Quote (IceMage @ 24 Aug 2024 02:14)
I was hoping for some interesting pushback on my post. Maybe Goom is on vacation.
I think there's no pushback because even the pro-Trump folks agree that the convention went well for Kamala.
Quote (IceMage @ 24 Aug 2024 02:36)
One disconnect we've been having on PaRD the last number of days is politics vs policy. People keep mixing the two. I'm more focused on politics because voters don't choose based on which policy papers are more substantive and persuasive.
That's really the crux of this whole campaign, though: can Kamala convince a sufficient number of independents/moderates/swing voters by running an entirely vibes-based campaign without offering any serious or persuasive policy solutions? Such a campaign was surely feasible in, say, 2016. But in 2024, after the largest surge of inflation and the biggest hit to the disposable income of Americans in a generation?
How long will the "good vibes" last with voters who didn't get a pay raise in recent years and look at their 50% higher grocery bills? How far will good vibes go with young voters for whom buying a house is increasingly out of reach? How good will the vibes be among those voters whose communities or neighborhoods have been swamped by migrants? And for the more policy-focused folks among them: how far will the pitch of a "reliable and steadfast leadership on foreign policy" go after all hell broke loose under the watch of the Biden/Harris administration?
Economically, socially and geopolitically, the house is on fire. Can Democrats really sell a "stay the course"-message to the voting public because their ticket is "fresher" and has "better vibes"? Will Trump's grumpiness really fail to break through with the decisive voters although there are damn good reasons for his grievances, although he can point to a myriad of cold hard facts which prove him right and the Democrat agenda wrong?