Plenty of New Yorkers who voted for Zohran Mamdani in last month’s City Hall election previously backed Donald Trump at the ballot box, despite their obvious political differences, new data reveals
We had some interesting discussions along the lines of people who backed both AOC and Trump about a year ago. AOC did a bit trying to engage them to understand the overlap better. The common theme then was that among right-leaning areas in the right-wing media bubble, Trump is seen as being strongly aligned with the working class and a lot of people voted for him because of his positions on the economy and cost of living.
Trump is seen as being strongly aligned with the working class
This explanation is even more unfathomable than the thing it explains. I dont really understand how anyone can look at the (multi)billionaire Trump and think “he’s on the side of the workers.”
The American politics are vibe politics. You can have no policies but as long as you say the thing people want to hear people will vote for you. I can absolutely see why some people thought a wealthy criminal who regularly screws people over would side with the working class. Because Trumps campaign did focus on working class issues. It doesn’t matter that his “solution” to those problems was blame the immigrants and he had no real intention of helping the working class. Because for the average American the politics end at “I hear you”. That’s what the average American cares about, having their problems being acknowledged. Actually solving the problems is a problem for a different time.
That messaging in the right-wing propaganda sphere is just the continuation of the campaign, because somehow it works even when those people see the contradictions on a daily basis.
Trump actually acknowledges that things are bad and promises to fix it. Democrats, often, don’t.
Remember “America is already great”? Remember Bidenomics? The Democratic line, every time they lost, was “things are fine, don’t believe your lying eyes.” And when they won, they focused on how bad things are and made promises to fix it.
That’s it. The working class knows things are bad and whoever is willing to say it, and promise to fix it, tends to win.
Yeah Trump’s solutions are dogshit but the fact that he acknowledged it at all and pretended to give a shit meant a lot to a lot of people. Understandably so unfortunately for us all.
The literal ONLY explanation I can think of is that the media kept parroting his bullshit about lowering prices while having absolutely ZERO ideas, and people who couldn’t be bothered to look deeper than the headlines bought it.
10 years ago me thought better of people than that.
I don’t understand it either, but what he said convinced a lot of working class people that he was on their side. I don’t get HOW but that is somehow what happened.
This doesn’t get people out any faster whether I agree with you or not. People need to be offered tangible change to motivate them to get out and I don’t blame them. Life is complicated and hard as it is.
We get variations of this story pretty often.
We had some interesting discussions along the lines of people who backed both AOC and Trump about a year ago. AOC did a bit trying to engage them to understand the overlap better. The common theme then was that among right-leaning areas in the right-wing media bubble, Trump is seen as being strongly aligned with the working class and a lot of people voted for him because of his positions on the economy and cost of living.
This explanation is even more unfathomable than the thing it explains. I dont really understand how anyone can look at the (multi)billionaire Trump and think “he’s on the side of the workers.”
The American politics are vibe politics. You can have no policies but as long as you say the thing people want to hear people will vote for you. I can absolutely see why some people thought a wealthy criminal who regularly screws people over would side with the working class. Because Trumps campaign did focus on working class issues. It doesn’t matter that his “solution” to those problems was blame the immigrants and he had no real intention of helping the working class. Because for the average American the politics end at “I hear you”. That’s what the average American cares about, having their problems being acknowledged. Actually solving the problems is a problem for a different time.
That messaging in the right-wing propaganda sphere is just the continuation of the campaign, because somehow it works even when those people see the contradictions on a daily basis.
Trump actually acknowledges that things are bad and promises to fix it. Democrats, often, don’t.
Remember “America is already great”? Remember Bidenomics? The Democratic line, every time they lost, was “things are fine, don’t believe your lying eyes.” And when they won, they focused on how bad things are and made promises to fix it.
That’s it. The working class knows things are bad and whoever is willing to say it, and promise to fix it, tends to win.
Yeah Trump’s solutions are dogshit but the fact that he acknowledged it at all and pretended to give a shit meant a lot to a lot of people. Understandably so unfortunately for us all.
This.
The literal ONLY explanation I can think of is that the media kept parroting his bullshit about lowering prices while having absolutely ZERO ideas, and people who couldn’t be bothered to look deeper than the headlines bought it.
10 years ago me thought better of people than that.
2025 me can’t even pretend to be surprised.
I don’t understand it either, but what he said convinced a lot of working class people that he was on their side. I don’t get HOW but that is somehow what happened.
It’s almost like if you had good policy to support the working class, you’d get the votes. 😒
Don’t even have to have good policy, just have to convince the plebs you have a concept of a policy.
Which says a lot that most of these careerists can’t even do that coherently.
when there are two viable choices, you need to make sure that the one that supports the working class more gets into office.
Perfectionism move the needle backwards
This doesn’t get people out any faster whether I agree with you or not. People need to be offered tangible change to motivate them to get out and I don’t blame them. Life is complicated and hard as it is.