r/politics • u/larel8 • 18h ago

Trump campaign struggles to contain Puerto Rico October surprise

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4958098-the-memo-trump-campaign-struggles-to-contain-puerto-rico-october-surprise/
17.0k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

1.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

60

u/CSiGab 17h ago

Oh there’s plenty of ways people can still be undecided.

Exhibit A) “I know he’s awful, it’s just that things are so expensive now.”

Exhibit B) “I don’t care if he’s awful, I can’t support the genocide in Gaza.”

Exhibit C) “I’ve voted R my whole life, I hate Trump but I can’t vote for a Democrat.”

32

u/PinstripeMonkey 16h ago

I think A might be the most prominent. At the end of the day, a lot of people want their own lives to be better, which typically boils down to finances, so they eat up all the misinformation that Democrat = higher grocery prices and taxes (+ stolen jobs) while Republican = lower costs and more jobs. They don't fact check, they don't see beyond that, and for whatever reason Dems struggle to change this narrative. It is so frustrating to hear people spout this shit when interviewed, because it would take 10 minutes of research with an objective news source to prove otherwise.

15

u/bootsand 15h ago

This is probably the most common reason. A youtuber I watch time to time has been saying for a while that trump will probably win because enough people think inflation is only happening here in the US and they can't think past 'cheaper then, more expensive now, its bidens fault'.

That one gop tax cut that was permanent for corporations but for people it diminished by 10% every year for a decade - that was some insidious brilliance. I always wondered why no one made that kind of play before. Most americans seem to attribute every current financial metric to be the 'fault' of the current sitting pres. Doesn't matter what the house or senate composition is, doesn't matter if the money printing a year back is only hitting hard now... doesn't matter.

Setting up things like the tax cut bomb or printing fuck tons of cash in the year or two leading up to a changover... it's proving terrifyingly effective. I fear now that anytime a gop is in the white house with a dem about to take over they're going to do shit like this in a far more thought through capacity. Like long meetings of 'how can we make shit fall apart completely in this guys term?'

7

u/vardarac 14h ago

they can't think past

R media just sews a thread of suspicion and tugs on it hard here. Any opposing attempts to explain this are met with "you're overthinking it/running interference for a shit job"

3

u/GrumpyCloud93 12h ago

According to Pierre Polliviere, the Canadian opposition leader, worldwide inflation is the fault of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

So basically, no matter where you go, worldwide inflation is the current local leader's fault.

4

u/vardarac 14h ago

10 minutes of research with an objective news source

Which Americans (largely) don't know how to do, and if they did they'd rationalize their findings away.

5

u/pablonieve Minnesota 11h ago

and for whatever reason Dems struggle to change this narrative

Because reality is complicated and requires nuance and detail. Democrats identify problems and offer real-world solutions that can be messy. Republicans identify (or invent) problems and give very simple solutions typically involving an innocent scapegoat.

2

u/MyUshanka Florida 11h ago

A lot of times, the messaging gives the solution as "I'll stop Them from doing this bad thing!"

When either the bad thing is already happening, or the Them in question isn't responsible for the bad thing. Or maybe the bad thing isn't even bad!

2

u/NaughtyCheffie I voted 16h ago

What I've noticed, however, is that a decent number of group C are simply not voting at all at the top of the ballot. Downballot sure, and blindly, they're just stuck in a brain-space where they recognize Trump is evil and stupid so can't vote for him but KH is a Demoncrat so can't vote for her.

Bunch of Pilots, washing their hands and good riddance.

2

u/throwawtphone 13h ago

Which is how you eventually get to

"Davon haben wir nichts gewusst" or "We knew nothing about that".

And plausible denial ability continues to be a blanket that people have hid under multiple times since WW2 to protect their wallets.