USA Election 2024

[Renzatic]

I'll see your link and I'll raise you one:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/30/politics/us-crime-statistics-fbi-2024/index.html

But, more importantly, doesn't any of this $hit scare you? You say you like small government, and I get that. But small government isn't going to solve big problems like pandemics. And RFK, Jr. running healthcare agencies like the CDC and FDA will have adverse repercussions across the board, including for you and your family.

I won't worry about it until it effects me personally, then I'll blame you for it.

 

[rdrr]

I understand what you are saying and why.

But if you can’t afford eggs to feed your kids today, does what might happen in the future matter?

The eggs were never the issue, because under her plan (which was laid out) there would have been cost control and of course the Dems are in favor of helping others. But stupid people who cannot see the truth just voted against themselves.

My kids and others that I know LIVES are now at risk, and I am talking hyperbolically. I am going against the threat, promises, and words spoken by Trump and those in his campaign. All because people on the right, want to tell them what they can do with their body, whom they can love, and how they identify who they are. Forgive me (this isn't directed specifically at you) but stay the fuck away from my kids. I will defend their lives with my own, and YES that is where we are.

 

[shadow puppet]

I'm tired of all the people promoting toxic positivity. We are allowed to grieve and be afraid.

 

[Renzatic]

I'm tired of all the people promoting toxic positivity. We are allowed to grieve and be afraid.

I'm not necessarily angry, but I want to see the piper paid before all is said and done with.

That someone is able to get away with so much, and is rewarded for it, rather than face any consequences is anathema to everything I believe America stands for.

 

[rdrr]

I'm not necessarily angry, but I want to see the piper paid before all is said and done with.

That someone is able to get away with so much, and is rewarded for it, rather than face any consequences is anathema to everything I believe America stands for.

^Stood

Not trying to be a grammar nazi, pointing out that today we live in a much different America.

 

[Renzatic]

^Stood

Not trying to be a grammar nazi, pointing out that today we live in a much different America.

We're not our granddaddy's American anymore, that's for sure.

 

[Nycturne]

My kids and others that I know LIVES are now at risk, and I am talking hyperbolically. I am going against the threat, promises, and words spoken by Trump and those in his campaign. All because people on the right, want to tell them what they can do with their body, whom they can love, and how they identify who they are. Forgive me (this isn't directed specifically at you) but stay the fuck away from my kids. I will defend their lives with my own, and YES that is where we are.

I'm right there with you. Not my children, but my sibling's children are directly targeted, and I'll be damned if I just let things slide.

 

[shadow puppet]

But if you can’t afford eggs to feed your kids today, does what might happen in the future matter?

In my local Trader Joe's (in Los Angeles area mind you), eggs, milk, butter, etc., are very affordable.

 

[Eric]

We should be under no illusions here, gay marriage and abortion will both become outlawed under this president and his House and Senate.

 

[Renzatic]

In my local Trader Joe's (in Los Angeles area mind you), eggs, milk, butter, etc., are very affordable.

 

[shadow puppet]

We should be under no illusions here, gay marriage and abortion will both become outlawed under this president and his House and Senate.

Also, certain families will be torn apart. A friend of mine's Dad is one.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Long but sobering good read I received in a newsletter.

I want to start this morning talking about addiction.

I don’t necessarily mean addiction to substances, but that’s certainly part of it. I mean addiction to a whole host of things. Drugs. Sex. Shopping. Wealth. Hoarding resources. We don’t understand these things in the United States of America because they are essential to the operation of the United States of America. Our system of capitalist consumption, as well as the entire fabric of our society and culture, are predicated on addiction and enabling facilitated by those systems and interlocking systems of personal relationships.

At the heart of addiction are wounds. Things that happened to us when we were children, things that happened to us as adults, things that simply happened to us and profoundly changed how we operate as human beings in ways we are often completely and utterly oblivious to. Our actions are filtered through unconscious motivators that keep us from actually dealing with those wounds because they are so painful that to address them head on feels like it might mean death or personal destruction. Instead, we employ a complex series of behaviors that distract us, that might soothe the pain of those wounds as we go about our lives. The problem is that these behaviors, these coping mechanisms, often hurt ourselves, hurt others, and, ultimately, hurt society at large. All the while, we are awash with magical thinking. Fantasies that put to rest cognitive dissonance and tell us that if we just get the next promotion, if we save enough money, if we are able to do this, achieve that, then, finally, thankfully, we will achieve a sense of calm and rest.

Donald Trump and the Make America Great Again Movement, as designed and carried out by the wealth class, are some of the most incredible and powerful enablers in the history of the United States. Trump built his career on selling these fantasies to willing dupes, promising that his wealth and fame and success were just a purchase or vote away from being transferred over to consumers and supporters. MAGA is a carefully designed illusion that America can return to some ill-defined past moment that never existed. And, in time a great fear and unrest, they found the perfect recipe for electoral success.

There are many reasons Trump easily won the 2024 Election. We will discuss these in a few moments and undoubtedly I will be explaining this for a long time to come. But before we dive into that, I want to start with some hard truths.

The Democratic Party and liberals have been living in their own self-fulfilling fantasies for a long time now. They don’t feel as acrid as MAGA’s. They sound better. Look better. They’re pleasing in a way that chooses to prioritize cathartic optimism over bitter hatred. But unfortunately, they are fantasies and magical thinking all the same.

Here are hard truths.

For anyone willing to see it, it has been obvious that America has been moving to the Right for years now. This has been accelerated by Trump and the GOP, but also the capitulation of the Democratic Party and corporate liberal media, all working in tandem to carry out the interests of capitalism.

Our institutions are not inherently good or worthy. They were created by Founders who intentionally designed a system to benefit themselves and white, wealthy men in order to stave off the “dangers” of democracy. They are working as they were intended.

American history is an easily understandable story of how white supremacy, patriarchal misogyny, nativism, and fearmongering have been used to benefit the wealthy.

The past half century has seen a power grab by the wealth class as they have seized back power from the New Deal Consensus, created a new system designed to redistribute wealth from the working and middle classes to themselves, and have ushered in an era of intentional inequality and precarity.

What the Democratic Party has relied on, with a few notable successes, is a political appeal that these things are either not true, not needing addressed, or fundamentally dangerous and unnecessary to discuss. Even as we have seen racism, sexism, nativism, and gay and transphobia become more pronounced and politically effective, we have been told this “isn’t who we are.” That America is “fundamentally good.” That if we can just get past Donald Trump everything would be fine.

These are fantasies. This is magical thinking. None of this has had any real relationship with the truth or reality of the situation. In this, the Democratic Party entered the 2024 Election presenting their magical thinking and their fantasies against the magical thinking and fantasies of Trump and the MAGA Movement. In the conditions we’re experiencing, it is much easier for millions of people to go with the latter. For them, it was at least a decision that meant admitting there was a problem. The solutions, obviously, are not real and are disastrous. But that was the decision nonetheless.

I watched the Harris Campaign with great dismay. The enthusiasm following Joe Biden’s decision to step aside was contagious, and there was a brief hope that maybe the party would actually turn the page. The aesthetics were great. The rallies well-orchestrated. For months we were treated to people tweeting clips of enthusiastic crowds and assuring us the election was in the bag.

This, I hope I don’t have to tell you, was magical thinking.

The reaction last night and this morning to that bubble popping has been disturbing. It’s bad enough that I’m seeing people saying they’re simply deciding to not pay attention to politics anymore. Others are abusively telling Black and Hispanic people that they’ll take pleasure in watching them killed or imprisoned in concentration camps. There’s a lot of blame being slung at gay and trans people. People who put their lives on the line standing up for brothers and sisters being massacred in Gaza.

In my time, I have been around a lot of addicts. I have seen what happens when their fantasies are threatened. Because insecurity is the heart of these behaviors, what you can expect is that any challenge to the well-crafted fantasy is sure to elicit violence. This is why insecure men react to a feeling of weakness or powerlessness with physical violence. This why you might have experienced a father or mother who lashed out at you and projected their faults onto you.

The Democratic Party and large swathes of the American public are coming down off the high of a manic period of magical thinking. There was simply no way Donald Trump could ever come to power again. His incompetence, his crimes, his repulsive nature, all of it, would surely be recognized and, after a bit of vote tallying, they could put the whole ugly thing behind them. And, what’s more, this is exactly what they were told by the Democratic Party, a slew of pundits, and plenty of online influencers who have built their platforms and fortunes off enabling their supporters just like Trump and the GOP and assuring them our institutions are solid, victory is a foregone conclusion, and to trust the plan.

Personally, I knew there was a good chance Trump would win. I learned my lesson from 2016 and my research has made things abundantly clear. When writing American Rule I came to understand the actual history of this country. The Midnight Kingdom taught me that the growing authoritarian movement was the logical evolution of our present politics and that neoliberal capitalism was pushing us in this direction. And, yet, at the same time, yesterday, as Democratic strategists and insiders reached out to me with a set of polls telling them Harris wasn’t just going to win but that she was poised for a landslide, I let myself hold that fantasy for a few moments.

Why?

Because it was pleasing. Because it was what I wanted to believe to be true.

Recovery is not a straight line. It has starts and stops. Moments of relapse and worsening. Other moments of great leaps forward and abundant hope. It’s messy business. There are going to be times where you feel like giving up. There will probably be a new Democratic politician emerge in the next year or two that will capture your imagination and, through a series of speeches, memes, videos, or slogans, will make you feel the tickle of accelerated hope. This happens and none of us are immune to it completely.

What I want to communicate to you is this: it is time we grow up.

Politicians are not saviors or messiahs. They deserve your criticism and suspicion. No party is perfect. They are driven by economic incentives that should worry you. No election is in the bag because circumstances have shifted so dramatically that we are now, like it or not, engaged in all-out class struggle between the wealth class and everyone else. The time to stop this completely has passed. This is the reality of our lives now. Like a diagnosis of a serious disease, we can either wrap our heads around the truth of the matter and take the necessary steps, or we can simply acquiesce, retreat to convenient fantasies, and allow it to eat away at us.

I have thoughts on what needs to happen now. I’ve alluded to them in previous dispatches and in my books and in podcasts. The numbers coming out of this election make it very obvious what has happened and where the Democratic Party has failed. That’s the good news. There is a very, very clear path laid out. It’s now a matter of whether or not we can summon the courage to recognize it and ultimately walk that walk.

You may think you have the privilege to give up, but this thing will never stop pursuing you. Even if you were to decide to join the fascistic movement, it will eventually devour you. In the meantime, millions of vulnerable Americans are in the crosshairs and they deserve your help. And, by helping them, you will ultimately help yourself and the people you love.

I want this to be a moment of clarity and self-reflection. The behaviors I’ve been outlining are not fun to look at or wrestle with. It’s exhausting. Shameful. And it demands grieving and an intention to heal. It is much more convenient and, often, more enjoyable to simply fall into the abyss and let the cards fall where they may. But as we now transition into preparing for the second Trump Administration, which is ready to serve tech fascists and antidemocratic billionaires alike, and, not to mention, ally itself with an international authoritarian movement that includes China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, the next few months is going to require some serious soul-searching.

Today, I would recommend resting. Connecting with people you love. This is not a pain that is going to heal quickly. But that healing requires a sober and honest look and movement beyond these convenient, pleasing fantasies. We will fight. And I believe we will win. But that fight and that victory do not come easily.

DISPATCHES FROM A COLLAPSING STATE is an independent media venture

 

[Huntn]

Driving around in a daze today I listened to public radio. A woman called in who’s 30 years old, Muslim (with family in Gaza), and queer. She voted for Jill Stein, because she couldn’t in good conscience vote for someone in this administration allowing Gaza to get plastered. But she’s also very frightened about Trump as a gay person. At least she can rest easy knowing Trump cares so much about brown people in shithole countries.

Another caller voted for Trump because of the economy, specifically citing his homeowner insurance premiums going up. No doubt in response to Trump’s victory, all those Florida home insurance policies will go cheaper than a pack of gum.

We can’t stop people from voting like idiots. The people voting on the economy aren’t going to get what they want, possibly the opposite, and would have done better under Harris. At least they can smile whenever Trump talks shit about libs.

Working class not supporting Dems/Liberals expecting to get a better deal fromTrump, they deserve everything they get…no whinning later assholes.

 

[dada_dave]

You know how I learned of the Pennsylvania call? People setting off fireworks at around midnight locally. That’s where we are right now. We are not one nation shaping policy through debate, we are two teams fighting each other. It’s not a good place for a nation to be. And that was never going to change no matter how this went.

As a country we have a *lot* of work to do either way. So my thinking is to take a bit of time, process what happened, and be ready to get to work. That work isn’t going to wait for us.



The data and research tends to back it up. The problem is that people are myopic and only indirectly connected to the complex entity that is the national/global economy. As others have mentioned, it’s a two party system, so the choice is to give to the other team when things *feel* bad, and give it to the current team when things *feel* good. This was the prevailing idea when I was taking civics classes 30 years ago, nothing has changed there, other than the corrosive ideas that our neighbors are our enemies.

But this is also the bit where while I can see Herdfan approaching the election rationally (at least from his worldview), that dispassionate approach to politics is disheartening. I called it as acting like he’s commenting on a sports game. And it’s something we’ve cultivated in this country during my lifetime. It’s not healthy or sustainable and leaves us vulnerable to some real rat bastards who are willing to take advantage of the fact that stories are powerful when power is given based on impressions and "vibes", and they can then use those stories to ossify the electorate to their benefit.

Not quite sure which part you are referring to data and research backing up, but if it's that people tend to vote their wallets, it's the opposite - at least not in the way people think of it. For instance, when pollsters asked people about policies disconnected from the politician people overwhelmingly supported Harris' policies over Trump's across all issues and Harris tied or bested him specifically on the economy as well. Given people voting their interested based on what the candidate is actually going to do in office, Harris should win in a landslide. She didn't because that's not fundamentally how people vote.

In my local Trader Joe's (in Los Angeles area mind you), eggs, milk, butter, etc., are very affordable.

To be fair, in California and LA in particular our prices were already high relative to the nation and thus we didn't suffer the same kinds of price hikes like everyone else did. Of course a major reason for said price hikes nationally was avian flu amongst the bird population shortly after a pandemic amongst the human one, so if we're blaming parties or people for pandemics ... hmmm ... that doesn't really track suddenly. That's why he brings up prices disconnected from anything else. (Oh and record profits from major food processors and grocery stores who backed the Trump campaign, not Harris ... weird!)

The reality is presidents have run on worse economies and won handily - Reagan's "Morning in America" economy was worse in every conceivable respect with much higher poverty, much higher unemployment, and yes much higher inflation with much greater price increases and yet he ran on the strength of the economy and won by a huge margin in 1984. Hell it's why 538's model on the economy, fundamentals gave Harris an edge because these numbers have historically been really good ones to run on.

Working class not supporting Dems/Liberals expecting to get a better deal fromTrump, they deserve everything they get…no whinning later assholes.

I'll be shocked if they didn't support Harris. As the above points to, conservatives like Herdfan have never cared about those who are struggling. Ever. And in fact those who are actually struggling have tended to break towards the Democrats by large margins including 2016 and 2020 and this will almost certainly be true in 2024 as well. Not all of them of course, but the majority of them and the worse off they are the larger the break towards the Democrats. And the ultra-left voting for Stein or staying home ... almost certainly didn't do so in enough numbers to matter. This is both a good and bad thing.

The education gap is not 1-1 with the economic gap. If you look at who Trump improved with most in 2024, it was men - primarily those without college degrees and white or consider themselves white. This last point is important as well, people have been wondering how Trump convinced Latino men to vote for him in greater numbers - a Latino pollster broke it down (I'll see if i can dig up the link). Basically the men pollsters group as Latino that Trump did the best with are evangelical Latinos and those that don't consider being Latino as part of their identity - i.e. you'll notice on a lot of forms that ask about race/ethnicity sometimes it isn't just that they ask if you are Hispanic, but non-white Hispanic. Pollsters don't always distinguish.

Trump didn't run on the economy, not really. Trump ran on grievance. Grievance is not, am I doing worse today than I was 4 years ago?, but am I mad about others doing better and my own perceived lack of standing or the threat to that standing socially and politically? This gets to what @Chew Toy McCoy posted above in the newsletter. This has been true since 2008 when a black man won the office of the President for the first time and created the Tea Party. The Tea Party was the forerunner of the Trump campaign. This allows people to say on a poll that the "Economy" is why they vote, but missing the nuance of what exactly that means. The economy isn't working for them ... relative to the groups they don't like seeing do well.

Again, living with the comfortable lies that its just tweaking this policy or this approach or its about pocketbooks so nonsensical. It ignores the deep divisions in race, ethnicity, gender, and rural/city cultural divide that supercharges the right wing and have been with us for a long time as a country. Something we desperately don't want to acknowledge, but we're going to have to if we're going to keep making improvements.

We have to get rid of the lies "it can't happen here" and "this isn't who we are". Yes it can, it just did, and yes we are.

 

[Herdfan]

We should be under no illusions here, gay marriage and abortion will both become outlawed under this president and his House and Senate.

Want to bet a bottle of Pappy on that?

 

[Renzatic]

Want to bet a bottle of Pappy on that?

That all depends on how much congress decides to abide by the Heritage Foundation, and whether Trump will be willing to stick to his guns against his own party.

 

[Eric]

Want to bet a bottle of Pappy on that?

I’m guessing you had the same response when everyone said the Trump SCOTUS would never overturn Roe v Wade?

I’ll take your bet, I’ve never tried Pappy but you only live once.

 

[dada_dave]

whether Trump will be willing to stick to his guns against his own party.

I’m guessing you had the same response when everyone said the Trump SCOTUS would never overturn Roe v Wade?

I’ll take your bet, I’ve never tried Pappy but you only live once.

Yup. Or tried to kill the ACA ... and then said he didn't.

 

[Eric]

This tells the story, I like Reddit because it's always a safe place but it's also a very left leaning place. You will never see a pro-trump post make the front page, in fact it's so taboo there that you rarely see them at all. As long as they rely on a downvoting system for those who disagree they will always be a blind echo chamber.

 

[fooferdoggie]