news 2024 US Election Megathread 🇺🇸🏛️

[harwee]

The other day Cheeto's calling his voters fat and lazy and now he's at mcdonald's so that tracks.

 

So I don't know, i think he seem desperate. Whether voters see through it is another thing but he's doing too many stunts now.

Some might even think its offensive cause these stunts are inconsistent, one day its mcdonald's and the next his billionaire pal Musk is buying the elections in broad daylight.

 

[GhostBox]

Dems need to run up the mail in numbers 👏🏼

 

[Relampago.]

7 minutes ago, GhostBox said:

I mean the people propping Trump up and taking over his inner circle right now are right wing Christian bigots who would love to do that to us. So it's not far fetched 💀

I sorta understand that, but at the same time, 2022 showed that fighting this imaginary culture war isn't really a winning position anymore. 
 

Maybe I'm just naive and too hopeful, but I don't think many people are particularly willing to allow that to happen in the US, even if just for the sake of keeping up a certain image of ~~freedom and tolerance~~. I dunno. I think we have a lot longer to go before it gets that bad, people are just more concerned about paying for groceries right now.

 

If there's a group of people who are rightfully afraid, it's definitely immigrants. LGBTQ issues weren't a winning issue for Republicans in 2022, but they're definitely winning with immigration this time. 

[Harrier]

1 hour ago, shelven said:

The McDonald's visit is another example of how different rules apply to Trump than other candidates. Any other presidential candidate who tried something like that would get lambasted as being performative and condescending. And if it was discovered that any other presidential candidate had actually faked the entire thing by serving pretend "customers" in a closed store, that would be the top story about the event from every mainstream media outlet. But because it's Trump and he's consistently held to a different standard, it's viewed as "charming" and nobody outside of niche corners of political Twitter are talking about how it was fake.

 

It's understandably very frustrating because how do you even fight against an electorate and media class that has just decided to give your opponent a pass on everything for no apparent reason? I always talk in here about how campaigns need to meet voters where they are and not where they want them to be, but sometimes the place where the voters are is really f*cking dumb  Like I just genuinely don't know how she's supposed to counter this kind of stuff. There's other aspects of her campaign that could be improved (she's unnecessarily risking alienating young voters and Michigan voters with her language on Israel, and I still say her sole focus in the last few weeks on trying to pick up Republicans is going to look silly in hindsight when 96% of Republicans vote for Trump just like they did in 2020), but even if she improved on those things, she'd still have the disadvantage of fundamentally not playing on the same field as Trump.

Great post. I will just add to this that it's not always a Trump specific thing, or a sexism thing as the HRCs of the world would say. It is a media environment that is fundamentally unfair to democrats in the sense that it requires higher standards from them accross the board. It is an electorate that both on the left and the right hyperfocuses on the shortcomings of democratic candidates while ignoring or glossing over Republican ones. Only out of this environment is it really possible for a race between two campaigns and candidates with such an enormous gulf in competence to be so close.

 

[GhostBox]

This is how all the media should've reported on this stunt 

 

[ClashAndBurn]

30 minutes ago, GhostBox said:

Welt that's  just the truth 🤷

It's so amusing how cavalier you all are about doubling down on behavior that lost you an election 8 years ago.

[Blade]

15 minutes ago, Relampago. said:

I sorta understand that, but at the same time, 2022 showed that fighting this imaginary culture war isn't really a winning position anymore. 
 

Maybe I'm just naive and too hopeful, but I don't think many people are particularly willing to allow that to happen in the US, even if just for the sake of keeping up a certain image of ~~freedom and tolerance~~. I dunno. I think we have a lot longer to go before it gets that bad, people are just more concerned about paying for groceries right now.

 

If there's a group of people who are rightfully afraid, it's definitely immigrants. LGBTQ issues weren't a winning issue for Republicans in 2022, but they're definitely winning with immigration this time. 

Has a single person, even the ones firmly in Trump's circle, brought up trans issues as one of their most important issues this election?

[GhostBox]

2 minutes ago, Blade said:

Has a single person, even the ones firmly in Trump's circle, brought up trans issues as one of their most important issues this election?

Aren't republicans including Trump literally running anti trans commercials at this very moment? 💀

 

And I have no doubt that if Trump wins gay marriage will make it back tot he Supreme Court and will be overturned. Clarence Thomas has been signaling the move for a few years. 

[GhostBox]

14 minutes ago, ClashAndBurn said:

It's so amusing how cavalier you all are about doubling down on behavior that lost you an election 8 years ago.

I mean if you want to continue treating people who vote for this man with kid gloves go ahead. 

 

 

 

im not saying Harris should say this or campaign on it but its just a fact a lot of  the trumpers (about half of the voting population) are complete idiots

[ClashAndBurn]

10 minutes ago, Relampago. said:

I sorta understand that, but at the same time, 2022 showed that fighting this imaginary culture war isn't really a winning position anymore. 
 

Maybe I'm just naive and too hopeful, but I don't think many people are particularly willing to allow that to happen in the US, even if just for the sake of keeping up a certain image of ~~freedom and tolerance~~. I dunno. I think we have a lot longer to go before it gets that bad, people are just more concerned about paying for groceries right now.

 

If there's a group of people who are rightfully afraid, it's definitely immigrants. LGBTQ issues weren't a winning issue for Republicans in 2022, but they're definitely winning with immigration this time. 

LGBTQ issues were only not a winning issue in 2022 because abortion took precedence. Dems aren't going to be able to coast by on that forever. Especially when they have no path to reinstating Roe v. Wade through Legislative means, Executive orders, or Judicial reform. There will come a time that voters will see the Dems' perpetual state of learned helplessness and be completely turned off by it. 

 

If the Dobbs decision had even just been within the scope of the original court case, or... If the Conservative justices had even been slightly less greedy in their decision-making... we could have ended up with a very different House and Senate.

[family.guy123]

Just ate some

drunken McDonalds. It was delicious. God bless those employed employees.  I hope Kamala wins the election. 

[ClashAndBurn]

5 minutes ago, GhostBox said:

And I have no doubt that if Trump wins gay marriage will make it back tot he Supreme Court and will be overturned. Clarence Thomas has been signaling the move for a few years. 

They have the court structure to do this right now regardless of whether Trump wins or not. Kamala winning won't save gay rights if SCOTUS really wants to take them away. They clearly have the means to do with Obergefell v. Hodges, Loving v. Virginia, and even Lawrence v. Texas.

 

5 minutes ago, GhostBox said:

I mean if you want to continue treating people who vote for this man with kid gloves go ahead. 

 

 

 

im not saying Harris should say this or campaign on it but its just a fact a lot of  the trumpers (about half of the voting population) are complete idiots

The mere point is that insulting their intelligence has never been a winning strategy. There's a reason Biden never stooped to calling Trump supporters deplorable imbeciles, regardless of whether or not it is true.

[Relampago.]

4 minutes ago, GhostBox said:

Aren't republicans including Trump literally running anti trans commercials at this very moment? 💀

 

And I have no doubt that if Trump wins gay marriage will make it back tot he Supreme Court and will be overturned. Clarence Thomas has been signaling the move for a few years. 

This is more fearmongering than I think reality. I don't want to undersell the threat we're facing, but a lot of this.. is definitely a bit more in the scare tactics realm than the reality of the situation. Let me explain my understanding of this, I'm no legal expert, but I have done quite a bit of research on this since Trump won in 2016:

 

Roe v. Wade was fairly easy to overturn because of the lousy "penumbras" argument in regards to implied privacy in the Constitution. Legal scholars had been ringing the alarm on this opinion for decades, which is why Congress was pressed to codify it before it would be inevitably overturned. Obergefell is a bit different as it was written with the 14th Amendment's due process clause in mind, which is a bit more solid, but does have some of the same faults as RvW.

 

This is why I also believe Thomas's opinion is misunderstood for the purpose of fearmongering. Thomas doesn't disagree with the outcome of Obergefell, he disagrees with the process and legality of which the opinion was written out. He argues it should be covered by the Privileges and Immunities clause instead, which states that citizens should have access to the same fundamental rights found in other states, in their own state. It kind of makes sense because Substantial Due Process (justifying why the government needs to take away a fundamental right from a group for a specific, needed purpose) is a bit of an iffy approach that's more based in opinion rather than a solid argument. 

 

Even so, if Obergefell were overturned, it would still stand on Bostock most likely, so that would need to be overturned as well (although FWIW, Thomas dissented there too lol.) And even then, there would need to be a case that makes its way to the SC for them to even overturn it, which would likely need some kind of state law against same sex marriage to come out. And even THEN, none of the other judges agreed with Thomas's approach to wanting to use Privileges and Immunities instead of Substantive Due Process to overturn other decisions.

 

There's just a lot standing in the way of overturning gay marriage entirely, but I guess you could be right. Maybe they do want to overturn it and it will be overturned, I guess anything is possible. But I really want people to understand the process behind what that would take and why it's not a super likely outcome, even if the chances are non-zero. A lot of what's being overturned is due to poorly written opinions when these decisions were made. I know that people really do believe the SC is just a puppet of Trump, and to a certain extent that's correct, but there is still a need to base these decisions on what the Constitution says. They will have to pick their battles, and I don't see same-sex marriage as the number one priority by any means.

 

I hope that brings you and some others a little peace of mind if nothing else. We've got a lot of battles coming our way, even if Trump doesn't win, but I think we have higher priority ones coming first for sure. 

[Relampago.]

48 minutes ago, ClashAndBurn said:

LGBTQ issues were only not a winning issue in 2022 because abortion took precedence. Dems aren't going to be able to coast by on that forever. Especially when they have no path to reinstating Roe v. Wade through Legislative means, Executive orders, or Judicial reform. There will come a time that voters will see the Dems' perpetual state of learned helplessness and be completely turned off by it. 

 

If the Dobbs decision had even just been within the scope of the original court case, or... If the Conservative justices had even been slightly less greedy in their decision-making... we could have ended up with a very different House and Senate.

This doesn't really add up though. Sure, abortion was the clear main issue on many people's minds in 2022, but it's not like same-sex marriage is something that's losing popularity or is even unpopular at all. There are only 5 states in the entire US where support for same-sex marriage is below 50%. There was a very slight decrease from 70% in 2023 to 69% in 2024, but with such a small decrease it's not really anything to raise alarms about since it could have very well just hit a ceiling for now more than an actual beginning decline and people who were polled will sit at ~71-69% for awhile. 

 

The U.S. is ironically one of the few western countries where approval of LGBTQ and same-sex marriage seems to be steadily increasing with time in contrast to other European countries. Why is that? Possibly because Americans tend to respect the right to privacy and oppose government interference in private affairs, possibly other reasons. 

 

I'm not going to play dumb and say there aren't real risks at play for LGBTQ people, but I do think while people might not be waving their rainbow flags in Republican politician's faces, it's not a convincing argument for them. And sure, that's a bit inconsequential since RvW had such high approval ratings and Republicans did what they did anyways, but as I put in my message to GhostBox, it *is* a bit different than RvW. 

 

And yeah, again, I don't think LGBTQ rights are something that Dems can rely on to win elections, but they truly don't seem like something Republicans would put as #1 on their priority list, especially after the backlash of RvW— something far more controversial than LGBTQ rights are (except Trans of course). 

 

I just think the narrative of us being put into concentration camps (or anything in that realm) is a bit overblown and sort of the reason why people aren't taking hardcore liberals' warnings about that seriously. I mean… sure, it's possible? Anything is. But I just don't think we're anywhere near that point yet. I think we have to be conscious of messaging that way, lest it become the next fatiguing "Democracy is dead!" argument that seems to be falling on deaf ears after 3 elections. 

Edited October 21 by Relampago.

[Relampago.]

I don't want to undersell anyone's worries and anxieties in here, they are very valid.

 

But I do want to add a bit of nuance to this, because it's a lot of doom and gloom to a situation that's not as straightforward as it's being made out to be. I want people to be able to sleep at night knowing there are systems in place and many people fighting for our rights and more people in this country who agree with our lifestyle and rights than those who don't. 

 

Perhaps just something to ease the concern a bit because the reality of things are a little different than what these fearmongering publications who want traffic to their dying websites would have you believe, or the doomscrollers who want to bring others into their completely negative mindset. Misinformation can go both ways, and sometimes I worry about what that's doing to the mental health of people in this country. 

[ClashAndBurn]

28 minutes ago, Relampago. said:

This doesn't really add up though. Sure, abortion was the clear main issue on many people's minds in 2022, but it's not like same-sex marriage is something that's losing popularity or is even unpopular at all. There are only 5 states in the entire US where support for same-sex marriage is below 50%. There was a very slight decrease from 70% in 2023 to 69% in 2024, but with such a small decrease it's not really anything to raise alarms about since it could have very well just hit a ceiling for now more than an actual beginning decline and people who were polled will sit at ~71-69% for awhile. 

 

The U.S. is ironically one of the few western countries where approval of LGBTQ and same-sex marriage seems to be steadily increasing with time in contrast to other European countries. Why is that? Possibly because Americans tend to respect the right to privacy and oppose government interference in private affairs, possibly other reasons. 

 

I'm not going to play dumb and say there aren't real risks at play for LGBTQ people, but I do think while people might not be waving their rainbow flags in Republican politician's faces, it's not a convincing argument for them. And sure, that's a bit inconsequential since RvW had such high approval ratings and Republicans did what they did anyways, but as I put in my message to GhostBox, it *is* a bit different than RvW. 

 

And yeah, again, I don't think LGBTQ rights are something that Dems can rely on to win elections, but they truly don't seem like something Republicans would put as #1 on their priority list, especially after the backlash of RvW— something far more controversial than LGBTQ rights are (except Trans of course). 

 

I just think the narrative of us being put into concentration camps (or anything in that realm) is a bit overblown and sort of the reason why people aren't taking hardcore liberals' warnings about that seriously. I mean… sure, it's possible? Anything is. But I just don't think we're anywhere near that point yet. I think we have to be conscious of messaging that way, lest it become the next fatiguing "Democracy is dead!" argument that seems to be falling on deaf ears after 3 elections. 

Same-sex marriage isn't really the issue on voters' minds to begin with. It's mostly the susceptibility to fearmongering about trans people, ESPECIALLY trans women. It's not even a secret that liberals are starting to see their acceptance of trans people as a liability, and have been bedwetting over the issue for years now. One of the things that Biden did right in 2020 is he didn't shy away from supporting trans rights, but now Kamala Harris is staying silent because her consultants view the anti-trans ads Trump has been running against her record of having Californian taxpayers paying for prisoners' sex changes as a "killer, effective ad." Trans issues were also invisible at the DNC this year, and it's not hard to see the Dems taking the bath of UK Labour if they end up losing, EVEN THOUGH trans issues aren't really the central focus of the election. That won't stop the LGBTQ community from being blamed.

 

Republicans are scapegoating us to gin up their base. Not because it's popular, but because having an "other" to demonize makes them part of the "in" group. Trans people are the easy target because not many politicos want to waste political capital on defending such a statistically small group of people. Gays, lesbians, ,and bisexuals may catch a few strays here and there too, and in fact may have our rights lose federal protection for the sake of "states' rights," which would be seen as acceptable to a lot of people, frankly. If you want to be in a gay marriage, you should go somewhere that is accepting of that.

 

I believe the term that hardcore Libertarians (who are themselves -allegedly- pro-gay but against the federal government having any say over what laws states can and cannot have) use is "right of association." Which also applies to how they generally feel about laws against discrimination as well.

 

Voters don't really want trans people or gays killed either, but... I think when it comes down to it, most Americans would end up being indifferent and complacent if things like that started happening, because there wouldn't even be any room to protest such actions due to Trump's threats to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy the military on any demonstrators. Also, I don't see extermination camps becoming government policy either, but rather right-wing vigilantes would take it upon themselves to target anyone they see as degenerate or anyone who gets called out by LibsOfTikTok, and then the government would just... opt to not prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law that you might see under any other administration.

[CaptainMusic]

17 minutes ago, ClashAndBurn said:

it's not hard to see the Dems taking the bath of UK Labour if they end up losing, EVEN THOUGH trans issues aren't really the central focus of the election. That won't stop the LGBTQ community from being blamed.

I've been thinking this, and my fear is that considering Kamala's pivot to the right and the anti-trans ads against her she'll pivot and say something transphobic like Colin Allred.
 

Hopefully at the very least she just ignores it. 
 

I don't believe Trump cares about gays honestly, trans people, immigrants and women will suffer the most. 

[Marianah Adkins]

I just saw the Trump attack ad (Kamala is for They/Them) 

 

This is a South Park simulation we're livin in rn

[midnightdawn]

[woohoo]

13 minutes ago, midnightdawn said:

If this is real I'm fleeing the country 

[dabunique]

Today is da first day of in person early voting in Florida. 
 

gonna head over and vote in a few 

[Armani?]

 

Hip Hopishness? Okay Unc

[Armani?]

 

[GraceRandolph]

3 minutes ago, Armani? said:

 

Hip Hopishness? Okay Unc

Obama needs to shut up.

[Marianah Adkins]

8 minutes ago, Armani? said:

 

Hip Hopishness? Okay Unc

Obama has lost his touch sigh