What's True Pussycat? - Trump Thread #134

[Spandauer]

Non-fake, stable genius thanks to @Crucible for the new thread title.

Seniors' special today.*
They’re eating the dogs!
They’re eating the cats!
They’re eating the pets!...
So do you want fries with that cat? (*Apologies to non-MAGA seniors)

In other news, the swing states continue to be too close to call and it looks like it's going to be a nail-biting, buttock-clenching, hand-wringing 50 days to the election. (or thereabouts)
Increase your anxiety with this handy countdown 😭
https://days.to/until/election-day-in-us

Previous thread here:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5134172-its-not-over-until-the-cat-lady-sings-trump-thread-133

Heather Cox Richardson
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/

I've been reading her daily letters for years and the history is wonderful
but some of the current affairs are blinkered

Of course, @Talkinpeace! Thank you. I particularly like what HCR quotes Kamala Harris as saying in Pennsylvania (and presumbably other places), especially this bit, which sums it all up for me:
Q
Harris noted that many of the Republicans on stage had taken the same oath to the Constitution that she had. “We here know the Constitution is not a relic from our past, but determines whether we are a country where the people can speak freely, and even criticize the president, without fear of being thrown in jail, or targeted by the military. Where the people can worship as they choose without the government interfering. Where you can vote without fear that your vote will be thrown away. All this and more depends on whether or not our leaders honor their oath to the Constitution.”
Trump, she pointed out, tried to overturn the will of the people expressed in a free and fair election, has vowed to use the military to go after any American who doesn’t support him, and has called for the “termination” of the Constitution. “It is clear,” she said, “Donald Trump is increasingly unstable and unhinged, and he is seeking unchecked power.” Trump, she said, “must never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States.”
UQ

HCR is fab
but cannot see that even though Harris is up against a demented maniac
she is not clear ahead in the polls.

Is it that the policies are wrong ?
Is it that the messaging is wrong ?
Is it that both are wrong ?

Maybe the polls are wrong. Which they could be in either direction.

Folks. Again. This is not about policy. There is not one single policy Harris could articulate that would sway voters other than a very fringe margin of switched on voters, i.e. if she were to take a strong anti-Israel stance, it could sway people who have a principled stance against the Biden/Harris policies.

If you are on the fence about voting for a man with no policies except ones that have been judged as terrible, you are not interested in or swayed by policy.

"This is not about policy"
OK, so what IS stopping Harris putting clear blue water between her and Trump ?

I think that sadly it may be the case that the US really is that divided, and that a large proportion of its population have given up on politics.

I agree - the same malaise affects the UK IMO.

Yes, I think that's a big part of it but there are so many factors.

Where people get their news is a massive issue. Information vacuums, misinformation and disinformation are all hugely problematic.

I mean, you only have to take the economy as an example of why policy doesn't matter.

Both candidates have released economic policy platforms.
More people polled trust Trump over Harris on the economy.
Many cite that as their main concern.
The vast majority of economists say inflation and the deficit will both increase under the Trump economic plan as opposed to Harris's.
This is clear, experts all over the place have weighed in on all sorts of media platforms.
If policy mattered, people would consume this information and make an informed vote. They're too polarised. They won't.

Also, I would really be careful about trusting the polls too much (in either direction)

open.substack.com/pub/messagebox/p/are-a-flood-of-gop-polls-skewing?r=gjmxu&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

More people polled trust Trump over Harris on the economy.

@Wallaw so, if the main issue isn't policy its trust?

The main issue is whether people believe and trust a proven liar and con-artist.

And of course whether people who don't believe and trust a proven liar and con-artist pick up their phone and, when asked if they will take part in a poll about the election, say politely "not today, thank you" and put the phone down again.

Very few people vote on policy on either side of the pond, elections are fought on vibe and personality. For some reason Trump gives off a vibe that lots of people seem to like. I always think white men are an interesting demographic in his base, reporting suggests that they are drawn to his toxic masculinity in a world where they find themselves struggling to readjust to the current century (I.e. being a minority/feeling emasculated by strong women).

Racism and misogynist tendencies are a big draw to many idiots 🤷‍♀️

Totally agree. Thank goodness I don't have men in my life like that 🫨

I think they also want to stick it to the libs

And there are huge swathes who will vote for Trump who don't remotely consider him a liar and a con artist. The cult is real - when a Trumper responds angrily to you calling Trump a liar, by demanding "tell me what he has ever lied about!!?" you know that nothing short of Sweet Baby Jesus appearing on Fox and Friends denouncing the orange one will sway them from that belief

I have voted for 3 different UK political parties in my nearly 50 years as a registered voter. For all the anonymous people on social media, saying they used to be a Democrat and are now voting for Trump, (and vice versa) I don't many people change their allegiance. There is a small core of floating voters but many of those will be in hardcore states where which way they float will make zero difference.

There was one glorious election at which the local council and the MP were up for grabs and I was able to vote for people from four parties in the same election. (The Communist worked in our office and was clearly going to get fewer than a hundred votes, and I felt sorry for him.)

I do firmly believe that the number of undecided voters will now be tiny, to my mind this will be a turnout election.

I am interested in why approximately one-third of the Republican Party seems to be having such weight given to it, to be honest. MAGA isn't a majorityof the country and isn't a majority of the party either, but they do have loud voices and do absurd things: is that why they count for so much in the eyes of the media? In the same way that Trump gets a disproportionate share of air time by being a buffoon who can't string a sentence together any more?

It might just be a matter of name-recognition.

Yes, I very much suspect that's what the internal polling is showing them at this point too.

What do we make of the massive turnout as soon as the polls opened in Georgia?

www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/georgia-sees-second-consecutive-day-of-record-voter-turnout/ar-AA1srUzh

Do we know yet which way it’s trending or what the demographics of the early voters look like?

The main issue is that many people have a poor understanding of how the economy works.

The main issue is that people had more money in their pockets when Trump was president. Life was more affordable

And these same people think that "tarriffs" are an expense for the companies exporting into America, not for the people buying the goods.

Thus demonstrating their ignorance.