If you read my posts, you should be able to guess that I'm locally kind but globally cynical. I enjoy interacting with people here, but I don't hold the median American voter in high regard. So when Sandy asked me "what changed for those voters", I don't think the people who didn't show up for Harris are any different than the people who didn't show up for Clinton in 2016. One of the unfortunate takeaways from 2024 is we have a problem with misogyny in the United States. We are the only industrialized country in the world that has not had a woman as head of state. There are people who voted for Obama that didn't show up for Clinton during a time of relative economic prosperity. There are people who voted for Biden that didn't show up for Harris when the S&P had returned 20%+ in back-to-back years, unemployment was low, and inflation was brought to heel after a 100 year pandemic and over 1M people died. The Democrats are not going to nominate another woman for POTUS for a very long time as a result of this act of self mutilation by the voters. In my view, COVID was an exogenous event that cost Trump a second term. With COVID memory holed and the Biden administration not getting any credit for getting us past COVID, the voters went back to being what they've always been: a bunch of unappreciative, amoral nanowits who are incapable of recognizing an existential threat if it kicked them in the balls and sang "Cat Scratch Fever" at the top of their lungs. They'd rather have a rapist with the nuclear codes than a woman. It was true in 2016, and it was true in 2024.
Or both, and a confluence of many other factors. If we manage to continue to exist, this whole cycle (1993 to today) will confound and fascinate historians for years to come.
No, something did. 7 million Democrats did not vote in 2024.
Sorry, let me explain.
If you read my posts, you should be able to guess that I'm locally kind but globally cynical. I enjoy interacting with people here, but I don't hold the median American voter in high regard. So when Sandy asked me "what changed for those voters", I don't think the people who didn't show up for Harris are any different than the people who didn't show up for Clinton in 2016. One of the unfortunate takeaways from 2024 is we have a problem with misogyny in the United States. We are the only industrialized country in the world that has not had a woman as head of state. There are people who voted for Obama that didn't show up for Clinton during a time of relative economic prosperity. There are people who voted for Biden that didn't show up for Harris when the S&P had returned 20%+ in back-to-back years, unemployment was low, and inflation was brought to heel after a 100 year pandemic and over 1M people died. The Democrats are not going to nominate another woman for POTUS for a very long time as a result of this act of self mutilation by the voters. In my view, COVID was an exogenous event that cost Trump a second term. With COVID memory holed and the Biden administration not getting any credit for getting us past COVID, the voters went back to being what they've always been: a bunch of unappreciative, amoral nanowits who are incapable of recognizing an existential threat if it kicked them in the balls and sang "Cat Scratch Fever" at the top of their lungs. They'd rather have a rapist with the nuclear codes than a woman. It was true in 2016, and it was true in 2024.
Nothing's changed.
Thank you for your explanation. Either racism or misogyny or both. No one wants to name the elephant in the room.
Or both, and a confluence of many other factors. If we manage to continue to exist, this whole cycle (1993 to today) will confound and fascinate historians for years to come.
Yes! Something did. I think we are still learning about what was behind that drop in turnout.