# How can Donald Trump win at this point? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump, kamala-harris\ **Created:** [August 6, 2024, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351 "2024-08-06T21:13:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 143
**Author:** ![squidfood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a87d85/32.png) [@squidfood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squidfood)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2024, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/2842 "2024-10-16T16:47:24Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > What would be enough to get me endorsing, not violence, but a serious campaign of massive civil disobedience, in full awareness that it might be met with violence. What if the “loss” came from a transparently-bad and political SCOTUS decision on some tranche of votes or another, something that pretty much anyone objective would label wholly undemocratic? ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2024, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/2843 "2024-10-16T17:12:46Z")
The level of transparently bad would be a very very high bar. On the level of third term bad. For me. ---
**Author:** ![MulderMuffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldermuffin/32/2862_2.png) [@MulderMuffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MulderMuffin)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2024, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/2844 "2024-10-16T17:52:01Z")
Re: yard signs. Like a poster above, i live in a red part of a blue city in a purple trending state (Georgia). On our neighborhood Facebook page a poster is repeatedly offering to deliver free trump yard signs to anyone who might want one. For weeks she has been posting the same offer several times each week. And so far I’ve seen a total of two yards with trump signs. One of them is hers. There are plenty of other signs for sheriff or coroner or school board, so people are still putting up signs. Just not trump signs. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2024, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/2845 "2024-10-16T17:53:40Z")
You are correct! ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2024, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/2846 "2024-10-16T17:58:07Z")
In my neighborhood (new subdivision in the middle of corn fields in rural West Michigan), we’ve had 10 houses with Trump signs or flags up and one with a Harris sign (all against HOA rules), but just today, one of the Trump signs was taken down. I sure hope it’s a permanent removal. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2024, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/2847 "2024-10-16T18:10:29Z")
I’m in a blue state but in a red leaning county. If there is a sign it’s usually a Trump sign. Just my perception but there seems to be fewer signs of any kind this time around. Any over the top display is guaranteed to be for Trump. Luckily I live in a townhouse development that doesn’t allow signs of any kind. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2024, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/2848 "2024-10-16T20:31:02Z")
One of our local half-mile streets is lined with houses on both sides of what’s now two lanes each way at 35mph. These are 1970s construction middle class housing that has 10x-ed in value since new. So some older residents sitting on jackpots mixed with some newer residents who paid dearly to live in that zip code. Today for the first time I saw a series of typical campaign yard signs for trump on ~10% of the houses on both sides of the street. None were there a couple days ago. I saw no Harris signs on that street. Mostly it was 1 sign per house, but one overachiever had 4. All the same. A bland white yard sign with “trump” & “vance” printed centered in plain block red and blue respectively. Compared to the sign, the font size chosen was rather small. it could have been doubled and the words would still have fit. Elsewhere in town I’m beginning to see Harris / Walz signs in some numbers but not trump signs. In fact this one street of trump signs was a surprising contrast. Although not unexpected given the demographics along that stretch. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2024, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/2849 "2024-10-17T00:37:07Z")
I don’t see it noted here, but Georgia has had a record number of early voters. > **[Georgia early voters continue breaking turnout records on day 2](https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/georgia-early-voters-continue-breaking-turnout-records-day-2.amp)** > > State election officials have reported a continued surge in early voting figures, with nearly 90,000 Georgians casting ballots on the second day alone, contributing to a total of approximately 430,000 early and absentee votes so far this election... Now, it may be that Trump continues to inspire people who typically don’t come to the polls to show up and vote for him. But it might also signify a concerted effort to vote him out (or vote Harris in). I guess we won’t know until Election Day, but I consider voter enthusiasm to be a good thing. When Obama was elected, he managed an exceptional turnout. If Harris is to win, she’ll need to do the same. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2024, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/2850 "2024-10-17T01:43:21Z")
That state wants Trump’s blessings, and I don’t think I mean symbolically. It is a big "_Look at me!!"_ from True Believers. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2024, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/2852 "2024-10-18T12:15:28Z")
4 posts were merged into an existing topic: [Hunh is a disinfo troll](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hunh-is-a-disinfo-troll/1008947/12) ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2024, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/2853 "2024-10-17T14:06:17Z")
> [@On another topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1008947/12): > > That seems like a crazy assertion. Nah. It _is_ a crazy assertion. Completely divorced from the reality. > **[Most Voters Say Harris Will Concede – and Trump Won’t – If Defeated in the...](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/10/10/most-voters-say-harris-will-concede-and-trump-wont-if-defeated-in-the-election/)** > > Most voters say it’s unclear who will win the 2024 election, and that Trump won’t concede if he loses. And 66% say political violence is a major problem. > [@](#): > > Nearly twice as many Harris supporters (61%) as Trump supporters (32%) say, if their candidate loses next month, it is very important for them to acknowledge the opposing candidate as the legitimate president. > > There also is a sizable gap in expectations for [how each candidate will handle a possible election defeat](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/10/10/most-voters-say-harris-will-concede-and-trump-wont-if-defeated-in-the-election/#_3._Voters_): > > - 72% of voters overall say if Harris loses – that is, if Trump wins enough votes cast by eligible voters in enough states – she will accept the results and acknowledge Trump’s victory. Virtually all Harris supporters (95%) and about half of Trump supporters (48%) expect Harris to concede. > - Just 24% say if Trump loses he will concede, while 74% say he will not. About half of Trump supporters (46%) and only 4% of Harris supporters expect Trump to acknowledge Harris as the election winner. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2024, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/2854 "2024-10-17T14:23:25Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > When Obama was elected, he managed an exceptional turnout. Voter turnout in 2008 was only 1.4 percent better than 2004, and turnout in 2012 was the lowest in any of the Presidential elections since 2000. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2024, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/2857 "2024-10-17T16:53:26Z")
> [@On another topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1008947/4): > > I don’t think I said too much about Kamala other than to characterize her as a C student unable to process decisions by herself. YMMV. Yeah, it varies. Commenters on the National Review regularly call her an idiot, etc., without backing it up. Yours is merely a somewhat more polite version. Would you care to back up your assertion? She has a pretty long resume of accomplishments in the legal profession, followed by politics. Now that doesn’t _prove_ she’s not an idiot. Dubya and Trump are both educated and have accomplishments on their resumes. They both have an incredible amount of stupid things, however, and are in the Top 5 for worst presidents based on massive failures and general stupidity in their terms. But Harris has never been a failure in her jobs, and while she’s said some vague and perhaps mistaken things and, at times, engaged in not particularly top-drawer political rhetoric, I can’t think of anything she’s said as stupid as Trump’s one-millionth stupidest thing. (I’m not trying to convince you but maybe a lurker or two.) > [@](#): > > The thing that has kept a dunce like Trump in a race he may well win is the failure of Democrats to take the high ground for democracy. How have Democrats not done so? > [@](#): > > A call for revolution, either openly violent or so aggressively passive that it renders the whole of the federal government illegitimate is Jan 6 all over again, only with Democrats as the bad actors. If Trump were to win _and_ behave as president within normal bounds, I would not call for a revolution. The best strategy in that case would be to watch and wait and obstruct everything Trump does strictly within legal limits. (Even in such a case, Trump would not be a legitimate president. He is a criminal who tried to overthrow the government. The problem is that the Constitution has no safeguard against such a person running for president and trying to destroy democracy.) But you know what Hitler did, right? He became chancellor and within a couple of months, turned a democratic Germany into an authoritarian state completely under his personal control. If Trump started to begin such a process or deport all “illegals,” etc., then we would no longer have the same constitutional order, and a revolution would be fully justified. > [@](#): > > Pro Trumpers accused of being Jan 6 supporters look at Pro Harris peers and see exactly the same approach: My candidate wins, or I’ll find a way to fuck you over. Neither Harris nor her supporters are saying that. I certainly don’t think Harris should deny the election results or refuse to transfer power if she were to lose. Rather, we should all start planning to obstruct, resist, and, if needed, revolt without violence. > [@](#): > > What that does is give Trump a chance to win. When there is no moral high ground and no appeal to democracy on either side, the Donald does not look any worse than Kamala. It’s just a match to see who can piss harder on the other, before or after an election. That’s total bullshit. Please quote anything Democrats have said about not respecting democratic norms. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2024, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/2858 "2024-10-17T17:43:04Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > Commenters on the National Review regularly call her an idiot, etc., without backing it up And of course Trump says so. This is the big value of the Fox interview. It is very hard for anyone to watch her successfully spar with that interviewer and come away thinking she is a C student, let alone an idiot or whatever. Fox watchers may still disagree with her. They may dislike her. They may feel she deserved interruptions and didn’t answer the exact gotcha question asked. Maybe. But they really can’t have heard that and think she is some chucklehead. ---
**Author:** ![ShadowFacts](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shadowfacts/32/2934_2.png) [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2024, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/2859 "2024-10-17T17:53:01Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > But they really can’t have heard that and think she is some chucklehead. I strongly suspect that many, and maybe even most, of them can in fact do that easily. Who are they to believe, Trump or their lying eyes? ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2024, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/2860 "2024-10-17T18:08:50Z")
Indeed so. She’s mixed race and she’s a ‘she’. Ask other people who are either or both of those, and you’ll find no shortage of stories of being taken for a chucklehead at first glance without any subsequent words, eloquent or otherwise, mattering in the least. No Trump involvement needed. And as the Fox News crowd skews both older and more conservative, undoubtedly such people are well represented in their typical audience. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2024, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/2861 "2024-10-17T18:11:15Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > This is the big value of the Fox interview. It is very hard for anyone to watch her successfully spar with that interviewer and come away thinking she is a C student, let alone an idiot or whatever. ^ This. Posters such as our newcomer may attempt to assert ‘Kamala is a C student’—but the only people who will believe them are those **who’ve carefully avoided all information** save the “information” propagated on the right-wing Trumpist outlets. Trump could still win with Fox viewers who watched the Bret Baier interview and thought _'it’s so cool that Bret interrupted her constantly, I love rudeness, it’s what winners do!_’ or the like. And many of Trump’s fans DO assess rudeness that way. (Instead of as the way that weak and insecure people conduct themselves.) > [@On another topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1008947/4): > > When there is no moral high ground and no appeal to democracy on either side, This is SO Russian-propaganda-y. (Note that I am making **no** inferences about you other than I see you employing those tactics—as many _National Review_ fans do.) ‘_ **Both** sides are morally bankrupt_’ is classic propaganda, designed not to change votes, but to keep people from voting. Just get people tired, cynical, and depressed----and voila! they stay home instead of making the effort to vote! Job done! ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2024, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/2862 "2024-10-17T19:14:21Z")
While I’m not prepared to declae Kamala’s victory a certainty, Trump sure has been cancelling a lot of appearances lately. He cancelled an interview with 60 Minutes, an appearance on CNBC, an interview with NBC, and he cancelled an appearance at the NRA on October 22 (and it looks like he might not show up for a CNN town hall). Something’s wrong with me. Okay, something’s been wrong with Trump for decades now, but this time it’s different. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2024, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/2863 "2024-10-17T19:23:08Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > Okay, something’s been wrong with Trump for decades now, but this time it’s different. I think so, too. Despite the fact that some people have been crying for months that He’s Declining, I do think that ‘something’ has happened, recently. A mini stroke, perhaps. If they keep him out of the public eye for the next 19 days, will that change any votes? ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2024, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351/2864 "2024-10-17T19:27:04Z")
Yes: > **[Trump Suddenly CANCELS APPEARANCES as HEALTH COLLAPSES](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYSDLi3UH5E%2F)** > > MeidasTouch host Brett Meiselas reports on Donald Trump abruptly canceling multiple events as his health continues to deteriorate in public.Visit https://mei... Dude might not make it to election day. He has looked and talked like warmed over death recently. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351.md?page=142) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-donald-trump-win-at-this-point/1005351.md?page=144)