POTUS/General Election Thread 2020 + Aftermath

[Crandar]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...-garden-centre

[edyzmedieval]

A very good article from NYT outlining the path to the White House. Long read but excellent.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/07/u...president.html

[spmetla]

I can only hope that Biden's long experience in politics together with such a close count in the Senate encourage some bi-partisan work together in DC. The zero sum politics of take control of the whatever branch and then either dictate terms or obstruct which has been the norm since Harry Reid has not been good for the country. This increased tribalism makes us weak internally and ineffective externally.

I can also only hope that Trump can step out of the lime light once he's out of office. If he's seriously considering start an election campaign for 2024 once he's out of office and we endure 4 more years of constant campaigning it'll be bad for the country. The two year election cycle is bad enough but perpetual campaigning is not sustainable if the government is to function.

[Hooahguy]

It will depend on what happens in Georgia in January. Hard to predict what will happen but I am defaulting to the GOP holding the Senate. Unknown what the relationship between Biden and McConnell will be but I cant imagine it will be too warm.

No idea what happens with Trump. He might try again in 2024 but I think it would also depend on what legal or health issues he is having. Maybe he makes good on his promise and flees the country lol. But the bigger issue we need to worry about is a more competent Trump coming into office. Someone like Josh Hawley or Tom Cotton, who sounds a lot like Trump sometimes but not as much of the buffoonery. My chief worry is that Trump was just the start, and that goal #1 of a Biden administration needs to be strengthening our institutions to prevent undemocratic abuse so we dont become an illiberal democracy like in Hungary or Turkey.

[Montmorency]

More New York goodness.
https://twitter.com/MichaelRapaport/...44728472842242 [VIDEO]

I don't know what this is, but it's funny.
https://twitter.com/pgcornwell/statu...94848572379136

One day after he was defeated by incumbent Gov. Jay Inslee, Republican challenger Loren Culp says he was let go as police chief of the small town of Republic, Wash. The city council voted to defund the police department, which has just one person: Culp.

Now this definitely contradicts a lot of polling before the election. It was a whole thing that a decline in Trump approval was correlated with COVID case or death rate in counties/districts. We talked about it on the Org. For there to be basically no effect on his level of support is disturbing.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-...2020-than-2016

(I had a Twitter link with better graphs but I've lost it.)

Cool.
https://twitter.com/lennecefer/statu...69453826322438

You want to know how much the Navajo Nation dislikes trump?

1. of the 85,000 registered voters on Navajo 76,000 voted. 89% turn out

2. Of those 76,000 voters 74,000 voted for Biden & 2,000 for Trump

3. Biden’s current lead in Arizona sits at about 40,000 [Ed. Now 20,000]

Ya’ah’teeh MFs

Given the results in the House and Senate, it is not surprising Dems did poorly in the state legislative races. Also, if we don't take control over the Senate Congress won't pass electoral reforms that include provisions to neutralize Republican gerrymandering around the country. Very bad in that passing such legislation first thing in 2021 would allow us to preempt the 2021 redistricting process that will be happening everywhere.
https://twitter.com/PoliticsWolf/sta...61542834757633

[Hooahguy]

So Trump is going to try to drag this out as long as possible it seems.

President Trump plans to brandish obituaries of people who supposedly voted but are dead — plus hold campaign-style rallies — in an effort to prolong his fight against apparent insurmountable election results.

Also I kinda resent the pundits who are saying that we now need to play nice with Trumpists. Like yeah we shouldn't needlessly antagonize them but for four years they were all "cry more libtards" and now we are supposed to pretend none of that has happened?

[a completely inoffensive name]

now we are supposed to pretend none of that has happened?

Yes. We need to de-program millions of people and the first step is by at the minimum engaging on an ostensibly equal level.

Or we can race to tear down rules that disadvantage us and build up obstacles for Republicans to keep them at bay, but I am not sure where that will end up.

[Pannonian]

I can only hope that Biden's long experience in politics together with such a close count in the Senate encourage some bi-partisan work together in DC. The zero sum politics of take control of the whatever branch and then either dictate terms or obstruct which has been the norm since Harry Reid has not been good for the country. This increased tribalism makes us weak internally and ineffective externally.

I can also only hope that Trump can step out of the lime light once he's out of office. If he's seriously considering start an election campaign for 2024 once he's out of office and we endure 4 more years of constant campaigning it'll be bad for the country. The two year election cycle is bad enough but perpetual campaigning is not sustainable if the government is to function.

The problem, also seen on this side of the water, is when one side sees that electoral advantage is the be all and end all, and this attitude is backed by the electorate. When that happens, as has been the case from the right for the past few years, there is a firm core that will never be convinced by evidence or reality, and all that remains is to add enough to that to get electoral victory. And when in power, stack up the institutional advantages so that the other side is fundamentally handicapped in any presumption of a fair contest.

There needs to either be a drastic cutting back of the right to show that this does not work, or else a prolonged exile of the right from power to restore normality. Anything short of that, and the scenario raised in the Guardian will come about; the strategy of the alt right combined with a less incompetent individual than Trump. A classical tyranny, in other words (see the ancient Greek tyrants like Pesistratus and Dionysius).