I spent hours trying to persuade US voters to choose Harris not Trump. I know why she lost
I spent hours trying to persuade US voters to choose Harris not Trump. I know why she lost
As a phone bank volunteer, I hoped to counter the Republican attacks and half-truths, but people really believed them, says journalist and podcaster Oliver Hall
But gender did play a role. Time and again, voters, very often women themselves, told me that they just didn’t think that “America is ready for a female president”. People said they couldn’t “see her in the chair” and asked if I “really thought a woman could run the country”. One person memorably told me that she couldn’t vote for Harris because “you don’t see women building skyscrapers”. Sometimes, these people would be persuaded, but more often than not it was a red line. Many conversations would start with positive discussions on policy and then end on Harris and her gender. That is an extraordinary and uncomfortable truth.
There's many valid criticism of Harris but this one is by far the stupidest. I wonder how many people had this influence their vote. I don't think she lost the election over it, but it would be interesting to see a number on America's level of misogyny.
The atrocities being committed by Israel in Gaza only came up six times in more than 1,000 calls.
I guess what people have been saying about this perhaps weren't particularly true. Which leads me on to believe the misogyny line even more.
I wouldn't put that much faith in that number honestly. It's anecdotal and a small sample size. It's very clear that Arabs arre concentrated in critical swing states like Michigan and Wisconsin and based on the number of voters for both sides as well as for the Greens, they likely could have made the difference. I don't think it was the only reason Harris lost, but I do think it was a big one.
I would guess a lot of that thinking comes from middle aged, or elderly church ladies. They've been conditioned from an early age to believe they're not capable, and by extension, they naturally project themselves onto other women.
So they either admit to themselves that they've been duped their whole lives, or they escalate their commitment to the idea that this was simply never their ballfield at all.
Religious dogmatism is a pervasive and insidious thing. Particularly the way it's weaponized in America.
I pretty strongly believe that if Harris was a man she would have won, even if you swap nothing else out. In the end, it doesn't take a lot of misogyny to change the electoral map. Just enough disinterest voters.
Of course, I will keep shouting into the rafters that we need to have a bigger discussion rather than nitpicking over campaign messaging, policy promises, or whatever. A literal bag of shit should be able to be Donald Trump. It shouldn't be a competition at all.
I don't think so personally. If you're the type where your vote is dictated by the gender of the candidate then you're likely already voting red regardless.
That being said, there isn't enough data out there to accurately state the real reasons why she was lost so I can't actually say that you're wrong.
I think misogyny is a nice face for racist feelings.
They do often go hand in hand. Both reduce individuals to a label and preconceived judgements.
Is it tho
You don't see presidents building skyscrapers either.
This is like the 5th time i've seen this meme and it keeps being true
Author gave many reasons I saw on social media, especially the top ones she mentioned like economy concerns or that she is a communist which are the opposite of reality.
She concentrated on what people are saying instead of why.
We are living in a world where huge part of population abandoned traditional news such as TV, newspapers and is getting their vote about the world via social media through memes and influencers.
The biggest problem with it is that this unlike traditional media is open to foreign interference. We had report of American bloggers being paid by Kremlin ridiculous amount of money, we have evidence of bots being used to persuade public opinion, astroturfing groups on Facebook and other social media that were traced to Russia.
And we still did nothing to stop it.
Half of America lives in a different reality. And it isn't just America but those efforts are happening also in Europe and other Western countries.
Since this article is based on the phone bank of the Democratic party, I'd be really interested in learning what are the criteria used to populate it, in relation to demographics. Or maybe it's random calls in an area?
If anyone has specifics, could you please share?