US politics

[tiggymalvern]

It was worse than I thought. I thought Trump would win because of the electoral college, but I was convinced he would lose the popular vote like he did in 2016.

Then we could say, 'Americans didn't want Donald Trump, he won because of an electoral quirk that rigs things in favour of conservatives.' This time we're stuck with no excuses - Americans really did choose a narcissistic, racist misogynistic criminal conman over a competent, qualified woman of colour.

And I am so fucking pissed off with Democratic self-sabotage. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a fantastic woman who spent a lifetime fighting and winning on behalf of women and minorities - and then she destroyed half of her life's work by refusing to retire, by insisting that she would be a Supreme Court Justice for life. That stubbornness on her part led directly to the overturning of Roe and the suffering and deaths of the women she'd spent her career protecting.

Biden should have understood he'd be a one term President. He should have announced that two years into his term. The Dems could have chosen their candidate in the usual way, via primaries. That candidate would not have been Kamala Harris. She was not a popular VP. We can argue all day over why she wasn't popular - whether it was racism, misogyny, her record as a prosecutor. It doesn't matter. Everyone knew she wasn't popular. The Dems would have run a candidate against Trump who stood a better chance of winning. And maybe that candidate would still have lost - maybe the conservative backlash against trans rights and diversity programs would still have given Trump the Presidency. But we can't ever know, because Biden was too stubborn to accept that he was too damn old. He withdrew when it was too late to run anyone except Kamala. And I have nothing against the woman - I like her. But the numbers had made it clear that most people didn't and that made her a bad candidate.

Nobody should be aspiring to be President at 85. Nobody should be serving as a Supreme Court Justice while they're dying of cancer. Learn to fucking retire and do it strategically, and give up your own personal power for the good of your goals and your country. Because right now Dems with all the best intentions seem to be handing the country to Republican extremists on a plate.

Comments

[tiggymalvern]

Yep. It truly is sad that people who prefer Dem policies still voted en masse for Trump. As the article says, there was less of a swing towards Republicans in other races. Dem senators won in Arizona and other places where Trump won the Presidential vote. The Republican majority in Congress will remain tiny. Harris lost a straight-forward popularity contest - she was a candidate who was unpopular throughout her stint as VP and she stayed that way. Good policies won't save someone if people just don't like them.

Propoganda definitely won. Trump's repeated lies that the last election was stolen, that his criminal convictions were a witch hunt and he never did anything wrong ever were believed. You lie often enough and loud enough and hard enough and enough people will go along with it.

The facts are all out there and easy enough to check with ten imutes online, but you can't make people do it. When half the country get their political information as tweets and thirty second soundbites and never look any deeper, lies work. It's tough to know what to do about that. You can't make people read, and the terminally stupid and ill-informed have the same vote as everyone else.

[bymyverytoes]

Marcy Wheeler is worth reading for a sanity check. However, I don't think there's any solace to be found anywhere right now. Ignoring is about all you can do, while protecting yourself. Our former mutual friend in Seattle married to the most delightful trans woman is desperately worried about their situation, and who can blame her :(

[tiggymalvern]

I know a few trans people, and none of them are happy, even here in WA where they've got more protection.