I found this #TED talk to be a very helpful framework for thinking about a variety of things: https://www.ted.com/talks/charles_duhigg_the_science_behind_dramatically_better_conversations_mar_2025
Most pointedly, #Democrats would do well to reflect on this. We're not having the same conversation, and that's why we're where we are. The nation isn't strictly divided on political lines, it's much more primal than that.
As much as #Trumpism is nakedly awful on its face, it's having an _emotional_ conversation (and to a lesser degree, a _social_ one). Most of us in #America are pissed off, even fully aware that #Republicans are to blame due to their policy priorities and laissez faire approach to damn near everything, all but ensuring immiseration for all but the rich.
What made #Obama and #Biden successful in their 2008 and 2020 runs? A variety of factors, to be sure, but both of those campaigns were having the same kind of conversation, selling "hope" after 9/11 and the Iraq war, and talking about the "soul of America" after the disruption of the pandemic and inhumanity of the prior administration. What made #Kamala fail? Again, a variety of factors, but she was almost exclusively having a _practical_ conversation.
When you have a deep, radiating hurt inside of you (i.e. most key issues driving the general malaise people have felt over the past few years), and someone's response to that is purely logical/practical, it only serves to invalidate and frustrate you, nothing else.
In that framing, it's easy to understand why people did what they did, whether they voted for either party, or not at all. Why would you choose differently if you feel that you won't otherwise have the conversation you want?
This is also why #Bernie, #AOC, #JasmineCrockett, #ChrisMurphy and others are resonating so much with people right now - they are having an _emotional_ conversation, which is exactly what people are seeking in such a painful and worrying time. Nobody is looking for marginal policy improvements or safe poll-tested messaging. They are tapping into the _emotional_ core of those trying to #resist.
BTW, I think this is also why #GavinNewsom went and stepped on his own dick - our #trans friends are in dire need of _emotional_ support right now, not _social_ discussions about an imaginary "common ground".
Mechanic 
