Disaffected young voters resort to outdated mode of digital expression to trade barbs across the aisle
Abigail and Ashkan are two students hopelessly immersed in the nonsense electoral discourse of the Ivy League — in the swing state of Pennsylvania.
Abigail, a Democrat, hails from a rural northern Californian farming community and is a passionate proponent of American exceptionalism.
Ashkan, a Republican, is a gay first-generation American who believes in the promise of this country and its freedoms above all else.
Substack
By Ashkan
footnotes from Abigail
I’ve said this once and I’ll keep saying it: Donald Trump is not stupid.
I think he is one of the most ingenious political operators in modern American history. I’m sorry, but you can’t just luck your way from joke to President. Especially without institutional support, like in 2016.
(more…)By Abigail
footnotes from Askhan
I don’t like JD Vance. I also remember instinctively not liking him during his libby Hillbilly Elegy days the way you don’t like people who are the same age as you but world-famous when you are not. At the time, this dislike was more grounded in the feeling that he was stealing my thunder: there can only be so many narratives about overcoming a low-income childhood in rural America and then attempting to claw your way up the tax bracket by attending an Ivy League before they go out of style.1 Now, more reasonably, I don’t like him because after his ideological shapeshifting act he stands for all of the MAGA values that I find most unappealing. But then I’m a moderate Democrat—there’s no world in which I would vote for Trump. What’s hard for me to gauge is if Vance is a hit with his target audience and whether that even matters.
(more…)By Ashkan
footnotes from Abigail
Literally no one cares that JD Vance used to be anti-Trump.1
Democrats keep bankrolling ads of Vance calling Trump bad names during his pre-beard, New York Times days and then patting themselves on the back for politicking so well. Messaging-wise, it’s in the same league as surefire Democratic zingers like Hillary’s “Pokemon GO to the polls.”
(more…)By Ashkan
footnotes from Abigail
Hey guys, I had an idea (just trying it on for size). I’m planning on executing the following series of events:
Then will Barack Obama, as he called Joe Biden, brand me a “patriot of the highest order” too?
(more…)By Abigail
footnotes from Ashkan
I guess my begrudging endorsement three days ago didn’t mean much to Joe Biden. After four mediocre innings, he’s been pulled by the proverbial manager (84-year-old Nancy Pelosi, apparently?) after giving up one too many runs. And our bullpen, which should be crowded with exciting alternatives, has opened its gate to spit out relief in the form of Kamala, who, despite gay Twitter’s best efforts, is not the charismatic up-and-comer America seems desperate for.
(more…)By Abigail
No heartily ringing endorsement of a presidential candidate has ever been accompanied by a near-endless list of caveats, qualifying statements, and preemptions to counterpoints, but at this stage in the 2024 election cycle, it is impossible to honestly write about Biden without doing all these things. Will he even be in the race in two weeks?
(more…)By Ashkan
I do not want to vote for Donald Trump. But I might.
He’d get my vote — a scornful one albeit — if election day were tomorrow. But it’s not. And a lot could change between then and now: his opponent, his number of ear bandages (if we get to two then I’m knocking on doors for the man), my emotional maturity, the number of guilt-tripping pro-democracy platitudes Abigail and my progressive friends feed me, among others.
(more…)
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