I will say: it’s one poll, the shifts are small, and the effects of stories and controversies like these are often fleeting. But in a close election where more than 150 million people might cast a ballot, none of us have any idea what might change certain minds.
Also: Trump is currently behind. Every day he has to deal with a shitty media cycle is a day he loses the chance to further define Joe Biden and make up lost ground with voters.
So when a story breaks that’s bad for Trump, instead of getting in a dumb argument on this website about whether it’ll matter, share it with everyone you know. Maybe it’ll matter, maybe it won’t. You might as well try!
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Every paragraph of this WSJ story is more shocking than the last:
"Agents didn’t need to develop target lists of immigrants suspected of being in the U.S. illegally, a longstanding practice, Miller said. Instead, he directed them to target Home Depot, where day laborers typically gather for hire, or 7-Eleven convenience stores. Miller bet that he and a handful of agents could go out on the streets of Washington, D.C., and arrest 30 people right away."
"The administration’s immigration enforcement is a sharp break with past government practices, according to attorneys, immigration advocates and officials from previous administrations.
Federal agents make warrantless arrests. Masked agents take people into custody without identifying themselves. Plainclothes agents in at least a dozen cities have arrested migrants who showed up to their court hearings. And across the U.S., people suspected of being in the country illegally are disappearing into the federal detention system without notice to families or lawyers, according to attorneys, witnesses and officials."
In Coral Springs, Fla., at least eight agents in tactical gear, shields and rifles surrounded a home with guns raised to arrest a father with no criminal history. In Irvine, Calif., ICE agents drove a phalanx of military vehicles in the Orange County suburb to arrest a person, though not for illegal immigration. They were seeking a resident’s son who had allegedly posted fliers alerting neighbors to the presence of ICE agents.
@elonmusk 1) People who enter illegally are not eligible for citizenship and non-citizens cannot and do not vote
2) People who are granted asylum cannot vote unless they become citizens, which takes ~5 years. Of almost 1 million asylum applications, only 36k were granted asylum in FY ‘22
3) Even the most generous immigration reform proposal would only apply to undocumented immigrants who’ve been here for years, and citizenship would require paying a fine, extensive background check, and going to the back of the line behind legal immigrant applicants - a process that could take a decade.
Even if you don't agree with where he lands, it's worth reading @ezraklein's Biden piece, especially since a LOT of Democrats share his exact concern: yes, Biden's a good man, has been a great president, and isn't too old for the job. But because he looks and sounds so much older than when he ran in 2020, he hasn't yet been able to convince most voters that he's the right choice for 2024.
The challenge is, we just don't know - and will likely never know - if nominating Biden is riskier than letting Democratic activists and insiders pick a lesser-known and potentially weaker general election candidate at the convention with three months to go.
Democrats have some real stars who've won races in the toughest states - Whitmer in MI, Shapiro in PA, Warnock in GA - but it's not at all clear that they'd a) be the choice of the delegates, or b) end up stronger than Biden against Trump
I find myself wishing our anti-Trump coalition would spend just a bit less time yelling about political coverage that shows no signs of changing and more time telling people how their lives would be different under a Trump presidency vs. a Biden presidency
"Honey, did you see this thing in the news about Biden being too old? Must be more important than this other thing about Trump shitting on our NATO allies because it's above the fold on the print edition that no one reads anymore" - a swing voter who doesn't exist
If Trump wins, he's told us he'll be much friendlier to murderous dictators than democracies. If Biden wins, the reverse will happen.
If Trump wins, he'll have the incentive and the ability to drastically reduce, if not fully ban, abortion access in every state. If Biden wins and Dems control Congress, abortion will once again be legal in every state.
If Trump wins, rich CEOs will get another massive tax cut and everyone else will pay a huge tax on imported goods, spiking inflation. If Biden wins, middle-class families will get a tax cut.
I’m tweeting about this absolute nonsense against my better judgment because I’m seeing it rub off on way too many smart people.
1) Most Democratic ads and speeches are currently about GOP extremism and abortion.
2) Other ads draw economic contrasts with a plutocratic GOP in order to speak to most people’s top concerns, inflation and gas prices. It is incredibly patronizing and politically obtuse to call people’s financial struggles “chief news distractions.”
3) If you think the problem in this midterm is that Democrats haven’t run around screaming “people are going to die” and “the media sucks” loudly enough, I beg of you to log off for like 10 minutes and go speak some of the vast majority of voters who aren’t terminally online.
@elonmusk Hey Elon! I know you’re concerned about voting for a party that supports division and hate, so I just wanted to make sure you’re aware of a few updates:
1) Here’s the ex-GOP Governor of Missouri who’s now running for U.S. Senate:
@elonmusk Here’s Mayra Flores, whom you recently voted for, telling her followers to buy more guns just three days after the January 6th attack on the Capitol (as you know from your Q&A with Twitter employees, she’s also tweeted QAnon hashtags):