Poll Has AOC Leading Schumer by Nearly 20 Points in 2028 New York Primary | "What AOC is doing is leadership—and people see that," said one observer.

[u/Murky-Site7468]

https://www.commondreams.org/news/aoc-schumer-poll-ny-primary-2028

[u/Chance_Warthog_9389]

Again not all those states are red. We need Penn.

Again, you're dodging the question. Why do they keep voting Republican if they want a higher min wage?

In fact, why would they vote Democrat after we give it to them federally? Gratitude? They wouldn't just take it and keep voting Republican due to all the reasons they already vote Republican?

Well we don’t live up to any of what he has put forward nationally.

(1) We literally have higher min wage than he proposed.

(2) We have 12 weeks of paid family leave, which he proposed.

I said this shit 5 comments ago.

[u/Emp3r0r_01 → u/Chance_Warthog_9389]

No I didn’t. We had the house the presidency and the Senate, and we didn’t pass it. Did we? Why would they give us power again to make changes to their lives when we don’t do so?

It’s not just about this one piece of legislation. It’s about all the legislation that we could’ve done. People just want their lives to be better. They don’t really understand or care what the legislation is. Many of the voters we need especially. We didn’t lose because of Bernie we lose because we have the power and don’t go far enough.

We fail then this guy comes around telling them he’s gonna make their lives better and he’s gonna cut their taxes when we haven’t made enough of a dent… why would they vote for us?

[u/Chance_Warthog_9389 → u/Emp3r0r_01]

But why do they keep voting Republican?

You just keep going on about how the Democrats could be better for them. Tell me a single way the Republicans are better.

[u/Emp3r0r_01 → u/Chance_Warthog_9389]

They arnt… I feel like you are missing the point or I’m not stating it clearly enough. I’m tired so it’s like the that lol.

The only thing the GOP is better at is politics. We suck at it.

[u/Chance_Warthog_9389 → u/Emp3r0r_01]

they aren't

Are you sure? Because you spent the entire comment chain telling me the voters just need some good policy to vote for.

[u/Emp3r0r_01 → u/Chance_Warthog_9389]

Voters want their lives improved. I think our policies do that. But as you pointed out, Democrats are doing it at the state level. That has limits. Dems are not doing it nationally.

Especially in states we need like Pennsylvania. We’re also not talking about a big group of voters here. And as I said, they’re not particularly savvy politically. That’s why we need to push our leaders at the national level to do a better job. Everything we tried to do at the national level either got stopped by the courts because it didn’t get through Congress or it didn’t get through senate.

It is true that I think at the same time, we never go far enough. I’ve probably mixed my metaphors enough for one day however, when you have the ball you go for the end zone, right? Republicans do. Sadly they just go in the wrong direction. Voters will not be satisfied with just a few feet each year. If they can’t see the difference between our leadership and the other side, there’s a problem.

Sure we’re gonna have some off elections, but man to go to the extreme in which voters have is not good. We’re behind in the majority of the state legislatures, governors all of the Congress and the presidency. The vast majority of men even young men. And they elected of all people Donald Trump… again…

There’s a reason for that. Sure some of it is there more red states and the GOP plays their games but that’s not all of it. If we don’t take the chance to govern when we have it, we’re lost.

The economy is gonna go south really bad. Eventually, we’ll be back in power and hopefully we make better decisions.

[u/Chance_Warthog_9389 → u/Emp3r0r_01]

Ok I agree with all of that but none of it answers the question.

You keep saying voters want policy that improves their lives.

You keep saying we just have to offer policy to that effect to get their vote.

How did the Republicans get their vote without doing that? How do they keep getting their vote despite actively preventing it, even when those voters use ballot initiatives to show they want it?

I'm not even going to go through the ARPA, IIJA, and IRA. Tell me why your theory only applies to the Democrats.

[u/Emp3r0r_01 → u/Chance_Warthog_9389]

For starters, the effects of inflation kind of nullified the policies you are trying to point out. All those voters see is the higher costs not that we saved us from economic ruin. The other part is that our policies, in most cases, take longer to become popular. ACA, due to the GOP's scar tactics, slow legislative process, and the website having issues, was unpopular. However with time, it has become fairly popular.

The GOP is all about going backward. They don't need to have effective polices. They can give people a minimal tax cut and say they did their job. This is why they harp so much on trans, trans kids playing sports, gay marriage before that. Their job is to make you afraid of people/polices. That's a lot easier than what Dems are doing. All the more reason for Dems to make as much policy as they can when they have the power to do so.

[u/Chance_Warthog_9389 → u/Emp3r0r_01]

I think we did what we could with 50ish senators over 2 years.

We took a shot at nuking the filibuster, failed because of Manchin and Sinema, and still passed the ARPA, IIJA, and IRA through reconciliation. That's still about 1.1 trillion in new corporate taxes to fund green jobs, infrastructure, childcare, legal teams to go after polluters and IRS agents to go after tax avoiders. But nobody, not even the political junkies on Reddit, know or care.

---

Here's my theory: Polarization has gotten worse and worse over the past decade, especially with algo-based media consumption. People create their own rabbit holes of reinforcing (illusory truth effect) echo chambers and just self-troll endlessly.

Americans on both sides are getting madder. But we also energize differently. Right leaning voters dig harder into scapegoating minorities when they're mad. Left leaning voters ARE the minority/POC tent, so we start purity testing - and it hits our leaders the hardest because they're the most visible.

What this adds up to is a naturally left-antagonistic political landscape.

[u/Emp3r0r_01 → u/Chance_Warthog_9389]

Your first point is valid. Democrats did achieve significant things with a thin majority. But those gains are fragile at best. The right is now actively taking apart the government and gutting our democratic norms. Doing "what we could" is not enough when the stakes are existential.

On the polarization and media point, I agree it is getting worse, but I don’t think it’s as simple as “both sides.” Everyone is subject to these dynamics. That includes moderates and the so-called center or even center-left. The idea that they somehow escape echo chambers or bias is a mistake. Often, it shows up as a belief that their views are the only reasonable ones or in acting as if the real problem is just the people shouting the loudest on the left and the right. That still ignores how this works.

What gets called purity testing is more often just people demanding follow through. If a party says it is proworker people are going to expect action. Not just talk. You cant say you support labor and then turn around and block workers from striking, like Gov. Mills in Maine. That erodes trust. Biden walking the picket line was powerful. I love I'm for that. yet it doesnt erase the impact of breaking a strike. Both things exist at the same time, and some workers are going to remember the betrayal more than the gesture. That does not make them wrong. If being called out on these issues makes a leader or their supporters uncomfortable, then frankly good! That is accountability.

The system is stacked against us. Why then stop short of doing anything to fix it? DC and Puerto Rico should be states, not just because it’s the right thing to do though that should be enough for Dems on its own but because it adds Senate and House seats to help pass policy. The courts are openly in favor of corporate power. The size of the US House is too small and makes representation worse. We either take these issues seriously or keep watching the same outcomes repeat.

I have been around long enough to see the same story play out over and over. When Democrats lose, some consistently blame the left with little to no evidence. They attack people like Bernie or AOC who are trying to bring new energy and ideas into the party. But scapegoating part of your own base does nothing to win over new voters. It just builds resentment and division in the party and against your views.

We need strategy. We need to do more than defend what we have. Make the GOP vote against raising the wage. Make them vote against statehood. Make them explain why a court that consistently sides with billionaires deserves more deference than the voters who put us in office. That is how you shift the landscape and build momentum. Not by playing it safe and hoping things get better on their own.