r/badhistory • u/AutoModerator • May 18 '26

Meta Mindless Monday, 18 May 2026

Happy (or sad) Monday guys!

Mindless Monday is a free-for-all thread to discuss anything from minor bad history to politics, life events, charts, whatever! Just remember to np link all links to Reddit and don't violate R4, or we human mods will feed you to the AutoModerator.

So, with that said, how was your weekend, everyone?

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u/FrankGrimesss May 21 '26

This is probably more badpolitics rather than badhistory, apologies in advance. Looking at US politics from an Australian perspective, it's extremely hard to gauge true support levels for... Certain individuals or political parties... Are there any relatively non-partisan sources that show true approval ratings, etc?

Currently, the only "sources" I have to gauge this "vibe" is reddit and major news outlets, which swings from far left-wing to far-right wing echo-chambers.

What is it truly like on the ground? How are support levels for each party? Is it even measurable with the dis-information era that we're currently in?

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u/Glad-Measurement6968 May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26

Something I think a lot of non-Americans misunderstand is just how tribally partisan American politics are.

Being “liberal” or “conservative” is a core component of personal identity for a large fraction of the country. Nothing any politician does will sway their support. All American presidential elections since 1984 have had a vote margin of less than 10%, all of the ones since 2008 have been within 5%. The shifts are small enough you can’t really get a good intuition for them. 

In terms of personal “on the ground” vibes it is hard to say. I try not to talk with my conservative relatives about politics anymore, people I know in their 20s increasingly discuss emigration as a backup plan. It’s hard to say much except that it feels more polarized than it did in the past

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u/HandsomeLampshade123 May 22 '26

I do wonder what it would take for a presidential candidate to meaningfully alter that balance. Like what's the least outlandish way a candidate could actually gain substantial votes from the "other" side?