US Politics, September 2024 -- “I’m Not Going to Apologize For Posting a Joke”

Amazing. This is, indeed, a real post.

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this man has such impeccable political instincts

As was said on Bluesky, the internal polling must be ATROCIOUS. It'll just get worse!

lmao suicide by swift boat

Is the Trump campaign just flailing around wildly at this point or is there any semblance of a strategy to anything they've been doing over last couple days? It feels far too early for them to be descending into total desperation, but that's what it looks like is happening.

Maybe, but tbh when have the Trump campaign now and in 2016 and Trump in the White House been any different?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4fC5Woys2Q

the strategy is to stir up fears of immigration

hannibal lector coming over the border, haitians eating cats and dogs, joe and kamala encouraging it because of marxist social engineering. that is the case they are making.

It's obviously not out of line with anything he's done previously, but still it feels like a shift is happening in the campaign as if the wheels are suddenly coming off. They're getting really messy.

yeah between that insane debate and palling around with Laura Loomer and tripling down on the "they're eating your pets" story and now going after the most popular entertainer on the planet this does feel a fair bit crazier than what was happening from 2016-2020

i think he is more going for emotive appeals and doesn't care if what he is saying actually makes sense. he's betting that there are people who, even if rationally they don't believe mexico is literally emptying their jails and sending people here, will still be disturbed by that image on an unconscious level and move to vote for the "strongman" in the election.

I've rarely been more disgusted with the human race than when this snappily dressed older Cuban man who could've been my father defended Trump at my favorite restaurant bar last week. "They say they're not eating cats and dogs. But THEY ARE!"

there's no chance they're swaying any independents at this point, just trying to ensure the base turnout is 100%

he’s not ‘betting’ anything — he has no plan, he’s just angrily lashing out

his base isn't big enough to win the election though the reason why he won in 2016 is because independants and swing voters broke hard for him

"I am who I am" xp

there's no chance they're swaying any independents at this point, just trying to ensure the base turnout is 100%

― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Sunday, September 15, 2024 12:00 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

i think it is more subtle. he wants to paint a picture of a society that is being invaded, that is falling apart, whose leaders are loyal to undeserving "others" and not "ordinary americans." and he is doing it in a really bold, sort of caricature way. and just hoping it sticks with people who consciously would never admit to buying into such a cartoon. planting seeds of distrust toward "comrade kamala"

That's not subtle -- he's saying it aloud!

probably to dampen her turnout, to confuse low information voters who don't trust trump but maybe aren't sure what to believe, etc. i think it is aligned with what elon is doing by letting nazis take over X. bannon's phrase, "flood the zone with shit."

no he is not being subtle but the strategy is aimed at affecting the voters on an unconscious level

Yeah treeship, I get the idea behind it, but I'm saying it seems less like a planned out strategic move and more like throwing shit at the wall. You would not see all this nonsense cranked up to the max if things were running smoothly.

I’m not so convinced Trump is operating on as coherent a strategy as he used to. Or at least it’s a strategy that was designed to run against Biden and now he’s struggling to pivot.

vance going on CNN this morning and saying in so many words that he made the story up and he'd do it again.

they're doing a real terrible job of it though, the story isn't about whether or not immigrants are actually doing this shit, the story is that Trump and Vance are fucking assholes using tactics straight out of 1930s Germany. the story is about Laura Loomer and bomb threats and whether or not Trump has finally snapped for good. the media, for the first time in 9 years, is finally coming out and saying "he's lying about this"

xpost

Vance admitted the Ohio thing is bullshit on CNN this morning. Quote: "“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people then that's what I'm going to do”. The obvious follow-up question would be, "So what else have you been lying about?" but this is Dana Bash we're talking about, so that didn't happen.

no he is not being subtle but the strategy is aimed at affecting the voters on an unconscious level

he's a total fucking idiot and crediting him with this kind of thought is subscribing to the fascist self-image as intellectuals with ideas. they're not that. they're just dumb fuckin assholes, it's really that simple.

i wish that guy with the rifle hadn't missed

Nah you don't need to be an intellectual with ideas to do what that post is describing. You just need to be a con man.

xpost

i am not saying they are intellectuals with ideas, i am saying they are dishonest actors who are trying to manipulate people emotionally because they can't make a straightforward case for their program. on cnn vance even is admitting that he thinks lying to rile people up is fine. as long as it strengthens the narrative.

yah fair enough

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just saw this on bsky with the caption "they're desperate"

i don't think it is going to work by the way. i agree with frogbs. i am just describing what i think is the rationale behind saying insane, hateful shit that makes the majority of the country recoil

Nominate "I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!" for thread title

“The Democrats want to take Yellowstone off of your tv”

I mean yeah there have been plenty of examples in the last couple weeks where Trump just straight up cannot come up with a single actual idea of what he would do in office, it's "I have the concept of a plan" all the way down

I dont even think treesh is wrong though, this is probably what Trump *thinks* he's doing, just because this is the shit that's worked for him in the past. like he's never really had any actual ideas his entire life things just always magically work out for him, you heard that in the exchange about Russia/Ukraine in the debate, he says him just being in office will fix it

I am starting to think that this is not actually going to be a close election. Either Trump or Harris (and I definitely think it's gonna be Harris) is going to win by a large and incontestable margin.

xp yeah he is just running on himself as the platform, the force of his personality, the idea that people respect him. it is pretty ironic given that he is an actual clown, like with makeup and an orange wig and everything.

The menthols thing is a long standing wedge issue and not particularly a sign of desperation

menthols are much more deadly than traditional cigarettes

Nominate "I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!" for thread title

― jmm, Sunday, September 15, 2024 9:20 AM

it's a long way until Oct 1st, but I cosign this

I think it is going to be very close and Trump could win the electoral college as many people stay in their low-information bubbles and don't realize they're being conned. Also, mainstream media sanewashes Trump, Vance, and republicans. People don't know the facts about either inflation or immigration.

Vance doubled down on his debunked Haitians hatred on Sunday talk shows. While Dana Bash and some others actually factchecked him well if briefly, it makes me sad that they and mainstream media in general have never made it clear how immigrants come here to work and pay taxes, and their tax money helps fund the longevity of Social Security. There's factual data about Haitians working in Springfield, Ohio and none of the tv news people did a thorough job of bringing that up. Biden and Harris have been afraid and unwilling to speak positively about immigrants at all for 3 plus years, and then bend over backwards to support bipartisan immigration deals.

While that support for the bipartisan deal may help Harris win, it hasn't help dispense any hatred of immigrants

hannibal lector coming over the border, haitians eating cats and dogs, joe and kamala encouraging it because of marxist social engineering. that is the case they are making.

― treeship.

The year is 2666

I am starting to think that this is not actually going to be a close election. Either Trump or Harris (and I definitely think it's gonna be Harris) is going to win by a large and incontestable margin.

― Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson), Sunday, September 15, 2024 11:22 AM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

I don't think there's a chance in hell Trump wins by a large margin, he lost the popular vote twice and there's not a single data point suggesting he can do it this time. obviously a 2016 situation where he gets like 46% but gets just over the hump in certain key states is plausible but a Trump blowout would suggest the country has gone absolutely insane in a way that just isn't reflected by any of the other elections that have happened in the last 4 years

on the other hand Kamala just running away with it does seem like it might be in the cards, Trump is running one of the worst campaigns in history and keeps kicking hornets nests for no reason, I'm not gonna hold my breath but then again I thought the debate would be a wash and it very much was not

The menthols thing is a long standing wedge issue and not particularly a sign of desperation

― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Sunday, September 15, 2024 11:24 AM (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

making it the focus of your mailers seems pretty desperate though

I received menthol mailers *from democrats* when I lived in south LA (ie a historically black zip code).

the debate made me more confident in kamala's victory. she was obviously very prepared and knew exactly what to say to provoke trump's worst instincts.

I don't think there's a chance in hell Trump wins by a large margin, he lost the popular vote twice and there's not a single data point suggesting he can do it this time. obviously a 2016 situation where he gets like 46% but gets just over the hump in certain key states is plausible but a Trump blowout would suggest the country has gone absolutely insane in a way that just isn't reflected by any of the other elections that have happened in the last 4 years

I agree, but my worst-case scenario is that we (ILX posters and those who think like us) are radically wrong about how the rest of America sees things and Trump finally comes completely over the top and seizes power precisely because the country is dying/falling apart.

The scenario I think is more likely is that Harris wins with Obama vs McCain numbers (~53-47), and a lot of that is gonna be driven by female voters and young voters, to a degree that the political media is gonna have a real hard time grappling with because it will go against every belief they have held dear since the '80s (young people don't vote, abortion is not that big a deal, the most important voters in America are white male factory workers).

"If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people then that's what I'm going to do”

if anybody still feels bad about the couch fucking story..