The great 2020 election thread....

[TGLS]

Fun fact: there are now more new cases of Covid in the White House than in the whole of New Zealand (which is 1).

Well to be fair to Covid, it can't find New Zealand on it's map.

[Madner Kami]

My concern is honestly not with fair voting. I believe that Trump would overwhelmingly lose in any election as a rejection of fascism, hate, and corruption.

U-hu? Didn't Trump get like 49% of the popular vote? I mean, let's not argue about the inherent bullshit of someone coming into office in a "winner takes all" voting system (which is a bad system to begin with, but that's besides the point), despite not being the winner in the first place, but there's an elephant in the room. It's like with the AfD in Germany. The far right wing parties never got more than a combined 10% in the worst moments of our modern history and yet, there it is...

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Fun fact: there are now more new cases of Covid in the White House than in the whole of New Zealand (which is 1).

Yeah, well I bet New Zealand feels pretty good about themselves over that.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

My concern is honestly not with fair voting. I believe that Trump would overwhelmingly lose in any election as a rejection of fascism, hate, and corruption.

U-hu? Didn't Trump get like 49% of the popular vote? I mean, let's not argue about the inherent bullshit of someone coming into office in a "winner takes all" voting system (which is a bad system to begin with, but that's besides the point), despite not being the winner in the first place, but there's an elephant in the room. It's like with the AfD in Germany. The far right wing parties never got more than a combined 10% in the worst moments of our modern history and yet, there it is...

His votes aren't all far right. They're mostly just scaled back in terms of regulation. For the economy for instance it's not much different from when Greenspan was head of our federal reserve. It's just a pro-business directive that ignores data in favor of facilitation of efficiency.

If he didn't run on the Republican platform then I can understand how any appeal for his campaign, with not much more than a grade school understanding of him, is indubitably radical. But that was just the right feed for the swing vote chess strategy of states rights winner-take-all.

[clearspira]

My concern is honestly not with fair voting. I believe that Trump would overwhelmingly lose in any election as a rejection of fascism, hate, and corruption.

U-hu? Didn't Trump get like 49% of the popular vote? I mean, let's not argue about the inherent bullshit of someone coming into office in a "winner takes all" voting system (which is a bad system to begin with, but that's besides the point), despite not being the winner in the first place, but there's an elephant in the room. It's like with the AfD in Germany. The far right wing parties never got more than a combined 10% in the worst moments of our modern history and yet, there it is...

The sad reality of the situation is that Trump is a symptom of what is happening in the US rather than a cause. Getting rid of him is the equivalent of taking an aspirin for your cancer - the relief is brief.

There will be another Trump eventually, and the scary thing is that the next Trump might actually be a politician as opposed to a failed businessman cum reality TV star. Someone who knows the system because he is the system. Someone who knows when to talk and when not to talk. Someone who knows better than to use the phrase ''grab them by the pussy'' when on camera.

[Captain Crimson]

And he could still win this election, make no mistake - even after coming down with COVID himself, to boot. Assuming he survives, of course.

[CharlesPhipps]

I believe in democracy so I believe in the American people. I believe a lot of people who voted for Trump wouldn't have done so now. I believe a lot of people gave him a shot because of name recognition, a belief in business acumen, or a belief he would attack corruption in Washington. Certainly, he lied about a lot of things he supported like giving a better healthcare plan that covered everyone.

Do I believe all or most of his followers turned on him? No. But I believe his naked depravity is on display for all to see these past 4 years.

[Captain Crimson]

I believe in democracy so I believe in the American people. I believe a lot of people who voted for Trump wouldn't have done so now. I believe a lot of people gave him a shot because of name recognition, a belief in business acumen, or a belief he would attack corruption in Washington. Certainly, he lied about a lot of things he supported like giving a better healthcare plan that covered everyone.

Do I believe all or most of his followers turned on him? No. But I believe his naked depravity is on display for all to see these past 4 years.

I dunno. There is the case to be made that they prefer policy over conduct, and yet given the way the electorate map is rigged with its winner-take-all formatting, who knows how that plays out this year. Especially because in the handful of states that matter I see little to indicate the polling methodology has substantially improved in order to offset the potential unknowns left over from 2016. And faith in human beings is all fine and dandy, but if half this country doesn't turn out to vote, as I had for many years, and for completely understandable reasons, then what can you do? That's how dictatorships are made. And shaming from the left doesn't give motivation to vote either, take it from me, unless your reasons are run down not only logically, but also compassionately. Without judgment. And in a hyperpolarized country, that's harder to do.

I do tend to think the pendulum has swung back over to the DNC's side in the last few days. But again, we all know it's not the people who decide elections in America. It's a tiny handful of people in a few select states, and that's it. The elite decide what happens in the so-called Land of the Free. Not us.

[CharlesPhipps]

Honestly, I don't believe the Republicans would be so HELL BENT on cheating on disenfranchising people if they didn't think they'd lose.

[Madner Kami]

The sad reality of the situation is that Trump is a symptom of what is happening in the US rather than a cause. Getting rid of him is the equivalent of taking an aspirin for your cancer - the relief is brief.

There will be another Trump eventually, and the scary thing is that the next Trump might actually be a politician as opposed to a failed businessman cum reality TV star. Someone who knows the system because he is the system. Someone who knows when to talk and when not to talk. Someone who knows better than to use the phrase ''grab them by the pussy'' when on camera.

That's the real cracker there and also the one, that really scares me and this not just about the US, but also the UK, France and Germany, primarily. We can see how this works out especially in the more easterly located countries of the EU already... You'd think that people particularly in Europe would've learned a lesson we Germans tried to teach the world unintentionally... But then again, sizeable parts of our own population hasn't, so why should I be surprised about other places...

His votes aren't all far right.

That is entirely missing the point, I am afraid. When the AfD started to become a thing here in Germany, I realized one thing: People are lacking an outlet for some of their fears and concerns in our political landscape, but... If Nazis are starting to show up at my demonstrations and begin to show their colours clearly, waving their flags, then I will go home instead of standing by their side. Most AfD-supporters have no qualms about marching next to Nazis and the inevitable result is, that the AfD turned from a liberal-nationlist, anti-globalization fringe party, to a reservoir of the far right somehow being supported by a wierd array of center-righters. Well, that plus conspiracy nutjobs, "Reichsbürger" and crystal healers...

In essence, these "non-far right voters" have no qualms about the Nazis in their midst and leading their prefered party and there's a striking problem there, that either they aren't worried about or don't recognize. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, then it doesn't matter what they are telling me they really want, because they've become brown ducks, wading through brown shit, eating brown shit, spewing brown shit. They've chosen to make themselves Nazi-supporters.
And I do recognize how that exact same mixture of stupid and unreflected positioning leads to even more glaring problems in the two-party system of the US, but it doesn't excuse what these people choose to dedicate themselves to. It doesn't matter that their beef is with the two-party system that makes it absurdly hard to get new parties going or that they are having issues with how politics are run regardless on who has the seat of power, if you choose to be a part of the brown mob, you are the brown mob.

In other words, if you want to change the political system, then demonstrate for change and don't pick the worst possible person just to give a finger to the system. This is the dumbest thing you could ever conceivable do and that so many people are clearly incapable of making this simple connection and stubbornly refuse to take a step back even 4 years later, is just baffling. After all I can only come to one conclusion about this issue: They either just do not care about what they allegedly care or are so blinded by hatred, that they do not recognize what they are doing or are flat out too stupid to comprehend the obvious. Either either of that or we have more Heath Ledger Jokers in our societies, than I am comfortable with.