Dems tend to change with society. SSM became more mainstream from 2007 to 2012. But the other thing was polling showed most Repub & swing voters believed Obama already supported SSM, so there was no political benefit to opposing but there was to embracing what he actually supported
Repubs tend to conceal their policies bc they’re almost all unpopular & they’re almost all reactionary against stuff that people actually like (such as pre-existing condition rules of the ACA)
Yeah but he only came out in favor of it after DOMA had been struck down, Sotomayor/Kagan were on the court, and public opinion had drawn even on the issue
Yeah I'm not saying I disapprove tbc. Its kind of the ideal issue to work on quietly - where you can trust that voters will be fine with the results even if they don't know it yet.
Most issues arent like that, so I'm not sure how transferable the lesson is, but it was fine for SSM
Exactly. Online leftist culture is constructed in a way that makes it impossible for Dem politicians to win. If Dems profess moderation in public/campaign mode, left culture punishes them for it. When Trump does this, far right culture understands he’s only saying that stuff to win, and plays along.
I think its important to note how recent the right's meekness here is though. 2012 and a lot of 2016 had RW groups holding conservatives to various insane promises on issues until Trump swept them aside with $1b in earned media.
Absolutely true. Trump has so utterly convinced him he’s their guy that they will let him do and say anything. As you noted elsewhere in thread, they *trust* him on a level Dem voters haven’t trusted a nominee since Obama.
Not sure if it was clear, but we're in agreement here.
On the asymmetry - I think the issue here is trust/charisma. Trump and Obama had/have cachet with their respective bases in ways that Biden/Harris/Mitt didn't have, giving the former two more breathing room with advocacy orgs.
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Most issues arent like that, so I'm not sure how transferable the lesson is, but it was fine for SSM
there is legitimately an asymmetry though because there's a left set that will punish the shit out of you for doing that on some issues
On the asymmetry - I think the issue here is trust/charisma. Trump and Obama had/have cachet with their respective bases in ways that Biden/Harris/Mitt didn't have, giving the former two more breathing room with advocacy orgs.