US Politics

American voters preferred Trump's policies.

No one really cares about the policies, per se. They just care about how Trump makes them feel.

Non event I’d imagine.

Kind of like many motorists think speeding shouldn't really be enforced because they do it to?

This thread is a good example of one group not being able to understand that another group might think completely differently.

Sorry but how is this better:

Than this?

There was one Latino voter who said that he didn't like the racism and the wall and all that, but felt Trump was a family values person (!) and Harris wasn't. Not sure how much that was him just taking Trump at his word, and how much was a trans rights thing (there was some coded hint at that). I do suspect a portion of the electorate know he's a shit but think he's a "normal" heterosexual male shit and that's more acceptable to them than how they see Harris.

one represents the good 'ol days; the other, a shiny but complicated future.

Getting together for a good ol moral panic over 'degeneracy' putting the United in ...

How is anyone surprised? You only have to spend an hour on Threads to realise the average American can’t be trusted with really much at all.

I think it's easy to see places like the US and Australia as new and modern and apply our own ideas of what a development of society in the UK could be if we had the chance to start again.
But that's not what those people want.
The people that vote for trump are ones that feel the USA has changed to much already, not that it hasn't changed enough.

Your explanation is simple, but I'm not sure it's overwhelming

I thought you were encouraging civility a few pages ago?

All the exit polls data points to economy and immigration being key issues for voters, and Trump leading on those issues, but I am sure a few vox pops that you saw that confirm your cognitive biases mean you can intellectualise all that away.

Must be cool to be so clever that you can completely ignore what is staring you in the face.

Must be cool to be so clever that you can completely ignore what is staring you in the face.

I'm just questioning whether you can make such a blanket claim. Voters can be as unreliable about their motives (or even about how they actually voted) in exit polls as in pre-election polls, besides which at least some have said it's not his policies they care about, both yesterday and over the previous years.

Exit polls dont tend to pick up on whether or not the voter consciously or subconsciously preferred the old white (Christian) man over the "woman of colour" (Harris' words), for example.

Elections and electorate determinates are complicated and to put all emphasis on preference of policy is naive.

Explaining the loss away due to dumb voters, bias, Silicon valley, Joe Rogan, social media, Russian interference etc, gets you nowhere.

Somewhere along the way, someone needs to keep up with an electorally popular alternative to both the status quo and nativist populism. Or we keep getting Trump and his equivalents.

https://www.youtube.com/@CuddleBuddiesChannel

White, uneducated middle age men did it

Where is the graph from?

Interesting how different people take different things from the same information.

My reading says that other than 'Black' and 'Asian', the split is incredibly close with a large number of groups I'd expect to be firmly blue, only being slightly so.

So I'd say a majority of the population did it.

I said this already, but Trump did better among women, latinos, asians, and voters under 29 than he did in 2020. His vote share among men was pretty much flat on 2020.

https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/how-grou­ps-voted-2020

So he won because he was able to broaden his appeal.

Explaining the loss away due to dumb voters

I'm doing nothing of the sort. You're the one insisting on absolutes, I'm just questioning the absoluteness. Hence "I do suspect a portion", which isn't ignoring anything you said, just suggesting there are also other things happening.

Somewhere along the way, someone needs to keep up with an electorally popular alternative to both the status quo and nativist populism.

I don't think anybody is arguing against that.

Imo there are a whole host of smaller granular events like the ones you've listed (or dismissed?). They add up and have an impact.

But you're right that there is a deeper structural current here which you've summed up neatly in earlier posts.

Where I think there is a real challenge for the future is how do you solve the economic issues like cost of living and wage stagnation while securing $bn in election funding and without being painted as totalitarian communists by the media?

Sorry. I missed that.

Here's your medal 🥉

Apologies for repeating a point that had been made earlier.

https://open.substack.com/pub/iandunt/p/scattered-thoughts-on-the-worst-of?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1z1ixv

Explaining the loss away

To state that elections are not just won on policy? Or that modes of campaigning can impact how potential voters are influenced? Or that voters bring their own bias to the booth?

51% to 47.5, not much different to Brexit, divisive. Wouldn't call that a massive mandate. Pretty typical of our times.

Also I still think Biden did a shit job of selling the economic sizzle.

I was referencing a range of explanations that have been offered by others in this thread

Lol. I was just resharing the data as I expect you missed it given the volume of posts.