Lessons For The Left

As someone who follows Politics but stops short of the deep-dives of being a Political Commentator (Plus, you know, wanting to live on a habitable planet...) I've noticed some broad trends recently.

Not just in the most recent US Elections, but also in Australia, France, The UK, Italy and the Netherlands.

Please note, no country or demographic is a monolith. While cultural and social trends and broad similarities exist, people are individuals with their own thoughs and opinions. it isn't fair to point and say "oh but everyone knows they..."

'Everyone' does not know, and if they claim they do, they're wrong.

Time

I'll be honest, I don't think that Biden should have run for a second term. Biden has been a good president, but he ran in 2020 on a platform of holding the line until the progressives people wanted were old enough and experienced enough to take up the flag.

Being President is one of the hardest jobs in the world, and it takes a toll. Biden isn't young, and while I don't jump on the Right Wing Parade of claiming he's mentally ill, the man deserves a break. There's also the concern of whether or not he'd last the full term, and as much as Healthcare is improving by leaps and bounds, age is the one inevitability.

The fact that Biden only pulled out after a disastrous debate against Trump meant that there wasn't time to hold a caucus, or let the Democratic Nominees debate each other. People were hopeful for fresh, younger faces, and Biden suddenly backtracking and declaring that he was going to run again was a disappointment.

At that late stage, Kamala as VP was the only option, and as much as I think she's a competent politician who does a good job, she's not the best at speechmaking. The fact that she was the Current VP also worked against her, because she was seen as part of the "Old Government", when people were looking for change.

Debates, yes. Watching her verbally eviscerate Trump was the best thing since Julia Gillard's declaration that she would not be lectured by Tony Abbott.

Getting people who weren't already voting Blue fired up and on her side? Not so much.

Maybe she still would have got the Nomination, but with barely two months before Election Day, there wasn't time to get an idea of what Kamala stood for, other than "Not being Trump".

Purity Politics

Let's be blunt: the Left has GOT to get over the idea of there being a single, perfect political candidate, and accepting nothing less.

One person's idea of the ideal candidate isn't good enough for the next person, and a third person outright hates them for unrelated reasons. The #BurnieOrBust crowd divided the vote in 2016. Everyone whining about "not another Old White Man!" risked doing the same in 2020.

Kamala was a Woman of Colour, but for as many people who cheered for that, there were just as many who refused to vote for a "Cop" or a "Tool of the Establishment".

Politics is referred to as The Swamp for a reason: it's messy, it stinks, it's filled with bloodsuckers, and as soon as you step in, there's no way you come out as sparkly-clean as you went in.

Sometimes, you just have to hold your nose and your breath, and vote for the people who are throwing ropes to drag you out, even if they aren't actively punching the one trying to hold you underwater.

Every Leftist victory drags politics a little closer to the centre, and from there we can look at dragging it further left again. It's like a game of Tug-o-War; you don't have to like the people around you, you just have to pull in the same direction.

That's a lot harder when half the team drops the rope and goes home because they don't like the person yelling for them to pull.

Messaging

This was a big one.

As I've said before, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are both excellent at getting things done without fanfare. COVID recovery, the cap on Insulin prices, College Debt, the gains in American-owned businesses... there was a lot, but most of it flew under the radar.

In an ideal world, that would be enough. We wouldn't have to be subjected to an endless cycle of doomscrolling just to remain aware of what was happening. Politicians could get on with making life better, without having to spend a week bragging about it.

Trump gets credit for everything he does, and a bunch of stuff he didn't do or that he claims he did (even if it never happened). He's a gifted entertainer and crowd-pleaser, no matter what you think of him as a person.

That was the problem. Hardly anyone knew what Biden and Kamala had accomplished, because it was buried under the more "newsworthy" smear stories like Hunter's Laptop and how many criminal cases of Black Men Kamala had presided over (ignoring the fact that she argued for leniency more often than not).

Pre-Election, Trump was dominating the news cycles and claiming so many things that it was impossible to fact-check everything. He spent more time tearing down his opponents than he did talking about his own plans (probably for good reason, given his current cabinet line-up...).

He wrote the narrative, and didn't let anyone deviate from it, and the Democrats didn't have a strong enough counter-narrative to sway anyone who didn't know better than to take every headline as fact.

Showing Up

As I have said on several message boards and Discord Forums this week, I'm very grateful that Australia has Mandatory Voting.

The fact that it's Mandatory means that the government is forced to make voting as easy and accessible as possible, or they wouldn't be able to collect fines from people who challenged the fine with "well, I couldn't get to a polling station, because there wasn't one nearby".

Australia votes on Saturday, and every public primary school becomes a polling station (this also lets the school fundraise through Democracy Sausage Sandwiches and bake sales), and scout halls and churches are available two weeks beforehand for early voting.

And you only have to show up, recieve your ballot, and get your name checked off. I've been a polling station worker, and the number of crudely-drawn genitalia across the voting boxes, or blank ballots with invective-laden political essays scrawled on the back, that I've seen by people who were really set on not voting is considerable.

Even if it is a civil right that your employer has to give you time off to vote, I'd be one of the first to admit that voting in America isn't always easy, and for anyone who thinks they'd rather pick up an extra shift, or is too burnt out, or doesn't have any particularly strong feelings about either candidate... it's just as easy to stay home.

Then there's the counting of hundreds of millions of ballots, and ensuring the accuracy of said counting. It's a big job.

The Downside Of Intersectionality

Don't get me wrong, Intersectionality - where causes overlap, rather than focusing on a single demographic to the exclusion of others - is a good thing.

But much as previous Rights Movements discovered, it's very hard to have a unified message when everyone disagrees on what that message should be.

Trans Rights vs Women's and Men's Safe Spaces.

Underfunding of Women's Shelters vs the Lack of Men's DV Resources

BIPOC Rights vs African-American Rights specifically.

Refugees and Immigration vs The Homelessness Epidemic.

All issues deserving of attention, but all at least nominally in conflict with each other.

Historically, in American elections, the people who didn't feel like their cause was getting enough attention would threaten not to vote in protest, or to vote for a minor candidate and split the vote that way.

This is one area where Republicans have the advantage: Conservative voters are better at single-issue votes.

There's a large Muslim population that stayed home in the Swing States because they didn't like how Biden was handling the war against Hamas/Hezbollah, and ignored everyone pointing out that Trump was NOT the better option for a balanced Peace in the Middle East.

There's also a hefty percentage of Jewish voters who were sick of lip-service responses and what they saw as Pandering to the Mob while Synagogues were fire-bombed, Holocaust Survivors assaulted in the street, and Jewish students blockaded from attending universities. When you have a howling mob marching through your suburb every weekend (and a 3,000 year history with fanatical mobs...), it's hard to blame them for not voting for more of the same.

Social Media

Yes, yes, that old ghost...

It's never been easier to be educated, with nearly everyone having a supercomputer in their pocket or handbag.

It's also never been easier to be misinformed, with Podcasts and Blogs and Biased Journalism, and "freelance" Journalists who don't have to be held accountable to fact checking like Mainstream Media theoretically is.

Most people get their information form Comedy shows or Talk Hosts memes rather than Newspapers, and while that's a valid choice, it's also important to remember that those shows, as much as they report current affairs, are also about entertainment, and largely dependent on the entertainer's opinions.

Take the Olympics earlier this year.

A disappointed Olympian Woman Boxer who forfeited her match tweeted that her opponent was Trans, JK Rowling re-tweeted it, the claim went viral, and suddenly the only thing you could find on the Olympics was a claim of a female athlete being violently assaulted, rather than the fact that the disappointed boxer had withdrawn without a punch being thrown, the "Trans" boxer was from a country where being Trans is Illegal, and was, in fact, a woman who had faced heavy opposition to get to the Olympics at all.

In Conclusion...

I wish there was a simple solution to this. I really do. I would like for people to engage in politics enough to hold their leaders accountable for things they've actually done, rather than wasting time on chasing shadows.

I wish that I don't have to spend my commute to and from work typing up articles like this one in a desperate attempt to inject rationality and common sense into the online political debate. I wish that Politics wasn't comparable to Reality TV, and we judged people by their actions, rather than who managed to be the biggest Drama Llama.

I wish I had a wider audience, because I truly do believe that a lot of people who voted Conservative this election were victims of misinformation. I hope that the incoming Presidency proves the wake-up call that is so desperately needed.

Most of all, I hope the cost is measured in dollars, not lives.

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