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Cake day: July 6th, 2023

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  • Being recognized as the only sane choice by people across the political spectrum and by nonpartisan organizations that rarely if ever endorse presidential candidates is generally going to be helpful for a campaign.

    While there are plenty of people on Lemmy acting like this is a deal breaker, I highly doubt any of those people were ever going to vote for Harris.

    And even if there is a nonzero number of votes lost to third parties or staying home because of this endorsement, those lost votes are almost certainly less likely to be in battleground states, and are only worth half as much as any independent or republican leaning votes that would otherwise have gone to Trump.



  • We should laugh. It’s better for our mental health. It deflates their image in the eyes of those who share our laughter. And it drives these shit heads even more nuts, making them act even weirder, and making us laugh even louder

    What we mustn’t do is get complacent. We need to push hard no matter how we think it’s going. If it’s a tight race, we fight to take the lead. If it’s looking like a victory, we fight to make it a blowout. The bigger the margin, the harder it will be for Trump to fight it after, and the more likely it will be that we won’t have to deal with an impossibly divided and obstructionist legislature.

    Vote, and get others out to vote too.







  • First, I wouldn’t assume that there isn’t anyone planning to assassinate Harris.

    Second, let’s not pretend that there hasn’t been political violence coming from Trump’s side of the aisle. For example, does the phrase “where’s Nancy” ring a bell?

    Third, Trump has positioned himself as an authoritarian strong man who will not be restrained by laws, facts, institutions or norms. He has embraced extremism and excused violence. He promotes hatred, division and conspiracy theories. He attacks law enforcement and courts when they apply the law to him, while simultaneously threatening to wield them as a political tool to persecute his enemies. He has managed to get the Supreme Court to declare the president to be above the law up to and including being able to order the assassination of political rivals. He has rejected democracy, attempted to steal the last election, and incited a riot at at the capital in order to coerce congress into going along with his coup attempt. When that failed, he called for the constitution to be thrown out, and stated that members of his own administration that didn’t support him should be executed. He’s wielded his influence in the Republican party to undermine the defense of Ukraine and support for NATO, and has single-handedly weakened NATO by threatening to withdraw and sowing doubt as to whether the US can be counted on to honor the defensive pact at the heart of the alliance. He encouraged opposition to basic public health protections during a pandemic simply because they looked bad politically, fanning the flames of an anti-science and anti-health movement that significantly increased the death toll. He has promised to be a dictator, and wants to purge the federal government of anyone who is not loyal to him and his agenda. He has a base full of rabid nutcases who routinely threaten violence and intimidate those that get in the way or try to enforce the law. He uses Nazi rhetoric and is supported by neo nazis, white supremacists, and other militant groups. He also has the backing of numerous billionaires that wield disgusting amounts of power and influence, and he’s made no secret that he is willing to sell policy in exchange for contributions.

    And that’s not even an exhaustive list, just the first things that come to mind. Quite frankly, Trump is so toxic and such a clear threat to basically everything that America and liberal democracy is supposed to be about that it’s not a surprise that someone would take a shot at him.




  • Also, I think Trump benefits from the assumptions that low information voters have about Republicans, and their tendency to blame the incumbent party for anything bad that happens, particularly in the economy. Harris laying out specific policies to help families, small businesses etc. is just in one ear and out the other, but Trump being vaguely pro-business in any way reinforces their biases.

    And to make matters worse, most people aren’t all that rational. They aren’t paying close attention to what’s being said and analyzing it coldly and logically. Hell, they may not even be paying attention, and just check in every once in a while. This also benefits Trump because his strategy is to spew lies, false promises and emotionally charged rhetoric which is most effective on the uninformed and unthinking members of the audience.

    That said, there’s just always going to be 20% of the people who would say Trump was better in every way no matter what happened. Some of that is because they are treating every question as a proxy for Trump vs Harris/Democrats/Commies/Whatever, and part of this is because they are so far gone that they can only interpret the debate through a right wing lens that will uncritically accept whatever Trump says, and which rejects any good point Harris makes.