What are you talking about? Millions of people who voted for Biden stayed home - they turned themselves away because they just couldn’t vote for a woman. Harris’ numbers were eerily similar to Clinton’s. Hmm, what’s the common denominator?
Inflation was not a thing at all when Clinton ran—her campaign was pretty much all about how she would be the first female president. A lot of people saw her mainly as a former first lady whose husband set things up for her to become president to make up for his infidelity while in the White House.
Kamala was running against stiff economic headwinds and did much better than Biden would have. It’s pretty easy to see how even a younger male candidate running as a Democrat would likely have been brought down by anger over the economy and cultural issues.
"A lot of people saw her mainly as a former first lady whose husband set things up for her to become president to make up for his infidelity while in the White House."
This is a genuinely insane take. She was a Senator and Secretary of State. She was certainly more qualified than the man who won. What the actual hell?
Men voted for Trump in much larger margins for Trump than did women. I'm as pissed as anyone else that more white women didn't vote for Harris because of the cost of eggs or whatever else they told themselves in order to vote for Trump. But that doesn't make it the job of women to make up for male voting. Women are just as prone to the same internalized sexism and certainly white women can be just as racist as white men. So garbage narrative or not, it played a role. At the end of the day, I'm not sure any Democrat could win when the sitting president had favorables in the 30s - and particularly not his VP.
I live in the SF Bay Area and my kids’ half sister goes to high school in a rural/exurb about 1.5 hours away. She told us that after the election, boys at her school started saying to girls, “Go home where you belong.” Anecdotal obviously, but seems like the message is loud and clear… f women’s autonomy.
I teach high school in Taiwan. A number of my male students were really happy that Trump won. This was rather odd to me, until I also learned that these boys were avid followers of Andrew Tate and his ilk. They think these guys are cool because they have a lot of money and are "macho" men. When I've tried to discuss the problematic nature of these internet asshats, they don't want to hear it (to them I'm ancient and decidedly uncool). These are also kids with aspirations to study in American colleges. Won't they be surprised when they can't get visas.
In my home state of Montana, Trump was elected by a margin of almost to 60-40, Abortion rights passed by just about the same margin. My theory is that many women voted “yes” on the abortion initiative and figured they had preserved that right, so were now free to vote for Trump. They thought they could have it both ways, and for now they can. They don’t believe he will override the states on this issue. And let me add, Montana lost a great Senator. Jon Tester is a good and decent man who served his state proudly for 18 years. I’m heartbroken to see him go.
I've been wondering about this and am eager to know what Dan thinks about this. I think having the ballot initiatives to protect abortion seemed critical in a post Dobbs world. However, how much ticket splitting happened in the 10 states that had these initiatives where people supported protecting abortion but voted for Trump? Is it moot as some of these states, like Montana, would have gone for Trump regardless?
And, now, we have 7/10 states who had these ballot initiatives protecting abortion access at the state level. But, does this also become moot if there is a national abortion ban?
At this point, I really do not give a rat’s ass about alienating mean, selfish, stupid people. As is often the case, some of women’s worst enemies are other women. Prime example was Phyllis Schaffly, who campaigned vociferously against the ERA. She was the antithesis of what she advocated for. I know some of those white women who voted for Trump who would want for their daughters to have best practices care for THEIR daughters who might be miscarrying. Their compassion extends only to their families and friends, people in their tribe.
JennSH from NC, I agree in that I'm not worried about alienating mean selfish and willfully ignorant people.
On abortion, our democracy was set up to separate State and Church. But the old racist white man can't run a campaign on racism. The GOP chose abortion several decades ago and finally got their way with installing their right wing Supreme Court and overturning Roe v Wade.
I really thought the country was ready for a woman President. Kamala's energy and messages of hope and joy, and actually getting shit done on a bipartisan level....but wow, I was so wrong. It's been a heartbreaking few days. I now believe, like it or not, the country as a majority is more concerned about their groceries and gas prices than with human rights. They also excused the fact that Trump is a despicable person. I also believe that racism and misogyny is the problem.
Another poaint, let's face the reality of the very misogynist message around abortion. It's the woman's fault for getting pregnant, but she gets no say in what to do next? Not only do old men of Government needs to stay out of my OBGYN doctor's office, but so does everyone else's religion. If one is against abortion, then they should not get one. Don't even get me started on the hypocrisy of pro-life people and their lack of compassion for caring, clothing and feeding that child after it's born. Or their lack of compassion for the child that isn't born white and straight. If not their civil rights are pushed to the side in the name of religion.
Am I trampling on those rights of people who want to go to church? No. But they are trampling on my rights to NOT got to church! By sticking their heads and their religious beliefs into my doctors office.
Nope, I want separation of church and state! Exclamation point!!!
Look. It was obvious that many people who believed in bodily autonomy also believed in Trump. In states where if was in the ballot, people split their vote. This is what killed it for us. Also, I think that we can always look for ways to hone a better way to message and more of it. The media machine of republicans is a behemoth. They will spew lies and propaganda all day every day and people scoop it up. There is not enough pushback. I don’t think there is much Democrats could have done to win given the “economic anxiety”. This is where I get in my soap box for a minute. There is no question that post pandemic inflation is/was devastating for many families. That is real. However, Americans I feel live in a bubble and a rather insular existence! A once in a generation pandemic devastated all over the world. America was not immune. Somehow, we think that when prices as too high etc that we must look for someone to blame. God forbid that the whole world was suffering and we should not! This is what bothers me. The fickle nature of the electorate. Surely we would be worst off had the Biden administration and tail end of Trump (democratic Congress), not intervened to cushion the blow. All over the world no one has recovered like this country. No recession, lowest employment rate, record stock market, roaring manufacturing, infrastructure, and I can go on and on. But yet people “feel” we are going in the wrong direction. Feeling are not reality. It is belief by the actual facts. This always happens. Democrats dig us out of a whole created by bad republican policy and then they take credit until they destroy it again and voters then ask us to fix it! This never ending cycle pisses me off! Trump will argue and fake credit in coming months for all then stuff being implemented and the stellar economy. He will tell people, “ see what I did in such a short span of time?”. And people will eat it up. Why is it we think that we shouldn’t go through hard times? I hate to struggle just like anyone else. But things are not always rosy. Even if i concede (which I don’t ) that the economy is bad and all that blah blah, you pick the guy that has no objective record of success? A liar and criminal, Buffon and con man? That’s the guy you say “ I’m with him?”. Yeah you can miss me with that! If you can look past all that and still pull lever it says more about us that it does about him. As they say you f**k around and find out. This will end very badly
Dan, I was going to mention that tidbit too, voter numbers are way down. What gives? Dems didn't get out the vote? Apathy with people's candidate choices? Gaza non-vote?
I'd also love to see Dan talk about this. Everyone's freaking out about Trump's "surge" but his actual vote count didn't really increase. His percentages did, but that's because Dems stayed home, not because he has more support than before. I don't know how to interpret it, but, like, I do understand basic math.
All of the votes in California, Oregon, Washington and elsewhere have not been counted. Most estimates believe that Trump's total vote should be very close to where he was in 2020.
I think this will be true and reassuring on some level. The problem is the way it all turned out. I am still processing all of taht--amd it will be months away.
So do you think the messaging of "he did so much better this time" is accurate, or is it more a matter of Harris just underperformed compared to Biden?
I’m actually more interested in the non-vote this time around than how the percentages changed. This reminds me of 2010 where there were so many narratives around voter anger about healthcare but in reality the voters who elected Obama simply stayed home…
A whole lot of bad things are about to happen simply because voters choose to stay home…
I know this is a minor thing but I was so looking forward to never having another Trump story in the news.
First, a big thank you to Dan for being the most realistic of progressive podcasters in never forgetting that this was a close race, which meant there was always the possibility of losing. I also subscribe to Nate Silver, who I know is very unpopular among Democrats but was always even clearer about the likelihood that in a 50/50 race, it was quite probable that one candidate or the other would sweep the swing states, and it could be Trump, horrible as that sounded to us. Polls for the popular vote were actually pretty close to the final result overall (I think they said on PSA it was off about 1.5 points).
Let’s spend more attention on voter intimidation and cult dynamics. Sexism, discrimination, misogyny, and gender inequality play their sordid part, sure. Gutting hard-won voting and reproductive rights takes strategic focus. Stealth funding is the thumb on the scales that counts.
See Rachel Bitencofer interview on The Beat yesterday....too short, would be great to have an extended interview with her re creating a compelling narrative and content, and placing content outside legacy media vs big time Dem consultants spending big on legacy media few watch...and raking in the dough for themselves -- who are these fat cats anyway???
Sam Stein indicated the use of influencers by Harris was shortsighted, as their focus is on building their following as their primary interest, and Harris campaign needed to create her own content...like trump did with the reflector jacket, the ear patch, the gold sneakers, the outrageous and vile comments and threats, hell the sneakers and watches got clicks too!!!
Credit to trump for his genius outrage machine and in reading the American people and the effectiveness of his outlandish and vulgar content creation and seeking and utilizing alternative media....dark, ugly, stupid, cheesy, disgusting and horrifying, but it worked. And all this repulsive content had the added value effect of turning off broad swaths of the American people to politics, wearing out diehard activists, and, in addition, like Jeff Bezos's Amazon, when trump heard a good idea from Harris, he took it and amplified his own version of it -- middle class tax break, let state regulate abortion, etc. 15 million fewer voters voted for the top two candidates in this presidential election.
As a volunteer I observed starved field offices run by young inexperienced staffers who were on their phone and laptop, largely ignoring the live volunteers right in front of them while frantically calling to recruit volunteers on their phone or laptop. I got no financial, emotional or logistical support from the children manning the offices. As an experienced and dedicated volunteer, I felt unseen, unheard and unappreciated despite my substantial knowledge, experience, education and commitment...I heard this from other super volunteers who were also unappreciated and taken advantage of and relied on out west...what a waste...I should not have felt stupid for giving so much...I had to keep encouraging myself to carry on. this was outrageous...I could not beg the staff enough to put me to use....
It may well have been the forces of evil, the pandemic backlash, etc were too strong a force for us to combat. It did not help that Biden stayed in the race so long and did not give a new crop of Dems a crack at this race, it did not help that trump had masterfully subverted and taken over the Republican Party and beat the drum of grievance and Dem vulnerabilities for the past 8 years, shamelessly, without relenting; or that Elon Musk and foreign adversaries and insurgent far right extremists have been holding sway over the planet and the unregulated internet in the past few years. (Time for consumers to get off line en masse, to start reconnecting with live people in our lives, our communities, going into nature, vs watching it on tv, our phones and computers -- it is time to Go Live in real life!!!!)....this kids on laptops, massive phoning and texting nonstop worked in special elections and runoffs....but the presidential is a different bird -- massive with hundreds of race competing for attention and the burden on targeted voters, hell, I was targeted with a barrage of texts and emails and I am not even in a battleground state or district -- voters just wanted the harassment on their doors, phones, computers, tvs -- TO STOP. People I spoke with, even Dems, had had enough....folks, even strong Dems, had "no solicitor signs" some which threatened harassment if we did not go away.....with parties and candidates and PACS racking up millions of contacts whereas trump supposedly had experienced individuals doing strategic and targeted contacts -- I forget who mentioned this....
Maybe circumstances were all too much and a well paid and happy and engaged and experienced staff and well organized and appreciated volunteers and a robust, well funded canvassing apparatus and Dem created content and a compelling narrative and well placed media strategy would not have turned the tide? Maybe listening to dedicated volunteers, canvassers, staffers and taking and putting into action their intel, ideas from the ground would not have made a difference. Maybe a presidential campaign is too big and fast moving to do all this. Maybe it needs an authoritarian, content creating, expert salesman at the top to move the needle....but clearly fat cats selling ads on legacy media and bombarding voters with non stop, fear mongering ads, and voters being pummeled with contacts did not work here.
I do not know...oh and keeping super volunteers in the loop about what is going on in the campaign and what the focus of our outreach is would help to motivate and inform our work and improve our performance....I did not know enough to be as highly effective as I wanted to be...I do not know if anything I am saying here would have made a difference but since 15 million fewer people apparently voted for the top two candidates in this election as opposed to 2020, my guess is, it would have.
I think I really underestimated republican women. I was talking to a reformed former strong Christian and she said that voting conservative because of abortion had been drummed into her from a very young age and was the same for most of her circle. Luckily for her she found a group of friends in college that challenged her single issue mindset. So I imagine a lot more women are on the anti abortion side than the body autonomy side than I would've imagined. I worked the polls in a predominantly red district and at first I thought the enormous turnout for republican women was to vote against Trump but I quickly began to see them voting with a vengeance and not in a progressive way. They poured into the polls where I was.
Seems the answer is that MagaNazis don't care about the health and/or well-being of their daughters or granddaughters. Or their neighbors. Or anyone. I am a bitterly disheartened boomer white woman. Thought we understood the urgency. Our better angels are weeping. But we will rise. We have no choice.
I think we need to remember that modern American society embraces fads. Things snap in and out of focus remarkably quickly. "In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes," to quote Andy Warhol.
Right now, there is hot issue at hand. Many, many Americans are pissed off and want others to experience — to actually feel — their anger. Trump spoke angry. And mean. And ugly. And rude. That mood matched the electorate and his many flagrancies became a strength.
Bottom line is the Dems shouldn't zig-zag too quickly. This fad will pass like all others and decency is a better course. Decency delivered with an attitude — as in, ‘WTF?’ — is called for.
The other issue - misogyny. Too many still just can’t pull the lever for a woman to be President.
Stop it. This thinking is part of the problem. Even if that’s true, you’re only turning people away with that argument.
What are you talking about? Millions of people who voted for Biden stayed home - they turned themselves away because they just couldn’t vote for a woman. Harris’ numbers were eerily similar to Clinton’s. Hmm, what’s the common denominator?
Inflation was not a thing at all when Clinton ran—her campaign was pretty much all about how she would be the first female president. A lot of people saw her mainly as a former first lady whose husband set things up for her to become president to make up for his infidelity while in the White House.
Kamala was running against stiff economic headwinds and did much better than Biden would have. It’s pretty easy to see how even a younger male candidate running as a Democrat would likely have been brought down by anger over the economy and cultural issues.
"A lot of people saw her mainly as a former first lady whose husband set things up for her to become president to make up for his infidelity while in the White House."
This is a genuinely insane take. She was a Senator and Secretary of State. She was certainly more qualified than the man who won. What the actual hell?
No need to thank me. I unblocked you so you would see my reply to you on Dan's last post ( https://www.messageboxnews.com/p/some-initial-thoughts-on-a-brutal/comment/76032169 ) and then you're going right back on the block list.
Are there still levers anywhere?
Men voted for Trump in much larger margins for Trump than did women. I'm as pissed as anyone else that more white women didn't vote for Harris because of the cost of eggs or whatever else they told themselves in order to vote for Trump. But that doesn't make it the job of women to make up for male voting. Women are just as prone to the same internalized sexism and certainly white women can be just as racist as white men. So garbage narrative or not, it played a role. At the end of the day, I'm not sure any Democrat could win when the sitting president had favorables in the 30s - and particularly not his VP.
I live in the SF Bay Area and my kids’ half sister goes to high school in a rural/exurb about 1.5 hours away. She told us that after the election, boys at her school started saying to girls, “Go home where you belong.” Anecdotal obviously, but seems like the message is loud and clear… f women’s autonomy.
I teach high school in Taiwan. A number of my male students were really happy that Trump won. This was rather odd to me, until I also learned that these boys were avid followers of Andrew Tate and his ilk. They think these guys are cool because they have a lot of money and are "macho" men. When I've tried to discuss the problematic nature of these internet asshats, they don't want to hear it (to them I'm ancient and decidedly uncool). These are also kids with aspirations to study in American colleges. Won't they be surprised when they can't get visas.
In my home state of Montana, Trump was elected by a margin of almost to 60-40, Abortion rights passed by just about the same margin. My theory is that many women voted “yes” on the abortion initiative and figured they had preserved that right, so were now free to vote for Trump. They thought they could have it both ways, and for now they can. They don’t believe he will override the states on this issue. And let me add, Montana lost a great Senator. Jon Tester is a good and decent man who served his state proudly for 18 years. I’m heartbroken to see him go.
I'm not a Montana voter, but I'm also heartbroken to see him go. He represented his state and constituents amazingly well. ;(
I've been wondering about this and am eager to know what Dan thinks about this. I think having the ballot initiatives to protect abortion seemed critical in a post Dobbs world. However, how much ticket splitting happened in the 10 states that had these initiatives where people supported protecting abortion but voted for Trump? Is it moot as some of these states, like Montana, would have gone for Trump regardless?
And, now, we have 7/10 states who had these ballot initiatives protecting abortion access at the state level. But, does this also become moot if there is a national abortion ban?
At this point, I really do not give a rat’s ass about alienating mean, selfish, stupid people. As is often the case, some of women’s worst enemies are other women. Prime example was Phyllis Schaffly, who campaigned vociferously against the ERA. She was the antithesis of what she advocated for. I know some of those white women who voted for Trump who would want for their daughters to have best practices care for THEIR daughters who might be miscarrying. Their compassion extends only to their families and friends, people in their tribe.
JennSH from NC, I agree in that I'm not worried about alienating mean selfish and willfully ignorant people.
On abortion, our democracy was set up to separate State and Church. But the old racist white man can't run a campaign on racism. The GOP chose abortion several decades ago and finally got their way with installing their right wing Supreme Court and overturning Roe v Wade.
I really thought the country was ready for a woman President. Kamala's energy and messages of hope and joy, and actually getting shit done on a bipartisan level....but wow, I was so wrong. It's been a heartbreaking few days. I now believe, like it or not, the country as a majority is more concerned about their groceries and gas prices than with human rights. They also excused the fact that Trump is a despicable person. I also believe that racism and misogyny is the problem.
Another poaint, let's face the reality of the very misogynist message around abortion. It's the woman's fault for getting pregnant, but she gets no say in what to do next? Not only do old men of Government needs to stay out of my OBGYN doctor's office, but so does everyone else's religion. If one is against abortion, then they should not get one. Don't even get me started on the hypocrisy of pro-life people and their lack of compassion for caring, clothing and feeding that child after it's born. Or their lack of compassion for the child that isn't born white and straight. If not their civil rights are pushed to the side in the name of religion.
Am I trampling on those rights of people who want to go to church? No. But they are trampling on my rights to NOT got to church! By sticking their heads and their religious beliefs into my doctors office.
Nope, I want separation of church and state! Exclamation point!!!
Look. It was obvious that many people who believed in bodily autonomy also believed in Trump. In states where if was in the ballot, people split their vote. This is what killed it for us. Also, I think that we can always look for ways to hone a better way to message and more of it. The media machine of republicans is a behemoth. They will spew lies and propaganda all day every day and people scoop it up. There is not enough pushback. I don’t think there is much Democrats could have done to win given the “economic anxiety”. This is where I get in my soap box for a minute. There is no question that post pandemic inflation is/was devastating for many families. That is real. However, Americans I feel live in a bubble and a rather insular existence! A once in a generation pandemic devastated all over the world. America was not immune. Somehow, we think that when prices as too high etc that we must look for someone to blame. God forbid that the whole world was suffering and we should not! This is what bothers me. The fickle nature of the electorate. Surely we would be worst off had the Biden administration and tail end of Trump (democratic Congress), not intervened to cushion the blow. All over the world no one has recovered like this country. No recession, lowest employment rate, record stock market, roaring manufacturing, infrastructure, and I can go on and on. But yet people “feel” we are going in the wrong direction. Feeling are not reality. It is belief by the actual facts. This always happens. Democrats dig us out of a whole created by bad republican policy and then they take credit until they destroy it again and voters then ask us to fix it! This never ending cycle pisses me off! Trump will argue and fake credit in coming months for all then stuff being implemented and the stellar economy. He will tell people, “ see what I did in such a short span of time?”. And people will eat it up. Why is it we think that we shouldn’t go through hard times? I hate to struggle just like anyone else. But things are not always rosy. Even if i concede (which I don’t ) that the economy is bad and all that blah blah, you pick the guy that has no objective record of success? A liar and criminal, Buffon and con man? That’s the guy you say “ I’m with him?”. Yeah you can miss me with that! If you can look past all that and still pull lever it says more about us that it does about him. As they say you f**k around and find out. This will end very badly
Thanks, Dan. I get what you are saying but what exactly did the Trump campaign offer them on the economy? Was it just a matter of trust?
I think he offered them not-Biden. Plus vague promises and hundred year old tariff theory. But he had them at “not-Biden”, for better or worse.
2020 155M+ voters. Trump 74M
2024 142M+ voters. Trump 73.3M
Dan, I was going to mention that tidbit too, voter numbers are way down. What gives? Dems didn't get out the vote? Apathy with people's candidate choices? Gaza non-vote?
I'd also love to see Dan talk about this. Everyone's freaking out about Trump's "surge" but his actual vote count didn't really increase. His percentages did, but that's because Dems stayed home, not because he has more support than before. I don't know how to interpret it, but, like, I do understand basic math.
All of the votes in California, Oregon, Washington and elsewhere have not been counted. Most estimates believe that Trump's total vote should be very close to where he was in 2020.
I think this will be true and reassuring on some level. The problem is the way it all turned out. I am still processing all of taht--amd it will be months away.
So do you think the messaging of "he did so much better this time" is accurate, or is it more a matter of Harris just underperformed compared to Biden?
The pandemic is over. Most people hate politics. Anger works better to motive people than hope.
I’m actually more interested in the non-vote this time around than how the percentages changed. This reminds me of 2010 where there were so many narratives around voter anger about healthcare but in reality the voters who elected Obama simply stayed home…
A whole lot of bad things are about to happen simply because voters choose to stay home…
I know this is a minor thing but I was so looking forward to never having another Trump story in the news.
First, a big thank you to Dan for being the most realistic of progressive podcasters in never forgetting that this was a close race, which meant there was always the possibility of losing. I also subscribe to Nate Silver, who I know is very unpopular among Democrats but was always even clearer about the likelihood that in a 50/50 race, it was quite probable that one candidate or the other would sweep the swing states, and it could be Trump, horrible as that sounded to us. Polls for the popular vote were actually pretty close to the final result overall (I think they said on PSA it was off about 1.5 points).
Let’s spend more attention on voter intimidation and cult dynamics. Sexism, discrimination, misogyny, and gender inequality play their sordid part, sure. Gutting hard-won voting and reproductive rights takes strategic focus. Stealth funding is the thumb on the scales that counts.
See Rachel Bitencofer interview on The Beat yesterday....too short, would be great to have an extended interview with her re creating a compelling narrative and content, and placing content outside legacy media vs big time Dem consultants spending big on legacy media few watch...and raking in the dough for themselves -- who are these fat cats anyway???
Sam Stein indicated the use of influencers by Harris was shortsighted, as their focus is on building their following as their primary interest, and Harris campaign needed to create her own content...like trump did with the reflector jacket, the ear patch, the gold sneakers, the outrageous and vile comments and threats, hell the sneakers and watches got clicks too!!!
Credit to trump for his genius outrage machine and in reading the American people and the effectiveness of his outlandish and vulgar content creation and seeking and utilizing alternative media....dark, ugly, stupid, cheesy, disgusting and horrifying, but it worked. And all this repulsive content had the added value effect of turning off broad swaths of the American people to politics, wearing out diehard activists, and, in addition, like Jeff Bezos's Amazon, when trump heard a good idea from Harris, he took it and amplified his own version of it -- middle class tax break, let state regulate abortion, etc. 15 million fewer voters voted for the top two candidates in this presidential election.
As a volunteer I observed starved field offices run by young inexperienced staffers who were on their phone and laptop, largely ignoring the live volunteers right in front of them while frantically calling to recruit volunteers on their phone or laptop. I got no financial, emotional or logistical support from the children manning the offices. As an experienced and dedicated volunteer, I felt unseen, unheard and unappreciated despite my substantial knowledge, experience, education and commitment...I heard this from other super volunteers who were also unappreciated and taken advantage of and relied on out west...what a waste...I should not have felt stupid for giving so much...I had to keep encouraging myself to carry on. this was outrageous...I could not beg the staff enough to put me to use....
It may well have been the forces of evil, the pandemic backlash, etc were too strong a force for us to combat. It did not help that Biden stayed in the race so long and did not give a new crop of Dems a crack at this race, it did not help that trump had masterfully subverted and taken over the Republican Party and beat the drum of grievance and Dem vulnerabilities for the past 8 years, shamelessly, without relenting; or that Elon Musk and foreign adversaries and insurgent far right extremists have been holding sway over the planet and the unregulated internet in the past few years. (Time for consumers to get off line en masse, to start reconnecting with live people in our lives, our communities, going into nature, vs watching it on tv, our phones and computers -- it is time to Go Live in real life!!!!)....this kids on laptops, massive phoning and texting nonstop worked in special elections and runoffs....but the presidential is a different bird -- massive with hundreds of race competing for attention and the burden on targeted voters, hell, I was targeted with a barrage of texts and emails and I am not even in a battleground state or district -- voters just wanted the harassment on their doors, phones, computers, tvs -- TO STOP. People I spoke with, even Dems, had had enough....folks, even strong Dems, had "no solicitor signs" some which threatened harassment if we did not go away.....with parties and candidates and PACS racking up millions of contacts whereas trump supposedly had experienced individuals doing strategic and targeted contacts -- I forget who mentioned this....
Maybe circumstances were all too much and a well paid and happy and engaged and experienced staff and well organized and appreciated volunteers and a robust, well funded canvassing apparatus and Dem created content and a compelling narrative and well placed media strategy would not have turned the tide? Maybe listening to dedicated volunteers, canvassers, staffers and taking and putting into action their intel, ideas from the ground would not have made a difference. Maybe a presidential campaign is too big and fast moving to do all this. Maybe it needs an authoritarian, content creating, expert salesman at the top to move the needle....but clearly fat cats selling ads on legacy media and bombarding voters with non stop, fear mongering ads, and voters being pummeled with contacts did not work here.
I do not know...oh and keeping super volunteers in the loop about what is going on in the campaign and what the focus of our outreach is would help to motivate and inform our work and improve our performance....I did not know enough to be as highly effective as I wanted to be...I do not know if anything I am saying here would have made a difference but since 15 million fewer people apparently voted for the top two candidates in this election as opposed to 2020, my guess is, it would have.
"Voters who only vote in presidential elections are much more economically focused than those who vote in every election."
Because the POTUS controls the economy. 🙄
I hope the people who voted based on their wallets enjoy their money while their women are dying.
I think I really underestimated republican women. I was talking to a reformed former strong Christian and she said that voting conservative because of abortion had been drummed into her from a very young age and was the same for most of her circle. Luckily for her she found a group of friends in college that challenged her single issue mindset. So I imagine a lot more women are on the anti abortion side than the body autonomy side than I would've imagined. I worked the polls in a predominantly red district and at first I thought the enormous turnout for republican women was to vote against Trump but I quickly began to see them voting with a vengeance and not in a progressive way. They poured into the polls where I was.
Seems the answer is that MagaNazis don't care about the health and/or well-being of their daughters or granddaughters. Or their neighbors. Or anyone. I am a bitterly disheartened boomer white woman. Thought we understood the urgency. Our better angels are weeping. But we will rise. We have no choice.
I think we need to remember that modern American society embraces fads. Things snap in and out of focus remarkably quickly. "In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes," to quote Andy Warhol.
Right now, there is hot issue at hand. Many, many Americans are pissed off and want others to experience — to actually feel — their anger. Trump spoke angry. And mean. And ugly. And rude. That mood matched the electorate and his many flagrancies became a strength.
Bottom line is the Dems shouldn't zig-zag too quickly. This fad will pass like all others and decency is a better course. Decency delivered with an attitude — as in, ‘WTF?’ — is called for.