I think the answer is "the media" and how it's changed. I think there are many converging "demons."
When Ronald Reagan made the "Morning in America" speech inflation was worse than it is now, unemployment was higher, real wages were at a low, and GDP growth was slower. Yes America was recovering, but it had hardly recovered from "Stagflation" right now the US is much more economically recovered from lost COVID inflation than mid 1980s was from Stagflation.
It's not just the economy. Reagan ended up winning in a landslide. The difference now is what makes an effective politician. The presidency is no longer the "Bully Pulpit" it once was. It's competing with many other voices and critics. The political game has changed to being all about grabbing attention in a crowded attention market. You have to be bombastic, charismatic and combative to cut through the noise. You cannot just hope for logic and facts to win out. They will eventually, but way past the time frame that politicians have to win elections.
This is what Trump intuitively knows that Democrats don't. The Republicans actually did course correct after Romney lost. Their course correction was not noticed by Democrats. Democrats thought that running a lunatic like Trump would be bad for them. Republicans knew they had to break the media hold that Democrats had and needed to break up the liberal consensus.
Trump by frequently challenging the media and Republicans backing him up along with alternative media both conservative and leftist-populist helped undermine the legitimacy of the mainstream media. At the same time social media influencers, podcasters, YouTubers, etc gained huge followings. They did so by offering something different than what mainstream media figures could present. On top of that some of the main mainstream sources put themselves behind pay walls making them super vulnerable to critics as many people couldn't even see what they were publishing.
Meanwhile conservative alternative media, podcasting, social media influencers are rarely if ever behind paywalls.
Democrats thought they could just ignore this noise like they ignored AM talk radio in the past. Nope. Now the alternative media has a larger audience than the mainstream media. Social media and the internet is the primary way people get news. Democrats have to engage and have to build their own infrastructure there that is just as robust.
Furthermore they need to defend themselves from all the sides they are criticized on. They need to immediately have a response and immediately be able to throw something back at their critics.
None of this is "good" it's actually incredibly disruptive. Democrats also picked in hindsight the best candidate to beat Trump in 2020, but also the worst person to actually sell the office of the presidency. Joe Biden's age became the story and not the administration. Biden should have never considered running for a second term and Democrats should have had an open primary. Biden was never able to grab attention or actually get his message out. He couldn't rely on any media apparatus to do that for him either. Trump can do both. He can cut through and get attention and he has an entire partisan taped together media apparatus to hold water for him.
For lack of a better word Democrats need to capture more "low information" voters. People who barely pay attention and just general idiots.
In Nevada the Democratic senator won despite getting less votes than Harris. This is because many more Republicans didn't even bother voting for anyone but Trump in that state. The same thing happened in Arizona. If this trend continues the Republicans will have a very hard time post Trump. However it just highlights how many Trump voters are not actually paying attention fully and are mostly tuned out.
Trump for their attention she got them to listen. Biden/Harris could not this.
Canitbe that the answer is canibis?
Yes. It’s the correct answer to most questions. And as soon as more of humanity realizes it the more sane we’ll be as a species.
Haven’t seen you in awhile. I would have pegged you as the sort of person who would have been favorably persuaded by the Liz Cheney endorsement.
I considered it but ultimately chose to stick with John Bolton’s arguments.
I think Jimmy Kimmel would love to have you on his writing staff:)
That is so kind of you to say! Thank you so much. I’m glad you enjoyed this one.
I think the answer is "the media" and how it's changed. I think there are many converging "demons."
When Ronald Reagan made the "Morning in America" speech inflation was worse than it is now, unemployment was higher, real wages were at a low, and GDP growth was slower. Yes America was recovering, but it had hardly recovered from "Stagflation" right now the US is much more economically recovered from lost COVID inflation than mid 1980s was from Stagflation.
It's not just the economy. Reagan ended up winning in a landslide. The difference now is what makes an effective politician. The presidency is no longer the "Bully Pulpit" it once was. It's competing with many other voices and critics. The political game has changed to being all about grabbing attention in a crowded attention market. You have to be bombastic, charismatic and combative to cut through the noise. You cannot just hope for logic and facts to win out. They will eventually, but way past the time frame that politicians have to win elections.
This is what Trump intuitively knows that Democrats don't. The Republicans actually did course correct after Romney lost. Their course correction was not noticed by Democrats. Democrats thought that running a lunatic like Trump would be bad for them. Republicans knew they had to break the media hold that Democrats had and needed to break up the liberal consensus.
Trump by frequently challenging the media and Republicans backing him up along with alternative media both conservative and leftist-populist helped undermine the legitimacy of the mainstream media. At the same time social media influencers, podcasters, YouTubers, etc gained huge followings. They did so by offering something different than what mainstream media figures could present. On top of that some of the main mainstream sources put themselves behind pay walls making them super vulnerable to critics as many people couldn't even see what they were publishing.
Meanwhile conservative alternative media, podcasting, social media influencers are rarely if ever behind paywalls.
Democrats thought they could just ignore this noise like they ignored AM talk radio in the past. Nope. Now the alternative media has a larger audience than the mainstream media. Social media and the internet is the primary way people get news. Democrats have to engage and have to build their own infrastructure there that is just as robust.
Furthermore they need to defend themselves from all the sides they are criticized on. They need to immediately have a response and immediately be able to throw something back at their critics.
None of this is "good" it's actually incredibly disruptive. Democrats also picked in hindsight the best candidate to beat Trump in 2020, but also the worst person to actually sell the office of the presidency. Joe Biden's age became the story and not the administration. Biden should have never considered running for a second term and Democrats should have had an open primary. Biden was never able to grab attention or actually get his message out. He couldn't rely on any media apparatus to do that for him either. Trump can do both. He can cut through and get attention and he has an entire partisan taped together media apparatus to hold water for him.
For lack of a better word Democrats need to capture more "low information" voters. People who barely pay attention and just general idiots.
In Nevada the Democratic senator won despite getting less votes than Harris. This is because many more Republicans didn't even bother voting for anyone but Trump in that state. The same thing happened in Arizona. If this trend continues the Republicans will have a very hard time post Trump. However it just highlights how many Trump voters are not actually paying attention fully and are mostly tuned out.
Trump for their attention she got them to listen. Biden/Harris could not this.
Never smoked, much less weed. I do have a dog though.
Try it in edible or liquid form.
In brownies might be an idea! Just thought of that.