2020 Presidential Election

[camion]

Disagree. I experienced this in a very real way at NC State. It is well known that there is a significant lack in political diversity in most universities.

I can't imagine this even cracks most folks top 20 issues for this election.

Trump can try to make it an issue, but it just seems like a distraction t hat is unlikely to gain any traction.

There will probably be more distractions, lots of them. Maybe one will stick. It's a strategy that might help the Trump camp. I think a messy, distraction filled campaign would be better for Trump than a simple one with Coronavirus, Economy and Black Lives getting lots of play.

[MartyClark]

Disagree. I experienced this in a very real way at NC State. It is well known that there is a significant lack in political diversity in most universities.

I can't imagine this even cracks most folks top 20 issues for this election.

Trump can try to make it an issue, but it just seems like a distraction t hat is unlikely to gain any traction.

I have roots in very conservative political and religious communities. I can tell you that Trump's argument about left leaning professors and universities resonates with many people in those communities.

The vast majority of them will vote for Trump regardless of this issue but Trump's recent statement confirms their world view.

[jv001]

If Trump was picking his targets more carefully, maybe only focusing on CNN or the NY Times or Wa Post or NSNBC, then I think he could be effective at raising questions and doubt in a large segment of the American people, but by carpet bombing pretty much everyone in the mainstream media world I suspect he has turned off a lot of voters that he might have been persuadable to his side.

To be clear, it is not just his attacks on the media that have done this. It is his twitter tirades, attacks on international allies, and other stuff that just falls outside the norms of what Presidents of any party have done in the past.

I think we can all agree that the voting populace is made up of a) people who care passionately about certain issues and b) people who don't. Group A -- whether they care about abortion or taxes or health care or immigration or racial justice or whatever -- pick the candidate they back based on whoever comes closest to them on the issues. I suspect that group makes up a good 70-80% of the electorate. But there is a group that, frankly, don't really know or care that much about the issues. These are the folks who swing from Dem to GOP from election to election often based on "who would you rather have a beer with" or "general likability." Despite some "out there" statements during the campaign, I think Trump did a pretty nice job of winning those folks in 2016. I think he is doing a wretched job of winning them in 2020. And I think attacks on the media, some of which almost appear to be something out of a crazy conspiracy theory, are part of why those folks are largely turned off.

-Jason "I doubt anyone reads the above and finds it a revelation, but I don't feel like we talk enough about how Trump's lack of.. well... 'normalcy' is impacting the election" Evans

Some very good takes on the Trump attacks and the types of voters.
First on the Trump attacks. I believe how Trump attacked the news outlets who didn't agree with him was more important than who he attacked. He made himself look like a child that had been punished by his parents than a President of the greatest country on earth. But this is his nature and I don't see it changing. I've seen posts on the Basketball thread that has called some of these news outlets "click bait" news.
Second on the types of voters: I agree with Jason on the two types of voters. Type A being those voters that care about certain issues and type B who don't. Personally I'm type A. I do care about abortion, taxes, health care, immigration, racial injustice and strong military. I don't care if the candidate is Republican or Democrat. I will always vote for the platform they run on and Jason is right Trump has turned off voters in type a and type b in my opinion.

[budwom]

Meanwhile, it's a pretty nice afternoon in Portsmouth, NH...rally canceled for "bad weather" despite the fact the track of the storm is a couple hundred miles away, but you can't be too careful.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Meanwhile, it's a pretty nice afternoon in Portsmouth, NH...rally canceled for "bad weather" despite the fact the track of the storm is a couple hundred miles away, but you can't be too careful.

HA!! I was wondering about that. I looked up the NHC website today, and Fay is forgotten.
PS...the campaign said it was "postponed", so it will be interesting to see if it rescheduled or not.

[sagegrouse]

Disagree. I experienced this in a very real way at NC State. It is well known that there is a significant lack in political diversity in most universities.

I can't imagine this even cracks most folks top 20 issues for this election.

Trump can try to make it an issue, but it just seems like a distraction t hat is unlikely to gain any traction.

There is political diversity in unviersities, I believe (humor me for a moment). It just doesn't overlap very much with the body politic. Robert Reich, who was Clinton's Secretary of Labor -- always filled by a liberal in Democratic administrations -- and an opponent inside government of the military conflicts that Clinton undertook, such as in Bosnia and Kosovo. After leaving government, Reich said he went from being the most liberal member of the Clinton Cabinet to being the most conservative professor at Berkeley.

[budwom]

HA!! I was wondering about that. I looked up the NHC website today, and Fay is forgotten.
PS...the campaign said it was "postponed", so it will be interesting to see if it rescheduled or not.

Dogged rumors of little expectation of a crowd, especially once the Governor (a Republican) said he wouldn't be there. Can't afford another Tulsa style letdown.

Can we actually have large rallies right now? Maybe, but not in the Northeast would be my guess...

p.s. as I write this, Fay is right on top of us, dropping buckets of badly needed rain...(207 miles from Portsmouth, NH)

[OldPhiKap]

Meanwhile, it's a pretty nice afternoon in Portsmouth, NH...rally canceled for "bad weather" despite the fact the track of the storm is a couple hundred miles away, but you can't be too careful.

Cloudy, with a chance of embarrassment.

[JasonEvans]

Just wanted to note that many folks, myself included, have been doing a poor job of hiding their partisanship lately. If you oppose a candidate, make every effort to show that candidate more respect then usual when you write about him.

[JasonEvans]

There is political diversity in unviersities, I believe (humor me for a moment). It just doesn't overlap very much with the body politic. Robert Reich, who was Clinton's Secretary of Labor -- always filled by a liberal in Democratic administrations -- and an opponent inside government of the military conflicts that Clinton undertook, such as in Bosnia and Kosovo. After leaving government, Reich said he went from being the most liberal member of the Clinton Cabinet to being the most conservative professor at Berkeley.

It is a demonstrated polling fact that the higher your education, the more likely you are to be liberal. Professors are almost always at the highest end of the ejamacashun scale so they are the most likely to be liberal. Whether this is a function of already liberal professors pushing their students in a liberal direction or a function of the acquisition of knowledge pushing you toward that end of the political spectrum, I do not know and will not speculate about in this forum.

[CrazyNotCrazie]

This Wednesday Trump is scheduled to do an event at a UPS facility in Hapeville (near the airport - also the home of Chik-fil-a) to discuss his transportation agenda. I'm not sure, but I think this is more of a traditional visit and not a rally with crowds, though I could be wrong. Georgia is potentially in play, plus has two senate seats up for grabs.

[OldPhiKap]

This Wednesday Trump is scheduled to do an event at a UPS facility in Hapeville (near the airport - also the home of Chik-fil-a) to discuss his transportation agenda. I'm not sure, but I think this is more of a traditional visit and not a rally with crowds, though I could be wrong. Georgia is potentially in play, plus has two senate seats up for grabs.

Not scheduled as a rally (as of now):

https://www.ajc.com/blog/politics/tr...5bgbPnxRowkXJ/

[Skydog]

It is a demonstrated polling fact that the higher your education, the more likely you are to be liberal. Professors are almost always at the highest end of the ejamacashun scale so they are the most likely to be liberal. Whether this is a function of already liberal professors pushing their students in a liberal direction or a function of the acquisition of knowledge pushing you toward that end of the political spectrum, I do not know and will not speculate about in this forum.

Also academics by nature tends to reward the intellectually curious who are open to expanding their understanding of the world. Research is about discovering new understandings and exploring new ways of thinking, which is the opposite of holding on to and honoring tradition. And academics certainly is not about accepting beliefs based on subjective “faith” over evidence, meaning religion is also not a natural fit. Add in the fact that academics tend to be poor until their 30’s and have to be willing to move all over the country, wherever grad school and tenure pursuit leads them and you weed out most undergraduates who are into making money or staying close to home and family as high priorities.

Note that Im not denying that this naturally grows into a bit of a self-reinforcing group think. Nor am I denying there can be intolerance of conservative political values. Im just saying it shouldn’t be surprising that people drawn to research and teaching tend to be liberal. It also has the positive value of opening up the eyes of students who have lived a very sheltered parochial life. I know plenty of conservatives who believe that college opened them up in a good way even though they didn’t buy into all of it hook, line and sinker.

tldr; Its not a conspiracy of the left — its just that the temperament the academic profession draws by its very nature does not mesh neatly with the conservative values of honoring tradition, religion, family, or respecting authority for its own sake. Nor does it naturally draw in undergraduates focused on wealth accumulation, a value which is a big focus of the present day GOP. So yeah, lots of professors are liberal Democrats.

[dudog84]

This Wednesday Trump is scheduled to do an event at a UPS facility in Hapeville (near the airport - also the home of Chik-fil-a) to discuss his transportation agenda. I'm not sure, but I think this is more of a traditional visit and not a rally with crowds, though I could be wrong. Georgia is potentially in play, plus has two senate seats up for grabs.

I'll go if they're serving up Nuggets. Anyone with me?

[CameronBornAndBred]

We've talked about the effectiveness of the Lincoln Project and the ads they have been running. This is an interesting behind the scenes article probing the mentality that drives them.

A political campaign built around making videos designed to bait the president of the United States into overreacting would almost certainly have been a total waste of time at any other moment under any other commander in chief.

But Donald Trump is unlike any other president.

“If he responds, we know we’ve had some effectiveness,” Reed Galen, a co-founder of the Lincoln Project, told Yahoo News. “It’s not just a matter of trolling him. That’s fine, but that’s not the point. The point is to throw him off his game politically, strategically, personally.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/the-linco...220432185.html

[Steven43]

Disagree. I experienced this in a very real way at NC State. It is well known that there is a significant lack in political diversity in most universities.

I can't imagine this even cracks most folks top 20 issues for this election.

Trump can try to make it an issue, but it just seems like a distraction t hat is unlikely to gain any traction.

Well, the fact is those with a college degree are far more likely to be politically progressive/liberal than politically conservative. And since one needs a college degree to become a college professor the pool of available candidates is obviously going to tilt significantly towards those who are more politically progressive/liberal than conservative. Simple.

[Steven43]

It is a demonstrated polling fact that the higher your education, the more likely you are to be liberal. Professors are almost always at the highest end of the ejamacashun scale so they are the most likely to be liberal. Whether this is a function of already liberal professors pushing their students in a liberal direction or a function of the acquisition of knowledge pushing you toward that end of the political spectrum, I do not know and will not speculate about in this forum.

Oops, I hadn’t read your post prior to my posting something similar. Oh well.

[jwillfan]

Just wanted to note that many folks, myself included, have been doing a poor job of hiding their partisanship lately. If you oppose a candidate, make every effort to show that candidate more respect then usual when you write about him.

Long time lurker, occasional bball poster. But I have an issue with this - are you saying that in this thread we have to be civil, nay even show respect to, the candidate we oppose if we post here? Since that's not possible for me, I'll go back to lurking. Smacks of censorship, not moderation.

[-jk]

Long time lurker, occasional bball poster. But I have an issue with this - are you saying that in this thread we have to be civil, nay even show respect to, the candidate we oppose if we post here? Since that's not possible for me, I'll go back to lurking. Smacks of censorship, not moderation.

It's that or we don't have this thread. Nothing wrong with lurking.

-jk

[dudog84]

Romney calls Trump's commutation of Stone "unprecedented, historic corruption." That's very strong, even for him. Will this sway any Rs, will the base shrink? They're not all gonna turn on him at once, certainly not in the next 4 months, but if it keeps crumbling around the edges...

I wonder if he wishes he had primaried Trump, he'll be 77 in 4 years (though septuagenarians may be the new normal ). If nothing else, Mitt is lining himself up to be the leader of the post-Trump party, when (this year or 4 years) and if (I'm not sure the establishment Rs get their party back) that happens.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...mnP?li=BBnb7Kz