The New Coalitions And What They Mean

Created
Tue, 22/10/2024 - 04:30
Updated
Tue, 22/10/2024 - 04:30
The 2024 election is just a little over two weeks away now and most Democrats are down to their last nerve with worry. This is nothing new, of course. That’s just the way they roll. Republicans meanwhile are already cracking the champagne strutting around saying they have it in the bag no need to worry. That’s how they roll. Both of these phenomenons are indicative of a certain kind of temperament but they are also real political strategies and it’s worth taking a look at them. I’ve written before about the Republicans’ love of the bandwagon effect which really just holds that if you act like Donald Trump and pretend that you know you’ve got it won, some people will naturally follow because they want to go with the winner. They’ve actually been doing that long before Trump came along but nobody in politics has ever been more naturally adept at deploying it than he is. And we’ve discussed ad nauseum how the Democrats are suffering from post-2016 PTSD and are just more likely to believe the sky is falling, mainly because these races have been so close for so long and they are rationally worried that it will fall the wrong way. Former Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer explained why these two behaviors may just be counterproductive this time, particularly on the GOP side. The political strategy behind the bandwagon effect was specifically targeted at the high propensity voters to whom Republicans have traditionally appealed: older and mostly college educated people who always turn out.…