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Why is Kamala Harris being held at such a higher standard than Trump this election?

It feels like Harris has to run a damn near flawless campaign just to BARELY beat this guy. Yeah you can bring up the current state of the country, but Trump mishandled COVID, there were over 200k deaths, BLM protest and was 2x impeached. And yet, Joe Biden BARELY beat him.

Trump is a convicted felon, liable sexual predator, caused an insurrection on the Capitol Hill, tried to steal the 2020 election (find me 11,000 votes), constantly kisses Russia’s ass, has more pending court cases and gets sentenced next month and overall has been the main driving factor in America’s division.

Yet, this race is STILL either 50/50 or a slight tilt (Harris leads the polling aggregate right now). Harris gets destroyed by the corporate media for almost anything, yet Trump is still lying and saying the most outlandish shit and nobody cares.

Why does it feel standards are much higher for Harris than Trump?

Professorozone ,

Can’t believe you are asking this now. In the 70s, I don’t believe any of these yokels would have been elected. Lauren Beaubert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Trump, they’ve all done things and said things that are so far over the line, it isn’t even funny. Nixon? Please, he would be small potatoes today.

Why? Gerrymandering. Social Media. Lack of critical thinking skills. A sense of hopelessness. Apathy. Billionaire brainwashing. The list goes on. The strange thing is, conservatives want to go back to the way things were. For them that means when women had to go to back alleys to get abortions, when gays were stoned, when blacks weren’t allowed to vote. For me it means when people didn’t justify these ridiculous notions, but instead just said, “No!”

BadmanDan OP ,

It’s wild that Trump has done things far worse than watergate, and still got the nomination.

Professorozone ,

It is. The world is stranger than I could possibly ever have imagined. Sometimes I play a thought game. What if I had to explain this to, an alien.

“Yes, this is how it works. Are you going to destroy us now? Yeah, we probably deserve this.”

shalafi ,

My game is explaining this to my dad who died in the mid-80s. Cannot even summon words.

Angry_Autist ,

It’s not wild, it’s the GOP plan since Nixon got nabbed.

Drumpf just happened to have that crazy crowd draw, so they yoked their hopes that he would be the first king of America, and disregarded everything else to forward that goal.

Cheetolini could eat a baby live on national television and his numbers would barely dip.

lurch ,

conservatives aren’t conservative any more. they are radically backwards. the things they want are so far back, they don’t even want democracy any more. i don’t really have a say in that, but maybe the time has come to stop calling them conservative.

kautau ,

Yeah there was a long time ago when conservatives voted to protect national parks. These aren’t those times

SkyNTP ,

They are “regressives”.

derpgon ,

I call them “degeneratives”. They are both degenerated, and want others to degenerate Atwell.

Disgracefulone ,

Atwell can’t be degenerated. his regeneration power is far too great (at least in the comics.). /s

shalafi ,

I’m conservative vs. most of lemmy and damned if I’ll vote anything but straight D right down to dogcatcher. I wouldn’t vote for an R even if I liked them! The message must be sent. Even if it’s a loss, your vote ends up as a percentage on a spreadsheet. It is still seen.

bradorsomething ,

I know, as a conservative I get everything I asked for in the 1990’s by voting mainstream Democrat now. The parties can change all they want, I vote my views.

Deceptichum ,
@Deceptichum@quokk.au avatar

Yeah sadly American has no left wing party, just a right and far right.

Naz ,

That’s a hell of a vacuous argument. Would you rather get seen outside of a window or let into the store?

Nobody gives a shit about the non-voting numbers or third party ballots, if anything, their response is negative, not positive: They claim people aren’t exercising their right to vote, or that someone has “spoiled the election”.

Meanwhile, those aligned to parties are forming orderly queues and voting consistently.

Which strategy do you think is more effective, from a political science and historical perspective?

barsquid ,

Yes. Dems are conservatives. Repubs are regressives.

Curious_Canid ,
@Curious_Canid@lemmy.ca avatar

The right wing has been actively working to undermine our educational system since the early 80’s. A poorly educated populace, particularly one without critical thinking skills, is much easier to manipulate. After four decades of underfunding, restrictive policies, and anti-intellectual propaganda, those efforts are really paying off.

Newt Gingrich and his co-conspirators have been waging war against the people of this country since Reagan was elected. And they are now dangerously close to winning that war.

shalafi ,

I don’t think the attack on education was a long-term manipulation thing. Rather, it evolved from the question, “Why are all these educated people turning into liberals?!”

That question demands an answer. They can hardly let the appearance that they’re dumb stand! So guys like Limbaugh started attacking “ivory tower liberals”. That resonated, they rolled with it. Then the Christians saw the opportunity, got their filthy fingers into the cracks, started undermining public education in favor of their own.

postmateDumbass ,

MTG would have been right at home as a Dixiecrat.

She would have neen standing beside George Wallace.

Professorozone ,

If you say so. I’m more of an 80s person. All I know about George Wallace is that he was shot.

Etterra ,

They’re probably just young.

Guy_Fieris_Hair ,

You must be young. Because Republicans will vote for a criminal before they vote for “communism”. Because the Republicans attempt to destroy the educational system to keep people dumb enough to vote for them has worked. Because dispite the corporate media pandering and acting like they want Harris Because that’s what their viewers want, their billionaire owners don’t. They want the republican led centrist enabled tax breaks on their money. Harris has also brought in the progressives which have zero tolerance for the centrist mindset. She is in a situation where she has to dance a dance of trying to reel in the progressives even though they are going to throw a fit when she panders to the centrists and the corporate overlords.

The system is made and controlled by the billionaires. No hard progressive that doesn’t play the game a little is going to get elected… right now. They will destroy anyone that threatens their billions. Everytime she goes a little too hard left they throw a fit.

Welcome to end stage capitalism.

JusticeForPorygon ,
@JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world avatar

No hard progressive that doesn’t play the game a little is going to get elected…

Poor Bernie…

Angry_Autist ,

I still Bern myself, though at least Harris’s votes have aligned with Bernie’s more than any other congressman.

JusticeForPorygon ,
@JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world avatar

I still wonder where we would be if he won in 2016

Angry_Autist ,

That’s a suffering trap because we all know 1) how good it would have been, and 2) A true progressive will never be allowed the nomination as long as the DNC exists in its current form.

Better to use that time to figure out what up and coming politicians have Bernie’s heart for when the future sentiment shifts.

orcrist ,

Because the standards are relative to the voters, and Trump is appealing to a voting base that’s very big on misogyny and racism. That’s what they want out of their preferred candidate.

But in general, you need to look at redistricting, gerrymandering, voter suppression, all of the standard tactics that Republicans have effectively used to give themselves more weight in the presidential race. Of course the electoral college is part of the problem too. The low population red states are disproportionately represented. This has been going on for a century? Longer? The exact details have changed over time, but the general strategy is to change the rules or ignore the rules and hope you don’t get caught or if you do get caught rely on the courts backing you so that your party wins.

Etterra ,

Okay so here’s dinner context you may be unaware of. I believe it was Newt Gingrich who either came up with or standardized the core modern republican propaganda pillar: Attack attack attack, always attack, never compromise, concede only if you have literally no choice, then attack harder. That’s why the left has slid so far center; they keep trying to compromise and the right will not budge. Now the Democrats look like the Republicans back in the 80s, which is why I call them Republicrats.

Meanwhile Dems are trying to hold themselves to at least some level of standard. Add to that that Trump and his kind are authoritarian; their psychology allows for no criticism of any kind, seeing them exclusively as attacks against them. So now you have not only GOP and Trump cultists jumping on every single thing they can as hard as they can, and the self-aware Democrats calling out what they perceive as bad. The Republicans won’t do that; they never attack their own side without orders from the top, which indicates to them that the target is out of favor with the leadership.

Tldr; because the Democrats refuse to accept that the Republicans can’t be beaten by playing nice.

exanime ,

Because, on Trump’s side, it’s a full blown cult.

Trump can literally poop his pants on national tv and eat a mouthful of shit and his acolytes would clap in unison

However, most people not deranged enough to worship a politician could/would be turned off if that politician, Kamala on our scenario, blatantly lies or makes fun of a disable person or rapes someone

bitjunkie ,

Because what passes for journalism these days subsists on engagement metrics, and Harris doesn’t say crazy off-the-wall shit every 10 seconds.

Angry_Autist ,

Don’t forget ‘and are largely owned by old rich conservative white men with a vested interest in keeping a black woman who would raise their taxes out of office’.

Angry_Autist ,

Because most media companies are owned by rich conservative white men that don’t want a black woman into office that might raise their taxes.

It’s as simple as that.

cdegallo ,

Because the media, which supplies political “information” to the masses (a) wants to sensationalize things for viewership/ratings and (b) is generally owned by extremely right/conservative/Republican entities and will not allow it to be a fair representation between the two candidates.

And more than that the MAGA side doesn’t campaign on or care about political policy because their base doesn’t know or care about policy, they campaign on hate and dirt and smear. So you could explain all the awesome policy of the other side until your throat is sore, they won’t care because policy is not their concern.

It’s funny to see the latest moanfest from Trump, claiming no-fair because he spent $100m campaigning against Biden and now that’s all a waste. That’s the thing. He/they aren’t campaigning for issues or policy, they are fighting against an individual. It’s all they know how to do and all their base really cares about.

leaky_shower_thought ,

aside from great comments here, trump is associated with some religious imagery of having wings. even i can’t believe that flies.

nothing goes as tunnel vision as blind faith.

SSJMarx ,

It feels like Harris has to run a damn near flawless campaign just to BARELY beat this guy.

Welcome to gerrymandering. If America went by the actual majority consensus the Democrats would have controlled the presidency since 2009, and the House and Senate for about 50% of that time.

cogman ,

Corporate media likes elections to be close and exciting because that draws ratings. Hence the reason they put on kid gloves for the idiot fascist.

Don_Dickle ,

I know one thing if Trump wins I am going to get really really obliterated drunk and high.

TotalCasual ,

It’s really hard for some people to believe that this would ever be the truth. At the very minimum, this is like 50% of the truth, and the other 50% is worse.

MehBlah ,

No one hold trump to any standard. Thats what the trash like about him. He is just as shitty as them.

breetai ,

The president isn’t in charge of COVID. States are in charge of COVID. Pandemics are handled by the states with help from the federal government. BLM protest are once again state issues. I’m not sure why so many Americans don’t understand how the government is run. Presidents are not dictators. They are limited by the constitution and laws.

No why is the split so close? Harris isn’t a good candidate. She’s wildly unpopular and has been for years. He policies are horrible and the average American doesn’t want them. They are the opposite of what Americans want.

Biden has always been fairly unpopular. I’ve always thought the guy was an idiot but he isn’t far left. He fairly moderate to Leaning a little right.

We also have a large red/blue divide in this country and presidents are picked by the EC.

Trump is a horrible candidate but things ran well when he was in office. People will remember that.

The short version is we are running two awful candidates and that’s why the elections are close.

BadmanDan OP ,

Idk about that, several polls are showing Dem enthusiasm around 75-85%. That’s way more than Biden earlier this year. Harris’ base seems to like her.

breetai ,

They’re just excited the person isn’t half dead.

She wasn’t able to get a nomination through the standard channels. They had to put her in the back because they felt she was damaging Biden approval ratings.

He approval rate is low.

projects.fivethirtyeight.com/…/kamala-harris/

More people disprove than approve.

I proudly voted for Obama Kamala is not Obama. She’s not Clinton. Hell she’s not even a Joe Biden.

dhork ,

Because too many people treat politics like a sporting event. You root for your team no matter what, and against the other team. You have to do it this way, because if the other side wins that means your side loses.

So there are too many people who view Trump as “Their Guy”, and are “rooting” for him. Anything they hear that might portray Trump in a negative light (like a criminal trial, for instance) must be the Other Side trying to cheat to win unfairly.

I remind people that Roger Ailes was Nixon’s media consultant, and the lesson he learned from Watergate was that Nixon could have gotten away with it if the media was more sympathetic. He then went on to be the CEO of Fox News. That’s no accident. There is a direct line from Nixon to Trump, and Roger Ailes drew it.

BadmanDan OP ,

Thanks for that info, I never about the Ailes Nixon-Trump connection. This is so frustrating to see unravel in real time.

stinerman ,
@stinerman@midwest.social avatar

Also white supremacy is a hell of a drug.

Don_Dickle ,

That is why I move to bigger more ethnic cities or countries where I am wanted at and dont have to put up with that shit. Just worked with a nazi/neonazi/skinhead or whatever and I while he would talk to me about his beliefs I woulld always find an excuse to walk away

UnderpantsWeevil ,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

the lesson he learned from Watergate was that Nixon could have gotten away with it if the media was more sympathetic.

Then we got Reagan, Bush, and Trump, and he proved it.

halcyoncmdr ,
@halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world avatar

The media almost singlehandedly bringing Watergate to the average American’s attention was why Murdoch created Fox News. It was created specifically so they could force control of the narrative to their advantage.

And then we allowed every other media corporation to be bought and do the same once they saw it worked so well.

UnderpantsWeevil ,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

The media almost singlehandedly bringing Watergate to the average American’s attention

If you really get under the hood of Watergate, it had all the fingerprints of a soft coup. Nixon was a shit and made for an easy fall guy, but also Trumpian in his stubbornness and his refusal to go whole hog on the Cold War. Ford toed the line - installing Bush Sr to clean Kennedy’s liberals out of the CIA, promoting Greenspan and Rumsfield to the Republican inner circle, and tapping the breaks on our openness with China.

There was no real reason to break into the Watergate given that Nixon was beating McGovern in a landslide. But it did a lot of favors for the movement conservatives like Goldwater and Reagan to get Nixon’s ass out on the curb.

The WaPo (a hotbed of spooks even back then) played a big roll in that for a reason. Ffs, Woodward was an agency man going back to his time in Naval Intelligence. He broke Watergate less than a year after joining the paper.

HobbitFoot ,

If you really get under the hood of Watergate, it had all the fingerprints of a soft coup.

Not really. The major issue was that the President got caught and there wasn’t a propaganda network out there to drum up support.

Several Republican senators visited Nixon before he resigned because it was too politically costly for them to not vote for impeachment. In contrast, there weren’t political consequences for voting against Clinton’s and Trump’s impeachments.

UnderpantsWeevil ,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

The major issue was that the President got caught

E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy got caught. Hunt was an old school pro and close friends with Allen Dulles. He was also directly employed by future Bush FBI director Robert Muller, before joining Nixon’s team. After committing a string of crimes for Nixon, he served a mere 33 months in a low security federal prison.

Liddy served a slightly longer 55, then got a series of sweetheart media deals from his friends in conservative media. He was the top speaker on the college circuit in 1982, three years after leaving prison.

Several Republican senators visited Nixon before he resigned because it was too politically costly for them to not vote for impeachment.

Lead by Goldwater, a major Nixon rival for leadership in the party. Ford was Goldwater’s pick for the VP slot after Agnew resigned as well.

In contrast, there weren’t political consequences for voting against Clinton’s and Trump’s impeachments.

There was a big reward for Lieberman when he voted for impeachment. Gore put him on the VP ticket.

Meanwhile, a handful of Republicans who voted to impeach Trump - most notably Liz Cheney - got primaried out of office.

TokenBoomer ,

Now this a conspiracy I can get behind. Love it.

SnotFlickerman ,
@SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Woodward going on to not reveal Trump’s admission that Trump knew exactly how dangerous COVID was and was purposefully downplaying it until Woodward published his book on Trump couldn’t be anymore revealing of capitulation to power while claiming to speak truth to power.

UnderpantsWeevil ,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

He was celebrated as a whistleblower for releasing it long after the news was worth more than court gossip.

The man is the poster child for why American major news media is absolute dog shit. We see the same pattern with Bush Iraq War fuck ups sat on through to 2005. And all the banking scandals squelched during the thick of the OWS protests. And the Theranos woman misdiagnosing hundreds of patients with her hoax machine while parading around as a business celebrity. And the Bitcoin scams hushed up until the biggest players had exited the market.

Whether it’s Bob Woodward or Micheal Lewis or Judith Miller, there’s a cast of these characters who exist to hoodwink people into thinking they have a free press.

SnotFlickerman ,
@SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

And the Theranos woman misdiagnosing hundreds of patients with her hoax machine while parading around as a business celebrity.

Although, to be fair, this story has at least one comical bent. She was obsessed with those fucking dogs that she did absolutely nothing to care for. Combine that with the fact that she didn’t just hoax her patients, she also hoaxed investors. My favorite is knowing at some point she was buttering up Kissinger while those dogs were dropping big steaming piles of shit in the same room. Kissinger nodding along, seriously, while dogshit smell permeates everything.

It’s fucking comical how stupid some of the ostensibly smartest and most important people are.

UnderpantsWeevil ,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

Combine that with the fact that she didn’t just hoax her patients, she also hoaxed investors.

That was the comedy angle. The tragedy angle is that the patients never able to sue, because it was impossible for them to determine if they’d been part of the faulty test group.

Investors got their pound of flesh while folks who were actually harmed were left without recourse.

HessiaNerd ,

How Regan didn’t get impeached over Iran Contra is baffling.

UnderpantsWeevil ,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

He avoided impeachment the same way Clarence Thomas survived his confirmation hearing.

Ted Kennedy and Tip O’Neal decided it wasn’t worth pursuing.

HobbitFoot ,

Nixon’s approval rating before resigning was 24% while Reagan only dropped to 43%.

UnderpantsWeevil ,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

Reagan had already lost a big midterm in '86 and should have been easy to impeach by the incoming Dem majority. With 55 seats, they could even talk about conviction.

They choose to roll the dice on electoralism instead, and gave the White House to Reagan’s (heavily complicit) VP.

rayyy ,

Well, yeah, thanks to Fox entertainment.

neidu2 ,

Because a cult leader is automatically the purest one can be and needs no scrutiny.

BadmanDan OP ,

I understand the MAGA cult, but do moderates not see this?

neidu2 ,

There the opposite is true. They already know that the other guy is a villain. Their candidate will have to prove themselves not to be.

Addv4 ,

Plus since they are the figurehead of the party, if they are lackluster in their proof it could affect downstream elections.

MataVatnik ,
@MataVatnik@lemmy.world avatar

Because moderates pathological like to bring up “both sides”

grue ,

“Moderates” are a fiction. They’re just an excuse Democrats make for pandering to corporate donors while giving only the barest scraps to their leftist base.

Buffalox , (edited )

That only explains the cultists, and I doubt the entire media industry is in the cult.

pearsaltchocolatebar ,

Trump gets views. That’s why they love him.

Buffalox ,

Yes I agree, but only because they are a capitalists first and a human beings second.
They love him because they are morons, who don’t know they are engaging in self harm.
It’s sad that people of power, like for instance Elon Musk and the people behind Fox are so stupid they can’t see they are digging their own graves.

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