Wrong!

Yesterday's post focused on inflation and the economy. Those are things that people might reasonably look at when deciding between candidates.

(For all the reasons that I mentioned for why prices won't go down under Trump, I can't believe I forgot to mention that the proposed roundup of undocumented immigrants will wreak havoc on agriculture. It did last time.)

Other almost reasonable policy issues that I have already written about are foreign policy, especially as it relates to Palestine and Israel, and the draft.

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2024/10/some-thoughts-on-strategy.html

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2024/12/i-am-angry.html 

My saying "almost reasonable" rather than "reasonable" should be obvious from the posts, so I don't want to spend a lot of time on that.

There were also some concerns mentioned about Biden's age before he stepped down. I already wrote about that:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2024/10/election-2024-some-thoughts-on-bidens.html 

(That should be ironic in light of Trump's own narcissistic incoherence, but irony is starting to lose all meaning in this timeline.)

There were conservatives making fun of him, as there had been all along, but I still feel he was governing well. 

There were also Democrats wanting him to step down as well, and then they got mad at him endorsing Harris. 

It looks like for at least part of them, the hope was to install a younger white man, most likely Gavin Newsome. They blame this loss on the party running the wrong candidate.

Newsome would have lost too. 

It pains me to say it, but I don't think that Democrats had a clear path to victory for this election. 

If you remember the work it required to turn Georgia blue in 2020, that would have been needed in multiple states. Between local and state governments in states with more influence in the electoral college, that would be hard. It would have been worth it, but it didn't happen.

We need to consider that there are votes that will not be counted, but also votes that did not get cast due to strong efforts at voter suppression and voter disenfranchisement. Yes, there has been harassment at the polls in other elections where Trump was running, but I think this is the first time that polling places in neighborhoods that would have leaned toward Harris had to close due to bomb threats that originated in Russia.

There has also been a remarkable lack of fairness and coverage of important issues in the press. That means that fighting disinformation doesn't mean merely releasing statements highlighting good work and policies, but creating new news channels. 

Yes, a lot of our citizens are racist and misogynistic; they do not want to vote for the daughter of a Black man and Indian woman. 

That racist misogyny makes them love Trump. Newsome's whiteness is not enough to compensate for him being less committed to white supremacy.

The other reason that a lot of them give is that Democrats keep talking about DEI, and have thus abandoned the working class.

Allow me to note that "working class" is not exclusively white men. The pro-union positions that Biden and Harris were taking were clearly not an abandonment, for people like James Carville and Bernie Sanders, white male grievance is a drug that's hard to quit.

Allow me to also note that is was not Democrats talking about it. Conservatives talk about it a lot more as a scare tactic.

To have a woman of color running does show to some extent that the Democrats are trying to live diversity, equity, and inclusion, while still choosing qualified candidates with experience and interest in public service.

Newsome might have been less of a reminder, but he would still be a very poor substitute for Trump.

The really hard part is admitting that so many people want him.

Somehow Democrats are expected to make that better, and to do so by coddling the ones who thrive on the racism and misogyny. 

I am pretty sure it would not be worth selling our souls, even if it would work, but I am positive that it would not work. 

I hate that, but denial isn't going to save us. 

Personally, I could write more posts about how various talking points are wrong and why, but I am not sure how valuable it is.

I saw one person say that he voted for Trump even though he doesn't like Trump but did it to prevent the United States becoming communist. I have seen others lament RFK Jr. dropping out because he had so much integrity.

I try not to throw around the word "stupid", but for someone who needs those things explained, I don't know that this is the best use of my time.

It really is more about how we need to be as people. 

Of course, that does play right into a few more talking points.