Mega-Thread: 2020 United States General Election

[Benggaul]

See, this is what worries me. I think there's a severe disconnect between democrats and the reality of where most people get their information. They get it from YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, social media. People form opinions from their friends and family. If all of those things are inundated with right wing bullshit, people are getting inundated with right wing bullshit.

I think far fewer people get their information in those places than you think--especially social media. But I also think that in "the important, winnable states"--and I hate saying that but it's pretty much true until the EC is fixed or done away with--it's probably much more prevalent.

[Blur4stuff]

I live a lean red state that might go blue. Most of the Biden ads I've seen are very optimistic. They have a, "We can do this together" kinda vibe. Most of the Trump ads have been like, "Demonrats are going to eat your children" kinda stuff.

[Ghostpanther]

Fucking Bloomberg. The DNC has no shame.

He is donating millions to their election efforts. What do you expect? Money rules.

[Thepersona]

He is donating millions to their election efforts. What do you expect? Money rules.

Did he actually go through with that promise? Last i heard, he hasnt donated any (significant) amount of money to the DNC. Asking out of curiosity here

[Kaleredar]

I mean one big draw is seeing the never ending growth of the Theo Mythos that lives in all of your hearts.

Don't flatter yourself. There are any number of other "begging the question" bad faith posters on this forum.

[Blur4stuff]

I don't think Bloomberg is as terrible a person as Trump, but I think one thing they have in common is caring about themselves more than anything else.

I doubt Bloomberg honestly gives a shit about the future of the country or the world once he's no longer in it. If he can benefit somehow, though, I'm sure he'll spend some money.

Bloomberg probably does care about his legacy, so we could see him spending money in ways that will make future people think of him in a more positive way.

[Kaleredar]

I consider that a bit dystopian, that the Democratic Party is getting a free pass to push forward bad candidates / corporate policies because the alternative is way worse.

ding ding ding! we have a fuckin' winner.

For some of us, this election doesn't begin and end whether some candidate adequately pushes the "stick it to the man" narrative or not.

I can only see this getting worse and being exploited at the costs of the people, in the coming future.

Personally, I don't think there is anything wrong with criticizing the Democratic Party platform. You should try it too sometimes.

Criticizing their platform is fine.

But in a thread wherein the democrats are being compared to the republicans, especially Trump... those "criticisms" really start to come to not.

[PACOX]

This is America. I'm allowed to vote for Biden while trash talking him from now until 2024.

[Omega10]

Man, democrats need to do better at advertising.

I get a little worried when I go to YouTube and every single ad on the web side of the platform is a Trump ad. In the videos, they're nearly all Epoch Times and other far-right news outlet ads.

Where does democrat ad money even go?

I listened to parts of the democratic national convention. TV was like watching 2 stories: the democratic national convention was one story, and republican political ads was the other story.

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I think they are doing targetted ads in the swing states. Do you happen to live in one? asking just out of curiosity

I hope this is what is happening. It is good sign if Georgia is considered a swing state

[Milchshake]

Biden quoting kierkegaard off the top of his head while emotional about death and faith was impressive.

All the people pushing the dementia and sundowning memes look pretty stupid, but carry on.

[Theodarzna]

Biden's speech was the third most human thing I saw, except for the bizarre ending. He had awkward pauses, he sometimes got stuck, but did better than he normally does, was lucid enough and didn't botch it. Biden did alright with his speech and I don't just say that for the Kierkegaard quote, though I am obligated to like quoting Kierkegaard.

[Omega10]

Polls have showed Trump's support firming up. This article seems to describe reasonably accurately what is happening, and seems consistent with events round the country.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/disapprov...154728727.html

Title: Disapproval of Trump COVID response hits new high — and many aren’t hopeful, poll says

In some ways, things really are going badly for Trump.

Excerpts:

Disapproval of President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic has reached a new high, according to a recent CNN poll.

Fifty-eight percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s COVID-19 response and 55 percent say they think the worst is yet to come in the pandemic. People who know someone who’s contracted the virus had increased from 40 percent from a CNN poll in June to 67 percent.

Trump’s disapproval rate was 56% in the CNN poll from early June.

I believe that it's not just Trump that is being dissed here, but the whole US business community. I think that the motorcycle event in South Dakota demoralized a lot of people. How can people be that stupid? The attempts to reopen schools, the initial attempt to suspend the student that showed the picture of the crowded school hallways, and the attempts to keep college football going in 3 conferences are three related events that are causing despair. The ideas are stupid, but in theory COULD be kind of safely done. What is happening, though, is that everything is being done in sloppy very unsafe ways.

Trump’s overall job approval rating increased from 38 percent in June to 42 percent in a recent Gallup poll. The figures were divided along party lines, with 90 percent of Republicans saying they approve while 5 percent of Democrats said the same.

Republicans are strongly rallying around their President. It was quite a bit below 90% earlier. The anti-mask anti-social distancing memes are very strong in republican circles, with Fuck the Virus being their rallying cry. Republican support for Trump seems very intense at this time.

But yet, for those that are not pro-Trump:

Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed in the CNN poll said schools shouldn’t open for in-person instruction. Parents are more likely to say schools should open at 47 percent but a majority say they shouldn’t. Seventy-four percent of Republicans said schools should open compared to 12 percent of Democrats who said the same.

Basically everyone who is not pro-Trump is turning very strongly ANTI-Trump. We are moving steadily towards the time when if Trump says A, then 58% of the country will be anti-A, and 42% of the country will be pro-A.

About 8 in 10 Americans say they are angry with how the country is going and 68 percent say they are embarrassed by the way the U.S. has responded to the pandemic, according to the poll.

68% being embarrassed by the way the US has responded to the pandemic implies that Trump's base may erode even further (his support used to be in the high 40s, now it is in the low 40s). 80% anger at the way the country is going? Definitely not a good sign.

From a dump Trump standpoint: This has some good news in that it will be hard for Trump to get back OVER 42% approval. The best result for schools being open and college football being played is that "see, not TOO many people got the virus from this!". The worst result is unthinkable. But might be reality soon. And anti-Trump sentiment is getting just as intense as pro-Trump feelings are for Trump supporters.

From a pro Trump standpoint: Trump is no longer going backwards.

2 and a half months to go. It is not clear that Biden will be President in 2021. I am still hopeful.

[Benggaul]

Aren't you worried you voicing your dissatisfaction you might end up swinging the Election?

Why? I'm voting for Biden and plan on criticizing him when he fucks up too. It's not like you have to choose one or the other.

[Omega10]

Why? I'm voting for Biden and plan on criticizing him when he fucks up too. It's not like you have to choose one or the other.

I would still prefer to hold off on criticisms until after he actually takes the oath of office. If Biden wins, and if democrats have 50+ seats in the Senate, THEN we can fight it out over what to do. Most likely the battle won't be over how far left or right to go, but instead will be how to get all the details correct so that corporate America does not game the system and prevent it from helping middle class, working class, and poor Americans.

We'll need the expertise of people like Cubby who know the law and how to write laws that work. And writing 1k+ pages of good law is a non-trivial exercise in itself.

[Theodarzna]

Also shout out to Newsom for a good performance and raising attention to Climate Change.

[Omega10]

Also shout out to Newsom for a good performance and raising attention to Climate Change.

I have mixed feelings about this sentence.

The good. YAY SOMEONE AT LEAST MENTIONED CLIMATE CHANGE
The bad. Way too little attention to such an important problem.

One of the problems that democrats will have if they win the Presidency and Senate in 2021 is: there are so many important things that need to be fixed. And opposition from republicans and the business community will be fierce.

When Obama got Obamacare passed, the country reacted by changing congress from democratic to republican. And Obamacare even played a part in Trump defeating Hillary. The US is paying a huge price for these reactions.

But yet there is a good chance that taking any meaningful actions on climate change will lead to republicans retaking the House and Senate and undoing everything anyways.

[ati87]

I have mixed feelings about this sentence.

The good. YAY SOMEONE AT LEAST MENTIONED CLIMATE CHANGE
The bad. Way too little attention to such an important problem.

One of the problems that democrats will have if they win the Presidency and Senate in 2021 is: there are so many important things that need to be fixed. And opposition from republicans and the business community will be fierce.

When Obama got Obamacare passed, the country reacted by changing congress from democratic to republican. And Obamacare even played a part in Trump defeating Hillary. The US is paying a huge price for these reactions.

But yet there is a good chance that taking any meaningful actions on climate change will lead to republicans retaking the House and Senate and undoing everything anyways.

Obama did not play in the failures of H. Clinton.
Regardless if you want to blame Comey, Russia or Sanders (which Clinton did all) the failures of 2016 was all on Clinton herself and the decisions the made as a campaign.

Clinton picked Tim Kaine as her VP and even those that where defeniding this decision as a "safe" admitted (just see the 2016 articles) that he really didn't add anything to the ticket, zero votes. Sure the VP effect might be limited but choice Tim Kaine at best gained Clinton zero extra votes while most likely lost her votes from people who didn't like Clinton in the first place.

[Ausr]

If Biden loses then the Supreme Court is lost for a generation, progressive causes will be utterly impossible. Bernie was my guy but Biden won and now he's the one that'll keep things together long enough for progressive causes to eventually be enacted, even if he's not the one enacting them. Not voting for or trashing Biden because he's not what you want in your President is utter foolishness for progressives if we want any hope of seeing any of our policies make it into reality.

I keep seeing it as this: Get Biden in office for a term (again, old age assuming he lives) or two, reset Trump's fuck ups. Go for a progressive candidate. Go wild. Get that guy in there. But, you have to stabilize this shit with someone who can be seen as good for D, I, and moderate Rs for now.

[Omega10]

Obama did not play in the failures of H. Clinton.
Regardless if you want to blame Comey, Russia or Sanders (which Clinton did all) the failures of 2016 was all on Clinton herself and the decisions the made as a campaign.

Clinton picked Tim Kaine as her VP and even those that where defeniding this decision as a "safe" admitted (just see the 2016 articles) that he really didn't add anything to the ticket, zero votes. Sure the VP effect might be limited but choice Tim Kaine at best gained Clinton zero extra votes while most likely lost her votes from people who didn't like Clinton in the first place.

The point is: taking strong action in 2021 won't mean it will be maintainable after 2022. Obamacare did kind of survive, but barely.

And, just to clarify. I am not arguing that Obama played in the failure of Hillary. I am arguing that Obamacare was one more thing that republicans hated her for, and was at least a medium sized campaign issue for the republicans.

Anything that gets passed in 2021 will have to be defended in 2022, 2024, 2026. and so on. And our defense has to be MUCH stronger than it was for Obamacare. On a more immediate note, it also means that our current defense of Biden has to be better than our previous defense of Hillary.

[eschatological]

Republican twitter is so aghast at Biden's performance last night that they only thing they can criticize is him reading from a teleprompter. DJT Jr led the way, giving him 0 credit for reading a prepared speech and "avoiding reporters."

Last I checked, when Trump speaks off teleprompters, he talks about winning over the airports in wars that happened 250 years ago.