First, the right wing has been sliming Hillary LITERALLY since her husband was president, and they've basically never stopped -- that's a lot of backstory, a lot of TIME for the name "Clinton" to be a boogeyman to the right.
One of the ways propaganda works -- smear campaigns especially -- is to set you up so that a single word, like "Clinton" or whatever, can call up this big bucket of associated ideas and feelings.
Hillary had this whole character that was created for her -- she was shady! Had people murdered! Partied with Epstein! Partied with Trump!
I mean -- seriously -- I saw people use her past associations with TRUMP to discredit HER.
But that's partly where the misogyny comes in. Women get blamed for things that men get a pass on. Hillary is somehow more "corrupt" for having been at a party with Trump than Trump is for BEING Trump, it doesn't have to make sense.
BILL Clinton's infidelities are held against his wife more than against him. You don't hate her because she's a woman. It's some other reason. You can't explain it. There's just something about her that bothers you.
But, Biden also has unique strengths. He's got that "third Obama term" thing going on, which maybe wouldn't have 100% sold it in in 2016, but it looks pretty good NOW, doesn't it?
But this relates back to the final question: is the right wing slime machine losing its touch?
I would put it like this: they've got a couple of moves & when they work they look like geniuses, but if they don't work, they don't have a depth of alternate strategies.
One of their strategies is: make the Democrat look just as corrupt as the Republican. They're clearly trying that with Biden, but it's not sticking.
The other strategy they have is to make the Democrat (if male) look insufficiently macho. They're also trying that with Biden -- remember Trump giving him grief for wearing a mask? But that is ALSO not sticking.
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So, here's a thought, Team Trump keeps pursuing this angle because they find it literally impossible to imagine that the other side isn't as corrupt as they are.
Also, of course, the whole "her emails" thing delivered them the presidency in 2016, and I mostly blame the media for that.
They're just so freaking *irresponsible* with how they report on things. And I know supposedly it's all about money and clicks and ratings and whatnot but I don't actually think it is, I think it is ACTUALLY about propping up existing power structures
Even if you liked something about Trump's policies -- like, I dunno, you're rich enough to benefit from his tax cuts -- it seems like it is objectively and obvious true that he's bad for the country.
Back in early 2001, I was doing some kind of software thing in Alabama, and I remember our client as one of those "nice" conservative types --
He was driving me back to the hotel & said something like "I'm glad we have a new president, I think the other guy was bad for the country" -- meaning specifically the sexual infidelity & impeachment --
Kind of fascinated that people on this thread are talking about a "contingency plan" like... we need a plan either way, kids, and there's still a BUNCH of factors in play, it's not a simple toggle between "everything's okay" and "holy shit, revolution time"
I mean, one thing the damn pandemic probably should've taught us is that you can't really make plans, actually.
But the thing I keep going back to is -- why *are* the Republicans where they are, with this seemingly iron grip on our country, in spite of being a minority party with unpopular ideas?
His article is such self-serving nonsense. "While followers of Jesus are being told we cannot worship in public spaces, violent paid rioters are taking over our streets and being given license to occupy and destroy entire sections of our cities."
"paid rioters"
You mean cops? Because the only people getting PAID to start riots are cops.
Before I close this tab, I will forever be cynically amused that they showed us all the deranged spider webs made under *illegal* drugs but not the caffeine one. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effect_of…
Anti-drug propaganda in the US is so ridiculous. I mean, a spider has eight legs, no brain to speak of, will die if you cover it in dish soap... but, sure, it's super-relevant to talk about what LSD does to a spider.
Note: this was inspired by a zoom meeting where a co-worker had a spider drop from the ceiling straight toward his coffee cup, like it wanted some.
To reiterate, under the political philosophy of Reaganism, the federal government is allowed *only* these three purposes: maintain a military, siphon money and power to rich people, and prevent, by any means necessary, effective opposition to Reaganism.
Reaganism as I've defined it pertains specifically to the federal government, but as a governing philosophy it applies to states, counties, cities -- all the way down. So, Republican governors operate according to the principles of Reaganism.