I have voted in every election since 1984, and this is the first time in forty years I feel like I wasted my time. This is not the first election I’ve voted where my candidate lost. Far from it. But this is the first time the election went to a man who not only had an entire presidential term to prove that he is egregiously unfit for the job, but subsequently performed acts of treason against this country and yet still was nominated for a second term!! Not to mention the fact that 16 million Democrats simply did not bother to cast a vote against this man! “Doesn’t result in the desired outcome” does not even come close! I feel, personally, betrayed. Why should I continue to participate in such a cock-eyed system?!
When I was young I used to ask my mother what it was like to live during WW II. I told her I wanted to feel what it was like living through all of that.
Collapsing societies. Institutions disappearing or morphing into unrecognizable facades. Food shortages. Life was a hellscape of survival.
She would never talk about it much. I never thought I might actually be alive to live through something similar.
As I reached the age of reason +/- 50 years ago, prevailing understandings were as such:
White supremacy with violence on tap. Let’s cut that off. One American should never have to live with another American’s foot on his neck.
Vietnam… stupid war. Based on lies and fear. Let’s not ever do that again
Nixon… corrupt and self-serving. No more like him, please.
Those understandings were violated long ago, back when Donald Trump was just a sex pest on the dance floor at Studio 54
This number may have looked correct right after the election, but it’s unlikely to be supported after all the votes are counted. (Unbelievably, they’re STILL not all counted as of 15 November.)
Not quite the same number as you referenced (the number of Democrats voting in 2020 versus 2024) but giving an indication of what the final totals are likely to be:
(That’s referring not just to Democratic voters but to all voters. )
Thank you. It looks like it is heading to be a 2 million vote decline.
I expected less voters this time, but I thought she would get a whole lot more percentage of the vote than she did. I really thought “We Aren’t Going Back” was driving a lot of people.
I’m with you, and I also thought “Opportunity Economy” made sense, particularly since Biden/Harris had such relevant achievements as the Inflation Reduction Act, with huge advances in infrastructure investment, to their credit.
I guess people didn’t see Jobs and Freedom as being as important as what they believed to be safety—sadly, “safety” being defined as ‘getting rid of dark-skinned people’. And in addition there’s the global ‘we don’t like the prices of things so we’re blaming those in power now’ phenomenon.
Eh, she didn’t really have a chance. It’s a global issue.
If Kamala Harris had won, it would have been pretty remarkable, because pretty much every incumbent across the world lost this year.
(Yes, I know she is technically not an incumbent, but she was 100% treated as one by the media and voting public, so by any reasonable measure she was running as one.)
I agree on both these counts. People are going to believe what they want to believe, of course. (We all are subject to that tendency.) Those who want to believe ‘the Harris campaign shut out Progressives and that’s why we lost’ and/or ‘women can’t win the Presidency’ and/or ‘Harris refused to go on Joe Rogan’s podcast and that’s why she lost’ and/or ‘Harris wasn’t pro-Palestinian enough’ and/or a dozen other reasons, are likely going to go on believing they’ve got the One True Explanation.
I’m in the camp who believes the anti-incumbency trend created headwinds that were too powerful to overcome—plus some other things contributed, too.
Another complication is that the media jumped on the “landslide” characterization way too soon–long before all the votes were counted. And the final count is clearly going to be anything but a landslide—but that idea is fixed in so many people’s minds that it may never get dislodged.
Perfect storm of Willingness To Lie and Willingness To Believe.
I can’t wait to see it, just to observe the crowd size.
Still, it gives me some “hope”. Everything is going to go so utterly to shit that the RW/Federalists/Neoliberals will face lethal repudiation and will be driven out in disgrace. There will be environmental collapse, which was on the way anyway, which will yield serious food shortages, and the RW types are only able to make such problems worse. We are headed toward a sort of French Revolution type event.
Of course, I put hope in quotes because many of us are old enough that we will not see recovery. And also, as those one guys said of the revolution, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss” – the chaos of the social upheaval will almost certainly give rise to a comparably fucked up replacement.
But, maybe the long-term result will feature a morsel or two of progress.
I know what you are saying @eschereal .
But it seems the same as always. Democrats and decent people will have to pick up the pieces. This is like having an angry 250 lb. toddler in your house that has a hammer, and a real bad attitude. Oh, and wants ‘revenge’.
These people will not see the error of their ways, but maybe, just maybe they will have to crawl back under their rocks. Unless of course, they do get complete control. Which SCOTUS seems OK with.
Raping and pillaging seems to be the order of the day. That’s not a metaphor.
Might end up being Vance. Or Gaetz for that mater. Hide your daughters.
I fear I am more in enipla’s camp. How bad will things have to get before folk actually recognize that - or feel the need to actually take any steps other than blaming the libs? I think close to/more than half of the electorate have proven their VERY STRONG preference for propaganda over reason or observable/demonstrable facts - or simply don’t care enough to vote.
What are the (relatively recent) historical examples of a country declining as a result of horrible leaders? Does it always improve eventually and, if so, over how long? I think it is likely that we may have seen the America’s high mark. Which was nowhere near as high as it ought to have been.
Seems like Nixon qualifies. The 70s were probably the low point of the US. We were riding high in the 90s, one of the best times.
Clean Air/Water/Endangered Species Acts, Council on Urban Affairs, Medicare/Social Security expansion, increased desegregation…
No, not saying he was a good guy, and not saying he did nothing wrong. But I’m not sure I see as committed an effort to tear down longstanding institutions. And whatever harm he caused, they weren’t terribly longlasting, were they?
I guess I see a situation in which America’s proclaimed values, economic status, and influence in the world take significant drops lasting more than a decade or so. Wondering about precedence for such decline. Or are there major countries that reduced the rights of and services directed towards specific portions of their populations? Went from relatively “free” to more authoritarian?
I can’t remember the details now, but did he actually “do” those things? Or did he just not veto the bills he was given to sign?
Even that much seems unfathomable in this administration.
Likely SOME validity to that point. But don’t presidents generally get credit/blame for legislation passed during their incumbency? I also lack enough knowledge as to whether such measures were part of his platform/campaign promises. I do believe there were Dem majorities in Congress - at least during parts of Nixon’s presidency.
At the very least, failing to veto seems to indicate a lack of STRONG opposition.
And I’m not seeing a clear and long lasting decline of America beginning under Nixon.
I was looking over the Project 2025 document, and it gives a tiny bit of hope, in that the text is clean and well composed, but the content is heavily larded with ideoguery. There are large sections explaining/complaining about what is wrong with the current system and what they will do about it, but the shrill way it is written, with a lot of excess why text, suggests that these are people who have little comprehension of what they are actually going to be facing.
IOW, I perceive acute D-K going on here, and if the opposition prepares well, the neonihilsts can be at least somewhat bollixed up in there endeavors. We just have to hope that the opposition has their act together.
I don’t see how that’s hopeful. It’s a lot easier to break something you don’t understand, both motivationally and practically.