# Election Day \[Week\]\[Month\[s\]\] \[Year\] 2020 follow-along thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 3, 2020, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618 "2020-11-03T05:36:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 415
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/8299 "2021-01-03T03:07:21Z")
Our new mayor was sworn into office today. Rick Blangiardi. Honolulu mayors are officially nonpartisan. He beat the professed Democrat while declining to say which, if any, party he belongs to. However, he is a strong Chump supporter. We’ll see how this works out. The outgoing mayor was a Democrat who could not run again due to term limits. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/8300 "2021-01-03T05:46:25Z")
Trump Declares Georgia Senate Races ‘Illegal And Invalid’ Days Ahead Of Vote: [Trump Declares Georgia Senate Races 'Illegal And Invalid' Days Ahead Of Vote](https://www.aol.com/trump-trouble-gop-president-declares-042554774.html) ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/8301 "2021-01-03T05:51:29Z")
At what point do they send out the white-coated guys with the big butterfly nets? ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/8302 "2021-01-03T05:55:14Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Trump Declares Georgia Senate Races ‘Illegal And Invalid’ Days Ahead Of Vote What a moron. I’ll be happy to see him shoot Mitch in the foot if he manages to torpedo both races, but this just shows how loyal he is to “his” party. And to think Loeffler and Perdue have even been sucking up to him. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - the man has no ideology and no affiliations. He’ll shit on anybody that gets his way and a good chunk of the RP appears ready to stand in line with their heads back and their mouths open while he does. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/8303 "2021-01-03T20:31:33Z")
Exactly right. Aaaaaaand the latest outrage: > **[In call, Trump demands Georgia officials 'find' votes to tilt election | CNN...](https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/03/politics/donald-trump-brad-raffensperger-call-washington-post/index.html)** > > President Donald Trump pushed Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" votes to overturn the election results after his loss to President-elect Joe Biden, according to an audio recording of a phone call obtained by CNN and first... ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/8304 "2021-01-03T20:34:34Z")
They say he didn’t learn his impeachment lesson, but he clearly learned not to explicitly say: “I want you to do me a favor, though.” ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/8305 "2021-01-03T20:42:37Z")
Checkmate, Libs! ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/8306 "2021-01-03T20:53:24Z")
I have to assume that it was Raffensberger that leaked the audio recording. He is undoubtedly thinking “I don’t get paid enough for this bullshit” and also wishing that he did what the governor of Arizona did: not pick up when Trump calls. Either Trump is fighting this hard in 6 other states, or he’s doing this strictly for ego. Georgia alone means nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/8307 "2021-01-03T21:02:37Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > At what point do they send out the white-coated guys with the big butterfly nets? 12:01pm on January 20. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/8308 "2021-01-04T10:26:43Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Rudy hits a new low. > > Testifying, right now, before Georgia Senate. Told them that they have the Zapbruder (sic) film. This film, according to Rudy, proves “the inadequacy of the Warren Commission”, which “lives in infamy.” > [@jsc1953](#): > > And this relates to the presidential election in Georgia…how, exactly? > [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > He’s comparing the video of Georgia election workers moving boxes. Were they moving them back and to the left? > [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Problem is, they are actually subverting democracy. They’re not going to overturn this particular election, no. But encouraging large segments of one of the two significant political parties to believe this crap does indeed have a practical effect; and it is indeed subverting democracy. And that’s a feature, not a bug, for a lot of them. The whole right-wing “America is a republic, not a democracy” thing that’s been circulating for years didn’t come about by accident. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/8309 "2021-01-04T17:19:40Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > The whole right-wing “America is a republic, not a democracy” thing I don’t know a lot about US politics, but is this a right wing thing? Here’s what a liberal President said: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/X9jb8DywH2s/hqdefault.jpg "Bartlet on representative democracy") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9jb8DywH2s) ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/8310 "2021-01-04T17:57:16Z")
It used to be “confined to campus political debates and the nerdier corners of the political internet,” but it has become a right-wing thing lately. [https://www.google.com/amp/s/slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/10/republic-democracy-mike-lee-astra-taylor.amp](https://www.google.com/amp/s/slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/10/republic-democracy-mike-lee-astra-taylor.amp) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/8311 "2021-01-04T18:47:54Z")
We won’t have a republic _or_ a democracy if the Trumpists and Republicans succeed in enthroning Trump as a virtual king. An old-school pre-Enlightenment “divine right of kings” king, moreover, judging by the Trumpist belief that he’s always right (compare “The King can do no wrong”) and can make reality with his will. 🙄 The Founding Fathers didn’t fight for independence to have the Republic (democratic or not) end like this! Jefferson _and_ Hamilton, Federalists _and_ Anti-Federalists, have to be spinning in their graves like dynamos! ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/8312 "2021-01-04T19:15:08Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > I don’t know a lot about US politics, but is this a right wing thing? > > Here’s what a liberal President said: That’s just sloppy writing. What Bartlet is saying is that America is not a direct democracy, but a representative democracy. “The people don’t make the decisions; they choose the people who make the decisions.” That he says this immediately after the ‘a republic, not a democracy’ line is a head-scratcher. It also differs from the current right-wing use of the phrase, which is to primarily to justify the disproportionate representation of small, rural, predominantly GOP states relative to their larger, more urbanized, and predominantly Democratic neighbours. ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2021, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/8313 "2021-01-05T07:11:09Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > That’s just sloppy writing. What Bartlet is saying is that America is not a direct democracy, but a representative democracy. “The people don’t make the decisions; they choose the people who make the decisions.” That he says this immediately after the ‘a republic, not a democracy’ line is a head-scratcher. They also don’t vote for the President; they vote as suggestions to the people that vote for the President. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2021, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/8314 "2021-01-05T07:31:37Z")
Democracy is when the population jointly makes the decisions of how the city/ country is run. In America, elections are supposed to be democratic, but governance isn’t. The population jointly chooses a government. The government then makes decisions without consulting the population. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2021, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/8315 "2021-01-05T07:59:27Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Democracy is when the population jointly makes the decisions of how the city/ country is run. > > In America, elections are supposed to be democratic, but governance isn’t. The population jointly chooses a government. The government then makes decisions without consulting the population.   That definition of “democracy” is so narrow as to be useless. By that standard, no democracy exists anywhere in the world. Governance mostly works as you describe in pretty much every democracy in the world. The exception is those relatively few occasions when referendums are held on various issues and the public decides directly. Some places do this more frequently than others. Such practices often don’t work out well because the public is often not well informed or qualified to make such decisions, and can be easily swayed by whichever side has the most money to spend on persuasion. It tends to be particularly disastrous in referendums on anything that involves tax increases, where the knee-jerk reaction is likely to be “NO!!” regardless of the actual issue. ---
**Author:** ![Steven\_G](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steven_g/32/5080_2.png) [@Steven\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steven_G)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2021, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/8316 "2021-01-05T08:51:00Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > That definition of “democracy” is so narrow as to be useless. By that standard, no democracy exists anywhere in the world. Governance mostly works as you describe in pretty much every democracy in the world. The exception is those relatively few occasions when referendums are held on various issues and the public decides directly. Just to say, Switzerland. Regular popular votes on government actions, new laws and updates. And anyone can start the process to have a federal vote. ([https://www.ch.ch/en/demokratie/political-rights/referendum/](https://www.ch.ch/en/demokratie/political-rights/referendum/) ) So it can be done, however it is a complex process and the government does have some wiggle room on enacting the outcome of the vote. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2021, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/8317 "2021-01-05T09:55:11Z")
This is becoming a bit of a hijack to this thread, but sure, referendums exist, more so in some places than in others, but nowhere that I know of is it the primary means of governance. California seems to be nuts about referendums, or ballot propositions as they call them, and these have resulted in a variety of ill-advised policies that arguably were significant factors in California’s financial crises in general and school funding in particular. Proposition 13 back in 1978 was perhaps the most infamous one, putting severe restrictions on property taxes. Prop 98 ten years later was an attempt to partly fix the disaster by mandating a formula for minimum education spending, but many considered it poor policy because it hamstrung the legislature into a fixed formula while providing no new revenue sources. Another example was Prop 15 just this past November, which would have changed tax rules for commercial and industrial properties, providing IIRC as much as $25 billion in new funding for education – and the proposition was rejected by the voters. Whereas where I live propositions of that sort are exceedingly rare, and we have arguably one of the best public school systems in the world supported by policies coming from legislatures and not tax-averse amateur policymakers voting on referendums and lobbyists pushing their own interests. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2021, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618/8318 "2021-01-05T11:09:25Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > In America, elections are supposed to be democratic, but governance isn’t. The population jointly chooses a government. The government then makes decisions without consulting the population. Yes - we democratically elect people to _represent_ us in making those decisions. Hence the term “_representative_ democracy\*”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618.md?page=414) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-day-week-month-s-year-2020-follow-along-thread/924618.md?page=416)