Another article discussing nervous Democrats who insist on remembering 2016 in the wrong way:
The polls are once again delivering feel-good boosts to Democrats: Joe Biden beats President Trump by 10, 11 or 12 points nationally, depending on the day. His edge in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin averages eight. Propeller-heads promise better than 4 in 5 odds of a new president next year.
But then the partisans remember they have been here before, four years ago this week. The conflicting emotions can be overwhelming.
“I am feeling anxious and trapped between a sense of unbridled optimism and sheer dread,” said Abington Township, Pa., Commissioner Bill Bole, who like many Democrats never thought Trump could beat Hillary Clinton in 2016 and was stunned when he did. [WaPo]
It’s easy to be overwhelmed with the emotions of past shocks, but it helps, in situations like this in which a repeat is feared, to concentrate on the substantive differences between last time and this time. Here’s what I’ve found useful:
- Now voters know Trump. He was an unknown quantity last time. Now, his conduct and lack of honesty are well known.
- His conduct gives voters ammunition to use on Trump voters. If you know a Trump voter, ask them if they’re religious, and if they are affirmative, then ask them to explain how their religion can possibly excuse them voting for a brazen and chronic liar. If not, I’m sure you can find another approach that uses that shitload of documented lies to crack open some daylight. The trick is to be prepared and anticipate retorts, prevarication, and other maneuvers by people desperate to bypass their own morality in order to vote their fears and/or avariciousness.
- News organizations are smarter. A lie is now called a lie by reporters. The good ones tell readers their source for identifying the lie, so the reader can verify it. In 2016, too many readers just swallowed the lies whole, since they were not warned and they accorded with the biases, hidden or not, of the audiences.
- Americans are smarter. Clinton was burdened with multiple lies told by Republicans and Russians. This time around, Democrats, moderate Republicans, and independents, all disgusted by the mendacity of a Republican leadership made up of third-raters, have learned to take in the news warily. The recently Hunter Biden article in the New York Post, a Rupert Murdoch property, has already been revealed to have dubious origins and a ridiculous story-line. QAnon cultists may point at it with enthusiasm, but the rest of us, on due consideration, will just shake our heads and disregard it.
- Biden isn’t Clinton. It’s not fair to Clinton, but the Republicans had built a bad reputation for her over decades. Biden was not regarded as a threat after two impotent Presidential runs, was left alone, and now he’s on a roll.
I realize this won’t help the chronically nervous, but this is how I view it – optimistically, even if I’m disappointed in so many of my fellow citizens in buying into such terrible mendacity.
