It wasn’t a landslide, but we can’t minimize the fact that it was a real setback.
Uh, what? That was the worst possible outcome of all the outcomes…I don’t know what other word than “Landslide” is appropriate there.
We should all be happy to see tens of millions of workers sharing in the gains of faster productivity growth.
Yes yes…enjoy not being paid overtime, praying your next customer tips you, and instant bankruptcy if you get sick at work. Oh…and don’t worry about retiring, you can’t afford it.
No, this was our last chance to fix the climate. Among the infinite amounts of problems we now face. No matter what wild regime we are under at the end of this four years will have 25 years at max to conquer, pillage, and rape before the climate ends it all. We’re fucked.
The economy right now is doing very well…
And yet the economy, and people’s fears about it, were the main reason Trump won. Until liberal elites like this guy get it through their thick fucking skulls that how the majority of people FEEL about the economy is INFINITELY more important than what the economic indicators say, they will continue to lose. If people tell you they don’t feel good about the state of the economy, believe them. Don’t ignore them, don’t wave them off, don’t dismiss them as ignorant morons, believe them and listen to them.
And yet the economy, and people’s fears about it, were the main reason Trump won. Until liberal elites like this guy get it through their thick fucking skulls that how the majority of people FEEL about the economy is INFINITELY more important than what the economic indicators say,
I cannot stress how true this is, and it’s something I’ve been saying for years.
If you are in an election, and your opponent is saying that monkeys are flying out of your ass and terrorizing the city, logic tells you you should ignore his crazy antics and tell him to go back to the park and preach to the pigeons. But here’s the problem. If 51% of the people you need to vote for you believe that monkeys flying out of your ass is their #1 problem, you had better come up with a plan to handle monkeys flying out of your ass. I mean sure, you can try using logic and reasoning to say “Look, there are no flying monkeys coming out of my ass and not a single one has been seen in the city.” But if those 51% really believe in flying monkeys, you’ll be using that logic during your concession speech.
It’s one of those situations where you can do everything right and just lose anyway. Kamala Harris just found that out the hard way.
And how do you explain to someone that how they “feel” about the economy is factually wrong? That all indicators show a healthy economy that has mostly recovered to pre-COVID levels of production, inflation is a global (not US localized) event, and even accounting for greedflation wages and purchasing power were up compared to the last 20 years?
You can’t. The same way you can’t tell them that the government isn’t doing free sex change operations on prisoners or that children aren’t pissing in litter boxes in school- they want to believe those things are true, because their authority figures have told them those things are true. The second you point out that the US has had significantly less inflation than other countries because of what the Fed did, or that the record-high stock market and low unemployment rates indicate an economy that is expanding, or that there’s been a severe bird-flu outbreak that has impacted chicken and egg stocks which in turn has increased their prices, you get called a “liberal elite” who doesn’t care about how Joe Q. Flyover feels about his grocery bill.
So the Joe Q. Flyover votes to give power to the asshole oligarchs who caused this whole mess in the first place, because he “feels” that they do better on the nebulous “economy”.
And how do you explain to someone that how they “feel” about the economy is factually wrong?
There is no such thing as a factually wrong feeling. This is everything that’s wrong with the liberal elites. The people say they don’t feel great about things and the elites simply look down their nose at them and say, “you’re factually wrong.”
all indicators show a healthy economy
Fuck.Your.Indicators.
If a majority of people don’t FEEL like the economy is doing well, then it’s not doing well. Period.
This is mental.
There is empirical reality. If its raining your feelings that it’s sunny are just fucking wrong.
The root problem is people being isolated within media and social bubbles where they are not being told the truth. Being barraged by “your feelings are knowledge”. They’re not.
Did the Democrats reach those voters? Clearly not. But the fact remains the economy is not a legitimate reason to opt for policies that are all but certain to make it worse. Quantifiably so.
To wit - I feel like there’s no rational basis for the outfome of the election. Does that change the fact? Is embracing my feelings going to make them real? How then to refute aside from “no, that’s wrong?”
We are not dealing with an electorate that believes in empirical reality. Anyone who runs a campaign expecting people to believe statistics over their own lived experiences is bound to lose. As we saw on Tuesday.
Agreed - but how then do you reach someone not acknowledging the reality of their world?
If Timmy believes with all his heart there’s a monster under his bed is the answer to agree with him or show him time and again that, no there isn’t until he realizes it to be true?
Are we supposed to embrace it’s now a post-factual world?
Apparently we do if we want to win elections.
As for Timmy: I’d find a shiny rock and have him participate in a ceremony to make it monster repellent. Then when he’s scared he can rub the rock and the monster will go away.
If you want someone’s support you need to meet them where they’re at, not where you’d like them to be.
I sadly think that’s an excellent point. I truly believed a message of hope and compassion woukd resonate far more than grievance and retribution. I believed most of my fellow citizens want optimism in leadership.
