Most Republicans aren’t aware of Trump’s various legal issues
Most Republicans aren’t aware of Trump’s various legal issues
Analysis | Most Republicans aren’t aware of Trump’s various legal issues
There is an assumption, probably particularly among those who cover the news and those who read it, that Donald Trump’s legal travails are common knowledge. We talk about things like the potential effects of a Trump conviction on the 2024 presidential election with the assumption that this would be an event that rose to the nation’s consciousness, triggering a response from both his supporters and detractors.
But this is a sort of vanity: Just because it is interesting to us certainly doesn’t mean it is interesting to others. Polling released by CNN on Thursday shows that only a quarter of voters seek out news about the campaign; a third pay little to no attention at all.
As it turns out, even major developments often fly under the average American’s radar. New polling conducted by YouGov shows that only a bit over half of the country on average is aware of the various legal challenges Trump faces. And among those Republicans on whose political support he depends? Consistently, only a minority say they are aware of his lawsuits and charges.
I don't think y'all inside liberal spaces like lemmy and reddit are honestly aware of how politically ignorant most Americans are.
"How could they NOT know?! Head all up in Fox News and nothing else?!"
Couple of anecdotes, so take them as you will.
Yes, these people are ignorant. But they're not reading like you and I. We're interested, engaged, or we wouldn't be here, and you wouldn't be reading this if you weren't.
Not even going to get into how the GOP is flooding the media and internet to make all this sound like white noise, "politics". But these Trump voters are not all rabid lunatics. And don't dare come in a space like this and say, "They actually have a point on this particular thing..." or "They're wrong, but they believe this way because..." You will get shouted down and shut out.
If the Democrats don't fight fire with fire, we're fucked. No more "high road" bullshit. The GOP's propaganda machine is winning, and no amount of gotchas or exposal of hypocrisy matters. We can no longer play fair, aspire to logic and reasoning. We have to fight dirty and WIN.
I think what you are describing is not a specifically American problem. In Germany, for example, the AfD, an extreme right-wing, openly fascist party, is unfortunately on the rise as well. This party uses almost exactly the same strategy as the conservatives in America - simplistic, often anecdotal explanations, false accusations, targeted disinformation, refusal to compromise on anything and so on. Unfortunately, this also works frighteningly well in many other countries. And the same problem seems to exist everywhere: People who are either hopelessly misinformed or not informed at all, or even unquestioningly and often downright sectarianly parroting what their leaders claim (plus those who are actually racists and fascists by conviction). I suspect that this is largely due to the fact that social media is the only source of information for many people today. The main problem with that imo is not only that social media logic favors offensive and particularly controversial content, but also that the owners of the largest platforms almost universally support authoritarian to fascist political currents because it is profitable for them. This is another reason why I think the mass demonstrations against fascism, racism and intolerance in Germany are quite important: they show people that there is still widespread rejection of these terrible ideas - and that seems essential to me, because social media easily gives a false impression of the "public opinion". It certainly seems worth a try to me. That's why I'm about to set off again to a demonstration against fascism. I recommend you Americans follow whether the IRL protests in Germany and elsewhere prove to be a suitable remedy to the general stupor in political debate. If so, this approach can easily be adopted in the US as well.
It's all true but at the same time you're missing very important thing: a lot of people support extreme right-wing parties because those are the only parties that offer solutions to their problems. One of the main issues conservative guys see today is losing privileges they used to enjoy. For example I heard a guy complaining about the fact, that when he was younger he got naked into some girl's bed and she only screamed a bit and got angry but today he would go to jail. The big difference between liberals and conservatives is that liberals see this change as a good thing. AfD and other parties are the only groups that oppose those changes and a lot of white guys are attracted to that. And it's hard to say they are wrong. For them it's all about their status, they see stopping those changes as a net benefit for them. Accusations like the one against Kevin Spacey are not making things better. The farther left you push those things the more people will be worried about their status and will start pushing back. AfD is an example of this push back. It's not all of it but it's a very important part of this dynamic.
I really do love this take, but I have to ask. What does fighting dirty without becoming them look like?
If you could throw out an example that makes this work I'm all for it.
I just cannot stand the idea of obtaining votes through deceit.
You don’t have to lie, you just have to appeal to emotion with your pitch. Bernie was a great example of a populist candidate who knew how to make people feel passionate about things without lying to them. He got a lot of flack for repeating the same lines, but that is all that some Americans can handle—a slogan. He was smart enough to pick ones where most Americans instantly knew what he was about, and it felt good.
Nobody really knows what “build back better” means, and it sort of implies that we’ve been damaged in some way and need repair. MAGA doesn’t really mean shit either, but it implies that we’ve tended to be pretty great, and all we need is to remember those times and recreate them. It is supercharged with Hollywood’s nostalgic eye towards the past, and it doesn’t even require you to know why Medicare is good to want to get on board with it.
So, from that perspective, democrats need marketing. They need meme reacts, iconic looks, and coolness, and they need to stop trying to stifle the candidates they have who exemplify those qualities.
If they can’t figure that shit out, they’re going to keep losing at moments that they sorely need to win.
https://youtu.be/MAbab8aP4_A
The problem is that they know people on the left will never be true assholes to them so it allows them to do anything they want.
The current example is the border crisis, Texas acts the way it does because it knows that the federal government will not actually do anything about it. If the situation was reversed though? Democrat State easing the entry of migrants and not letting the federal government manage the border? Republicans wouldn't care, they would send in the big guns!
I do. I just don't excuse it. Some of it is willful. Some is negligent. Some is innocent to some degree. But I won't excuse it away. The Internet put the world's info at our fingertips. It's about time people acted like it.
If you play like them, you either lose, or become them.
I don't buy into that. There's a difference in pushing the bully back assertively without necessarily stooping to their level.
Nobody is advocating we attempt to cheat like Republicans, for instance (at least I hope that wasn't what was meant by fighting dirty). Just stop coddling them and pretending they're acting in good faith when clearly they are not. I've seen more of this assertiveness come out over the years from Democrats and it's long past due and could be tripled easily.
that line may work in movies
I can't read all that, gimme a cat gif