This BTW is how you involve in the story the reality of what the voters think, which is an important portion of election coverage, while still upholding your basic journalistic responsibility to communicate to people what’s actually going on.
This BTW is how you involve in the story the reality of what the voters think, which is an important portion of election coverage, while still upholding your basic journalistic responsibility to communicate to people what’s actually going on.
People picked Biden because they were angry at the incumbent and now their picking Trump because they’re angry at the incumbent.
In America you only get two options. Historically, those two options were different flavors of empty suit. But every now and again, you get a real piece of shit a la Nixon or Trump who figured out how to weasel their way through a primary.
And then it’s just a 50/50 as to whether they win
People picked Biden because around a million people died during Trump’s botched Covid response, and because he was clearly an incompetent naked criminal fascist who kept talking about undoing democracy in the United States and actively trying to do it. People are now picking Trump because their news media has told them outlandish lies about Biden that make him sound like Kim Jong Un came to the United States, and they’re trying to do the right thing by getting rid of him. Sometimes, simple innate “anger” at the incumbent leads people to vote against him, but I think in this specific election that’s a very small part of it.
More people voted for Donald Trump in 2020 than in 2016. Biden flipped swing states that Hillary lost because of her shit reputation on labor issues. But then Biden took office and broke a railroad strike, undermined the UAW during their auto worker’s strike, and failed to pass the PRO Act with a Dem majority. He’s significantly less popular in these Midwestern states than he was four years ago.
What? That he’s old? That appears to be the entire media critique of his candidacy.
They support his Israel policy. They want to see him funnel another $100B in military spending to Ukraine. They love how he’s bent over backwards to curb inflation, just as wages were beginning to rise. But since climate change and war are a bummer to read about after three nightmarish years, we’re getting a slew of stories that amount to “Yo, did you notice how old this old guy is?!”
Sometimes media moguls just want another big Republican tax cut. Sometimes the conservatives smell blood in the water with abortion, environmental regs, LGBT rights, and labor rights all up for grabs. Sometimes the guy who gave Strom Thurmond’s eulogy just isn’t able to stay in touch with the youth vote.
Biden’s got a lot working against him. The singular point in his favor is “Trump Will Destroy America!!!” And when the major American exports appear to be carbon emissions and bombs targeted at brown people, its getting harder and harder to convince people that this would be a bad thing.