2mo ago

I'm not worried you're worried

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About 6 2 million fewer votes for Trump than last election, which is good, but it doesn't matter since there are 18 14 million fewer votes for Harris than for Biden last election! Wher were those 18 14 million people? It can't be that all of them are in the "I don't vote for genocide" camp. What happened?
It's never been clearer that not voting gives the election to the Republicans.
Edit: Updated the numbers as more votes were counted, but the point stands.
- It’s very strange to me that turnout is lower, purely because when I went out to vote there was a line goin out the building, which I have never seen before in my area
- Maybe sexism and racism are not isolated to the right wing, possibly a lot more in the centre than assumed. Maybe just enough in certain demos to affect turnout.
  
  It's weird because I even noticed this among liberals. The presidential candidates are always referred to by last name. But both times a woman tried to run, people referred to her as her first name whether you are conservative or liberal or what have you. I have found it a bit disrespectful tbh, and all sides have been guilty of this. The US will never elect a female president, let alone a female president of color. It's bizarre.
  
  People did it with Obama too, he was "Barack" to some.
  The US is a much more chauvinistic nation than many but it's also by far and away the most violent nation in the industrialized world. The two are definitely linked.
  
  maybe it's just because that's the more memorable/unique parts of their name?
  trump/biden is much more distinctive than donald/joe
  clinton could refer to both bill or hillary
  obama/kamala is more memorable than barack/harris (though maybe for obama that's just because I've heard 'obama' so many times)
  I'm not saying that's definitely not true, just that there might be other reasons why
  
  I suppose I could give it to you for Hillary Clinton because it could have been confusing wrt Bill. But with Harris, I'm not buying it. Both "Barack" and "Obama" are equally distinct to me. We have never had a president Harris before, so it's plenty distinct enough. It's not as though presidential candidates always have wildly distinct and uncommon names.
- Not all have been counted yet
  
  They just called Wisconsin for Trump which puts him over 270.
  
  Yeah but the point was about what turnout was. We know who won but it's a bit early to discuss relative turnout compared to 2020. It is likely lower, but the specifics will be a while.
  
  There's no question turnout is lower. Both Trump and Harris received fewer votes than Trump and Biden last time around. Neither of them are inspiring. Yeah Trump has a base, but a lot of Republicans don't like him but some still voted for him. Harris was uninspiring and had a lot of baggage from the last 3 and 1/2 years. She would not have won a primary in my opinion, if Biden hadn't insisted on going for a second term initially.
- If Biden hadn't insisted on running despite his declining mental state, she wouldn't have won a primary, not very likely anyway. She is uninspiring and she carries the baggage of the struggling/non-existent middle class, housing market, 12 million border crossings etc.
- I don't know what the final turnout figures will be, but if it is a lower turnout, I can think of a few:
  2020 was the easiest year to mail in a ballot ever, and it got harder again as states reinstated various difficulties with mail in ballots.
  So many people didn't have to go into work in 2020, they had more flexibility to vote however they needed to do it.
- The honest truth is that the Harris/Walz campaign did not motivate their voter base. People were talking about doing fucking vote swaps with people in swing states because they didn't want to vote for Harris.
  I have no idea what the fuck the whole "courting the right" angle was, but it failed. Maybe it was the stance on Gaza, maybe it was the stance on immigration, maybe it was just feeling spurned by the party for caring about alot of issues like trans rights Harris left to the wayside while campaigning, but it didn't motivate people to cut through the bullshit and go to the polls.
  Meanwhile, Trump stayed in the news 24/7, constantly doubling down on his rhetoric, and his voters mostly all turned out again.
- It's not just the "I don't vote for genocide" camp; there's also the "can't this fucker at least campaign properly" camp and the "I'm not voting for this right wing nonsense" camp, among others. Harris was just that bad at this.
  
  So you're saying people decided to avoid voting for right wing nonsense, and let Donald "Dictator on Day One" Trump win instead?
  
  Exactly. I'm not sure what point you're trying to make, but that is exactly what happened.
  
  It’s easier to blame the voters than to blame the democrats for a miserable campaign
  
  I blame both. The democrat party and the ones who didn't vote.

202 comments