US General Elections 2020

Pettytyrant101 wrote:{{ Yeah come on Blue, drop by and give us some legal advice!

Heres another thought, given the US prides itself on its democracy and how they got rid of monarchs and the like, why can a President pardon people just like a monarch? }}

halfwise wrote:He likely will not run again because it would risk defeat, which he can't stand.  It will stroke his ego better to pull strings from a distance, and it's less work.

But he's not a liability for his party so much as an inescapable curse.  He can back or bless candidates and make all the difference - the only ones he doesn't have influence over are popular moderate republicans in swing states: they are pulling from outside his base.  But such moderates are rare.  The GOP as a whole can't risk turning their backs on him, which must irritate the hell out of most of them.

Bluebottle wrote:I wouldn't underestimate the moment when people can breath out, know it is over and go on with their lives. But, it will be interesting to see how it turns out.

I will point out that for much of American history, drawing [the line] at “not racist” has been a luxury that people of colour simply couldn’t afford. At a time where many were fighting to be recognised as human beings, they didn’t have the privilege of worrying about whether they liked (or were liked by) their president.

In general, Trump did better with voters who were concerned about the economy, crime, and public safety. Simply put, these people prioritised their livelihoods and safety from crime above all else, including the character of the person who would lead them....These are the choices that human beings, regardless of the colour of their skin, will make when they don’t believe that they have better options. People of colour have a long and painful history of having to choose between two unappetising options after all. There’s a certain pragmatism that develops when you have to choose between smiling at a racist customer and losing your job, or between complying with an illegal search and risking getting shot, or between an openly racist president and a candidate whose racism is more subtle.

If you set aside the Trump supporters who voted for him because they want a tax break or because they’d never vote for a bleeding-heart Liberal, you find people who’ve spent a lot of time feeling as if they weren’t being heard. People who were so desperate to feel that somebody was listening, that when Trump said the things they wanted to hear and addressed the concerns they had, even though the insincerity dripped from every word, they felt better.

[these voters may] note that Trump is especially given to calling Black public figures “unintelligent”—and yet still decide that his agenda otherwise appeals enough that they will vote for him even if he wouldn’t quite respect them as individuals. A Latino person can know that Trump referred to immigrants from Mexico as “rapists” but still feel that Trump’s jobs record is more important than his racist sentiments ... After all, before the pandemic, the economy really was humming along in a way that materially affected American lives for the better.

Or, with both Latinos and Black people, they may simply like the man’s charisma. Legions of voters go for charisma rather than what concerns the readers of The New Yorker or Vox, and it has always been thus....This point of view is perhaps easier to understand if we recall that back when racism was more prevalent and more overt, Black voters did not even have the choice of restricting their vote to the candidate who disavowed racism and yet were quite intellectually coherent in their choices....To psychologically healthy individuals, the fact that Trump wouldn’t want to be their friend may seem an abstraction, as they will never meet him, have fulfilling lives that have nothing to do with him, and are quite sure that they are as good as him anyway....This outlook arguably represents a more sophisticated sensibility than the pitchfork attitude of many on racism....Coalition building of the kind that will win future elections will require them to hold their noses and understand that to many perfectly sane people of color, policy matters more than rhetorical virtue on race and racism. They must also understand that few of such people will be amenable to schooling on the matter. Talk to them as prodigals who need to be taken out back and instructed in the gospel and you will only drive them to the next charismatic, incurious megalomaniac that rises from the Republican swamp.

Lancebloke wrote:Good video from the same person I suggested watching earlier about the shenanigans going in with the Trump lawsuits. This one is specifically about the claim that Pennsylvania absentee voting was illegal and all those votes should be thrown out.



Whether or not he covers everything that should be covered, I dont know (comments seem to suggest maybe not) but at least it is an attempt to look at things in an unbiased way.