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Joe Rogan has finally endorsed Trump after his podcast with Elon, seemingly swayed by Elon’s persuasive ability in his making of “the most compelling case for Trump you’ll hear”, with Rogan agreeing him “every step of the way”. It’s interesting as a sort of demographic signal for whatever psychology you think Rogan is closest to in terms of the electorate, as most people think of him as a typology of the male base which consumes his podcast. It’s somewhat telling that he only did this at the very end after the possibility of a Kamala interview was absolutely off-the-table, as the irony is that Rogan’s male base is also similarly completely not the target of any communication from the Kamala campaign, sidelined for the young female demographic completely in terms of appealing to one principal issue (abortion) to the exclusion of anything else besides “we’re at least not Trump!”.
The latter argument would have worked better if Trump was running without the associated star-power of RFK, Elon, Gabbard, etc., all of whom Rogan has tremendous respect for individually, collectively allowing the scales to tip in terms of Trump being the figurehead bringing everyone to the finish line.
Incidentally I don’t think Rogan has voted for any Republican Presidential candidate before, and still was resistant even after the trauma of the pandemic (which changed his perspective on a lot of CW topics). The fact that the guy was a Bernie supporter not too long ago just signals how big of a shift there has been.
This probably doesn’t mean anything substantial (especially as a large chunk of Rogan’s fanbase is probably already Trump sympathetic) but it’s still an interesting development in the anxiety preceding the election tomorrow. What do you think?
I don’t think it will move the needle much, but I think his interviews with Trump/Vance/Musk did by a few fractions of a percent at least.
I do think one thing that has been lost is that Kamala will probably struggle with men more than Trump struggles with women. The Kamala campaign has aggressively refused to appeal to men, with their weak attempts doing more harm than good.
On top of that, Biden was the “reasonable” choice that “reasonable” men could get behind. Now that the Biden admin is viewed as a bit of a failed hysterical clown show, the “reasonable” masculine thing to do is vote for Trump. Centrist men in my experience feel Dems had their chance and they botched it. “Go to your room and think about what you’ve done, and maybe next time we’ll vote for you” energy. They did the same to Trump last time
Kamala Harris and the Democrats think you don't have to appeal to men; the way to get men's to vote for Democrats is to tell them they should do it for women. The Gillette ad some time ago showed that, and Harris's "weak attempts" aren't much different. The idea is that voting for Trump is a betrayal of any women in their lives -- "How could you [vote for that bad orange man]?" is the idea. Problem is it might work; plenty of men are "responsible" enough to ignore their own interests in the favor of the perceived interests of women.
True, but this idea is fading hard, especially among the younger generation. Women are so strongly protected by the Daddy State that many men feel no obligation.
Given the relative outcomes in terms of higher educational attainment, life expectancy, suicide rates, gender-specific advocacy/scholarships/celebration, etc., I can't believe there are still men who feel compelled to give up anything to further support women in 2024.
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