swing voters and undecided voters basically by definition think about and engage with politics differently than anyone on this site, anyone who writes for the ny times, and the vast majority of the times’ subscribers. otherwise they wouldn’t be undecided/swing voters.
Step 1. Become allergic to all political news.
Step 2. Do anything else and avoid all politics.
Politics are now fictional and cannot touch you. You live in another realm.
This is what I’ve been saying, and one response I get is, swing voters aside, what about how this affects enthusiasm and thus turnout? But to my (non-expert) mind, Dem enthusiasm/turnout in this election will be largely driven by anti-Trump feeling no matter the candidate
i think that makes a lot of assumptions about enthusiasm for candidate [TBD]. when has harris proven the ability to generate enthusiasm? certainly not in the primaries or as veep? and how will dems and ESPECIALLY black dems react if she’s passed over for some untested unknown
Some one on the Daily Show in 2020 summed up Harris as “she the police”. That is 100% correct. She’s not a progressive. She’s a cop. It would be like having president Eric Adams.
Eric Adams is awful as mayor and I am hoping we can vote him out but I’d vote for him as president if it meant keeping Trump out. I’d vote for a dead body if it meant not Trump. It’s an absolutely garbage ‘choice’ but that’s where we are.
Harris put parents in jail because they were working too hard to get their kids to school on time. She’s not as dumb a cop as Adams, but she is as mean a cop as Adams.
I’m familiar with Harris’s record but I think you should think about why your mind seems to have gone first to comparing her to Adams when there are plenty of “tough on crime” politicians out there.
Honestly, as much as it would be a bs nepotism pick and I think it's too late for replacing Biden anyway, the way to go would be Michelle Obama.
Is she a politician? Not really but I don't think swikg voters would care.
I find it always depends on how the audience is defined, but politically organized swing voters (e.g Never Trump Republicans) are way more visible than non-organized, less engaged swing voters.
fivethirtyeight.com/features/jus...
Isn't this more or less how 2016 shook out? (Trump activated low propensity voters and Clinton couldn't hold the Obama coalition - but Obama probably also activated low propensity voters and those voters may not be transferable)
my dental hygienist reports that her boyfriend made her watch the debate, she was unimpressed by either candidate, is very worried about abortion, and to express her displeasure might vote 3rd party
*podcast incoming*
"When one of Mark's patients seemed to confess to a crime that had had the town guessing whether there was a murderer among them for more than a decade, he knew he had to sink his teeth into it ... listen to 'Tooth And Nail' on [*bleep*] or wherever you get your podcasts"
How do you respond as a journalist to people saying totally unhinged shit? Like do you just try to keep as neutral an expression as possible and say "oh, that's interesting, tell me more"?
Earlier this year I encouraged someone to vote in the primary. She said she never votes because she thinks it is all fixed in advance and the politicians just decide for themselves. As soon as she said it, I think she realized that she didn't have a sympathetic ear on that theory.
This is why I laugh at anyone in politics who calls themselves a centrist.
If you are a political journalist or a politician you can not be representative of the center.
The center in US politics isn’t paying attention to the election yet.
The center wouldn’t consider running for office.
You are correct.
My entire point is that only weird political people have jobs related to politics.
If you are aware of what is happening in politics more than a month or two outside of a, congressional, or presidential election, you are weird.
I am weird. It’s ok.
I feel like a lot of politics nerds have never done much canvassing, as it tends to teach you pretty quickly that voters are an amazingly messy, complex, weird bunch. I remember @chrislhayes.bsky.social saying something about how it taught him how polling tidies people into nice tidy boxes.
Yes! It's a real problem actually that most political journalists and pundits seem to have zero experience with canvassing or other grassroots organizing. It should be mandatory training for anyone covering politics.
