news 2024 US Election Megathread 🇺🇸🏛️

[ClashAndBurn]

2 minutes ago, Mr. Mendes said:

I mean for a fair few amount of people in this country that does ring true. They won't vote for her because she is. But her campaign has been very dedicated to not toeing that line so I'm really not sure what he's getting at here. 

 

Though, I will be the first to admit that since this was an event aimed at a specific audience, it may be a relevant conversation among different demos that i'm not overly aware of. 

I'm only saying that even if it is true, it can only resonate to the same degree that "basket of deplorables" did.

[Mr. Mendes]

Just now, ClashAndBurn said:

I'm only saying that even if it is true, it can only resonate to the same degree that "basket of deplorables" did.

No yeah, I agree with you. I don't think it's a smart idea to say it in that setting, but I don't disagree that what he's saying has some accuracy to it. And I think it should be called out as loudly and as often as possible, just not in that setting, especially when it works against how the candidate he's speaking in favor of has chosen to run her campaign. Harris seems to've learned from Hilary's mistake of riding too hard on the first female president thing as a selling point, and this isn't super in line with that. 

 

Leave the call out of the misogynists who aren't voting for her purely on the basis of her being a woman to us. 

[Tovitov]

It's fine if Obama says it, surrogates can say whatever they want(within reason). It's not okay if Harris says it. 

[Tovitov]

 

26 minutes ago, ClashAndBurn said:

I'm only saying that even if it is true, it can only resonate to the same degree that "basket of deplorables" did.

Hard disagree.

 

Hillary was a rich lady who many considered as out of touch and corrupt. Her calling a chunk of middle America deplorable for not supporting her only emphasized that.

 

Obama is a black man telling other black men they need to not be sexist. 

 

One was an outsider telling people they were deplorable, the other is a member of a community telling other members about a problem he sees. 

[Armani?]

3 hours ago, ClashAndBurn said:

They really think "you're a misogynist if you don't vote for Kamala" is a winning message?

And it's again, blown out of proportion. It doesn't even acknowledge Black men are still the 2nd demographic most likely to vote for her

 

And the Black specific polls predebate literally average out to 17% overall Black men support for Trump. That's barely a shift from 2020 if that # remains, looks like a 2% change averaging out exit polls in 2020.

 

Trump is running on stop & frisk. Doing ads for that would immediately turn many Black men against him, but I haven't seen any specific ads like that for Black men even though they a have a billion dollars lol. 

[Armani?]

1 hour ago, Prisoner said:

The Harris team was so careful about never straying towards this narrative. wth is he doing?

Media outlets keeps spreading that one NAACP poll made in early August which is a overgeneralization at this point so they're probably scared 

[Mr. Mendes]

On 10/8/2024 at 7:30 PM, Bloo said:

The truly s***ty thing about this is that we have seen the following scenarios with Trump: (i) Trump wins against a centrist Democrat and (ii) a centrist Democrat beats Trump. Only one of these scenarios resulted in the Democrats moving to the left and it wasn't the one where Trump loses. Like, I know a lot of liberals get nervous around this conversation, but this paradox is why the "vote Blue no matter who" mantra falls flat and why many people are tired of it. I was a vote Blue no matter who champion back in 2016 and I feel the fatigue because what I was told would happen simply didn't and it's extremely frustrating.

This is a very long bit of text to follow in the spoiler, but reading what you're saying here just has opened up some thoughts I've been having as of late, and I'd like to ask some questions to just to help gain some clarity on those thoughts because you are more in the know about leftism and the goings on within that sector at the moment. 

 

@Communion , @State of Grace., and @ClashAndBurn I'd like to loop you in on this too and hear what you've got to say because you're all individuals whose opinions and thoughts I respect and like reading and you three are too more on the in the know about leftism in general. You are also individuals who I think realize I may not necessarily be totally in line with you ideologically but recognize I have a genuine desire to bridge a gap to better understand where you come from (which, frankly, I don't think enough people in this thread try to do).

 

My sometimes rambling thoughts and some questions in the spoiler:
 

Spoiler

That last bit is really something that has stuck out to me. I've spent a lot of time trying to understand leftists this election cycle. I am not one myself, at least not in the current form they exist in. But I am at the same time not really a liberal? It seems odd to say because the way things have shaken out lately it seems that someone is one or the other, but I have long felt very caught between those two sides. I understand liberals rather well because...well I mean they're not particularly difficult to understand. Leftists however often can be, especially when they've got people like Jill Stein out in front of their movement who I think does a real disservice to leftists as a whole.

 

In trying to understand more about leftists and why they've come to the positions they have, i've seen a lot of similar sentiments to the one you just shared. Of course that isn't all of it, but it seems to've played a major role. 

 

I was just 15 during that election cycle, and was not at all very plugged in so to speak. I cannot imagine what it felt like to work so hard for nothing. To that end, I do very much understand where leftists' feelings in regards to the system comes from. In some ways, I share it (i haven't experienced a loss yet in a presidential election only because I've just voted in one; I've lost a lot on the state level because I'm in Tennessee and voting blue hear is like screaming into a void jhknl). It's an unfair system by design and having to just bit my lip and work with it grows exhausting. 

 

I do want to see a change to it some day, and I don't want a two party system to be the norm forever. That being said, this particular election I've found myself pulled in a lot of different directions. 

 

I want to be clear here that I am not a Democratic bootlicker. I am not registered as a Democrat, I am critical of Democrats, and have been especially vocally critical of the current administration as my post history here and beyond will show. But I at the same time believe that when it comes time to vote, it still must go to the Democrats. It is perhaps a rather simplistic way of thinking, but I see the chances for actual change in the future as more likely with a Democratic party who is able to be pushed than it is with a Republican party who has proven rather immovable. In other words, I think that there is a much clearer avenue for my more leftist coded policy desires to be achieved by helping to elect Kamala Harris and then applying pressure to her and her party to move back further left than there is by Trump coming into power and successfully allowing the ever more extreme Republican party agenda to be let loose. 

 

Of course, I live in Tennessee, so my vote will mean zilch and I know that. But I will still cast it and still speak openly about my beliefs because I do actually believe in the potential for places like Tennessee to change little by little over the years with more people willing to reject Trump like ideals openly. 

 

I say all of this not to just give you a biography of myself, but in an effort to sort of explain to you where I am in this election in order to very earnestly ask you to share the same; in other words, explain what I'm missing in regards to the leftist position of things at the moment: why does it seem that ultimately leftists and other sectors of the left have the same or similar goals, but are going about it this election cycle in a way that appears to be counterproductive to that goal? 

 

What I mean is, I've imagined through most of this that what leftists mean when they say they want to be agitators of Democrats is the same thing I mean--they want to apply pressure to the party and their candidates to make progressive moves. I've also imagined that despite their public criticizing and pushing of Dems in the pre-election day cycle does not mean they are under the impression that an actual progressive candidate has a chance to win in 2024, and as such they will still be voting for the Democrats in the election (though one day they would like to not have to), just with the condition that they will push even harder and apply even firmer pressure to the Democrats if they win.

 

But in the last month or so specifically, I've become less and less sure of that. I look at leftists in many spaces (granted, they're online spaces and i know online leftists can sometimes be a very different breed of person LMAO) openly saying they hope Harris loses and they'll do whatever they can to ensure that. That would, by sheer virtue of how our system works currently, mean that Trump wins the election. 

 

I mean...surely that's not the actual goal here, right? Surely leftists as a whole aren't actually okay with Trump back in the White House as long as that means Harris isn't? Or is that currently where things lay? 

 

That may sound like a very stupid question, and I'm sorry if it is. But I'm just at the moment really having trouble parsing through what I logically think to be true and what I see actually unfolding, and i'd like to hear from someone more inside of it all so to speak. 

 

 

 

Edited October 11 by Mr. Mendes

[Lil Mxnster]

Thinking about Trump's second term makes me jaded as f*ck, even before it begins  My bet has always been D-276 / R-262, tho. 

[midnightdawn]

I wonder if it's time to stop trying to pretend Democrats might hold the Senate and instead frame Kamala as the only possible handbrake on a complete right wing takeover.

[Chemist]

this year elections are truly a toss-up   even more than 2016 and 2020

I wouldn't be surprised if the winner is decided by less than 10k votes

[DevilsRollTheDice]

There are so many "I can't believe it didn't end here" moments with Trump, but I truly, TRULY, cannot believe it didn't end with January 6. 
 

Regardless of whether he wins, we now live in a country where:

A.) a very large portion of the public openly supports that behavior

B.) a media that blatantly underplays the severity of Trump to give the illusion of objectivity

C.) a large portion of self-proclaimed leftists who also don't care and will gleefully watch rights stripped here as the country slides into alt-right fascism. 

Edited October 11 by DevilsRollTheDice

[midnightdawn]

Democrats are worried that Vice President Harris is failing to make inroads with men in the final weeks of the presidential campaign.

 

A string of polls out this week show that while Harris is outperforming former President Trump with women, she is not moving the needle with male voters, in some cases trailing the former president by more than a dozen points in battleground state polls. 

"I don't think people understand what a big problem we have on our hands with men," one prominent Democratic strategist said. "Black men, Hispanic men, men in general.

 

"We can't simply say, 'Well, we have women,'" the strategist added. "Even if we win next month, we're going to have to ask ourselves some hard questions when this is over." 

One donor took it a step further: "Men are gone, at least for this cycle." 

 

"She has a problem with men for the same reason Hillary Clinton did: because misogyny exists, as do outdated ideas about who should hold the presidency," said Democratic strategist Christy Setzer. "Meanwhile, Trump has doubled down on this 'strong man' machismo and dictators act, playing 'It's a Man's World' at his rallies." 

 

"The not-subtle message of Trump's campaign is, 'If you're a 'real' man, you're for me,'" Setzer added. "That 1950s mindset is still appealing to some, unfortunately." 

 

Asked why Harris has a problem with men, Democratic strategist Jim Manley said wryly: "Ask Hillary Clinton." 

"It's ridiculous to have to say this in 2024 but not everyone is ready to vote for a qualified woman to be president of the United States," Manley said. 

 

Democratic strategist Basil Smikle said Harris is "rightfully" speaking about issues like abortion, but other issues important to courting Black men including job creation and police brutality haven't been at the forefront of Harris's pitch. 

 

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4927569-dems-worry-harris-men-voters/

 

Edited October 11 by midnightdawn

[dman4life]

5 hours ago, Lightbringer007 said:

HELP-

 

 

 

I'm just happy that someone FINALLY said this about Trump's "good economy" that he actually inherited from Obama. Kamala never makes this case and I was disappointed she didn't say it on the debate stage!

[RihRihGirrrl]

6 hours ago, Lightbringer007 said:

HELP-

 

 

 

I can't believe Democrsts have not hit this message over and over and over.....Bush tanked the economy and Obama cleaned it up and Trump tanker the economy and Biden cleaned it up

Edited October 11 by RihRihGirrrl

[RihRihGirrrl]

3 minutes ago, dman4life said:

I'm just happy that someone FINALLY said this about Trump's "good economy" that he actually inherited from Obama. Kamala never makes this case and I was disappointed she didn't say it on the debate stage!

It's not just her though....it's all Democrats...they're so weak when it comes to message around the economy.

[dman4life]

2 minutes ago, RihRihGirrrl said:

It's not just her though....it's all Democrats...they're so weak when it comes to message around the economy.

Right! I hope they now start taking the lead from Obama on this because it's ridiculous how they've conceded the economy to Republicans. 

[Raspberries]

 

 

[dabunique]

[Marianah Adkins]

6 minutes ago, Raspberries said:

 

 

Nevada 

[RihRihGirrrl]

24 minutes ago, Raspberries said:

 

 

This would be more believable if she were down in Arizona/Georgia and up in PA and Nevada 

Edited October 11 by RihRihGirrrl

[shelven]

51 minutes ago, Raspberries said:

 

 

Sure, why the f*ck not at this point

[dman4life]

Nothing wrong with Obama's message it honestly needed to be said. As long as Kamala isn't the one saying it 

[FameFatale]

 

[Armani?]

1 hour ago, Raspberries said:

 

 

Me just now noticing the +6

[dabunique]

6 minutes ago, FameFatale said:

 

not dat piece of mierda

 

she voted against FEMA funding, started blaming Biden over da response from FEMA, then blamed Kamala for attacking DeSatan, 

 

so please shut da phuck up .. vote Whitney Fox to replace this trash