US Election 2024

[Alright_Now_Legend]

John King is dead to me
Steve Kornacki is dead to me
@SBYM is dead to me

This is the new me.

No more time wasting. Time to go read some @Sithbare posts.

[Nobluff]

I would be able to do it in the first day of office, maybe even before

[dalglish]

@jgw_geneseo

s down to voter turnout. In 2020, 81 million people voted for Biden, 74 mil for Trump. In this election, Trump is down to 71 mil and Harris has 66 mil.

3 million less for Trump, 15 mil less for Harris. Harris didn’t get her party out to vote. They weren’t excited enough to go and cast

100% this. No need to ‘wait for data’, the reason Trump won is that the democratic campaign didn’t energise enough people to vote. Making a play for undecided republicans was the wrong approach and there was nothing (beyond her gender) that Harris actually succeeded in selling as a reason to positively vote for her.

[Nobluff]

@Limiescouse

This is a staggering figure

Demographics is Destiny is officially in the bonfire with this plus the latino exodus, but this really drives home the problem with Dems navigating the modern information environment. This is a Demo who are almost completely unfamiliar with the concept of linear TV and get almost all of their information from sources that are not news but can be confused for it for people not familiar with what news looks like.

The absolute major issue with this is that its hard to see coming, and once you see it, its normally too late. The quick “fix” is for the opposition to screw-up and disenfranchise those voters. It’s taken an incredibly long time for the republican party to make inroads with Latino and Black voters and seem to be doing the same with younger voters (I never saw that coming as younger people are typically more liberal).

[Nobluff]

@Magnus

That’s referring to lambs, nobody “likes” to eat mutton.

[dalglish]

@redalways

Murdoch is only the tip of the iceberg

Much more than the tip - without him we’d never have had Trump or Brexit.

[Nobluff]

@Magnus

Yes, of course.

In any case, an authoritarian needs public support. So he will go after disloyalty and enemies at first.
But the mandate Trump has now with a Big Win and popular vote, both houses and a friendly supreme court; my God. He has total legitimacy to do what he wants, very few obstacles to navigate. Americans own all of this and must take complete responsibility for everything that is to come. Everyone who voted for Trump or chose to not vote (or did not bother), is directly responsible and should be blamed fully.

I am much, much more optimistic, Trump tried to make changes in his first term that his senators didn’t agree with so they didn’t vote for them (like Manchin and Sinema for dems). The administration needs to make changes that will not damage the republican party or the reelection efforts of house and senate members. Trump is here for 4 more years, the senators or house reps have much more longevity and much more to lose.

[HugoTheHorrible]

Have a lot of trouble believing that a democracy can turn around and vote for a a rogue who has announced he will be, and wants to be a dictator.
The only logical conclusion is that many don’t know or don’t want to know, the difference.It may become apparent quite soon.

[Limiescouse]

@dalglish

the reason Trump won is that the democratic campaign didn’t energise enough people to vote.

That is more an observation. A reason requires you to explain why that didnt happen. You have speculated here, but it is just speculation and days like this are filled with people presenting their pet theory as the right one. We can learn some things from the exit polls, but they are limited. We will learn more once the voter file analysis is done, but that will take some time. Even then it can be difficult to get a definitive answer on why a candidate lost and if the Dems want to improve they need to make sure they dont prematurely land on a pet theory and run with it.

I do think it is potentially relevant though to look at the difference in battle ground vs uncontested states. In the former, where Harris’ message was heavily aired, she lost far less ground compared to 2020 than where there was not much of a campaign. That suggests her message did move people, just not enough given the headwinds of everything else that was in play in this election e.g. huge anti incumbency sentiment, information environment that was just far better suited to a pro Trump message (or possibly an anti Harris…anti woman…message)

@HugoTheHorrible

The only logical conclusion is that many don’t know or don’t want to know, the difference.It may become apparent quite soon.

Some exit polls have shown Threats to Democracy being the primary issue for the biggest number of voters. The kicker is 50% of those voters were talking about Harris being the threat and so voted for Trump to save democracy.

That is a textbook illustration of the impact of the firehose of lies that were sprayed into this campaign and how challenging it was to penetrate that with non-bullshit.

[Sithbare]

@Alright_Now_Legend

No more time wasting. Time to go read some @Sithbare posts.

I aim to please.

[peterroberts]

@Wilkored08

we know we’ve got to look at his fat, fake orange face for the next 4 years

I haven’t seen it for the last 36 hours , and will only be (inadvertently) glimpsing it at any time over the next four years.

[sandsoftime]

Laughable if it wasn’t so fu–in serious :0(

Steve Bannon floats idea of Marjorie Taylor Greene serving as head of Homeland Security under Trump

Story by Mike Bedigan

Former Trump advisor and convicted felon Steve Bannon has floated the idea that Marjorie Taylor Greene should be appointed to the president-elect’s new administration as the head of Homeland Security.

Fellow Trump ally Greene, who was re-elected to congress for the third time on Tuesday, spoke to Bannon following the sweeping Republican victory.

Bannon noted that the Georgia firebrand had “been with us from the beginning,” adding “Congressman Greene, you’ve done so much work. You’re such a fighter. Now, is there any truth to the rumor that you’re going to take over as DHS?”

Greene laughed but dodged the question somewhat, replying: “I don’t know what’s going to happen Steve, we’re just thrilled to have President Trump back in the White House.”

Steve Bannon (far left) speaks to Marjorie Taylor Greene (far right) following Donald Trump’s election win on Tuesday

The congresswoman went on to express her excitement at the Trump victory, saying that the administration would “dismantle the Deep State,” a conspiracy she has been known to peddle in the past.

“We are going to restore peace and prosperity back for the American people, and we’re going to end those foreign wars, and we’re going to end the climate change scam,” she said. “Everything’s going to be restored. We’re so excited.”

Greene has also been a vocal critic of the ongoing prosecution of the so-called “J6ers” – insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on January 6 2021 following Trump’s defeat to Joe Biden.

In the 45 months since January 6 more than 1,532 individuals have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach, including more than 571 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, according to the FBI.

The cases are being prosecuted by the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section, which do not fall under the DHS.

However, along with Bannon, Greene has committed to “work like crazy” to ensure pardons for all “J6ers” and also to “go after those people that persecuted them.”

Bannon surrendered to authorities earlier this year and served a four-month sentence in federal prison on contempt charges for defying a subpoena in the congressional investigation into the Capitol attack. He previously described himself as a “political prisoner.”

[Noo_Noo]

@Nobluff

The quick “fix” is for the opposition to screw-up and disenfranchise those voters.

The daft thing is, looking from the outside Trump did screw up on several occasions. Abortion, deportations, understanding of the economy and so on.

None of it stuck, it actually had the opposite effect. People either ignored it or accepted it, take your pick on whether they actually supported it or not.

[SBYM]

Good analysis here, I thought.

This Time We Have to Hold the Democratic Party Elite Responsible for This...

[Noo_Noo]

I’ll read that shortly but i’m also wondering if this is something deeper, in that there’s a general rebellion against the status quo of how politics us done in the US. You can extend that across the planet too if you like.

Trump campaigned on a complete change and it worked. I do think it will fall apart under him too but we should really be looking at the fundamental set up of political systems, particularly in the US and UK.

[ShadesOfRed]

It’s time to denuclearize the US.

[Sweeting]

I think the Democratic party has to build itself backup through the new wave of politicians. Oust Pelosi and the all of the current establishment, find a young firebrand to lead the party into the 2028 elections.

Commit to policies like the Green New Deal/Build Back Better and be unashamed by it.

We have no idea what the country will look like in 4 years but we can be pretty confident that most people will not like it. Have to be able to present yourself as the party of change not the party of stuffy corporate centrism.

[aussielad]

@ShadesOfRed

It’s time to nuke the US.

Fixed

[SBYM]

I would add, it is a short article, and doesn’t cover off all of the issues.

It doesn’t go into the fact that, very likely, a lot of goobers are just racist, sexist arsewipes, and are perfectly happy with a rapist in the Oval Office.

[Hope.in.your.heart]

@Magnus

If we are to have even a forlorn hope to have anything to say at all on the global stage, to influence geopolitical events, we sadly in Europe needs to drastically and very painfully increase defence budgets dramatically (and I mean dramatically, it must be taken from health care, education, culture, science and other posts that are truly important to us). Only Hard Power is respected by authoritarians, nothing else. It is the only, only, only way out of the US basically leaving the “West”. There is no other choice, the future is fucking beyond bleak.

I wrote something similar yesterday. Sadly, there is no other way. Otherwise, we’ll get eaten alive by these cunts. So, we must be able to eat them if they act stupid.

It won’t happen overnight, it’s a long-haul project of course, and as you say, it will be utterly painful. It will eat on crucial social and environmental problems which won’t go away, even with Trump and all the other authoritarian cunts doing everything they can to make us believe they don’t exist.

So, we’ll progressively be stuck between a massive and real existential threat posed by authoritarian superpowers wanting to take the riches from us, one way or the other (and thus having to invest a lot to counter them), and a massive and really existential threat posed by global warming and the continued destruction of the global ecosphere (which will require a lot of investment too).

Add to that the threat of more authoritarian cunts popping up a bit everywhere in the remaining democratic countries, encouraged by Trump’s success and imitating his methods. A remedy against that will have to be found too.

In short: a lot of work on our plate, eh?

Meanwhile, Switzerland has doubled its military budget since 2021, and I completely expect that budget to soon reach cold-war levels again. It won’t take too long before we’ll be able to mobilise an army of 600k again. The EU has to do likewise in every country. I absolutely hate it, but it’s the reality we have to face.