I'm infuriated by your focus groups' comments on the FBI document retrieval operation... When Ms. Clinton was accused of improperly handling classified documents , Trump led chants of "Lock her up." When the Trump does it, apparently after essentially being begged by the FBI and National Archives to return the documents, it is FBI overreach. I have worked with classified documents, Trump's handling of classified documents should make him ineligible for high office. To be clear, I would've been fired and/or jailed for much lesser offenses. I cannot stand this excuse making one second longer.
So DeSantis is considered "competent Trumpism" (an oxymoron, imo) when he's going to Pennsylvania to campaign for nutjob election denier Mastriano. DeSantis is not simply aligned with Trump's policies, he's championing election denial and divisive culture war BS as his most high profile national moves: "These democracy haters are good, but never mind that, watch how I stick it to the woke." He's learned from Trump people will forgive everything if you "fight" for their petty grievance and cultural stance. Newsflash, the center and center-right are fed up with these approaches. So "he fights", great, but for what, helping install authoritarians, dividing us further on cultural lines? Someone more competent at trashing civility and democracy is someone to rally behind because... he does it straightforwardly and unironically. Great. I'd like to hear a focus group of people who fully understand the people they're so thrilled with and the implications of how they're aligning themselves nationally instead of these knee jerk, "ooh he's tough" takes. It's just more fealty to incompetence.
I love this show, but not this episode. People who didn't vote in '16 but voted for Trump in '20 are more Trumpy not less. Drawing conclusions from this group can give you ideas about Trump voters but not even Republicans in general.
My conclusion, voters are simply not very good at critical thinking. Voters are mostly selfish and care only about their immediate needs. Voters aren't able to think of second order effects. Most of the people in these groups are just not very bright.
One note about the Florida focus group: Val Demings NEVER supported defunding the police... but because she expressed support for black lives in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, she, a former police chief, is now tagged with "defund the police". This just proves how damaging "defund the police" was for the Democrats. Also, Biden should have made her the VP - that would have insulated the Democrats from being tarred as defunders of police (in part, by forcing them to talk more about crime) and it would give her a national profile while taking her out of "hostile" territory. In any case, she would have been better than Kamala Harris.
Does anyone ever challenge these people when they say things like “in some states you can get an abortion a few days after birth…”? No one has ever said that and those laws are advocated for nowhere but “conservative” fantasy land. I don’t understand why these people aren’t shamed for their credulity and ignorance.
Got to hand to DeSantis who kept setting traps for Dems and media to walk right into them. If Dems are half as cunning, we would not be in near as much trouble.
DeSantis does need a better fitting suit and may try a Elizabeth Holmes to lower his high pitched voice. Come to think of it, he is just as much of a phony as Holmes.
Mr. Caputo is absolutely right about DeSantis positioning himself to run in the event Trump chooses not to run. If the opportunity comes he will be positioned to take advantage of circumstances. But NO DeSantis will never challenge Trump directly.
Also he had the most clear and accurate analysis of the political implications of the "Don' Say Gay" bill.
So the voters prefer DeSantis because they "don't want to be told what to do" but Disney and book banning and the other ways he tells those HE doesn't approve of what they can or can not do - that's just fine.
I'm infuriated by your focus groups' comments on the FBI document retrieval operation... When Ms. Clinton was accused of improperly handling classified documents , Trump led chants of "Lock her up." When the Trump does it, apparently after essentially being begged by the FBI and National Archives to return the documents, it is FBI overreach. I have worked with classified documents, Trump's handling of classified documents should make him ineligible for high office. To be clear, I would've been fired and/or jailed for much lesser offenses. I cannot stand this excuse making one second longer.
So DeSantis is considered "competent Trumpism" (an oxymoron, imo) when he's going to Pennsylvania to campaign for nutjob election denier Mastriano. DeSantis is not simply aligned with Trump's policies, he's championing election denial and divisive culture war BS as his most high profile national moves: "These democracy haters are good, but never mind that, watch how I stick it to the woke." He's learned from Trump people will forgive everything if you "fight" for their petty grievance and cultural stance. Newsflash, the center and center-right are fed up with these approaches. So "he fights", great, but for what, helping install authoritarians, dividing us further on cultural lines? Someone more competent at trashing civility and democracy is someone to rally behind because... he does it straightforwardly and unironically. Great. I'd like to hear a focus group of people who fully understand the people they're so thrilled with and the implications of how they're aligning themselves nationally instead of these knee jerk, "ooh he's tough" takes. It's just more fealty to incompetence.
I love this show, but not this episode. People who didn't vote in '16 but voted for Trump in '20 are more Trumpy not less. Drawing conclusions from this group can give you ideas about Trump voters but not even Republicans in general.
Have listened to many of Sarah's pods.
My conclusion, voters are simply not very good at critical thinking. Voters are mostly selfish and care only about their immediate needs. Voters aren't able to think of second order effects. Most of the people in these groups are just not very bright.
One note about the Florida focus group: Val Demings NEVER supported defunding the police... but because she expressed support for black lives in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, she, a former police chief, is now tagged with "defund the police". This just proves how damaging "defund the police" was for the Democrats. Also, Biden should have made her the VP - that would have insulated the Democrats from being tarred as defunders of police (in part, by forcing them to talk more about crime) and it would give her a national profile while taking her out of "hostile" territory. In any case, she would have been better than Kamala Harris.
Does anyone ever challenge these people when they say things like “in some states you can get an abortion a few days after birth…”? No one has ever said that and those laws are advocated for nowhere but “conservative” fantasy land. I don’t understand why these people aren’t shamed for their credulity and ignorance.
Got to hand to DeSantis who kept setting traps for Dems and media to walk right into them. If Dems are half as cunning, we would not be in near as much trouble.
DeSantis does need a better fitting suit and may try a Elizabeth Holmes to lower his high pitched voice. Come to think of it, he is just as much of a phony as Holmes.
Mr. Caputo is absolutely right about DeSantis positioning himself to run in the event Trump chooses not to run. If the opportunity comes he will be positioned to take advantage of circumstances. But NO DeSantis will never challenge Trump directly.
Also he had the most clear and accurate analysis of the political implications of the "Don' Say Gay" bill.
So the voters prefer DeSantis because they "don't want to be told what to do" but Disney and book banning and the other ways he tells those HE doesn't approve of what they can or can not do - that's just fine.