news 2024 US Election Megathread 🇺🇸🏛️

[BeenTheShit]

Oh she cooked. 

 

[Devin]

30 minutes ago, BeenTheShit said:

"How an elite nepo crybaby who's never worked a day in his life finessed yall into following him"

 

1000% stand by everything he said.

[Lightbringer007]

this is actually crazy-

 

 

 

[Communion]

I think the talk of the culture war stuff is too chicken vs the egg. It's often attempted to be framed as a cause and not a symptom.

 

Ironically AOC just addressed this and the one avenue we largely agree on.

 

People largely don't care about "culture wars" if they're not given a a reason to. That poll of young men showed almost none rank trans issues as important to them. That means that, while straight cis men aren't going to be huge advocates for trans people, trans hatred isn't somehow inherently alluring to them. 

 

It's when the right builds these media ecosystems that exploit people's alienation and atomization under capitalism do these things become a cultural current and attitude.

 

I feel like puking and crying cause 2016 never ends. It's like we're back to Contrapoint videos trying to address capitalism and the alt-right pipeline. 

 

When removed from the cultural vector of "DEMOCRATS" that the right is able to turn into an enemy for people, progressive policies pass! And conservative policies often fail! Most people don't actually want to care about if someone else's child has gender dysphoria. But Republicans can make people buy into any idea or issue as long as they have a huge for-profit media ecosystem that funnels people into its ideas and Democrats enable this by not addressing people's economic suffering.

 

It should be clear what Dems must run on if Harris' camp had the intel she was always going to lose on the economy and even (liberal) populist policies about drug prices is what they felt is the main way they could get to voters and speak their language.

[GhostBox]

 

[Cruel Summer]

Anyone have any recommended reading to help fuel a newly reignited burning passion for leftist philosophy, policy, etc?  Fiction welcome, too! I need some materials to help counteract reading that abysmally long Project 2025 drivel (to be informed in my opposition) and to carry around the office passive-aggressively because I'm mad as ****, but also to help lay the groundwork for me actually being able to intelligently help when I find the right places to do so.

[Bears01]

I'm largely taking a break from politics for my mental health for awhile….but when **** gets real again and it's time to get engaged, I'm following people like @Communion and @ClashAndBurn

 

I won't tolerate anymore neoliberalism from the Democratic Party. I won't tolerate a party that: doesn't want to operate how FDR birthed this party into what it was supposed to be, that does more campaigning with Warhawk neocons than in does with grassroot progressives, that spends an entire campaign running more right. 
 

If THIS doesn't inspire the party to drastically change, then there's no point. No point at all. 

[Achilles.]

5 minutes ago, Holiest Dreams said:

I would really appreciate some responses to alleviate my fears or, even worse, confirm them. Re: gay rights

 

Is the talk about them introducing camps for gays actually a possibility?  I've seen so many people dooming by saying that it will 'definitely' get to that point after repealing marriage and protections, maybe a few years down the line. It sounds absurd to me that they could get away with doing something like that in ******* 2024, but I'm starting to have an actual panic attack. Especially because it would be extremely hard for me to flee to somewhere else, honestly. 

I don't think it'll get as far as camps. 
 

Realistically, the things to watch out for:

 

-MAGA SCOTUS strikes down Obergefell, overturning marriage equality on a nationwide level. Biden did sign a bill that will lessen the damage and some states have enshrined this right in the constitutions, so things will probably vary on a state by state basis. They might try to push a nationwide ban or overturn the Biden bill, but idk if that'd be a priority and idk how such a law would apply in states that have protected it. 
 

-MAGA SCOTUS strikes down Lawrence v Texas. Thomas has signalled that he wants to do this, so it could happen. This ruling, passed on in 2003, made anti-sodomy laws illegal. If they succeed in overturning this, red states may seek to make it a crime to have anal sex. I imagine some states' existing bans never got legislatively overturned and would automatically be reinstated if Lawrence goes. 
 

-massive push to remove all LGBT content from school curriculum. Sex ed, literature with queer characters, any gay history that may be taught. Pride flags gone, "don't say gay" rules enacted. 
 

-depending how far they go concerning contraceptives and healthcare, condoms and/or STD treatments (including prep) may become harder to access. 
 

-potential removal of workplace harrassment laws. these, I think, might actually be safe-ish because the MAGA SCOTUS already protected them during Trump's first term but who knows if they just want a sounder legal basis to get rid of them, or if they'll feel more emboldened if it comes up before the court again. 
 

-of course, plenty of anti-trans **** in particular. I can see them trying some sort of federal ban on transpeople in sports. Maybe even attempt a bathroom ban. 
 

I'm sure there could be other issues but those are the big things that come to mind now. 

[Virgos Groove]

41 minutes ago, Anthinos said:

It's funny but this US election and its result has somehow made me more optimistic. I was really depressed in 2016. Now I'm optimistic and combative. I have the feeling that this election and the victories of the right in Europe were the wake-up call we all needed. Here in Germany, too, a lot is happening in the progressive ranks at the moment. I am proud to be a Progressive and I will not be intimidated by the far right.

I don't want to sound like a party pooper and I'm glad at least someone hasn't gone full doomerist, but as much as I try, I just can't share the sentiment.

 

It just feels like we've been taking L after L this year. Palestine, France, Argentina, Portugal, Austria, now the US, and soon Canada, Germany, the UK, etc. And it's like every bit of the progressive movement built during the 2010s is slowly crumbling. Maybe it's the defeatism speaking, but I can't imagine a progressive taking power anytime soon anywhere in the Global North.

 

Hopefully I'm wrong tho.

[GhostBox]

 

again the voting public are just stupid and don't really care about anyone actually doing things that benefit them💀🤷

[PrettyHurts]

4 minutes ago, Lightbringer007 said:

this is actually crazy-

 

 

 

It's so over. They are training millions of Americans (and people watching elsewhere) to be dumber and more hateful. ******* Adin Ross got a shoutout during Trump's victory speech.

 

I really want to give up on America but I feel for so many that will hurt under our new leadership, and we have to fight this ignorance 

[Hector]

The only thing that has given me comfort today are the statements from the ACLU:

 

 

Edited November 7 by Hector

[LustSpell]

38 minutes ago, Harrier said:

Reflecting today, I apologise to the girls for getting a bit too defensive of Kamala earlier. I just genuinely feel bad for her and for everyone, and it felt like hitting people while they were down. Everyone needs to do some soul searching here if the global left can come back from all these losses. 

 

Leftists are right that the entire focus needs to be in populist economic policy and messaging. Kamala did fail on this, as did Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton before him. The Obama playbook of empty platitudes and positive unity messages that define democratic politics since 08 has failed, and it is time to move to a more aggressive style. The democratic party must become the party of Bernie Sanders going forward. Bernie, more than any othe progressive leader, is very good at pushing for populist economic policy without getting overly trapped in what I would describe as college educated progressivism, as people like AOC do. Without being a purist who kicks people out of his movement the moment there is a single disagreement, instead he's a coalition builder. So yeah, there needs to be a young Bernie Sanders. 

 

I also think it is still true that woke social politics born out of academia are toxic and need to be deliberately demphasised. Those libs yapping about this have a point. Talking about the toxic white men, policing the way people speak, dividing people into categories and groups and assigning levels of privilege. Toxic masculinity. Cancellation. DEI HR departments. And yes, i'm sorry to say, pronoun policing. All of this stuff has - Californian progressivism - become wildly unpopular, and It is delusional to suggest that it is not partly responsible for the mass lurch right among young men and Latino men, almost as much as the economic stuff. It's unpopular not only in the US, but everywhere.

 

So maybe it's a two pronged approach. Populist economics, and reframing our position in the culture war as simply standing up for peoples right to be who they are, regardless of what that might be. Away from the toxic negativity of wokeism and identiy politics that has alienated millions of men around the world, and towards an all inclusive populist movement against corporate oligarchy.

This post is IT mama. Everything I finally feel. I also think the rhetoric from 2016+ about the feminist movement and how the mantra of "all men are evil" on Twitter did WAY more damage than they were expecting and created a vacuum of men not knowing what to do. The feminist movement is a great one and one that was long time coming, but some bad faith actors definitely helped screw things up along the way.

[PrettyHurts]

3 minutes ago, GhostBox said:

 

again the voting public are just stupid and don't really care about anyone actually doing things that benefit them💀🤷

This is it. How long has it been since America actually wanted its citizens to be intelligent? Both parties know we vote based on vibes and personality now 

[makeme]

1 hour ago, dabunique said:

Yup possibly never in my lifetime. But I'm not da one to jus settle down and not fight 

You are an icon. I wish I was more like you im so over it after this 

[Holiest Dreams]

4 minutes ago, Achilles. said:

I don't think it'll get as far as camps. 
 

Realistically, the things to watch out for:

 

-MAGA SCOTUS strikes down Obergefell, overturning marriage equality on a nationwide level. Biden did sign a bill that will lessen the damage and some states have enshrined this right in the constitutions, so things will probably vary on a state by state basis. They might try to push a nationwide ban or overturn the Biden bill, but idk if that'd be a priority and idk how such a law would apply in states that have protected it. 
 

-MAGA SCOTUS strikes down Lawrence v Texas. Thomas has signalled that he wants to do this, so it could happen. This ruling, passed on in 2003, made anti-sodomy laws illegal. If they succeed in overturning this, red states may seek to make it a crime to have anal sex. I imagine some states' existing bans never got legislatively overturned and would automatically be reinstated if Lawrence goes. 
 

-massive push to remove all LGBT content from school curriculum. Sex ed, literature with queer characters, any gay history that may be taught. Pride flags gone, "don't say gay" rules enacted. 
 

-depending how far they go concerning contraceptives and healthcare, condoms and/or STD treatments (including prep) may become harder to access. 
 

-potential removal of workplace harrassment laws. these, I think, might actually be safe-ish because the MAGA SCOTUS already protected them during Trump's first term but who knows if they just want a sounder legal basis to get rid of them, or if they'll feel more emboldened if it comes up before the court again. 
 

-of course, plenty of anti-trans **** in particular. I can see them trying some sort of federal ban on transpeople in sports. Maybe even attempt a bathroom ban. 
 

I'm sure there could be other issues but those are the big things that come to mind now. 

Thanks for the reply! I really appreciate you taking the time to lay all of this out. 
 

Would you say these are very likely things to happen? Or just a possibility and/or worst case scenario? A part of me is trying to remain positive and have hope they they won't actually do that much, and hopefully only make attempts after a couple years if that - which pushes the American people to fight back against it. That may be an idealist and naive viewpoint, since I know his team is going to be made up of absolute maniacs, but I'm trying to keep myself from spiraling lol.

[GhostBox]

 

[Bloo]

13 minutes ago, Harrier said:

You're right, I suppose I just don't have the words to describe exactly what I mean. 

The problem we have is the identity stuff is everywhere. I'm seeing it constantly in the post-mortems. Just look above at the rant scolding white women as a collective even though tens of millions of them did vote for Kamala. "White women just didn't want Black women to succeed". Is that what happened here? Is it? As long as we have millions of us who have bought into this way of framing the discussion, how do we push back against a right wing which putwardly says, yes we like white women come in to our movement, even though their policies are horrendous for them. I have been guilty of talking this way too. I just don't know

Ahh gotcha. So, I’m more leftist circles there are efforts to move away from simply casting everything under “identity politics” as bad. Politics that touch on identity are important. The plights of Black people, of Muslim people, of women, of men, etc. need to be heard out and reckoned with. However, the back and forth around “identity politics” is exactly what you’re describing. Some people are trying to call that out.
 

I try to use the terms “identitarian” or “tokenist” politics. This is when we discuss entire groups of in stereotypes or try to appeal to a group of people by highlighting the election of someone of the same identity. I’m a Black man, I don’t feel represented by Clarence Thomas because he is also a Black man. But so much of Democratic politicians is solely based on tokenist versions of representation and that is something right wingers (and a lot of non right wingers) get fatigued by. Diversity in Congress is great when that is reflecting the diversity of the American people in terms of values, perspectives, lived expediences, etc. and how all that informs how they legislate. But a diverse person being in power and navigating power just as a non-diverse person is not compelling. But so much rhetoric in liberal spaces hyper-fixates on treating diverse people as tokens of representation rather than fully realized, messy, complex people with their own hardships that need to be taken seriously. 
 

Dunno if this is exactly what you meant or if I described it well. But let me know your thoughts. 

[gorillaz]

2 minutes ago, LustSpell said:

This post is IT mama. Everything I finally feel. I also think the rhetoric from 2016+ about the feminist movement and how the mantra of "all men are evil" on Twitter did WAY more damage than they were expecting and created a vacuum of men not knowing what to do. The feminist movement is a great one and one that was long time coming, but some bad faith actors definitely helped screw things up along the way.

I don't know about this, blaming male behavior on women. The men that buy into MGTOW/incel/"get back into the kitchen" **** (either passively or actively) did so long, long, looooooooooooooong before women decided to call them out on it. Just look to all of human history, misogyny is one of the world's oldest forms of oppression. And twitter "feminists" (most of which are dating and sleeping around with dudes anyway despite how much they claim they are all evil demons) have never, ever had any real world tangible impact...they're not the issue.

 

[GhostBox]

 

[Communion]

4 hours ago, Bloo said:

• "I believe that Medicare should be allowed to negotiate drug prices to reduce the price of drugs" -> "Insulin should be free; it is a crime against the American people that Big Pharmaceutical companies get away with stealing from the American people."

Rule #1 in Politics: You need a bad guy.

 

Trump is not a compelling bad guy to anyone but liberals. People had issues before Trump ran for office, so you need a bad guy that explains the harm people have felt before, during, and after Trump. Trump's bad guy is largely immigrants. It's xenophobic, yes, but it leads to people going, "Huh, well maybe he's right!" And then they vote against immigration because they have an explanation for why their lives suck. Trump is weaponizing xenophobia in his identification of a bad guy.

 

Democrats need to give people a bad guy if they want to be successful and it cannot just be Trump. Corporations are a winning candidate for being the bad guy. Even Republicans don't like the big corporations. 

I do want to take a moment that this is basically the best I've seen the issue worded in a clear manner and example, and thank you for doing so @Bloo.

 

It captures how like... what I felt so much during Bernie's runs for president was.. not anger, but he channeled my anger. He transformed it into feeling acknowledged.

 

In 2016, it's like.. my mother can't afford to go to a doctor, my disabled father who lives on his own couldn't afford to feed himself. Sanders' message was that myself or millions of others who endure stress from having to ensure our loved ones are taken care of are rightfully upset.

 

That it's wrong. That it's not okay. That pain and suffering is real when big corporations like big insurance make billions in profits while a parent or loved one can't afford dentures to eat or glasses to see. That it's not okay to work and contribute to society but not get to see a doctor when you're sick or not get to pursue an education because of your inherited economic situation. And that these anxieties are real and this system we're living in is wrongfully built to make us suffer for the benefit of a billionaire class. And he cared about that suffering. That our lives deserve to have MEANING and PURPOSE.

 

It feels telling that "cares about people like me" saw the least voters think it applied to their candidate of choice, and that a lot of Harris' support was from defensive voters against Trump.

 

Edited November 7 by Communion

[Virgos Groove]

24 minutes ago, Cruel Summer said:

Anyone have any recommended reading to help fuel a newly reignited burning passion for leftist philosophy, policy, etc?  Fiction welcome, too! I need some materials to help counteract reading that abysmally long Project 2025 drivel (to be informed in my opposition) and to carry around the office passive-aggressively because I'm mad as ****, but also to help lay the groundwork for me actually being able to intelligently help when I find the right places to do so.

These books were great intros for me.

 

 

(I know Oliver Stone is... controversial because of his weird Putin simping, but Untold History was written before that and is pretty well-sourced. It was what made me interested in politics back when I was 15.)

 

Documentaries:

• Naomi Klein - The Shock Doctrine (about how neoliberals will use moments of tragedy or emergency to implement radical neoliberal measures).
• Michael Moore - Fahrenheit 11/9 (about the rise of American fascism and how Democrats' failure to implement true change in 2009 led to Trump's win).
• Yanis Varoufakis - In the Eye of the Storm (about the Greek financial crisis and negotiations with the troika, how the 2008 crash and austerity led to the rise of the European far-right)
• Ava Duvernay - 13th: about slavery, Jim Crow, the War on Drugs and how all of that coalesced into the prison-industrial complex.

Movies:

• Pride (2014) - how British queer people united with striking miners to fight Thatcherism
• Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) - about the killing of the Osage people, one of the defining movies of the Biden era

Edited November 7 by Virgos Groove

[Bloo]

2 minutes ago, gorillaz said:

I don't know about this, blaming male behavior on women. The men that buy into MGTOW/incel/"get back into the kitchen" **** (either passively or actively) did so long, long, looooooooooooooong before women decided to call them out on it. Just look to all of human history, misogyny is one of the world's oldest forms of oppression. And twitter "feminists" (most of which are dating and sleeping around with dudes anyway despite how much they claim they are all evil demons) have never, ever had any real world tangible impact...they're not the issue.

 

Gonna push a little bit on this. Patriarchy affects everyone: women and men. Personally, I got yelled at by my father so much as a kid for being emotional and crying and I was told that made me seem like a woman. I can’t really cry anymore as a result of that conditioning. That’s patriarchy. As a kid, I always noticed how the severity of tragedies reported in the news would be measured in the loss of “women and children.” Men? Ehh, they can fend for themselves unlike women and children. This is an implicit suggestion that men’s lives do not matter in the context of a tragedy. That’s also patriarchy.

 

There are real ways in which men are harmed by patriarchy. Feminist theory does actually highlight these issues. However, many feminist spaces do not invite men to have these conversations. It’s understandable. Women are more oppressed by the patriarchy and they many feminist spaces want to be focused on the plight of women. That’s fine. But, where do men then go to discuss ways they feel oppressed or slightly disadvantaged socially? Welp, they’re gonna find themselves watching Andrew Tate in this media ecosystem. 
 

We need to have real conversations about how men can think critically about their identity and how it interacts with larger social forces that don’t result in them being Andre’s Tate fans. 

[Cruel Summer]

1 minute ago, Virgos Groove said:

These books were great intros for me.

 

 

(I know Oliver Stone is... controversial because of his weird Putin simping, but Untold History was written before that and is pretty well-sourced. It was what made me interested in politics back when I was 15.)

 

Documentaries:

• Naomi Klein - The Shock Therapy (about how neoliberals will use moments of tragedy or emergency to implement radical neoliberal measures).
• Michael Moore - Fahrenheit 11/9 (about the rise of American fascism and how Democrats' failure to implement true change in 2009 led to Trump's win).
• Yanis Varoufakis - In the Eye of the Storm (about the Greek financial crisis and negotiations with the troika, how the 2008 crash and austerity led to the rise of the European far-right)
• Ava Duvernay - 13th: about slavery, Jim Crow, the War on Drugs and how all of that coalesced into the prison-industrial complex.

Movies:

• Pride (2014) - how British queer people united the striking miners to fight Thatcherism
• Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) - about the killing of the Osage people, one of the defining movies of the Biden era

Thank you so much for this - truly, this seems like a brilliant start, I think it'll help a lot!

[WildAmerican]

24 minutes ago, GhostBox said:

 

we're not going back!!