I'm not completely convinced we're the problem [View all]

[EnergizedLib]

It's going to take a long time to recover from the trauma of the election, and I've seen all sorts of blame and finger pointing and people hating on us, dunking on us and our policies and the things we've said and done.

The more I think about it, the problem isn't us. In fact, while unfortunately and undoubtedly prevalent, I'm not even convinced racism and misogyny were the big problem.

The big problems I see, in the two weeks after the election, are the complete disconnect from reality and an uninformed electorate.

Exhibit A, not knowing about tariffs:

https://thenightly.com.au/politics/us-politics/what-is-a-tariff-google-searches-for-term-tariff-spike-after-donald-trump-elected-as-president-c-16712054

-----Snip

"Google searches for the term “tariff” have spiked after the election, as have queries about “Trump’s tariff plan” — spiking more than 1650 per cent since the election. Searches for “who pays tariffs” have risen 350 per cent since the election.

To be fair, the vast majority of people may not know the intricacies of tariffs — let alone heard about them — before Mr Trump waxed lyrical about them throughout his re-election campaign."

-----Snip

How about a failure of those in charge, those whose job it is to teach and inform, what a tariff is?

I'm not sure how often it is I will ever post something from Truth Social, but here's one user in shock:

https://bsky.app/profile/ggold328.bsky.social/post/3lba3c45tc22p

Exhibit B, Project 2025

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/06/us/politics/trump-project-2025.html

Article is titled, "What is Project 2025 and why did Trump Distance Himself From It During the Campaign?

I'd like to answer that question. I think if trump actually tied to himself to Project 2025, she would've won.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/trump-americans-vote-plutocrats-taxes-1235161296/

Article is titled, "Americans didn't vote for what Donald Trump is about to give them."

----Snip

"So what happens when the emperor is revealed to have no clothes — or even worse, the garb of the same financial “elites” he claims to be against? Obviously, the MAGA faithful will stay with Trump no matter what — after all, his failure to bring about revolution in 2017 spawned the QAnon conspiracy theory, which said he was really about to do it, any day now. But the economic voters that gave him his victory could abandon Trump if he can’t deliver results. And he cannot. While Trump is busy trying to throw his enemies in jail, he has no plan — not even “concepts of a plan” — for the kitchen-table concerns that actually put him into office. Maybe, just maybe, voters will see they’ve been conned."

----Snip

Exhibit C, Getting the Muslim vote

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/muslims-who-voted-trump-upset-by-his-pro-israel-cabinet-picks-2024-11-15/

Article is titled, "Trump's pro-Israel cabinet picks upset Muslims who voted for him."

----Snip

WASHINGTON, Nov 14 (Reuters) - U.S. Muslim leaders who supported Republican Donald Trump to protest against the Biden administration's support for Israel's war on Gaza and attacks on Lebanon have been deeply disappointed by his cabinet picks, they tell Reuters.
"Trump won because of us and we're not happy with his secretary of state pick and others," said Rabiul Chowdhury, a Philadelphia investor who chaired the Abandon Harris campaign in Pennsylvania and co-founded Muslims for Trump.

---Snip

Exhibit D, Healthcare

This is nothing new, something I've known for years, but the reality is people in this country hate Obamacare but love the Affordable Care Act.

Article is titled, "Trump voters mercilessly mocked over heartbreaking mistake."

---Snip

Some people have allegedly admitted that they didn't even realize that Obamacare and the Affordable Care Act were the same thing - and social media users are making fun of them for making the mistake.

One man, named Bernard Taylor, explained in a TikTok video posted last week that he had just seen a clip shared by a man who confessed that he thought they were two different things.

'I'm sorry but is this real life? This can't be real life right now,' he said. 'I just saw a video of a guy who said he voted for [Trump] because he was gonna get rid of Obamacare.

'He didn't like Obamacare, and he was voting to get rid of it. But he said he wasn't worried because he's unemployed and on disability, so he has his insurance through the Affordable Care Act.'

----Snip

But we're the problem, right? Those of us who've paid attention all along have known Obamacare and the Affordable Care Act are the same thing.

Exhibit E, Engagement

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/democrats-won-highly-engaged-voters-struggled-everyone-else-2024-rcna179957

Article is titled, "Democrats won 'highly engaged' voters and struggled with everybody else in 2024."

----Snip

Vice President Kamala Harris and Democrats convinced frequent voters and highly engaged voters to stick with them in the 2024 presidential election.

Their problem: They lost with most everyone else.

According to the final NBC News poll of the 2024 race, 76% of registered voters said they follow public affairs and politics closely. The poll showed Harris winning among that group by 5 points over Donald Trump, 52%-47%.

----Snip

"But among the remaining quarter of voters who said they don’t follow politics closely, Trump was ahead by a much greater margin — 14 points, 54%-40%.

These less-engaged voters were disproportionately younger, more Republican-leaning and less likely to have college degrees — all groups of voters the NBC News Exit Poll showed Democrats struggling with in the election results earlier this month, especially compared to past presidential races."

---Snip

So, people who were informed and paid attention voted for us. Those who were not, did not. Now, how do we get the word out, get others more engaged and get others more informed to fight back against an aggressive, and unfortunately successful, disinformation campaign?

Conclusion - Maybe there are some policy and messaging tweaks we can make, certainly racism and misogyny are prevalent in America, but I'm convinced the biggest reason we're about to face the sequel to this nightmare, hopefully just for four years, is that people who voted for the convicted felon got conned.

Again.