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andym

(5,585 posts)
Sun Oct 20, 2024, 11:15 PM Sunday

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 it’s not “Will Kamala Harris win the election?” It’s “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, Trump’s 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?

It’s not just that Trump’s four years in office were defined by unimaginable incompetence, venality, chaos and cruelty. It’s not just that he is a convicted felon who spurred an insurrection and still refuses to accept the results of the 2020 election. It’s not just that many Democrats can’t 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."
------
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.

36 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Why many Democrats find this presidential campaign uniquely unsettling (Original Post) andym Sunday OP
The level of ignorance that he and his followers revel in is what's scary. They are proud of how stupid they are. cutroot Sunday #1
Algorithmic Bias: Reinforcing Prejudice on Social Media TomCADem 17 hrs ago #8
Republicans have spent the last 40 years or more destroying the education system. Xipe Totec 4 hrs ago #36
It's a clear indicator of some real, major political, historical and social dysfunction if even 15% of the population lees1975 Sunday #2
Unsettling is an understatement. I see President Trump wining MI NC GA NV and AZ and becoming kelly1mm Yesterday #3
He's behind in MI, PA and WI, and if he doesn't win those, she gets 277. But she'll get all of them. lees1975 Yesterday #5
I only have him winning MI of the 'Blue Wall' states. Assuming he does win MI kelly1mm Yesterday #6
She is up by 8 points in Michigan. lees1975 13 hrs ago #19
Here is a top rated poll that has her down 3 points in MI. kelly1mm 10 hrs ago #28
RCP is not a top rated poll. lees1975 9 hrs ago #31
Trump "winning" Scarlet Begalas 12 hrs ago #20
Darn it you caught me! Been on DU since 2009 and have 5000+ posts all leading up kelly1mm 10 hrs ago #29
Links please PortTack 11 hrs ago #24
I am only predicting a MI win as of now but PA is slipping into a pure coin flip. Here is a recent poll kelly1mm 10 hrs ago #30
RCP is trash. Forget it. If she's down by an average of 3 that means she's winning by 4. lees1975 9 hrs ago #32
RCP is just the server hosting the PDF from the polling company. kelly1mm 8 hrs ago #35
He's not winning all those states. n/t wryter2000 14 hrs ago #15
I hope I am wrong. We will see in about 2 weeks. nt kelly1mm 13 hrs ago #16
Really? MFM008 13 hrs ago #17
2016 and 2020 were just as unsettling. J_William_Ryan Yesterday #4
And how many of us face this in our own families? callous taoboy 21 hrs ago #7
This is the toughest part for me. maxsolomon 15 hrs ago #12
This the toughest part for me Scarlet Begalas 12 hrs ago #21
This one is specifically linked to her Dad. maxsolomon 12 hrs ago #23
Despite the stock market being at record highs....sounds like dad has a tough time facing the reality of things PortTack 10 hrs ago #27
He attends Mass weekly. maxsolomon 9 hrs ago #33
What's unsettling is that he's not polling in single digits. tinrobot 16 hrs ago #9
Engage nvme 15 hrs ago #10
Because they are MFM008 13 hrs ago #18
Education k0rs 15 hrs ago #11
Education Scarlet Begalas 12 hrs ago #22
Trump should have been jailed January 7th. No bail. Do not pass go. Initech 15 hrs ago #13
I wonder if that 45% hasn't always been there wryter2000 14 hrs ago #14
I grew up in Amarillo Texas a half century ago. markodochartaigh 10 hrs ago #26
The Christian nationalism that is becoming a bigger issue was buried in the votes of those lees1975 9 hrs ago #34
No, this mess is not going away with a Harris victory on 11/5...which is going to happen...but PortTack 11 hrs ago #25

cutroot

(979 posts)
1. The level of ignorance that he and his followers revel in is what's scary. They are proud of how stupid they are.
Sun Oct 20, 2024, 11:30 PM
Sunday

TomCADem

(17,682 posts)
8. Algorithmic Bias: Reinforcing Prejudice on Social Media
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 10:03 AM
17 hrs ago

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 have become a ubiquitous part of our lives, offering personalized content that caters to our interests and preferences. Behind this personalization are complex AI algorithms that aim to enhance user experience. However, there’s a concerning downside to this technology — algorithmic bias. In this extensive blog, we will delve into the world of algorithmic bias on social media, exploring how these algorithms may unintentionally favor certain groups and viewpoints, ultimately contributing to discrimination and inequality.

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)
36. Republicans have spent the last 40 years or more destroying the education system.
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 10:39 PM
4 hrs ago

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)
2. It's a clear indicator of some real, major political, historical and social dysfunction if even 15% of the population
Sun Oct 20, 2024, 11:30 PM
Sunday

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)
3. Unsettling is an understatement. I see President Trump wining MI NC GA NV and AZ and becoming
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 12:36 AM
Yesterday

the next president with 283 EC votes.

lees1975

(5,550 posts)
5. He's behind in MI, PA and WI, and if he doesn't win those, she gets 277. But she'll get all of them.
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 12:45 AM
Yesterday

She's got a ground game, he doesn't.

kelly1mm

(5,030 posts)
6. I only have him winning MI of the 'Blue Wall' states. Assuming he does win MI
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 12:50 AM
Yesterday

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.

kelly1mm

(5,030 posts)
29. Darn it you caught me! Been on DU since 2009 and have 5000+ posts all leading up
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 05:08 PM
10 hrs ago

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)
24. Links please
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 04:12 PM
11 hrs ago

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)
30. I am only predicting a MI win as of now but PA is slipping into a pure coin flip. Here is a recent poll
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 05:11 PM
10 hrs ago

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

J_William_Ryan

(2,020 posts)
4. 2016 and 2020 were just as unsettling.
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 12:42 AM
Yesterday

Should Trump be defeated, it won’t 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)
7. And how many of us face this in our own families?
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 05:37 AM
21 hrs ago

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)
12. This is the toughest part for me.
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 12:09 PM
15 hrs ago

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)
21. This the toughest part for me
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 03:02 PM
12 hrs ago

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)
23. This one is specifically linked to her Dad.
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 03:10 PM
12 hrs ago

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)
27. Despite the stock market being at record highs....sounds like dad has a tough time facing the reality of things
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 04:57 PM
10 hrs ago

VS the red party.

maxsolomon

(34,835 posts)
33. He attends Mass weekly.
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 06:08 PM
9 hrs ago

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)
9. What's unsettling is that he's not polling in single digits.
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 10:55 AM
16 hrs ago

How a lot more than 10% the country supports this dangerous freak is beyond me.

nvme

(869 posts)
10. Engage
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 11:37 AM
15 hrs ago

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.

k0rs

(86 posts)
11. Education
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 11:59 AM
15 hrs ago

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)
22. Education
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 03:05 PM
12 hrs ago

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)
13. Trump should have been jailed January 7th. No bail. Do not pass go.
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 12:15 PM
15 hrs ago

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.

markodochartaigh

(1,857 posts)
26. I grew up in Amarillo Texas a half century ago.
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 04:54 PM
10 hrs ago

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)
34. The Christian nationalism that is becoming a bigger issue was buried in the votes of those
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 06:12 PM
9 hrs ago

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)
25. No, this mess is not going away with a Harris victory on 11/5...which is going to happen...but
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 04:20 PM
11 hrs ago

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 can’t let this stop our forward progress. Look at all we have accomplished in spite of their hate and bigotry. They can’t stop our forward progress and they know it.

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