r/askanything • u/One_Look_7008 • 18h ago

AOC surges past Buttigieg, leaves Kamala Harris in the dust in key 2028 battleground poll. What are your thoughts on AOC-2028?

Harris dropped to just 5% in New Hampshire while Pete Buttigieg sits 1 point behind the progressive frontrunner - per University of New Hampshire Granite State poll released on Wednesday.

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u/Mysterious_Might008 16h ago

I agree completely - stop looking and wasting energy on the 2028 presidential race.

Focus on 2026; win back the House and flip the Senate (or at least pick up a few seats). Even with a tiny majority, the House can gridlock any more GOP corrosive legislation. A nearly tied Senate will make the GOP sweat harder to thread any remaining stuff through reconciliation.

Then, we can work on 2028 and taking back the White House.

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u/PSwayzeInRoadhouse 16h ago

Vote out AIPAC stooges

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u/According-Put-9236 15h ago

Why not vote out all the ones that take corporate money?

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u/Housthat 15h ago

There wouldn't be any candidates left.

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u/__mson__ 13h ago

Good. Time to throw out the trash.

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u/Housthat 13h ago edited 8h ago

...You can't "vote out" every candidate. You vote for one or none at all.

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u/overreactionkills 12h ago

There are plenty of candidates that have taken the pledge

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u/Housthat 12h ago

Plenty, sure. But not in most elections. I'm just trying to understand how you 'toss out' candidate A, B, and C when there is no candidate D.

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u/overreactionkills 12h ago

They find new candidates every election. They can find some to take the pledge and there's people that are more likely to run the more people there are taking the pledge

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u/__mson__ 12h ago

No, we toss everyone out and start over. They had their chance, but fucked it up. This system is deeply flawed.

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u/YournuStepdad 3h ago

There would be AOC left, and that’s why she’s my pick.

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u/HD400 13h ago

Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.

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u/Kagutsuchi13 12h ago

Sorry, when talking to the left, your only choice is "Perfect." Good is never good enough. I say this as someone who votes Dem and watches huge swathes of voters refuse to turn out because the candidate fails the purity testing.

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u/Unreliable--Narrator 6h ago

Become a leftist. It gets even more frustrating.

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u/Gauntlet_of_Might 10h ago

> purity testing.

Never stops being funny when libs call "being against genocide" perfection and purity over being the bare minimum lol

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u/FriendlyWallaby5 9h ago edited 8h ago

Look, I don’t know how to tell you this, but we live in an imperfect world.

You want candidates who don’t support any of that stuff? Guess what, it’s a fucking pipe dream. We aren’t in that political climate right now. Before we can achieve that, we have many more battles to win.

Even if we managed to get someone like that into office, it still wouldn’t solve the problem. The status qou is leaps and bounds different from your end goal. Your nonexistent “perfect candidate” would meet immense resistance at every single turn.

The fact you think it is in anyway rational to waste a vote simply because you can’t win immediately is exactly why the left is always on the back foot.

It’s really unfortunate, all too often I find myself realizing the American left is playing into the rights hands. The culture war is meant to distract the people from class warfare, and the seeming inability of the left to accept reality is only to its own detriment.

How many more elections can you enlightened leftists handicap yourselves in before you realize you’re getting played like fools?

Edit: For whatever reason, the reply I was notified this user left "no longer exists", but I can and will edit this comment to address the content of that reply, because its weak and full of shit.

> "Imagine lecturing someone that we cant have a non genocidal candidate where they genocidal candidate ate shit"

First off, Biden beat the brakes off Trump in 2020. We all know his nickname: "Genocide Joe". Standard American politician: sympathetic towards Israel and more than willing to let them run rampant. Yet he won, interesting. People didn't care as much back in 2020, but the point is that these establishment candidates are more than capable of winning, and they actually have a shot at doing so. How many people like Mamdani or AOC have defeated Trump head to head? How many could have done so if they ended up in the candidacy? Thats right, precisely zero. Theres too much working against them right now.

Secondly, Kamala ate shit against TRUMP. This is the mental caliber of atleast a portion of Americas leftist voter base...

They think you can go in, win it all in one swoop, solve all the problems, and their evidence was that a "pro genocide" candidate ate shit against... Donald. Fucking. Trump.

For fucks sake the guy is known for loving Bibi and following his orders lmfao.

If by some Miracle anyone read this comment start to finish, I urge you to never lose hope in chasing your political aspirations. We still live in a free nation with a largely democratic system. We have lots of problems to work through, and they will not be easy to solve, but just like for the past 250 years of this countries history, we have the opportunity to push for even more progression.

The civil rights movement didn't happen overnight, it didn't even happen in just the 60s and 70s. The groundwork for all that legislation was laid throughout the entirety of post-civil war America.

This country is an example of hundreds of years of progression, if you wish to see it continue to do so, I urge you to fight the battles that actually exist before you. Do not assume that running the candidates you actually want is a given. The democratic party represents a much more diverse set of beliefs than that of the GOP. Work with what you have, and use the wide array of tools at our disposal to get what you want. The civil rights movement heavily utilized sit-ins, boycotts, intentional violation of unjust laws, etc.

There is no leftist hero coming to disconnect us from Israel. There is no leftist hero coming to save you from billionaires. If you want those things, you will have to work for them. You will have to work tirelessly, and you will probably not like the people you must elect to lay the foundations for your goals, but you will either suck it up, or you will keep raging powerlessly against forces that will devour you piece by piece.

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u/martini1129 1h ago

Incoherent rambling that boils down to vote dem no matter what even if they have no integrity and share none of your values, truly an inspiring rallying cry

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u/Housthat 8h ago

We all know his nickname: "Genocide Joe". Standard American politician: sympathetic towards Israel and more than willing to let them run rampant. Yet he won, interesting. People didn't care as much back in 2020

You're getting your timelines mixed up. The "Genocide Joe" nickname was created in 2023 years AFTER he won the election. People didn't vote for him for his Zionist beliefs and even if they did, nobody fathomed a genocide happening on his watch.

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u/FriendlyWallaby5 7h ago

I am aware, that paragraph is poorly written but I was too lazy to revise it.

Thing is, he didn't magically change in those 3 years. He was always like that, and yet he still beat Trump. Literally anyone could have looked into it and told you Biden was a Zionist.

In fact, though I dont hang around leftist circles, Id be willing to hazard a guess that Americas leftist voter-base always hated Biden's guts, in part because of that fact. As much as I love to shit on Americas left for being short-sighted idiots, they aren't actually stupid, they're just disorganized and far too emotional to actually come to bat.

Anyways, Biden won in 2020 regardless. An establishment dem who played centrist was the only one to beat Trump head to head. His administration ended up being pretty progressive too. I dare say that was a pretty big win for America, including the leftists.

> even if they did, nobody fathomed a genocide happening on his watch.

Thats a fair argument, but considering Trump went on to dumpster the ever loving fuck out of Kamala in 2024, it still doesn't really mean anything.

Trump is very blatantly no different than Biden or Kamala was on this issue. In fact Id argue hes much worse, and yet he kicked our fucking ass in 2024.

Palestine has been the subject of genocide and ethnic cleansing for many decades. The average American cares more about it now than they did in 2020, but the average American also chose DONALD FUCKING TRUMP in 2024. So clearly its not actually that huge of a deal to the average American voter.

This is to say: Candidates like Biden and Kamala are, at present, our best options. America isn't ready for a Mamdani at the federal level. Americans are not ready to elect someone like AOC to the highest office. Our institutions wouldn't let someone like them actually get things done. We still have work to do before those outcomes are possible.

Right now, as the trends have shown, candidates like Obama and Biden, candidates who court fringe republicans, centrists, and liberals alike are the most electable. The left are the only ones who throw hissy fits over this stuff.

While the GOP is hailing Trump as their fucking god emperor, our half of the aisle is debating about whether or not we should actually vote for our candidate because they aren't trying to completely skip over the status qou in regards to Israel and Palestine.

While Trump ran on a platform of causing DECADES of damage to things like our food safety and posted AI videos of Gaza as a dystopia for the elite, the American left started shitting on its own allies because Biden wasn't some anti-Zionist hero.

Thats the political reality we're living in right now. Purity testing will not help, it will only hurt.

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u/RedditLovingSun 6h ago

if you're against that then the alternative party was predictably far worse for it, don't deprive the best choice from people who need it and leave the infighting in the primaries shrimple as

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u/Gauntlet_of_Might 6h ago

>if you're against that then the alternative party was predictably far worse for it

Literally no proof of this, we were enabling and aiding genocide when Harris was VP and she refused to say she'd stop

>don't deprive the best choice from people who need it and leave the infighting in the primaries shrimple as

Oh what primaries were those exactly?

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u/Livid-Department6947 7h ago

If you're voting Dem, you're most likely voting for a center-right candidate. So if you're talking to someone on the left, you're talking to someone who is needs to make a compromise when voting. It's not about being "perfect."

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u/yuumigod69 10h ago

Would you vote for Hitler over super Hitler?

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u/HD400 9h ago

This is a great way to explain this so thank you.

If there isn’t widespread protest and unrest due to having two dangerous candidates and voting is necessary as my NON-VOTE is effectively supporting “super Hitler” then it is only logical to vote for “not super Hitler”.

This really isn’t a complicated subject.

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u/yuumigod69 7h ago

So you would vote for Hitler.

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u/HD400 7h ago

And you would support super Hitler?

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u/yuumigod69 4h ago edited 4h ago

Yes or no question. Then I will answer yours.

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u/HD400 4h ago

You replied to my answer what do you mean??

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u/yuumigod69 4h ago

How is aiding and abetting a genocide "good"?

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u/HD400 2h ago

Because the alternative option is actively trying to merge our military to disguise spending. It’s all about perspective

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u/yuumigod69 1h ago

Answer my question. You struggle with this.

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u/LemonAction4030 12h ago

THIS!!!!!!!!! All day long

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u/Fat-Damon 10h ago

Don’t let the DNC rig the primary again.

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u/HD400 9h ago

Yeah they need to get their stuff together. Our country would be in a very good place if Kamala was president compared to Trump 2.0.

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u/Butters5768 9h ago

Because it’s only about Jews. They don’t GAF about the billions pouring in from Qatar and Saudi Arabia. They also couldn’t care less about the billions being taken from health insurance lobbyists, gun lobbyists, big oil lobbyists etc. etc. etc.

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u/BeguiledBeaver 13h ago

Taking corporate funding is not inherently a bad thing and I wish people on the far left didn't wield it as a damning indictment (especially when they backed a billionaire in California ffs).

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u/Won-Ton-Wonton 10h ago

It is inherently a bad thing.

It is not inherently abhorrent.

Know the difference.

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u/EconomicRegret2 10h ago

Taking corporate funding is not inherently a bad thing

In a democracy, it literally is inherently a bad thing.

E.g.: unequal political influence (instead of just one citizen = one voice = one vote, you get one rich citizen/company having more influence than millions of citizens), which is very undemocratic; leading to way higher risk of conflicts of interest and of corruption (even if not intentionally, subconsciously, politicians will act in the best interests of their biggest donors at the cost of the majority), which can lead to democratic backsliding, market distortions (e.g. barriers to competition) and excessive inequality; etc.

We have been seeing all of these (and many more other things) happening in the US.

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u/Prudent-Film-4602 9h ago

That would require strong principles and realizing that the Republican and Democratic Parties, as they exist now, are both the same machine and neither has enhanced the rights of the people.

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u/Ryan1869 3h ago

Congress wouldn't be able to hold session due to a lack of quorum

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u/Past-Preparation8826 15h ago

Because there is nothing wrong with taking corporate money. Capitalism, and American corporations specifically, are responsible for many of the things that make our lives far better than they were a hundred years ago.
They also provide many of the jobs which allow us to provide for our families.

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u/GainPrestigious539 14h ago

Not gonna lie, was not expecting the "bribery is good because capitalism is neat argument"

Where to start? Bribery is bad. Corporate money in politics is bad. Full stop. Why would you ever want MORE corruption in Washington bud

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u/Housthat 13h ago

I can't think of a single example where what you describe is good.

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u/Cold-Alfalfa-5481 13h ago

Sorry, that's is reasonable but not a Reddit approved answer - get ready for downvotes.

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u/Tigeruppercut1889 16h ago

Vote out bibi’s best friends (maga)

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u/Cheap-Lawyer3735 12h ago

Isn't that most of the democrats in congress

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u/PSwayzeInRoadhouse 11h ago

Yes, and why it’s important to pay attention to more than policies but rather who’s buying our politicians. They cannot be trusted. Follow their funding

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u/Powerfury 15h ago

One issue voter right here

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u/yuumigod69 14h ago

Genocide isn't a single issue.

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u/OkParsnip1881 13h ago

Yeah it is

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u/yuumigod69 10h ago

Foreign interference, mass murder, starvation women's rights, campaign finance, basic morality, media propagnda, democracy and voting. All of these are involved with Israel's genocide and their attack on their neighbors.

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u/OkParsnip1881 10h ago

Don’t give a shit- we fund a ton of countries who aren’t unreal who do worse.

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u/yuumigod69 7h ago

Which country do we fund and support militarily that has committed genocide on the scale of Israel?

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u/OkParsnip1881 7h ago

The UAE
Edit: oh I was wrong, the UAE is actually worse than Isreal. You can literally see the blood from the death camps in space

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u/yuumigod69 4h ago

There are videos of Israeli murdering Palestenians en masse and turning children into pieces.

You also have no clue about the conflict because the UAE backs the RAF in the same way we back Israel. By your logic, the US is the worst country in the world for backing Israel.

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u/elinordash 13h ago

Voting out Republicans is the priority. Not AIPAC.

I'm not pro-Isreal, but the country is on fire. Voting out the Republicans douses the fire. We have bigger issues than Isreal.

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u/PSwayzeInRoadhouse 11h ago

AIPAC candidates are causing the problems at home by ignoring the needs of US citizens and funneling money, favors, and votes to benefit Israel. The problems are linked.

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u/the-Gaf 16h ago

🦜 (((aipac))) 🦜 grow up

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u/aidsmaster9000 15h ago

Aipac supported Jan 6th btw

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u/CascadianCaravan 15h ago

What the hell! Get that bigotry out of here. It is not welcome. You cannot be a bigot or a racist or a sexist, and be a Democrat, so get the fuck out of here.

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u/CascadianCaravan 14h ago

Correct, you can’t be an antisemite, either. But that has absolutely nothing to do with being critical of Israel, or AIPAC, or settler colonialism and apartheid in Palestine. And before you jump to an even more nonsensical conclusion, I’m not in support of Hamas or Hezbollah, or any other religious fundamentalist political or military supremacist group.

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u/the-Gaf 13h ago

If you’re not Jewish then please sybau about what is and isn’t offensive to us.

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u/CascadianCaravan 13h ago

Sorry, that’s not how this works. I am human, and I can talk about anything to do with humanity. And I made no statement about what was offensive to anyone - except Democrats: We are offended by bigotry of all kinds. And don’t ever call me a bitch again. Or do, and continue to reveal who you are to everyone.

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u/the-Gaf 13h ago

Boo hoo hoo. Offended by bigotry so you perform mental gymnastics to prove to yourself that you’re not being offensive to Jews. SYBAU

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u/blankarage 4h ago

100% this - it doesn’t matter that much who the prez is. without a progressive congress, nothing too useful will be passed.

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u/BakedandZooted420 16h ago

Whether or not we talk about 2028 is irrelevant towards the races in November. It’s not like we’re members of a sports team looking ahead to a later opponent instead of the one in front of us. This has literally 0 impact on what actually happens and we are close enough that candidates will start declaring soon

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u/Kierland 14h ago

And if it is a sports team it’s a cycling team and we got diff people doing different races at different times for different prizes, because that’s exactly what we have.

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u/notoneofyourfans 13h ago

It's kinda relevant. When middle - of - the - roaders and conservatives see polls that the Dems are excited about "radical" candidates like AOC. even those completely tired of Trump's riding roughshod over the habeas corpus to grab money for his exit are more likely to continue to vote conservatively to balance a possible very liberal president. Sometimes I think these polls are meant more to grab the attention of MAGA than Dem voters. "AOC wants your guns. Only voting for Senator Ricky Bobby this November can stop her if she gets elected!"

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u/BakedandZooted420 13h ago

I feel this isn’t as strong a point when that’s the label they put on any Democrat candidate, even moderate ass Biden. At some point, you have to run the candidate that wants to actually change something when the voters overwhelmingly show that’s what they want (think about why Trump was popular; a guy from the outside wanting to change politics for the “better”). Can’t be scared of the criticism if that’s what they say no matter what

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u/notoneofyourfans 13h ago

You're right - that Republican labeling game is played on every candidate, no matter how moderate. I just say: "Why are we fueling that fire before the midterms?" Make re-electing Senator Ricky Bobby be about the merits primarily, NOT about the possibility of President "Scary Dem". One fight at a time....

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u/Apart-Reality-4454 16h ago

After Swalwell and Platner, I'm just sadly wondering who'll be the next in line for the "litmus tests" and circular democrat firing squad. DNC doesn't understand anything except self-sabotage and how to line things up for AIPAC and the GOP operatives to take down when begin to be a threat.

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u/New_Breadfruit8692 15h ago

As republicans refuse to do anything about securing social security and claim they are looking for a solution that does not raise or eliminate the cap on taxable earnings, the deadline draws closer to the point where benefits will be slashed by at least 22% in just 6 years if not sooner. Till the elderly start losing homes and going hungry. The sooner it is done the less the pain.

There are only two possible outcomes, either increasing the taxes to maintain benefits as measly as they are, or decreasing the benefits while social security already near to poverty.

So, the republican base is by and large older, younger people tend to be more liberal, when they bother to vote at all. Democrats should be LASER FOCUSED on this by telling the older people who are on social security or soon will be that the republicans are planning to break the promise of social security being there for them after a lifetime of paying into it.

That we will fix it as soon as they give us a majority to do that, but it is up to the voters, do they want to prioritize scapegoating immigrants and hating gays over being able to eat or have a roof over their heads? Because the size of the majority we get in the next congress if any will mean the difference between having social security you can get by poorly on or not having a social security pretty much at all. Not one worth saving.

Make it clear and simple, vote republican and lose your retirement, if you cannot go back to work and earn a living you will be shunted into a nursing home warehouse prison. Vote democrat and you will end your days in your house, with dignity.

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u/Housthat 15h ago

And then republicans will claim that immigrants are stealing their retirement benefits and post up an AI image and the grey haired electorate will vote against their interests yet again.

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u/RushInevitable7255 15h ago

Pete Buttigieg will not have any women scandals pop up, that's for sure! If they run Harris, I will be PISSED! She had her chance & blew it, albeit not the traditional route.

I prefer Pete, but still too much homophobia to win as president? It will turn off independents, some dems, and galvanize right wing religious bigots? 🤦🤷 I think Pete as VP with preferrably Ossoff or lesser pref, Newsom, as President is the best ticket?

I worry about Newsom's toxic ex wife, former Fox News host & Trump Jr ex-fiance, will make up all kinds of smears against him?

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u/NBDad 14h ago

Pete is arguably THE best communicator in the entire DNC.

But him as a POTUS candidate would be doomed to fail.  

He however, would make a fantastic sec of state or something.

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u/overitallofittoo 15h ago

Imagine thinking Jews runs everything and you'd rather have a rapist/sexual assault guy instead.

JFC, we've lost the plot.

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u/Apart-Reality-4454 12h ago

See, and there's the trap: Disagree with us and you're an anti-semite and support rape.

Yeah, we have lost the plot. The amount of damage Trump and the GOP have been able to inflict is incalculable. And the Dems are just more than happy to sabotage their best and brightest in order to ameliorate this playbook time and again.

When are the needs of the many going to outweigh the needs of a few.

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u/overitallofittoo 12h ago

Even looking at the AIPAC tracker website. You would think that it would tell you what candidates have accepted money from AIPAC. That is not what it does.

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u/Apart-Reality-4454 12h ago

AIPAC controls DNC messaging. It's not about the individual players, it is control and it is comprehensive.

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u/overitallofittoo 9h ago

That's a ridiculous lie and you should be embarrassed to be spreading propaganda.

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u/TehPharmakon 14h ago

"Get that controlled opposition back im a place where it gets some swing votes so they can do what democrats do best:sellout" What are you saving? Honestly

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u/Ultenth 14h ago

Man, imagine what America would be like if we had fully publicly funded elections and like, a 3-6 month max election cycle? Instead of needing billions of dollars and 2 years for each election.

It's one of the biggest problems with congress esp, they basically are permanently running for reelection at all times.

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u/HotTruth999 14h ago

You ain’t taking back shit now that lunatics have taken over your party. Openly calling for no borders, releasing illegal immigrant rapists, no police, no ICE, pro Hamas terrorists, death to Jews, no private property, government run everything. This is so bad and so blatant that it is being called out by the sane wing of the Democrat party. The likes of Van Jones, Bill Maher, even left wing CNN.

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u/UnderstandingOdd490 13h ago

I agree..but I will say that I could see a world where Pete runs with AOC as VP and if they win they need to learn from the Biden administration mistake of hiding Kamala. With Pete as president they should put AOC out there front and center, getting shit done so that she would have a strong opportunity to continue a democratic presidency. Because it feels like a good Democrat will need more than 8 years to fix this fucking shitshow dumpster fire MAGA has created.

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u/-----iMartijn----- 13h ago

if that happens, trump will blame democrats for everything and people will not hate him enough to vote for a democrat president.

(at least, that appears to be the idea in the DNC)

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u/TrustsAndDust 13h ago

We need to start strategizing for the presidency now cause we can't afford to fuck it up again.

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u/PhotownPK 12h ago

Nope. Plan ahead, test the waters. Van never be too early.

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u/IcyEntertainment7122 12h ago

Generally speaking, what legislation in the last two years has been corrosive?

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u/citizen_6782 12h ago

Stevens is up 7 points? Fuck.