BrewsterNov 8, 2022
Judd Legum

If Republicans win control of the House or Senate tonight (or both) the main practical consequence is they will use the threat of a global economic collapse to try to force benefit cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

I wonder what percentage of voters know this?

Nov 8, 2022 at 6:07pmWeb
Show threadJudd LegumNov 8, 2022
Imagine if we took 50% of the coverage wasted on polling analysis and devoted it to reporting on the actual stakes of the election
Show threadkrebstarNov 8, 2022
@juddlegum No one would believe you. They would say FakeNews. And then when they go to do exactly that, they will stand behind it and accuse minorities or criminals for causing this.
Show threadSteve WhiteNov 8, 2022

@krebstar @juddlegum

It would be impossible to enumerate the times I've had this argument with folks who insisted that 1) Republicans were the only ones protecting Social Security and 2) Social Security was a pyramid scheme that needed to die.

Over and over.

Show threaderrgNov 8, 2022
@krebstar @juddlegum Exactly. There was some experiment a few years ago where, before the election, voters were told what Republicans had said they were going to do, and they didn't believe it.
Show threadRachel MariaNov 8, 2022
@juddlegum You know Judd, that’s why I’m not watching ANY news now, or most of the day. #TCM has my attention. That and the chili I’m making. 🥣
Show threadChad28753Nov 8, 2022
@juddlegum @rachel_maria65 yum….. chili!!!
Show threadAethelstanNov 8, 2022
@juddlegum or even policy choices… like rational adults.
Show threadMattNov 8, 2022
@juddlegum
I have to say this is the most frustrating thing about following politics. The horse-race journalism based on polling distorts so much of the discourse that it is hard for even really engaged people to sift out the real information that matters, like "what will this candidate/party do if they are elected?"
Show threadc.gerrishNov 8, 2022
@juddlegum Both polling analysis and turning the random vote count returns into a horse race. When the polls close, the vote is complete. No one is "ahead" or "behind" as the vote is counted. The actual stakes of the election are rarely addressed.
Show threadMateo del SolNov 8, 2022
@juddlegum Come on now. Actual journalism? That's, like, hard man.
Show threadNosuperheroNov 8, 2022
@juddlegum This would be dependent upon non-corporate owned MSM. If only US would revert back to the time where no commercials were allowed to be shown during news broadcasts.
Show threadTa3meyaNov 8, 2022
@juddlegum Also the coverage of "is this politically savvy or not" and predicting how voters will react to it. How about you explain to people what it means instead.
Show threadLaurie BrunnerNov 8, 2022
@juddlegum Or 90%, even.
Show threadstiffelmanNov 8, 2022
@juddlegum or even stopped talking about polls altogether. People like numbers associated with ideas. Just useless.
Show thread🇺🇸AJ🇺🇸Nov 8, 2022
@juddlegum Polls are only useful for the candidates to formulate their messaging and policy. Poll are useless and actually damaging to the electorate at large
Show threadMFTechNov 8, 2022
Amen. I’m so tired of coverage on polling. No one trusts results anyway after the last few elections - waste of time.
Show threadmjfuhlhageNov 9, 2022
@juddlegum Yes. We desperately need more thoughtful coverage of issues.
Show threadKay BrooksNov 9, 2022
@juddlegum or if the media just reported real news instead of poll numbers endlessly. I turned on BBC World News the other nite & got heavy doses of COP27 - has any major US media even mentioned the climate change summit lately?
Show threadThe Lone AppleNov 8, 2022
@juddlegum The same number who are being inundated by breathless right wing accounts calling any such suggestion a lie. Although they do seem pretty hair-on-fire about declaring it a lie, which in my book means they do want to destroy Social Security.
Show threadJason PedlowNov 8, 2022

@juddlegum

Sadly right wing politicians have used hatred to divide and conquer both our nations. They, along with a complicit media, prey on the disenfranchised and the stupid, blinding them to their own destruction.

Our job is to keep hammering away with the truth in the hope that eventually they'll wake up.

It's going to be a long fight, I fear.

Show threadCarol NissensonNov 8, 2022
@juddlegum The sad thing is that many won’t care so long as they move us closer to being a White Christian nation.
Show threadSkinnerAKNov 8, 2022
@juddlegum Probably a very slim %, as fox news and the rest, certainly aren't telling them.
Show threadSteve WashingtonNov 8, 2022
@juddlegum Political leaders on the right have exercised a degree of cynicism about the role of voters for some time (e.g., Dick Cheney). This is more of the same or worse. They’ve lulled their (right wing/media) victims. Perhaps the cynicism was well placed, though I don’t want to think that because it supports a view that voters can’t think or make decisions for themselves or our government. The same thinking that supported a stronger and unchecked executive branch.
Show threadListen OccasionallyNov 8, 2022

@juddlegum I don't really get why Social Security (in its current form) is sacrosanct?

Its broken, under-funded, and it props up the generation that vote for the louts in the GOP!

Rhetoric matters, specially to younger voters, and I don't see how this appeals to anyone under 35...

Show threadHieronymousNov 8, 2022

@juddlegum When the GOP does weaponize the debt limit next year, bet the change it will demand will be raising the age for qualifying, to avoid pissing off current recipients -- and figuring that those who will be affected will shrug, because it's 5-10 years at least in their future.

And any price they might pay with voters will be eased bc the '24 elections will be more than a year off, and people will forget/focus on the here and now. See Roe.

Show threadCardboard RobotNov 9, 2022
@Hieronymous @juddlegum And of course it will take Fox three days max to convince viewers that the left stole their SS.
Show threadMistiNov 8, 2022
@juddlegum not enough know or care.
Show threadstevesussmannNov 8, 2022
@juddlegum and no Biden judges approved
Show threadCat Food CasseroleNov 9, 2022
@juddlegum
Not the ones in the Red States who are on disability or SS.