Undecided voters in the 2024 election are stuck between a rock and a hard place
After a decade of Donald Trump, how can anyone be undecided about whether to vote for him or his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris? Somehow, a stubborn two or three percent remain according to polling tracked by Real Clear Politics. When they make up their minds, that may decide the election.
The numbers from Real Clear’s polling average are likely an undercount. Pollsters I’ve talked to over the years say undecideds are among the most likely to dodge survey calls. They think they have nothing to say, but their views may really carry the most weight along with the weakly committed like the four or five percent who have newly named themselves Harris-backers in recent weeks.
The candidates sure aren’t making it any easier to make up your mind. Donald Trump’s position on abortion seems to vary by the day whirring from the draconian anti-abortion stance of a guy who wants to monitor women’s pregnancies to one who thinks the federal government should stay out of it. Kamala Harris stubbornly refuses to engage with the national press corps dodging tough interviews, preferring to talk to local reporters and sycophants like MSNBC personality Stephanie Ruhle.
The presidential wannabes can’t seem to stick to a position to save their lives. Harris has abandoned old positions on fracking, the Green New Deal and health insurance while Trump just announced that he’d drop sanctions on Iran after running on his record of being tough with Iran – once horrifying foreign policy “experts” with his decision to dump Barack Obama’s dubious Iran deal.
Those are just a few of the reasons I count myself among the undecided. I liked a lot of Trump’s policies during his first term, most notably his strong appointments to the Supreme Court, but I am repelled by his character and his attempt to overthrow the 2020 election. I’d like to see him go away, so I keep thinking about voting for Harris.
But sheesh, she’s awful. Her understanding of economics is dismal, spouting a litany of subsidy and price control proposals that would get an undergrad econ student put in a dunce cap. We got more of that in a big economic speech from the vice president Wednesday. She wants to undermine elections in her own way with a plan to destroy the fillibuster, pack the Supreme Court and give undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship, which millions of new voters that liberals think they can count on.
I don’t know what I am going to do on election day. I am definitely not voting for Trump, but I don’t know if there is any way I can stomach a vote for his opponent.
I am not alone. Even after Joe Biden dropped out, the majority of Americans are not satisfied with the candidates they have to choose from. That’s no surprise. One of the candidates is an elderly, deluded, 2020 retread and the other garnered not a single vote in the 2024 primaries.
The question isn’t why so many Americans remain undecided, but rather how so many Americans have been able to choose between this dogs’ breakfast we’ve been offered.
David Mastio, a former editor and columnist for USA Today, is a regional editor for The Center Square and a regular Star Opinion correspondent. Follow him on X: @DavidMastio or email him at dmastio1@yahoo.com