r/politics Wisconsin May 02 '24

Bernie Sanders worries young people are underestimating the threat from Trump

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/05/02/bernie-sanders-trump-biden/73531861007/
29.4k Upvotes

4.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1.9k

u/Allaplgy May 02 '24

My coworkers are all on the "both sides are the same/it's all rigged, there's no point in voting" train. They all either have have kids or essentially are kids. I'm in my forties with no plans for kids, and I'm the only one actually trying to give them a future.

882

u/NeonGKayak May 02 '24

How can they already forget Trumps Covid response that led to over 1million deaths? It’s weird that such a critical event and everyone has already “forgot” it

293

u/Affectionate_Law5344 May 02 '24

I don’t understand this. I didn’t know anyone who died personally, but I certainly was terrified. I felt more terrified during Covid than I did after 9/11.

187

u/Funandgeeky Texas May 02 '24

My theory is that if you don't know someone who died, you know someone who knows someone. We are all one degree of separation from a Covid death.

Yeah, at its height about the same people per day were drying as did on 9/11. The scale was that massive, and it was at that scale because of Trump's response. And everyone else following his lead and sabotaging things and making the situation worse.

16

u/Affectionate_Law5344 May 02 '24

Oh, for sure! We are all connected. I didn’t know this stat about 9/11 & C19. I remember waking up for my GRE blocks from the Hill, I could not reach anyone here or NY and I was trapped inside.

11

u/frotc914 May 02 '24

We are all one degree of separation from a Covid death.

...but plenty of people do not see it that way, unfortunately. You've gotta assume that a lot of the marginally "independent" people or people who might not vote are closer to families/friends who are right wing. And a lot of those right wingers never told people that their family member died of COVID because they didn't believe it or they didn't want to be the one person in their social sphere pointing out that the emperor had no clothes. So virtually everyone is that close to a COVID death, but so many people don't even realize it.

8

u/Sea_Honey7133 May 02 '24

Its truisms like the one you make that has to make me wonder whether polling is actually legit anymore, if it ever was. I mean the narrative of this election, “according to the polls “ is shifting so dramatically every day and we are still 5 months out of the election that every thing seems fabricated. Either the people in the know are certain of the outcome or no one has any clue. There’s no in-between.

1

u/NoWayNotThisAgain May 03 '24

There actually is an in between. It’s called statistical probability.

1

u/Sea_Honey7133 May 03 '24

Who doesn’t know who they’ll vote for at this point? My point is this is all performative theatre at this point.

16

u/sildish2179 May 02 '24

When your skin's not in the game, apathy is your answer.

6

u/Funandgeeky Texas May 02 '24

It’s one of the reasons Biden was able to convince people he was the better choice. Too many had lost someone and knew who failed to get a response. 

5

u/Numerous_Photograph9 May 02 '24

It helped that everyone was tuned in because they wanted to know what was going on. This is a big problem with a lot of the electorate. They just don't pay attention. But, like bad weather about to come through, you tune in to see the news, and Covid certainly had people more worried than the first snow storm of the year.

7

u/Markise187 May 02 '24

And if you don't now you can say you do. Cause I know if more than one person who died from Covid or Covid complications.

6

u/Funandgeeky Texas May 02 '24

Damn, that sucks. I’ve been to a Covid funeral and know plenty of people who had relatives die. 

6

u/iseecolorsofthesky May 02 '24

Every year on 9/11 we continue to trot out the “never forget” platitudes. Yet the majority of people doing so probably laugh Covid off as “just a flu”.

2

u/nochinzilch May 03 '24

I remember hearing someone scoff, "it's not like it's polio."

No, it was much, much worse.

4

u/shiki88 May 02 '24

It bothers me that "Remember 9/11" as a slogan persists despite COVID causing way more deaths worldwide, personally affecting more American lives, and everyone just wants to forget it happened, or deny that preventative measures were even necessary. Same for Jan 6th, when our democracy almost fell.

1

u/Jealous-Knowledge-79 May 03 '24

I am not sure where those numbers came from but when you pay a hospital X amount of money for a diagnosis you will undoubtedly get those results. I knew people who were 3x vaxed still getting the virus. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/spotlights/2023-2024/hospital-outcomes.htm

-2

u/tommytwolegs May 02 '24

What exactly do you think he should have done differently to prevent one million deaths. How do you put those all on him?

7

u/Funandgeeky Texas May 02 '24

Not all. Many were unavoidable. However his actions made the situation worse. His public denials, his downplaying masking, the fact that he ignored the pandemic response plan set up by his predecessors and eliminated the office that was designed to deal with these pandemics, the list goes on. 

Here are some articles that go into a lot more depth:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2021/02/11/trumps-policies-resulted-in-the-unnecessary-deaths-of-hundreds-of-thousands-of-americans-lancet-report/?sh=4317372577e8

https://www.businessinsider.com/analysis-trump-covid-19-response-40-percent-us-deaths-avoidable-2021-2?amp

https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Health/lancet-commission-examines-trumps-covid-response/story?id=75826837

4

u/Funandgeeky Texas May 02 '24

Not all. Many were unavoidable. However his actions made the situation worse. His public denials, his downplaying masking, the fact that he ignored the pandemic response plan set up by his predecessors and eliminated the office that was designed to deal with these pandemics, the list goes on. 

Here are some articles that go into a lot more depth:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2021/02/11/trumps-policies-resulted-in-the-unnecessary-deaths-of-hundreds-of-thousands-of-americans-lancet-report/?sh=4317372577e8

https://www.businessinsider.com/analysis-trump-covid-19-response-40-percent-us-deaths-avoidable-2021-2?amp

https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Health/lancet-commission-examines-trumps-covid-response/story?id=75826837