Since I'm still registered as a lifelong Democrat, who voted for Harris, and have contributed a lot of money to Democrats and liberal causes over time, I get LOTS of campaign literature, in fact it's the majority of my email AND postal mail. Literal piles every day, and it takes lot of time to sort. And 80-90% of that has been fear monge…
Since I'm still registered as a lifelong Democrat, who voted for Harris, and have contributed a lot of money to Democrats and liberal causes over time, I get LOTS of campaign literature, in fact it's the majority of my email AND postal mail. Literal piles every day, and it takes lot of time to sort. And 80-90% of that has been fear mongering from Democrats. Fear, fear, fear, fear.
(It turns out that they pretty much saturated that market, and Democratic focus groups were telling them that, but...)
I don't doubt that Republicans may have been deluged with something similar from their party, but I think that if you focus selectively ONLY on the influence of fearmongering from the right, only nominally acknowledging that both sides do it, I think you are missing the core point which is not partisan.
It's like "Republicans are doing 800% more fear mongering than would occur in a healthy society, but Democrats are doing only 750% more, so let's focus on the Republicans as the problem, rather than centralizing the common fearmongering itself as the core problem for society".
Let's be clear that I did not and would never vote for Trump. But I've talked to reasonable people who did, and they did not fit your stereotypes. Yes, many were afraid of what a Harris presidency would produce, but every single Democrat I knew was in a near panic of fear before the election, so that's not a difference.
I think we need to beware of comforting narratives which allow us to disparage the election results as being mainly due to racism, misogyny, ignorance, credulity, and propaganda. Internal message: "we are superior to the voters and have nothing serious to learn, no uncomfortable questioning of our assumptions and stereotypes is needed"
By the way, among the Democrats I live among, very few mention Harris' policies, and in fact few are aware of any of her policies other than on abortion; they did not choose her for her policies. They chose her because they were afraid of trump, every last one of them centers that. The only ones who DID care about something other than abortion, are those who hate her for supporting what they believed as genocide in Gaza.
By contrast, the Trump voters DO mention a lot of policy issues.
Both sides mention items which I believe to be factually false; perhaps more so on the Trump side, but far from exclusively so.
Steve, your last paragraph is interesting. First you say you are not telling them how their vote should have been swayed, then you proceed to tell them exactly that. But then there is:
> Harris didn't sit in the Oval Office sipping Coke while the Capitol building burned. I don't think you'll ever get me to understand how this alone wasn't permanently disqualifying for all those people who claim to be "America-loving patriots."
So who exactly sat in the Oval office while the Capital building burned? Will the US be rebuilding the Capitol soon? I seem to have missed that arson. I thought the massive arson amounting to billions of dollars occurred in the summer of 2020. Are you sure you are not conflating two types of events?
I hope you can take that at gentle ribbing, not a viscous attack. But it illustrates my point - a LOT of Democrats would have passed by your asserting about the burning of the Capitol without knowing - or caring - to fact check it, because it fits the narrative. They would focus in the word "disqualify" and ignore the justification. Because their critical minds have been shut down in fear. Not from Republicans in that case, though.
(Remember, I preferred Harris and thought that Trump's role in the Capitol riots was only one of many things proving he should never be president again, so don't waste time trying to convince me; my points are about the dysfunctions of our society, not about Trump vs Harris per se, I'm already in the choir about Trump, and the election is over. We need to move from persuasion of voters to assessing why the Dems lost and what can be done about that.)
Ah, what a difference 8 years can bring. Ironically, I am now even more concerned about a Trump presidency than I was in 2016, but also feel a lot less smugly superior to those who voted for him than I did then. When I took off my "I only watch liberal news" filters, the world grew a lot more textured and complex.
Since I'm still registered as a lifelong Democrat, who voted for Harris, and have contributed a lot of money to Democrats and liberal causes over time, I get LOTS of campaign literature, in fact it's the majority of my email AND postal mail. Literal piles every day, and it takes lot of time to sort. And 80-90% of that has been fear mongering from Democrats. Fear, fear, fear, fear.
(It turns out that they pretty much saturated that market, and Democratic focus groups were telling them that, but...)
I don't doubt that Republicans may have been deluged with something similar from their party, but I think that if you focus selectively ONLY on the influence of fearmongering from the right, only nominally acknowledging that both sides do it, I think you are missing the core point which is not partisan.
It's like "Republicans are doing 800% more fear mongering than would occur in a healthy society, but Democrats are doing only 750% more, so let's focus on the Republicans as the problem, rather than centralizing the common fearmongering itself as the core problem for society".
Let's be clear that I did not and would never vote for Trump. But I've talked to reasonable people who did, and they did not fit your stereotypes. Yes, many were afraid of what a Harris presidency would produce, but every single Democrat I knew was in a near panic of fear before the election, so that's not a difference.
I think we need to beware of comforting narratives which allow us to disparage the election results as being mainly due to racism, misogyny, ignorance, credulity, and propaganda. Internal message: "we are superior to the voters and have nothing serious to learn, no uncomfortable questioning of our assumptions and stereotypes is needed"
By the way, among the Democrats I live among, very few mention Harris' policies, and in fact few are aware of any of her policies other than on abortion; they did not choose her for her policies. They chose her because they were afraid of trump, every last one of them centers that. The only ones who DID care about something other than abortion, are those who hate her for supporting what they believed as genocide in Gaza.
By contrast, the Trump voters DO mention a lot of policy issues.
Both sides mention items which I believe to be factually false; perhaps more so on the Trump side, but far from exclusively so.
Steve, your last paragraph is interesting. First you say you are not telling them how their vote should have been swayed, then you proceed to tell them exactly that. But then there is:
> Harris didn't sit in the Oval Office sipping Coke while the Capitol building burned. I don't think you'll ever get me to understand how this alone wasn't permanently disqualifying for all those people who claim to be "America-loving patriots."
So who exactly sat in the Oval office while the Capital building burned? Will the US be rebuilding the Capitol soon? I seem to have missed that arson. I thought the massive arson amounting to billions of dollars occurred in the summer of 2020. Are you sure you are not conflating two types of events?
I hope you can take that at gentle ribbing, not a viscous attack. But it illustrates my point - a LOT of Democrats would have passed by your asserting about the burning of the Capitol without knowing - or caring - to fact check it, because it fits the narrative. They would focus in the word "disqualify" and ignore the justification. Because their critical minds have been shut down in fear. Not from Republicans in that case, though.
(Remember, I preferred Harris and thought that Trump's role in the Capitol riots was only one of many things proving he should never be president again, so don't waste time trying to convince me; my points are about the dysfunctions of our society, not about Trump vs Harris per se, I'm already in the choir about Trump, and the election is over. We need to move from persuasion of voters to assessing why the Dems lost and what can be done about that.)
Ah, what a difference 8 years can bring. Ironically, I am now even more concerned about a Trump presidency than I was in 2016, but also feel a lot less smugly superior to those who voted for him than I did then. When I took off my "I only watch liberal news" filters, the world grew a lot more textured and complex.