2024 US Presidential Election

Ann Telnaes, Washington Post

--Percy

:stunned:
:hurt:
:sad:

40% of eligible voters did not vote.Trump was elected by ~30% of the electorate, with slightly lower numbers than he got in 2020.Harris received ~15-20 million fewer votes than Biden.3rd-party candidates received less than 1% of the vote, not enough to sway anything anywhere.This election was purely the result of people not showing up to vote.Why did they not show up?I have some ideas.

The American people have not learned anything from history. When I was young, my parents' generation looked up to America, they saw it as a country that set the examples for the future. But those days are over. America is now just another banana republic with a convicted criminal waiting in the wings to rape the country. You saw and heard what kind of person Trump is, and what kind of people make up the Republican Party, and still you could not bring yourself to keep them from power. Every bad thing that Trump and his cronies are going to heap on their voters is well deserved. I pity the rest of you.P.S.: If another pandemic breaks out in the next four years, and Trump remembers his brilliant advice about injecting bleach, don’t argue with him, just hand him a syringe and an ample supply of it and let him have at it.

Hey Rahvin, Many reasons. Feel free to add to my list, but here are six:1. price gouging of groceries: Food availability is now a privilege. Like the media, far too many food manufacturers are owned by one entity, it is easy for them to price fix when there is little competition. Harris’ election promise of disbanding large monopolies should have been done two-three years ago by Biden.2. price gouging of rent. Housing should be a right, but now it is a privilege. IMO, individual landlords and corporate landlords from other states and countries should be illegal. When they can easily and cheaply buy up entire neighborhoods, they exploit rent/housing availability/prices. Although inflation went up 4-10% these past years, rent went up 100% to 200% in my area. Biden never addressed this huge fail.3. education failure. americans only know words like ‘freedom’, ‘fascist.’ ‘communist”, ’socialist’ in a cartoon sense. america is a willfully dumb, dumb, dumb society. Most americans get their news from social media from other willfully dumb, dumb, dumb americans. It’s amazing the american experiment lasted as long as it did. Read "Profiles in Ignorance: How America's Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber," by Andy Borowitz. I also so wish the schools fully taught the The Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948, . . . being exploited has become expected and normalized. The majority of americans now routinely vote (or not vote at all) against their best interests.4. Palestinian woman and children being murdered with american bombs, and Biden and Harris being resolute with their ACTIONS that it will continue. Legislation known as the Leahy Law prevents the U.S. from providing weapons or funds for military assistance to groups when there is credible information indicating the groups have violated human rights. Biden/Harris, shamefully illegal and immoral.5. Selective law enforcement, corrupt 'supreme' court 'justice.' If you are rich, you can delay justice forever. Could Biden have done anything less? Dejoy still postmaster. No consequences for Khashoggi murder. Continued support of do-nothing Merrick Garland. (They can arrest Jack Teixeira for stealing classiifed docs, but not the former president). No words of change from Harris. Why vote for this deplorable status quo?6. Harris was a woman. Harris received 14 million fewer votes than Biden in 2020. Yeah, I do I think Harris being a woman was the biggest reason for americans not showing up. Blacks were granted the right to vote in 1860s. It took the even more suppressed woman to gain the right to vote in 1920. I think america could nearly allow a black man president, but not a woman.These are some things that prevented an enthusiastic but critical Harris/Democracy vote.

From the few people I have talked to who don't vote, the reasons are a lot different.1. They don't feel they know enough about politics to make an informed decision.2. They don't think a switching politicians will change anything.3. They are in the political minority within a state, so they already know their vote for president won't matter.4. The effort isn't worth the reward, especially in cases where lines can be hours long.5. Combined with #4, they are procrastinators so they don't plan ahead to use absentee ballots or early voting to avoid issues related to same day voting.

Hmmm.Seems like we can combine your list into one item: lazy/apathetic. But the generic reasons they gave can apply to every election.To get more specific, since 2020, why have 14-17 million more voters become lazy/apathetic THIS time and not vote? What SPECIFICALLY did Biden and/or Harris do/not-do to make these ADDITIONAL non-voters less enthusiastic? Something has made them more lazy/apathetic, correct?

I wonder if Biden/Harris were in a no-win situation here. Support Israel and the Palestinian supporter votes abstain from voting, or come down on Israel and loose a big chunk of the Israel supporter vote (which would go to Trump*).Maybe if Biden had suppressed Israel's response soon after the war had started, things might have worked better, but its too late now (or is it???). Maybe loosing the election could free up Bidden to do something for the Palestinians.Moose* plan is from here on to be referred to as FA = Flaming AssholeBetter plan - after inauguration * POtuS Trump, or maybe POtuS

Donald Trump is charging election fraud in Philadelphia:

Truth Social:

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A lot of talk about massive CHEATING in Philadelphia. Law Enforcement coming!!!

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From Philadelphia DA: 'No factual basis whatsoever' for Trump fraud claims:

USA Today:

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Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said Tuesday that there is no evidence to back up Republican candidate Donald Trump’s claim of election fraud in Philadelphia."The only talk about massive cheating has come from one of the candidates, Donald J. Trump. There is no factual basis whatsoever within law enforcement to support this wild allegation. We have invited complaints and allegations of improprieties all day. If Donald J. Trump has any facts to support his wild allegations, we want them now. Right now. We are not holding our breath," Krasner said in a statement.

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--Percy

What the heck does the guy want? He won Pennsylvania and the electoral vote as well as the popular vote. Why is he bitching??

His entire schtick is grievance.This is a major theme of fascism. He's going to assert persecution and invent enemies constantly. He'll identify groups that are enemies, including the press, LGBTQ folks, "leftists," and immigrants. "Degenerates" and drug users. It will spread more generally to minorities of all stripes - racial, religious, etc. "They're" all "criminals," you see. And "they're" out to get him, because he's trying to work for you!There will *always* be grievances for Trump. Eventually fascists run out of enemies to blame and start attacking their own base, and then they self-destruct.Don't be surprised by Trump doing exactly what Trump has done since riding down that escalator.

I recently watched the movie V for Vendetta again, which pretty much focuses on that kind of fascism, the constant pointing of fingers at perceived enemies and how eventually it backfires.Great movie, a lot of fun, it'll give you a great idea of how close Trump is to fascism... Which is very close.The core I find, is that unlike the professional victim who plays themselves to be helpless while pointing fingers and getting the benefit of the doubt and support in response. A fascist both has to be a victim, but also pretend to exude strength and confidence.Keep supporting him, because he will fix this, he will get rid of the bad apples, he will fix the system for all GOOD people, like himself, etc etc.

Here's an interesting take on why Trump won: Why Did Trump Really Win? It’s Simple, Actually. – Mother Jones.It argues that while the economy *is* doing well overall, a significant portion of the working population is struggling. They don't see a healthy economy. One party tells them, "Things are terrible, I can fix it," while the other party tells them, "Things are fine." Which party do you think they'll vote for, despite the threats to democracy, climate and world peace.The irony of voting in the Republicans is that it's they, beginning with Reagan, that have taken and are continuing to take the country down the path of a diminished middle class and a more poor bottom fifth, greatly increasing wealth disparity. Trump might overturn the current system, and if you're in the bottom fifth you might figure you have nothing to lose, but the reality is that whatever system Trump erects will only benefit him and his buddies.--Percy

I think these are long term trends coming to a head. Wages have not kept up with inflation for decades now, and the recent and short spike in inflation has made it all the more obvious. In addition, there are segments of the economy that have increased in price well above inflationary rates such as child care, health care, secondary education, and housing. Even before the pandemic, we were seeing much higher levels of adult children living in their parents' home because they were overloaded with student loan debt and housing was out of reach. Pointing to growth in GDP does nothing to address these issues. Hence the focus on illegal immigration, the perfect red herring.

That's a good point. It would seem that some are on the fence and can be inspired to go to the voter's booth.Why this time? Hard to say. I will readily admit that I don't get why someone wouldn't vote because I project my own biases onto others, being a fallible human and all. I don't see how Harris was any less inspiring that Biden, in fact quite the opposite. If the extra votes last time were Trump haters, then why not vote this time?