• dhork@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    They may not exist.

    In 2016, Clinton got around 66M votes, to Trump’s 63m. But in 2020, Biden got over 81M, while Trump got over 74M. 2020 was the highest voter turnout, by percentage, since 1900.

    It may be that nobody at all changed their mind, and that the casual voters, who normally don’t bother, decided to vote this time, and more chose Biden. The winning strategy is to give these more apathetic voters a reason to care about your side.

    • thedirtyknapkin@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      oh i know a lot of people who half heartedly voted for trump the first time as a meme. especially terminally online 18-20 year olds who had never voted or cared before. i know 6 people who voted for him as a meme then regretted it.

      • macrocephalic@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yes I think that was a lot of his appeal in '16. It was people voting for anything but the status quo, a protest vote, a donkey vote of sorts. It turns out that the status quo is still better than an imbecile.

      • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yup, same. Not all were in that age range, but I knew some in that range. I also knew people much older, but very low-info, who voted for him because he had that game show and he would “shake things up” and was an “outsider” and “not a politician” and other stupid reasons. I also knew a guy in his 30s who was scared into voting for the first time (for donnie) because he was convinced Hillary was going to “take his guns”. Also, this guy does not actually OWN guns, but wants to be sure he can get them…

        It’s sad that elections are probably decided at the margins, often by people making absolutely terrible decisions based on very little actual information.

      • hansl@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I hope your generation teaches their kids about politics and how it actually affects lives. Meme voting is the stupidest thing a teenager can do, and I’ve seen teenager jumps off waterfalls for 2$ bets.

        • ZombieTheZombieCat@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I hope your generation teaches their kids about politics and how it actually affects lives

          Would have been great if the generations before us put any effort into that. Let’s not put the blame on some kids who thought it would be funny to vote for the moron, when the majority of far right conservative voters are elderly and believe everything they read on Facebook and Fox news.

          • hansl@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I’m not putting the blame of a complete election on some kids. But voting is a personal responsibility everyone should take seriously.

            And I agree that Gen X should have taught their kids better. But it’s too late now, so let’s work on the future generation(s).