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So... How Well Did Pandering Work

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It's been about a week and some change since the 2024 United States Presidential Election, and whether sad or happy about the results, Donald Trump has been elected by the American people as our next president. Given the news, I wanted to discuss how pandering worked out for each candidate. For Harris, she was recognized for having a good campaign in the few months she was able to campaign, but in the end it was not enough. She was known for pandering towards younger audiences, but even then, she was not certain on issues that young voters cared the most about. She took a majority of her campaign to describe abortion rights, which were incredibly controversial among conservative audiences. In an article by Yahoo! News , they suggest her inability to campaign other issues voters had was a reason as to why her hype did not translate into votes. She pandered to several demographics, but it appears her strategy did not work in her favor as some voters felt alienated by her stances Trum...
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Harris's Surprise SNL Appearance!

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 In the days leading up to the election, both Trump and Harris have been diligently doing as many appearances and campaign events as possible, yet Harris had a surprise up her sleeve nobody saw coming. Harris decided to go on this week's SNL episode during the cold open with Maya Rudolph playing Harris, which has been a staple in SNL shows the last few weeks.  While there has not been much controversy about this appearance, I think this was an intentional and strategic move on Harris's part to align move voters with her and her campaign. SNL is watched by a wide range of audiences, many of whom are just looking for light-hearted fun and good musical guests. Harris taking a part in the show was a good plan to align a few more voters to her. SNL was a good method for her to show her personality, rather than direct political policies and campaign promises.  Considering the election is tomorrow, and voters across the country have already voted or are planning to head to the p...
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Is Harris Pandering Towards Conservatives?

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 In a recent interview Kamala Harris took part in, she was pressed about gender-affirming care for transgender Americans. This is coming off Trump's campaign being especially anti transgender rights, and many are wondering how Harris feels on the issue. It's also important for young millennial and generation Z voters identify with Harris more, but she won't give a specific and clear answer to the questions asked on gender-affirming care. A big criticism on Harris has been her lack of clear policy, but she is adamant on being anti-Trump rather than her own candidate.  In an article by USA Today , Harris says that "we should follow the law" and then points fingers at Trump and proceeds to say she will not put herself in the position of doctors to make the decision of whatever is medically necessary.  These quotes emphasize that Harris is not as liberal thinking as many younger voters would like her to be, and that she has uncertain policies on the rights many voters...
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Trump Clocked In At McDonald's and Walz Calls Out Pandering

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 In the staged event on Sunday, Trump was in a McDonald's in Pennsylvania "serving" up fries for customers to depict his ability to empathize and connect with the working class. While this could be in good faith, many were quick to jump at Trump for pandering to working class audiences by pretending to work at McDonald's. According to an article by CNN , the store was closed for a campaign stop, and Trump decided to put an apron on and work as a fry attendant.  Many politicians like Tim Walz were quick to point out this as blatant pandering, as Trump has never had to work a fast food, low income job in his life. Not to mention the store was closed during the event, and he did not serve customers outside of the campaign event he was doing. According to an article by The Hollywood Reporter , Walz spoke about how he and Harris grew up middle class and had to work for what they had. He mentioned how Harris actually  worked at McDonald's and did not pander and disrespe...
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Trump Pandering to Black Audiences Sparks Controversy

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Back in February while Trump was speaking to an audience of black conservatives in Columbia, South Carolina, he tried to pander or cater towards black Americans in a controversy. During the speaking event, Trump likens his indictment on 91 felony charges to historic discrimination against African Americans. In an article by The Washington Post, Trump says that he is liked by many black people because they have been so badly hurt and discriminated against, and how "they actually viewed me as I'm being discriminated against"  It is incredibly odd to suggest that being indicted 91 times equates to historical discrimination, but I found it more jarring that he uses this as a reason for why black people like or respect him more than others. It was interesting that this was his method of catering to black people, which could be suggesting their relation or similarity is criminal history. This reflects negative stereotypes that black people are criminals. I also found this to c...
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Kamala Harris's Surprise Podcast Interview

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After several weeks of the public wondering what move Harris will make next, she decides to take up an offer by Alex Cooper of the "Call Her Daddy" podcast for an interview. This was an interesting choice for Harris to make considering this podcast is mainly listened/viewed by younger audiences, and I think this is a prime example of this administration trying to pander towards generation Z and millennials. Since Biden dropped out, Harris and her team has made a 180° with their strategies to gain support and win in swing states, and I think it's refreshing to finally see a politician trying to go after our age demographic rather than deny the impact young voters have as if we are not the future of America. While the full interview is on streaming services, linked below is a clip from it. A  majority of the issues Cooper discussed on her podcast was delving into women's issues as she herself was qualified, and she mentioned at the beginning how other conversations arou...
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Merchandise as a Method to Pander

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 As we have stated in previous blog posts, the Harris-Walz Administration is taking an approach to their advertising campaign that highlights younger millennial and generation Z voters into account, which is contrasting the Trump Vance campaign that has not seen the same surge in popularity among young voters. In this blog post, I will be focusing on how the merchandise each side is promoting and introducing are trying to pander to specific audiences to gain more votes. Both sides have their loud and aggressive yard signs, shirts, hats, tote bags, etc, but I want to focus on the more outrageous and creative ideas.  As pictured above, The Harris Walz administration took inspiration from the Taylor Swift fan craze of making friendship bracelets with beads and charms, and they made yard signs of the memes revolving Biden. Their official merchandise website also had a plethora of pride merchandise during pride month, but one that stuck out to me were stickers for pride of Harris ...
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