Because apparently half of the active voters in this country are either greedy corporate cunts, wealthy sociopaths, MAGA morons, authoritarian Christian ideologue crazies, psuedo-intellectual "centrists"/independents that somehow conflate basic human respect for minorities and outright fascism as "both sides are the same", or some combination thereof. Those type of people are the type that think the ends always justify the means and that the ends they want is a US that looks like a cross between A Handmaid's Tale, Atlas Shrugged, and modern day Russia. It is one of the most disheartening realizations of my adult life to learn that so many of my fellow Americans are fucking vile people.

Do keep in mind, that roughly half of voters is not the same as roughly half of Americans. The highest turnout of voting eligible people in the last century was only 66.6% in 2020. Basically every Trump nut votes. It is there entire reason for being these days, to support and vote for Trump. And in 2020, Trump only got 46.9% of the popular vote, i.e. only 33.03% of the US voting eligible actually cast a vote for Trump. The rest of us are either actively trying to stop Trump or are at least not actively supporting him. The absolute BEST thing we can do as a country is to bump those numbers up. There is no excuse for 1 in 3 people to not vote, leaving another 1 in 3 people to have disproportionate power over everyone else's lives. Complacency and apathy or counting on enough others to do their civic duty so you don't have to is how Trump wins again. Vote and make every single person you know go vote too. Tell them to register. Tell them to vote early if that is more convenient for them. Whatever. Just go vote.

Update: The second best thing you can do is vote for state and federal epresentatives and leaders that will advocate for election reforms like joining the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) and/or abolishing the electoral college, fighting Gerrymandering, establishing new, more fair and representative voting systems (Ranked Choice, Approval, Proportional, etc.), term limits, etc. The goal is for representative government is to actually represent the popular will of their voters. It absolutely does NOT do that right now. That should be our first and greatest goal for our government.

because Trump has spent the last 9 years going so low, his cult no longer has standards. anyone would look like a saint compared to him.

Black. Female.

A nice illustration is Republican media operatives are trying to attack Harris with "we checked with McDonald's corporate and they have no record of her working there!". For one, McD's is franchisees and I doubt corporate tracks every burger flipper. Next, of course they're trying to claim she's dishonest, but what about the greater question: Did fuckin Trump ever come anywhere near McDonald's? No, he inherited about $400 million, has misconstrued it it repeatedly ('a small loan of a million dollars', as if that is relatable either) and has never had any sort of normal job that required discipline or labor, ever.

I keep seeing the same bozos say they're the same

One is literally a criminal rapist who has made tens of thousands of public lies, doesn't pay contractors, and said obvious non sensensical stuff during covid leading to mass deaths and whose own ex staff warns he is an asshole.

The other is a normal person you could probably eat lunch with. She's absolutely normal.

Because Democrats want someone who will run the country and Republicans just want someone who will maintain their minority control. We are concerned for the country, they are scared for their very existence and self reflection itself is dangerous for their existence. Basically self reflection is necessary for what Democrats want to do, and it fatal for what Republicans want. So we do it, and Republicans avoid it at all costs. We get a Kamala who we hold to a high standard, they get a Trump who can punch them in the face and they'll still support him because of the party.

Okay so here's dinner context you may be unaware of. I believe it was Newt Gingrich who either came up with or standardized the core modern republican propaganda pillar: Attack attack attack, always attack, never compromise, concede only if you have literally no choice, then attack harder. That's why the left has slid so far center; they keep trying to compromise and the right will not budge. Now the Democrats look like the Republicans back in the 80s, which is why I call them Republicrats.

Meanwhile Dems are trying to hold themselves to at least some level of standard. Add to that that Trump and his kind are authoritarian; their psychology allows for no criticism of any kind, seeing them exclusively as attacks against them. So now you have not only GOP and Trump cultists jumping on every single thing they can as hard as they can, and the self-aware Democrats calling out what they perceive as bad. The Republicans won't do that; they never attack their own side without orders from the top, which indicates to them that the target is out of favor with the leadership.

Tldr; because the Democrats refuse to accept that the Republicans can't be beaten by playing nice.

Over a million deaths from covid...

Because the media is heavily conservative and advertising driven.

Giving republicans new things to throw at Kamala is the #1 priority of the news right now because they need a close race to sell ads.

Years of ownership by conservative billionaires and pundits has also saturated the media environment with a broad conservative tilt. This is why you don't see a lot of articles about why like immigration went up under trump etc.

Bigotry and idiocy

Because Trump being an asshole has stopped being a novel newsworthy event.

Because the people who own news corps are hella rich, and hella rich people mostly prefer Trump because he’s gonna give them a HUGE tax break again.

Because racism and sexism is still very prevalent in the US.

She is a minority. And she is a woman.

The news is a shit hole funded by the ultra wealthy who will benefit from Trump's tax cuts for the ultra wealthy. Which explains the coverage.

Many voters are still racist and sexist. Which explains the polls.

Because she’s a black woman who has demonstrated herself capable of behaving appropriately. Meanwhile a trump is not only a rich white geriatric man whose political career has kept expectations low, he’s also Donald trump, a reality tv star, which must be compared to Dr. Harris, former DA of San Francisco, a nationally significant city.

So yeah: racism, sexism, and past behavior.

republicans have such a low media standard, while democrats have such a high media standard that they're busy eating themselves over it.

republicans will literally run anybody living and breathing, democrats want the next FDR basically. Thankfully it seems like the dem party is finally moving away from this mostly useless social campaign bullshit, and more into the "broad political problems" shit which actually matters (the federal government is also way more functional from this perspective) if this continues, whether the dems win or lose this cycle, the dems will have a formidable and quite strong campaign machine. Once the media unfucks itself, which is bound to happen with how people are treating it (keep treating it like shit) we should have a pretty strong basis to run on.

It's looking like the dems are building up a strong political base right now, at the expense of the republican party not existing, and as long as we don't kill it, things will continue to get better.

Literally all we have to do, is capture the moderate voter, focus on popular policies rather than left leaning/dem policy shit. And then campaign on energy, rather than policy.