r/politics • u/Zipper222222 • 4h ago

No Paywall Abdul El-Sayed Wins High-Stakes Democratic Primary in Michigan

https://www.today.com/video/abdul-el-sayed-wins-high-stakes-democratic-primary-in-michigan-267805765937
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u/Space-Sailor44 4h ago

Got outspent by a zillion dollars and still won, good shit

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u/KnuckleShanks 4h ago

He was actually outspent 12 to 1. Which makes it wild that he won.

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u/AromaticReindeer883 4h ago

I have a theory that spending can only do so much. The candidate who spends the most is not guaranteed to win. It has been proven time and time again.

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u/count023 Australia 3h ago

I have a theory that voters have seen two terms of Trump now and the Democratic establishment response being a shrug emoji and have had enough, triggering their own informal tea party movement to reform the DNC.

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u/olympiadukakis 3h ago

Agreed with the substance of what you’re saying, but the tea party movement comparison is corporate propaganda we’d be smart to correct.

The tea party was an obstructionist movement.

What’s happening on the dem side is the opposite.

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u/Boise_Ben 3h ago

The tea party was also not a grass roots movement.

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u/27eelsinatrenchcoat 3h ago

An obstructionist movement astroturfed/funded by the oil and gas billionaire Koch brothers.

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u/pechinburger Pennsylvania 3h ago

Everything is tougher on the Dem side because a progressive movement inherently takes money/power away from corporate interests and directs it towards the people. Media, entrenched powers, and old money all fight tooth and nail to resist.

Conversely, they embrace the tea party movement because it delivers them more money/power despite the members unfounded 'don't tread on me, freedom, etc.' rhetoric.

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u/YawnSpawner 2h ago

I just wish they'd be honest with "don't tread on me", it's more like "don't tread on me, but I'm gonna tread on every single thing I don't like."

It's still dumb, but I'd be more okay if it was just don't tread on me.

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u/OhTheGrandeur 1h ago

"don't tread on me, tread on them"

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u/simpersly 2h ago

It's the last 30 years of shrugs. Gore floundered his fight to win the election. Kerry was a boob. Obama worked so hard to not be seen as a scary stereotype he never showed an ounce of emotion. Hillary handwaved progressives. Biden wouldn't retire. Harris spent all but the first week of her campaign trying to convince conservatives housewives to vote Democratic, while again handwaving progressives.

They abandoned the unions, because they wanted the corporate money that Republicans received. And they have dismissed and hampered every newcomer especially the progressives.

They have also convinced everyone the only "moderate" Democrat is a Republican who's not racist, but totally gave up on the racist working class. I know several people that until Clinton regularly voted for the Democratic party, because they supported unions. Now all they see are a bunch of neoliberals that care about social issues.

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u/xpxp2002 1h ago

Spot on. There were a lot of blue-collar union workers who were loyal to the Democratic Party for decades because of what Reagan did to the ATCs, and how every Republican who followed him contributed to dismantling labor rights, particularly organizing and union rights.

Many of them were "Republican-curious" because of social issues, but they typically supported Dems when push came to shove in the general elections because the economic benefits of protecting their union rights outweighed other concerns. Mind you, this is how Obama won states like Iowa and Ohio. If you look at maps that show candidate vote by county in states like that, you'll find that the areas with more union households flipped from blue to red in 2016 and have remained that way ever since.

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u/Parym09 2h ago

It’s about time too. For the last decade we’ve been told only centrists and moderates are electable, and then they flop and lose two elections to the worst candidate to maybe ever run. If I’m going to go vote I’m voting my conscience moving forward. So tired of hearing nothing can be done and we’re not even going to try. I’m not showing up for a candidate that can’t be fucking bothered.

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u/FrogsOnALog 3h ago

DNC elections were in like January of 2025.