How is it even possible that the choice between the coup attempting, fascist imbecile with nearly 100 felony charges against him, and the moderate, business-as-usual incumbent can even be in doubt?
Edit: forgot to mention his malignant narcissism
this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2023
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Fifty years spent destroying education and enriching the ruling class so they could afford to spread propaganda freely.
We're in deep shit.
Fox News and conservative talk radio. These people only watch and listen to it. They get no inputs from anywhere else.
It's possible because as a country, USA suffer a serious mental illness, causing a huge part of Americans to have a distorted view of reality, and consider sociopathy a virtue and a sign of strength and righteousness.
This is why they can't agree on basic things like gun control even for assault rifles, minorities are stripped of simple human rights, they don't have universal healthcare, and states are allowed to punish abortion as a crime, even when done legally.
Republicans and the Christian right are insane with control, and have gone full authoritarian.
Republicans automatically vote against their own interest because Sean Hannity tells them to, while Democrats must be constantly persuaded to vote for candidates who they perceive as being less than perfect.
while Democrats must be constantly persuaded to vote for candidates who they perceive as being less than perfect
I want to argue with you, but can't.
Fascism.
Democrats have basically done everything possible do discourage any enthousiasm in there base. Or campaigning on any issue. Even vs Trump you need more than "this is just an old DNC guy who won't do anything" to get party volunteers campaigning.
Seems like they've been campaigning pretty hard on abortion access. Not sure what else a party that covers moderate right and center with a few moderate lefts could all get excited about. Federal legalization of Marijuana might be popular enough.
I'd like to see more progressive campaigns but unfortunately it seems like the party needs everyone who isn't far right to have a chance of beating the christo-fascists. It seems so much harder to motivate voter turnout for Democrats. You can't just feed them anger, hate and fear, you have to convince them you're actually going to make things better.
I didn't want Biden but isn't that who the party voted for in the primary? I guess after Trump, a boring, return to normal sounded good to people and I haven't heard of anyone else running for the Democratic nomination that's even worth consideration. We had the anti-vaccine loon with zero experience, the congressman I'd never heard of who can't name anything he would do differently than Biden and was so incompetent he missed the filing deadline to be on the ballot in some states and the lady who also has no experience but seems like she believes in healing crystals. The whole party is a complicated mess but I still find it almost incomprehensible that there is a still a serious possibility of Trump being elected again.
primary elections aren't free and fail, as we were reminded in 2016 and 2020. we don't really have a choice on who becomes the nominee
Democrat PACs have also funded ads on behalf of the most insane Republican candidates with the hope that they'd be easier to beat if they get the nomination. Something like this happened with Hillary and Trump, they wanted him to get the nomination, what a laughingstock the Republicans would be in that case. The insane candidates get increased legitimacy this way, but Democrats want to be able to point to the opponent and call them an extremist, it's a legitimate strategy that has worked for them, but they don't or can't address the broader effect this is having over time.
The Democrats also tell this story that doesn't land with many voters now, like everything is actually okay and it's the Republicans who are to blame, or it's because people aren't comfortable enough to be authentically themselves or some bs. The general economic arrangements are actually fine, as long as people of different identities are distributed within them equally.
There's also for the first time in America's history an ideological consensus within each party, that's basically come about during the last 30 years. All the "checks and balances" the founders envisioned break in this scenario. A single faction/party can control all branches of government and do whatever they want. When Biden started in politics there were segregationist Democrats for instance, there wasn't this broad party identity that aligned behind a single shared view.
Then a lot of this condenses down in to the stupidest do-nothing argument that, "if you don't vote for Biden you're helping the fascists." It doesn't appreciate how voting is the bare minimum of political engagement and barely matters unless you're in a very specific location. So people spend all this time getting upset around the vote, and any complaints about Biden or Democrats is equated to helping the fascists. Don't talk about these problems because it will make Trump look good! Downward spiral thinking all the way.
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Should Democrats be concerned about the possibility of Trump winning? Yes. Anyone who didn't learn from 2016 is an imbecile.
That said, polls a year before the election-and therefore a year before we plaster the airwaves with a billion $+ in advertising, before Trump is a convicted felon, aren't worth much. We also should have learned from the "RED WAVE!!1!" fantasies of 2022.
Just to add, there might be plenty of voters on the left that are willing to say "there's no way I'm voting for Biden" in a poll a year from the election.
When they get to the voting booth and see Biden or Trump, though, many will vote for Biden even if they need to hold their noses.
Now, if we're seeing these polls in September of next year, then I'll start getting worried.
I feel like that's what people thought in 2016 with Trump and Clinton. People need something to believe in, even if it's not much.
"I'm going to vote third party" is a common phrase this far out. Much fewer actually wind up voting third party.
That being said, we need to get rid of First Past The Post and go with Ranked Choice or Approval Voting to remove the spoiler effect.
I, personally, prefer Ranked Choice, but I think the public would understand Approval Voting more readily. It's basically similar to "liking" on social media. You "like" the politicians you would want to see in office. Whoever gets the most "likes" wins.
Either of those would be a big improvement. Totally unlikely, though. The status quo depends on the unrepresentative way of voting.
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We also should have learned from the “RED WAVE!!1!” fantasies of 2022.
This is an incredibly important point. Rupert knows why, but the media want you to believe that Trump is far more popular than he actually is. They are invested in the drama, which drives engagement. They should be focused on the fact that he's embroiled in a RIDICULOUS number of court cases and how no one should be taking him seriously as a function of that. If that was the message they were repeating 24/7, his polling would be at 25%.
Lotta people hell bent on shooting themselves in the dick these days
"I'd rather shoot myself in the dick than let the damn Libruls do it to me"
— Those people
Little do they know, it's the people they're voting for who are going to do it to them.
Please no. The first time was fucking hell for my mental health. I lost friends and family members to his insane cult. Please don’t do this again :(
Remember that polling only collects data from people who respond to polls. How many of you don't have landlines? How many of you don't answer your cell phone if it's from an unknown number?
The only poll that matters is the one where you cast your ballot. Participate in that one.
Edit: And you know that nobody would ever spoil a poll.
The results from PA’s midterm election will be more interesting. There’s a bunch of loonies trying to get on school boards and an anti-choicer running for state Supreme Court, so Dems may overperform.
I'm in IL, in a district which is in between suburban and rural. Last year the crazy fucks tried to take over our school board, too. Like there was a statewide effort entirely focused here. This was in an off-year minor election, and those tend to have very low turnout.
None of them were elected. The communication about these chucklefucks was strong, and it got enough sane people to go to the polls. If there's an organization in your area that does that kind of communication, go help them. It matters.
Well, I can tell you that I don't vote for loonies trying to on school boards or anti-choicers running for state Supreme Court.
Polling hasn't been restricted to land lines for a long time. The people who run polls for a living aren't idiots.
People guard their cell phone numbers a whole lot more than they did land line numbers, and even if the pollster is picking numbers at random, my very next sentence addresses that:
How many of you don't answer your cell phone if it's from an unknown number?
It's a year before there's an election. Is this relevant?
It's relevant to the efforts to promote an agenda, where to spend money, what voters are thinking about the race, and how the issues will shape up. A year is a long time, and a lot can happen in that time.
No. Public sentiment can change in a week. Just look at GW Bush and his popularity before and after 9/11.
The democratic party thought it wasn't relevant in 2015/2016. Turns out they were pretty damned wrong about that.
So yeah, I'd say it's very relevant.
The polls of 3,662 registered voters were conducted by telephone using live operators
Think of the people you know who would actually answer a call from an unknown number and sit on the line with a stranger while they ask questions. Tell me some other things about them.
In 1000 years from now (if humanity survives that long, which is increasingly unrealistic), historians will look back on this time period and study it as the largest scale mass occurrence of Stockholm syndrome the world has ever ever seen.
The people supporting trump have somehow been convinced to fall in love with their oppressors. It's mind blowing to be witness to it.
This is just a rhyme on the 1940s.
Oh, just saw Sabby Sabs talked about this.
Swing states are leaning toward Trump this time around.
Looks like it is getting closer to a three way race, RFK Jr. is hitting above 20 pts. according to polls.
Independents support for RFK Jr. increased after leaving dems.
When Dr. West and RFK Jr. are included in the poll questions, the numbers move around also.
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