DrBanneker
Space is the Place
In no particular order:
This was not a policy election. Also, for the people who sat out, I think one thing to remember is we were all in the middle of a pandemic and mail-in-ballots were everywhere. This past election went back to status quo for a lot of places so it might not have been as accessible for folks to want to come out if they were still on the fence.
- Economy
- Harris' sex and race
- Stronger conservative media apparatus
I think you have a good point...but they thought that too at first which is why the Politics of Joy and having Megan/Taylor/Cardi endorse her seemed to be her only moves to sway the undecided, especially the young starting out.
While policy wasn't the main thing, claiming it didn't matter and that she should have kept her mouth shut and leaned into the politics of Joy more wasn't the answer either. The MAGA leaning crowd were not going to be swayed...the people who saw nothing but two evils or no reason to vote and stayed home or didn't vote early (despite having voted in 2020) were what she should have gone after differently.
What she needed to do was have a clearer, decisive vision and then have specific policy to back it up. She had the vibes, then threw together the policy, then celebrity endorsements but not a clear, compelling vision. Being tethered to Biden obviously made it harder but she came off as milquetoast and the country didn't want that.
For all Trump is, that 'vision' (and his cult) are how he could say as much dumb and contradictory stuff that he wanted and people would look past it to their MAGA fantasy.