They are not competing with a party that cares a whit about people abroad think. The Democrats have two political worries about Gaza/Israel - that they will be painted as soft, weak, far-left, and anti-Semitic, and that they will lose the enthusiasm of voters troubled by Gaza in places like Detroit. The second concern has fallen away dramatically.
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Useful graph here showing 2 things:
https://x.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/1826728737653883313
The Trump admin was really ineffective at stopping border crossings. Simply demonizing immigrants and saying youre going to build a wall is seemingly not effective policy
One of the few affirmative things they did was title 42 and it resulted in a massive spike in crossings.
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That would be everyone as in Trump,he is the only one he gives a shit about.
This place struck a chord in me though Iâve never been there.
These refer to the other Singapore (1836 to circa 1876 )half way round the world from my home.
Sadly its now gone, forever burried by sand.
Signs in Saugatuck 
A banknote issued by the âwildcatâ Bank of Singapore, Michigan:-
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On the left say cynical
On the right say oldgit
What does that spell?
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Iâve heard enough of her speeches to make an informed opinion on the matter.
Talking only about her debating/public speaking skills.
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I agrĂ©e with you: she isnât the most polished of speakers. But sheâs still better than Trump.
Itâs a sad indictment of certain elements of society that they believe that how someone speaks is more important than what they say.
You get the same here; JRM sounds posh, so he must be right.
Yeah, about thatâŠ
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An interesting take on Trump and deep fakes:
I donât necessarily agree with everything the author says (I believe she is underestimating how stupid he actually is), but itâs certainly an alternative way of looking at Trumpâs recent forays into AI.
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Thatâs over estimating the intelligence of the average maga nut, I fear.
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Fixed
Iâd just assumed it was a failed attempt at parody.
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I wonder if a lot of these âlow-information votersâ actually have a version of the âMandela effectâ, effectively false memories of things that happen because the have either retained false information or conflated them with other things that they probably werenât that interested in.
Itâs even possible that some ideas have come from parody. There is a quote, usually attributed to John Lennon, that âRingo wasnât even the best drummer in the Beatlesâ, but he never said it. I think it is actually a Jasper Carrot joke but it is commonly misremembered as a barbed comment from Lennon.
I suppose the question is, how do you reach out to people who are not that interested in politics or the news and canât be bothered to continually fact check a constant stream of disinformation?
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The easiest way to get their attention is to aim low, peddle fear, demonise minorities and create an atmosphere of mistrust and division, as we have seen.
Engaging them in a reasoned debate about real issues is much more difficult and doesnât seem to have been achieved so far anywhere that I know of.
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Iâm not 100% sure that is the case. Perhaps for some voters, with their individual biases, maybe.
I think the main issue is appealing to their emotions and biases. For example, genuine appeal to working-class people, or people who identify as such even though they arenât necessarily so.
The article makes a point that Trump targeted those voters (whether knowingly or not is irrelevant), but you could also argue that Obama did so to some extent with his hope and change campaign of 2008.
| National | Harris +1.5 | Biden +7.8 | Clinton +5.5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wisconsin | Harris +1.0 | Biden +4.6 | Clinton +11.5 |
| Pennsylvania | Trump +0.2 | Biden +5.7 | Clinton +9.2 |
| Ohio | Trump +8.5 | Biden +2.3 | Clinton +4.8 |
| Michigan | Harris +2.0 | Biden +7.0 | Clinton +8.0 |
| Arizona | Trump +0.2 | Biden +2.2 | Trump +0.3 |
| Nevada | Trump +1.4 | â | Clinton +2.3 |
| North Carolina | Trump +0.9 | Trump +0.5 | Clinton +1.8 |
| Georgia | Trump +1.0 | Trump +1.1 | Clinton +1.0 |
| Florida | Trump +6.3 | Biden +4.8 | Clinton +4.5 |
Anyone getting overly carried away with Harrisâ chances (myself included) should consider how her numbers today compare on the same day with the last two elections when Trumpâs share was seriously under estimated.
I think she needs to be looking at a four point bounce from the convention which then needs to built on in the last two months to really be optimistic about the eventual outcome.
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How much would RFK Jr. dropping and Trump consolidating more of the lunatic fringe affect those numbers?
Havenât they improved polling methods since 2016 as well? On second thought, maybe not considering the predicted red wave in 2022.
Yes, itâs still on a knifeâs edge despite all of Trumpâs incoherent ramblings and Vanceâs deep unpleasantness.
The debates will have an influence, but itâs going to be a very close run thing.
The next six months are going to be excruciating.
At least we know you ainât Jimmy Somerville.
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