For Arendt, facts and opinions, “though they must be kept apart, are not antagonistic to each other; they belong to the same realm.” A fact (her example is Germany’s invasion of Belgium in August 1914) “acquires political implications only by being put in an interpretative context.” Whoever reports what happened, she wrote, “always tells a story, and in this story the particular facts lose their contingency and acquire some humanly comprehensible meaning.”
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That is what Arendt meant when she argued that organizing people together to change the world—that is to say, doing politics—requires an approach that rejects outright lying while also avoiding a complacent expectation that “the truth” will reveal itself for voters to follow. The narrative wars have begun. If Democrats are smart, they’ll opt for storytelling instead.
They could just listen to the general public
nope: Americans are not complicated: ITS ABOUT GAS PRICE at least for the ‘undecided’ voters.
Iran knows this and closing the straight dealt Trump his biggest existential blow yet.
Gas prices were an important factor, but not nearly the only one. He betrayed nearly every one of the demographic groups that MAGA carefully recruited so effectively, it was like he was trying to hurt them.
He swore no new wars, then started the stupidest war in history, led by the stupidest leader in history. This one also betrayed the young men who voted for him, who will now have to be the ones to die in that stupid war.
He betrayed the Epstein Files Voters, who were sure he was going to expose all the pervy Dems, only to find out they were all pervy MAGAs, including Trump.
MAGA fully supports total unregulated data centers, which 85% of the country opposes.
He even betrayed Farmers, again, with his tariffs, AND his diesel prices.
And he betrayed the rank & file MAGA supporters by doing everything he could to raise, rather than lower prices.
Then there is the breath-taking open corruption that EVERYONE can see.
And a million other betrayals, and exploitations, and lies, and crimes, etc.
If gas prices had been under $3, we still would have had the same election. The American people have had their fill of MAGA.
Per SRSS voter poll from the election:
Yes, the economy is the biggest thing they had but also coming in second is the state of democracy and corruption was high on the list too.
And as the author stated:
There’s one story that does this better than any other: anti-corruption. To many voters, it is the explanation for why gas costs so much; why inflation endures; why education, housing, and health care have become so expensive; and especially why they feel like they can’t get ahead.
Democratic leadership, if they were smart and effective, would be talking about the war in Iran, ending it, investigating it, hold Republicans responsible for the the war and the prices at the pump, effectively taking care of both issues of the economy and democracy in one go. That would have made those Independents and Demorcrats and Progressives happy.
But no, we didn’t get that at all from leadership.
I’m pleased that Dem voters have connected all of our problems to the astonishing MAGA corruption. Hopefully, this will be the motivation to finally pursue a true reform agenda.
The Dems do have a shortcut, though. MAGA is fully supportive of unlimited, unregulated Data Center construction EVERYWHERE, and nobody wants it, from Reps to Dems to Indies. Dems could run on one issue - “No AI Data Centers” - and win every election.
I disagree with your assessment reading the topline data.
It was the economy. Republicans and Indepentens make up 85% of that concern.
That is what got people to either stay home or vote blue.
For the blue side though, yes specifically the state of the democracy. But that is more “trump motivated me to go out and vote” and less “my parties platform made me go out and vote.”
First, you can’t just add the percentages from two groups without knowing the raw numbers and call it the total percentage. That’s not how percentages work.
Second, my point isn’t that corruption was the thing that was driving the vote, it’s that it is also a major concern for the Independent voters too. You’re looking at the whole group of polled Independent voters who answered 44% said economy, so yes, we agree that the major driver is the economy, no argument here. You also had 28% of them say democracy/corruption was their major driver.
That’s not a insignificant percentage.
Source if you want to look at the breakdowns yourself.
Exactly. One thing we have learned from the USA in the last 2 years is not only do some people profit from the corruption, but others, MANY MANY MANY MORE others actively chose to ignore the corruption if it does not personally affect them.
This is why Cypher is the true enemy in the Matrix, not Smith or even the machines. Cypher knows is in a position where he can help millions of people, but he STILL chooses ignorance, just like the avg 'murican. ITS BLISS
Panem et circenses.
what a hot take. More <clap> Performance<clap>Politics!<clap>
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is all but certain to soon become the first Black speaker of the House in U.S. history, called the results “a stunning rebuke for MAGA extremism.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is likely to once again be master of the Senate, this time at the head of a much larger caucus than during the Biden years, declared that “the days of Trump’s supplicant Senate are over.”
This election is wasted if we let those two oligarch fluffers into leadership positions…
We got a shit ton of options that actually have charisma, political aptitude, and aligning policy with Dem voters…
We gain nothing by letting either one take the reigns, and their bullshit will almost certainly depress 2028 turnout
Definitely agree, contact your representatives and demand that they elect leadership that represent your values! https://5calls.org/issue/house-senate-leadership/
The democrats only win as a rejection of the republicans.
Every fucking election they win, including 2020 by a hair, they crow about how republicans will never win another election and changing demographics. Then they sell out and suck and hand it back.
Which is why we can’t have the same old leadership as the old days. We need to establish a new direction for the Democratic party, not rebuild the old structure that led to MAGA.
If Democrats can stick to the story they told, are telling and are repeating … they’ll keep winning
I’m not saying this as some right wing nut job … I’m a socially supporting Canadian that fully supports the NDP, the left leaning party here in Canada. Always have and always will.
The problem I always see with our left leaning parties is that they keep promising things before the election and then ramp up the hope when they get elected and then spend the next few years hovering at the level of hope and either get little done or none at all. And it’s always the powers that be, the status quo and monied interests that get in the way. It pervades all of politics with every party (no matter if they are left, center or right) because at the end of the day, its easy to control a political party and a politician simply by threatening their chances of getting re-elected again in the next election.
I get what she’s saying but Jesus what a terrible way to say it.
It seems strange to me that her point even needs voicing. Narratives are important to politics. Yup, of course. And considering they ostensibly have more artists on their side, you’d think the dems would be better at it.
You’d think but then we have Shumer’s low energy, self fellating victory speech and Jefferies milquetoast stating that no impeachment was on the table when he knows holding Republicans accountable for things like ICE/Iran war was a big deal for Democrats and Progressives. Hell with the Iran war, he could have simply stated they were going to stop it and investigate it and it would have killed two birds with one stone.
But no, they’re just tone deaf AF. I honestly don’t understand it either, I think they’re just too insulated by consultants, corrupted by money, and listening to their Baily’s to understand things.
There are a lot of online petitions calling for Schumer and Jeffries to be replaced. Put your name on them…because one has nearly a million signatures the last I looked. It’s one way of being heard…protests are another. We should be protesting Chuck and Hakeem ruthlessly now, not later, because of their weak-willed bullshit. Jeffries is an idiot if he thinks we want a better economy but no punishment of the felons that put us here.
I doubt they place any stock in those online petitions.
Call your Democratic Reps and Senators, and send emails, that’s what gets their attention.
The somewhat less ugly side of “I’ve got mine, fuck the rest of you.” We’ve got the the story-tellers, but it’s the corporate shills that get the funding, and in America, Money is Speech.
