Here’s something I’ve wondered about for a while now: Why do some voters have to be assiduously courted, and it’s a failure of the candidate if she doesn’t win them over, while for other voters the blame falls on the voters if they don’t fall in line and vote for the candidate?
It’s much easier to get away with ignoring the wants and needs of your constituency when you convince them that it’s about teams, not policies.
This right here.
Mine was a loaded question. After decades of this stuff, it’s entirely clear to me that the difference is that Democrats do not have policy to offer many voters, so all that they have to fall back on is team boosterism. If Harris did have something substantive to offer these Michigan voters, she and her supporters would’ve offered it.
But they didn’t, so all that they had left is what we see: Blame and derision.
The truth is… it’s a popularity contest at the heart of it. Always has been. If you aren’t popular enough in the zeitgeist of enough people, then you ain’t winning shit.
Here’s something I’ve wondered about for a while now: Why do some voters have to be assiduously courted, and it’s a failure of the candidate if she doesn’t win them over, while for other voters the blame falls on the voters if they don’t fall in line and vote for the candidate?
Because that’s literally the job of a politician running for office.
Because of tribalist authoritarianism and gaslighting.
It’s much easier to get away with ignoring the wants and needs of your constituency when you convince them that it’s about teams, not policies.
This right here.
Mine was a loaded question. After decades of this stuff, it’s entirely clear to me that the difference is that Democrats do not have policy to offer many voters, so all that they have to fall back on is team boosterism. If Harris did have something substantive to offer these Michigan voters, she and her supporters would’ve offered it.
But they didn’t, so all that they had left is what we see: Blame and derision.
The truth is… it’s a popularity contest at the heart of it. Always has been. If you aren’t popular enough in the zeitgeist of enough people, then you ain’t winning shit.
The nice thing about blame is it’s an infinite resource. We can always make more of it. That’s why I blame the politicians and the voters.