More Americans want a president who sounds like a pleasant normie on holidays than like a raving lunatic. I will continue believing this unless proven otherwise. And I don’t expect to be. - ThreadSky

nicholasgrossman.bsky.social • 443 days ago

More Americans want a president who sounds like a pleasant normie on holidays than like a raving lunatic.

I will continue believing this unless proven otherwise. And I don’t expect to be.

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Comments

down10.bsky.social•443 days ago

I have been saying this for 16 years and it still holds up: Americans will vote for whoever would make a better guest at their backyard barbecue, no matter their policies. They want a folksy friendly type. This is commonly known as the “have a beer with” dynamic.

down10.bsky.social•443 days ago

And I will admit that Trump had this advantage over Hillary Clinton in 2016, but clearly not anymore.

benny6toes.bsky.social•443 days ago

It's not a new phenomenon. The question has been part of political polling since 2000, and the idea probably goes back even further.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_question#:~:text=A%20Samuel%20Adams%2FRoper%20Starch,his%20Democratic%20opponent%20Al%20Gore.

down10.bsky.social•443 days ago

What I mean is that this question, while rhetorical, is still a good way to indicate who would win an election, despite anything else.

astrocat.bsky.social•443 days ago

I think that's largely true. But also I think something that has been happening in that last twenty years is people really want genuineness, where it increasingly seems like marketing has replaced that. Joe's post reads like a lot of Dem output: rehearsed, tested before release

down10.bsky.social•443 days ago

The DNC has been out to lunch for a long time. I'm almost convinced they want to lose elections.

mr-implausible.bsky.social•443 days ago

it’s just, like, a nice thing you might write in a Christmas card to someone you don’t know all that well.

tim.macinta.com•443 days ago

I get what you're saying, but I don't think "genuine" is the right word - maybe "unrehearsed." Genuine requires being honest, which Trump rarely is.

wooble.geoffreyspear.com•443 days ago

Hilariously the last 2 GOP presidents really exemplified that while also being noted teetotalers

down10.bsky.social•443 days ago

Exactly. It's a vibe.

selcoeurl.bsky.social•443 days ago

The Former Guy claims to be. Rumor has it he's also lying about that.

impliedoralconsent.com•443 days ago

But one president hasn’t been perfect while the other had perfect phone calls, perfect rallies in early January, and gave perfect criminal testimony.

Tough choice.

edrobot.bsky.social•443 days ago

I wish I could share your confidence.

geoffles.bsky.social•443 days ago

ainteefa44.bsky.social•443 days ago

I have my doubts.

malimar.bsky.social•435 days ago

If I were in charge of Democratic advertising, I'd be pumping all ad money into unaltered all-channels transmissions of a lightly-curated selection of Trump's logorrhoeia. I'd bet for every ten people who hear him, one gets fired up (but would already be voting for him anyway) and nine get revolted.

hawaiian-ishkelly.bsky.social•443 days ago

The smelly diaper man is so f’n exhausting!

te-kanawa.bsky.social•443 days ago

May his day be full of stress and worry.

hawaiian-ishkelly.bsky.social•443 days ago

Sounds like an Rx for a stroke🤔

te-kanawa.bsky.social•443 days ago

He brings it on himself. 🤷🏾

hawaiian-ishkelly.bsky.social•443 days ago

For sure!

clggmf.bsky.social•443 days ago

He always reminds me of someone who causes you to get off the bus when it's not your stop.

morselya.bsky.social•443 days ago

overheard

selcoeurl.bsky.social•443 days ago

I nearly missed a trolley last year because I had to switch cars over some nut spouting GQP drivel (and I didn't have my headphones to drown it out). Luckily, I was able to jump into another car just in time. The Former Guy is the equivalent of that blabbermouth.

illmeaningfaery.bsky.social•443 days ago

Yes, A+

fckthemacaroni.bsky.social•443 days ago

I made a habit not to complain during the holidays, but this was a bitch of a text to get into the boss' christmas cards!

dlucy46.bsky.social•443 days ago

I just drove thru Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois--there are many people out in America who are ready for Trump to take over in perpetuity.

leesarenae.bsky.social•443 days ago

Christians.

crunchyfishtaco.bsky.social•443 days ago

One problem: No one is paying attention to Truth social except his cult

crunchyfishtaco.bsky.social•443 days ago

Just realized he copied his Truth social post to Twitter. Still. I think his predilection to lunacy is just accepted and isn’t taken as new information.

devin-eleven.bsky.social•442 days ago

It's funny to think that if Trump hadn't attempted a coup and instead acted like a normie he would have a much better chance of being reelected and staying out of jail. Raving lunatics self-sabotage like it is their job.

derek.bsky.social•443 days ago

Trump’s posts should have slogans on them. In this case, something like “sponsored by adderall”.

shwshnkdufresne.bsky.social•443 days ago

If only this was Survivor, and we could vote one of them off the island. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

xanboni.bsky.social•443 days ago

We kinda can do just that?

rlongman1.bsky.social•38 days ago

We could’ve…but…

ratherodd.bsky.social•443 days ago

But how is the bad for Democrats? The New York Times must let us know.

ericallyn.bsky.social•443 days ago

I think you're right, but I hope the fact that there are more of us will matter to the results.

It didn't in 2016 (because of the Electoral College), and it almost didn't in 2020 (but Trump's machinations might've worked).

starlilstella.bsky.social•443 days ago

DT is Now, the raging incoherant drunk uncle nobody wants at their house. Ever again. For any reason.

walkingtaako.bsky.social•443 days ago

I believe that the current poll numbers are 1) a expression of distaste for the current administration rather than a desire to see Trump again, and 2) A lot of not-online Americans haven't thought about Trump since 2021 and his general election campaign will turn a lot of voters off of him.

vgcatano.bsky.social•443 days ago

I remember during the campaign some Bernie bro complaining that it was 10 am and Biden hadn’t even tweeted ONCE, and l was like, yeah, that sounds great!

homelessrobot.bsky.social•443 days ago

In a better universe Trump would sound exactly like Starscream and Cobra Commander.

theotherhepler.bsky.social•443 days ago

I got to the “May they rot in Hell,” tweet and kept thinking his voice should sound like whatshername, Regan in the Exorcist.

borgly.bsky.social•443 days ago

https://bsky.app/profile/violanorth.bsky.social/post/3kh7uniwvdp25

rorol.bsky.social•443 days ago

I wish I could believe that

estherp.bsky.social•443 days ago

Unfortunately, what *more* Americans want is irrelevant in our political system ruled by the Electoral College.

down10.bsky.social•443 days ago

It needs to go, but it would be too difficult to remove, the way our houses of government are designed.

catebridget.bsky.social•443 days ago

came here to say they prefer to vote for the calmer guy but they won’t do anything else to change how the votes are counted

nicholasgrossman.bsky.social•443 days ago

“Irrelevant” is way overstated.
The Electoral College can be counter-majoritarian institution, yes, and that’s a challenge to overcome. But hardly impossible, as 2020 shows.

aldrichpatrick.bsky.social•443 days ago

For most elections there is no conflict between the EC and the popular vote, but it’s alarming how much one party is relying on winning the EC while losing the popular vote.

Popular legitimacy, while not enforceable, is important.

ainteefa44.bsky.social•443 days ago

What elected Dems haven’t quite realized yet is modern republicans don’t care about popular vote. They govern for their donors and corporations and with that they can keep their base angry and misinformed. It’s all about Judges and the EC. Thanks to Mitch mostly. But Biden calls him “a good man”. 🤦‍♂️

estherp.bsky.social•443 days ago

We're at the point where every presidential election is going to come down to the votes of a few thousand people in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

ainteefa44.bsky.social•443 days ago

And Georgia.

espo4615.bsky.social•443 days ago

They should have a contest where the one with the most votes wins

jsharkey67.bsky.social•443 days ago

He is literally the avatar of Festivus.

rlongman1.bsky.social•38 days ago

The airing of grievances, personified.

goatycultist.bsky.social•443 days ago

Even if Biden was the senile, confused, crooked old man that trump's cult paints him as, I'd take that over a confused, corrupted, anti-intillectial hatemonger any day.

goatycultist.bsky.social•442 days ago

(That being said I haven't been represented by a primary candidate with the voter-ship to win an election in my entire adult life. I just feel forced to vote for whoever is the least vitriolic.)

heatherrasley.bsky.social•443 days ago

I’d like to believe it, but I’m not sure it’s true.

marting1964.bsky.social•443 days ago

I'm with you, and I'm sure it's true. We just need to make sure everyone gets off their ass and votes. Show the con man and his assholes that they're done.

onemomentahead.bsky.social•443 days ago

There is a lot of nasty propaganda going around.

Divide and conjure is the name of the social media game.

Fact check your sources if possible.

Have a nice day. 😃

jolemon.bsky.social•442 days ago

Keith v Deutscher energy

porksodaenthusiast.bsky.social•443 days ago

I would prefer if every president, prime minister, and government leaders all over the world type in all caps like crack addicts though, makes for a more entertaining world

freckleface.bsky.social•443 days ago

So sick of that spoiled brat. May he choke on a hamburder in the new year.

hanbrolo.bsky.social•443 days ago

The former is written by a staffer. The latter you know is by Big Orange.

darrelplant.bsky.social•443 days ago

That was how the past couple elections went, anyway. Popular vote for the normie-sounding people both times!

wooble.geoffreyspear.com•443 days ago

The last 58 elections, really. It wasn't until the last 2 that one of the major parties nominated a complete lunatic, even the terrible presidents of the past could at least act like the bare minimum human in public.

darrelplant.bsky.social•443 days ago

I think Nixon’s tapes indicate that if he’d lived into the social media era, he might have done some unhinged ranting on X.

wooble.geoffreyspear.com•443 days ago

Maybe, but I think he was pretty good at keeping the unhinged ranting private.

darrelplant.bsky.social•443 days ago

He was in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, but the tapes are so full of rants I think that if he could have just typed it out that would be a different story. Same for Goldwater and Reagan, who both made some pretty unhinged public statements in their day.

davekearnjr.bsky.social•443 days ago

Happy holidays, Nick - keep up all the good work in ‘24. Should be… interesting.

nicholasgrossman.bsky.social•443 days ago

One of those years that shows why “may you live in interesting times” is a curse.
Happy holidays to you too.

donraj.bsky.social•443 days ago

"Happy New Year to all, including to my many enemies and those who fought me and lost so badly they just don't know what to do!"

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LVjWVzFIPrk&pp

noahafrank.bsky.social•443 days ago

This, unfortunately, reminds me of my Christmas spent in rural, north Texas in 2016, where the preacher at a tiny (all white) church used his Christmas Day sermon to rant to Jesus about protecting them from, among other things, the biased liberal media.

So, yes, more do. But a lot don’t.

pcmn1331.bsky.social•443 days ago

That was this year in IA at my in laws church. He was spending the sermon Going on about how the media caused us to change from AD to CE and now no one remembers it was all about Jesus for the new calendar. I was biting my tongue through it all. He was also mad no one took his 10 word mini-bible.

kmagnacca.bsky.social•443 days ago

My nonreligious, culturally Christian family would sometimes go to a church on Christmas Eve for the singing. One year we found a Lutheran church and thought "Wisconsin Synod? Those are like the folks on Prairie Home Companion right?"

tkingfisher.com•443 days ago

Oh nooooo…

qfirefrorefiddle.bsky.social•443 days ago

Just came back from the in-law Christmas where that's one of the groups represented. The rest of the fam makes clear their position by asking me, the raging liberal female pastor of the lefty Lutherans, to pray before the meal. 😁

The food, however, is non-denominational and delicious!

kmagnacca.bsky.social•443 days ago

They were very much not...and listening to a Christmas sermon about how people like us we going straight to Hell was not what we were expecting in a relatively affluent town in Maine.

nicholasgrossman.bsky.social•443 days ago

Right, more. Not all.

mrlin13.bsky.social•443 days ago

Sounds like he had a pleasant day.

bigkafka.bsky.social•443 days ago

The caviar/foie gras/ketchup burger wasn't that fresh.

wooble.geoffreyspear.com•443 days ago

McDonald's is closed on Xmas, I'm sure it was rough.

wattle.bsky.social•443 days ago

Yes, that's what I thought in 2016. Oops!

mikeytsi.bsky.social•443 days ago

I like to think that he's sitting on his gold shitter, squeezing out two shits at once, getting about ready to hit send on this one, then happens to look up and sees what day it is on his toilet calendar.