news 2024 US Election Megathread 🇺🇸🏛️

[Mike91]

1 minute ago, ClashAndBurn said:

Yeah, because Biden losing was pretty much locked in at that point. His debate performance was an absolute flop, his party was revolting against him, and his opponent came out of an attempt on his life triumphantly. Kamala swapping places with Biden made the race a competitive coin flip again, even though everyone foolishly seems to think she has this in the bag and her winning is a foregone conclusion. Sounds… familiar, no?  

That's literally my point. Biden stepped down and the race completely changed. 

[Relampago.]

27 minutes ago, tiejc said:

I don't know if this was shared already https://www.npr.org/2024/08/16/g-s1-17255/washington-primary-2024-election-democrats-gop-twitter

 

 

 

 

I saw a similar analysis with Alaska's house special election. It also favored Democrats similarly.

 

I feel like special elections and primaries should be looked at more closely when considering who might win. Polls are great but they're just that— polls. Votes are actually votes and while you can't assume a primary or special election will draw out the exact same voters and votes, at least those are solid, in-stone results. 

Edited August 24 by Relampago.

[nadiamendell]

 

[GhostBox]

 

[Bears01]

56 minutes ago, ClashAndBurn said:

Yeah, because Biden losing was pretty much locked in at that point. His debate performance was an absolute flop, his party was revolting against him, and his opponent came out of an attempt on his life triumphantly. Kamala swapping places with Biden made the race a competitive coin flip again, even though everyone foolishly seems to think she has this in the bag and her winning is a foregone conclusion. Sounds… familiar, no?  

I don't think anyone thinks she has it in the bag. She has insane momentum, but things can change, and she's showing a lot of vulnerability in states like PA and GA. 

[dancingqueen]

1 hour ago, GhostBox said:

Seems that Harris and Walz are gonna hit the campaign trail again next week 👏🏼👏🏼

 

Does anyone know where they post information about upcoming rallies in advance? I'd like to go but usually don't hear about them until day of. I'm in Atlanta BTW to be more specific. 

Edited August 24 by dancingqueen

[Elusive Chanteuse]

1 hour ago, nooniebao said:

 

But trump hates them too though. how odd

[midnightdawn]

John Kerry got huge crowds in the weeks before the 2004 presidential election — one event, in Philadelphia with Bill Clinton, was estimated at 80,000 to 100,000 — but the Democrat ultimately ended up losing on Election Day.

x

 

I guess the moral of the story is don't get over-excited by massive crowds at the end of the campaign.

[GhostBox]

8 minutes ago, midnightdawn said:

John Kerry got huge crowds in the weeks before the 2004 presidential election — one event, in Philadelphia with Bill Clinton, was estimated at 80,000 to 100,000 — but the Democrat ultimately ended up losing on Election Day.

x

 

I guess the moral of the story is don't get over-excited by massive crowds at the end of the campaign.

This is true but even that election was a close one 286-251 EC. 
 

we all need to remember this one will also be very close. Get everyone we can in the swing states to vote and take their friends and family with them 

[toxicgenie]

11 minutes ago, midnightdawn said:

John Kerry got huge crowds in the weeks before the 2004 presidential election — one event, in Philadelphia with Bill Clinton, was estimated at 80,000 to 100,000 — but the Democrat ultimately ended up losing on Election Day.

x

 

I guess the moral of the story is don't get over-excited by massive crowds at the end of the campaign.

John Kerry came across as stiff as a stick to me. I'm surprised he got crowds that big. I remember thinking his wife Teresa was a riot though.

[Lightbringer007]

1 hour ago, nadiamendell said:

 

IM CRYING-

[ClashAndBurn]

This is pretty much the sentiment I feel about… a lot of you all, actually. Sorry not sorry.

Edited August 24 by ClashAndBurn

[Bloo]

2 hours ago, Mike91 said:

Divided government has been a thing since the birth of our country. It's not something recent that came out of GOP gerrymandering.  

 

Of course there's systemic problems but let's not pretend there aren't people who vote one way in an election, get upset that the party in power didn't do enough, and then turn around and vote for the other party next time, basically ensuring nothing gets done. 

Divided government is an artifact of slave states that argued for a Congressional Senate that gave them equivalent representation despite having significantly fewer voters and leveraged the Fifth Third Compromise to expand their political influence. You’re right, unrepresentative divided government isn’t new. It’s been baked into our government from the start. I still think punching down on voters is misdirected. Our divided, unrepresentative governments at a result of systems that are designed to misrepresent the American people. Simply blaming the people does not make much sense in the grand scheme of things.

 

As for your latter point, I think that’s still naïve. Sure, there were voters that voted for Obama twice over and then went on to vote for Trump. But Obama entered office with a majority in the House and a super majority in the Senate. Despite that “united” government, many voters felt economically disenfranchised and worse off after Obama got elected, so they voted for Trump. Trump is bad, but I can understand why people decided to take a gamble with something different out of a misunderstanding of what Trump stood for. 

 

We can dissect this a million different ways, but I just think the punching down on American voters that are all falling prey to a broken capitalist system isn’t a consistent argument. 

[Communion]

On 8/22/2024 at 3:01 PM, Communion said:

"They can do it together"

 

I genuinely wish for bad things to happen to you and for you to experience suffering and pain bexause the level of trolling you constantly do can only come from a place that is dark and hateful. 

Getting punched out for 24 hours for this post where I simply tell someone I think constantly defending genocide and downplaying its effects make them come across as a bad person while just minutes following the notification, a user literally posted the below in here:

 

Quote

Leftist policies like "kill all Jews in Israel"

[shelven]

3 hours ago, Bloo said:

?

 

This comment is blithely ignoring the effects of gerrymandering and countless other systemic problems that result in things like unrepresentative divided governments. Just punching down on the American people, as if they're consciously responsible for all of it rather than an entire system designed to misrepresent us, feels misdirected.

Even among the people who understand at some level that the Senate is broken, I think very few have truly internalized just how shockingly undemocratic it is. It's become so normalized that people have lost sight of it being a literal case of tyranny of the minority.

 

Like everyone remembers the 2018 midterms where the Dems had that huge House gain yet lost two Senate seats, but nobody ever talks about the popular vote total for the Senate races that year (and I admit even I was stunned when I checked the Wikipedia page):

 

 

Like... how do you even attempt to have a functioning government when a party can win by TWENTY PERCENT and somehow lose two seats and hold a clear minority overall? There's literally no way to fix this by "encouraging people to vote." The design of the US Senate is fundamentally inconsistent with the way the country's population is now spread out. The Dems should have been pushing for Senate reform and/or DC and Puerto Rico statehood every single day since November 7, 2018, but instead they've just let this incredibly broken system become the standard and it leads to asinine takes like from the user you quoted that somehow the 60% of Americans who vote for the opposite of the result that ultimately happens are responsible for that result.

[nooniebao]

 

[Communion]

Anyway, such was probably divine intervention because this post ended up being a premonition:

On 8/22/2024 at 9:37 PM, Communion said:

This plus the whole "DEMOCRATS CAN BE PATRIOTS TOO!!" is so garish.

 

Genuinely disturbing given all the Marxist girlies know none of this will work in the long run.

 

Harris has "Joy" but Obama had "Hope" in 2008 and hope did not stop the inherent contradictions of capitalism from worsening inequality. That populist band-aids on a system made to harm people did not stop said worsening inequalities from radicalizing people and creating conflict.

 

Supporting right-wing immigration policies will always backfire on Dems w/ inevitable videos of migrant mothers drowning and brutalized. 

Supporting right-wing policing policies will always backfire on Dems w/ inevitable videos of people brutalized under literal boots.

Supporting right-wing foreign policies will always backfire on Dems w/ inevitable videos of children slaughtered by American-funded bombs.

 

That we're literally trying to just re-run this playbook is.. insane. Dems don't even support the public option anymore. 

 

Genuinely could have had a progressive Harris ticket but running on some center-right liberal populist ticket is the bet they're taking.

Last night was... a rollercoaster. The emotional upheaval to find the beginning of her speech emotional and touching, to finding the middle portion clunky and idiosyncratic, to sitting there in dead silence while watching a WOC brag about America's military being lethal and deliver such jingoism and affection for bloodshed it felt like a caricature.

 

Trying to somehow link being a county prosecutor for women undergoing domestic violence and linking it to spreading propaganda about mass rape used as a weapon of war by Hamas, such claims themselves debunked by independent UN investigations even, was wild to see actually attempted. She's genuinely terrifying as a politician.

 

There was a cabal of liberals following the speech posting about "ATRL doomers!!" but I walked away from the speech pretty satisfied. It became clear Harris is not running a left-wing political project. That her campaign is actively purging leftists and courting Republicans. And it was never more clear nor easier to accept it is morally wrong to try and fashion one's self as a leftist yet aid and abet such a right-wing political project. It was easy to come to the conclusion to vote Green come November.

 

It's actually a relief that she is so squarely right-wing. There was actual worry in 2020 that olive branches between Biden and Sanders, and the unique material reality of the pandemic, could see a Biden loss attributed to the left. 2024 is not 2020. The Democrats have never been this removed from leftists or this anti-progressive in at least 20 years. There's nothing owed and anyone who identifies as a leftist should seriously interrogate why they feel burdened by such self-imposed guilt over voting 3rd party that they have to make themselves sick to the stomach enough to eventually vote for someone who very vocally does not want their vote. At some point, you should respect yourself.

 

Even the folksy liberal populism was largely dropped from the speech. Hearing her wheel out championing "increased access to capital for entrepreneurs" as her main economic policy pitch for the first time was fun.

 

Of course this is not a popular view in liberal-coded places given the hostility liberals show to leftists who vote 3rd party. I'm sure many people who have tirelessly defended blowing up Palestinian children will downvote this post, but.. also... these very same users got what they wanted! This is not a party for progressives in this current iteration! It's a party for people like Adam Kinzinger, Ana Navarro, and other Anti-Trump Republicans.

Edited August 24 by Communion

[Wonderland]

It's actually crazy how many ads on Instagram I'm getting which say "remind your American friends in New Zealand to request their election ballots"  

[ClashAndBurn]

On 8/22/2024 at 3:05 PM, thesegayz said:

This isn't 2016, when the narrative was "Hillary is getting coronated." It's like 2008, when people were suffering in the economic crisis and chose to be hopeful because of Obama 

 

the doom and gloom of 4 weeks ago is not the narrative here. 

The irony when this was FAR more of a coronation than what happened with Hillary  

[Communion]

3 minutes ago, Wonderland said:

It's actually crazy how many ads on Instagram I'm getting which say "remind your American friends in New Zealand to request their election ballots"  

Me constantly seeing Slotkin's ads for the Michigan Senate seat and Angela Alsobrooks' ads for the Maryland Senate seat from.. NJ on Twitter.

Girlies, zone in the ad campaigns and KPIs a LITTLE tighter. 

[Harrier]

1 hour ago, Communion said:

Anyway, such was probably divine intervention because this post ended up being a premonition:

Last night was... a rollercoaster. The emotional upheaval to find the beginning of her speech emotional and touching, to finding the middle portion clunky and idiosyncratic, to sitting there in dead silence while watching a WOC brag about America's military being lethal and deliver such jingoism and affection for bloodshed it felt like a caricature.

 

Trying to somehow link being a county prosecutor for women undergoing domestic violence and linking it to spreading propaganda about mass rape used as a weapon of war by Hamas, such claims themselves debunked by independent UN investigations even, was wild to see actually attempted. She's genuinely terrifying as a politician.

 

There was a cabal of liberals following the speech posting about "ATRL doomers!!" but I walked away from the speech pretty satisfied. It became clear Harris is not running a left-wing political project. That her campaign is actively purging leftists and courting Republicans. And it was never more clear nor easier to accept it is morally wrong to try and fashion one's self as a leftist yet aid and abet such a right-wing political project. It was easy to come to the conclusion to vote Green come November.

 

It's actually a relief that she is so squarely right-wing. There was actual worry in 2020 that olive branches between Biden and Sanders, and the unique material reality of the pandemic, could see a Biden loss attributed to the left. 2024 is not 2020. The Democrats have never been this removed from leftists or this anti-progressive in at least 20 years. There's nothing owed and anyone who identifies as a leftist should seriously interrogate why they feel burdened by such self-imposed guilt over voting 3rd party that they have to make themselves sick to the stomach enough to eventually vote for someone who very vocally does not want their vote. At some point, you should respect yourself.

 

Even the folksy liberal populism was largely dropped from the speech. Hearing her wheel out championing "increased access to capital for entrepreneurs" as her main economic policy pitch for the first time was fun.

 

Of course this is not a popular view in liberal-coded places given the hostility liberals show to leftists who vote 3rd party. I'm sure many people who have tirelessly defended blowing up Palestinian children will downvote this post, but.. also... these very same users got what they wanted! This is not a party for progressives in this current iteration! It's a party for people like Adam Kinzinger, Ana Navarro, and other Anti-Trump Republicans.

You and the rest of your ilk were headed here regardless, have been desperately searching for reasons to return back to this position. You laughably claim 'divine intervention' but it has been a self fulfilling prophecy from day one and the most predictable thing imaginable. You act like Harris has betrayed you in some way, when you have known from day one that she is not a member of the progressive wing of the party, that she was never going to wake up tomorrow as Cori Bush, and indeed if she did that she would be sent packing in an electoral landslide. You are the same people that now hate Bernie Sanders and AOC - some of the only progressive congresspeople with any real power - because they did not continue your continuous match leftward, and because they are prepared to work with liberals to achieve progressive goals. You are deliberately blind about the realities of appealing to the American electorate, and pretend as if people like Kamala position themselves the way they do for no reason other than that they're just super evil bad people.

 

It is fundamentally childish and stupid to envision voting as a 'moral' act, as you and others do. Voting is a strategic decision based on helping the candidate win who most closely aligns to some kind of political goal - that is it. It is blatantly obvious that Kamala Harris will be immensely better for the American people and those around the world than Donald Trump, but your purist moral handwringing over what a terrible liberal she is manages to obscure this obvious fact in your mind. It is a good thing you represent a tiny minority within a minority, and that you don't live in a swing state. If the French were all like you, we'd have president LePen. Thank god you remain, and will continue to remain, a fringe online communist whose views hold no actual power or currency outside of this forum 

[nooniebao]

 

 

[Communion]

2 minutes ago, Harriser said:

You and the rest of your ilk were headed here regardless

You are Australian. =

[ClashAndBurn]

5 minutes ago, Harriser said:

You and the rest of your ilk were headed here regardless, have been desperately searching for reasons to return back to this position. You laughably claim 'divine intervention' but it has been a self fulfilling prophecy from day one and the most predictable thing imaginable. You act like Harris has betrayed you in some way, when you have known from day one that she is not a member of the progressive wing of the party, that she was never going to wake up tomorrow as Cori Bush, and indeed if she did that she would be sent packing in an electoral landslide. You are the same people that now hate Bernie Sanders and AOC - some of the only progressive congresspeople with any real power - because they did not continue your continuous match leftward, and because they are prepared to work with liberals to achieve progressive goals. You are deliberately blind about the realities of appealing to the American electorate, and pretend as if people like Kamala position themselves the way they do for no reason other than that they're just super evil bad people.

 

It is fundamentally childish and stupid to envision voting as a 'moral' act, as you and others do. Voting is a strategic decision based on helping the candidate win who most closely aligns to some kind of political goal - that is it. It is blatantly obvious that Kamala Harris will be immensely better for the American people and those around the world than Donald Trump, but your purist moral handwringing over what a terrible liberal she is manages to obscure this obvious fact in your mind. It is a good thing you represent a tiny minority within a minority, and that you don't live in a swing state. If the French were all like you, we'd have president LePen. Thank god you remain, and will continue to remain, a fringe online communist whose views hold no actual power or currency outside of this forum 

Your smugness as an Australian who has no stakes in the outcome of this election is really quite ******* rich. You changing your screen name out of stanning for a politician who is literally half a world away from you is even funnier  

[Harrier]

5 minutes ago, Communion said:

You are Australian. =

Unfortunately for us we function as a satellite state of American foreign policy, so  Doesnt mean my arguments against the way you all position voting are any less true