Quote (Goomshill @ Aug 11 2024 02:13pm)
Trump ran a campaign in 2016 about rejuvenating the economy. He's running a campaign in 2024 about rejuvenating the economy. Everything else like immigration stems from that. He once again has the coherence to his policy platform he didn't in the pandemic. Harris is echoing Clinton of 2016 in her almost totally policy-free campaign. At least Clinton ran 100% on smears against Trump, at this point Kamala is running on the fact that Kamala is running, an ouroboros of the party elite institution / media going full circlejerk.
You've made a lot of spiel in the past decade about the appearance of propriety, a deference to political stability when I called out for substance. Forget substance, even on your own favored terms, how can you possibly be okay with the arsonist wing of the democratic party throwing out the entire primary process, forcibly seizing the candidacy from the incumbent who you know fully intended to run for reelection, and then put on the tag team that burned lake street? Trump is following in the footsteps of dozens of American politicians and several presidents as he has followed the political process and campaigned for his position fairly. The democrats just overturned decades of precedent and stable political continuity in a desperate mad gamble to cling to power.
I used to crusade for civil liberties and reasonable policy objectives, at this point I'm just sticking up for "lets actually have a democracy"
Trump's running on deporting millions of people and handing over the staffing of his government to the Heritage Foundation. His most passionate position the last number of days is that he has very large crowd sizes and Kamala's are either small or AI generated. Is that substantive policy? No... it's not. It's inane ramblings from an angry old man.
Kamala has been running for 3 weeks and she's already announced or clarified numerous policy positions, including on immigration/border security and fracking. Campaigns are about big messages, and hers are about freedom, loving America, and not turning the clock back. It's not hard to see how she's moving ahead in the polls. You guys are just mad that Trump sucks and the vibes clearly favor the younger and more positive ticket.
I won't respond to a question where the framing of what happened 3 weeks ago is so blatantly dishonest and hackish. But sure, doubling down on your support for the guy who attempted a coup because you're supporting democracy makes a lot of sense.
Quote (Black XistenZ @ Aug 11 2024 11:38pm)
... and how did it go when she ran for president in 2019? Why is she currently avoiding the press like the plague? Why did Democratic leadership hesitate so long to pull the trigger on replacing Biden with her although it had been clear for many months that Biden was cooked?
Your mistake is the belief that 2024 has been, and will continue to be, a pure choice election between the two candidates. But the fundamentals of this race not only included the contrast between Trump's and Biden's personality (favoring Biden) and energy level/mental acuity (massively favoring Trump toward the end), they also include the contrast between the economy, the domestic situation and the geopolitical shape of the world during both administrations. And this latter contrast, the one on the substantive level, heavily favored Trump. Kamala taking over for Biden doesn't change that. In the end, Harris cannot be unburdened by what has been during the Biden/Harris administration.
Your line of reasoning is internally consistent conditional on the premise that "there was absolutely nothing wrong with Biden's track record, he was unpopular exclusively because of his decline". A premise which is, of course, easily disproven by the fact that Biden was already the most unpopular first-term president in living memory in 2021 and 2022 (even more unpopular than Trump, SAD!)... and that was long before his decline became overwhelming and undeniable.
I think a lot of voters put some distance between Harris and the consequences of the Biden presidency. She was kind of invisible the past few years... nobody really knows what she was doing. Voters have been watching decrepit Biden and aging/crazy Trump the past number of months and now there's a fresh face who talks about loving America and defending freedom. Seems to be working.