Is Harold Really A Democrat?

You claim to be the devil? You are nothing but my imposter; far less than a shadow. – Mecha Constantine

Focus groups interest me. So, when I saw in The New York Times, January 6, 2022, a promise of insight by Patrick Healy and Lora Kelley, I was on it. The promise was nine American voters, all Democrats.

One participant caught my attention. Harold. No last names are used in focus groups.

Couldn’t tell you what anybody else said, but I took notes about Harold.

Is Harold really a Democrat?

‘We Barely Qualify as a Democracy Anymore’: Democratic Voters Fear for America

Jan. 7, 2022

Harold: It [January 6th] didn’t surprise me at all. I mean, everything’s been escalating and growing. Rioting in the street. Lawlessness. It was just growing up to the Capitol being stormed. It’s going to be the White House next. I mean, the riots, and the whole thing with “police can’t be police” anymore.

Harold: He said, fight. He said, fight. Now — please forgive me — I love Donald Trump. I voted for Donald Trump. He’s successful, and I wanted to see him be successful in office. But that, I did not like. I do believe he sort of incited that. I think it’s a stupid mistake people made by listening to it.

Harold: It’s not going to be the Capitol next time. It’s going to be the president’s bedroom. It’s going to be —

Margie Omero [veteran focus group moderator]: We’re going to zoom out a little bit and talk about our democracy. Think about our democracy as if it’s a patient at a hospital or at the doctor. How would you characterize the health of our democracy? Healthy? Fair condition? Poor? Or in critical condition?

Sue: In the I.C.U.

Harold: It’s in a pandemic.

Margie Omero: OK, one last question. It’s probably the case that 100 years from now, historians will write about Jan. 6, 2021 as a moment in American history. What would you want those historians to know?

Lawrence: Just a divisive nation with a lot of false things going on.

Katelyn: I would just like the truth to be shown. Because I know there’s questions on what gets shown in textbooks for kids today. And things like the Holocaust are being questioned, which is absolutely ridiculous. So I just want the actual truth.

Scott W.: I would hope that the attention goes to the victims and not the people who did the violence.

Harold: They concentrate more on the victims, and not the instigators and the lawlessness, yeah.

Tracy: I want the truth to be told about the now and the then. What can the American people do to change it? Because we’ve got to do something. Or, like Harold said, it’s just a matter of time before another devastating occurrence occurs.

Patrick Healy [veteran focus group moderator]:  And just two show-of-hand questions. Who among you voted for President Biden in 2020?

[Seven people raise their hands.]

Not Harold.

Patrick Healy: And then, how many of you want President Biden to run again for re-election in 2024?

[One person raises her hand; three others rock their hands to gesture ambivalence.]

Harold sitting on his.

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