Why many Democrats find this presidential campaign uniquely unsettling
How does America move forward when so many of our fellow citizens embrace a candidate and a message so fundamentally un-American?
Oct. 19, 2024, 3:00 AM PDT
By Michael A. Cohen, MSNBC Columnist
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/democratic-panic-kamala-harris-donald-trump-polls-rcna176170
"There is one question that dominates every political conversation and every group chat in Democratic enclaves across America, and its not Will Kamala Harris win the election? Its How is Donald Trump this close to winning?
--snip-- [section that states Democrats worry more than Republicans]
Emotionally, however, this is hardly a satisfactory answer. For many Democrats, Trumps continued viability as a presidential candidate speaks to something more fundamental and concerning: How can someone as odious and malignant as Trump maintain so much popular support?
Its not just that Trumps four years in office were defined by unimaginable incompetence, venality, chaos and cruelty. Its not just that he is a convicted felon who spurred an insurrection and still refuses to accept the results of the 2020 election. Its not just that many Democrats cant comprehend why anyone would want to return to those days. The larger and more disquieting issue is the campaign Trump is running right now: one that is as vile and as openly racist as any campaign in perhaps all of American history and that includes his previous runs for the White House.
--snip-- [read more of Mr. Cohen's arguments talking about how Trump is demonizing immigrants, minorities and opponents using fascist and NAZI rhetoric]
Even if Trump loses, he will still likely get 45%-47% of the popular vote. How does America move forward when so many of our fellow citizens embrace a candidate and a message so fundamentally un-American? Defeating Trump is obviously essential, but as this presidential election, like the two before it, has made clear, America is a very different place than many of us imagined."
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Trump's level of support to even 45% of the electorate is very bad news for the USA. How can this be rectified? A serious counter movement to MAGA is needed. Another question is how do some folks vote based on very little actual information able to disregard widespread knowledge of how vile Trump is as a person and how un-American are his proposals.
cutroot
(979 posts)TomCADem
(17,682 posts)Should we be surprised that hate has become normalized when even many progressives still believe that the Great Satan is major media, and they can't seemed to fathom how people are drawn to such a serial liar. The answer is that thanks to technology, you can get lost in your own little rabbit hole without any type of warning that the content that is ranked or recommended is complete BS.
https://dhananjaymittal.medium.com/algorithmic-bias-reinforcing-prejudice-on-social-media-46de22eef5dc
Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have revolutionized the way we consume content. They employ sophisticated algorithms that take into account your past interactions, likes, shares, and comments to curate a feed that aligns with your interests. This personalization is designed to keep users engaged and active on the platform.
While personalization enhances the user experience, it brings forth a concerning phenomenon known as the echo chamber effect. This term refers to the way algorithms often feed users content that aligns with their existing beliefs and preferences. In other words, if you tend to engage with a particular political view or set of interests, the algorithm will continue to serve you content from that perspective.
Xipe Totec
(44,026 posts)Since Reagan's "Reading, Writing, Rithmetic" push back to "fundementals", civics, history, and the arts have been abandoned as educational goals in public education.
No room for critical thinking,
No room for learning the constitution,
No room for learning the history of our great experiment.
And this is the result....
This is the result.
lees1975
(5,550 posts)had embraced Trump and his perverted, destructive ideology. The fact that we are where we are is the result of a colossal failure of some social institutions we've depended on, but have not maintained, in order to preserve an educated electorate and a progressive society.
The influence of a brand of Christianity that depends heavily on mysticism, superstition, megaphysics and a large dose of ignorance is one factor. A failed public education system, especially when it comes to teaching critical thinking skills, history, civics and the relevance of all of those things to today, while most kids walk around with headphones on isolated from the real world is another. The demise of the middle class as 99% of the wealth becomes concentrated in the hands of 1% of the population.
kelly1mm
(5,030 posts)the next president with 283 EC votes.
lees1975
(5,550 posts)She's got a ground game, he doesn't.
kelly1mm
(5,030 posts)along with NC, GA, NV. AZ then he is the next president. Frankly I am seeing PA slip away as well and in that case it is game over.
lees1975
(5,550 posts)kelly1mm
(5,030 posts)lees1975
(5,550 posts)Scarlet Begalas
(44 posts)Did MAGA send you over here to demoralize us?
kelly1mm
(5,030 posts)to be able to demoralize you about the 2024 election. And I would have got away with it if not for those meddling kids and that stoopid Scoobie-Doo dog!
PortTack
(34,248 posts)Last edited Mon Oct 21, 2024, 04:53 PM - Edit history (1)
On edit: MI, WI, PA the 3 states she needs to win have only voted for the gqp presidential candidate ONCE in the last 35+ yrs
History matters
kelly1mm
(5,030 posts)from MI that is one of the pieces of evidence I am taking into consideration about MI.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/docs/2024/Atlas-Poll-US-Swing-States-Oct-17-Michigan.pdf
lees1975
(5,550 posts)kelly1mm
(5,030 posts)wryter2000
(47,222 posts)n/t
kelly1mm
(5,030 posts)MFM008
(19,981 posts)Can I vote first?
J_William_Ryan
(2,020 posts)Should Trump be defeated, it wont bring an end to the Trump Cult.
Trump is a product of the GOP a reactionary Republican party consumed by fear, ignorance, stupidity, racism, bigotry, misogyny, and hate; a party of white grievance politics and racist replacement theory, a nativist party hostile to immigrants and immigration, a party obsessed with compelling conformity and silencing dissent.
A Republican party that has embraced fascism, with Trump the fascist thug as its leader.
callous taoboy
(4,660 posts)My parents, my brothers... all have gone round the bend for the orange turd. It is very unsettling, especially since they used to be level-headed.
maxsolomon
(34,835 posts)All of my siblings, all of our spouses, all of our kids hate his fucking guts.
My 88-year-old Dad won't budge. Voted for him in 2016, 2020, and he'll do it again this time. He's immune to facts, immune to pleading. Not exactly a MAGAt, but he told my brother that Harris is a Communist.
I'll put him in the Propaganda Victim category.
Scarlet Begalas
(44 posts)FFS, they've been using "communist" as a slur since at least the end of WWII, and probably before that. Get some new material, MAGAts.
maxsolomon
(34,835 posts)Because he's an Econ Prof who has incorporated Marx's theories into his work. Snopes says it's true; he's a Marxist:
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/harris-father-marxist-economist/
MFer says "he taught her well". Right, before or after her parents divorced? Pretty weak sauce IMHO.
My Dad isn't the 1st person I've heard that from, though. If you want to find reasons to vote for an Autocrat, that's as good as anything. It has the advantage of being unfalsifiable. How do you know she's not a SECRET Communist?
PortTack
(34,248 posts)VS the red party.
maxsolomon
(34,835 posts)Hears absolutist anti-choice rhetoric from the priests, though he can't recall what the Homily was about if I ask him on Sunday evening.
Plus Fox/WLW/Sinclair. He's never listened to NPR.
tinrobot
(11,419 posts)How a lot more than 10% the country supports this dangerous freak is beyond me.
Why are the MAGAs turning to the dumpster fire? I believe as Americans we need to really look for what has been driving them. What needs does the orange one fill? How can they be incorporated and made to feel empowered in a constructive way. When we objectify them, we only confirm their fears about us. When that happens the chasm remains.
MFM008
(19,981 posts)Dumpster fires and obvious moral degenerates.
If the repugs are good at anything, it's the long game. Their effort to discredit, defund and demonize public education has been in works forever and is ongoing. Their plan is paying dividends for them.
"I love the uneducated." DJT
Scarlet Begalas
(44 posts)They're good at the long game when it comes to getting and keeping power. They have no long game whatsoever when it comes to doing anything to help the average American.
Initech
(101,455 posts)Instead he's protected by an increasingly insane cabal of ultra corrupted news networks and right wing billionaires that got a bunch of his cronies and lackeys into positions of power that they don't belong in with the purpose of protecting him so he can turn America into a revolving door theocratic authoritarian state. All so 700 billionaires can get even richer. Fuck everyone in that damn party.
wryter2000
(47,222 posts)And we still had a functioning government.
markodochartaigh
(1,857 posts)I'm struck by how much that Trump and his associates say that I heard growing up. Of course many of the people back then were closer to Steve Bannon, Steven Miller, and the various pastors who call for the execution of lgbtq+ people and doctors who perform abortions than they were to Trump's mealymouthed wobbly stances on almost anything.
But the hard reich-wing were the "Southern Democrats" that held the Democratic party back in so many ways until the 1960's when they migrated en masse to the Republican party which was a far better fit for their authoritarianism. (Of course there certainly were many actual liberal members of the Democratic party in the South as well.)
Another big component of that 45% which seemed to be hidden were the Southern Baptists, Pentecostal, Church of Christ, etc. who were very reich-wing but were told not to vote since voting was a worldly thing and Bible-believing Christians should not support any worldly leader.
That 45% has always been there, I think, but it is only in the last half century that they have been pulled together and activated. And only in the last couple of decades with the influx of billionaire money (foreign and domestic) that they have been able to buy enough politicians and judges to become a clear and present danger to democracy.
lees1975
(5,550 posts)Southern Baptists, Pentecostals and Church of Christ fundamentalists and conservative Evangelicals. But, their numbers are lower than they were, even a decade ago. The Southern Baptists have actually admitted to a 20% drop in membership and attendance, it's hard to ignore when the churches report their membership annually, since 2015. In terms of numbers, that's a drop of 3.2 million out of what was once a total membership of 16.2 million. Now its 12.8. It's harder to track the Pentecostals and Church of Christ, since they have no formal denominations to report to, but their numbers are down comparatively to the Southern Baptists. And one thing those Southern Baptists don't want you to know, is that their real numerical strength, which is measured by the actual weekly church attendance, is less than 6 million. Whether those that left did so because of the support of many churches and pastors for Trump, or whether there were other reasons, there will be fewer of them voting in 2024.
PortTack
(34,248 posts)We have always had the maga element here, for decades and decades, maybe called by other names, tea party, kkk and it will continue. We cant let this stop our forward progress. Look at all we have accomplished in spite of their hate and bigotry. They cant stop our forward progress and they know it.