It’s just surreal, isn’t it?
Democrats don’t hate Trump. They don’t like what he is doing to our country and to the people in it. But, just like the candidate they support, they see all Americans as fellow citizens.
Trump supporters, OTOH, do hate the other (larger) half of the country, and feel the need to make a bunch of noise to make sure that that hatred is known.
Fits if one is ignoring Covid.
He’ll show up on local news, do local interviews, talk to local reporters, and it will be reported nationally that he’s campaigning in swing voters’ backyards. That stuff matters, and the optics of sitting at home doing nothing but YouTube videos would not be positive from a campaign perspective.
Come on. This isn’t a complicated question. You really expect him to sit at home doing YouTube and that’s it? Of course he’s going to go out and campaign! That’s his job as candidate.
Based off of thousands of social-media posts over the past few years, I’d disagree, but that’s a topic for another thread.
It would be more accurate to say that Democrats who hate Trump are more likely to do so because his demonstrated words and actions, whereas Republicans who hate Biden - and indeed any Democrat - are more likely to do so out of reflexive tribalism.
For example, Democrats might hate Trump because of his rallies, which have been repeatedly shown to be superspreader events resulting in spikes in illness and deaths of Americans - which Democrats happen to think is a bad thing - whereas Republicans might hate Biden simply for being the opposing candidate and denigrate him purely on that basis via creative interpretations of events.
Given that for the past four years, we’ve been hearing about how Clinton didn’t even visit Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, I disagree with this suggestion. Even in COVID-time, making campaign swings through the key states is important.
When it’s bolstered by shots of Biden and his small crowds respecting social distancing and masking, it supports his argument that COVID is serious and needs to be treated seriously.
Glad you agree that it’s reasonable and responsible to not gather large crowds together where they may spread the virus, infect others and potentially kill them. Biden’s campaign understands this. Trump’s campaign apparently does not understand it, or does not care if some of their supporters get sick or die.
Trump’s rallies are not really campaign events. They are more like concerts, where fans go to hear some greatest hits, like “Lock her up” or “Deep State”, or “Lamestream Media”. People love to hear the greatest hits. Plus, there might be a chance of new material, like a new insult, or perhaps a new conspiracy theory. Some of Trump’s concert fans actually go from rally to rally, much like the DeadHeads who used to go to every Grateful Dead concert.
It’s a spectacle. A circus. People enjoy the fun of it. And, many of them have been convinced that the virus is a hoax, and they will be fine. Some of these folks will contract Covid, and spread it around their communities, where others will get it, and some will die.
As to HOW does Biden’s campaign do it? Well, they don’t host these “concerts” for a start. They hold campaign events. They don’t have “superfans” who go to the concert and buy hats and other branded merchandise. The Biden campaign deliberately holds small events. It’s not hard to imagine how a campaign can do this… It’s really not.
I’m actually starting to wonder just how many of his voters Trump is going to kill or sicken and how much that is going to influence the November 3 vote, especially in the mid-western states that are getting particularly hard hit right now.
I must respectfully disagree. Biden is my ideal candidate; moderate, hard working, invested in the details, sincere, compassionate.
In my view, Biden is all substance with little style. On the other hand, Trump is all style with NO SUBSTANCE! I have been waiting for two weeks to hear Trumps substance for almost five years. My enthusiasm is for the guy I KNOW will be doing the job if I am watching or not. Not the guy who only cares about how he looks posing as a ‘doer’.
Just because I despise Trump does not mean I do not admire Biden – I do. (Does not mean I hang on every word he says.)
For clarification, I don’t merely mean “respect” or “like.” I am referring to the cultish charisma it takes to draw huge crowds. Jim Jones had it, and he certainly wasn’t a nice guy. Trump has it. Biden doesn’t.
People may like or respect Biden, but he is certainly not a figure you could or would build a cult around. Nobody has ever spoke of Biden in messianic terms.
You say that like it’s a bad thing. Democrats don’t want a cult figure, they want someone who can effectively run this country. (And before you say “Obama”, the people who spoke of him in messianic terms were Republicans, because at that time they apparently pretended to be against that kind of thing, unlike now with Trump.)
I have a memory that reporters covering the Michael Dukakis campaign in 1988 pointed out what large and enthusiastic crowds he got in his nonstop, cross-country trip the last weekend before the election.
Remember how well that worked for Dukakis?
How is this even a question?
There’s a serious pandemic going on. Public gatherings are a serious danger. So a responsible person like Biden is not holding any large rallies.
Political rallies aren’t necessary. Their purpose is to stroke the candidate’s ego and to provide footage for campaign ads. Biden apparently doesn’t need his ego stroked and he already has a solid lead and doesn’t have to endanger his supporters.
Ha, when I saw this in my “new” threads, my thought was… “Velocity or Sam_Stone?”
I’m pretty sure it’s not.
Replace “Biden” with “Hillary” and you’ve hit 2016 on the head, too.
Plus, and this is JMHO, Biden/Harris supporters are secure enough in our beliefs that we don’t need to see and be seen.
I personally went to a huge rally for Walter Mondale in 1984.Thousands of people. We all know how that election turned out. I learned, way back then, that rally size means nothing.
In a clusterfuck Iowa Trump rally tonight, thousands of supporters were left in 20 degree weather with a 3 mile walk to their cars.
Trump has big crowds because he doesn’t care about his supporters. Biden has small crowds because he does care about his supporters. It’s just that simple.
So the Biden events must be staged. I suspect the people at most of them are Secret Service, campaign staff, and mybe some local party bigwigs and such. Because if they were advertized events I can’t imagjne less than a few hundred showing up.
And I’m totally okay with that. Biden showed up, which shows he cares about the location he is in, and gets a few opportunities to give interviews to local TV people. The video goes on Youtube and gets replayed in media, which gets the message out.
And Trump gets big crowds because he’s an entertainer. People have fun at his rallies. He tells jokes, makes faces, works the crowd, and they enjoy it. I’m not sure that necessarily translates into support in the election though. If some of those people are apolitical and just there for the show, they might not show up on election day.
I could buy all that. And correct people on the right when they claim that the small Biden crowds indicate a total lack of enthusiasm. If the rallies are staged, they mean nothing at all. It’s just a video shoot. And there’s nothing wrong with it.
I hate to participate in an ‘us against them’ discussion, I really do. But this seems very accurate to me in my corner of the world – my own life experiences. It also seems to match the reporting of the overall country in the larger scale.
No, I understood you completely. I was poking a bit of fun at myself for admiring the uncharismatic nerdy guy who does everyone’s homework for them. I was also making fun of any Trump supporter who does not recognize the value of the dedicated, hard working and sincere man of character and principle. The man who has substance rather than style – the man who cares about others as much as he cares about himself if they support him or not and shows respect for his fellows by not packing them into potentially dangerous rallies.
Hard to believe this Trump guy is having difficulty being reelected, isn’t it?