Mega-Thread: 2020 United States General Election

[postman1782]

Andrew Jackson would like a word.

Reagan also. Reagan is arguably the reason we even got Trump since he set America on this course.

Ok, I will concede, he is the worst since Jackson. Genocide of possibly millions of people is pretty bad.

[Fkiolaris]

Boring stability is far preferable to Trump.

Treating politics like following a reality tv show or a sports team isn't good for society.

I cannot emphasise this enough. I appreciate it might be a perception due to age and personal circumstances, but even as an outsider, waking up every day and not knowing if the shit is going to hit the fan for whatever random reason the person in charge of the whole country dreamed off, can get very tiring very quickly.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Well I hope biden does a decent job atleast.

It's very hard to do worse than trump..

[gondrin]

Ok, I will concede, he is the worst since Jackson. Genocide of possibly millions of people is pretty bad.

Well, I firmly hope that this doesn't happen, but there still is a lot of time before we get this virus under control. Who knows how many people will die from it.

[beanman12345]

Ok, I will concede, he is the worst since Jackson. Genocide of possibly millions of people is pretty bad.

for me it's trump, followed by andrew johnson. Jackson and Reagan might be bottom 5.

really though they're all shitty people. but I still think Trump is the worst. For so many reasons, but he did all the bad shit the other 3 did and more.

[PACOX]

Have I missed something, what's suspicious about the number of votes for Trump?

Nothing really glaring but curious/odd.

Republicans tend to have no problem turning out. Therefore there really be Republican surges because they are coming out to vote no matter what.

What we've seen so far is a Republican surge in votes. A decent one as if there's truly an untapped source of Republicans in the country. BUT this surge also correlates with down ballot votes. If their is some sort of foul play whoever did it did a very shitty job, like Trump claiming the Dems cheated while not being able to steal the Senate or more House seats.

Trump has been known for activating voters in both parties and I think the numbers probably reflect that, we just didn't know to what extent.

[Draco-Onis]

So the people just want change, and a candidate offering massive change from the current one only gets a lukewarm victory... I will argue that most people do NOT want change, and that is why any sharp change is overturned within 6 years.

Biden wasn't offering any massive change he is back to status quo and stability candidate no one believes he suddenly turned progressive there's 45+ years of evidence against that. The people do want massive change populism got us two very different candidate. Obama marketed himself as an very left wing candidate but he governed as a centrist paid the price for that by losing congress, Trump was extreme right wing but his problem was that he was a fucking moron.

If Trump showed basic competence handling COVID it would have been a landslide victory.

[Howel]

Nothing really glaring but curious/odd.

Republicans tend to have no problem turning out. Therefore there really be Republican surges because they are coming out to vote no matter what.

What we've seen so far is a Republican surge in votes. A decent one as if there's truly an untapped source of Republicans in the country. BUT this surge also correlates with down ballot votes. If their is some sort of foul play whoever did it did a very shitty job, like Trump claiming the Dems cheated while not being able to steal the Senate or more House seats.

Trump has been known for activating voters in both parties and I think the numbers probably reflect that, we just didn't know to what extent.

Yeah I'd note that as interesting/curious. No need to go full Trump and call foul play, just because something a little out of the ordinary happened.

Could also just be because of the focus on this election being of such a high scale, and people who might not have been super hyped about Trump, got sucked into the whole thing, and went out and voted to prevent commie Biden, or somesuch.

[PACOX]

Boring stability is far preferable to Trump.

Treating politics like following a reality tv show or a sports team isn't good for society.

I don't think that's what people mean by 'boring' but I will accept Biden over Trump.

As the wealth gap in this country increases and wages at the bottom remain stagnant, there's a group of people left behind while more privileged people profit or are doing well enough.

In a democracy its easy to forget about those people since you have to be paying a lot of attention to remember there are minority groups who can't simple have their problems addressed by all of them making their voice heard. You need people who are part of the majority to vote with them.

A status quo candidate is looking out for just that, that status quo. They majority and they aren't looking to make any real changes that detract from that middle. They may be for equality, which is a feel good easy sell to people. They aren't about equity, which requires more radical changes that may disrupt the status quo.

Trump drove us further and further from equity while Biden would at least stop the gap from spreading - even if it's the boring route.

[Dontrike]

People latched on to the GOP talking point quick. Relax. Why not acknowledge that NPAs and leftist Democrats played a big part in this instead of trying to throw people under the bus?

It's not a person's fault they fell for the obvious bullshit, it's someone else's fault. Sounds like a Trump excuse to me.

[Arvei]

Good times. Glad we're finally at the light at the end of the tunnel of this last four years. But there's still a long road ahead of us. If anyone can afford it, make sure to donate to the runoff senate races in Georgia as they're going to be insanely important; I worry Biden might not be able to get much done with McTurtle stonewalling him if the GOP keeps the senate. With a now stacked right-wing court, I'm not sure how effective executive orders will become either.

On another note, I'm curious to see if Trump takes his base with him and turns on the GOP since it seems a lot of Trumpers are already blaming the GOP for his defeat and not doing enough to support him...

[Draco-Onis]

Plenty of people care about policy.

I would vote for the most bland boring person imaginable if they had good policy ideas and I liked what they wanted to do for the country.

And had Martin O'Malley won the nomination in 2016, I would have gladly done so.

Most people don't the key to winning an US election.

1. Catchy slogan (MAGA, Hope and Change etc).
2. Big rallies to get media attention (very important).
3. Vague promises of radical change and railing against the system.

The policy stuff is too boring for people to care even whether you are openly racists or proposing socialism the sheeples will follow they are desperate for change. Why? because there is so much income inequality in this country and the majority of Americans hate the system and know it's unfair, we never dealt with the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis and it will keep haunting us.

[beanman12345]

On another note, I'm curious to see if Trump takes his base with him and turns on the GOP since it seems a lot of Trumpers are already blaming the GOP for his defeat and not doing enough to support him...

Would be hilarious if he tries what Roosevelt did and attempt to take his base by creating a 3rd party. call it the orange obese turtle on it's back party.

[Arvei]

Would be hilarious if he tries what Roosevelt did and attempt to take his base by creating a 3rd party. call it the orange obese turtle on it's back party.

Hah, I do love how done with him CNN's anchors were. Hopefully he does this and cuts the GOP in half.

[Dontrike]

Congrats I guess, biden seems so fucking boring though atleast with trump you had fun following him.

You have a strange definition of fun.

[Ausr]

By the way, we all could have avoided 4 years of Trump if anyone had simply asked a native from New York or New Jersey about him. We would have told you that he was a lying piece of shit conman, but nooooo... had to find that out for yourselves.

[Mormolyce]

Easy Hillary wasn't well like isn't liked for 2016 one despite getting more votes. The 2nd is something I have theory's on but no concrete answers. Just liked what helped him in 2016 the media's constant trump bad had the exact opposite effect at the time. The media's influence has been waning for years well before the time of trump. People like tevor Noah and don lemon helped that along. I already stated why I think so earlier in this thread. If you agree or not is up to you. They gave trump millions in free advertising. And continued to do so not learning the lessons of 2016. Lucky for us trump pissed off enough people like me and you (since I'm a middle guy myself) you also really did under estimate the fear mongering he's done. This was amplified by facebook and Twitter. That's my view anyway.

I don't see how any of that explains why Trump's extreme focus on his base to the exclusion of swing voters failed to affect his performance. If it's so important for Democrats to sacrifice everything they believe in to appeal to "moderates" then why does the same not apply to Republicans at all? By that conventional "swing voter logic" Trump should be the worst performing candidate ever. I've never even heard of a US Presidential candidate, let alone sitting President, who went out of his way to alienate everyone but his staunchest supporters, openly wiping his ass on everyone else.

I used to believe this stuff too, but the facts are undeniable. The strategy isn't working, Biden may have scraped through this election but the Republicans are going to run nothing but Trump clones from now on, and unless Democrats change their thinking I forsee a lot more razor thin elections decided by the EC or SCOTUS...

[PACOX]

By the way, we all could have avoided 4 years of Trump if anyone had simply asked a native from New York or New Jersey about him. We would have told you that he was a lying piece of shit conman, but nooooo... had to find that out for yourselves.

Trump had existed as part of American culture since the 70s? 80s? People knew exactly who he was was. Other real difference is that he flipped from liberal elite to conservative elite.

[Mormolyce]

By the way, we all could have avoided 4 years of Trump if anyone had simply asked a native from New York or New Jersey about him. We would have told you that he was a lying piece of shit conman, but nooooo... had to find that out for yourselves.

Rubes are America's greatest natural resource. When he ran out of people to fool in NYC, he went to the motherlode - Republican districts.

- - - Updated - - -

Andrew Jackson would like a word.

Apparently Jackson was Trump's favourite President, because of course he was lol.

[nonameelf]

Apparently Jackson was Trump's favourite President, because of course he was lol.

Oh, Fox news was comparing him to Jackson the other day as if it was a good comparison. Either historically illiterate or just racist, it's hard to tell with Fox.