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Goodguy  11hr ago (text post)   Edited 8hr ago   3950 thread views

Midterms Megathread

Cause otherwise midterms discussion will be scattered around a bunch of separate Culture War thread posts. And it's nice to have more off-the-cuff rapid reactions in a dedicated megathread.

The first thing I've noticed so far: if the exit polls are correct, Americans are very pessimistic about AI.

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I guess all the "voters are stupid for caring about gas prices or a wrecked economy, destroying Iran is for our eternal glory!" talk does not actually win elections for Republicans.

Hopefully Republicans overcome their Israel fetish.

I said this down thread: Trump's approval has been in steady decline over the past two years, with a consistent drumbeat of bad news. It's gas and Iran, but it's also ICE goons and corruption and tariffs and being a vulgarian and...

(And it's also pushing bad candidates because they kissed the ring harder)

The vulgarian part doesn't matter much if things were going well otherwise. Or if there was no Iran issue and gas was cheap that would probably be good enough.

Don’t forget Epstein. If feels unserious to put Epstein in a list of impactful political phenomena, but we have to admit that the Epstein messaging was effective.

It was right wingers themselves that were beating the drums about a "client's list" for years, and fanning blatant falsehoods. So chalk that up as another self-own.

ICE goon fallout was simply the marginal electorate doing the "No, not like that!" meme for border enforcement.

I mean, yes. I predicted that a lot of voters who said they wanted stricter immigration enforcement would balk at the reality of what a mass deportation campaign looked like.

Yeah. ICE goonery was one of the things that was necessary medicine on an issue that's otherwise completely politically intractable.

Your flair is perfect for this

it's also ICE goons and corruption and tariffs and being a vulgarian and...

Honestly, its just Gas/Iran. If you see polls about immigration, the public trust republicans more. He was a vulgarian from the get go so that probably wasnt as big of a deal. Tarrifs were certainly not helping things. I dont think many people know about the corruption.

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