With due respect to Lichtman, external factors are just background most years. If a substantial portion of people think you hate them, criticism of the candidate who sits back and says, “They hate you, see that?” goes precisely nowhere.
I could even grant you that the sitting president is like an internet comment section, like Cliff from Cheers without the sneaky smarts.
I would even grant you that staffing a ton of the executive branch with right-wing radio hosts is highly questionable. It’s the exact thing a TV president who is out of his depth would do.
But the Democratic Party’s counterpart to Cliff Clavin was…Tim Walz? An alleged football coach who doesn’t know what a “pick six” is? Not to mention that a guy who is father to a Downs Syndrome son sounds foolish defending unfettered abortion rights. If it’s really true that you believe Republican efforts to restrict abortion access have unanticipated bad effects, handle it legislatively. Trump/Vance on abortion are first-term Bill Clinton; if that’s beyond the pale even 30 years later, you’re screwed, with extra sauce. Bob Casey, Jr. isn’t a tenth as courageous as his father, but you didn’t even give him a call. Look me in the face and tell me that Tim Walz could pull GOP votes better than Gov. Bel Edwards. Maybe Ohio won’t be in play for some time, but I know Walz didn’t make it close.
By some slow-motion train wreck, Trump’s GOP has pulled so many rank-and-file Democrats that RFK’s son and Tulsi Gabbard, whose state hasn’t even flirted with voting Republican since I was four, are Trump supporters! I’d classify them as liberal fools, but here we are.
Some analyst classifies Joe Rogan’s podcast as Right-coded. What in the world? If the type of men who watch MMA and listen to Joe Rogan won’t vote for the Democratic nominee, the Democrats are in big trouble.
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