2024 US Presidential Elections Megathread

[Legbiter]

At a certain level we can't protect the voters from themselves.  If they really want to vote for a crazy candidate then pretending the candidate isn't crazy isn't helping matters.

God help us all but the latest polling suggest Trump is gonna win this.

[Grey Fox]

Harris landslide.

[Josephus]

Two things.

1.  Going back to the fines. How do we calculate wealth? I suggest by tax bracket? By declared income?

2.  I just heard a Taylor Swift song on the radio, and it dawned on me: did Trump start to gain momentum again AFTER she endorsed him? Coincidence?🤔

[Admiral Yi]

Has to be income.  Income is reported to the IRS.  Wealth is not.

[Sheilbh]

On the press point - this is obviously not American but I'd suggest there's a similar pattern there and this is what I mean by exercising editorial judgement and distinguishing news from newsworthy (not least because more generally there is more news for the press to report than ever before). But Der Spiegel are celebrating their 30th anniversary (online):


It's the Trump effect. As I say giving full coverage to his rallies, letting his statements (and rebuttals and fact checking) dominate coverage for days, tying all sorts of cultural or non-political analysis to Trump etc.

I think reporters may think they're covering a phenomenon but it's where editorial judgement is required to not let Trump crowd out everything else - to treat him like a politician not the skeleton key of society. As I say I think he's turned political coverage into Page Six and those serious editors could probably do with chatting to the tabloids and gossip writers on how to balance that.

It only applies during an election campaign but broadcasters are required to give the main parties basically equal billing (there's an algorithm to calculate), similarly for guest appearances on political talk shows etc. It's one of the reasons the Lib Dems tend to surge during election campaigns (because everyone is reminded they exist). I don't necessarily think you need to go that far but editors should just maybe ask themselves are we willing to give Kamala Harris' campaign a similar amount of coverage - if the answer's no, then maybe tone it done and prune/edit what you're reporting.

[Tamas]

You assume they would value the fate of the country over their own profits/key metrics. Which I don't think they do.

[Sophie Scholl]

Two things.
...

2.  I just heard a Taylor Swift song on the radio, and it dawned on me: did Trump start to gain momentum again AFTER she endorsed him? Coincidence?🤔

She endorsed Harris.

[PJL]

At a certain level we can't protect the voters from themselves.  If they really want to vote for a crazy candidate then pretending the candidate isn't crazy isn't helping matters.

Isn't that akin to saying that the candidate was right, but it was the voters that are wrong that many left wing people make? Merely blaming it on something else is not the answer. We need to figure out how to influence voters into making an informed choice. In that respect, the media have a lot to answer for.

[Admiral Yi]

Isn't that akin to saying that the candidate was right, but it was the voters that are wrong that many left wing people make? Merely blaming it on something else is not the answer. We need to figure out how to influence voters into making an informed choice. In that respect, the media have a lot to answer for.

I don't think calling a candidate crazy is akin to saying the candidate is right.

[The Minsky Moment]

You can tell people it's bad taste to watch a circus freak show or that shouldn't slow down a rubberneck a car accident, or keep going from clickbait article after clickbait but they will do it anyways.  And or that same reason Trump will always get more than his share of coverage. He entertains.  The weirder and darker he gets the more interesting the show.

I don't blame the media - they don't create the demand. Covering him doesn't make him win. Massive self-delusion among tens of millions of American voters does.  TV transmits the campaign message that the Trump years were better, but the amnesiac delusion of voters who can't remember just a few years ago when we had massive unemployment and about as many Americans died than in all wars combined is what makes that absurd message work.  People who fondly remember low gas prices and fewer illegal border crossing and forget that was because the whole country was locked down and out of work.

[PJL]

Again, people are blaming the voters. It's never their fault. If Harris can't beat Trump, it's because she ran a poor campaign.

[Savonarola]

Personally I think the media's coverage of Trump has improved greatly since the 2015-2018 period.  In those days CNN, for example, would do investigative journalism into the number of Diet Cokes that Trump drinks per day or run multiple articles on simple misspellings in Trump's Tweets.  While cofeveve may live on in our hearts forever ( ), their journalism is significantly less click-baity than that today.

[The Minsky Moment]

Again, people are blaming the voters. It's never their fault. If Harris can't beat Trump, it's because she ran a poor campaign.

Biden ran a lousy campaign in 2020 and still won because the memory of Trump's awfulness was too vivid to be deniable

In a democracy people get the government they deserve.  Putting the onus on the candidate and their circus masters to put on the right entertainment is BS.  If voters in a democracy lack agency to point where they can't make rational decisions and think for themselves unless candidate X runs the right digital ad packages, then we might as well pack it up and accept our new dictator. The German voters who supported the Nazis in 32 33 don't get a pass because "Otto Wels ran a bad campaign"

[crazy canuck]

And, frankly, it's always the voters fault who they elect.  That is how democracy is supposed to work.

We often hear the phrase "the voter is always right" which doesn't make a lot of sense in light of some of the objectively boneheaded choices voters have made historically.

2016 being an example, which has a 50 50 shot of being repeated.  But that is the price we pay for a democratic system.  The main problem being it can come to an end if enough voters get it wrong enough times.

[Valmy]

Saying the voters are always right, it is just the politicians who have to steer them correctly is sort of like saying the King is always right, he is just being misled by his evil councilors.

Not to say the Democrats are doing it perfectly or whatever.