked and there is no going back and in short term. We used inflation to save the economy in 2008 and 2019. It worked. But if fucked most people in different ways and it opened the way for Trump to come back.

Btw I like your analysis, always nice to see a nice discussion

Valdney? You gotta be brazilian