As the 2024 Presidential election inches closer, The Simpsons fans are wondering if the iconic cartoon has already forecast the results of the race.
The Simpsons, the longest-running animated series in history, has garnered a reputation for its uncanny ability to predict the future.
Some of the most eerie prophecies from the show that have come true over the years range from AI robots’ takeover to Donald Trump running for U.S. presidency.
A number of social media users have pointed out that an episode that aired on March 19, 2000, titled Bart to the Future, may have predicted the results of the election on November 5.
‘We all know that the Simpsons has this uncanny ability to predict the future. In an episode, Lisa becomes president and she mainly wears purple suit and pearls, similar to Kamala Harris’s outfit in her vice president inauguration. Coincidence? I THINK NOT,’ one person said.
‘The Simpsons predict Kamala Harris will be President,’ said another person who shared a side by side picture of Harris and Lisa as president.
At President Joe Biden’s inauguration, held on January 20, 2021, Harris was clad in a purple ensemble designed by Christopher John Rogers with Sergio Hudson-designed shoes and a necklace from Wilfredo Rosado.
In the episode Lisa is elected president, she is seen wearing a purple pantsuit and a strand of pearls.
Compounding the coincidences is that Lisa’s presidency comes after an implied presidency from Donald Trump, which caused a massive deficit.
Lisa, as president in the episode, says, ‘As you know, we’ve inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump.’
‘But look at the Simpsons prediction and it said something bout Trump in this year of 2024 and look at Lisa Simpsons became the first female President and it had Kamala Harris also the first President of the United States,’ said a third person.
‘The Simpsons just may predicted our next president,’ a fourth person said.
While many think The Simpsons have predicted a Harris win, polls show the vice president and Trump appear to deadlocked in their race for the White House.
An average of polls by aggregator 270toWin listed Harris 0.7 percentage points ahead on 48.1 percent, compared to Trump’s 47.4 per cent – well within the margin of error.
Poll guru Nate Silver wrote in the New York Times that the election is too close to call but added: ‘My gut says Donald Trump.’
But Allan Lichtman, known as the ‘Nostradamus’ of election forecasting, and veteran political strategist James Carville are predicting a Harris victory.
While Trump has enjoyed some momentum in recent polls, Carville listed three overarching reasons he believes the Democrats will emerge victorious.
The first is the GOP’s record of losses since 2018, including Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential race, and the two midterm cycles. Carville said Trump did not learn from past losses and has not established enough coalition to win this year.
He also noted the huge fundraising advantage Harris has over Trump, having raised more than $1billion since entering the race. Finally, he has an ’emotional feeling’ that Harris will edge ahead, claiming America is not as divided as many perceive.
Lichtman has remained staunch on his prediction that Democratic nominee Kamala Harris will become the next US president.
The American University professor, 77, is known for fashioning his own election model that has correctly forecast every presidential winner since 1984.
Speaking to CTV News, Lichtman said that his prediction ‘does not change with respect to the ephemeral events of the campaign’.
He also explained that his prediction is ‘based on a fundamental understanding of how American presidential elections really work, as votes up or down on the strength and performance of the White House party.’
He relies on an unorthodox system of ignoring the polls, based on what he calls ’13 keys’ to the White House, a model he developed in 1981 alongside his geophysicist friend Vladimir Keilis-Borok.
The model is based on 120 years of presidential election outcomes and even enabled Lichtman to call Trump’s unexpected 2016 victory a month before the election.
He then used his tactic to correctly predict the outcome in the 2020 elections.
As a result, he told CTV: ‘I certainly do not change my prediction based on polls.
‘If I had done that I would have been wrong in my prediction of Trump in 2016 when all the polls said something else.’
