This seems to fit in this thread
I’d like to think Qs are too openly crazy to do well in politics, but then I look at MTG. And I’m old enough to remember when this was the evangelical playbook (headed by Jerry Falwell & Billy Graham). It started with local schoolboards and look where it is today – it is arguable that Trump’s election as president can be credited to this movement. The future looks… interesting.
In our school board election the winner got 11% of the total registered voting population in a TWO way race. The loser got 8%. This was one of the highest turnouts we’ve had in recent times. We have the local elections to select school board members (and town committee members and other elected boards) on a rotating basis. So every May you have to go vote for a few positions on local boards.
This election was heated because the loser’s only visible position was anti-CRT. Manifested by defending a student who spray painted swastikas at the school. And who constantly referred to “diversity” as something that would undermine our excellent schools.
So yeah Q-Anon candidates can sneak through if they don’t go all crazy in the campaign or at least use the right dog whistles.
And this is still a relatively Blue area, Biden carried it 55-45.
Look especially at that last sentence. “One of the highest turnouts”: 19% of those eligible. The real dominant political voting blocs in America are the Who Cares Party and the It’s Pointless Anyway Party.
Multiply across the nation and up the ballot(s) up to and including congressional races that do not involve someone who is already a headline-grabber.
Trump got where he got thanks to the GOP primaries having been engineered for frontrunner-momentum feedback, and primaries in general being contests of who gets people more fired up. The other “normal Republicans” would have been supported by “normal Republican” voters… the sort who would have something else to do on a given Tuesday or Sunday and would figure “ehhh… all of them will cut taxes and let me keep my guns, I’m good”.
That’s probably because it was a local election during an off month in an off year. I think we’re actually moving into a period of increased participation. IIRC the 2020 election had the highest turnout since sometime back in the early 20th century. Of those who don’t vote, there’s a good chance that it’s because those particular voters think both candidates are bad candidates rather than due to general apathy.
I’m torn about non-November elections (Missouri apparently has up to 6 elections a year).
On the one hand, it keeps local concerns from getting swamped in the noise of the national election (which is presumably the reason for them). On the other hand, it means that 11% of the population gets to decide if a bond issue passes or who is on the school board.
Correct. The more elections we have, the lower the turnout. There have been many elections that were 500 to 400 with over 10k eligible voters.
Sometimes there will be some hot issue on the ballot that will drive voter turnout % into double digits. In this case a zoning issue around affordable housing. It was voted down and the developer is going to get even more favorable terms under a state law that is designed to overcome nimbyism by posh towns.
A judicial candidate in Cuyahoga County (the greater Cleveland area) won the Democratic primary in her 2018 race with about 28,000 votes - in a county of over 1.2 million people. Not sure what that was as a percentage of registered voters.
I used to think that Trump was done. Finished. Would fade away, and maybe even suffer major consequences.
That is changing.
Here’s my current thinking:
Trump will get the nomination for 2024. He will win the election.
Republican efforts to keep people from the polls will work. They will use whatever tactic they can, at every level. They have learned well that they cannot win by having a platform that gets more votes; they can only win by stopping people from voting.
Even so, In several states, Biden will get more votes, but the Republican led state legislatures will deem the votes from several areas to be invalid, because reasons. Does not matter what these reasons are, or that there will be no proof offered. The votes thrown away will be from cities that vote predominantly Democrat. This will be a done deal, and many state Electoral Votes will go to Trump, despite Biden getting more votes. - Enough to put Trump over the top.
This game plan is well underway, and is not even being particularly hidden. The Republicans have decided their only path to winning is not by getting more votes, but by destroying democracy, and moving to full authoritarian dictatorship.
Of course there will be howls of protest. People will march in the streets, particularly in those areas where they have been disenfranchised, and their state legislators have overturned the will of the people because they have been deemed to have “voted wrong”.
These protests will be given a name - Antifa, or whatever other boogeyman made up enemy name Fox News Republican Network chooses to give them. The protests will be put down harshly, violently, and blame assigned to the Democrats. A few hundred folks being gunned down in state capitols and thousands more being imprisoned with charges of terrorism and blaring news reports blaming Democrats will soon make the protests go away.
I would have laughed at this some months ago, and said it was delusional. Not any more. I now think this is a very possible outcome.
Agreed. Trump/Desantis
This time the Republicans will be prepared for victory. Trump will be left to babble and strut as Scott diffuses his droogs throughout the federal system. The permanent Republican state will be a fact.
With Trump President for life, the swamp will be a mire of elites grasping at the reigns of power as they slip from the tiny hands of the aging monarch.
Is it even possible to imagine the extravagance of a Trump funeral.
I think many of them already have plans to take over the dictatorship once Trump slips off into his cardiac arrest or whatever fate has in store for him.
Romney not the least among them.
At this stage, the collapse of the Republican spine and lack of contenders means Trump is likely to win the 2024 nomination.
The Republicans supporting him will not discourage voters - that type of “anyone but Trump” Republican will leave the party or vote Democrat or spoil their ballot or not vote.
He will win 38% of the vote, all the ones who loyally stayed with him, plus a few independents. He will lose the election, which will be a sh**show.
It’s been at least a couple of months since the last US presidential election. Surely we are long overdue for the next campaign to begin?
Now Ronald Reagan, he had one extravagant funeral (or maybe several) of truly Royalty proportions. It was a full week of festivities, with military color guards and regal pomp and circumstance. (At about that time, I was in a condition of having utterly nothing else to do in life, so I watched the WHOLE thing on TV.) What a show! Clearly planned and rehearsed well beforehand in the most minute detail.
Trump’s funeral will be a grotesque caricature.
I, for one, will watch with no sadness. And the sooner the better.
Yeah, the writing is on the wall. 2024’s election will be openly thrown.
The poor man’s vision of a rich man.
The stupid man’s vision of a smart man.
The weak man’s vision of a strong man.
The kleptocrat’s vision of a state funeral.
We’ll need a drinking game. I was thinking “greatest” but I don’t think my liver would take it.
Is that original? Because it’s frickin’ good.
I’m torn what to do when his funeral finally arrives- stay at home and watch with a bowl of popcorn or make a trip to wherever it is and give an energetic double-bird salute at the casket as it goes by.
As for the election, he cannot win legitimately. Might the AZ and GA legislatures award the EVs to him no matter what the vote? Perhaps. But he energized Democrats like nothing else can. I think a replay of 2020 goes no differently, and without the misguided calls to defund the police, Dems will increase their hold on Congress.
FWIW the people (incorrectly) asserting we won’t have free and fair elections in 2024 are contributing to a narrative that is actually more likely to cost Democrats votes than anything the Republicans are doing. What we’ve seen the world over, is lack of trust in the legitimacy of the election process is probably the single biggest thing that makes people quit voting. You guys are taking reasonable concerns about some policy changes and incorrectly extrapolating what their results will be. The way you are choosing to do it, contributes to a national narrative that will actually make it less likely for Democrats to come out and vote in 2022 and 2024.
Now this is a small niche message board so I don’t want to pretend our impact here as posters is significant, but it’s all part of a national narrative. The left/Dems need to find a way to raise concern about bad voting laws without spreading the false and voter-suppressing information that “the elections are already stolen and will be unfree.”