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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?

suction ,

Because Trump

IzzyJ ,
@IzzyJ@lemmy.world avatar

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 ,

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.

corroded ,

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 ,

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

CancerMancer ,

Here in Canada I’ve seen much the same behaviour for both Liberal and Conservative voters. “I vote Liberal because I’ve always voted Liberal” is a surprisingly common statement especially among the older generations, and to a small extent even the Green party has a few loyalists in BC.

Always voting the same way no matter what happens is just giving your vote away for free.

Letsdothis ,

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

electric_nan ,

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.

BallsandBayonets ,

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 ,

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.

captainlezbian ,

Because she’s a black woman who has demonstrated herself capable of behaving appropriately. Meanwhile a trump is not only a rich white geriatric man whose political career has kept expectations low, he’s also Donald trump, a reality tv star, which must be compared to Dr. Harris, former DA of San Francisco, a nationally significant city.

So yeah: racism, sexism, and past behavior.

niktemadur , (edited )

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 ,

Very well said

Rhynoplaz ,
  1. 34 felonies.
KillingTimeItself ,

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 ,

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

KillingTimeItself ,

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.

darthelmet ,

2 things:

  • Remember 2016 when the media gave Trump an absurd amount of free publicity by covering every stupid thing he said and did then he won? It wasn’t the only reason, but it clearly didn’t help.
  • People know who Trump is at this point. He’s awful in a way that’s really easy to see and either you’re someone that’s a problem for or you’re someone who loves the awful.

Whoever is the current corporate lackey being put forward by the DNC is the one that needs to claim to be the good one, co-opting the language of progressives while taking corporate money and maintaining the brutal status quo.

So for people who come looking for someone who’s gonna do good, the bad stuff represents inconsistencies with that narrative and despair at a lack of representation in a supposedly democratic system.

Azal ,

Remember 2016 when the media gave Trump an absurd amount of free publicity by covering every stupid thing he said and did then he won? It wasn’t the only reason, but it clearly didn’t help.

2016? Shit the press gave him all the free press when he was doing the birther shit with Obama.

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.

KillingTimeItself ,

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 ,

They kind of did that at the DNC.

KillingTimeItself ,

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.

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

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.

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