When I reflect on the massive voter disconnect (including Ds) with reality, I can only conclude we have a growing education and media problem.
1. Education - people are fast losing common sense and any basic ability to assess cause-effect relationships. Take the economy - election year after election year we see the same thing. Despite all the available information and evidence out there, voters still directly associate the current economic state of the country with the sitting POTUS. This should be good for Biden of course (more on this down below), but we are also seeing people blame him directly for inflation which has been a problem all over the world (one which the US is recovering from faster than other countries).
It would take about 10 minutes to do a basic Google search, read a bit, and then apply some middle school level logic and conclude that it couldn't possibly be Biden's fault that things are more expensive all over. But clearly, people neither have the interest to "look it up" nor the basic intellect to assess if there really is some meaningful relationship.
Close to 40% of Americans either have a college degree or are pursuing one. It's mind boggling to me that anyone in that category is unable to apply basic common sense in this type of scenario. Similarly, millions are somehow concluding that Trump can fix inflation, LOLz. It's so absurd that I'm ashamed to type this.
2. Media - America is getting ruined by opinions disguised in news and straight up lies spread 24/7 on social media. This is of course somewhat connected to education in that it should be a backstop to one seeing total nonsense on TV or online, but that's clearly not doing the trick.
Most Americans can't tell fake news from real news. I don't blame them so much on this part as fake news has gotten more prevalent and more sophisticated, but what's really troubling is that people don't stop to ponder whether what they see or read could be fake. They don't ever scrutinize the source (e.g. Dan Bongino). In fact, they actually willingly look for biased and corrupt sources of info.
People WANT to consume lies and find whatever info they can to sustain whatever belief they have come to hold. Worse is that people are addicted to consuming negative material for its entertainment value. Bad news tend to evoke emotions like fear, anger, rage, sadness, grief and despair. And we all know that inherently conservatives are highly averse to change, so bad news 24/7 is like throwing jet fuel on their insecurities. Look at Gary for example, he swims in negative twitter cr@p 24/7.
This translates to a giant disadvantage for Ds, who are less likely to think there is some imminent danger to mankind when they hear some illegal migrant may have committed a crime.
And in the US, we have particularly loose regulation around labeling of news, or lack thereof. I don't understand how any network can have the word "News" in it's name and not be held accountable for spreading lies. They rarely report any solid unfiltered facts and opt to generate >90% spin and opinion. If they were at least obligated to disclose to viewers that they aren't showing news, it might help a bit.. regardless, with the way social media has exploded the tv networks are fast becoming irrelevant, which may be even worse for all of us.
Combine these two things and it's no wonder Biden is not getting the praise and credit he deserves and why it always feels like Ds are constantly fighting an uphill battle and held to a much higher standard. Objectively and given the circumstances, I don't know how one doesn't conclude he's one of the best presidents in history. America is really fkd.
