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Machiavellian on 19 August 2025
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Chrkeller said:
Machiavellian said:

So what was the platform that allowed the GOP to have their red wave.  Was the messaging the reason.  Let's think about this more.  The GOP pretty much led with the culture war because its really hard to pick any particular policy that they were promoting coming up to the elections during that time.  I heard one report that Trump was losing in the polls until the assassination attempt then he gained a lot of support from there.  Or did the GOP just take advantage of bad times and blame it on the current administration because that is how politics works.  During times of trouble, it really doesn't matter what causes the trouble, if you are President and in charge, you will get the Lionshare of the blame.  

Personally, the GOP just played a better hand.  Times of trouble people always want a change so that in itself is enough to gain some votes.  Would you say that same mentality is what got Biden in office.  The next step was the focus on culture war instead of policy.  Policy can have a direct correlation to results, but culture is something totally different which I would say the Dems did not have a direct defense against because the party is way to broad.

Genuinely and sincerely don't know.  That is what I'm trying to understand and have been for almost a year now.  The presidential election didn't shock me, but the senate and house shocked me.  There is something here that we don't understand, which is why the blanket "because dumb" is frustrating.  It isn't value add.  

If it wasn't for covid, I think trump wins in 2020.  Speculation but that is my gut.  

I can only go by the friend group I have and he majority of them believe that Trump was going to be better for the economy and their pockets.  I kept asking them why but could not get any real answer or policy they believe he would do that would bring about that result.  I guess you could say that Harris was considered part of Biden regime so Trump offered something different even if they could not pinpoint anything he actually was going to do.  This also comes down to the educated uneducated part again.  Even though the world was going through high inflation due to COVID, Americans either did not care or were just clueless that it was a global situation not local.  They did not care that the US was able to rebound much quicker than the rest of the world instead they only focused what was right in front of them as if looking through fog.

I saw many conversations on the subject at the time and wondered exactly why people believe it was some type of policy from Biden that the world was going through high inflation but that is politics.  The GOP framed it as a Biden issue and of course if you have no real education than its easy to make that group believe it just like Trump making the same group believe Tariffs are paid by the country its levied against instead of the companies within the nation that purchase the goods which then is transferred to the customer.