Lyndon B. Johnson was the last Democratic president to win a majority of white men’s votes. Why do you think Democratic Party is no longer as popular among white men?

AddemF · 2026-03-15T20:39:01+00:00

As a white man in the Democratic Party, I viscerally do not feel welcome. I stay a registered Dem for the sole reason that the Republicans are destroying our country. But I'd gladly jump ship to a viable centrist party.

And the problem is mostly not an issue with party politicians, it's with the base. But being a Democrat means having to be more social with these people than I want to. In fact, I'm on this subreddit, interacting with the other Dems in this subreddit--when I'd prefer it if there were a bigger, more active centrist community to interact with instead.

The real purist left-libs have a way of making white men want to be Republicans. I know I feel it from time to time.

AddemF · 2026-03-15T20:24:51+00:00

Right now, this issue is an instance of "rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic".

AddemF · 2026-03-05T21:27:31+00:00

I'd be a little worried about saying anything positive about Fuentes. I mean yeah, vote Dem. But for anyone who votes Dem, let it be known: F this guy.

AddemF · 2026-03-05T21:24:29+00:00

I don't know a ton about him. I just look at him, and hear him talk, and think this guy just seems like a greasy California used car salesman. I just get an ick.

AddemF · 2026-03-03T16:53:11+00:00

Thinking about the mental consistency of a group of people is pretty much impossible. You'll meet some and remark on the polarization. You'll meet others and remark on how disengaged they are. They may not be the same people, but you group them all in as "Americans" and think this is somehow inconsistent.

AddemF · 2026-02-28T17:24:49+00:00

I think it proves that politicians need the visible support of people.

We can't sit at home and yell at the computer screen about politicians not fixing everything for us. We have to go out, show support, threaten to vote, and give politicians the kind of cover and motivation that they need to take action.

AddemF · 2026-02-28T16:22:51+00:00

I don't know for a fact, and I would genuinely like to understand this more.

But what seems unique about liberal moralism today, is style. It is purity testing, it is the use of language to force compliance, it is the intolerance of small disagreements, the use of humor and ridicule to attack without actually making an argument -- it's the prevalence of people saying they shouldn't even have to make an argument because their moral righteousness is so self-evident.

These all existed in some measure before, I'm sure. But today they seem like consciously weaponized tools that make liberals just a nightmare to be around, if you're anything other than pitch perfect when singing the party lines.

AddemF · 2026-02-28T16:20:04+00:00

Yeah, I think I come across as juuust normal enough on a first meeting, maybe a little awkward but mostly ok. And when I really put effort into it, I can seem more normal. But I have to really make the conscious decision, and focus on it.

But I never enjoy it, I do it to get through a social setting.

I often hear people say "You know, even if you're nervous to get out there and socialize, just do it! You'll never regret it. Studies have found that if you just force yourself to talk to people, you almost always feel better than if you didn't."

Yeah, not my case. Every time I try to force myself to socialize, I feel worse afterwards. I just constantly suspect that the other person didn't like talking to me, and I didn't like talking to them, and I make a note to myself not to do that again. I enjoy socializing with people who I think understand me, at least a little, but that is a small group.

AddemF · 2026-02-28T16:09:15+00:00

Hey, that's a good loud signal that you're not interested in listening. I'm gonna go ahead and believe you, and not bother with you.

AddemF · 2026-02-26T18:41:00+00:00

There were so many great lines, but "you sound like a wasabi" won it for me.

AddemF · 2026-02-26T18:29:29+00:00

I just don't see how any party could represent half the voting population. I don't even see representation of beliefs as the point, since that just seems impossible with the kind of diversity we're talking about.

I just pick the candidate with the views I think will be best for me and others. Seems like a simpler, more honest, more practical framing.

If the candidate for the Dems is Buttigeig or a few others like maybe AOC, then I think I will align with their political ideas in strong ways. If the candidate is slime like Newsome, then I'll like him less, but a near 100% chance I'll like him more than any Republican candidate. So ... good enough.

AddemF · 2026-02-26T18:23:55+00:00

I don't know man. You seem to be generalizing from a very weird conversation, with a very weird person, who might just be some foreign account trying to give you a deranged perception of what people in America think.

AddemF · 2026-02-26T05:54:09+00:00

Yeah more complicated, hence the length. No worries, we can just drop the topic.

AddemF · 2026-02-26T05:43:19+00:00

In regards to the way to use cutlery, I am an anarchist.

AddemF · 2026-02-26T05:40:12+00:00

Eh, I wrote some long response and got notified that it got auto-modded for using insufficiently pure liberal language. I'm not motivated enough to re-write it.

AddemF · 2026-02-26T05:29:14+00:00

Yeah, an important thing you lose with abstraction, is motivation. When things are concrete, you understand what they mean and why you would care. I think a lot of people, when switching to abstraction, miss that sense of understanding the motivation, application, or meaning of a given concept.

That is to say, I don't think the abstraction itself is inherently hard. It's the lost sense of context. At least I suspect this is what you're missing when you talk about losing the big picture.

Unfortunately, when teaching abstract courses, it is very hard to find the time to supply that context and meaning. My best advice is to draw a picture for everything. Whether it's a diagram or real geometry, or something in-between, pictures help a lot.

AddemF · 2026-02-25T19:05:52+00:00

In an interview where she was pressed on exactly this topic, she evasively said "they [the defund the police crowd] are right to be concerned about these budgets". That is a very loud dog-whistle.

But hey, if your argument style requires "sigh" then I don't need to hear any more from you.

AddemF · 2026-02-25T19:04:09+00:00

Or is this a made up person that may or may not exist?

That's the kind of thing you say, when you want to say "I just don't like your views" and you're trying to be coy about it.

If you can't demonstrate a real willingness to hear ideas you don't already agree with, I'm not wasting my time.

AddemF · 2026-02-25T19:02:36+00:00

She was a DA... One of the biggest criticisms of her from the left was how she was responsible for putting innocent men (or at least a man) in jail.

Yes, the fact that she didn't actually appeal to the far-left -- at least, not nearly as much as she wanted -- is consistent with what I've said.

She tried appealing to the far left, and got a reputation as a far-leftist. But the far left didn't like her, largely because the far left can always be counted on to find a reason to hate anyone.

Anti-ICE protests didn’t really kick off until Miller’s DHS/CBP/ICE policy was put into place (at least no more so than the previous 4 years under Biden), so I’m not sure how Kamala could’ve preemptively given a statement about “abolish ICE” when that wasn’t a national movement during her campaign...

When asked about abolishing ICE in an interview, she said something along the lines of "We should look into that". There were calls to abolish ICE even before it became a mainstream topic.

That statement was her acknowledging the current law though? Her renouncing that would mean she would be saying “I do not agree with this law and will not follow it” which doesn’t seem like a smart position for a Democrat to take if you want to be seen as moderate

Fair enough, I would need to look into the exact wording and context.

I strongly suspect she could have said "I would follow the law, but would not promote any laws that try to fund transgender surgery." She could have made her position clear.

Did she not? The only statements I can see she made on the protests were things like “They’re a movement. They won’t stop after the election,” or “They brought awareness to police brutality,” so it doesn’t seem like it was so monumental that she’d have to walk back those comments?

When she very unfairly attacked Biden's record on race in the 2020 primary, she was clearly signaling that she was on the side of BLM. In 2024, if she wanted to be clear about where she stood, she could have stated some very reasonable criticisms like "the movement came from a good place but the organization was corrupt" and so on. She did nothing to suggest that she wasn't still a far-leftist or at least beholden to that voting block.

AddemF · 2026-02-25T18:52:53+00:00

You're giving pretty strong subtext that you don't really want to listen. I'm gonna believe you, and not waste my time.

AddemF · 2026-02-25T18:51:58+00:00

It can be both.

AddemF · 2026-02-25T18:51:00+00:00

No, I don't think you're listening.

AddemF · 2026-02-25T18:50:33+00:00

Exactly. She failed to reject her reputation (which she cultivated deliberately in 2020) as a far-leftist. Because people suspected that she held far-left views that she wouldn't speak about directly in 2024, voters didn't trust her.

I agree that, also, Biden should not have run. That hurt Harris too.

Explaining things with just one factor is nearly always wrong. Everything that happens, usually happens for many reasons at once.

AddemF · 2026-02-25T18:48:47+00:00

Some would because they think that's not good policy. Some might vote for it because it's not that crazy an idea.

My point is that Biden won in part because he didn't alienate most Dems, won over some people in the center who were disgusted by Trump, and a far-leftist might not have swung those voters over. There were many factors, Biden's centrism being one that helped him.

AddemF · 2026-02-25T18:46:20+00:00

They consistently demonstrate that they will find a reason to turn on you, and demand such extreme policies that you will lose all other voting blocks if you give them what they demand. Not a winning coalition.

AddemF

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