Mega-Thread: 2020 United States General Election

[Kiri]

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...

What exactly would Dems have to change their thinking to? They managed to win, despite being the only partly being held accountable for failures/falseties, despite voter suppression and other shenanigans, despite a system stacked against them and despite a massive propaganda machine having a stranglehold over a lot of voters. For some reason, it is constantly understated but this was quite an achievement, imho.

They seem poised to try and get rid of at least some disadvantages, but they will have problems doing that while still adhering to the rules, being more scrutinized by their own voters than Reps ever were and not having as much power as the latter had. I don't know what thinking they could assume to change any of that. Become more like Republicans? Screw the rules, screw ethics, try and make a cult of personality of their own? Go all in on progressiveness and hand over a batch of voters to the Republicans? Idk, I just don't see the thinking the Dems could change to without becoming just as bad as the Reps to do better.

[Antiganon]

Not by several million.

If the remaining 33% of CA that hasn't reported breaks for Biden at 64.6% like he has been doing so far, Biden will add another 4.5 MILLION votes in CA alone.

[Bodakane]

The Dems don't have to forsake anything to appease middle voters. The only thing they need to do is actively help out the people working. That's it. No talk of doing stuff. Actively doing stuff. Us workers have been left high and dry since obama. If people like mitch block it. Don't mince words. Don't be civil with it. Tell the people mitch the bitch blocked it. Easy peesy

If the Dems gone full on progressive they risk the pendulum. Swinging back to the right.

I’m curious what you think “full on progressive” means if you think it’s not the same as helping workers?

[Gaidax]

Memes are good.

[Twdft]

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

It could have been a lot more.

2020 surely was the most hyped up election in a long time and still voter turnout was only about 67%. Which means if everyone else voted too Kanye could have tied with both of them.

German politics are much more boring but we had 76% turnout last Bundestag election. But then again everyone eligible to vote is automatically registered, so there's that.

[Kiri]

The Dems don't have to forsake anything to appease middle voters. The only think they need to do is actively help out the people working. That's it. No talk of doing stuff. Actively doing stuff. Us workers have been left high and dry since obama. If people like mitch block it. Don't mince words. Don't be civil with it. Tell the people mitch the bitch blocked it. Easy peesy

And yet, a large chunk of workers will still believe that the Dems just did nothing for them and vote R. Because that's what they did in this election. The relief bill is on Mitch's desk. Everyone who cares enough knows it. Dems have made it clear. Mitch even said that he's not gonna vote on it because Trump is going to veto it.
Still, workers went out and voted Trump. Do you really think that's just because the Dems were too civil with it? Do you honestly think if Biden stood at a podium and said

mitch the bitch blocked it.

then the voters would have gone "Oh, I was going to vote Trump, but now that Biden said it like this, I am totally going to vote for him instead!"?

No, that's just wishful thinking.
Instead, you will have loads of workers not hearing about that comment at all or only hearing the rude comments and being told that "libs are throwing a tantrum" or something like that by Fox and Sinclair.
Instead, you will have Mitch and Trump brazenly lying about not being at fault and how the Dem proposal has a ban on burgers on it or something.
Instead, you will have workers voting for Trump anyway just because he is a Republican and they'd vote for a monkey with a red cap on its head if that was the option with an R next to it.
And instead you will have a lot of people just choosing not to vote at all because both parties are rude jerks that do not get a relief bill passed.

It just doesn't make much sense. And if it did, that would be a whole new level of depressing. Because the insinuation here would be that workers are incapable of looking at the records of both parties and will go with the one who 'doesn't mince words' and 'isn't civil with it'. Or that they could look at 8 years of Obama and 4 years of Trump, see what each party did for them and only came to the conclusion that Trump is better for them simply because of the messaging employed by the Dems.
I personally am not yet jaded enough to believe that. There are other, systemic issues that won't be solved easy peesy, but that are at the heart of the issue. Voter apathy and polarization, unchecked propaganda machines and misinformation, an archaic democratic system that leaves many, many Americans effectively voiceless - those are the issues to tackle.

[JohnBrown1917]

Andrew Jackson would like a word.

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

Or Bush jr. Trump tried hard, but he did not manage to kill more people than Bush.

[Poopymonster]

Where the hell is Pence? I don't think I've heard a peep from him for days.

Praying. Lots of praying. Asking "How did I get to this point?" "What will I do next?" "Mother, should I trust the government?" and most importantly...



..."what is Gritty?"

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Lots of people out celebrating in Princeton, NJ today. Shit was like the ending of Return of the Jedi. Fucking wild.

I work north of Philly. Even there, the amount of Gritty Worship was amazing. Coworkers who live in Philly were partying. I can almost see Jawnism becoming a thing with an orange methadone nightmare on blade shoes as it's prophet.

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What sort of Scott Steiner math is this?

This will always be the best TNA promo ever.

[Machismo]

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.

Everyone already knew that, his supporters simply didn't care.

[Felya]

Where is my 5 am tweets? The one day I want that fat fuck to tweet storm, but the bitch been mute for hours... I am honestly disappointed that there is no Trump tweet... the one time... one time... one!

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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.

I have literally been saying this for 4 years!!! Brooklyn represent!!!

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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.

No... a lot of the shit Trump was doing, never made it on the national stage. Then, which I think was part of the tact, he attacked NYC, trying to discredit everything we were saying.

Edit: Trump was never a liberal elite... that’s part of his insecurity. The liberal left never embraced him, he was just mr money bags. He was a NYC elite in the vein of Paris Hilton or Gordon Gekko...

[arandomuser]

4 years of " hes your president! get triggered libtard!,"
now suddenly its " ok guys lets come together and understand eachothers feelings"

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https://apnews.com/article/f5f6a73b2...816bb35e82c18d

also.... trumps own voter fraud comitee, found.....
*drumroll* no voter fraud.

[Elegiac]

4 years of " hes your president! get triggered libtard!,"
now suddenly its " ok guys lets come together and understand eachothers feelings"

We should start by helping them understand the feeling that clownery merits consequence, lol.

[Redwyrm]

4 years of " hes your president! get triggered libtard!,"
now suddenly its " ok guys lets come together and understand eachothers feelings"

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https://apnews.com/article/f5f6a73b2...816bb35e82c18d

also.... trumps own voter fraud comitee, found.....
*drumroll* no voter fraud.

Saw a Trump rally in my city with a flag stating "Fuck Your Feelings"

I think I might ask than man to borrow his flag. If they hold their weekly Trump hump fest this coming Tuesday.

[Flarelaine]

I fully expect Pence to run for (and win) the next vacant Senate seat in Indiana.

Unless he's eyeing 2024 already. If, for some reason, Trump cannot run (say, he's in prison) Pence can easily claim the mantle.

[Cosmic Janitor]

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.

Most people knew, they just don't care. The reality is they simply vote for their party no matter what monster is on offer that time. In most other places his behaviour would be utterly inacceptable and the own party would cut off figures like Trump before their first year in office is over, especially with a "safe" backup VP like mr "shock the gay out of them". In the US the GOP just kept backing him, no matter what heinous shit he spewed and he still was close enough to win again, because apparently it doesn't matter.

But even then, I didn't expect it to be that bad back in 2016. Back when he won he looked like one of the most shocked people about that fact himself. Frankly I think his original bid was just an out of control publicity stunt to raise his value, but after he won his underlying narcissistic pesonality coupled with the importance of his new office made him lose any semblance of control. Not to mention that he isn't exactly the brightest bulb to begin with.

[Flarelaine]

Pete Buttigieg - Secretary of State
Andrew Yang - Department of Treasury
plz make it happen

SecState is a very senior position. Pete has neither the years not the experience. I'm not saying he is not qualified but SecState needs to be someone other countries can take seriously and so tends to go to someone with a more significant resume than having been a mayor.

I can pretty much seem him in some other position in the cabinet, though.

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The Republican who helped Biden win AZ did it posthumously.

The Republican who helped Biden win Georgia doesn't exist. Stacey Abrams won Georgia for him.

Don't forget John Lewis.

[Felya]

4 years of " hes your president! get triggered libtard!,"
now suddenly its " ok guys lets come together and understand eachothers feelings"

https://apnews.com/article/f5f6a73b2...816bb35e82c18d

also.... trumps own voter fraud comitee, found.....
*drumroll* no voter fraud.

I called one out yesterday, after fake crying about listening to Biden and trolling me in the most petulant way... he just changed words while quoting me, to misrepresent what I say, and ran for the hills... they will not change... but they will use your liberal sentiments and get away with all the lying and underhanded bullshit they got away with, while electing Trump. Liberals cannot fall for the economically scared conservative, where the issue is persons living under a bridge, due an income wholly dependent on the tolls from said bridges... it’s not the democrat job to create riddles for them, like Trump’s bigly covafefe...

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Unless he's eyeing 2024 already. If, for some reason, Trump cannot run (say, he's in prison) Pence can easily claim the mantle.

He can’t in the sense of rhetoric... Pence is too much of a dry wall politician. He cannot raise the stakes high enough for QAnon or ‘Biden crime family’.

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Pete Buttigieg - Secretary of State
Andrew Yang - Department of Treasury
plz make it happen

Pete is being projected as the head of VA.

[Flarelaine]

I am not disputing that he is better than a roadkill-wearing, senile Baron Harkonnen who is currently doing his best to drag America into a dictatorship.

I resent your comparison. Baron Harkonnen was an eminently competent politician.

[Gaidax]

4 years of " hes your president! get triggered libtard!,"
now suddenly its " ok guys lets come together and understand eachothers feelings"

Erm? Pot calls the kettle black?

Wasn't it Biden who is now urging to spread love and peace to all the 70 millions "racists", "bigots" and "deplorables"?

It's just the usual wheel turning. I, for one, do think that people in US need to take a major chill pill, because you guys can't do this kind of extreme politics shit for long. But I am totally skeptic it will be all flowers and unity there, there is way too much bad blood over these years and I'm not even sure it can ever be repaired.

[Felya]

I resent your comparison. Baron Harkonnen was an eminently competent politician.

I played so much dune on PC decades ago... When I read ‘Harkonnen’, it sounds like the voice from the game, when a unit is complete.