Fear triumphs over hope as Trump wins the presidency – how did it happen?
Fear triumphs over hope as Trump wins the presidency – how did it happen?
To elect Donald Trump once may be regarded as a misfortune; to elect him twice looks like craziness
Summary
Despite Trump’s criminal record, serial lying, and racist demagoguery, he won the 2024 US presidential election, reflecting America’s deep-seated anxieties and cultural divisions.
Trump’s celebrity persona, economic populism, and culture warrior appeals resonated with his base, while Kamala Harris faced challenges in defining herself and overcoming gender and racial biases.
The election underscores the decay of American democracy, raising concerns about the future of the nation.
Dems punched left instead of right... Enabled a genocide and lost the support of their base.
The title is so tone deaf that made me not wanna read the rest of the article.
Kamala didn’t represent hope. She represented the “nothing will fundamentally change” stance.
They had four years to find him guilty of an insurrection, disqualify him from running, and put his ass in jail. They should not be a surprise to anyone.
The Democrats impeached him twice but there was no way he was ever going to be convicted with the Senate in its then-state. Meanwhile, his lawyers and Judge Cannon have been doing nothing but delaying until checks watch now! Unless you have an idea for speeding up the American judicial system? If there was enough support from any state to straight up not let him run, then they would have done so. But as we've seen, 40% of the American voting populace have the intelligence of a kindergartner and just votes for "the other party" when the economy isn't doing well.
Not fear, racism and fascism. Everyone who voted Trump is a piece of shit in my eyes, they all heard what he said and decided it was ok. He doesn't think I'm a human being and anyone who voted for him is the same as far as I'm concerned
Don't forget misogyny
Harris should have swung left and not far right. This is her doing as much as it is Republicans.
It happened because people are dumb. They think he’s bringing 2016-2020 prices with him. He’s not. There was dumb in the Harris campaign approach too, but that would add too much for one post. I voted for her, but even so.
And remember what’s on the slash list: social security and Medicare. How many of you 45+ people have a retirement? Anything you start now won’t be enough without the benefit of social security. Which you should get because you’ve been buying into it your entire work life.
And remember Elon? The guy said well have to learn to tighten our belts for a while. Endure some hardship. Like we haven’t been doing that already. I wonder if unions will be federally legal after he’s done.
Preexisting conditions anyone? You’re well and truly fucked.
Small business? Well. That’s not happening.
Wanna buy a house? Yea that’s still not happening either.
Rent going down? Again. No.
The list goes on.
…
My partner last night before he went to bed in a Benadryl induced sleep: I’m going to be spending more time in the woods if he wins. No you’re not. You’re going to be working 60hrs a week to keep up and so am I.
Which will probably be the point of the Elon Musk / Trump economy.
It happened because Americans are easily fooled. This country has had all the evidence of what a total piece of shit this guy is, and they chose not to believe it because he played a business man on a fucking game show. It sucks for anyone who wanted to see America do well.
They weren't fooled. They knew exactly what he is.
They didn't care.
That's the fallacy that us lefties kinda fall into, that if someone was just educated enough or knew enough or could see the facts, the person would change their mind.
The thing is, this was all about trying to get back at the left and minorities. "Fuck you I don't like the changing world I want my pretend 50s universe with no blacks and gays"
I'm tired of the "fooled innocent Americans" trope. Fuck that. They knew exactly what they did. Face the reality: half of Americans are now trumpists. FACE IT.
Yup. It's the Good German trope from the Nazi era. People knew damn well there was something awful going on.
Yup. With the high likelihood that Republicans get the trifecta, this country is about to become a lot more dangerous for my kids, both LGBTQ+, because dipshits believed that a "businessman" whose businesses all fail is good for the economy.
Honestly, I’m going to laugh long and hard at the economic collapse when it comes. These fucking idiot “captains of industry” wanted this. Enjoy the results, I guess. You’ll get a few good quarters, and then absolute, complete chaos.
Why do you think they are being fooled? If anything I think one of the appeal of Trump is the fact that he owns his corruption and shadiness.
this election was lost by single issue voters not showing up.
Some of it is...understandable, albeit self-sabotaging (Gaza, for example,) others are on about abortion or the economy or immigration, taxes.
What they don't see is that there's so many issues a proper government needs to balance; and being a single-issue-voter is exactly what lets this happen. The sad truth is gaza is gonna get royally fucked now. Abortion is gonna get banned and women are gonna die; the economy is going to get wrecked so the oligarchs get to buy up all the cheap shit they want, immigrants are gonna get blamed for all of it; including the taxes because the oligarchs are too busy fucking us to pay their own damn taxes.
You say this like they would care if he's a criminal. I actually think they like that about him. At least a few million of these dickheads do.
And also because his base is a cult. Which would require deprogramming.
No, Americans didn't vote. The same thing happened when he beat Clinton. She went too far right and her base didn't vote for her.
All blame falls on the Democrats for failing to learn.
I think this is an oversimplification and lets Democrats off the hook.
A large part of how he won is to do with how polarised US politics are. The Democrats and Republicans are polar opposites, to the point that no matter who the candidates are the core voters could never conscience voting for the other side. Some Republicans may hate Trump but they will still vote republican as they see the Democrats standing for things they just don't agree with (whether that's Immigration or abortion or conservative values or fiscal conservatism etc). It just takes one; things are so polarised that it's inbuilt that it's a binary decision. The Democrats are just as guilty as the Republicans for carving up US democracy between the two of them. If you look at polls, they say 50:50 split but actually thats just "likely voters"; the underlying split is more like 1/3:1/3 with a whole 1/3 of the electorate disenfranchised and not bothering to vote. When they talk about undecideds, they're talking about 2% of people likely to vote; not the whole 1/3 of the election who don't vote at all. 3rd parties don't get a look in, and even get blamed for taking votes from the anointed of the two big parties.
On top of that, the Democrats really fucked up. The party leadership supported Biden running, and no serious candidates stood in the primary race even though he was already clearly a weakened candidate due to age. Then when he was finally persuaded to go at near the last minute, it was too late. They again didn't have a primary, they had a coronation, and then a short run to establish her. I like Harris but she inherited his team, his set up and was unable and unwilling to paint herself as a change candidate as she wouldn't criticise the perceived mistakes of her own incumbent white house. She focused on abortion, and could seemingly not address the economy in a meaningful way to appeal to voters.
I don't think it's because Americans are easily fooled. I think it's because both parties have created an extremely polarised political landscape which they have both used to their advantage to suppress 3rd parties and other views across the 50 states. In addition, the Democrat party tried to claim it was an election about "preserving democracy" and yet chose to do that by not enabling democracy in their own party.
Hopefully the Democrats will take a long hard look at themselves. And the good news, a slither of good news, is that in 2028 there will not be any Clintons or Bidens hanging around whose "turn" it is to run. The party can actually have an open primary and the best candidates can stand instead of feeling they shouldn't run. Would we be in this position if there had been a full primary and the candidate had been someone like Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsome, Josh Shapiro or even just a truly independent run by Harris?
Voter: Why does the economy suck so bad?
MAGA: Because brown people.
Harris: You're crazy, the economy is doing better than ever!
Simple as.
Her economic plan literally led off by saying they know prices are too high for most middle class people. This like that she was saying it was better than ever is just ridiculous.
All I know is
Gaza is fucked.
Ukraine is fucked.
Black people are fucked.
Women are fucked.
LGBT+ people are fucked.
Everybody's health care is fucked.
WMass deportation ruining families and affecting the economy.
But hey, at least Elon Musk is happy right?
you left out consumer protections, labor laws, overtime, PTO, regulatory oversight, whistleblower protections, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom, the ACLU, the ALA, and everything else you thought was safe
i would say delete all your social media, but it's not going to matter
Also, rolling back the little the US did to combat climate change, making sure the climate catastrophe will only accelerate in this century.
By the end of the century, the US being a fascist state might not even matter because civilisation as we know it will break down anway, with worldwide temperature rising as far as 5 degrees above preindustrial standards (that's the worst case scenario of the IPCC).
Don't call it fear. It's hate. Plain and simple hate.
They hate minorities.
They hate women.
They hate lgbt+.
They hate anyone that's "not like them".
they also hate themselves.
Well, they have a good goddamn reason for that.
Hate is a result of fear and not a primary emotion.
Don't give them credit for their fucking strong madam pose. They are just a bunch of angsty people and vote out of fear.
But in a world in crisis, because of climate change and resulting conflicts, people always get fearful and try to vote for people who say, that's they will protect them.
It's just fear at the base
No, it's hate.
The orange cunt said openly that he wants mass deportations, that he wouldn't care if someone shot at the press, he endorses violents like the ones who assaulted the capitol, he is against any kind of difference from the white supremacism. That is hate, and the people who voted for him, voted for this. Fear for their economy? Sure, but if you decide to vote for a guy who thinks this way against who is different, your fear for the economy is worth shit, you are ready to let others die (or even indirectly kill them), and that's hate.
edit: typos
Even worse, it appears that Republicans have also managed to win majorities in the Senate and House. While thin, those majorities are enough that we can expect some of the Republican priorities to start getting passed. My major question for the first six months of 2025 will be, does the filibuster survive? I know many folks on the left wanted to kill it, when Republican Senators were using it to obstruct anything more progressive than not kicking puppies. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, will the left suddenly fall back in love with the filibuster? I suspect so. I also suspect that the MAGA wing of the GOP is going to be keen to kill the filibuster the first time it gets in the way of their project. And I wonder where the less dickish members of the GOP will come down on the issue.
They will kill the filibuster because they don't foresee Dems ever holding power again for some reason. I wonder what that reason could be...
I'm not completely sold on that idea. While I'm sure there are wings of the GOP who will buy into the idea of never losing power again, I also suspect that there will be members of the Senate who are old enough to know from experience that things never quite go to plan. Yes, we could be in for an end to Democracy, that possible. But, if we're there, the filibuster doesn't mean a thing. If our institutions are strong enough to hold up for the next four years, then the filibuster will be as contentious as it always is, when the majority has only a slim hold on power.
I don't think that Republicans need to kill the filibuster further. It's already dead for judicial nominations, which they have used to full effect. Also, the map is much more favorable to Democrats in the next two Senate election cycles. The next election, in particular, there are 13 Democratic seats vs. 20 Republican seats up (really 21, counting a special election for Vance's seat, and more vacancies may be coming). That, combined with the standard midterm bounce for the opposition party, makes it very likely that Republicans lose their gains in the Senate next election.
OTOH, if Republicans do keep the Senate in 2026, that is a bad omen for Democrats in general. We may see the Senate kill the filibuster then, out of the belief that it will help Vance win the Presidency in 2028.
(And looking forward, the Presidential election in 2028 will be even more important than this one, because of the 2030 census. The Census is supposed to enumerate all people in the country, regardless of legal status. Trump tried, and failed, to add a citizenship question to the census last time. If Republicans are in charge of the Census, I fully expect them to attempt to apportion Congress based on citizenship status (in spite of the Constitution), which will directly affect states like NY and CA, where Texas and Florida have been bussing all their migrants to. We don't have a permanent minority government in fhe US right now, but if they pull off that Census trick we might as of 2032.)
I don’t think that Republicans need to kill the filibuster further. It’s already dead for judicial nominations, which they have used to full effect.
I'm not sure I agree that this removes the incentive to kill the filibuster. A lot of what the GOP wants to do will require passing legislation. Sure, they can kill a lot of existing legislation via the courts and I also expect "budget reconciliation process" to re-enter the political lexicon in full force again. But, there is going to be stuff they want to do, which will be blocked in Congress, via the filibuster. And I think that will raise the specter of killing the filibuster in some wings of the GOP.
Also, the map is much more favorable to Democrats in the next two Senate election cycles.
Ya, and this is why I mentioned there being wings of the GOP who understood just how useful the filibuster is.
It happened because the DNC is detached from the concerns of Americans. They're certainly better than the alternative but they have become extremely complacent.
I think its half that. The Dems need a reckoning.
But the other half is that they don't play dirty like Trump. They don't understand that engagement is all that matters, lying does not, because us Americans have the critical thinking ability of an ant.
If they want to win, they need their own reality distortion field.
Spending the first like 2 months campaigning on how she doesn't care about certain demographics' vote (primarily arab and college-age voters, and avoiding any popular policy discussion (only focusing on ways they were shifting further right) until the week of election probably didn't help. Trump got the majority of 1st time voters this cycle. Biden got 64%.
And, just like her campaign, her voters did little but try to insult people. What a surprise... insulting people doesn't convince people to vote for you or your candidate.
It is simple. The economy and the media.
Call it selfish, but most people are more concerned with their own well being and that of their families than anything external. They don't see Gaza, climate change, or abortion in the grocery store, they see prices that are massively higher than they were during Trump. You can try to explain how economics works, how tarrifs are a bad idea, how inflation is actually down, but to many that's just noise and why should they trust these economists over anyone else. Their lived experience is that, excluding covid, life was more affordable under Trump.
Take a look at the most popular cable channels and you see Fox news. Look at podcasts and there is Joe Rogan. Social media is arguably better, but X and Facebook are still big and skew right, plus the others are ripe for disinformation campaigns and bots. A large number of Americans regularly consume a diet of right wing propaganda.
Trump didn't get any more votes than last time.
He won because the Democrats lost.
You try to tell them that and they go nuts on you.
I wonder what people think of Musk's investment in Twitter now? He lost a ton of money, but it's pocket change to him, and now he will get a prime government job which he will use to his advantage to get more government contracts.
He literally bought his way into power, without needing to run for office himself.
The decision to seek re-election by President Biden’s inflated sense of self-importance cost us.
It would have been prudent for him to adhere to his previous commitment and serve a single term, allowing the Democratic Party to conduct its primaries without undue interference. The Harris campaign’s very late entry into the race was premature and potentially detrimental to the party’s chances of success.
The Harris campaign turned out great initially.
They fucked it up immediately by saying they weren't going to be any different from Biden on Gaza and that was one of the wedge topics that had been created about Biden.
Rather than compromise with the electorate to get people out to vote, they tried to use Trump to bully voters out of the house saying he'd be worse.
They fucked it up immediately by saying they weren't going to be any different from Gaza on Biden and that was one of the wedge topics that had been created about Biden.
I don't think Gaza specifically was decisive here. It could've been with a thinner majority, but Harris lost before Michigan finished counting and Trump is collecting swing states like MTG cards. The way I see it, this isn't the result of one unpopular policy, but rather a wider campaign failure that destroyed Democrat voter enthusiasm.
Maybe, but I strongly suspect that there were enough other things going in Trump's favor that if she'd broken with Biden on Gaza--which is not nearly as easy as you make it sound--then we would have still ended up in the same place, except that different people would now be blaming her for that decision.
(Just to be clear, I am not saying that her campaign was flawless, only that it is easy to second guess.)
It's ironic that Palestine is just going to be more Israel now. At least we won't have to worry anymore about Palestine.
Are the bots and trolls here, or do they just stop when the objective is reached?
My sincere condolences for the near future of Americans, and especially for my and their close friends and family.
Once again, "economic anxiety" combined with the American electorate is just planing living up to George Carlin's rants.
I have deep sources telling me he got more votes.
All the networks!