Yes these are very good points. One concern I have is that we seem to have an assumption here that economic disaster and civil unrest will lead to people making logical conclusions like “Trump doesn’t have any idea what he’s doing and its making the country worse”, but in very stressful times people are going to be more susceptible to emotionally driven false narratives.
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I think economic disaster and civil unrest make politics more important to people, and as a result they pay more attention to it. Some of them will fall for the false narratives, but for a lot of people politics is like rooting for the Olympics. It’s a sport you don’t really understand but you’re rooting for your country and it’s fun to watch people do physical feats.
I think the pandemic and the economic disaster transform politics into a sport you really ARE a fan of. Suddenly the minutiae matters and you’re analyzing whether or not your team is drafting the right players and you get really mad when they fuck up.
The Trump supporters aren’t who matters in this race. They are going to show up on election day no matter what. What matters is everyone who isn’t a Trump supporter. All the ‘I’m not very political’ people who normally don’t give the tiniest shit about politics in normal times (because it doesn’t matter lol… seriously for the last 30-40 years nothing was getting done so nothing really mattered about politics for these people, which was rational whether we want to admit it or not. It’s not like they were going to change it by paying attention to it personally) matter a ton in this election.
I think turnout is going to be crazy this time and I think a lot of people who normally can’t be bothered to vote are going to show up just to vote for a return to not having to care about politics.
Right, fair point. My concern is those “pay attention for every 4 years” people who get engaged for a month are going to be faced with two explanations:
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Dealing with Covid is hard. Dealing with economic instability is hard. But with hard work and some sacrifice, we can make it. Health care is important, but change is hard. These things you want cost money and we need to be responsible with our spending. Racism and sexism remain very serious problems but if we all examine our biases and adjust our behavior to be more inclusive then society will be better. Climate change is a very serious matter and we must all make sacrifices so that our children will have a better future.
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America is the best country in the world, and Those People are trying to steal it from you.
Read this on its face, so could be taking it out of context, but…
None of these are anywhere near as hard as we’re led to believe.
Covid? Mandate masks. And/or do a full scale shut down for a month. Pay people for staying home.
Economic instability? Tax billionaires and large corporations. Stop letting them shelter money overseas. The things “WE” need shouldn’t require all that much money. Rent/mortgage payment. A car. Food. Decent schools, etc. What costs REAL money are multiple wars, corporate welfare and the bailing out of large businesses, and allowing the super wealthy to not pay their share of taxes
America is NOT the best country in the world by a long shot. You’ve been lied to
Yes, my point was that I’m worried that these are the two arguments that Ds and Rs will present in November. I don’t endorse either!
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That was before this poll. I doubt they had good polling yet on this in all the battleground states. I dont expect them to budge much while polling like this. Sure Mitch wants to start negotiations but it could just be yo own the dems on messaging some more
Of course. Both parties have been lying to and stealing from the people for years. And once again, I’m being forced to vote for a presidential candidate I can’t stand and who has next to zero policies that I support. But I guess we have to continue fighting to primary corporate Ds.
Not sure we’ll ever be able to get most people interested enough to pay attention not just every 4 years, but every time there’s an election right down to the most local level, but it’s what we have to try and do in the coming years
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No impeachment also would have showed them there were zero consequences. It’s hard to stop an angle shooter when the dealer and the floor are in on it (McConnell) and oblivious to news/politics (most Americans).
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Don’t panic guys, this is fine. Seriously, not joking. Trump’s base is 35-40% and he almost certainly got a big bounce from the EO’s while taking full possession of this crisis. This is as good as this polling gets for him. It was taken Friday-Sunday as he made the announcement.
Take the poll again in a month if nothing happens, he’ll go from 40-39 ahead to like 55-37 behind on who’s to blame.
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It’s definitely not going to get shown as having no impact in the history books. The way they are going to spin this is that the GOP abandoned their duty to the country and kept Trump in power… and then he immediately paid them back by committing the largest series of fuck ups in American political history which resulted in their wholesale obliteration the following November.
Which is very likely what’s about to happen. I know most of you are nearly all in on WAAF but the US is usually a very low voter turnout country. I think we’re drawing live to the craziest turnout by a massive amount here.
This whole thing is going to look really different on the other side. I think I’d give an ear to read a good history book about this period from 2090. Good or bad I could relax some. Living through this is not a good time.
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I think economic disaster forces people toward reality. Their response may be to deport all the brown people, but that’s hopefully not over 40% of people.
Civil unrest basically drives up people’s enthusiasm/rage. I think it’s a net positive for us. The people who want law and order and skull thumping are already full throated Trumpers. He might retain a few wealthy white folks who would have jumped ship, but that should hopefully pale in comparison to the people we activate and turn out through the grassroots process.
Don’t do it to me, @Narrator.
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The average American life is almost certainly not getting better between today and November. Societal trends, in that regard, are 100% on our side.
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The smart money is on massively massively worse. This next six months to a year are probably going to be the darkest of our lives. Unfortunately that means people are going to ask you to talk about it a lot in the future. I suggest you find a way to talk about it that doesn’t involve spending a week depressed every time you do it.
I’m really starting to get on a deep level why the people who lived through WW2 didn’t seem too interested in talking about it.
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This. So much this. Imagine it you got that history book sent back through the space time continuum and saw a picture of Trump in an orange jumpsuit being perp walked, hair all messed up finding out how bald he really is.
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Yeah like when this is over everyone who was an adult in this era will virtually never say more than a sentence about it to each other. We’ll discuss it down the line with kids and grandkids, but it will be unpleasant for us to even remember it.
Today is probably the second best day of the next 5 months for us. Tomorrow the third best. Friday the fourth best, etc. It’s just going to keep getting worse, and it’s going to go exponential at some point.
Hopefully Election Day is the best day of the next five months.
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Stop it. I can only get so elect.
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I’ve already put in my vacation request for that week. I’m either going to be blitzed out of happiness or misery, but in going to be blitzed no doubt
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Yup this is basically it. We’re probably going to win a huge electoral victory… because the country will be suffering more than it has at any point in probably a hundred years. We’re at 200k+ deaths from this thing since March. WW2 only had 417K over three and change years. The situation is like if you took the body count and multiplied it by 4-5 and then tossed on the Great Depression on top of it.
Woohoo. We win an election I guess.
The bad stuff isn’t really happening yet. We don’t easily internalize that because we know what’s coming. Most people don’t.