This is also why it's funny people think that the Gaza genocide will be some kind of millstone around Biden or Harris's campaign. The American electorate has only the loosest understanding of what domestic politics are and literally doesn't give the slightest shit about foreign policy or people in other countries. Or perhaps a better way to put it is that foreign policy has absolutely zero impact on how Americans vote.
foreign policy has absolutely zero impact on how Americans vote
I'd say it's more:
There are rarely big party differences in foreign policy due to both parties supporting versions of imperialism -- for instance neither party is campaigning on even an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
More people care about domestic policy than foreign policy, so there's a concerted effort at all levels of both parties and in the media to focus more on domestic issues.
A big chunk of voters do care -- look at all the protests against Israel, look at all the anti-war sentiment against Iraq and Vietnam -- there are just huge factors steamrolling those opinions before they can be a deciding factor.
the democrats win when the 'normal' ill-informed yankees turn out to vote, by being marginally less putrescent. the issue for Biden/Harris is not the feelings of those people who on average probably don't care, it's the organizations that can increase their turnout but will withhold their organizing efforts. those assholes that knock on doors & bus folks to the polls are ideological and informed, that's what the democrats are going to capitulate
Or perhaps a better way to put it is that foreign policy has absolutely zero impact on how Americans vote.
this is also true for the """good""" things that the US achieves like getting countries into NATO, which is why Biden's statement before he dropped out where he was like "I got Finland and Sweden into NATO! I got AUKUS done!" was so funny. Literally nobody cares. Most people are judging Biden and Trump based on the most incoherent criteria in human history, because none of it really matters, because both parties are promising that the treats will keep coming in. Hillary Clinton is a war criminal who brought slavery to Libya, leading to the mass impoverishment of millions of people - and I know with absolute certainty that that fact did not lose her any more than a thousand votes across the whole country of hundreds of millions, and only Libyan migrants would have given a shit. It was her hairstyle, or demeanor, or talking style, or maybe some vague exhaustion with Obama and "well, it's only fair if the Republicans get a term after the Dems got two! :)"
This is also why it's funny people think that the Gaza genocide will be some kind of millstone around Biden or Harris's campaign. The American electorate has only the loosest understanding of what domestic politics are and literally doesn't give the slightest shit about foreign policy or people in other countries. Or perhaps a better way to put it is that foreign policy has absolutely zero impact on how Americans vote.
I'd say it's more:
A big chunk of voters do care -- look at all the protests against Israel, look at all the anti-war sentiment against Iraq and Vietnam -- there are just huge factors steamrolling those opinions before they can be a deciding factor.
the democrats win when the 'normal' ill-informed yankees turn out to vote, by being marginally less putrescent. the issue for Biden/Harris is not the feelings of those people who on average probably don't care, it's the organizations that can increase their turnout but will withhold their organizing efforts. those assholes that knock on doors & bus folks to the polls are ideological and informed, that's what the democrats are going to capitulate
this is also true for the """good""" things that the US achieves like getting countries into NATO, which is why Biden's statement before he dropped out where he was like "I got Finland and Sweden into NATO! I got AUKUS done!" was so funny. Literally nobody cares. Most people are judging Biden and Trump based on the most incoherent criteria in human history, because none of it really matters, because both parties are promising that the treats will keep coming in. Hillary Clinton is a war criminal who brought slavery to Libya, leading to the mass impoverishment of millions of people - and I know with absolute certainty that that fact did not lose her any more than a thousand votes across the whole country of hundreds of millions, and only Libyan migrants would have given a shit. It was her hairstyle, or demeanor, or talking style, or maybe some vague exhaustion with Obama and "well, it's only fair if the Republicans get a term after the Dems got two! :)"