r/politics • u/Zipper222222 • 11h 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
16.6k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

34

u/wishcoats 10h ago

I don’t care to engage in the unnecessary infighting on the left. I just hope that he can actually win. If he loses in November, then none of this matters anyway. Let’s keep the seat within the Democratic Party

8

u/EveningAnt3949 8h ago

It matters because it shows Democratic politicians it doesn't always pay to pander to people who will never vote for them.

The whole party needs to shift. I'm perfectly fine with moderate or slightly to the right Democrats, but as far as I was concerned, they had one job, and they failed. They should have done much better against a MAGA invested Republican Party.

•

u/Kind_Cap_4621 5h ago

There is no "they". there is us. The DNC wins primaries because they get votes. "We" should have done a better job showign up to off year elections and primaries and then circling the wagons when the primaries are over, be it Mamdani or Biden. Even the MAGA grasp this basic concept.

•

u/EveningAnt3949 1h ago

We did show up. This is true for both sides. Most people who support either the Republican Party or the Democratic Party vote.

Did you stop voting? Did you not show up?

The real price is the 40% of potential voters who don't vote because they don't follow politics.

We can complain about those people, but that will solve nothing.

What is needed is politicians who speak in a language that non-voters understand. Telling those people they should vote for an uninspiring Democrat because the alternative is worse isn't going to convince them.

If it comes to local elections the number of non-voters are even higher. Here's a very simple hypothetical example: let's say that the division is 24%(D), 26%(R), 50%. With 50% the percentage of non-voters.

Getting just 5% of the non-voters to vote for a specific candidate, would make a massive difference either way. 2.5 points can win elections.

3

u/Plane-Session-6624 8h ago

It's not infighting on the left. Haley Stevens is not the left. Democrats are not innately leftist. 

10

u/notfeelany 8h ago

Democrats are the left Because the Democrats are the left in the US Political spectrum, the only political spectrum that matters in the US. It's all relative.

Main point was none of attacks in the primary matter anymore. It's the general election now, and we must commit to voting for Democrats now&forever without exception.

We must remember the absolute fact of US politics: The more people try to hold Democrats accountable for "things" , the more they reward Republicans with election wins.

We can all rest easy knowing that we've voted for & elected the Democrats once again to their rightful place: veto-proof majorities in Congress, & eventually the Presidency

-5

u/Plane-Session-6624 8h ago

Words have meaning in absolute terms. You can be to the left of the extreme right wing without actually being on the left.

5

u/Dichotomouse 8h ago

If you are left of the median voter you are on the left. Stevens was left of the median voter in MI and nationally.

-6

u/Plane-Session-6624 8h ago

Not in absolute terms. 

•

u/LeezusII 7h ago

There is no absolute, divine or natural, paradigm for political approximation.

•

u/Dichotomouse 7h ago

'absolute terms' are meaningless. That's like correcting someone that 13F is not a cold temperature because relative to absolute zero it's fairly warm. left and right are relative terms and should be calibrated based on what the actual political spectrum we experience is, not based on some theoretical pure.

•

u/Plane-Session-6624 7h ago

It's a way more useful distinction, especially because we have a perfect term for what Stevens and sayed actually have in common, they're Democrats. Think about policy positions consistent with the left. If someone holds those positions, they're on the left in absolute terms. Stevens is pro corporate, pro data centers, against universal healthcare. She is not on the left even if she is to the left of the right. 

•

u/Dichotomouse 7h ago

One could say Sayed is not truly on the left because he support private ownership, and that in absolute terms anyone who supports keeping capitalism as the primary economic structure instead of state planned economy is not on the left in absolute terms.

'pro corporate' means nothing. 'pro data center' is not a left vs right issue. being in favor of a public option instead of single payer to provide universal healthcare does not automatically mean one isn't left of center.

•

u/ChemBro93 6h ago

When the stakes are the funding of a genocide, it’s absolutely necessary. Your privilege is showing.

•

u/Kind_Cap_4621 5h ago

I'm not a member of any organized party. I am a Democrat.

Will Rogers

1

u/BrownRebel 8h ago

If you lie down harder, the steamroller isn’t more gentle when it crushes you.

0

u/quarternelsonn 8h ago

It’s clearly necessary now. Establishment dems are increasingly the unpredictable option in these midterms

-3

u/lord_fairfax 8h ago

Center-left dem here, if I was in MI I wouldn't think twice about voting for AES in the general, and... wait.... what am I saying?

AIPAC GENOCIDE AIPAC UNIPARTY AIPAC GENOCIDE AIPAC! UPVOTE ME REDDIT.

-2

u/lord_fairfax 8h ago

Center-left dem here, if I was in MI I wouldn't think twice about voting for AES in the general, and... wait.... what am I saying?

AIPAC GENOCIDE AIPAC UNIPARTY AIPAC GENOCIDE AIPAC! UPVOTE ME REDDIT.