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

corroded , 1 hour ago

The problem isn’t that Harris is being held to a higher standard. The problem is that Americans think of elections the same way they think of a sporting match. It’s “my team is going to win!” not “I’m going to vote for the candidate that is best aligned with my beliefs.” A huge number of the people who are voting Republican are doing so because the Republican party is their “team,” and damn it, their team is going to win even if it kills them.

Many years ago, I was discussing politics with a coworker (always a bad idea, but whatever). It went something like this:

“So, you don’t think the less-fortunate should be able to afford medical care?” “No, of course not, everyone should be able to see a doctor.”

“You don’t think gay people should be allowed to marry?” “I’m not gay, but they can do whatever makes them happy.”

“You support the war in Iraq, then?” “I support our troops, but the war is kind of a waste.”

“We definitely should legalize weed, right?” “Um, I’d smoke it if I didn’t get drug tested.”

“So why are you voting Republican, then?” “My family is Republican; we always do.”

aStonedSanta , 15 minutes ago

We call this indoctrination. Cult. And fucking sheep. Lmao

BallsandBayonets , 2 hours ago

People who would ever consider voting for the Toupee have no standards. No bar, no logic or even thought goes in to who they vote for.

The people who are planning to vote against the Toupee have standards. And the Democratic party has continually failed to meet those standards. And the only time the people have any power to pressure a politician is when they’re running for office. Anyone claiming “just vote in the D, then we can focus on getting progress made” is a centrist who is ok being perpetually part of the oppressed class.

Yes, we need to vote against the Toupee, and the GOP in general. We also need a presidential administration who will get progress done. And since the human species has, at best, 30 years left before the majority of the world is uninhabitable, little baby steps won’t cut it.

So Harris and the Dems have a high bar. Because the alternative is fascism, or death by climate change.

LifeInMultipleChoice , 33 minutes ago

That would add up if you thought people should choose fascism or death from climate change over some sense of chance.

We need to make larger demands, but voting for those options you listed shouldn’t be 50/50 as the post is questioning.

IzzyJ , 38 minutes ago

Theres several reasons

Part of it is good old fashioned bigotry

A big part of it is the systemic advantage the Electoral College gives Republicans

And of course there’s the matter that Traitor Trump voters don’t have standards while the rest of us do

amanneedsamaid , 59 minutes ago

Because one is a traitor that attempted to overturn a lawful election result.

No matter what you think of Kamala, supporting Trump is a joke.

Etterra , 4 hours ago

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.

KillingTimeItself , 3 hours ago

and the right will not budge. Now the Democrats look like the Republicans back in the 80s, which is why I call them Republicrats.

key distinction here, what the left needs to do is not to concede, but demonstrate moral superiority, and political strength. Conceding is the part that fucks us, and it also confuses the republicans when we don’t.

We just need to treat the republican rhetoric like it is, rather than real words actually being said, it’s mostly bullshit, ruthlessly destroy and deconstruct it, don’t leave them anything to stand on, they put themselves in this situation.

we should also probably consider focusing more on rhetoric and specifics, rather than individuals, ignoring extremes like trump. Trying not to alienate the moderate conservative is going to be a huge potential boon for the democratic party here. If we can demonstrate that we’re a real party that actually exists and does things for the public good, the republican party has no choice but to disintegrate.

BadmanDan OP , 2 hours ago

They kind of did that at the DNC.

KillingTimeItself , 2 hours ago

yes, and we need to lean into it more, and we need to lean into it harder. This is why the “weird” allegations work so well.

KillingTimeItself , 3 hours ago

republicans have such a low media standard, while democrats have such a high media standard that they’re busy eating themselves over it.

republicans will literally run anybody living and breathing, democrats want the next FDR basically. Thankfully it seems like the dem party is finally moving away from this mostly useless social campaign bullshit, and more into the “broad political problems” shit which actually matters (the federal government is also way more functional from this perspective) if this continues, whether the dems win or lose this cycle, the dems will have a formidable and quite strong campaign machine. Once the media unfucks itself, which is bound to happen with how people are treating it (keep treating it like shit) we should have a pretty strong basis to run on.

It’s looking like the dems are building up a strong political base right now, at the expense of the republican party not existing, and as long as we don’t kill it, things will continue to get better.

Literally all we have to do, is capture the moderate voter, focus on popular policies rather than left leaning/dem policy shit. And then campaign on energy, rather than policy.

BadmanDan OP , 2 hours ago

Agreed, the key to victory this election will be the moderate voter.

KillingTimeItself , 2 hours ago

absolutely, the far progressive sect is so small and will likely vote in line anyway, they don’t really have much options. But the ability to pick up the moderates has vastly increased. Especially across the cities and midwest region, which are the most populous regions of the US.

Letsdothis , 2 hours ago

You’re asking good questions, but I don’t think you’re actually open to hearing the actual right answers.

niktemadur , 3 hours ago (edited 3 hours ago)

Because so many trump voters are low-information, rabid and impervious to fact and/or reason. They will vote orange even if he shoots someone on Fifth Avenue to death, or if there are 32-or-whatever felony indictments/verdicts.

Meanwhile, many potential Democrat voters are also low-information in their own way - impressionable, fickle and with little memory retention, they seem unable to act upon a clear and present danger until it punches them in the goddamned face (and by then of course it’s too late), somehow have normalized the orange threat and are easy prey to an algorithm pushing a “both parties are the same” divide-and-conquer propaganda.

The difference between a parasite-laden excrement chip cookie and a raisin oatmeal cookie, “But I wanted chocolate chip! bOtH cOoKiEs ArE tHe SaMe!”

BadmanDan OP , 2 hours ago

Very well said

Rhynoplaz , 2 hours ago

34. 34 felonies.

electric_nan , 2 hours ago

It’s because democrats are unwilling or unable to deliver on real policies for working people. Of course, republicans are the same, but they more or less don’t even pretend to, choosing instead to whip up their constituents with culture war nonsense. Nobody has any faith in things improving. Repubs just want to get revenge on their cultural enemies, and democrats (voters) just want to prevent a total slide toward the far right.

Dem politicians can’t whip up excitement because it is impossible to get people excited by neoliberal policies, but that’s really all they have. Vague platitudes only work so many election cycles in a row before voters just can’t even pretend to be excited anymore.

tl:dr republicans are awful but at least their base believes in them.

dhork , 10 hours ago

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 , 10 hours ago

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

stinerman , 10 hours ago

Also white supremacy is a hell of a drug.

Don_Dickle , 9 hours ago

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 , 10 hours ago

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 , 9 hours ago

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 , 9 hours ago

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 , 8 hours ago

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 , 8 hours ago

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 , 7 hours ago

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

SnotFlickerman , 7 hours ago

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 , 6 hours ago

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 , 6 hours ago

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 , 6 hours ago

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 , 8 hours ago

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

UnderpantsWeevil , 8 hours ago

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 , 8 hours ago

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

UnderpantsWeevil , 8 hours ago

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 , 8 hours ago

Well, yeah, thanks to Fox entertainment.

CCMan1701A , 2 hours ago

I have heard from friends of mine that like Trump claim that since he’s a business man he is good for running the country. I could’t roll my eyes hard enough after hearing that remark.

I have also found that there is nothing you can say to sway a trump supporter.

_bcron , 9 hours ago

MAGA terrorists have assaulted newspeople, destroyed cameras, whole 9 yards. Might be some of that mixed in with everything else. Fear of retaliation or whatnot. Most of these people have public-facing jobs with little to no security detail and Trump’s supporters range from civil to psychotic

KillingTimeItself , 2 hours ago

PUT ME IN COACH!!!

seriously though, i think i would rather be murdered by a MAGA loser than be a fucking cringe ass hack shill.

mlg , 7 hours ago (edited 7 hours ago)

It’s because she wasn’t a major contestant in the 2016 primary because people voted for better candidates. Also, she seems to be a 1:1 copy paste of Biden, which isn’t good because people didn’t like Biden half assing his promises in office and giving republicans an easy time making a counter campaign.

On top of that she basically told the uncommitted group to get bent, so that gives Trump more voter leverage similar to how he beat Hillary.

Biden was met with the same voter response because he was voted in explicitly to remove Trump. Otherwise he’s known as being Obama’s VP, of which even Obama said that he should retire afterwards because he was a centrist.

It’s the same deal as 2016, where the DNC thinks campaigning on “lesser evil” is a viable strategy in order to retain their lobby money. If the RNC actually had more than two brain cells, they could easily win this election by having their candidates not act like insane asylum criminals.

Rhaedas , 7 hours ago

I do agree that if Republicans ran different candidates, ones that had any semblance of ideas (even bad ones) instead of the tired personal attacks, they'd be formidable. They've dug themselves into a hole with the MAGA movement, even worse than they did with the Tea Party, and they seem committed to ride this one all the way off the cliff. This really is Harris' election to lose, and that seems to be a repeated pattern, which says a lot about the DNC. If they'd try to appeal more to the progressive side and stop trying to keep the centralists, I wonder if it would be a more of a sweep from people seeing something different finally.

KillingTimeItself , 2 hours ago

It’s the same deal as 2016, where the DNC thinks campaigning on “lesser evil” is a viable strategy in order to retain their lobby money. If the RNC actually had more than two brain cells, they could easily win this election by having their candidates not act like insane asylum criminals.

the DNC isnt so much campaigning on the lesser evils this time around as it is campaigning for the moderate american position.

There is some lesser evil, but it’s more akin trying to appeal the most broadly to the general public while heeding the historical american roots that politics has lost as of recent.

ricdeh , 7 hours ago

Yes, that is true. Unfortunately, as I see it, this tragedy once again reinforces my belief that many humans can be so stupid and ideologically blinded that they forego any rationality and connection to reality. No rational person could ever want Trump to be their candidate unless they had something to gain from it. Almost no one has anything to gain from a potential second term except some schemers and ultra rich.

This seems to be an inherent flaw in present-day democracies. I am from Germany, and we are experiencing the same thing with an alt-right party that is set to win the most votes in the 2025 election, with an ultra conservative party likely being second (or maybe their positions will be flipped, it does not matter effectively). Germany, just like the U.S., is on the cusp of losing freedom and democracy. And once it’s gone, it will be a hard fight to get it back.

Anyway, for future attempts at democracies, I think we need even stronger constitutions that make such stances and policies like the ones from the Republican party illegal, and we need institutions that are willing to enforce such constitutions. Furthermore, rigorous civic education should be implemented so that the populace becomes less susceptible to populism. Finally, in order to qualify for the privilege to vote, would-be voters should pass some kind of (equity-compatible) test every election year that assesses whether they still possess critical and rational thinking capabilities.

But I imagine that the most effective measure would be to treat conservatism and related ideologies the way that fascism / national socialism is treated in Germany. Exclude radical conservative and nazi opinions from the right to freedom of expression and make advocation for them punishable. Furthermore, outlaw all political parties along those ideological lines.

These measures are not pretty, but as it stands today, much of the votership in Western democracies is just not qualified for partaking in national elections.

KillingTimeItself , 2 hours ago

test every election year that assesses whether they still possess critical and rational thinking capabilities.

personally, i think im more in favor of entirely banning campaigning. It’s funny, but holy shit is it corrupt, and if we had none, people would actually have to research their candidate choices.

Buffalox , 10 hours ago (edited 10 hours ago)

USA as a society is mentally ill, where sociopathy is often seen as a virtue. For instance denying poor people health care and food, denying pregnant women with potentially lethal complications the right to abortion. Allowing (white) people to kill (black) people without reason based on stand your ground rules. Refusing stricter gun rules despite countless school shootings. Denying workers a living wage. The list of sociopathy permeating US society goes on and on.

Now I know that despite this, about half the population see the problems. There are also Americans that fight this, and are world class people. But the other half, somehow confuse Trump’s sociopathy with strength, and admire him for it. Yes this is how it is in USA, sociopathy is widely not only accepted but admired, people want Trump to hurt people, the poor, emigrants, people of color, LGBT. Many Americans want all these people to suffer, for no other reason than their mere existence. Somehow this is OK to even extend to women in general too! As Trump is clearly a major misogynist.

If you are a normal well functioning person, it’s near impossible to grasp that such hate can be this widespread, and Trump is fueling it, and before him Republicans have been fueling it for decades.

This makes all the hateful illegal stuff Trump does nearly irrelevant, people simply don’t care, his followers just want to see the people they hate burn. It’s not that Trump isn’t called out at times, it’s just that it doesn’t really make a difference.

SLVRDRGN , 9 hours ago

people want Trump to hurt people, the poor, emigrants, people of color, LGBT. Many Americans want all these people to suffer, for no other reason than their mere existence. Somehow this is OK to even extend to women in general too!

I can understand that this might be true of people, but sooo many people in this country are women, poor, emigrants, people of color, LGBT. To have as much support as Trump manages to have, clearly there are people within these groups that target themselves… it makes no sense.

Buffalox , 9 hours ago

Remember in 2016 there were LGBT for Trump?
It was absolutely insane!! No it doesn’t make sense, but there are always a percentage that are delusional, and sometimes they manage to convince others.
Probably there are people who actually believe they don’t deserve equal rights, this can be indoctrinated through religion, and religiousness in USA is VERY high.
There are probably also people who don’t see themselves as part of one of the groups even if they clearly are.
Remember the MAGA woman who was extremely surprised when her husband was expelled because he was an illegal alien? That’s how stupid people can be!
Because it’s “all the others” not “me” they think.

pimeys , 9 hours ago

Upper middle class gays somewhere in Gilbert Arizona who just want to see their retirement savings to go zoink. You have your walled swimming pool and Trader Joe’s nearby.

SnotFlickerman , 9 hours ago

Common things that pop up in regards to Republicans voting against their own interests:

Women with the attitude that “the only moral abortion is my abortion.”

Immigrants who are angry at other immigrants, wanting to close the door behind them. (Just look at Cubans in Florida)

Log Cabin Republicans, LGBT+ members who are somehow shocked when the party turns on them.

What do most of these people have in common? Money.

Trump supporters are more likely to be small business owners. Capitalism doesn’t care about your skin color, your creed, your nationality, your history, it just wants your fucking money.

It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

Upton Sinclair was talking about jobs, but this can be extended to… women who financially rely on their husbands becoming more politically aligned with their husbands (especially if they like the lifestyle), immigrants financially relying on the “good people” willing to hire them as an immigrant (stockholm syndrome?), and the number of rich white gay dudes who may as well have been rich white straight dudes at any other point in history is too damn high (they love to hide behind their sexuality when anyone critiques their horrible positions, “You can’t critique Tim Cook for tax dodging at Apple, he just came out, he’s BRAVE!”).

jelloeater85 , 8 hours ago

For what it’s worth, alot of us see the problem and are doing what we can to help. To stick up for queer folks, to not buy products from places like Walmart, and tell everyone we know to vote for people with empathy.

Greed is good, became the norm.

Conservative folks want to conserve what they have, at any cost. Simple as that. Fuck you, I got mine.

KillingTimeItself , 2 hours ago

If you are a normal well functioning person, it’s near impossible to grasp that such hate can be this widespread, and Trump is fueling it, and before him Republicans have been fueling it for decades.

the only reason this shit ever gets this popular is literally because of fascism.

Professorozone , 6 hours ago

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 , 6 hours ago

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

Professorozone , 6 hours ago

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 , 5 hours ago

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

Angry_Autist , 4 hours ago

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.

barsquid , 3 hours ago

I don’t think they took him willingly, since he is a narcissistic moron. I think they were stuck with him when he managed to win over the far right radicals they have been grooming for decades. He is a racist schoolyard bully making their enemies angry, that’s all they care about.

lurch , 6 hours ago

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 , 6 hours ago

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

SkyNTP , 6 hours ago

They are “regressives”.

derpgon , 4 hours ago

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

Disgracefulone , 3 hours ago

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

shalafi , 5 hours ago

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 , 4 hours ago

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 , 4 hours ago

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

Naz , 4 hours ago

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 , 3 hours ago

Yes. Dems are conservatives. Repubs are regressives.

Corkyskog , 3 hours ago

It’s what the radical far left has been saying all along lol

KillingTimeItself , 3 hours ago

i really wish more conservatives would accept this, or at the very least not back trump even a little bit, the dude who literally tried to overthrow the election, they throw so much bullshit at dems and dem controlled cities, but have literally no evidence other than “BUT BUT BLM” and “well, they’re taxes are higher” which is literally meaningless.

themeatbridge , 3 hours ago

Conservatives are exactly the same as they have always been. It’s just that conservatives define their priorities and their values and priorities around their identity, and that means their values and priorities shift with whatever is best for the conservative at the time. There are no universally conservative values, just the generic resistance to change things conservatives like. When a conservative benefits from a strong federal government, they support it. When a conservative benefits from abortion, they support it. When a conservative is a minority, or gay, or a woman, they support equalish rights for themselves. It’s narcissism wearing the cloak of stoic preservation of their “heritage,” and it’s always paper-thin.

This also means anyone opposing the conservative is not a member of the self, but a member of the other. The other is evil, because they are outside of the self. Anything the other does in opposition to the self is evil. An other could save a busload of nuns and kittens, and the conservative would complain about the traffic caused by the other. Anything the self does in support of the self is good. Lying, cheating, stealing, killing, raping, everything is on the table if it can be justified in support or defense of the self. From the outside of the self, it looks like hypocrisy, but it’s really not, because the conservative never truly holds an opinion. They just say what they need to say to win.

Curious_Canid , 5 hours ago

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 , 4 hours ago

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 , 5 hours ago

MTG would have been right at home as a Dixiecrat.

She would have neen standing beside George Wallace.

Professorozone , 5 hours ago

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

Etterra , 4 hours ago

They’re probably just young.