Yes! IMO the 'evil geniuses' had no effect whatsoever. Trump just wins by default when the Democrats run unpopular candidates.

I've been saying this for almost ten years now. Trump is not a popular candidate and never has been. In '16 he got fewer votes than Romney did in '12. If everyone who voted for Obama had voted for Clinton, Trump never would have won. The same is true with '20 vs. '24: if everyone who voted for Biden had voted for Harris, Trump never would have won the second time.

I also don't think Biden was ever that popular; I think any of the Democratic candidates would have won in 2020. I told anyone who would listen at the time, "Biden is a bad choice, some shit could heat up in Israel, and he's very out of touch with the Democratic base on that issue, and it could prevent him from getting re-elected." I will say, I didn't think Trump would get re-elected after J6, I thought it would be some other Republican. But, it also felt like the Democrats also never really went after Trump for what he did on J6 so.

Anyway, I guess what I'm saying is I agree and I'm glad to hear other people say it. The Democrats are too willing to compromise with Republicans who never compromise with them, and it keeps losing them elections. So even though Americans as we actually exist are reasonably progressive on most issues (legalizing weed and having universal healthcare poll higher than any sitting politician, there are about 1.5x as many registered Dems as Reps in this country, etc), we're stuck with an extremely regressive government. That's the context that leads to progressives like Mamdani winning in "upset" victories and the Democratic leadership is all surprised.