Was tempted to call this “Debate 2: Electric Boogaloo” but a) A lot of Lemmy won’t get the OG reference. and 2) “Boogaloo” has been co-opted and carries an unfortunate connotation these days.
Also, while it’s Trump’s 2nd debate of the season, it’s Harris’s first…
It’s being run by ABC News at 9 PM Eastern time, 6 PM Pacific, I see MSNBC starts their coverage TWO HOURS EARLY. That’s a lot of air time to fill, guys. Good luck!
Live updates, how and when to watch, debate rules, etc. here:
Link to the first debate thread here:
https://lemmy.world/post/16973660
That’t it! Thanks for hanging with it everbody!
Disengaged voters aren’t watching the debate, similarly I don’t see how anyone is undecided between Trump and Harris. Maybe undecided between voting and not voting, but there’s no way someone looks at two radically different candidates and goes “You know, I could really vote for either one…”
Don’t think of them as undecided, think of them as indifferent. Like if I had to vote in a poll for my favorite NBA team. I don’t really follow the NBA, so I might pick a team if I was forced to but I don’t really care. If there was a player witn particular charisma, though, maybe I might adopt that team.
People who are just focusing on getting by might think of politics as just too much noise, stuff that doesn’t affect them at all. These voters are not watching the debate, but they are seeing five-second sound bites on social media. The right little quip might be just enough to convince one of these low-engagement voters to show up.
They won’t watch, but the debate can attract the attention of people who don’t ordinarily think about politics but start to realize there’s an election coming up. It’s a broad group that I don’t think you can generalize as broadly as you are (unless you’re using the term “disengaged” to describe only the “refuse to participate in any way” camp).
Similarly, undecided is more likely to describe people who haven’t decided if they will vote or not - either side winning and otherwise forfeited vote is a good thing for their campaign. But I also think it’s incorrect to assume there’s people not still on the fence about the candidate - plenty of “I like Harris but I am not sure if she’s good for the economy” voters, etc.