this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2024
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United States | News & Politics
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Yeah, I'm not sure you need to be talking about what voters do or don't understand. Quit repeating establishment bullshit.
I seriously doubt this was the factor so many people think it is. Republicans have the racist/sexist vote locked up no matter who is running.
Where this can come into play is that women and minorities (especially blacks) have to avoid a lot of behaviors that would never hurt a white male candidate. They can't show a hint of outrage,weakness, or indecision, or they just become a stereotype. For all the mistakes Harris made, I don't think I ever saw her fall into that trap.
That is an extremely reductive narrative that ignores how prejudice actually works in this country. Racist and sexist biases conscious or not shaped perception of Harris on the left, right, and everywhere inbetween. Prejudice is not a binary thing. It is a cultural force that is more than capable of impacting the decision making of people who are not outwardly racist/sexist.
I'm pretty sure that's how prejudice works everywhere. It's kind of weird how you zeroed in on that and then ignored the entire next paragraph where I talked about how it does sometimes matter.
Generalizations are generalizations, and it should be understood that they aren't intended to be true in every case. I'm well aware that prejudice can be subtle. I'm also aware that a lot of people voted for Kamala specifically because they like the idea of a woman president. I don't think either of those was a significant enough factor to change the outcome.
I ignored the next paragraph because it doesn't sometimes matter, it always matters. Racism doesn't suddenly start working because a person made a mistake. It might latch on to a mistake, but it can and will work without it. That is what I believe happened this election.
And you base that on what?
Even if you are correct, that just means that the Democrats failed to create a movement capable of motivating voters to override innate bigotry. If voters honestly believed that Democrats would make their lives better, gender wouldn't matter.
How many people would have ever believed we would elect a black president with a vaguely Muslim sounding name in 2008 before it happened? Not that I'm a fan of Obama, but his 2008 campaign demonstrates that bigotry can be overcome.