Election thread
- Thread starter Shadyside
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I have a question to non Americans.
We've done a good job showing the Republicans' plays of removing the voting rights of many Americans, the intimidation and strong arming of the conservatives, and all the things the President has done. If the unthinkable happens and Trump stays in office... Are you going to say "God, Americans are so stupid" when everything has been done to yank the power away from the disenfranchised Americans? Or will you attack those singular Americans who sit happily to 'win' at the cost of American Dream they supposedly covet?
We've done a good job showing the Republicans' plays of removing the voting rights of many Americans, the intimidation and strong arming of the conservatives, and all the things the President has done. If the unthinkable happens and Trump stays in office... Are you going to say "God, Americans are so stupid" when everything has been done to yank the power away from the disenfranchised Americans? Or will you attack those singular Americans who sit happily to 'win' at the cost of American Dream they supposedly covet?
At this point, the only way Trump can win is by the SC or by voter suppression.
I think the former is his only real chance because so many people have voted, that voter suppression might not be enough.
I think the former is his only real chance because so many people have voted, that voter suppression might not be enough.
Depends on what you mean by 'win'. Win the popular vote, never. Electoral college win? Doubtful.
Actually get Biden to take office and get Trump out of office? There is a whole of a lot of ways for Trump to win, and most if not all of the GOP would let him.
I know people are saying Trump could win again because he won in 2016 when nobody thought he had a chance, but his win was a perfect storm of a fired up base, an unpopular opponent, and cheating.
I just don't see Trump catching lightning in a bottle again.
I just don't see Trump catching lightning in a bottle again.
People are probably going to shorthand it to "Americans are so stupid". It's a fair observation that Trump et al will be removing voting rights, sure, and that this is not a new thing. But there will be many, many people in the US who choose not to vote this time, and even more that chose not to vote last time (and it was pretty obvious that Trump was not a good person before the last election). Not to mention people voting for Trump. That's a lot of stupid (at best).
I'd also mention that his political opponents have been constantly derided as being less than effective, to the extent that people are saying the best way to combat him is to let him win. If that's wrong, they are rather stupid (at best), if they are right, the people they are criticising are rather stupid (at best).
Now, I get you don't want to be judged as being the same as your political opponents if they will, but you will be. OTOH, this applies to everyone. I don't feel terribly represented by my government, but if the world wants to judge my country as being collectively foolish, greedy and cruel, I can't really blame it.
Trump tried to manufacture a scandal against Biden like he did with Hilary's emails, and it failed miserably.
It just shows how desperate he is.
It just shows how desperate he is.
I hate to say this, but in a lot of countries right now there are being run stories along the lines of "preparing for four more years of Trump" AND "preparing for a Biden presidency".
Fact is, although many of us would prefer the more sane stability that Biden will provide, there are plenty of other policies he's talked about that aren't necessarily good for the rest of us. The US is so big that every time you get a new leader everybody has to prepare for it. If Trump gets in again the reactions are likely going to be along the lines of "well, that was dumb. Wonder what crazy shit he does next.", but if Biden gets elected its not going to be "thank god!" its going to be "I hope this doesn't hurt too bad."
I know the individual rights and responsibilities are a huge deal to you, as an American living in America, but, and this will sound callous, the rest of us have enough shit going on in our lives and our countries that we aren't interested in the trials and tribulations of the working person in the most powerful, wealthy, country in the world. Between the realities of COVID, the pre-existing economic upheaval that became twice as bad because of said COVID and the following Russia/Saudi Arabia pissing match, and the internal political and social struggles going on in every country there's not a lot of time or will left to worry about that.
Look at it this way - Putin recently pulled some shit in Russia that allows him to be around much longer than expected. Most news stories did not talk about how downtrodden the Russian people are and how the there was a lot of iffy shit around that referendum. Mostly they talked about preparing your butthole cause he ain't going away.
Don't say that too loudly. Don't think this guy doesn't have contingency plans in place if the votes don't come in for him.
No, the problem isn't the scandal, manufactured or not. He's always going to be under a cloud of scandal. It's the fact that Trump had way more scandals
Of course they did. The election is right here, and it's probably going to be messy figuring it out. They don't want to undermine the process. But if trump is removed through official channels, he's through. That's why the senate is so important. If the dems take it, they can oust him.
I fear that in the general abstract sense, I have at this point very little empathy for your average American. As someone that has been watching your politics for the past 18 years, the Trump presidency is merely all the worst traits of the previous presidencies combined. I've seen remarks that you have to beat Trump and "return to sanity". If sanity is to be judged by previous presidencies, then I'd still lock the door and throw away the key.
So I reject your rather obviously loaded question. America's disenfranchised have never had much of a voice to begin with, it's just now things have reached the boiling point where throwing cops at what you can and ignoring the rest of the problem no longer works. It is also much more convenient to point out the problem now, from a narrative standpoint, than point it out when you have a president that continues the status quo those not disenfranchised benefit from.
Or take filled in ballots(where applicable) to ballot drop boxes. Fill it out at home, drop it in the nearest official ballot drop box. That's what I did in my state(which is all mail).
If you can get to one....(Texas apparently decided to "Fix" that problem by putting 1 ballot box per county because......reasons).
I suspect the police would actually have to escort him out.
I doubt the military would step in to prevent that. I'm betting the Brass at the pentagon REALLY doesn't want to have to do anything, because the Army having take a role here would mean things have significantly deteriorated and would look very much like a COUP to one side or the other.
I suspect if Trump tried to stay after the election was certified (obviously assuming he lost) and the police(or the Secret Service) were called to evict him on Jan 20th, the military would simply go "What do you want us to do about it? It's not our job to protect your unwillingness to leave".
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I suspect the police would actually have to escort him out.
I doubt the military would step in to prevent that. I'm betting the Brass at the pentagon REALLY doesn't want to have to do anything, because the Army having take a role here would mean things have significantly deteriorated and would look very much like a COUP to one side or the other.
I suspect if Trump tried to stay after the election was certified (obviously assuming he lost) and the police(or the Secret Service) were called to evict him on Jan 20th, the military would simply go "What do you want us to do about it? It's not our job to protect your unwillingness to leave".
Gethsemani has posted how the Nazis came to power upthread and how they never really had an actual majority.
Ask yourself, did people blame the Germans for WWII and all the other Nazi atrocities or only those figures who helped installing Hitlers dictatorship ?
It will be the fault of "the Americans", as it always is.
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But it was "Americans are stupid" last election. Because if someone oversees with limited exposure could have predicted how Trump would be as president, Americans should habe been able to to even better.
This time around it won't be interpreted as a mistake or as something stupid. This time the whole world will think that the Americans like what Trump did the last 4 years if they relect them. That the US is overall a shitty country dominated by really nasty people, not just ignorant people.
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USA
I would think internationally, most nations would rather have Biden than Trump, unless of course you are Russia or Saudi Arabia. Biden was planning on cutting the Saudi's off.
"In his campaign Biden pledged to reassess ties with Saudi Arabia, an oil exporting giant and major buyer of American arms, demand more accountability over Khashoggi’s killing in Riyadh’s Istanbul consulate and end U.S. support for the Yemen war. "
Honeymoon over? Saudi Arabia-U.S. ties face reset with Biden win
Saudi Arabia's crown prince enjoyed a near free pass under his personal relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump, but the kingdom's brazen young leader will have to tread more carefully should Democrats take the White House and reset strategic ties.
www.reuters.com
In addition, Biden will likely restore and increase foreign aid that Trump previously cut. though whether or not these things are beneficial to you personally depend on which country you are in.
Quite right too - that way madness lies. Trump needs to be removed by the civilian authorities if he refuses to leave.
No, he's not attending the party because he'll have lost, and the evidence suggests he may lose bigly. Like, potentially over 200 electoral college votes. Now think about the sort of narcissist Trump is: how insecure he is deep down, how much this rejection and defeat is going to hurt, how angry, bitter, he's going to be, and how humiliating he would find it to be at a public event where he's the LOSER-IN-CHIEF. Of course he's not to be there.
I'm sure he will be discussing what he can do to cheat at some point. But mostly he's going to be on his own having a colossal sulk, watching Fox and seething impotently. I think he's going to leave, but I absolutely believe he is going to poision the incoming Biden presidency with accusations of fraud to the maximum; potentially he's going to refuse to co-operate with a handover.
Or, you know, there's still an outside chance he'll win.
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