- Joined
- Oct 30, 2004
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I think part of it is about how uniquely bad Trump is. A lot of people are going to vote for the Republican candidate no matter what--they grew up doing that, everyone they know does, etc. That's normal, but most of them can also see how corrupt and incompetent Trump is. So the way they justify it to themselves (and the way a lot of Republican-aligned media sells it) is that, OK, fine, Trump is bad, but his opponent is even worse. Similarly, you have a lot of people who see themselves as above the fray and see it as uncool to openly favor one candidate over the other (and this is everyone in the mainstream news, basically). They can't really deny that Trump is what he is so the only way to go is to exaggerate all of Biden's flaws to the point that they're seen as at least near equals.
I think if you said back in 2010 that in 2024, one party was going to nominate a guy who was a convicted felon who had spent his life as a crook and generally a person of low morals and who didn't have any knowledge of public policy (without naming the party or person), people who pay close attention to politics and human nature could have predicted that rather than a 70-30 presidential race, you'd have another near-even race with widespread hatred for the other guy.
