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Trump’s VP pick is one of the many signs of his mental decline. With Pence he got the Christians. With Vance he gets MAGA which apparently Trump feels is a demographic he isn’t reaching yet. 0D chess.
USA Election 2024
- Thread starter Huntn
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Trump’s VP pick is one of the many signs of his mental decline. With Pence he got the Christians. With Vance he gets MAGA which apparently Trump feels is a demographic he isn’t reaching yet. 0D chess.
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That’s why you go high, but don’t pull any punches.
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He already had the MAGOTS, so Vance pulls in no one, he’s just transformed himself into the younger Trump MiniMe the so called link to Next Gen MAGOTS, illustrating he has zero integrity, a power hungry opportunist.
For Harris, as has been pointed out her best pick will be a moderate white guy. I’m talking about pulling in people who might have trouble with a black woman as POTUS.
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If they don't do that it'll be a worrisome sign, but I think they'll make a good pick.
Nycturne
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Off-topic, but that patterning reminds me so much of a cat I had when I was a kid. Ours was a lot more skittish from their previous household, but a gentle giant otherwise. I miss him.
Which is a depressing reality, IMO. But at least there are good options. I'm a little concerned about Mark Kelly being a top pick already. He's not got a lot of political history, although I'm sure he'd be qualified. But perhaps that's the point. Harder to pick someone apart if their time in Washington DC has been somewhat short. It's not like the Trump campaign will try to make light of his short experience, unless they want to commit an unforced error. Vance has even less political experience than Kelly.
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Roughly half of the voting population believe being a convicted criminal, who brags about sexually assaulting women, and fomented an insurrection on the US Capitol to stop the peaceful transition of power (essentially shredding the Constitution) isn't a biggie.
I'll never understand that.
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I would like to see Doug Jones as AG. I’m fine if she keeps Garland, but she may want her own cabinet.
At least the replacement would be there until 2026, when a special election would be required.
I think Harris will be pressured to replace Garland. Although he's a principled man, he could have moved more quickly and forcefully. IMO, he would have been a better Justice of the Supreme Court (which he would have been had the hypocritical Republicans not prevented it) than AG. I think Doug Jones would be a good choice, having prosecuted two of the KKK members involved in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.
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It’s being speculated that Trump will kick Vance off the ticket at some point. I don’t know what that would say about Vance. He’s even more MAGA than Trump. I can’t even attempt to do the mental gymnastics MAGA would need to do to square that one. Obviously they will side with Trump, but then who is the Vance voter?
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I hope so it will be sp funny and show how poor of a president he was.
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Wonder if that would affect Peter Thiel's donations? Maybe not, J.D. probably isn't worth it.
Nycturne
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Honestly, it feels like Vance is only there to avoid a repeat of Pence randomly growing a spine when it came to certifying the election results. He wants someone who will play these sorts of games as president of the Senate, and overseer of elector counts.
Eric
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He's an anchor for them right now and the only press Trump is getting, surely they're regretting it. It will be interesting to see if they stick with him after everything.
The other side of this is that Kamala's team is probably vetting her potential picks like crazy as not to make the same mistake, we expect it from Trump because he puts all of 2 seconds into any decision he makes but we need to be more prudent.
Nycturne
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And honestly, this is the sort of thing that makes me think that Trumpism represents a slide into competitive authoritarianism. The willingness to bend, break and rewrite the rules to hold onto power, while at the same time having to keep existing democratic institutions somewhat intact. The sort of "playing dirty in order to win" that is a hallmark of Trump in business which he is bringing to government.
A somewhat old piece from 2002 on the topic, but seems rather relevant: https://scholar.harvard.edu/levitsky/files/SL_elections.pdf
Emphasis mine. Russia is an example of how it could play out. At the time of this piece, it was calling Putin's regime a competitive authoritarian regime. But in the years since, we've seen Putin successfully clamp down on the opposition, pushing it towards full blown authoritarianism and preventing any reforms from the 90s from taking root which would have slowed the process.
The problem I see is that even if Trump is defeated, the sort of things that enable such a slide are still in place. You still have the push to co-opt the judiciary with allies rather than judges. You still have major media cozying up to a particular party and its leaders. You still have the attempts to cripple the legislature and hollow out the bureaucracy in favor of fewer decision makers despite an increasingly complex society ("You can't delegate this responsibility, or that, or that..."). You have the Trump family taking greater control of the Republican party's machine. All of this is part of the process and has to be fought and rolled back. But how do you recover the electorate from co-opted media without meddling in the media? How do you recover the judiciary from stuffing without stuffing it yourself? In a polarized environment, I think the irony is that fighting such corruption will further entrench support for the people involved. So I'm not sure how you properly de-escalate here, or when you make the call that escalation might just be a risk you have to take.
But I think we're already in the throes of the backslide due to the damage done so far. The question is more does the process continue or not.
Emphasis mine. Russia is an example of how it could play out. At the time of this piece, it was calling Putin's regime a competitive authoritarian regime. But in the years since, we've seen Putin successfully clamp down on the opposition, pushing it towards full blown authoritarianism and preventing any reforms from the 90s from taking root which would have slowed the process.
The problem I see is that even if Trump is defeated, the sort of things that enable such a slide are still in place. You still have the push to co-opt the judiciary with allies rather than judges. You still have major media cozying up to a particular party and its leaders. You still have the attempts to cripple the legislature and hollow out the bureaucracy in favor of fewer decision makers despite an increasingly complex society ("You can't delegate this responsibility, or that, or that..."). You have the Trump family taking greater control of the Republican party's machine. All of this is part of the process and has to be fought and rolled back. But how do you recover the electorate from co-opted media without meddling in the media? How do you recover the judiciary from stuffing without stuffing it yourself? In a polarized environment, I think the irony is that fighting such corruption will further entrench support for the people involved. So I'm not sure how you properly de-escalate here, or when you make the call that escalation might just be a risk you have to take.
But I think we're already in the throes of the backslide due to the damage done so far. The question is more does the process continue or not.
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It’s pretty astonishing how Biden dropping out completely flipped the game, especially right after the RNC reached peak smug asshole. Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving group of people.
I also realize Harris still might not win, but that doesn’t change what was accomplished here. There’s an air of hope and positive change countering Republicans marinating in “everything is going to shit!”. I have to imagine that there are some people on the right jealous because they aren’t able to drown their albatross. Even I would be happy for them if they had a classic sane conservative candidate, but that’s no longer what that party is about.
If Trump keeps Vance on the ticket, Democrats will continue to have a great target. If he kicks Vance off, it'll make the campaign seem even more incompetent, though that could be offset if Trump chooses someone more conventional and less obviously crazy like Burgum. I'd rather Vance stay on.
