#Key Voters

[artfuljournal]

Trump's Message of American Decline Strikes a Chord with Key Voters

While Kamala Harris made an impact during the debate, former President Donald Trump's message of rescuing a declining America resonates strongly with undecided voters in crucial battleground regions like Saginaw, Michigan.

Decades ago, Paul Simon sang of a cross-country hitchhike from Saginaw, capturing the melancholy of a nation in transition. Even then, Saginaw was on a downward slope as Michigan's car factories began to shutter under foreign competition. Today, the desolation described in Simon and Garfunkel's ballads has only deepened.

On a quiet street in Saginaw, 57-year-old Rachel Oviedo sat on her porch, gazing at abandoned furniture and a defunct car parts plant that once served Chevrolet and Buick, which finally closed in 2014. "We sit here all day long," she shared, adding that the derelict factory has become a shelter for the homeless. "They need to tear it down and make something out of it—a grocery store, maybe, because we ain't got no grocery stores around here."

Undecided voters like Rachel, who represent the swing vote in Michigan's critical Saginaw County, are pivotal for the upcoming election. Rachel sees Trump as a "known quantity" and a "man of his word," whereas Harris, although likable, remains somewhat of an unknown. "I like her," she noted, "but we don’t know what she’s going to do."

Saginaw’s vote has the potential to swing either way, much like the state of Michigan, which has transitioned from being reliably Democratic to a true battleground. Chuck Brenner, a 49-year-old retired Saginaw police officer who still works part-time and runs a real estate business, has witnessed the city’s struggles firsthand. "Almost everybody’s dad worked in the car industry," he recalled. "Back then, everyone had money, and jobs were plentiful. Now people are struggling; they grow up poor, and then come the drugs and all that."

For voters like Chuck, Trump's narrative of American decline feels tangible. "Absolutely," he said. "Because you can see it." Though he voted for Trump in 2016, Chuck switched to Joe Biden in 2020 due to "a lot of drama" surrounding Trump and his legal troubles. This time, he's waiting for the debates to help him decide.

Saginaw, once a Democratic stronghold, has been a bellwether for the broader state’s shift. It supported Democrats for decades—from Bill Clinton to Joe Biden—until 2016, when it backed Trump. This change marked a significant political realignment in the region.

Jeremy Zehnder, who runs a truck-polishing business, represents another demographic that Democrats once counted on for support. Surrounded by the gleaming trucks that are the lifeblood of America’s economy, Jeremy explained that his voting decision would come down to economic issues, not debate performances. "With the truckers, every one of those that we know of are leaning towards the right," he said. When pressed further, he added, "I don’t know of one that isn’t. We do hundreds of trucks every year, and they all want to talk about it."

At a United Auto Workers (UAW) Union debate-watching event, Kamala Harris received applause and cheers, but there were clear signs of shifting allegiances even there. Joe Losier, a union organizer, admitted that many in his family, second-generation immigrants and lifelong UAW members, had moved towards the Republican Party. "It blows my mind that a lot of my family are tradesmen who are supporting Donald Trump," he said. He’s unsure which way his two adult sons will vote. "Dinner times are horrible," he joked.

With ongoing concerns about job cuts, many UAW members find themselves more aligned with Trump's hardline stance on tariffs, even as Harris argued such policies would raise prices. Following the debate, Chuck Brenner offered some hope to Democrats, stating, "I do believe Kamala was the shining star, and she’s won my vote. I was impressed by what she had to say."

However, Rachel Oviedo remained undecided but leaned more toward Trump. "I think he’ll do more for us up here," she said, acknowledging his flaws but emphasizing the need to "forgive people." Meanwhile, Jeremy Zehnder, while slightly surprised by Harris’s performance, remained committed to Trump, citing taxes, border policy, and cost of living as key factors.

The stark divisions are evident in Saginaw, where grassroots canvassers like Kathleen Skelcy find it challenging to understand the motivations of Trump supporters. "It’s scary, trying to understand these people and their thinking," she remarked, attributing it to a lack of education. As she spoke, a nearby Trump supporter shouted aggressively, "Harris is a clown," adding profanity to his tirade. Another Democratic supporter declined a yard sign for fear of similar backlash.

In just a few weeks, Saginaw will head to the polls, and the outcome here could be crucial. Journalists are likely to continue visiting this key district, searching for a pulse on America’s political climate.

Amid all the division and debate, finding middle ground seems more elusive than ever in Saginaw. As voters grapple with their decisions, the future of America hangs in the balance in this quintessential battleground.

[qqueenofhades]

Eggs were expensive at the grocery store yesterday. Weirdly enough, this didn't make me go "hmm, guess I should vote for fascism."

[strawberryraviegutz]

Reminder to check your voter registration(especially in Mississippi cuz the deadline is October 7th)

[anarchypumpkincowboy]

Love (/s) how so many people are taking this as a “we need to vote blue no matter who even more now!!!” moment instead of a “we need to put even more pressure on the dnc and the Biden campaign to give us a candidate that actually stands a chance at winning!!!” moment

[threadbareturnbacks]

I know we are slinging mud like it's a nude mud wrestling match right now but I've got three very very stupid quotes that clarified everything for me:

1. "Her policies are fine but I just don't think I could stand 4 years of hearing that voice." - a father of a young man in a swing state as seen in a reddit thread. (Misogyny)

2. "I'm really struggling with my rent right now and I know Harris wants to help me buy a house, but I need help now and Trump gave us actual money. I could use that kind of president right now." - a woman in a swing state as reported on by CNN (economic)

3. "Did Joe Biden drop out?" Top trending search term on Nov 4th - reported by many news outlets (ignorance)

It's cathartic to sling mud at each other but the really basic fact is that 90% of the electorate thinks like the above. They are not keyed in Tumblr posters with an intimate knowledge of AOB dynamics and leftist terminology. They are checked out, feeling a little crunched, and don't like women all that much. That's it. A lot of T's insane ravings never even broke through, why would they? If millions didn't know who was even running on the D ticket, how would they know about the crazy shit said at rallies that occupied a few hours of the news cycle?

The ultimate conclusion: there was no Dem candidate that could have run in this environment. We did really, really, really well considering the on-the-ground realities. The real issue as I see it is how the polls/media could be so wrong and predict a 50/50 race instead of the actual, on the ground 70/30 race that it was. It wasn't that hope was misplaced, but that the hope and work was made to seem more effective than it was. Hope is important, but so is pragmatism.

Give yourself a break. Stop blaming everyone. Work on making your life and the people in your circle safe and whole. Get offline for real and if you absolutely need to be involved, do it locally.

[eisthenameofme]

kind of hard to take a lot of the people claiming to be antifascist anarchists seriously when a solid chunk of them seem to think not wanting the state to exist means they are no longer in the reality where it currently exists.

[dredshirtroberts]

huh... the way my parents showed me the world worked was really kind of fucked up, it's no fucking wonder i have an anxiety disorder frankly.

[onsomekindofstartrek]

The word “liberal” is so frustrating.

Okay, so internationally it means the ideology of Liberalism and everything that spawned off of it short of leftism. Personal liberty, equality in the marketplace, representative democracy, power deriving from the putative consent of the masses but not like… the masses that the people in power don’t like, and so on.

And American leftists correctly use it in that sense. Historically both parties in almost all versions of the American party system have been liberal in that sense. Like, understand that when the Republicans came into existence as a radical abolitionist party under Preston Blair and fought the Democrats who were largely pro-slavery or pro-incremental change, this was a purely internal disagreement within liberalism as to who counted as a person under. Liberalism can be better than the alternative but in the sense understood by people internationally it’s not even a position or even a narrow range of positions on the left-right spectrum. You can see a pretty far right liberalism, typified by American libertarianism, and a pretty far left liberalism, typified by radical social democrats like Sanders (although the former turn into fascists the moment they’re inconvenienced and the latter are 100% ineffectual at achieving substantial left-wing goals).

But because it naturally sounds like the opposite of “conservative,” Americans use it to mean the mainstream center-left, and to some extent the actual left too, since the average US moderate can’t tell the difference between social democrats and actual socialists.

The unfortunate and yet mildly redeeming thing about it is that as the conservatives in America are increasingly total fascists, this usage actually kind of becomes accurate again, as long as you only mean the political mainstream. It is finally, in reality, liberals versus non-liberals.

I just think that’s funny. But it does underscore that you should be happy to vote for the liberals as a leftist. For the time being there’s literally no equivalency.

[itmeblog]

Biden stepped down.

[poppinelle]

It’s very telling that all of the Democratic fundraisers are still using images of Obama in their solicitations.

[nando161mando]

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https://bird.makeup/users/vicenews/statuses/1688978145272111107

[undeadlobster]

Was watching LOTR last night with my beloved and when we first see Gandalf riding in his cart and singing as he travels down the roads of the Shire I just burst into tears. I didn’t realize how much I’ve been missing that sense of safety and home until that moment

[diabolocracy]

Toootally can't wait to freeze to death when the orange turd speed runs the incoming AMOC collapse via the further gutting of environmental protections 🙄

[gurutrends]

New poll finds the key to mobilizing young voters could be peer pressure

From podcast appearances to celebrity endorsements, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have been pulling out all the stops in the final days of the 2024 presidential campaign to woo young voters to the polls. For Harris, those efforts appear to be working. The Harvard Youth Poll, published Friday, showed Harris leading Trump nationally by 20 points among registered…

[fhear]

'The Latino vote has transformed': Why a key category of voter is 2024's...

[clit-a-cola]

Balancing how funny that debate was vs remembering what happened last time and trying not to get to cocky....