Why Are Undecided Voters Still Undecided Just a Few Weeks Before the Elections?
Koh Lanta Island, Thailand, September 29th, 2024.
Salaroche

Has there ever been a starker contrast between candidates in any previous American Presidential elections? Have any previous elections had any equally fundamental consequences for the future of American Democracy? Except for the 1860 Presidential Elections, the answer to those two questions is a NO, particularly regarding the second one. No doubt the 2024 and the 1860 elections have some essential similarities.

Back in 1860 the choice was between a more Democratic, more universal, slave-free social environment and a backward, elitist, white-supremacist, slave-holding society. In 2024, the choice is between preserving a Constitutional Democratic system that upholds the rule of law or legitimizing a backward, elitist, white-supremacist political party that aims at installing an undemocratic, autocratic regime in the United States.

Listening to, and reading what some salient political characters say on the media, it is obvious that I'm not alone in my perception of the very serious crossroads the country is facing today. The warnings could not be written any clearer and could not be told any louder all over the country, yet, an undetermined number of Americans are still undecided as to who they will vote for in November.

Excuse me!? Inside what kind of opaque bubble do those undecided Americans live? I can understand why the "Hypnotized Maga Morons" that have FOX News or any other organ of authoritarian propaganda blaring the whole day from their TVs and Phones will vote for their amoral candidate. But those are not part of the undecided throngs.

The same could be said about guys like me who NEVER syntonize FOX News and Co. and usually get their information from The Guardian, The New York Times, Politico, MSNBC or any other moderate-to-outright-leftwing news outlets: Most of us already voted or intend to vote for Kamala Harris. But, again, we are not part of the undecided crowds.

So, where do the undecided voters get their information from? How do those people shape their perception of the political situation of the country? Or is it that they are paying attention to either of those two groups of news sources but they don’t really understand what’s going on?

My point being that, after all we’ve seen, read, and heard, how can anyone be undecided about who their candidate of choice is when the contrast between those two candidates is SO STARK?? Is it that many of them are closet-racists, or closet-white-supremacists, or closet-misogynists, or all of the above, but they don’t even know it themselves so they are confused and conflicted?

Or, could it be that, even in the face of all the available evidence, they are just unable to grasp the gravity of the moment and cannot properly assess which candidate will be beneficial to them if elected? If that were the case, such baffling absence of basic reasoning capabilities added to the blurry, confused manner in which they seem to perceive their own self-interest would be almost like an insult to the collective intelligence of the American people.

There has to be something wrong in our educational system when millions of Americans don’t seem to have been taught how to think for themselves about matters of national interest that hover above their most basic needs.

Do you have a clear idea as to why those undecided voters are still undecided just a few weeks before the elections? I don’t. But, then again, do you have a clear idea as to why the Maga crowds follow Trump so unconditionally regardless of how amoral, unlawful, indecent, and un-American his transgressions may be? I think I do, but maybe I don’t.

Salaroche