🧵 The election is going to be decided by people who don't like the candidates. Donald Trump always had a core of voters who don't like him but vote for him anyway.

It seems that the Harris campaign wanted to build a group of this kind for herself. But the two parties' possible voter universes are not the same and cannot be motivated with the exact same tactics.

Historically, speaking, American political parties were multi-ideological. But the right wing activists who took over the Republicans changed the party.

🧵 After 9 long years, it's starting to look like Donald Trump has become overexposed to his fans.

Democrats have been significantly more enthused since Kamala Harris entered the race than Republicans have.

In a base turnout election, Trump loses. Trump lost in 2020 because he failed to get some of his 2016 voters to come back to support him. You can slice who these people were, but demographically it was primarily white men. Trump improved his share among most other demographic groups.

🧵 CNN just removed a far-right panelist for a racist remark against progressive commentator @mehdirhasan.

This was the right decision. But as a former TV booker, what happened is part of a much bigger problem...

https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1851085909435039789

Before going independent, I used to be a producer at @thehill on its "Rising" program.

Like all mainstream media shows, we were constantly trying to have balanced panel discussions. But we always had a problem: It was very difficult to find Republicans who weren't crazy.

🧵 The science behind why Donald Trump 'loves the poorly educated'

Far-right people are often obsessed w using so-called "race science" to prove that non-Europeans are less intelligent. Amusingly, the real science shows that right-wingers have lower cognitive abilities… This thread is a summary of the latest @TheoryChange episode, continue along here or click through if you just want to watch, read, or listen to the whole thing: plus.flux.community/p/the-science-…

🧵 The Republican party's specific ideas are horribly unpopular. Everywhere, it does almost nothing for its voters' economic or social interests.

Identity politics are the primary reason that Republicans are a competitive political party. Democrats know this but rarely say it... Democrats have been stuck in a messaging trap for decades. They know their policies are more popular so they think they should run on them.

It doesn't work, because it doesn't answer the Republican message: Life sucks and will never get better. We'll respect you at least.

🧵 This Wall Street Journal deep dive into the Republican lies about Springfield is a must read look into JD Vance's total dishonesty.

After spreading vague rumors for days, Vance's staff provided one verified name, Anna Kilgore. Her cat was perfectly fine. Vance also lied about diseases supposedly increasing in Springfield.

They are their lowest since 2013. Vance is trashing his own state and his own constituents to help his insane orange boss.

🧵 From start to finish, Kamala Harris dominated Donald Trump.

At the beginning, she pointed out how he worsened the pandemic and destroyed the economy.

After pointing out his 1/6 treason, she then pointed out that Trump would lie constantly during the discussion. He did... Notably, when Trump responded, he deliberately refused to mention the Covid-19 vaccines. This was him being beholden to the RFK conspiracy crowd. The vaccines were literally the only pandemic action he could reasonably have claimed to have done right.

He was afraid to.

As they've done so often during the DNC, Fox is refusing to air one of the many Republicans/ex-Republicans who are speaking for Kamala Harris.

Right now, Fox commentators are talking over Adam Kinzinger. They absolutely do not want Republicans to hear a contrary speech. Update: Fox did not air a single bit of Kinzinger's speech.

Remember this, and when they censored all the Black speakers on DNC night 1 next time you hear a Foxbot complain about "cancel culture" or "media censorship."

See my earlier thread:

https://x.com/mattsheffield/status/1825746963796549644

Fox News censored every single Black speaker at the Democratic National Convention tonight except for Kamala Harris's brief welcome speech.

What a disgusting display of racism!

Fox censored:

-Karen Bass
-Laphonza Butler
-James Clyburn
-Jasmine Crockett
-Raphael Warnock Since some stray Fox viewers might stumble onto the post above, here is Jasmine Crockett's full speech.

Listen and learn, MAGA. She has a lot to teach you🤗

🧵 Trump's comment that Kamala Harris is "a very beautiful woman" was more than just a weird aside, it's an insight into his campaign strategy.

This is a summary of my latest @discoverflux piece.

Click through for the essay or continue here…plus.flux.community/p/very-beautif… At 78, Donald Trump is the oldest major party presidential nominee. Kamala Harris, at 59, represents a stark contrast with her youth and energy.

But she also has a real looks advantage on Trump. Barack Obama said she was"by far, the best looking attorney general in the country."

🧵 During my former days as a Republican media commentator, I was always frustrated that my fellow rightwingers were so lazy and biased that they routinely promoted nonsense w/o bothering to verify.

Trump did this today falsely claiming that Kamala Harris faked a crowd w/AI... On his Untruth Social site, Trump promoted a tweet from a low-grade Twitter user who accused Kamala Harris of using AI to fake a crowd photo.

The accusation is totally false and easily disproven by the many live videos shot by people there, as well as other photos.

🧵 It's really stunning how many people who claimed Democrats should "reach out to rural people" really just meant "be Paul Ryan."

Tim Walz is everything these pundits pretended to want. What they actually wanted was a conservative Democratic party. In all the countless safaris to Ohio diners that David Brooks and other conservatives-who-call-themselves-centrists made, they notably avoided talking to Clinton or Biden supporters to ever ask them: How do you think the Dems could've won your area?

🧵 Most of us are focusing our attention on the presidential race right now but there's something extremely important that isn't getting noticed: Far-right Republicans are destroying the anti-disinformation organizations.

plus.flux.community/p/how-republic… Through subpoenas and lawsuits, they're trying to block all information quality standards, as Renée DiResta & I discussed on @TheoryChange.

It's part of a decades-long war on any kind of scientific reality. To reactionaries, everything is liberally biased.

🧵 All the memes about JD Vance really boil down to that he is a deeply traumatized person who has decided to embrace the evil he experienced instead of transcending it.

His first Megyn Kelly interview revealed who he really is. He's someone who changed his name repeatedly, but hates trans people.

He called Trump "America's Hitler" but now is his chief lieutenant.

Vance seemingly wears makeup daily but hates drag shows.

🧵 Six years ago, Bari Weiss published her intro to the "Intellectual Dark Web," and in the interim it's become crystal-clear that the IDW was just one of many rebranding efforts done by the right.

I took an extended look at why & how the right rebrands plus.flux.community/p/the-intellec… The American right is very different from conservative parties in other countries in that it never changes or adapts its policies to the public will.

The policies have been unchanged since they raged against the New Deal. Even now, they love hating on it plus.flux.community/p/the-intellec…

🧵 Republicans constantly claim that Donald Trump has been unfairly singled out and that somehow prosecuting ex-presidents destabilizes politics.

This is totally and completely false. Bill Clinton was the first president convicted of crimes, not Trump plus.flux.community/p/donald-trump… Right-wing propagandists are desperate for you to forget that Bill Clinton was found guilty of committing perjury and faced several penalties for his crime.

Instead of constantly whining and lying like Trump, Clinton confessed and submitted to justice. plus.flux.community/p/donald-trump…

🧵 Christian fascists have had a prominent place among Republicans since the rise of Barry Goldwater, but Donald Trump made them the senior partner in the party.

But instead of telling this truth, MSM execs elevated fictitious Republicans like Ronna McDaniel. This must stop. This thread is a summary of my latest @DiscoverFlux essay. You can continue here or click through for the prose version. plus.flux.community/p/ronna-mcdani…

🧵 Everyone's still talking about how weird Katie Britt sounded last week. It's even more interesting once you realize that she doesn't normally talk in that breathy and melodramatic voice.

That she chose to speak that way is an interesting story... This thread is a summary of my latest @TheoryChange episode. I left the link out in the previous post since the doofus authoritarian who owns this site downranks posts with links to external sites.

You can continue here or click through: plus.flux.community/p/katie-britt-…

🧵 Talking to Trump super fans about politics is often a surreal experience. And that's because they literally do not understand what you are talking about.

Why is that? Because Trump devotees actually believe that truth derives from authority rather than reality... This thread is a summary of my latest @DiscoverFlux piece, which you can find here. I am not including the link because a certain authoritarian billionaire deliberately downranks links in posts.

You can continue here or click through: plus.flux.community/p/trump-suppor…

🧵 Disinformation is everywhere, especially because of right-wing politicians.

But all of the tactics at use in the internet age have a history, one that begins with Big Tobacco and continues straight through to climate change.

Can learning the history provide hope? This thread is a summary of the latest @TheoryChange episode, a discussion with Salon climate change writer @MatthewRozsa.

You can get the full episode on YouTube:

Apple Podcasts:

Spotify:
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tod…
open.spotify.com/episode/06pqah…

🧵 I know everyone is thinking about New Hampshire right now, but can I get your attention on something that's going to be key in the 2024 general election?

Republicans have given up on winning over Gen Z and Gen Alpha and so instead they've decided to gaslight them to hell... Younger people historically don't vote in high numbers, but due to the terrible political environment created by Boomers and Silents, Generation Z and Alpha are starting to vote in self-defense.

Right wing activists have responded by flooding the web with "post left" nihilism.