The US Presidency 2020

[Brad Sallows]

The point isn't that he gets a freebie; the point isn't even about the merits of his idea.  The point is that "the media" is discredited every time some flack initiates or perpetuates a misrepresentation or outright falsehood  "The media" doesn't get any freebies either. 

 

[Retired AF Guy]

The point isn't that he gets a freebie; the point isn't even about the merits of his idea.  The point is that "the media" is discredited every time some flack initiates or perpetuates a misrepresentation or outright falsehood  "The media" doesn't get any freebies either.

And how many "freebies" does the President get? Back in December 2019 is was around 15,000+. You can add a few hundred since then.

 

[Remius]

Cuts to the CDC are still on the Budget for 2021. Again.

 

[Brad Sallows]

>And how many "freebies" does the President get?

No idea.  Don't care.  My focus is on all the other institutions and organizations that are supposed to be in imminent danger of falling apart in Trump's hands - except that from where I sit, I can see that much of the lamented damage is self-inflicted.  I don't think "But Trump!" is a constructive response.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Yep.  A lot of his base thinks this is all a hoax.  They like the President don’t believe the science.  They also will believe him when he says he didn’t cut the White House Pandemic team or made cuts to the cdc.  It does not matter what he says and does, they’ll vote for him regardless.  But a lot of his base are of the age that is more susceptible to this pandemic.  they might not be around when the election rolls around.  But the rest will still love him for it and how he had “tremendous control” over the virus.  Moderates and fence sitters though might think twice though about voting him in.

The pandemic could easily wipe out the entire top tier Dem candidates as well, along with a good chunk of the "middle of the road dem supporters".

Seems this gentleman disagrees with the accusation of cuts https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/16/no-white-house-didnt-dissolve-its-pandemic-response-office/?fbclid=IwAR26UlDfGISATfrDfMK91xPXRz5aWYnDbO4WQ4UBGc_qcd71W95iBXXK9NE

As for re-election chances, just remember Harold MacMillan words; “Events, dear boy, events,”

 

[Remius]

The pandemic could easily wipe out the entire top tier Dem candidates as well, along with a good chunk of the "middle of the road dem supporters".

Seems this gentleman disagrees with the accusation of cuts https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/16/no-white-house-didnt-dissolve-its-pandemic-response-office/?fbclid=IwAR26UlDfGISATfrDfMK91xPXRz5aWYnDbO4WQ4UBGc_qcd71W95iBXXK9NE

As for re-election chances, just remember Harold MacMillan words; “Events, dear boy, events,”

True, but I would argue most of them aren’t calling this fake news or a hoax.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

In the CCG and other lines of work,  I learned that the media gets about 40% of the story wrong, even when they don't have a bias. I have not seen much that makes me think the rate is any better these days.

 

[Remius]

In the CCG and other lines of work,  I learned that the media gets about 40% of the story wrong, even when they don't have a bias. I have not seen much that makes me think the rate is any better these days.

You make a good point.  Last week the media was reporting all 300k federal employees were told to stay home an a work from there.  That wasn’t what the Treasury board had actually sent out.  Create a lot of confusion.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Even if the reporter tries hard to get it right, the story gets massaged by editors for content, effect and size.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Yup, many reporters are generalists who cover a wide range of stuff and rarely get a chance to really get into the guts of a subject.

On the other hand, there's reporting and there's opinion -- the Washington Post piece cited up thread is clearly marked to be someone's opinion.

Can we count on opinion pieces to be any more free of bias or "factual triage"?  Or do opinion pieces become victim to the "believe it if I agree, cite it as fake news or biased if I disagree" confirmation bias?

 

[Colin Parkinson]

I have no doubt it is "one side of the story", but since the other side is being bandied about, I thought I add some colour.

 

[Remius]

Interesting analysis about Trump supporters going from “nothing to worry about” to “defcon 1”.  Literally on the words of the POTUS.


https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/maga-memo-virus-1.5501024

 

[The Bread Guy]

I have no doubt it is "one side of the story", but since the other side is being bandied about, I thought I add some colour.

For sure - the more tiles you see, the better view you have of the mosaic.

 

[mariomike]

A lot of his base thinks this is all a hoax.  They like the President don’t believe the science.  They also will believe him when he says he didn’t cut the White House Pandemic team or made cuts to the cdc.  It does not matter what he says and does, they’ll vote for him regardless.  But a lot of his base are of the age that is more susceptible to this pandemic.  they might not be around when the election rolls around.  But the rest will still love him for it and how he had “tremendous control” over the virus. 

For years now we've been hearing that the media is fake news.  So why would his base, that believes in that, follow any of the advice or news being passed on about COVID-19?  It makes a vulnerable group (older people, which make up a good chunk of his base) even more vulnerable because they won't heed the advice they are being told.

Thankfully, it looks like he, and FOX, are beginning to take it a bit more seriously now.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

When you have university people talking about 57 genders and are terrified of some "woke students" and cancel anything that offends them, their credibility takes a serious hit with the common folk. I know a lot of Trump supporters who are engineers, chemists, technical trade people. They believe in real science that is presented factually and without political or emotional agenda's attached to it. Having a distrust to a certain extent of government is actually healthy.

 

[Remius]

I actually applaud trump for one thing he did today.  He got called out about calling it the China virus.  He doubled down and essentially said Yeah, because it’s  from China.  When pressed he responded that China is trying to blame US soldiers for the virus and he said he wouldn’t let that happen. Hence the China Virus. 

I don’t blame him for doing that in the face of Chinese revisionism. 

 

[brihard]

Interesting analysis about Trump supporters going from “nothing to worry about” to “defcon 1”.  Literally on the words of the POTUS.


https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/maga-memo-virus-1.5501024

It's creepy. There's a sort of messianic thing going on there. People who are utterly convinced of the complete truth of something one day are convinced of the utter truth of the opposite hours later merely on his say so.

 

[dimsum]

It's creepy. There's a sort of messianic thing going on there. People who are utterly convinced of the complete truth of something one day are convinced of the utter truth of the opposite hours later merely on his say so.

"We've always been at war with Eastasia."

His base won't be swayed by truth, but I'll be interested to see how the moderates (if that's even a thing now in the US) go in Nov.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

There are a lot of people who vote Trump, well aware of his flaws, because they calculate that he will harm them less than the potentiel candidates of the Democratic party. Degenerating these people for making that calculation reinforces their conclusions. Trying to understand why they feel that way and maybe change messaging and policy proposals to alleviate those concerns would be the mature way to stop Trump. However the Dems appear to be in death throes and are not acting logically themselves. If Biden gets selected and does not win the election, I suspect we will see the Dems split into two distinct parties, with a political civil war between them. 

 

[mariomike]

Interesting analysis about Trump supporters going from “nothing to worry about” to “defcon 1”. 

Perhaps to save the base. They say Coronavirus hits the elderly hardest.

Fox appears to have a mostly aged demographic. The median age of a prime-time viewer was 68 as of 2015.

According to a 2013 Gallup poll, 94% of Fox viewers "Either identify as or lean Republican".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_News#Demographics

Younger adults voted Democratic by a wide margin.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/11/08/the-2018-midterm-vote-divisions-by-race-gender-education/