Democrats: Happier victory?

[Mr. Smith]

2008, because at least there was a few months of fleeting hope where now I know this is nothing more than a brief remission.

I would argue that because of polarization, if Democrats win the GA runoffs, a 50-50 senate, a 224-211 ish House, and the Presidency would be more powerful than Obama's trifecta in 2008. We've already seen how powerful a narrow Republican trifecta was between 2016 and 2018, and since then, polarization has only gotten worse.

Only if they act on it. It's Democrats were talkin' about, not liberal/leftist Republicans.

[Antonio the Sixth]

2008. How is this even a question??

[TDAS04]

2008, but 2012 was happiest.  I disliked Romney more than McCain (though obviously not as much as Trump), Obama’s second victory wasn’t as certain, and 2012 had the great stuff with gay marriage.

2020 was certainly the one where I had the greatest sense of relief.

[LBJer]

Easily Biden 2020.  Yes, 2008 was more "historic" for obvious reasons, and I was glad Obama won, but Biden's victory made me much happier.  I both despise and fear Donald Trump, and found it imperative that he be stopped.  John McCain would not have posed a threat to democracy and the U.S. itself.  And while McCain had a great deal to like and respect about him, Trump has nothing.  He's one of the few major historical figures to have seemingly no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

I was very nervous leading up to and on election day.  At first that evening, things seemed to be going well for Biden as expected, but then came the Miami-Dade result.  Then the New York Times "needle" soon showed Donald Trump projected to win Georgia and North Carolina, states that Biden was supposed to be very competitive in.  At that point, it seemed like 2016 all over again.  But then I stopped panicking and remembered that Biden only had to do less than one percent better in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan than Clinton did to win.  And some things seemed promising, like the early returns from Ohio (though this proved a complete mirage).  Still, I went to bed about 3 am resigned to the possibility of a Trump victory.  

But then when I woke up four or five hours later, I looked at the map.  Not only was Biden ahead in Wisconsin and Michigan, he was ahead in states totaling 270 electoral votes!  I was ecstatic.  I remembered a quote from Stephen Ambrose's book on D-day: "My God, we've done it!"  And I'm an atheist to boot!  This was the first election in my lifetime that I felt intensely about and had been nervous about that went the way I wanted it to.  I honestly felt like it was worth being alive just to witness it.  

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

2008 easily. Obama was way more charismatic then Biden, and he easily seemed like he could bring a new post partisan era with his message of hope and change. Ever since Obama gave his electrifying 2004 DNC speech, he was a superstar.

He was also the first black President, black TV hosts on CNN were crying tears of joy, black people all across the US and even the world probably were too. It is old news now for people who don't remember the 2008 election, but the idea of a black President seemed impossible. The land of slavery and segregation actually managed to elect a black President.

[Crumpets]

Easily 2020 for me, although I'm sure I'm in the minority on that. I had very little faith in Obama in 2008 and Bush was going to be gone regardless.

[BlueSwan]

On the one hand, I'm much happier to see Donald Trump lose than John McCain because I genuinely hate his guts, and I did not hate John McCain. Bush was going to leave office either way, but taking Trump down and making him a one-termer is certainly sweet.

On the other hand, Obama's win was overall a happier moment for a few reasons: Historic moment for the country, obviously, and moreover it was part of a larger sweeping Democratic landslide that gave us a supermajority in Congress. It left us with a feeling of more "hope." Obviously this year's results were more mixed. And they suggest Trumpism might be around for a while, whereas 2008 felt like a decisive rebuke of Bush's GOP.

This is the correct answer.

[cp]

This is sort of like asking whether it's happier to find out you're getting your dream job or finding out your chemotherapy was successful.

[Bojack Horseman]

To be completely honest I wish McCain had won in 2008 so there would have been huge Democratic majorities in Congress after 2010 and Democrats wouldn’t have gotten killed in the state legislatures. Since the scary Kenyan/socialist/communist/fascist/black man would have been defeated there would have been no reason for the Tea Party and no reason to elect a white supremacist in 2016. McCain would have lost after 1 term because unemployment would have been in the 20% range.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

I didn’t even support Obama in 2008, but I still felt warmer about his victory than any single moment from the 2020 campaign, despite desperately wanting Trump to lose and actually getting what I wanted. America is a mess.

[MIKESOWELL]

I'm Black....so I think that that's self explanatory. Obama in 2008.

[Crane]

2008. Joe Biden will have a Republican Senate and Trump's presidency will live on with the Sister Wife and the Rapist on the Supreme Court. In short, he will accomplish very little. The Republican Party doesn't govern, they do nothing but cut taxes for the rich and throw money at the military welfare program, and we will get more government shutdowns as we kept having during Obama's last few years, so the public will blame this on Biden. The future doesn't look good for the Democratic Party despite a brief moment of respite.

[compucomp]

There's a clear correct answer here. I'm surprised 30% say 2020 and I'm guessing too many people were not old enough to appreciate 2008 and remember how how it felt to elect the first black president and imagining that the Democrats may have just won an FDR like victory with the numbers in Congress to pass their stuff.

This year, yes Trump did lose, but it was too close and for weeks Democrats contended with the thought of a Trump/Republican coup and weighing the possibility of having to take to the streets (maybe even now). They also know that Trumpism was not repudiated and that Trump would have been a solid favorite for re-election if COVID-19 didn't exist. They're thinking about likely gridlock upcoming, losing the House in 2022, and Trump's comeback attempt in 2024. That's not what I would call a happy or feel-good victory.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Not a Democrat (obviously) and being only seven in 2008 I only had vague feelings, but in retrospect that one was certainly better.

In 2008 I was six and therefore didn't really know what was going on, so 2020, although the 2008 map certainly fills me with glee today.

You are, like, the last poster I would have imagined to be younger than me, lmao.

[politicallefty]

Easily 2008. The scope of the overall victory was the biggest of my life. Obama won a commanding Electoral College landslide and Democrats had commanding majorities in both Houses of Congress. Despite the ongoing collapse of the economy, I genuinely had hope for both the near term future and the long term future of the country.

Like a lot of other people, I would say I feel relief about this election. I used the same word after 2012, but it doesn't quite feel the same as then. Four of years of seeing Trumpism has revealed what the other side really is. Whatever mask there was before has been ripped off and it's something quite terrifying to me. The issues facing this country have only become more pressing and dire and any reasonable solutions don't even seem likely in the distant future, let alone the near future. I feel at best it's just tinkering around the edges. I am quite pessimistic about the long term future of this country.

I read an analogy recently, although I don't recall where I saw or heard it from. It's that Democrats, myself included, were expecting a resounding victory a la the Rebels blowing up the Death Star in Return of the Jedi. Instead, what we got was the ending of Alien: a brutal fight to the end with lots of casualties. Ripley thinks she got away, only to find the alien stowed away on her escape shuttle. She once again has to fight for her life to kill it, which she does. But all in all, she was the lone survivor barely escaping with her life, an otherwise fairly bleak ending.