Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Why Did Democrats Campaign for Trump?
BitterEpic writes: This isn’t a conspiracy theory—it’s been covered by outlets like NPR, Newsweek, and USA Today: Democratic organizations actually spent money to promote Trump-aligned Republicans in GOP primaries. Why? The idea was to elevate “unelectable” opponents who’d be easier to beat in general elections. Sounds clever—unless the plan backfires. And with Trump winning in 2016 and still holding serious political sway, it’s worth asking: Did Democrats help create the very threat they claim to fear?
If Democrats truly believe Trump is an existential threat to democracy, why play with fire? Promoting candidates they think are too extreme to win assumes voters will always choose “correctly.” That’s not only arrogant—it’s dangerous. If he wins again, that strategy looks more like sabotage than strategy. Let’s also be honest: a lot of people who voted for Trump probably didn’t even like him. They just saw a bad system and chose the person they thought might shake it up. If Democrats helped make him the only viable alternative, that’s not just a Republican problem. It’s an American one.
I'm a big fan of ranked-choice voting. It gives people more options and weakens the two-party death grip that lets tactics like this work in the first place. If voters weren’t so locked into “lesser of two evils” thinking, parties wouldn’t be able to rig the system this way.
Serious question for Slashdotters: If you donated to the DNC or supported these tactics, do you think it was worth it? Do you think boosting Trump-aligned candidates was a responsible strategy? There are a lot of political comments here and I'm genuinely curious.
If Democrats truly believe Trump is an existential threat to democracy, why play with fire? Promoting candidates they think are too extreme to win assumes voters will always choose “correctly.” That’s not only arrogant—it’s dangerous. If he wins again, that strategy looks more like sabotage than strategy. Let’s also be honest: a lot of people who voted for Trump probably didn’t even like him. They just saw a bad system and chose the person they thought might shake it up. If Democrats helped make him the only viable alternative, that’s not just a Republican problem. It’s an American one.
I'm a big fan of ranked-choice voting. It gives people more options and weakens the two-party death grip that lets tactics like this work in the first place. If voters weren’t so locked into “lesser of two evils” thinking, parties wouldn’t be able to rig the system this way.
Serious question for Slashdotters: If you donated to the DNC or supported these tactics, do you think it was worth it? Do you think boosting Trump-aligned candidates was a responsible strategy? There are a lot of political comments here and I'm genuinely curious.
