Harris may have been light on policy, but she was able to bait an ‘unhinged’ Trump into a number of traps

  • tacosanonymous@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    8 days ago

    As long as Harris: Has at least an iota of empathy Hasn’t raped anybody Committed treason or other serious crimes

    I don’t see how the question is even an issue.

    • ravhall@discuss.online
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      8 days ago

      She could at least answer most of the questions in a reasonably direct way.

      But it does make my eyes roll when it’s a yes or no question and people ramble. Just say yes or no and then ramble.

      • n3m37h@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        8 days ago

        She answered coherently but rarely in a direct way. I heard 3 numbers and 0 policy positions other than Roe V Wade

        I did miss the first 30 min so

        Trump didn’t answer anything and just attacked which is fucking pathetic

        • ravhall@discuss.online
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          8 days ago

          She made firm statements on a number of topics. None as firm as RvW, lol. She really came down hard on that one. I would like to see more of that.

          I would not say that I am thrilled with her as a candidate, but at least now I don’t feel like I’m throwing my vote away just to keep Trump out of office. I’m sure she will be a fine president, and since she has the support of so many Republicans at this point I think she has more of a chance at that “bipartisan” thing everyone keeps yapping about.

        • Dkarma@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          8 days ago

          You’re expecting the wrong thing if you are watching a debate with trump involved and think you’re going to hear policy. That’s not what debate are for.

          • n3m37h@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            0
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            8 days ago

            Just because Trump is involved doesn’t mean it is no longer a debate.

            The factyou think this is the reason your country is FUCKED

  • dhork@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    8 days ago

    Trump was flailing. Under pressure, he took no responsibility for his past actions and instead threw invective and invented facts as he went along.

    I wish Harris would have doubled down on this. After he tried to shift the Jan 6 blame to Pelosi, she could have directly pointed out that Donald Trump’s idea of leadership is to shift the blame for all failures to other people. And that’s why he’s so afraid of people holding him accountable at trial.

    But generally, she did rather well IMO. These debates haven’t been about policy for a while, but she still took the time to outline hers. They’re about presenting who you are to the American People. But only nerds watched the thing live, the rest will only see 5-second sound bites. I think Harris did a good job presenting herself to the nerds as Presidential and capable of the job, while baiting Trump into saying more stupid stuff to feed the Social Media beast.

    His base won’t care, because it believes that cat-eating illegals are forcibly making all of our kids trans. But it could make a difference to that sliver of the electorate who has not paid attention until now, and can see how weird it all is.

    • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      8 days ago

      I agree with you, except it was smart not to spend too much time talking about what he just said. He said it, and the soundbite is out there. If she attacks him in the moment, he can respond and try to walk it back. Her aim was to get him to say as many deranged things as possible so that he can be memed to death.

      The biggest knock against her, and you’ll see it in every article as a way to appear unbiased, was that she didn’t share a lot of details on her plans. But that’s by design. She doesn’t want to describe exactly what restrictions on abortions she would support, because that would become the talking point for the right. She gave him nothing, so Trump had to make shit up about post-birth baby murder. It was a good strategy that worked.

      So now we can talk about the bigotry of immigrants eating pets, the nonsense about baby murder, who pays for tariffs, and what constitutes the concept of a plan. Her biggest mistake was looking at him like he’s crazy all night, and saying “this… former president…” Because those are going to become the memes people remember about the night. She did very well overall, but the best thing she could have done was be entirely forgettable.

      • snooggums@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        edit-2
        8 days ago

        She doesn’t want to describe exactly what restrictions on abortions she would support, because that would become the talking point for the right.

        She said she would codify Roe V Wade into law. We know that is because it was in place for five decades and it doesn’t need to be explained during a debate.

        • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          8 days ago

          Right, that was the talking point, and that was smart to stick to that. Because it sounds like an answer to the question, but it doesn’t nail down specifics that can be used in attack ads from the right or the left.

          Roe V Wade was a court decision that was interpreted and modified through a long history of court decisions. It’s not one set of rights and restrictions.

          Here’s an excellent, in-depth summary of all of the relevant court cases that led to the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Org ruling:

          https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/roe-v-wade-and-supreme-court-abortion-cases?fbclid=IwAR2Kz765sU

          To codify Roe V Wade into law would require a constitutional amendment protecting the right to abortion. Anything less will be challenged in court, and unless we can impeach some illegitimate Justices, the SCOTUS is going to continue to push their radical agenda against women.

          • drdiddlybadger@pawb.social
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            8 days ago

            Or we could hit a double whammy of strengthining your right to privacy such that any anti abortion or anti trans care law becomes impossible to impose.

            A man can dream 😭

    • Omega@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      8 days ago

      Unfortunately, I think if she’s too aggressive or mean then it will turn off a lot of swing voters. It’s smart to err on the side of caution.

      • dhork@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        8 days ago

        If she were debating anyone else, maybe you would have a point. But you need to hit back hard when debating Donald Trump, because he will never stop hitting you.

        Do you really think there are uninterested voters who would watch the clips of this debate and say “Harris was too mean, so I’m voting for Trump instead?”

        • Omega@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          8 days ago

          Yes, 100%. It happened with Hillary. You remember the controversy of her deplorable comment, which was statistically factual?

          Moderate Republicans might show up for Trump.
          Left leaning centrists might stay home.
          Swing voters who are friendly to Trump’s economy might “both sides” their personalities.
          Some centrists just give Trump a pass on his personality. But Democrats don’t get the same leeway.

          Unfortunately these are the voters that can swing the election.

          • dhork@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            8 days ago

            No, Hillary made the mistake there of insulting Trump voters directly with that comment. Harris went the opposite direction, and pointed out how many former Trump supporters support her now. She is actively courting people on the fence, not calling them names

            • Omega@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              8 days ago

              I respect that viewpoint. That was the most famous example. But I know people generally thought she was mean, crass, or shrill because she would call Trump names (accurately) during debates.

              Being aggressive is cathartic for us who pay attention. But swing voters are inherently easier to push away and are inherently not as “sold” on Trump being a national crisis and don’t like being told what to think.

              But I’m just an armchair analyst. So maybe I’m way off.

              • chilicheeselies@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                8 days ago

                She (as in her campaign) even did that to progressives. Its was a very divisive election season. It was really hers to lose.

        • Windex007@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          8 days ago

          People hold emotionality against people differently based on gender, so yeah, I do.

          The minute she starts to sound like “my bitch ex-wife” that’s going to do something visceral.

          It’s not right or fair, but it is.

          • mriguy@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            8 days ago

            I’m pretty sure the demographic that talks about “my bitch ex-wife” is mostly in the tank for Trump already.

  • Verdant Banana@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    8 days ago

    But her policy positions were also clearly leaning to the right of the Democratic agenda. She called for many more agents patrolling the border (rather than real and comprehensive immigration reform), defended the right to abortion by extreme examples of injury (such as incest) rather than an ordinary woman’s right to choose, and offered no policy change for Palestinians beyond “working round the clock” for a ceasefire. In other words, more of the same.

    does not matter who wins the election now because a right leaning party is going to win no matter what