this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2024
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politics

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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.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 43 minutes ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 hour ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 hour ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 193 points 4 hours ago (6 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 hour ago

Yup. It's the Good German trope from the Nazi era. People knew damn well there was something awful going on.

[–] [email protected] 100 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Hideakikarate 73 points 3 hours ago (4 children)

Not just the LGTBQ kids. I worry about most kids. Child labor laws were getting more shakey already. Schools and education have been suffering. Healthcare also stands to take a hit. I'm worried.

[–] [email protected] 58 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

Robert Kennedy is about to be put in charge of American health care and Elon Musk om our federal budget. When Musk said next 4 years was going be tough for the majority of Americans they meant it. Yet still majority voted for Trump.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago

There will be face eating leopards like no one has ever seen before

[–] vaultdweller013 9 points 2 hours ago

Honestly at least with musk theres a non zero chance he bankrupts the federal government.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago

Plus you can kiss education goodbye you can't get an educated man to go down into a mine. Or blindly obey your authoritarian leader

[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

If they actually move as fast as Trump has promised to, the next four years are going to be absolute chaos. Anything that relies on federal funding will be mired in uncertainty - 23 million people work for federal, state and local governments.

Edit - not to mention the tens of millions more who work for contractors and consultants who have contracts with federal, state, and local agencies

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 hours ago

Every kid's future just got worse because of the impending abolition of the EPA (among other things) and shift back to a "drill, baby, drill" approach to climate change.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 hours ago

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.

[–] Skiluros 19 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 3 hours ago (4 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 3 hours ago (4 children)

this election was lost by single issue voters not showing up.

Absolutely. Look at the vote totals; not all votes are in, but Trump is actually running a few million behind his 2020 total, while Harris is 15M+ behind what Biden pulled in. Trump doesn't seem to have much more support than last time, but about 1 out of 7 voters that Biden earned did not vote this time.

The ones who did it over Gaza should prepare to be heartbroken when they see what Bibi and Trump do there next year.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 hours ago

Absolutely.

And as for Gaza, they just announced dumping the MoDefense(?) because he wasn’t genocidal enough.

Announced it on election day as hopefully one last fuck-you to Biden.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 hours ago

The people that refused to vote entirely on the basis of the Gaza have effectively shot themselves, and everyone else, in the foot.

There was never a real choice to stop Israel on the ballet, but now with Trump in office, even deescalation is off the cards.

It must be great for these folks to be able to wash their hands of it like Ponchus Pilot, whilst Trump gives Israel the go-ahead to annhilate the people of Gaza.

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[–] [email protected] 81 points 3 hours ago (3 children)

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".

[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

they also hate themselves.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago

Well, they have a good goddamn reason for that.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 3 hours ago (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 hours ago (6 children)

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...

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

Trump didn't get any more votes than last time.

He won because the Democrats lost.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 hour ago

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.

[–] xmunk 39 points 3 hours ago (5 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

The Dems got a reckoning in 2016 when their career politician Hillary Clinton lost to Trump.

Nothing is going to shake them out of their ways.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago

Democrats suck at politics. Frustrating when their candidates are the only ones that come even close to aligning with my values.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 30 minutes ago) (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 28 minutes ago) (1 children)

Yeah. I think it was the biggest issue and was easily solvable, but the campaign was a fuck up through and through.

Across Biden and Harris they kept trying to steal a sliver of the conservative vote instead of just taking from the huge infrequent voter slice. They didn't do anything to try to get that slice to vote for them, they just threatened them with Trump if they didn't get out to vote.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago

They were right to. Everybody who abstained from voting is going to end up getting their comeuppance now, and I'm not going to feel bad for them.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

It's ironic that Palestine is just going to be more Israel now. At least we won't have to worry anymore about Palestine.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 hours ago

Are the bots and trolls here, or do they just stop when the objective is reached?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 hours ago

My sincere condolences for the near future of Americans, and especially for my and their close friends and family.

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