Ohhhhhh my god. There's literally a whole section in the TGS episode with @andrewhartman.bsky.social where we discuss the (over and over again proven) uselessness of Dems leaning into nationalism. Voters just don't buy it and they're looking for ACTUAL SOLUTIONS - ThreadSky

ceaubin.bsky.social • 3 days ago

Ohhhhhh my god. There's literally a whole section in the TGS episode with @andrewhartman.bsky.social where we discuss the (over and over again proven) uselessness of Dems leaning into nationalism. Voters just don't buy it and they're looking for ACTUAL SOLUTIONS

Reposted from Politico

Democrats’ newest approach to win back voters: Reclaim the American flag.

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fluffcopter.bsky.social•2 days ago

Americans: protesting in the streets en masse literally holding signs shouting what they want

Dem party: I guess we'll never know what makes them vote for us, truly a mystery for the ages

ceaubin.bsky.social•3 days ago

Voters simply will not believe that the Left are ~more patriotic~ than the Right because that is the Right's whole entire brand, which they have been building for the better part of the past century! It's a losing strategy!

teeth077.bsky.social•3 days ago

I'd say it's this way not because "voters" don't believe it, it's because the left doesn't believe it, and that's because so much of leftism is cast as an opposition to patriotism rather than a replacement. The right believes they can beat "socialism" and "leftism" whereas the left believes the...

teeth077.bsky.social•3 days ago

Best that can do is build a world where "deplorables" can be constrained and tolerated. I'd say Trump has made this dynamic untenable.

ceaubin.bsky.social•3 days ago

I get the impulse to be like "well we're gonna do this and other things" but the issue is that the Dems are not really doing other things, and the ones who do (like Padilla) are mostly being used for viral social media clips or being treated like they've gone incomprehensibly rogue

kaltnull.bsky.social•3 days ago

Depends on how you approach it. Kamala with her cringy "U S A!" chants just read as trying hard to out-Republican the GOP at their own game. But I think the left in general should re-appropriate a form of patriotism.

kaltnull.bsky.social•3 days ago

Mostly because "America SUCKS and has ALWAYS sucked! Burn that flag!" might be a tempting thing to champion in stark opposition to the right's rah-rah flag waving. But that alienates too many people in the middle.

kaltnull.bsky.social•3 days ago

Instead I think an "These people who claim to love America actually hate what America is all about and we champion the good parts of America while urging everyone to learn from the mistakes of the past." is a better and more nuanced approach. Yes that does make for bad sloganeer.

kaltnull.bsky.social•3 days ago

This is adjacent to not giving up ALL of Christianity as a right wing project I think. The left should rediscover Christianity. For our own good. There are a lot of progressive Christian institutions out there that get left in the muck by us because we allow the right to interpret it as THEIRS.

ceaubin.bsky.social•3 days ago

Well sure but wrapping yourself in the flag while you do it comes off as disingenuous to people who associate you with the opposition to the group who mostly do that

ceaubin.bsky.social•3 days ago

But I think that's exactly what's happening with the flag stuff - it's an attempt to re-appropriate a symbol that the Right has staked out an aesthetic claim to (in the minds of the median voter) which seems to me an utterly unnecessary uphill battle

vagabonding.bsky.social•3 days ago

It's just lame.

maxberger.bsky.social•3 days ago

Don’t think those are an either or! I think left populism and a form of nationalism are actually very complimentary. But that’s a very niche view.

ceaubin.bsky.social•3 days ago

Sure - but voters just straightforwardly do not associate the left with nationalist patriotism and it's repeatedly proven to be a really useless strategy to pursue

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