"The August 2020 US Politics Thread is highly thought of, but nobody likes me. It can only be my personality. That's all."

I saw that Meadows interview--he was talking about press clippings, and may as well have been talking about cereal boxes.

Remember when we were told that George W. Bush and Karl Rove had an annual contest to see who could read the most books, and Bush always won?

― but also fuck you (unperson), Sunday, August 23, 2020 1:15 PM (one hour ago)

cut to W walking in on Dec 31 with a stack of Dr Seuss and a smug look

They don't really believe that, they just interpret the question as covertly asking what their opinion of Trump is.

They believe the deaths are faked and no worse than flu numbers anyway

They have all been presented with a long menu of tempting explanations why the pandemic is simultaneously fake and the USA is handling it better than any other country in the world, although it was a plot cooked up by the Chinese or the CIA or Dr. Fauci. The unifying factor here is that the rumored pandemic is solely meant to make Trump look bad, but he has outsmarted them again because he is a great leader.

long menu of tempting explanations why

there aren't really any explanations why, just assertions

so you say

what
do
you mean
by that

that
is not
an an
swer

Lol mookie

They don't really believe that, they just interpret the question as covertly asking what their opinion of Trump is.

No. 57% of Republicans can easily detect a question that was designed as subterfuge to detect opinions about a president whom they support politically; they answered the real question instead of the fake one, which is why this kind of polling is diagnostically useless. https://t.co/7gXJSjOCfd

— Jacob Bacharach (@jakebackpack) August 23, 2020

why are we disregarding the obvious fact that if you support this president, who has himself deemed these deaths acceptable, you also consider them acceptable?

I mean I understand how these kinds of questions are distorting, but it seems just as likely some large majority of the 43% are only pretending the deaths are "not acceptable" so as not to be revealed as the monsters they are

anyway calling this question "fake" is stupid, it's totally a legitimate question. In the face of a pandemic, what does the public consider acceotable losses?

acceptable

People--most people, across ideologies--will accept a shocking number of bodies *in the abstract* on the basis of their political affinities. Trying to find the exact straw that's going to break the camel's back is not helpful. Instead, ask *why* people support what they do.

— Jacob Bacharach (@jakebackpack) August 23, 2020

Framing deaths from a pandemic disease, for which there is no effective therapy, as being "acceptable" or "not acceptable" is nonsensical anyway. What would it look like to "not accept" those deaths? No one knows what the 'correct' number of deaths would be. The polling question was transparently ill-formed and useless.

What is at issue here is whether those in a position to respond to the pandemic have acted responsibly, vigorously, and appropriately. Ask people about that. I'd say the medical profession, the research and public health communities have largely met that standard. Many political leaders have not, with Trump being the worst offender.

Otm. It’s a question fishing for a headline. Deeply unsurprised that uk pollster yougov is the source.

I'd say it's a useful question solely as an example of what Jacob's tweet there says: Ultimate loyalty to a belief system can result in "abstract" human lives having no value.

Mainline Democrats have been slobbing on Cuomo's knob for months and, uh...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21h0G_gU9Tw

xxp yes it also funcations that way

I guess it's just that political bias is baked into almost poll question. This logic could be applied to almost any polling: "Do you agree with separating children from their parents as the border as a disincentive to immigration?" I'm just not sure how this is any different.

Framing deaths from a pandemic disease, for which there is no effective therapy, as being "acceptable" or "not acceptable" is nonsensical anyway. What would it look like to "not accept" those deaths? No one knows what the 'correct' number of deaths would be. The polling question was transparently ill-formed and useless.

this is just not true. it doesn't say is there a "correct" number of deaths. It's broadly asking about reasonable expectations—as established by their leaders, by deaths in other countries, etc.

i acknowleged it's an ill-formed question, but framing it as a "gotcha" just seems weird to me. If, for instance, "only" 15,000 Americans had died, there would be no question re: "acceptability."

But there is now. The Republicans themselves have thrown in this variable of "acceptable death."

it's not like the idea is being imposed on them by sneaky pollsters

Ultimate loyalty to a belief system can result in "abstract" human lives having no value.

Human minds are not well-constructed to appreciate the value of "abstract" human lives, regardless of their belief system. People have difficulty imagining large numbers like 175,000. Any 1 of those 175,000 deaths might directly affect more than 50 other people, but when we scale that up to imagine all the families and social groups connected to those 175,000 dead, it defeats our imaginations. The number becomes inert, a lifeless abstraction without a graspable meaning, and therefore its value can't be grasped either.

What’s really bad is the other 43% all responded: 157,000 deaths isn’t acceptable. You know what’s acceptable? 157 million deaths

maybe if we tell them it's equivalent to 39,250 benghazis

To be fair, when you put it that way, that's an awful lot of Benghazis.

39,250 benghazis ain't going away

a single benghazi is a tragedy, a million benghazis is a statistic

On the other hand, the Democrats clearly did Benghazi, and rather than own up to their mistake and go to war with Benghazi, they let Benghazi go. That's on them.

googled "benghazi in platforms", so certain it'd been used and lol at the first result

I almost made that joke.

It's the first song I hum when I hear "Benghazi"

I think of "In on the Kill Taker."

The RNC announces there will be no GOP platform for the convention — just support for Trump’s second-term agenda, whatever that is https://t.co/P5RkqdsfDV

— Blake News (@blakehounshell) August 24, 2020

RESOVLVED

As I read that, they're keeping the 2016 platform, which convicted felon Paul Manafort rigged so as not to offend Putin by including language supporting the Ukrainian government against Russian interference. Way to go, Grand Old Party!

Wow, thank you @GOPconvention for this ringing endorsement of mail-in balloting. Good for you, guys. pic.twitter.com/bsHWjjkbbC

— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) August 24, 2020

xp

holy shit. i honestly figured that tweet would be a little hyperbolic, but no, when you read the statement, that is what it says. i mean yeah, coronavirus makes meeting more complicated, but the rest of the world is figuring out how to do it so uh, that's no excuse

and yet again, this blend of incompetency (RESOVLVED) and rolling over for the fascists

are there any edits we should make to the 2016 platform? no? ok, we're good, roll it out

*jack benny pause*

RASMUSSEN: 51% THANK YOU!!!!

Republican Party platform 2020: Whatever He Tweets, We Eats

hope you like poop

I knew some fucker would write this, because Pundit Law dictates that it had to be written, but I didn't think the headline would be quite so pathetically "Dems-In-Disarray":

Did The Democratic Convention Go Too Smoothly?

"the Democrats continue to stand in their own way by not standing in their own way this time"

Democrats in Array

But backstage, things were coming together . . .

Kellyanne Conway leaving the White House, guess the family drama is legit

Big yikes

Claudia is live on TikTok and just said that her parents were going to get divorced but they won't now because they want to keep her from getting emancipated. Says that dad doesn't care about her or even know her middle name. Says mom has been physically abusive her whole life.

— Molly McAleer (@molls) August 24, 2020

Also

Kellyanne Conway announces she's leaving the White Househttps://t.co/uxfEUswY2R

— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) August 24, 2020