This election is all about perception, and the media keeps talking about the issues.
The most important article you will read this week is in the "New Yorker":
"Among America's 'Low-Information' Voters":
apple.news/AvKdeIufhTTyhvRt-PvK60g
I hear from these people every day. You're never going to change their opinion. If you quote the "Times," they'll point to Facebook. They're not budging from their support of Trump and...
We've got the Pro-Palestinian contingent. Weren't they supposed to disrupt the convention, turn it into another '68? Well, it turns out the noise made by a few was larger than the feelings of the many. We live in a myopic country, most people can't find Gaza on a map, they might hate the Jews but that has got nothing to do with this election.
It's old versus new, baby. The known versus the unknown. Depression versus joy. A potentially bright future compared to a return to a bleak past. The world only moves forward, do you want to go back?
Really, no one does, but they're afraid of the future, the unknown, they need someone to hold their hand and make them feel like it's going to be all right.
And that's what Kamala Harris did last night. Actually, she equivocated on Gaza, saying the Israelis deserved support but too many people are being killed in Gaza, but how many people were really listening to that anyway?
And you'll hear all the naysayers, on both sides of the political fence, saying they still need to hear more about the issues, that that's what this election depends upon... NO IT DOESN'T!
If you weren't already in the bag for Kamala, what you saw last night was an intelligent woman with all her faculties, a competent woman, a younger woman, saying she's on the case.
Come on, most of what these candidates promise doesn't come to pass anyway, never mind the fact that both parties twist the truth.
But not like Donald Trump, the ultimate narcissist, who is spinning out of control.
The worst fear of a narcissist is no longer being on top, gaining the most attention. That's why Trump keeps lying about crowd size. Why he's boiling over all the focus on the Democratic convention and Kamala. That's his spot, and now they're usurping it!
Someone smart would change their game. That's what strategy is all about. But Trump is just doubling-down, digging his hole deeper.
Did you read about his phone call to Fox DURING Kamala's speech last night?
"Dialing In to Fox News, Trump Offers a Rambling Rebuttal to Harris's Speech - The network ended the live interview after 10 minutes. Beeps could be heard as the former president seemed to accidentally press the buttons on the keypad of his phone."
Free link: rb.gy/fye0v2
The piece-de-resistance was Greg Gutfeld's comment after Trump was cut off:
"'He's still talking, by the way,' Mr. Gutfeld joked."
I won't quite say that Fox News has turned into Don King, but the outlet is distancing itself from some of Trump's shenanigans (famously, King started out in the corner of his fighter, but when the opponent was winning, he slowly shifted to their end of the canvas).
You don't want to lose your core constituency.
And if you watched last night, you not only saw the rapt attention, but the raw inspiration and tears of women and people of color. Kamala was there for them.
Once again, it doesn't matter if you disagree, I'm talking about perception. You saw a deep desire and belief in Kamala the way you used to see it with Trump and his acolytes, but without the craziness. (Didn't Susan Powter implore us to stop the insanity?)
So what were the criticisms of Kamala in 2016... That she flip-flopped and was strident.
She ain't gonna flip-flop this time, as Ian Hunter sang, once bitten, twice shy.
As for being strident... She was the opposite of that last night. She was warm, and friendly, and she radiated intelligence and competence, and those qualities are not only lacking in Trump, people have been wondering about them re Biden for over a year.
But Joe's history.
Yet you've got Trump talking about Hunter last night. HYSTERICAL! A crybaby. You can only laugh.
So the bottom line is unless Kamala loses her mind and touches the third rail, the only thing that matters re the issues is the debate(s), when both candidates appear on stage.
Of course Kamala holds all the cards. From abortion on down. Statistics tell us most people support the Democratic agenda, even if they were disenchanted with Biden. And if Kamala prosecutes the case just like she did last night, it's over for Trump. He's going to amp it up with his lies, and she's going to smile and make fun of him.
This is where the non-primary is helping Kamala and the Democrats. She wasn't beaten to hell, she's not bruised and battered, she fresh as a daisy.
Meanwhile, Trump has been fighting his whole life.
And now he looks like his good friend Putin. Who told the world how powerful he was and then little Ukraine took Russian land and Putin still hasn't figured out what to do, he looks WEAK!
Trump looks anything but presidential these days. And like I said, it all comes down to perception.
And suddenly Trump doesn't dominate the news cycle. People have been bitching for eons about all his free press. Now it's all about Kamala, just like a new record replaces an old one on the chart.
Come on, do you really think someone is sitting at home debating who is better on immigration, Kamala or Trump?
There's this belief that the undecided are weighing the issues, calculating their votes... Nothing could be further from the truth.
No, what has happened is the disconnected have become incentivized. The battle has been recast. Suddenly Trump is the old fading man we know all about and Kamala is seen as new and fresh, a crusader against all the b.s. we've been experiencing from the right for years.
Once again, you right wingers can e-mail me your falsehoods, your hate of the left, ad infinitum, which you will do, but you're missing the point. THIS IS NOW A HIGH SCHOOL ELECTION!
Trump was never a wonk. That's not Harris's résumé. It's known bully versus new girl in school. It's that simple. It's a popularity contest. People want to see the self-satisfied male go down, it doesn't really matter who is running against him. But the fact that it's a fresh faced female...you can believe in that, you can have HOPE!
The blowback is already deafening. The mainstream media, the political junkies, they want to make it about the issues, the horse race, they want to dig deep, bloviate on TV, deliver their think pieces, not even knowing that most people are alienated by this class. No, most people are eager to get on with their lives. They believe Kamala is selling safety. Trump is selling chaos. And no one likes chaos.
That's why Trump got elected in 2016. He promised a disembowelment of the elite. And he did that. But there was no real plan after running, no idea what to do after victory. We mostly got the same Republican tax low get rid of services agenda we've always gotten from the right. With a whole bunch of hate to boot. Sure, some people want more of this, but most do not, they actually want us to get along, together.
And be able to get an abortion to boot.
That's how desperate Trump now is, he's changing his tune on abortion, trying to make it look like he's on the pro-choice side, assuming we've all had amnesia.
Once again, Trump is running on a record, and unless you're rich, the only benefit of his term was that it was anti-Democrat. Period. Whereas Harris is tainted by negative perception of the Biden term... But most people don't think the vice president has any power anyway.
And the video from the convention. Shawn Fain, with his "TRUMP IS A SCAB" t-shirt? And Ana Navarro comparing Trump to the leaders of her homeland Nicaragua? It's like shooting fish in a barrel. Trump's only second is Elon Musk, whose Tesla was outsold by BMW electric cars in Europe this quarter, and Wall Street can't get the X debt off its books, and...
Those in the right are in an echo chamber. Ignore them, even better, LAUGH AT THEM! They can't handle it, they've got no sense of humor. And most of the rank and file are completely uniformed on the issues.
So. other than the debates, Harris does not need to get down to the real nitty-gritty. It's only the pundit class who complain and want more detail. Her voters don't need it, they're IN!
Perception is Harris is a winner and Trump is a loser. Didn't he lose once already? And complained he didn't? That might work amongst his delusional fans, but no one else is buying it.
So it all comes down to turnout. That's the big concern of this election. Not what Kamala said today or Trump tomorrow. They'll meet together once, maybe a couple of times more, and then they'll be running separate operations that will not intersect, the final battle coming on Election Day.
This has been the right wing strategy forever, to get the left to fight the battle on their terms, to define the issues, force the left to play, whether it be inanities like Obama's birth certificate...and now Trump has rolled out that same trope with Kamala. If we don't pay attention to it, it doesn't exist!
Homey don't play that no more. The rules of engagement have been redrawn.
And I hate to tell you this, but it doesn't have a whole hell of a lot to do with Harris herself. The public was ready for a change, the public was ready for hope. We can question all day long whether she has enough experience, but how much experience did Trump have in 2016? NIL!
But now I'm taking the bait. The truth is Harris has plenty of experience. And when she said last night that her career has always been "For the people," man did that resonate.
So when people try to drag you into a discussion, the same battles we've been having for the last eight plus years, don't even bother. Don't insult, just, once again, laugh. Tell them you've got your team and we've got ours, and we'll see you on November 5th.
The popular vote is in the bag.
The Electoral College?
We need each and every vote.
At this point we don't need to convince you one way or the other, your mind is made up, even those who say it's not, they just like the attention, or they don't want to be labeled.
No, it all comes down to getting to the polls.
This is your job. Vote by mail if possible. In November drive people to their voting place. No excuses. I don't want to hear you're sick or don't care or...
This is the election of your lifetime.
Don't you want to have a say?
OF COURSE YOU DO!
And if everybody votes, that loser Trump will be banished forever, only to show up in court, hopefully to end up in jail.
Then we'll know there's justice for all the people, that the law applies to everybody.
I can't wait.
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