No Time For Conspiracies
I understand the difficulty of accepting that America voted for a criminal, traitor, insurrectionist, and wannabe dictator. However, claiming that it must be some form of voter fraud is just a way of not having to accept the outcome. Let's not be like MAGA, who claim fraud when they lose and declare a perfect election when they win.
We now have people on the left forming conspiracies that the election was stolen using Elon Musk’s Starlink, which is not far off from the debunked claims that Venezuela or servers in Germany stole the election from Trump in 2020.
Then there are the conspiracies that the voting machines were flipping votes from Biden to Trump, which is why down-ballot Democrats in some swing states won, but Harris lost. These are identical to the claims MAGA made about Dominion and Smartmatic machines in 2020, which caused Fox News to end up having to pay an almost $800 million settlement and fire Tucker Carlson.
The truth is far more straightforward.
Millions of Americans never watch or read mainstream news. They get their information from influencers, podcasts, and social media. They don't hear about how bad tariffs will be. They're told crime is out of control when it continues to fall year after year. They believe there is an invasion happening at the Southern Border when crossings are at a four-year low.
They've heard Trump's dictator comments, Project 2025, his criminal trials, and previous failures explained away to make them non-issues. Facts and democratic talking points never pierced their bubble.
Most importantly, they still see higher prices of eggs, milk, and gas and blame whoever is in charge for their difficulties while not being aware of all of the things the Biden administration has done for working-class Americans.
These voters are unfortunately convinced to vote against their self-interests because they don't even realize that is what they're doing.
Trump’s team calculated that their best move was to focus on white male voters, followed by Hispanic men. To reach these voters, Trump’s team relied heavily on what is often referred to as bro podcasts. These podcasts focus on catering to disenfranchised men who are angry that they are living in a generation where men don’t have the extreme levels of power and wealth they once did because we continue to move closer to equality. Hispanic Americans listen to podcasts 35% more than the average American.
The Trump campaign became so confident in the podcast approach that his appearances strategist had to get the OK from Trump’s youngest son, Barron, to ensure the chosen podcasts appealed to young men.
Forbes put together a list of Trump’s bro podcast appearances. Here is the summary (link at end of article):
“Impaulsive” with Logan Paul (June 13) — 6.6 million views on YouTube as of Oct. 29, not including other platforms
“All In Podcast” (June 20) — 3.4 million views
Adin Ross’s live stream (posted to YouTube Aug. 5) — 2.6 million views
“This Past Weekend with Theo Von” (Aug. 20) — 14 million views
“Shawn Ryan Show” (Aug. 26) - 3.5 million views
“Lex Fridman Podcast” (Sept. 3) — 5.1 million views
“Flagrant” (Oct. 9) — 7 million views
“Full Send Podcast” (Oct. 14) — 3.2 million views
“Bussin’ With The Boys” (Oct. 15) — 420,000 views
“PBD Podcast” (Oct. 17) — 2.7 million views
“The Dan Bongino Show” (Oct. 18) - 2.8 million views on Rumble
“Maintaining with Tyrus” (Oct. 18) - 1.1 million views
“Six Feet Under with Mark Calaway” (Oct. 21) - 708,000 views
“Joe Rogan Experience” (Oct. 25) - 37.8 million views
Trump’s message was that immigrants were flooding into the country, destroying the traditional white culture and that the economy was doing awful. This ignores that border crossings are lower than when Trump left office and that the US has the best economy in the world, but that’s what information bubbles are for: skewing the facts. Trump’s message got through to the voters he was targeting.
It might seem odd that Latino men would vote for Trump more than Harris when Trump spent a large portion of his campaign demonizing migrants and promising mass deportations, a promise he has reiterated after being declared the winner.
Interviews with these voters revealed that their biggest concern was the economy, and they felt that either Trump wouldn’t actually perform mass deportations or that the undocumented friends and family they know wouldn’t be included because they aren’t criminals and have lived here for a long time. The information bubble once again.
In the end, the popular vote will be much closer than in 2020. The difference this year is that fewer Democrats showed up to vote. Trump slightly exceeded his 2020 vote total, and Harris will end up a few million votes behind Biden’s numbers.
All of this information can be ignored in the face of disbelief. People are free to push for recounts and investigations, but it won't end up flipping three states from Trump to Harris, which is needed to win the Electoral College.
Trump is going to be the President. When the stages of grief move from denial to anger, use that anger to reinvigorate yourself for the fights ahead.
We need our energy and focus to be on resisting MAGA's extremist agenda while growing the democratic coalition to make gains in the midterms and 2028.
I have three young daughters, a wife, and a deep love for our country. I am going to fight every day to ensure that future generations inherit a prosperous nation on the rise that treats all citizens equally and ensures there is no needless suffering.
There is no time to waste on conspiracies.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-elections/exit-polls
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0mzl7zygpmo
https://www.edisonresearch.com/podcasting-in-the-latino-audio-universe/
