r/politics • u/HyacinthFT • 5h ago

No Paywall Donald Trump says transgender people will "end" if GOP keeps Congress in midterms

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/08/donald-says-transgender-people-will-end-if-gop-keeps-congress-in-midterms/
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u/Eris_AppleOfDiscord 5h ago

The gop specifically said they wanted to force kamala to speak more about it. Since it was a winning issue for them.

She was caught in a catch 22

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u/shinkouhyou 3h ago

The only way out of these catch-22s is to reframe the issue instead of letting Republicans constantly control the narrative. Call out Republicans for their creepy fixation on trans women, talk about the issue from a medical privacy perspective and say that politicians shouldn't get between patients and their doctors, and treat the trans issue like the absurd manufactured distraction it is. Keep the tone light, avoid preachiness, and pivot back to economics. Produce media-friendly sound bites explaining how transition actually works (no, schools are not giving out sex hormones) and for fuck's sake, train every Democratic talking head so they don't stumble over themselves when talking about trans issues.

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u/Zeyode 41m ago

I thought this was obvious, but it feels like a lot of democratic politicians now forget that part of a politician's job is to be a rhetorician. They just take for granted that people will vote for them cause they have campaign money and they're not republicans.

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u/simpersly 4h ago

She should have. And call them out on it. Make fun of their fears and correlate their obsessed hate to the mass muders that happened throughout history.

Instead she spent 2 months trying to convince conservative housewives to vote for her.

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u/Eris_AppleOfDiscord 4h ago

The exit polling clearly shows otherwise. Trans issues are an Achilles heels for dems. Unfortunately.

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u/Bucksack 4h ago

So how does it get fixed?

What I’m reading in your comment is: “trans people exist, therefore dems will struggle to win.”

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u/Eris_AppleOfDiscord 4h ago

Personally. I would hope dems take a more libertarian angle and try to take the issue away from republicans. Make it more about personal liberty and autonomy rather than even trying to argue "Trans women are women"

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u/IAmPud 2h ago

You literally cannot defend trans rights if you are dropping “trans women are women”

That’s inherently central, dropping that has allowed the Labour Party in the UK to stomp on trans rights

You can’t accept bigotry to defend against it

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u/Bucksack 3h ago

That angle couldn’t hurt.

Part of my fear is that any Dem messaging strategy that relies on their audience thinking critically and not about themselves may be asking too much.

And Dems also need to be consistent lest they hand ammunition to the opposition. If they appeal to personal freedom/libertarian ideals for trans issues, are they also going to apply the same appeal to gun ownership/gun control? Environmental protection? Universal healthcare?

Whatever route they choose, I doubt a tv or radio ad is going to change minds on the topic, we gotta talk to people.

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u/IAmPud 4h ago

Post one

I’m sick of being told it’s my fault for existing that my rights are being taken away, so post the polls that show trans people are the reason we lost

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u/simpersly 4h ago

Because Republicans overlords, and conservative media made it so. Harris's job was to make it not an issue