Showing posts with label elections. Show all posts
Showing posts with label elections. Show all posts
Mar 31, 2025
Mar 15, 2025
If Only
I think it's more than just possible Kamala Harris would be in the White House now if the campaign had just turned this guy loose.
Feb 13, 2025
Oy
And the hits keep right on a-rollin'.
US Homeland Security says election security personnel placed on leave
Feb 11 (Reuters) - The Department of Homeland Security, as part of an evaluation of its election security mission, said on Tuesday that personnel focused on misinformation, disinformation and foreign influence operations aimed at U.S. elections have been placed on administrative leave.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is "undertaking an evaluation of how it has executed its election security mission with a particular focus on any work related to mis, dis and malinformation," agency spokesperson Rhonda Lawson said in a statement in response to a Reuters query.
Lawson did not immediately respond to questions about how many employees were placed on leave, if they would be reassigned or if they were permanently leaving the department.
Noem criticized the Biden administration's approach to homeland security, including efforts by DHS's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, during her confirmation hearing on January 17. The agency had "gotten far off mission," she said.
This - plus The SAVE Act, plus some well-placed vigilante action - will practically guarantee MAGA wins almost across the board.
The only thing they'd have left to do would be to figure out a way to make it seem not-too-rigged so we don't end up with "victory" margins in the Putin/ Saddam range of 70 or 80 or 90%.
Feb 11 (Reuters) - The Department of Homeland Security, as part of an evaluation of its election security mission, said on Tuesday that personnel focused on misinformation, disinformation and foreign influence operations aimed at U.S. elections have been placed on administrative leave.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is "undertaking an evaluation of how it has executed its election security mission with a particular focus on any work related to mis, dis and malinformation," agency spokesperson Rhonda Lawson said in a statement in response to a Reuters query.
Lawson did not immediately respond to questions about how many employees were placed on leave, if they would be reassigned or if they were permanently leaving the department.
Noem criticized the Biden administration's approach to homeland security, including efforts by DHS's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, during her confirmation hearing on January 17. The agency had "gotten far off mission," she said.
Dec 6, 2024
Say What?
So - no States' Rights on this one?
Donald Trump Announces Plan to Change Elections
President-elect Donald Trump has announced a sweeping plan to change the way U.S. elections are carried out.
"We need to get things straightened out in this country, including elections," he said, after accepting the "Patriot of the Year" award at a Long Island event organized by Fox Nation on Thursday. Trump, 78, accepted the award, designed to resemble the American flag, after a live performance of Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" – the president-elect's go-to entrance song.
"We're gonna do things that have been really needed for a long time," he said. "And we are gonna look at elections. We want to have paper ballots, one day voting, voter ID, and proof of citizenship."
He went on to denounce a recent law passed in California that prohibits local governments from requiring voters to present identification when casting their ballots at the polls. "In California they just passed a law that you're not even allowed to ask a voter for voter ID. Think of that. If you ask a voter for their voter ID, you've committed a crime. We're gonna get the whole country straightened out," he said.
It isn't the first time Trump has proposed changing elections. During a speech in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in August, he proposed getting rid of mail-in ballots in favor of same day voting and voter ID laws.
"We have to get back in and we want to change it all. We want to go to paper ballots. We want to go to same-day voting. We want to go to citizenship papers, and we want to go to voter ID. It's very simple. We want to get rid of mail-in voting," he said.
State senator fails sobriety test in video after alleged hit-and-runRead moreState senator fails sobriety test in video after alleged hit-and-run
According to the Brennan Center, 98 percent of counties in the United States use paper ballots. But since the Covid-19 pandemic, the U.S. has seen major shifts in how elections work, with more people than ever voting early or voting by mail. In 2024, 88,233,886 mail-in and early in-person votes were cast nationally, with 47 states now allowing some form of early voting. Meanwhile, laws requiring voter ID are on the rise, with eight states enacting voter ID laws since 2020.
Trump has previously made an effort to prevent mail-in voting, with his campaign filing several lawsuits in 2020 to stop many of the changes made by states to make it easier to vote by mail. He also called mail-in ballots "dangerous" and "corrupt," claiming that they'd lead to "massive electoral fraud" and a "rigged" 2020 election. He later blamed mail-in ballots for his 2020 election loss.
While there have been some isolated cases of election fraud as a result of postal voting, such as in the 2018 North Carolina primary, which was re-run after a consultant for the Republican candidate tampered with absentee voting papers, the rate of voting fraud overall in the U.S. is less than 0.0009 percent, according to a 2017 study by the Brennan Center for Justice, external. "There's simply no basis for the conspiracy theory that voting by mail causes fraud," Federal Election Commission head Ellen Weintraub said.
Despite railing against mail-in voting, this year Trump changed his tune, actively encouraging his supporters to vote for him early. "I am telling everyone to vote early," Trump said on a podcast hosted by Dan Bongino.
Meanwhile, in a series of virtual town halls and robocalls, Trump and daughter-in-law Lara Trump, the co-chair of the Republican National Committee, actively encouraged voters to take advantage of early voting options, including mail-in ballots.
"Hi, this is Lara Trump calling on behalf of President Trump's campaign, and we're urging you to get out and vote before election day," one robocall said, according to CNN. Earlier this year, Lara Trump voiced a robocall falsely alleging massive fraud in the 2020 election due to mail-in ballots.
The shift came as Trump sought to appeal to voters in the seven battleground states, all of which he won.
But a move back to one-day voting would likely hurt rural voters, particularly in swing states that have high rates of early voters, a large number of whom have thrown their support behind Trump in the past. It would also disproportionately affect disabled voters, whose voter participation was boosted in 2020 thanks to mail-in voting.
Meanwhile, Trump's plan to require "citizenship papers" and voters' ID could disproportionately disenfranchise nonwhite people to whom such paperwork is not easily accessible. This group of voters is disproportionately nonwhite and identifies as independent or Democrat, according to NPR.
A total of 35 states required a government-issued identification to vote in person in the 2024 presidential election. Of these, 24 required a photo identification such as a driver's license or a U.S. passport. That is four more states than required the same in the 2020 election.
Big government in Washington gets to dictate what your local elections will look like?
Donald Trump Announces Plan to Change Elections
President-elect Donald Trump has announced a sweeping plan to change the way U.S. elections are carried out.
"We need to get things straightened out in this country, including elections," he said, after accepting the "Patriot of the Year" award at a Long Island event organized by Fox Nation on Thursday. Trump, 78, accepted the award, designed to resemble the American flag, after a live performance of Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" – the president-elect's go-to entrance song.
"We're gonna do things that have been really needed for a long time," he said. "And we are gonna look at elections. We want to have paper ballots, one day voting, voter ID, and proof of citizenship."
He went on to denounce a recent law passed in California that prohibits local governments from requiring voters to present identification when casting their ballots at the polls. "In California they just passed a law that you're not even allowed to ask a voter for voter ID. Think of that. If you ask a voter for their voter ID, you've committed a crime. We're gonna get the whole country straightened out," he said.
It isn't the first time Trump has proposed changing elections. During a speech in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in August, he proposed getting rid of mail-in ballots in favor of same day voting and voter ID laws.
"We have to get back in and we want to change it all. We want to go to paper ballots. We want to go to same-day voting. We want to go to citizenship papers, and we want to go to voter ID. It's very simple. We want to get rid of mail-in voting," he said.
State senator fails sobriety test in video after alleged hit-and-runRead moreState senator fails sobriety test in video after alleged hit-and-run
According to the Brennan Center, 98 percent of counties in the United States use paper ballots. But since the Covid-19 pandemic, the U.S. has seen major shifts in how elections work, with more people than ever voting early or voting by mail. In 2024, 88,233,886 mail-in and early in-person votes were cast nationally, with 47 states now allowing some form of early voting. Meanwhile, laws requiring voter ID are on the rise, with eight states enacting voter ID laws since 2020.
Trump has previously made an effort to prevent mail-in voting, with his campaign filing several lawsuits in 2020 to stop many of the changes made by states to make it easier to vote by mail. He also called mail-in ballots "dangerous" and "corrupt," claiming that they'd lead to "massive electoral fraud" and a "rigged" 2020 election. He later blamed mail-in ballots for his 2020 election loss.
While there have been some isolated cases of election fraud as a result of postal voting, such as in the 2018 North Carolina primary, which was re-run after a consultant for the Republican candidate tampered with absentee voting papers, the rate of voting fraud overall in the U.S. is less than 0.0009 percent, according to a 2017 study by the Brennan Center for Justice, external. "There's simply no basis for the conspiracy theory that voting by mail causes fraud," Federal Election Commission head Ellen Weintraub said.
Despite railing against mail-in voting, this year Trump changed his tune, actively encouraging his supporters to vote for him early. "I am telling everyone to vote early," Trump said on a podcast hosted by Dan Bongino.
Meanwhile, in a series of virtual town halls and robocalls, Trump and daughter-in-law Lara Trump, the co-chair of the Republican National Committee, actively encouraged voters to take advantage of early voting options, including mail-in ballots.
"Hi, this is Lara Trump calling on behalf of President Trump's campaign, and we're urging you to get out and vote before election day," one robocall said, according to CNN. Earlier this year, Lara Trump voiced a robocall falsely alleging massive fraud in the 2020 election due to mail-in ballots.
The shift came as Trump sought to appeal to voters in the seven battleground states, all of which he won.
But a move back to one-day voting would likely hurt rural voters, particularly in swing states that have high rates of early voters, a large number of whom have thrown their support behind Trump in the past. It would also disproportionately affect disabled voters, whose voter participation was boosted in 2020 thanks to mail-in voting.
Meanwhile, Trump's plan to require "citizenship papers" and voters' ID could disproportionately disenfranchise nonwhite people to whom such paperwork is not easily accessible. This group of voters is disproportionately nonwhite and identifies as independent or Democrat, according to NPR.
A total of 35 states required a government-issued identification to vote in person in the 2024 presidential election. Of these, 24 required a photo identification such as a driver's license or a U.S. passport. That is four more states than required the same in the 2020 election.
Nov 23, 2024
Separation
Trumpers who are shocked and hurt that people are cutting them off have some real issues they're being forced to confront now.
"If your politics make you fearful that your loved ones will need to separate from you, now would be a good time to examine your politics."
Nov 20, 2024
Today's PG
Harris came up short by less than 2 percentage points.
The 2024 election was not in the running for "the big win" Trump needs us to think he got. He managed the 16th biggest winning margin since WW2 - finishing one behind Jimmy Carter.
Donald Trump’s popular vote total has fallen below 50 percent, and his margin over Kamala Harris has narrowed considerably as all the votes are counted.
“America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate,” Donald Trump declared in the early morning hours of November 6, 2024, after all the polls had closed. Indeed, he claimed that he had won “a political victory that our country has never seen before, nothing like this.” Trump was excited by the numbers showing him with well over 50 percent of the popular vote and establishing a wide lead over his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Unfortunately, for the president-elect, the United States takes time to count 155 million votes—give or take a million—and the actual result will rob Trump of his bragging points.
Trump can no longer claim that powerful mandate. By most reasonable measures, the beginning point for such a claim in a system with two major parties is an overwhelming majority vote in favor of your candidacy. Trump no longer has that.
Over the weekend, as California, Oregon, Washington, and other Western states moved closer to completing their counts, Trump’s percentage of the popular vote fell below 50 percent. And his margin of victory looks to be much smaller than initially anticipated. In fact, of all the 59 presidential elections since the nation’s founding, it appears that—after all of the 2024 votes are counted—only five popular vote winners in history will have prevailed by smaller percentage margins than Trump.
Trump’s popular-vote advantage has declined steadily since election night. As of Monday afternoon, Trump was at 49.94 percent, while Harris was at 48.26, according to the authoritative Cook Political Report’s tracking of results from official sources in states across the country. And we can expect that the Republican’s total will only continue to tick downward as heavily Democratic states on the West Coast finalize their vote tallies.
Trump’s still ahead of Harris in the popular vote. He also maintains a lead in the decisive, though absurdly antidemocratic, Electoral College— slightly less than Barack Obama’s in 2012, slightly more Joe Biden’s in 2020—based on a pattern of wins in battleground states. So, the failure to win a majority won’t cost Trump the presidency. But he’s lost his ability to suggest that he trounced the Democrat. In fact, she’s now trailing him by just 1.68 percent of the vote.
Let’s put this in perspective: Trump is winning a lower percent of the popular vote this year than Biden did in 2020 (51.3), Obama in 2012 (51.1), Obama in 2008 (52.9), George W. Bush in 2004 (50.7), George H.W. Bush in 1988 (53.2), Ronald Reagan in 1984 (58.8), Reagan in 1980 (50.7), or Jimmy Carter in 1976 (50.1). And, of course, Trump numbers are way below those of the presidents who won what could reasonably be described as “unprecedented and powerful” mandates, such as Richard Nixon’s 60.7 percent in 1972, Lyndon Johnson’s 61.1 percent in 1964, or Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 60.8 percent. As Trump’s percentage continues to slide, he’ll fall below the thresholds achieved by most presidents in the past century.
Harris, on the other hand, is looking like a much stronger finisher than she did on election night. In fact, the Democrat now has a higher percentage of the popular vote than Presidents Trump in 2016 (46.1), Bush in 2000 (47.9), Clinton in 1992 (43), or Nixon in 1968 (43.4). She has also performed significantly better than recent major-party nominees such as Trump in 2020 (46.8), Trump in 2016 (48.2), Mitt Romney in 2012 (47.2), John McCain in 2008 (45.7), George W. Bush in 2000 (47.9), Bob Dole in 1996 (40.7), George H.W. Bush in 1992 (37.4), Michael Dukakis in 1988 (45.6), Walter Mondale (40.6), Carter in 1980 (41), or Gerald Ford in 1976 (48).
Yes, some of those historic results were influenced by the presence of strong third-party contenders. But most were not. And the bottom line is that the gap between Trump and Harris is narrower than the difference between major-party contenders in the vast majority of American presidential races.
Why make note of all the presidents who ran better than Trump? Why discuss the narrowness of his advantage over Harris? Why consider, in addition, that the Republican majorities in the House and Senate will be among the narrowest in modern American history? Because it puts the 2024 election results in perspective—and, in doing so, gives members of both parties an understanding of how to respond when Trump claims that an unappealing nominee or policy should be accepted out of deference to his “powerful” mandate.
Trump’s victory was not of “epic” or “historic” proportions. There was no “landslide” for the once and future president, as Fox News suggested repeatedly in postelection headlines. The election did not produce the “decisive victory” for Trump that the Associated Press referred to in the immediate aftermath of the voting. Nor did it yield the “resounding defeat” for Harris that AP reported at the same time.
That won’t matter to Trump, who claimed a mandate even when he lost the 2016 popular vote by almost 3 million ballots. Four years later, Trump refused to accept his defeat by more than 7 million votes, and denied that majority support for Biden in the 2020 election amounted to anything akin to a mandate.
These numbers are better for the Democrats than what was recorded on election night, and that many pundits continue to suggest. That does not mean, however, that a clearer picture of the results should dissuade the Democrats from looking for ways to reform their party. Even if the margins are narrower than initially imagined, it is still the case that the party failed to beat Trump and a Republican Party that embraces the destructive politics not just of its presidential candidate but of the billionaire class. This is a time for serious reflection on mistakes that were made, and on challenges going forward, as part of a needed examination of how to build a multiracial, multiethnic working-class coalition that can win decisively, and not just at the presidential level but also in the struggle to regain control of the House and Senate in 2026.
What the numbers do provide Democrats and progressives, however, is an argument against despair and surrender, especially as the debate opens over Trump’s cabinet picks, judicial nominees, and legislative priorities.
“Research suggests that mandate claims, despite their tenuous connection to reality, can be effective in affecting legislative behavior,” notes Julia Azari, the associate professor of political science at Marquette University who authored Delivering the People’s Message: The Changing Politics of the Presidential Mandate. “Political science studies show that legislators will change their behavior in response to the perception of a mandate election—but only for so long.”
The first months of Trump’s presidency will go a long way toward defining the character of his second term. Democrats and a handful of thoughtful Republicans have the potential to temper Trump’s worst excesses, and to assure that the constitutionally mandated system of checks and balances is maintained. When Trump pushes back against congressional oversight by claiming that his appointments and policies reflect the will of the electorate, members of the House and Senate can counter that specious claim by explaining that the majority of the American people did not vote for him.
Today's Belle
What's to stop him?
If he does what he says he intends to do (admittedly, always a big if), and it stands to trigger the kinda of global shit storm they say it will, who's there to stop him this time?
And if it gets to be as bad as they say it's bound to get, how fast can the Republicans move to finish totally fucking up the elections process so 'we the people' can't do anything about it either?
The explainers from Impartial Points:
Nov 13, 2024
Today's Jen
The politics of disgust.
What White Christians Have Wrought
Like other social scientists and scholars, I’ll spend the next weeks and months scouring pre-election data, the exit polls, and the first wave of post-election surveys trying to understand how a majority of American voters chose to return Donald Trump—a twice-impeached convicted felon and adjudicated sexual abuser who incited a violent insurrection when he lost the last election—to power.
Because elections are won and lost at the margins in a deeply divided nation such as ours, most of that analysis will rightly focus on which subgroups (like Latinos and young men) shifted most significantly away from the Democratic Party’s winning 2020 coalition. But that focus, while strategically important, will obscure the deeper peril facing our nation. Authoritarianism, when it blossoms, emerges from the deeper soil at the center.
With the Republican presidential candidate regularly spewing racist, misogynistic, and even Nazi ideology (such as claims that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the country), the most remarkable thing about this election is not which groups shifted marginally in his direction, but which groups continued to provide him with supermajority support. Namely, we must talk about how thoroughly Christian nationalism has infected mainstream white Christianity.
Trump’s Electoral College victory in 2016 was made possible because, as noted by the Pew Research Center’s validated voter study, 77% of white evangelical Protestant Christians, along with 57% of white non-evangelical Protestants and 64% of white Catholics, lent him moral legitimacy and gave him their votes. Even after watching Trump implement cruel policies such as separating migrant children from their parents and putting them in cages, even after witnessing his impeachment for abusing the power of the presidency to try to get a foreign leader to interfere in the 2020 election, white Christians continued to support him. White evangelical Protestant support for Trump in the 2020 election ticked up to 84%, while non-evangelical Protestants and white Catholics generally held steady (57% each).
As Trump staged his political comeback in 2023 and 2024, white Christians had the benefit of witnessing a second Trump impeachment for inciting a violent insurrection in an attempt to remain in office after losing that election, four criminal indictments and a felony conviction, and the most overtly racist presidential campaign since George Wallace (who also held a fascist-style rally in Madison Square Garden in 1968).
Despite all of this, in stark contrast to 2016, there were virtually no major dissenting voices among the leaders of Trump’s most stalwart supporters. Just two weeks before the 2024 election, American evangelical Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, explicitly petitioned God for Trump’s election at a Trump rally in Concord, NC. “There’s a spiritual element that’s at work here. There are dark forces that are arrayed against this man. They’ve tried to put him in prison; they’ve tried to assassinate him twice; he’s attacked every day in the media,” he lamented. “We pray for our nation and, Father, if it be thy will, that President Trump will win this election. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
According to the 2024 National Election Pool exit polls, 8 in 10 (81%) white evangelicals once again declared their allegiance to Trump, as did 60% of white Catholics and similar numbers of white non-evangelical Protestants. (Note: While there are no publicly available exit poll numbers for white non-evangelical Protestants, pre-election polling from PRRI suggests 6 in 10 once again supported Trump).
If we put white Christians’ strong support for Trump into context, we can clearly see their singular contribution to his power. Overall, more than two thirds (68%) of white Christians favored Trump over Harris—a mirror image of the rest of the country, including Christians of color (33%), followers of non-Christian religions (30%), and the religiously unaffiliated (28%). While the proportion of white Christians in the country has been declining over the last three decades, they remain 41% of the population and an even higher percentage of voters. Even a modest decline in the overwhelming level of support for Trump among white Christians would have denied him the Republican nomination or the presidency.
Most disturbingly, this time, white Christians, who once proudly called themselves “values voters,” knew exactly who and what they were voting for. With Trump abandoning the Republican Party’s longstanding support of a national ban on abortion and no Supreme Court justices left to appoint, the fig leaf of abortion fell away, exposing the uglier elements that have always tied white Christians to Trump.
PRRI’s surveys have consistently found strong support among white Christians for the racial grievance and xenophobia that is the deeper DNA of the MAGA movement. Majorities of white Christians agree that “today discrimination against white Americans has become as big a problem as discrimination against Black Americans and other minorities.” And three quarters of white evangelical Protestants, along with 6 in 10 white non-evangelical Protestants and white Catholics, say they favor even the most extreme parts of Trump’s mass deportation scheme, described in the survey as “rounding up and deporting immigrants who are in the country illegally, even if it takes setting up encampments guarded by the U.S. military.”
But numerical support for Trump is only one facet of what white Christians have wrought in our nation. Historically, we know that all authoritarian leaders need a mechanism for projecting moral legitimacy, particularly as they accelerate efforts to consolidate power and undermine democratic norms and individual freedoms.
Nearly a century ago, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi movement coopted the German Evangelical Church. Today we are seeing similar uses of the Orthodox Christian churches in Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the Catholic Church in Viktor Orbán’s so-called “illiberal democracy” in Hungary—contemporary models both Trump and white evangelical leaders have praised.
Over the last decade, many white Christians have not just selfishly supported a dangerous, narcissistic man who promised to restore their waning influence; they have now willingly blessed the advent of a new American fascism that threatens our democratic future. They are principally responsible for Trump’s rise and return to power—and for everything that is coming for all of us in its wake.
"They just won - why are they still mad?"
Because we haven't been wiped out. And that may be the key.
MAGA hired this guy to annihilate us. So as long as we're still here, he's failing.
Unfortunately, since their side owns the power right now, they'll likely expect some pretty nasty things be visited upon us to get us to knuckle under.
Jen Rubin and Robert P Jones
Like other social scientists and scholars, I’ll spend the next weeks and months scouring pre-election data, the exit polls, and the first wave of post-election surveys trying to understand how a majority of American voters chose to return Donald Trump—a twice-impeached convicted felon and adjudicated sexual abuser who incited a violent insurrection when he lost the last election—to power.
Because elections are won and lost at the margins in a deeply divided nation such as ours, most of that analysis will rightly focus on which subgroups (like Latinos and young men) shifted most significantly away from the Democratic Party’s winning 2020 coalition. But that focus, while strategically important, will obscure the deeper peril facing our nation. Authoritarianism, when it blossoms, emerges from the deeper soil at the center.
With the Republican presidential candidate regularly spewing racist, misogynistic, and even Nazi ideology (such as claims that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the country), the most remarkable thing about this election is not which groups shifted marginally in his direction, but which groups continued to provide him with supermajority support. Namely, we must talk about how thoroughly Christian nationalism has infected mainstream white Christianity.
Trump’s Electoral College victory in 2016 was made possible because, as noted by the Pew Research Center’s validated voter study, 77% of white evangelical Protestant Christians, along with 57% of white non-evangelical Protestants and 64% of white Catholics, lent him moral legitimacy and gave him their votes. Even after watching Trump implement cruel policies such as separating migrant children from their parents and putting them in cages, even after witnessing his impeachment for abusing the power of the presidency to try to get a foreign leader to interfere in the 2020 election, white Christians continued to support him. White evangelical Protestant support for Trump in the 2020 election ticked up to 84%, while non-evangelical Protestants and white Catholics generally held steady (57% each).
As Trump staged his political comeback in 2023 and 2024, white Christians had the benefit of witnessing a second Trump impeachment for inciting a violent insurrection in an attempt to remain in office after losing that election, four criminal indictments and a felony conviction, and the most overtly racist presidential campaign since George Wallace (who also held a fascist-style rally in Madison Square Garden in 1968).
Despite all of this, in stark contrast to 2016, there were virtually no major dissenting voices among the leaders of Trump’s most stalwart supporters. Just two weeks before the 2024 election, American evangelical Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, explicitly petitioned God for Trump’s election at a Trump rally in Concord, NC. “There’s a spiritual element that’s at work here. There are dark forces that are arrayed against this man. They’ve tried to put him in prison; they’ve tried to assassinate him twice; he’s attacked every day in the media,” he lamented. “We pray for our nation and, Father, if it be thy will, that President Trump will win this election. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
According to the 2024 National Election Pool exit polls, 8 in 10 (81%) white evangelicals once again declared their allegiance to Trump, as did 60% of white Catholics and similar numbers of white non-evangelical Protestants. (Note: While there are no publicly available exit poll numbers for white non-evangelical Protestants, pre-election polling from PRRI suggests 6 in 10 once again supported Trump).
If we put white Christians’ strong support for Trump into context, we can clearly see their singular contribution to his power. Overall, more than two thirds (68%) of white Christians favored Trump over Harris—a mirror image of the rest of the country, including Christians of color (33%), followers of non-Christian religions (30%), and the religiously unaffiliated (28%). While the proportion of white Christians in the country has been declining over the last three decades, they remain 41% of the population and an even higher percentage of voters. Even a modest decline in the overwhelming level of support for Trump among white Christians would have denied him the Republican nomination or the presidency.
Most disturbingly, this time, white Christians, who once proudly called themselves “values voters,” knew exactly who and what they were voting for. With Trump abandoning the Republican Party’s longstanding support of a national ban on abortion and no Supreme Court justices left to appoint, the fig leaf of abortion fell away, exposing the uglier elements that have always tied white Christians to Trump.
PRRI’s surveys have consistently found strong support among white Christians for the racial grievance and xenophobia that is the deeper DNA of the MAGA movement. Majorities of white Christians agree that “today discrimination against white Americans has become as big a problem as discrimination against Black Americans and other minorities.” And three quarters of white evangelical Protestants, along with 6 in 10 white non-evangelical Protestants and white Catholics, say they favor even the most extreme parts of Trump’s mass deportation scheme, described in the survey as “rounding up and deporting immigrants who are in the country illegally, even if it takes setting up encampments guarded by the U.S. military.”
But numerical support for Trump is only one facet of what white Christians have wrought in our nation. Historically, we know that all authoritarian leaders need a mechanism for projecting moral legitimacy, particularly as they accelerate efforts to consolidate power and undermine democratic norms and individual freedoms.
Nearly a century ago, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi movement coopted the German Evangelical Church. Today we are seeing similar uses of the Orthodox Christian churches in Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the Catholic Church in Viktor Orbán’s so-called “illiberal democracy” in Hungary—contemporary models both Trump and white evangelical leaders have praised.
Over the last decade, many white Christians have not just selfishly supported a dangerous, narcissistic man who promised to restore their waning influence; they have now willingly blessed the advent of a new American fascism that threatens our democratic future. They are principally responsible for Trump’s rise and return to power—and for everything that is coming for all of us in its wake.
Nov 11, 2024
Nov 6, 2024
Understandable
I'm tired of the fight. But I don't know what else to do.
I will not lay me down - I have to stay and fight until there's nothing left of me.
Goodbye I love you all pic.twitter.com/39ADbx0JGf
— Bob south florida water man 🇺🇸 (@WaterDean) November 6, 2024
I make this promise - paraphrasing Gandhi:
They can harass me.
They can steal from me.
They can arrest me.
They can imprison me.
They can torture me.
They can beat me to death.
They can have my dead broken body.
But they will never have my obedience.
Ever.
Well That Sucks 2 - The Sequel
All things Russian = Trump. And Elon Musk.
76 days from today, the American dictator takes power.
Because that's how we do things here:
The worst possible outcome flowing from the best possible system of government.
It's premature to say it's all over, but I'm holding out scant hope for anything better.
I can see a slow (at first), but then accelerating slide into autocracy and the implementation of Trump's vengeance-driven personal agenda, followed by "a time of adjustment" that will look like - and will be sold to us as - "a sensible solution to the terrible problems wrought by that poor unfortunate sick man, who BTW just suddenly went a little nutty - nobody could've seen it coming".
And then we'll be onto whatever the plan is for the removal of the dastardly Trump and the installation of kindly President Vance, who will continue to dismantle the federal government, and sell off the pieces to the friends of his billionaire benefactors, and eventually rewrite the US Constitution according to Project 2025.
And what're we betting that they'll enlist the willing help of Democrats in the House and Senate to impeach and remove? That should give them all the leverage they need against Trump, but more importantly, it gives them some nice political cover because they can say that whatever horrible thing they've turned the US into, they had help from the Dems.
Welcome to the plutocracy
Nov 5, 2024
Yeehaw And Away We Go
This is where we are because of one small stupid insecure little man, and a host of barely-invisible moneyed interests supporting him thru dis-information and straight up gaslighting - all of whom hate our tradition of democratic self governance, and are working to tear it all down in order to replace it with a good old-fashioned top-down corporate-style plutocracy.
I think we continue to come out of this MAGA nonsense today, by electing Kamala Harris.
But don't start thinking we're anywhere near the beginning of the end. We may not even be at the end of the beginning.
This democracy thing is pretty hard. Because it's a constant struggle for balance between honor and belligerence. Between humans' natural impulse for violence and a more enlightened sense of the greater good.
There's a kind of weird Twilight Zone quality to it - it's somewhere between the lofty summit of our knowledge and the dark pit of our fears.
Fake lord help us find that balance.
Drones and snipers on standby to protect Arizona vote-counters
Razor wire. Thick black iron fencing. Metal detectors. Armed security guards. Bomb sweeps.
The security at this centre where workers count ballots mirrors what you might see at an airport - or even a prison. And, if needed, plans are in place to further bolster security to include drones, officers on horseback and police snipers on rooftops.
Maricopa County became the centre of election conspiracy theories during the 2020 presidential contest, after Donald Trump spread unfounded claims of voter fraud when he lost the state to Joe Biden by fewer than 11,000 votes.
Falsehoods went viral, armed protesters flooded the building where ballots were being tallied and a flurry of lawsuits and audits aimed to challenge the results.
The election’s aftermath transformed how officials here handle the typically mundane procedure of counting ballots and ushered in a new era of high security.
“We do treat this like a major event, like the Super Bowl,” Maricopa County Sheriff Russ Skinner told the BBC.
Razor wire sits atop one of the fences guarding the county's election tabulation centre
The county, the fourth most populous in the US and home to about 60% of Arizona's voters, has been planning for the election for more than a year, according to Skinner.
The sheriff's department handles security at polling stations and the centre where ballots are counted. The deputies have now been trained in election laws, something most law enforcement wouldn’t be well-versed in.
“Our hope is that it doesn't arise to a level of need for that,” he said when asked about beefed-up security measures like drones and snipers. “But we will be prepared to ensure that we meet the level of need, to ensure the safety and security of that building” and its employees.
The election process here in many ways echoes that in counties across the country. Ballots are cast in voting locations across the county and then taken to a central area in Phoenix where they're tabulated. If they’re mailed in, the ballots are inspected and signatures are verified. They’re counted in a meticulous process that includes two workers - from differing political parties - sorting them and examining for any errors.
The process is livestreamed 24 hours a day.
While much of this process remains the same, a lot else has shifted. Since the 2020 election, a new law passed making it easier to call a recount in the state. Previously, if a race was decided by the slim margin of 0.1% of votes cast, a recount would take place. That’s now been raised to 0.5%.
The tabulation centre is now bristling with security cameras, armed security and a double layer of fencing.
Thick canvas blankets cover parts of a parking lot fencing to keep prying eyes out. Officials say the canvas was an added measure to protect employees from being harassed and threatened outside the building.
“I think it is sad that we’re having to do these things,” said Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates.
Gates, a Republican who says he was diagnosed with PTSD after the election threats he received in the 2020 election, doesn't plan to run for office again once this election is over because of the tensions.
“I do want people to understand that when they go to vote centres, these are not militarised zones,” he told the BBC. “You can feel safe to go there with your family, with your kids and participate in democracy.”
Yellow and black rope forms a line where visitors to the tabulation centre must queue to go through a metal detector. Three armed security guards stand near the detector. A black folding table sits nearby with a metal detector wand.
The county has invested millions since 2020. It’s not just security, either. They now have a 30-member communications team.
A big focus has been transparency - livestreaming hours of tests for tabulation machines, offering dozens of public tours of their buildings and enlisting staff to dispute online rumours and election conspiracies.
“We kind of flipped a switch,” assistant county manager Zach Schira told the BBC, explaining that after 2020 they decided, “OK, we’re going to communicate about every single part of this process, we’re going to debunk every single theory that is out there.”
It’s all led up to Tuesday's election.
“We may be over prepared,” Sheriff Skinner said, “but I'd rather prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”
Some Maricopa Republicans told the BBC they’ve tracked recent changes and felt there would be fewer problems this election cycle.
“They’ve made steps that I think will help,” said Garrett Ludwick, a 25-year-old attending a recent Scottsdale rally for Trump’s vice-presidential running mate JD Vance.
“More people are also aware of things now and I think there are going to be a lot of people watching everything like a hawk," he said, wearing a Trump cap that read, “Make liberals cry”.
One Republican voter, Edward, told the BBC the 2020 cycle caused him to get more involved. He’s now signed up for two shifts at polling locations in Maricopa County on Tuesday.
“Going to a rally or being upset isn’t going to fix things,” he said. “I wanted to be part of the solution.”
Not all are convinced.
“I still think it was rigged,” said Maleesa Meyers, 55, who like some Republican voters said her distrust in the process is too deep-rooted to believe the election could be fair. “It’s very hard to trust anyone today.”
Results in Arizona often hinge on Maricopa County, giving the county an outsized role in the outcome. Officials here estimate it could take as long as 13 days to count all ballots - meaning the expected tight race in this swing state might not be called on election night.
“There’s a chance that in 2024, the whole world will be watching for what the result is in Maricopa County," said Schira, the assistant county manager.
"Truly the world’s confidence in democracy could come down to this.”
Razor wire. Thick black iron fencing. Metal detectors. Armed security guards. Bomb sweeps.
The security at this centre where workers count ballots mirrors what you might see at an airport - or even a prison. And, if needed, plans are in place to further bolster security to include drones, officers on horseback and police snipers on rooftops.
Maricopa County became the centre of election conspiracy theories during the 2020 presidential contest, after Donald Trump spread unfounded claims of voter fraud when he lost the state to Joe Biden by fewer than 11,000 votes.
Falsehoods went viral, armed protesters flooded the building where ballots were being tallied and a flurry of lawsuits and audits aimed to challenge the results.
The election’s aftermath transformed how officials here handle the typically mundane procedure of counting ballots and ushered in a new era of high security.
“We do treat this like a major event, like the Super Bowl,” Maricopa County Sheriff Russ Skinner told the BBC.
Razor wire sits atop one of the fences guarding the county's election tabulation centre
The county, the fourth most populous in the US and home to about 60% of Arizona's voters, has been planning for the election for more than a year, according to Skinner.
The sheriff's department handles security at polling stations and the centre where ballots are counted. The deputies have now been trained in election laws, something most law enforcement wouldn’t be well-versed in.
“Our hope is that it doesn't arise to a level of need for that,” he said when asked about beefed-up security measures like drones and snipers. “But we will be prepared to ensure that we meet the level of need, to ensure the safety and security of that building” and its employees.
The election process here in many ways echoes that in counties across the country. Ballots are cast in voting locations across the county and then taken to a central area in Phoenix where they're tabulated. If they’re mailed in, the ballots are inspected and signatures are verified. They’re counted in a meticulous process that includes two workers - from differing political parties - sorting them and examining for any errors.
The process is livestreamed 24 hours a day.
While much of this process remains the same, a lot else has shifted. Since the 2020 election, a new law passed making it easier to call a recount in the state. Previously, if a race was decided by the slim margin of 0.1% of votes cast, a recount would take place. That’s now been raised to 0.5%.
The tabulation centre is now bristling with security cameras, armed security and a double layer of fencing.
Thick canvas blankets cover parts of a parking lot fencing to keep prying eyes out. Officials say the canvas was an added measure to protect employees from being harassed and threatened outside the building.
“I think it is sad that we’re having to do these things,” said Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates.
Gates, a Republican who says he was diagnosed with PTSD after the election threats he received in the 2020 election, doesn't plan to run for office again once this election is over because of the tensions.
“I do want people to understand that when they go to vote centres, these are not militarised zones,” he told the BBC. “You can feel safe to go there with your family, with your kids and participate in democracy.”
Yellow and black rope forms a line where visitors to the tabulation centre must queue to go through a metal detector. Three armed security guards stand near the detector. A black folding table sits nearby with a metal detector wand.
The county has invested millions since 2020. It’s not just security, either. They now have a 30-member communications team.
A big focus has been transparency - livestreaming hours of tests for tabulation machines, offering dozens of public tours of their buildings and enlisting staff to dispute online rumours and election conspiracies.
“We kind of flipped a switch,” assistant county manager Zach Schira told the BBC, explaining that after 2020 they decided, “OK, we’re going to communicate about every single part of this process, we’re going to debunk every single theory that is out there.”
It’s all led up to Tuesday's election.
“We may be over prepared,” Sheriff Skinner said, “but I'd rather prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”
Some Maricopa Republicans told the BBC they’ve tracked recent changes and felt there would be fewer problems this election cycle.
“They’ve made steps that I think will help,” said Garrett Ludwick, a 25-year-old attending a recent Scottsdale rally for Trump’s vice-presidential running mate JD Vance.
“More people are also aware of things now and I think there are going to be a lot of people watching everything like a hawk," he said, wearing a Trump cap that read, “Make liberals cry”.
One Republican voter, Edward, told the BBC the 2020 cycle caused him to get more involved. He’s now signed up for two shifts at polling locations in Maricopa County on Tuesday.
“Going to a rally or being upset isn’t going to fix things,” he said. “I wanted to be part of the solution.”
Not all are convinced.
“I still think it was rigged,” said Maleesa Meyers, 55, who like some Republican voters said her distrust in the process is too deep-rooted to believe the election could be fair. “It’s very hard to trust anyone today.”
Results in Arizona often hinge on Maricopa County, giving the county an outsized role in the outcome. Officials here estimate it could take as long as 13 days to count all ballots - meaning the expected tight race in this swing state might not be called on election night.
“There’s a chance that in 2024, the whole world will be watching for what the result is in Maricopa County," said Schira, the assistant county manager.
"Truly the world’s confidence in democracy could come down to this.”
Nov 4, 2024
Our Next President
I'm putting this up as a prayer. Just as every vote is a prayer. Every time we get up and go to work, it's a prayer. Every time we look at a kid or a teenager or anyone younger that we are, and wonder about their future - it's a prayer.
We live on the promise of love and the bonds of honor.
🤞🏻😎🤞🏻
Nov 2, 2024
Today's Belle
In 2008 they told McCain that if he was more than 5 points underwater with women, he was gonna lose. He was, and he did.
Women will save us. All we have to do is stay the fuck outa their way and let 'em do it.
Go get 'em, ladies.
I'll hold your stuff
while you fuck 'em up.
I'm right behind you,
and I'll be here when you're done.
Going For The Close
"... now the rallies are the shit-posting."
In past cycles, Trump's handlers managed to get him under control for the last few weeks before the election so people would see him as "more normal" than he really is.
That's not the case this time. I think he figures he's going to lose so, "What the hell - I went normal last time and just missed, but then the crazy bit got me close with Jan6, so let's just go for it. I'm going to amp it up to 12 and see if I can get my vigilantes to carry me across the line..."
IDK, but I'm not going to simply dismiss his weird shit and call him nutty when I know there's always been a method to his madness.
Oct 28, 2024
Oct 27, 2024
Oct 13, 2024
But Don't Let Up
For just another 23 days, it's gotta be all gas and no brakes.
Don't forget: A big part of Trump's plan is to set the expectation that he's ahead - so when Harris wins (if she wins - fuck me, she's gotta win), he can kick it up a few notches and hit the usual bullshit about "It was rigged! They cheated! The brown people knifed us in the back!"
‘Desperate, unhinged, Trumpian’
As polls seem to indicate that former president Donald Trump has momentum in some swing states with 24 days remaining until the Nov. 5 presidential election, Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg says: Don’t buy it.
About a month ago, Rosenberg predicted that a slew of polls by Republican organizations would flood the zone, showing Trump leading — and, like clockwork, it has happened.
The purpose is two-fold, Rosenberg said: To excite Trump’s base and discourage Vice President Kamala Harris’ supporters, while also providing Trump with ammunition to say the election was rigged if he loses.
In a tweet thread, Rosenberg explained:
“Of last 15 general election polls released in PA, 12 have right/GOP affiliations. Their campaign to game the polling averages and make it appear like Trump is winning — when he isn’t — escalated in last few days.
“I urge journalists and researchers to dive into FiveThirtyEight and see how the red wave pollsters have flooded the zone again. MT, PA, NC were initial targets but now it’s all 7 battleground states.
“This 2024 red wave op is much larger and involves many more actors and polls than the red wave campaign in 2022. It also involves new players — Polymarket, Elon — and feels far more desperate, frenetic, unhinged. Trumpian.”
Rosenberg pointed to a New York Times autopsy on the 2022 midterm elections: “The ‘Red Wave’ Washout: How Skewed Polls Fed a False Election Narrative.”
Rosenberg also referred to a recent New York Times report — “Elon Musk is going all-in to elect Trump” — that shows coordination between Twitter/X owner Elon Musk and the Trump campaign.
Musk shut down a Twitter/X account that published hacked materials from the Trump campaign. And according to the New York Times, Musk and his team have set up a war room in Pittsburgh to strategize with a team of lawyers and public-relations professionals to help Trump win.
On Thursday, American Muckrakers posted about emails it received detailing how the conservative-leaning Rasmussen Reports, which claims to be nonpartisan, shared polling results with Trump advisers and campaign officials like Dan Scavino, Susie Wiles, and John McLaughlin.
“More than 25 organizations are now involved in red wave 2024,” Rosenberg tweeted. “Last week, they dropped 27 polls. This week it’s more. Ferocity of effort to make it look like Trump is winning clearly means they don’t think he is.”
As polls seem to indicate that former president Donald Trump has momentum in some swing states with 24 days remaining until the Nov. 5 presidential election, Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg says: Don’t buy it.
About a month ago, Rosenberg predicted that a slew of polls by Republican organizations would flood the zone, showing Trump leading — and, like clockwork, it has happened.
The purpose is two-fold, Rosenberg said: To excite Trump’s base and discourage Vice President Kamala Harris’ supporters, while also providing Trump with ammunition to say the election was rigged if he loses.
In a tweet thread, Rosenberg explained:
“Of last 15 general election polls released in PA, 12 have right/GOP affiliations. Their campaign to game the polling averages and make it appear like Trump is winning — when he isn’t — escalated in last few days.
“I urge journalists and researchers to dive into FiveThirtyEight and see how the red wave pollsters have flooded the zone again. MT, PA, NC were initial targets but now it’s all 7 battleground states.
“This 2024 red wave op is much larger and involves many more actors and polls than the red wave campaign in 2022. It also involves new players — Polymarket, Elon — and feels far more desperate, frenetic, unhinged. Trumpian.”
Rosenberg pointed to a New York Times autopsy on the 2022 midterm elections: “The ‘Red Wave’ Washout: How Skewed Polls Fed a False Election Narrative.”
Rosenberg also referred to a recent New York Times report — “Elon Musk is going all-in to elect Trump” — that shows coordination between Twitter/X owner Elon Musk and the Trump campaign.
Musk shut down a Twitter/X account that published hacked materials from the Trump campaign. And according to the New York Times, Musk and his team have set up a war room in Pittsburgh to strategize with a team of lawyers and public-relations professionals to help Trump win.
On Thursday, American Muckrakers posted about emails it received detailing how the conservative-leaning Rasmussen Reports, which claims to be nonpartisan, shared polling results with Trump advisers and campaign officials like Dan Scavino, Susie Wiles, and John McLaughlin.
“More than 25 organizations are now involved in red wave 2024,” Rosenberg tweeted. “Last week, they dropped 27 polls. This week it’s more. Ferocity of effort to make it look like Trump is winning clearly means they don’t think he is.”
Oct 11, 2024
Oh Those Pesky Undecideds
At the risk of repeating myself:
Puh-tay-ta / Puh-tah-toh
Dear Undecideds,Let's review - again. Cuz some of you seem unable or (more likely) unwilling to grok the situation.
Let's say this election is like looking at a breakfast menu.
Option 1: A big steaming bowl of lumpy, greasy, tequila hangover squirts.
Option 2: A short stack, some crispy bacon, 2 eggs (any way you like 'em), fresh-squeezed OJ, and some coffee.
But you're telling me you can't decide because you're just not sure about the fucking syrup?
WaPo pretty much misses the point - again - because WaPo needs to fill space and sell ads for dick pills and panty liners.
And yes, WaPo - we are a "nation divided" - it's the shit-eaters versus the normal people.
But, hey - do your dumbass thing, Press Poodles.
The elusive ‘policy-driven’ undecided voter
It’s useful to the media to suggest that undecided voters are seeking out more information about Harris and Trump. But, often, the reverse is true.
There is a canonical presentation of voters in a democracy. Attuned to the central issues of the election — be they national, state or local — these voters carefully consider the positions of the candidates and perform an elaborate mental calculus. Candidate A aligns with the voter on a few things, but Candidate B aligns on more, and more important ones. Candidate B it is. On to the next contest on the ballot.
Written out like that, the idea is obviously ridiculous. Most voters scan their ballots for the candidates indicated as Democrats or Republicans and vote for those candidates. There’s nothing wrong with that, as such; the point of political parties, in part, is to provide a mnemonic for Americans to quickly identify candidates who broadly share their values. Why spend all that time reading about issues when the D and the R serve as accurate summaries?
That has become particularly true as partisan polarization has sharpened in the United States. Fewer legislators and candidates hold heterodox positions, meaning that the D and the R are more effective presentations of their views than they used to be. If you are moderately well informed, those two letters can tell you most of what you want to know about the candidates on most issues, even at the state or local level. At the presidential level, the letters are almost completely descriptive, given that the parties’ presidential candidates help define where the parties stand.
And yet there are still numerous voters who say they haven’t been able to decide between the two major-party presidential candidates in 2024. But there are different strains of “undecided.” For many, the question is probably less whether they prefer Vice President Kamala Harris or former president Donald Trump than whether they plan to vote at all. For a handful, their calculus of how the candidates’ positions comport with their own personal values is complex. And for many — perhaps, if we allow ourselves to be cynical, most — they simply haven’t been, and are not now, paying much attention to politics.
This isn’t new. There’s always been a clutch of Americans who are loosely attached to politics and whose opinions on political issues are therefore idiosyncratic. It’s been 20 years since Chris Hayes (well before his MSNBC days) described talking to undecided voters in Wisconsin during the 2004 election. He found fewer of the theoretical cautious/conscientious voters than people whose politics appeared to have been picked at random from piles of newspaper clippings.
One thing we’ve heard a lot this year is that undecided voters are still making up their minds in part because they want to learn more about Harris’s positions. This makes sense in theory; Harris’s presence as a candidate has been relatively short-lived, given the transition the Democratic Party made at the end of July.
But that’s just short-lived in the American sense. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced parliamentary elections on May 22; they were held on July 4. That’s a 43-day election cycle. Harris has been a candidate for 78 days. There was a Democratic Party convention that dominated the airwaves for four days. There was a debate. Harris released policy platforms. If voters want to know what she’s running on, it’s there for them to consume.
In fact, the New York Times released polling last week delineating why voters who still described themselves as “undecided” were refraining from settling on a candidate. Conducted by Siena College, the poll asked those voters what their concerns about the candidates were. A plurality of those voters said Trump’s personality was their biggest point of hesitation. For Harris, a smaller percentage said they were concerned about her honesty and judgment.
Only a handful of people indicated that they wanted to know more about her candidacy.
If we sketch out a more realistic picture of an undecided voter, we can see why this isn’t a surprise. For the most part, they are not carefully sitting down and considering the information at hand, finding that their stack of information about Harris is still missing elements. They are, instead, not paying much attention at all and, perhaps, sometimes tacitly admitting they aren’t paying much attention by saying they need to learn more.
Some in the media nonetheless seized upon this idea with alacrity. Consider how Politico described the Harris campaign’s flurry of media appearances this week: “Most of these are not the types of interviews that are going to press her on issues she may not want to talk about, even as voters want more specifics from Harris. Instead, expect most of these sit-downs to be a continuation of the ‘vibes’ campaign Harris has perfected.”
There’s been frustration from some reporters that Harris hasn’t centered her campaign on conversations with traditional media outlets but, instead, on a more limited schedule with podcast and online personalities. That seeps out of the Politico description: What voters want is policy information, which a Harris-Howard Stern conversation isn’t going to provide! The error in this argument should be immediately apparent — as should the reason that traditional outlets would elevate it.
Several things are true about the current media landscape. One is that the traditional media (including The Washington Post, obviously) has a more limited influence than it used to. Another is that some podcasts and influencers have much broader audiences — particularly among the constituencies the candidates hope to spur to the polls — than newspapers or cable news programs. A third is that this is useful for the campaigns, since they can more easily avoid tricky or challenging questions that traditional reporters might pose.
The solution is not to suggest that undecided voters are uniformly desperate for probing questions that will inform their votes. This is true of some undecided voters, sure. But everything else we know about those voters (including the Times poll above) indicates that those voters are anomalous. It’s safe to assume that the campaigns understand that, with four weeks remaining, the key to victory will almost certainly depend less on presenting undecided voters with complex policy proposals and extended, wonky conversations with editorial boards than on ensuring that those voters casting a ballot based on the D and the R are excited to go out and do so.
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