2024 Presidential Election thread

[Tigerbomb13]

I just don’t understand people. I don’t get how a majority of the nation can support such an evil bully and want to go through four more years of this, which will be much worst than the first time. It’s going to be some dark days ahead. Ronz was right. 

[IdahoBert]

You know the reason I’m here is because I’m a sentimentalist and into the nostalgia of this baseball team. It’s such an innocent part of myself.

But sentimentality and nostalgia are so easily debased into something vile when you use them as springboards to make people afraid and to provide them with an opportunity to lash out. We saw that last night.

It’s disheartening how something so common and banal in our character can be so easily exploited by genuine evil.

Sentimentality + fear or resentment = fascism

[LaceyLou]

21 minutes ago, romad1 said:

I have zero truck with anyone criticizing Harris' campaign.  That was a centrist message delivered to all Americans. 

Yes, she ran a good campaign, one that's especially notable since it had to get a late start.

If her supporters can keep the energy they had, we have a shot to get through this. 

[LaceyLou]

23 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

We all have our reasons for being despondent and hurt by this. For me, it's the bullying and cruelty that stings.

As a kid I was very badly bullied growing up. Other kids bullied everything about me, from my short stature for a guy (I'm 5'4) to my perceived sexual orientation to the sound of my voice to the fact that I was a marching band fag. I got called faggot, homo, gay (not meant in a nice way), gay boy, band fag, queer, asked if I had ever sucked **** before.

Kids would plug their nose and try to mock the sound of my voice. I'd get called dwarf, midget, an ompalompa, asked when I was going to ever start growing. Being short I was by no means a tough guy and would get bumped into, elbowed, pushed, slapped in the back of the head, etc. 

In 11th grade, during my math class with Mrs. Candela, I had a kid one day threaten to bring a gun to school and talk about how fun it'd be to sit on the roof top of one of our school buildings and pick kids off. He said it'd be fun to pick kids like me off. I sat there paralyzed and frozen with fear. That same kid tried to "invite me" to his "birthday party" out in the woods to play paintball with him and some of his friends. He made up a fake birthday flyer and gave it to me, trying to lure me out there. Luckily my intuition told me better and I didn't go. Same kid used to tell me how fun it would be to smash "someone's" head in with a baseball bat or break "someone's" arm because he could. That "someone" he was referencing was me of course.

I got drug down the hallway and nearly thrown into the girls bathroom while the colorguard girls were changing for marching band practice. The same kids that drug me down the hallway held me down at band camp sophomore year while I was sleeping and hit me with one of those electric fly swatters that looks like a tennis racket and zaps flies.

I remember of those same kids that bullied me in band asking me if I ****ed my mom and if my dad came over to pile on and make sandwiches with my mom (my parents were divorced and the kid knew that). He also made me go over to his house and record the sound of my voice on his CPU so he could use me for his amusement doing prank calls to others and whatnot. 

I'm sorry for airing out my soul here, it's not the place to do it. My therapists office is. But what hurts me deep down to my insides, deep in my soul, is that the bullies have won. That pains me in a certain kind of way. We just re-elected the ultimate bully, with no consequences for his bad, bullying, disgusting behavior.

Thanks for sharing that. I remember being absolutely shattered when hearing about Matthew Shepherd. It's painful to think that we're going back to that kind of thinking.

[LaceyLou]

1 hour ago, RatkoVarda said:

1. I had already mentally prepared myself for a Trump win in the Spring, so this is not as bad as 2016 for me

2. Trump would have rolled Biden, so I'm glad they tried Harris

3. This is exactly what about half the country wants - a vile entertainer who insults and degrades their fellow Americans.

4. Ukraine is fukked

5. The Ronz's hardcore analysis proved correct

6. Steve Bannon's plan continues to work wonderfully. Flood the zone with sh|t, and then institutions, the media, and the public get overwhelmed and basically shutdown. This is where I am. I am going to the Tigers and Lions boards, and that's it for me. (Trump has no plan to help 95% of his supporters. He will probably cut my taxes, and, if he does not crash the stock markets, he will be good (maybe very good) financially for my family and my wife's business. I have no more energy to explain to a relative literally living in a camper under power lines that Trump is not going to help him.)

7. The Supreme Court is lost for the rest of my life. Trump will appoint 5 MAGA justices when Alito and Thomas step down. If Sotomayor dies, that's 6. And I would not be surprised if Roberts is told to step down in Trump's final year, so that would be 7. Say goodbye to ACA, gay marriage, EPA, voting rights, equal rights, civil rights, queer rights, etc.

8. None of this is as depressing as what my son (who voted in his 1st POTUS race) asked: if Americans won't elect a woman, why do we keep running them? He's right. A lot of Americans won't vote for a woman POTUS. Biden was the worst candidate of Biden, Hillary and Harris, and Biden won.

We keep running women because that's the only way a woman will ever get there. Obama wasn't the first Black man to run-people like Jackson and even Sharpton (ok, I could never vote for Sharpton, and anyone who remembers the 1980s probably knows why) ran before him. 

If MA can finally elect a woman as a Senator and as a Governor, then I have hope it can happen at the National level as well-unfortunately it may not be in my lifetime. 

(I know MA is considered ultra-liberal but in many ways it's very conservative)

[gehringer_2]

2 hours ago, Motor City Sonics said:

The Democrats can't run a woman again.    That's what it is, man.  This country won't vote for a woman.

 

Seems to be the case for parts of the Hispanic community

[RatkoVarda]

26 minutes ago, IdahoBert said:

You know the reason I’m here is because I’m a sentimentalist and into the nostalgia of this baseball team. It’s such an innocent part of myself.

But sentimentality and nostalgia are so easily debased into something vile when you use them as springboards to make people afraid and to provide them with an opportunity to lash out. We saw that last night.

It’s disheartening how something so common and banal in our character can be so easily exploited by genuine evil.

Sentimentality + fear or resentment = fascism

And it was so, so easy. "Your life sucks because of them."

That's it. Wasn't devious or tricky or hidden or nuanced. People just ate it up.

[pfife]

I have no idea whether this mattered but it felt like the vibe changed when they went with the Kelly/Hitler stuff.

[antrat]

I had a bad feeling when Florida was called so quickly. I mean, I knew it was going red, just not THAT red.

Well, the next four years will be very interesting. I doubt Trump makes it the entire four years though. President Vance might very well be worse. He has a brain and is evil. Trump is just evil.

[CMRivdogs]

New word for the day. Kakistocracy, that is exactly what we have become. No longer the best and the brightest, that train left the station years ago. We have become the mediocre lead by the worst, and the majority loves it

Quote

A kakistocracy (/kækɪˈstɒkrəsi/, /kækɪsˈtɒ-/) is a government run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens.[1]: 54 [2][3] The word was coined as early as the seventeenth century.[4] Peter Bowler has noted in his book that there is no word for the government run by the best citizens,[a] and that the aristarchy may be the right term, but still, it could conceivably be a kakistocracy disguised as an aristocracy.[a]

 

[LaceyLou]

6 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

Seems to be the case for parts of the Hispanic community

My bf did his part to convince other Latinos to vote for Harris, and he was frustrated but still managed to sway a few. 

For years, Union leaders in MA were frustrated by their members' refusal to vote for a woman, but that did change-first with Warren and more recently with Healey, so maybe there's hope. 

[IdahoBert]

The real issue is race. America’s original sin. Obama could be twice elected as a black man because he was smart, affable, and seemingly unthreatening. He didn’t remind anyone of Eldridge Cleaver, Huey P Newton, or Malcolm X.

In the first election, a canvasser came to the door of oh, let’s be be ungenerous and call these people “white trash“ and when a man answered the door and was asked who they were voting for he yelled back into the house asking his wife who they were voting for and she said “ We’re votin’ for the n******!”

l don’t think sharp, smart, no nonsense black women are afforded that kind of generosity of spirit from white people and I doubt that same couple voted for her this time. 

[1776]

2 hours ago, Motor City Sonics said:

The Democrats can't run a woman again.    That's what it is, man.  This country won't vote for a woman. 

Didn’t Hillary win the popular vote in 2016?

[CMRivdogs]

And Virginia jumps right into statehouse races next year. Right now the front runners are two African American women. It should be quite interesting.

[CMRivdogs]

5 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said:

And Virginia jumps right into statehouse races next year. Right now the front runners are two African American women. It should be quite interesting.

I'm wrong here. I blanked for a moment at thought Louise Lucas was running, she's not. 
 

[Hongbit]

Since we have to make chicken salad,  this is Donald Trump, so most of the things that he promised to get elected will never happen.  He’s still a con man.  

50% tariffs won’t happen,  mass deportations and camps won’t happen, The Department of Education will still exist, Obamacare won’t be repealed,  and RFK Jr. won’t be our Surgeon General.     

What will happen is there will be a revenge tour in Washington and the media.  All of the court cases will go away and replaced by bogus investigations into his enemies.   I do also fear for the people in Ukraine.  

[gehringer_2]

Just now, Hongbit said:

I do also fear for the people in Ukraine.  

this. The US has a much better chance of surviving Trump than Ukraine does.

[Tigeraholic1]

Being the only Trump voter here these are my thoughts. Harris was a terrible candidate not because she is a woman but she came into the race with historically low VP approval rating. Add the fact the party tried the bait and switch dumping Biden with her not getting a single vote. Trump names the rising young star Vance as his running mate while Harris names far left unknown Walz. Within the first week Walz is torn to pieces on has far left radical views. 

Harris could not speak on her policies but chose attacking Trump as her strategy. She also refused to talk to the media except for a few scripted occasions. Most of her rallies included free concerts that put butts into seats but not a voting block. She did not gain any new voters over Biden, in fact Trump pulled maore Latinos and Blacks than 2020. Bottom line a bad arrogant campaign that gave Trump total control.

[Motor City Sonics]

10 minutes ago, Hongbit said:

 

50% tariffs won’t happen,  mass deportations and camps won’t happen, The Department of Education will still exist, Obamacare won’t be repealed,  and RFK Jr. won’t be our Surgeon General.     

What will happen is there will be a revenge tour in Washington and the media.  All of the court cases will go away and replaced by bogus investigations into his enemies.   I do also fear for the people in Ukraine.  

Really?   What if they get the House too?    They will ram EVERYTHING through. 

Gonna be open season on gay people, trans people, Jews, single women.   

I'm a middle-aged suburban white guy, things won't change for me much, but I do care about other people. 

We used to be an example for the rest of the world.  Now we're a laughing stock. 

And all those people who are dependent on government assistance -- good luck, assholes.   You're about to get exactly what you deserve.  Don't come crying to me.   This is what you wanted. 

We're such a hateful place.  

[LaceyLou]

9 minutes ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

Being the only Trump voter here these are my thoughts. Harris was a terrible candidate not because she is a woman but she came into the race with historically low VP approval rating. Add the fact the party tried the bait and switch dumping Biden with her not getting a single vote. Trump names the rising young star Vance as his running mate while Harris names far left unknown Walz. Within the first week Walz is torn to pieces on has far left radical views. 

Harris could not speak on her policies but chose attacking Trump as her strategy. She also refused to talk to the media except for a few scripted occasions. Most of her rallies included free concerts that put butts into seats but not a voting block. She did not gain any new voters over Biden, in fact Trump pulled maore Latinos and Blacks than 2020. Bottom line a bad arrogant campaign that gave Trump total control.

At least you don't claim he is a strong businessman. Seriously, once again I have to ask how somebody with 6 bankruptcies, multiple failed business ventures, and decades of stiffing vendors is going to be 'good for the economy?'

 

[Motor City Sonics]

1 minute ago, LaceyLou said:

At least you don't claim he is a strong businessman. Seriously, once again I have to ask how somebody with 6 bankruptcies, multiple failed business ventures, and decades of stiffing vendors is going to be 'good for the economy?'

 

And he's a convicted felon, by the way.     We're a joke of a country.     Try to sentence him now for that.   

First thing he'll do is pardon the January 6th people.    

[LaceyLou]

6 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

Really?   What if they get the House too?    They will ram EVERYTHING through. 

Gonna be open season on gay people, trans people, Jews, single women.   

I'm a middle-aged suburban white guy, things won't change for me much, but I do care about other people. 

We used to be an example for the rest of the world.  Now we're a laughing stock. 

And all those people who are dependent on government assistance -- good luck, assholes.   You're about to get exactly what you deserve.  Don't come crying to me.   This is what you wanted. 

We're such a hateful place.  

This, and keep in mind he put Betsy DeVos in charge of education, so I won't be at all surprised if RFK Jr is put in charge of health issues (maybe not the surgeon general, but NIH, USDA, FDA, etc).

And last time he DID gut departments like the EPA and NPS. 

Sadly, I think people who think they won't be affected much will be more than they know-it's estimated that SS will now become insolvent within 6 years under Drumpf and a lot of middle-aged white men have little or no savings to make up for that loss.

[chasfh]

As long as we’re saying our goodbyes: good bye, NATO.

Some want to believe none of the things he threatened to make happen will happen, but remember: Trump is not the outlier. He’s the tip of the spear. He’s going to have a whole army of kakistocrats coming into the power structure to implement Project 2025, which is the least of everything that’s going to happen. And when Trump dies in office, J.D. Vance will continue on the job, unless he himself gets assassinated in some palace power struggle, which is a world in which that becomes an actual possibility, because just look at the people at the top around him now.

[chasfh]

11 minutes ago, LaceyLou said:

At least you don't claim he is a strong businessman. Seriously, once again I have to ask how somebody with 6 bankruptcies, multiple failed business ventures, and decades of stiffing vendors is going to be 'good for the economy?'

 

Because he told his fans so, and that’s good enough for them.

[mtutiger]

Harris on average outrunning the rest of the states in the battleground states by margin of 1-2 points.

I accept what Tigeraholic is saying as his own perspective, but the fact that she's doing better where she was campaigning/spending money suggests to me that it wasn't how she campaigned, it was a general anti-incumbent environment that no alternate candidate was likely to fix