"....or whether she wants to try and keep coasting on vibes alone. The week we’ve had so far suggests she would be happy to do the latter—and, depressingly, that a ton of voters won’t care if she does."
It may be depressing, but it's a simple fact: American voters, by and large, do not decide to vote on the basis of policy minutiae. Late-…
"....or whether she wants to try and keep coasting on vibes alone. The week we’ve had so far suggests she would be happy to do the latter—and, depressingly, that a ton of voters won’t care if she does."
It may be depressing, but it's a simple fact: American voters, by and large, do not decide to vote on the basis of policy minutiae. Late-breaking news: EVERY campaign runs on vibes. Donald Trump's campaigns certainly weren't full of policy details: every nebulous plan he mentioned was going to be "released in two weeks." His vibe was rage and resentment, and that's all he needed to squeak through in the Electoral College. Barack Obama didn't get elected twice because of his detailed policy proposals, and neither did Bill Clinton. The candidate who inundated journalists with the pickiest policy white papers in recent memory was Hillary Clinton, and all the press harped on was "her emails." So let's not agonize too much over Kamala's sketchy proposals. Voters got all the policy info they needed every time someone at the DNC said, "We're going to" or "Kamala's going to" (fill in the blank). And that's all the policy detail we're going to get -- and all we need -- in the campaign speeches and commercials to come. That's the way American elections work. Maybe it's depressing, but it's the truth.
The minute the presidential debates started being televised (1960, Kennedy v. Nixon), presidential campaigns became vibes-based. We've had 60 years of vibes-based campaigns by this point. It shouldn't be news anymore.
Good point! I'm so old that I can remember listening to the Kennedy v. Nixon debate on the radio. As a very young foreign policy wonk, I came away thinking that Nixon had definitely won the day. I was the only student in my Catholic grammar school to vote for Nixon in our classmate straw poll. But never fear: I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now...
"....or whether she wants to try and keep coasting on vibes alone. The week we’ve had so far suggests she would be happy to do the latter—and, depressingly, that a ton of voters won’t care if she does."
It may be depressing, but it's a simple fact: American voters, by and large, do not decide to vote on the basis of policy minutiae. Late-breaking news: EVERY campaign runs on vibes. Donald Trump's campaigns certainly weren't full of policy details: every nebulous plan he mentioned was going to be "released in two weeks." His vibe was rage and resentment, and that's all he needed to squeak through in the Electoral College. Barack Obama didn't get elected twice because of his detailed policy proposals, and neither did Bill Clinton. The candidate who inundated journalists with the pickiest policy white papers in recent memory was Hillary Clinton, and all the press harped on was "her emails." So let's not agonize too much over Kamala's sketchy proposals. Voters got all the policy info they needed every time someone at the DNC said, "We're going to" or "Kamala's going to" (fill in the blank). And that's all the policy detail we're going to get -- and all we need -- in the campaign speeches and commercials to come. That's the way American elections work. Maybe it's depressing, but it's the truth.
The minute the presidential debates started being televised (1960, Kennedy v. Nixon), presidential campaigns became vibes-based. We've had 60 years of vibes-based campaigns by this point. It shouldn't be news anymore.
Good point! I'm so old that I can remember listening to the Kennedy v. Nixon debate on the radio. As a very young foreign policy wonk, I came away thinking that Nixon had definitely won the day. I was the only student in my Catholic grammar school to vote for Nixon in our classmate straw poll. But never fear: I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now...