Quo Vadis, Democrats?

[viper37]

Of course it depends on the sub, but I'm judging from the general leanings in subs that on the surface one wouldn't assume to have leanings.  If you go to neutral subs that are focused on non-political topics entirely, and the off-topic asides that lean politically hard left get constantly upvoted, and reasonable rebuttals get downvoted into oblivion, you can get a sense of the general trend.

If your logged in, you see subs based on your subscriptions first, than other subs based on similar interests.

If you aren't logged in, you will see subs based on what you clicked last time you visited (cookies) + localization (browser geolocalization & language page preference) + what's trending (most views) at the moment.

If you keep clicking on left leaning subs to see what the other side thing, without clearing your cookies every time you close your browser, then it's likely these subs will appear in your front page, logged in or not.

I don't click on any political subs on Reddit, I think the whole setup of Reddit promotes groupthink by hiding unpopular opinions, and thus makes political discussion worse than useless there.  All of the subs on my feed are nominally unpolitical (except for maybe a Jersey City sub, as local subs are bounds to have a political discussion from time to time).

Depends how you define left.

If being anti-Trump, anti-GOP is being left, sure, Reddit is far left.

Like Joan says, if you take a look at the economics sub, the vast majority of the people there are very critical of Trump and his team.  But I've yet to see Marxist economists, or anyone advocating for non free market economics in there.  More state funded things, more regulations at times in the US, sure.  But does being anti-oligarchy means you are from the left?

[viper37]

A simple example I can immediately think of is in an Indycar subreddit.  This year there was a new driver to the series named Robert Shwartzman, who was originally racing for Russia before switching to Israel after Ukraine war.  The comments like "this guy can't catch a break, he switched his allegiance to not race for a horrible country, only to race for a horrible country".  The reason you can generalize about Reddit a bit more than usual is that you can see whether comments like that get buried under downvotes or get pushed to the top due to upvotes.  You can guess which way such comments go.

Well, Israel is an horrible country.  They openly advocate for ethnic cleansing for another group, borderline genocide, they lied/exagerated about the Hamas threat with the complicity of the US government (Biden administration) during the war, they regularly target civilians on purpose just as Russians do with Ukrainians, they engage in unrestricted warfare against civilian population just like Russia and the their government is just as corrupt, morally and financially.

[Tonitrus]

Definitely falls under "small victories"...but still interesting.  Not only in the margins of victory...but that a state with a GOP supermajority/governor had not been able to rig/fudge the elections.

Democrats flip Iowa state Senate seat, breaking GOP supermajority

Democrat Catelin Drey's win in Iowa Senate District 1 by more than 10 points, as of the latest vote count, over Republican Christopher Prosch is just the latest in a string of Democratic electoral successes this year that is likely to give the party hope heading into the midterms.

The first one came in January in a neighboring state Senate district in Iowa, when Democrats flipped that seat from red to blue, just after Trump took office. They did the same in an equally Trump-friendly state Senate district in Pennsylvania in March.

Trump had carried both Iowa districts and the Pennsylvania one by double digits in November.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5471284-drey-victory-breaks-gop-majority/

[Darth Wagtaros]

So there will be a bunch of lawsuits from the GOP crying about how it was stolen? 

[Zoupa]

Definitely falls under "small victories"...but still interesting.  Not only in the margins of victory...but that a state with a GOP supermajority/governor had not been able to rig/fudge the elections.

Democrats flip Iowa state Senate seat, breaking GOP supermajority

Democrat Catelin Drey's win in Iowa Senate District 1 by more than 10 points, as of the latest vote count, over Republican Christopher Prosch is just the latest in a string of Democratic electoral successes this year that is likely to give the party hope heading into the midterms.

The first one came in January in a neighboring state Senate district in Iowa, when Democrats flipped that seat from red to blue, just after Trump took office. They did the same in an equally Trump-friendly state Senate district in Pennsylvania in March.

Trump had carried both Iowa districts and the Pennsylvania one by double digits in November.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5471284-drey-victory-breaks-gop-majority/

A whole 7000 votes were cast. Let's not hyperventilate. Final tally was 4000 D, 3400 R.

What struck me is, from the article:

"The Democratic National Committee (DNC) seized on the opportunity ahead of the election, sending in 30,000 volunteers for "get out the vote" efforts and hosting text- and phone-banks with the Iowa Democratic Party. "

Great job guys.

[Norgy]

So, more volunteers than voters. That... is something.

[HVC]

So all we need now is like 1.3 billion volunteers next election and we're golden

[Crazy_Ivan80]

So all we need now is like 1.3 billion volunteers next election and we're golden

the CCP will gladly provide them

[HVC]

So all we need now is like 1.3 billion volunteers next election and we're golden

the CCP will gladly provide them

I was hoping for a dem win this time

[Norgy]

How about all those dead voters the GOP always claim have voted Dems? Anyone for a fundraiser for Corpses For Democrats?

[Valmy]

A whole 7000 votes were cast. Let's not hyperventilate. Final tally was 4000 D, 3400 R.

Yeah. A whole lot of joy for some random statehouse win. Ultimately if it turns out to be the harbinger of a series of big blue victories then I guess we can look back on it as significant. But this has happened before. Some statehouse special election goes the Dems way and everybody starts sucking their own cocks. What people in some random district in Iowa do in some minor election probably only says something about that district.

And, of course, even if it does signal a wave of blue victories the Democrats in their current state, with their backwards business as usual thinking, will fail to capitalize anyway. Urgency to reform and change course is still necessary even if they start to win again. As it is the Democrats cannot even do symbolic things like fire their leadership even after a historically disastrous defeat like 2024. Somehow the same losers are still in charge.