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submitted 4 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

Rightwing playbooks used in past election campaigns are being dusted off for an all-out assault on the vice-president

For Barack Obama there was “birtherism” and a name they said sounded like a specific Middle East terrorist. For Hillary Clinton there was “Lock her up” and merchandise that said, “Trump that bitch”, “Hillary sucks but not like Monica” and “Life’s a bitch: don’t vote for one.”

Rightwing playbooks deployed in past election campaigns are being dusted off for an all-out assault against Vice-President Kamala Harris, the de facto Democratic nominee aiming to become the first Black woman and first person of south Asian descent to be US president.

It’s obvious that the Republicans are going to play the race and gender card, which we’ve seen already in some of the attacks on social media,” said Tara Setmayer, a Black woman who is co-founder and chief executive of the Seneca Project, a women-led super political action committee. “It may be catnip for their Maga base but it will be a turnoff for the moderate voters in the battleground states that will determine this election.”

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[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 134 points 4 months ago

Good. The uglier they get, the more people will be turned off. Plenty of people who are racist but don't consider themselves to be racist do not like the overt racists.

[-] dogsnest@lemmy.world 66 points 4 months ago

#MAGA already has all the bigots and racists.

Doubling the shit won't attract more maggots.

[-] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 48 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

My dad is almost one of the the people FlyingSquid talking about; he's a Democrat and kind of racist, but he doesn't see himself as a racist. Someone like a more Republican version of my dad might be persuaded to vote for Harris, or at least not vote for Trump, if the Trump campaign gets too nasty.

Don't forget that magats aren't the only people who would potentially vote for Trump; a lot of people are swing voters who, for some reason, have a hard time deciding who to vote for. Neither candidate can win without appealing to a majority of those voters.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 24 points 4 months ago

Yep. My grandmother, born in the first decade of the 20th century, had some pretty racist ideas. But when she lived in the UK, she always voted Labour and when she emigrated to the U.S. and became a citizen, she always voted Democrat. And she died before Obama was elected, but I have no doubt she would have voted for Obama even if she had pretty obvious racist issues with her black next-door neighbor.

Reminds me of the story going around during the 2008 election about the canvasser in the south being told by a white person, "we're voting for the n-!"

[-] Nougat@fedia.io 14 points 4 months ago

Reminds me of the story going around during the 2008 election about the canvasser in the south being told by a white person, "we're voting for the n-!"

Canvasser: "... Okay!"

[-] assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago

"I.. I guess that... I'll just mark it down as a win and move on"

[-] glockenspiel@programming.dev 8 points 4 months ago

I have family that are similar. I wouldn’t classify them as racist, but they straddle that line with opinions. I’ve never seen or heard them classify an entire group of people or act discriminatory in person. It is more along the lines of “everyone is equal and nobody should get special treatment” regarding things like affirmative action or the more extreme DEI practices of some companies.

My experience is such that these people can be reached if we keep the lines of communication open rather than do the easy thing of cutting them off. I’ve been able to use their own logic and verbiage (especially verbiage) against them but one can’t go in guns blazing. To change minds, it must feel like their idea. Turn the heat up slowly and introduce doubt and ideas.

My big take away, with people like I described above, is that they are reacting to the more extreme people who would feel right at home in the racist far right if things were just a tad different. Cultural warriors and grievance politics leaders are cancerous regardless of which side of the spectrum they occupy because their goal remains the same: divide the normal people and turn us against each other.

And judging by what happens in my extended family and how it is breaking down on political lines… it is sadly working.

[-] cybervseas@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago

more extreme DEI practices of some companies

Could you share some companies or practices you know of that were extreme? I ask not as a challenge but to learn more.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 13 points 4 months ago

MAGA are going to vote for Trump regardless. They're also only 30% of the country, so he needs more than them to win.

I'm not sure why so many people don't get that and say things like this.

[-] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 30 points 4 months ago

Despite what many believe on Lemmy, there are also people who only vote Republican for financial reasons and try to ignore the racism and bigotry of the party. I personally know a few that intend to abstain in the fall now.

[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 19 points 4 months ago

These are the people that need to see what the GOP actually is. Take the whole mask off GOP, do it.

[-] Infynis@midwest.social 13 points 4 months ago

It's about the table full of Nazis

[-] Carrolade@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago

Yep. Every once in awhile I like to watch some former Trump voters talk about why they won't vote for him. It's heartening:

https://youtu.be/0-Rr8UhaZ9Y

[-] nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 4 months ago

Careful a lot of them will still vote for him.

[According to] Ange-Marie Hancock, director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State University. She also happens to lead a group of scholars studying the current vice presidency. Their work is called the Kamala Harris Project…

what's interesting about how it impacts swing voters or independent voters is certainly on the surface, if you were to survey independent voters or swing voters, I bet you would get a strong majority who would say, we really don't like that kind of language. We really don't like the way in which he talks about women or talks about his opponents in that kind of way. The challenge of course, is that many political psychologists have found that even as we kind of consciously say, we don't agree with it, it still ends up having a negative impact.”

From Consider This from NPR: Kamala Harris already faces racism and sexism from Trump and Republicans, Jul 24, 2024 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/consider-this-from-npr/id1503226625?i=1000663256947

There’s a deeper explanation in that (short) podcast in case anyone is curious.

this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2024
452 points (97.9% liked)

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