After canvassing and talking with folks outside of my own bubble my thoughts are (IMHO, YMMV): The racists are gonna racist; sexists gonna sexist. At least in what was expressed to me it wasn't even the anti-Trans fear-mongering. The SWING vote Trump losing popular vote to Clinton and Biden but winning it against Harris) was mostly due to false media narrative on economy. It would have been nice if non-Fox mainstream media had gone with honest factual reporting of who and what Trump and Repuglicans actually are day-in-day-out instead predigested even-hand/ both-sadism and sane-washing. And also if there was truthful reporting, hammering on the actual economic improvement since 2022, every day for past 2 years. Over past 3 years actual jobs way up, actual crime way down; over past 2 years actual inflation down... talking to folks in small towns PA... SWING voters (my canvassing lists were folks who have voted Dem at least at some point in recent past; but mostly infrequent, intermittent, lower-information voters) thought the opposite and blamed Dems. At least in my conversations, LGBT did not come up. Immigration contextualized with jobs. On the single issue by single issue we win... Abortion protections won majority votes (remember Florida was actually 57% for protection), paid leave won. Same swing voters who voted for those, even down-ballot for House, then voted Trump on false narrative mostly on economy. Dems, especially the left-progressive wing, objectively better on economy in general. Dems getting blamed unilaterally for NAFTA is another example of media supporting false narrative. And the success of the immigrant fearmongering in expanding the xenophobic reaction is also tied to crap media narrative on actual economy, and silencing of progressive Dems better solutions."
Let's stop pretending this is anything but racism, sexism and misogyny. On every level Harris beat Trump. In every way she was more qualified than Trump. It's a joke that all of you are spending this much time pretending it's about her campaign. Shame on you! Can't you finally admit the truth? Every woman knows how little faith men have in our abilities and our intelligence. It wasn't the economy, it was the American people's failure to envision a Black woman handling it.
I have 2 hot takes here, but underlying all of this is that I don’t think blame lies with just 1 group. I will absolutely grant that the Dems messed up by bumbling the nomination and messaging process and trying to “out-right wing” the right wing party.
But for 1. Say what you will about the Harris campaign’s weak and confusing economic message, how the hell was Trump’s any better? If the voters of this country were truly mainly motivated by the economy, I cannot understand how Trump’s policies of tax cuts, deregulation of the most predatory industries, and most importantly the massively harmful **tariffs and mass deportations** would make anyone better off economically. Most people seemed to have just defaulted to “Trump is an outsider, the system is rotten, he will fix things.” Did we not do this 8 years ago? I don’t know if this is a because of a lack of education among the American public or an abdication of the media’s responsibility to properly inform or educate. But it baffles me that Trump won on the economy when he is CLEARLY the worse candidate for that issue
2. Now second, this may be coming from a place of privilege, but I also don’t get how or why the economy is such an important issue to voters that they are willing to sacrifice every other issue for it. It seems that people knew that Trump was a felon, rapist, and threat to democracy - but as long as he brings your grocery prices down a bit, it’s all worth it?? This isn’t even getting into things like abortion rights, climate change, foreign policy in terms of wars and immigration, Trump’s willingness to harm political dissidents and not cede power democratically - there will be unimaginable degrees of suffering on all of these major issues with Trump in power. I think it’s frankly damning that people care more about their pocketbooks than issues that fundamentally threaten us all. Same with my first hot take, but I don’t know if this falls on the media for not getting this message through or for the voters, but it is sure as hell damning either way.
"I think it's frankly daming that people care more about their pocketbooks than issues that fundamentally threaten us all."
People are mostly selfish and self-centered. They only think about how everything is affecting THEM. We could look for years to figure out or find reasons for why people voted for the monster. It's really simple, those people could care less about how their vote affects others. They don't care for their fellow humans.
I can totally see where you’re coming from. But I just don’t get WHY sometimes some people perform incredibly selfless and altruistic acts, but an incredibly large portion of the time most people don’t. How do you make someone else care about their fellow human? It seems like most of us would say, save a child drowning in a pond, if nobody else was around and we could swim, even if it meant something as small as getting our clothes a little wet - to borrow Peter Singer’s example. Why doesn’t this apply elsewhere? I’m mostly thinking aloud I don’t know if anyone has an answer
The "why" isn't hard to figure out really. It's selfishness and only thinking of me, me, me. Some are raised to do the right thing and others are raised to only think about what's best for them.
Children learn what they live. When a child is not taught empathy and kindness, they grow up to be the orange monster.
After canvassing and talking with folks outside of my own bubble my thoughts are (IMHO, YMMV): The racists are gonna racist; sexists gonna sexist. At least in what was expressed to me it wasn't even the anti-Trans fear-mongering. The SWING vote Trump losing popular vote to Clinton and Biden but winning it against Harris) was mostly due to false media narrative on economy. It would have been nice if non-Fox mainstream media had gone with honest factual reporting of who and what Trump and Repuglicans actually are day-in-day-out instead predigested even-hand/ both-sadism and sane-washing. And also if there was truthful reporting, hammering on the actual economic improvement since 2022, every day for past 2 years. Over past 3 years actual jobs way up, actual crime way down; over past 2 years actual inflation down... talking to folks in small towns PA... SWING voters (my canvassing lists were folks who have voted Dem at least at some point in recent past; but mostly infrequent, intermittent, lower-information voters) thought the opposite and blamed Dems. At least in my conversations, LGBT did not come up. Immigration contextualized with jobs. On the single issue by single issue we win... Abortion protections won majority votes (remember Florida was actually 57% for protection), paid leave won. Same swing voters who voted for those, even down-ballot for House, then voted Trump on false narrative mostly on economy. Dems, especially the left-progressive wing, objectively better on economy in general. Dems getting blamed unilaterally for NAFTA is another example of media supporting false narrative. And the success of the immigrant fearmongering in expanding the xenophobic reaction is also tied to crap media narrative on actual economy, and silencing of progressive Dems better solutions."
Let's stop pretending this is anything but racism, sexism and misogyny. On every level Harris beat Trump. In every way she was more qualified than Trump. It's a joke that all of you are spending this much time pretending it's about her campaign. Shame on you! Can't you finally admit the truth? Every woman knows how little faith men have in our abilities and our intelligence. It wasn't the economy, it was the American people's failure to envision a Black woman handling it.
I have 2 hot takes here, but underlying all of this is that I don’t think blame lies with just 1 group. I will absolutely grant that the Dems messed up by bumbling the nomination and messaging process and trying to “out-right wing” the right wing party.
But for 1. Say what you will about the Harris campaign’s weak and confusing economic message, how the hell was Trump’s any better? If the voters of this country were truly mainly motivated by the economy, I cannot understand how Trump’s policies of tax cuts, deregulation of the most predatory industries, and most importantly the massively harmful **tariffs and mass deportations** would make anyone better off economically. Most people seemed to have just defaulted to “Trump is an outsider, the system is rotten, he will fix things.” Did we not do this 8 years ago? I don’t know if this is a because of a lack of education among the American public or an abdication of the media’s responsibility to properly inform or educate. But it baffles me that Trump won on the economy when he is CLEARLY the worse candidate for that issue
2. Now second, this may be coming from a place of privilege, but I also don’t get how or why the economy is such an important issue to voters that they are willing to sacrifice every other issue for it. It seems that people knew that Trump was a felon, rapist, and threat to democracy - but as long as he brings your grocery prices down a bit, it’s all worth it?? This isn’t even getting into things like abortion rights, climate change, foreign policy in terms of wars and immigration, Trump’s willingness to harm political dissidents and not cede power democratically - there will be unimaginable degrees of suffering on all of these major issues with Trump in power. I think it’s frankly damning that people care more about their pocketbooks than issues that fundamentally threaten us all. Same with my first hot take, but I don’t know if this falls on the media for not getting this message through or for the voters, but it is sure as hell damning either way.
"I think it's frankly daming that people care more about their pocketbooks than issues that fundamentally threaten us all."
People are mostly selfish and self-centered. They only think about how everything is affecting THEM. We could look for years to figure out or find reasons for why people voted for the monster. It's really simple, those people could care less about how their vote affects others. They don't care for their fellow humans.
I can totally see where you’re coming from. But I just don’t get WHY sometimes some people perform incredibly selfless and altruistic acts, but an incredibly large portion of the time most people don’t. How do you make someone else care about their fellow human? It seems like most of us would say, save a child drowning in a pond, if nobody else was around and we could swim, even if it meant something as small as getting our clothes a little wet - to borrow Peter Singer’s example. Why doesn’t this apply elsewhere? I’m mostly thinking aloud I don’t know if anyone has an answer
The "why" isn't hard to figure out really. It's selfishness and only thinking of me, me, me. Some are raised to do the right thing and others are raised to only think about what's best for them.
Children learn what they live. When a child is not taught empathy and kindness, they grow up to be the orange monster.