I am 63 going on 100, with some health issues. I don’t imagine that I will even outlive the fucking Trumpster, but at least I know that I voted against him. I would love to have the energy to do something about the situation that would minimize the harm that Trump and his flunkies could inflict upon the good ol’ U. S. of A. Right now, I can’t do anything except ineffectually vent my frustrations on this message board. Not giving up, though. It just seems that way…
This day keeps getting more and more surreal, I’m right now watching a special program on the US election in Germany having to do a hard pivot to German interior politics because our government coalition essentially just self destructed, with the minister of finance being ousted after suggesting opening up the way for snap elections. (This has been in the air for some time, but wow, what a timing.)
(Sorry for the brief hijack, but perhaps it’s a strange comfort to hear that politics isn’t just fucked in the US.)
Nope, it was inflation and border security. Humans are basically xenophobic, even if they are not racist.
I thought abortion rights was a poor issue for Harris to focus on, but I have a lot of bias on the issue so my perspective is skewed. I suppose my view is that she should have been honest that she was pro-abortion, but not have used it as a rallying cry. But I don’t have enough information to know if her stance helped her or hurt her.
Thank you, Happy. Perfect timing for me. In an hour, I will see my kid for the first time since he briefly visited me at the polling place I was helping run yesterday afternoon, and I’ve been striving to get to a better state of mind — through talking with my wife, and you folks, and getting some work done (with students).
My wife said our son was taking it okay at breakfast this morning, for much the same reasons you mentioned. We don’t want them to take it in stride entirely, or course — but we can learn from their example, as they learn from ours.
Just a couple to get you started:
- Trump’s comment several years ago that he wishes more immigrants were from “Norway and places like that.” (Paraphrase, but close to that).
- The calls by many Trumpists to deport LEGAL immigrants, as long as they have dark brown skin (Haitians). Slovenians? Not so much.
Here’s an interesting article I found about the current state of American Liberalism.
When Trump said:
“We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated.”
They cheered. And voted for him. And again. And now for the third time. They found that inspiring, obviously. No Democrat could pull that off. Well, so be it. “American” is going to be an insult from now on for many.
When people find someone appealing and attractive whom I find utterly revulsive and abhorrent I am at a loss. My bad, but I will not argue. I will not engage in any discussion. For me it is a matter of taste. I don’t turn the other cheek, I turn my back. Goodbye!
I’d guess a lot of people felt like it was okay to vote for Trump BECAUSE they also voted in favor of abortion rights. They can say to themselves “I did my part to protect reproductive freedom with this amendment thingee, now I can vote Trump to save us inflation and the wide open border” Like having your cake and eating it too.
You might be spot on. What a shock it will be to those voters when they find out a federal abortion ban ‘trumps’ state law.
America elected a black president in 2008 and 2012. There are currently 12 women state governors, plus Guam. That’s not parity, but both of the above facts indicate that black and female politicians can be elected to high office. Rather than blaming US voters for being “racist and sexist”, you should recognise that Harris was an inferior candidate.
Moderating:
This is a formal Warning for violating your forum ban. You are no longer permitted to post in the P&E forum.
I think you’re right here (and in your subsequent posts).
Not that it’s the only issue at hand, but our (the left’s) inability to talk about anything in less than hyperbole makes it difficult for those who aren’t deep into the details on a day to day basis to understand when things matter and how much.
For eight years, I have been hearing “we are literally living in The Handmaid’s Tale.” Including during the Biden presidency.
Today I am seeing that claim picking up steam again.
I thought we were already literally in the worst-case scenario. And it didn’t seem quite as hopeless as the constant rhetoric implied. And in fact there were a lot of ways in which the hyperbolic analogies were obviously off kilter from the get-go. So now with Trump 2.0, we will also be in worst-case scenario, but for extra real?
I don’t want to minimize the danger, or the emotions, but I can 100% understand how our own framing can make it hard for many to actually evaluate the significance of anything.
(Also, I’m not discounting any other ‘causes’, nor am I intending to lay blame at anyone’s feet. Just observing that building shared understanding and unified action is tough, and this is one way in which we have not been successful).
Absolutely 100% accurate. Republicans absolutely smoke us in messaging and power politics. Until that changes, it matters not that we’re on the side of the angels.
Yes, but not in the sense I assume the person you were talking to meant it. It’s more in the sense that they see themselves as the ones doing the handing out rather than the ones receiving them. And nobody wants to be the ones doing the handing out to those they perceive as unworthy of receiving a handout.
AKA, what’s happening to Latinos now is the same thing that happened back in the day with the Irish, Italians, and Polish, and with the Germans and Dutch before that, and so on. The fact that there are still Latinos coming from Latin America has no bearing on the integration of 4th or 5th generation immigrants who just happen to be descended from people who came from those same countries.
ETA. They don’t even need to be 4th or later generation. Take a look at the newest senator from Ohio or the most recently reelected senator from Texas as examples of people who should most accurately be called white men of Iberian descent rather than brown men.
Jonathan Pie gets it right, I believe, in his snarky way. It’s OK, it’s is stick.
No, I’m respectfully disagreeing with you. Trump’s brain isn’t that complex. He isn’t clever enough to think of red herrings and doesn’t really care about distracting liberals. He wants to rile his base and drown out Democrats.
I think you’ve nailed it. There is no rational reason to belief in Trump; he’s a failure in nearly every measurable way, but he makes people feel like they’ve been disempowered, and he can give them back their privilege, whether by deporting immigrants, ‘bringing back jobs’, fighting inflation by tariffs (that are going to raise prices), elevating an evangelical religion (that he clearly has no experience with), or just being a raging asshole in ways that other people wish they could get away with. ‘Factuality’ is no bearing except as it reinforces belief systems or can be ignored by rejecting actual facts for ‘alternative facts’. This isn’t a new thing, and it is certainly what propelled both John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan to broad popularity even as the flagrantly lied to the public, but Trump is an entirely different level of manipulation of fact and perception, both more crude and blantant, and yet more effective in hitting basal emotional response, bypassing any logical and critical reasoning faculties adult human beings would normally employ.
There is no indication that “the election would have been closer”; Biden was trending 6-8 percentage points behind Trump following the first debate, and frankly Biden has not demonstrated electoral efficacy following that. The second guessing about his withdrawal is nonsense; even the performance of a mediocre candidate like Kamala Harris was better than Biden was projected to do. The reality that is that winning the election would have required a Democratic candidate at Obama-level popularity which the DNC had not cultivated and which no amount of factual campaigning would have generated.
The ‘Blue Wall’ is done. Assuming some viable electoral process, the Democratic Party or any other opposition to autocracy needs to establish an entirely new framework for electoral viability. Assuming, of course, that the tenants of democracy even matter, which is not true for the majority of the world.
Stranger
And that works because evokes the emotional fears of voters. Hitler recognized that democracy gave him the means hijack regularity and legislative structure, and that is true here, even with an imbecile who just wants to avoid punishment for his crimes and retribution for his insecurities.
Stranger
But contrary to Hitler that imbecile has won the election, and not for the first time. Hitler never won an election before he was appointed Chancellor. Trump has surpassed Hitler. I believe he is proud of that. Or will be, when (or if) he realises it.
This.
The Democratic Party needs to do some soul searching. Whereas they were once the party of the little guy, they are now the party of the elite.
You’re not going to change the typical blue collar worker. You need to appeal to him, and this is where Democrats have failed.