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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?

ricdeh ,
@ricdeh@lemmy.world avatar

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 ,

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.

BaldManGoomba ,

Firstly Republicans have their guy so they are just going to pick at any weakness.

Second, all news media has consolidated and is owned by right wing rich fuckers. There is a wealth tax proposal and the ftc is super strong right now. So rich people are being cry babies

Third, there is a genocide happening right now with bullets paid for and made with USAs stamp on it. People are super critical against it

Fourth, left wing people always want better so you got to do something to succeed and if you do something we want you to do better since politician rarely go far enough. All the right wing people need to do to succeed is to obstruct and do nothing.

Fifth, Democrats are courting the middle. With the military policy, fracking, border wall, immigration and the tough on crime rhetoric Kamala sounds like a moderate Republican from 8-10 years ago. Leftists have no choice but to vote Harris or we run the chance of having Trump. While some of may vote third party because Harris doesn’t go far enough if we do that in battle ground states we will be blamed again and we are strongly discouraging that. So the only voter base Kamala can pick up is republican never Trumpers and people in the middle and independents. Kamala’s rhetoric reflects that.

Lastly Kamala is really untested. She has flip flopped and people hate that and hypocrisy. They can’t push Trump nor give him more attention so they push Kamala. She lost her last presidential run really badly dropping out before the primaries. She only had one term as senator in a very safe district to get elected in as a democrat. As an Attorney General she ran 2 elections and only served 1.5 terms. Her district attorney stuff has been her best and most notable thing followed by her AG stint. But DA and AG stuff isn’t the same policy stuff as a politician. As senator she only passed one law having lots of words about other stuff though

nondescripthandle ,

Shes a woman, shes not white, and shes a democrat. Take your pick.

MataVatnik ,
@MataVatnik@lemmy.world avatar

Because we can’t mock Trump and their supporters if Kamala fumbles. As long as she doesn’t fumbled we can mock them with impunity

gibmiser ,

“See! She’s not perfect, so you cant criticize trump for any of his flaws or you are a hypocrite!”

All politicians are the same! Our quarterback is cooler than your girl! Go Red team!

someguy3 ,

It is the way of Dems vs GOP.

And Fox essentially being a GOP mouthpiece.

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.

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

Feathercrown ,

People really really want to root for their side. If a comparison can be made in the slightest that your side is also doing something right, or that the other side is also doing something wrong, they can twist their viewpoint to see both sides as equals. You have to be flawless to prevent this. Your worst has to be better than their best.

swordgeek ,

She is female.
She is black.
She is strong.
She is not a puppet.

She is EVERYTHING that the power structure fears, because she will be hard to control, and likely cost them a lot of money and power.

distantsounds ,

You really should have stopped before

She is not a puppet

Bunnylux ,
@Bunnylux@lemmy.world avatar

Why the fuck do you think? People hate women

danc4498 ,

It’s worth noting that Harris is still pretty new when it comes to being the presidential nominee. Nobody even considered it until the Biden debate.

So partly the media is making up time when it comes to analyzing her and asking and expecting answers.

Trump has been running for president since the day he lost, so we all know everything there is to know about him.

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.

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.

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