Daniel Marans
@dmarans
I am often critical of leftists, but I do think they are correct that a class/economics-focused message is a better response to Trump than the hawkish Cold War bromides Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin delivered in response to his speech on Tuesday. At the same time, Bernie is ultimately not the ideal messenger for the national party. The public's appetite for a fairer economy where they're not at the mercy of unscrupulous corporate actors does not necessarily mean they have an appetite for Bernie's more sweeping vision for reform. https://x.com/jacobin/status/1897367238518485276
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Alex
@asenderling.eth
I don't think attacking billionaires resonates with the majority of the electorate. I think targeting specific billionaires like Musk/Bezos could be effective but alienating people like Cuban only hurts the party imo. What they really need is a unified front, everyone to fall in line like the Rs did with Trump.
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Daniel Marans
@dmarans
Maybe so, but it's better than complaining that Trump isn't more like Reagan. The people lamenting Trump's Russia-Ukraine policy are highly educated voters already voting for Democrats.
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Alex
@asenderling.eth
If you're trying to break through to moderates/Republicans, making the Reagan comparison makes sense imo. "Unlike Reagan who stood up to the USSR, Trump would have and is currently bowing down to them" was essentially the point Slotkin made which is relatively effective imo.
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Daniel Marans
@dmarans
It feels somewhat analogous to how Kamala Harris ran (though of course, Liz Cheney was not the ideal surrogate on this front). And indeed, Democrats have been making steady gains in affluent Milwaukee, Atlanta, Philly and Detroit suburbs since 2016. But the reality is, there are far more non-college voters in the country, and they are more motivated by kitchen-table issues. It's not that I think the Russia message is entirely ineffectual. It's that it's already out there and most of the voters moved by it have already switched to Democrats.
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Alex
@asenderling.eth
Agreed, though to be fair to Slotkin the kitchen-table issues are what she spent the majority of her rebuttal talking about. The attacks and focus on her Reagan comments are coming from a left that seem all too happy to do Trump's work for him in changing the focus away from those kitchen table issues.
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