As a phone bank volunteer, I hoped to counter the Republican attacks and half-truths, but people really believed them, says journalist and podcaster Oliver Hall

Summary

Gender bias played a significant role in Kamala Harrisā€™s defeat, with many votersā€”often womenā€”expressing doubts about whether ā€œAmerica is ready for a female president.ā€

Some said they ā€œcouldnā€™t see her in the chair,ā€ or questioned if a woman could lead, with one even remarking, ā€œyou donā€™t see women building skyscrapers.ā€ Though some voters were open to persuasion, this often became a red line.

Oliver Hall, a Harris campaign volunteer, found that economic concerns, particularly inflation, also drove voters to Donald Trump, despite low unemployment and wage growth touted by Democrats.

Harris was viewed in conflicting ways, seen as both too tough and too lenient on crime, as well as ineffective yet overly tied to Bidenā€™s administration.

Ultimately, Hall believes that Trumpā€™s unique appeal and influence overshadowed Harrisā€™s campaign efforts.

  • EnderMB@lemmy.world
    115Ā·
    12 days ago

    While I get it, I still find it weird that so many British people, including card-carrying members of Labour and British journalists volunteered to campaign for a foreign politician. Itā€™s a damaging look in hindsight, and is likely why the US-UK relationship will be dead under Trump, as opposed to tight back in 2016.

    With that said, heā€™s not wrong. The US is absolutely not ready for this, and itā€™ll take decades of education and a rebuilding of the Democrats to claw back from this.

    • Ross_audio@lemmy.world
      81Ā·
      12 days ago

      It was dead the moment we didnā€™t elect a low towing fop.

      Russia funded and led the conservative movement here in the past 10 years. We got Brexit, we got incompetent government, they got a place to park their wealth (a lot of it is still here), they got crimes without much fuss.

      Europe was weakened.

      As the funding for Trumpā€™s loans and Muskā€™s Twitter buyout as well the moment we woke up and voted for a different party we became a target state instead of a puppet state.

      Even Boris Johnson realised we had to help Ukraine. They replaced him with Truss and Sunak, more controllable puppets.

      There are of course other factors, but the effect of global oligarchs spending fossil fuel wealth is clear in Western Democracy at the moment. Saudi is another big influence, they court both sides as long as they arenā€™t crossed.

      Every crisis delays climate action, every election they can influence delays action. The longer they delay the more profit they get.