From a long time, loyal Republican..
"I’m a conservative who was a reliable republican voter. But here’s something to chew on: if you cannot win an election by making a convincing argument and instead need to try to rig that election because you know you don’t have an argument, you deserve to lose. Trump is a coward."
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This summarises exactly what it looks like from the outside. Although our NZ media is definitely anti-trump, how impossible would it be for media to be pro-trump without stating untruths.
My conservative friends tell me Trump knows he's lost and that this is all a scam to raise more money from the suckers. My understanding is that once he's no longer POTUS he will be facing several lawsuits, personal and civil. He'll need money for legal fees.
And maybe to fund a TV network as an alternative to Fox.
I'll add a prediction: the liberal-leaning networks are going to keep us updated constantly on the status of his 2024 presidential run. His rise is the greatest thing that's ever happened to them, ratings-wise, and I don't think they can give that up. It would be like having a successful movie franchise and not making a sequel.It will also serve the purpose, unfortunately, of silencing any criticism of the Biden administration. With Trump still out there, looming for '24, the line between legitimate criticism of Biden and "helping Trump", or "spreading Russian talking points", will get blurrier and blurrier.
You're right, Mike.I was a working journalist for 30 years. Any commitment to truth, with few exceptions, is long gone,
They will exploit fear to the max to gain "eyeballs."
Michael wrote: "You're right, Mike.I was a working journalist for 30 years. Any commitment to truth, with few exceptions, is long gone,
They will exploit fear to max to gain "eyeballs.""
Dammit, I was hoping you were going to tell me that I'm wrong. I want to be wrong, Michael.
I've been very critical of their tactics. I stopped following the media in the run up through the election and am taking another break. They're clearly afraid of losing eyeballs (this includes the Lincoln Project), so are spinning all these scary scenarios that are very unlikely to come true.
Reminds me a lot of the UK's Daily Mail or William Randolph Hearst, who I researched.
Michael wrote: "I've been very critical of their tactics. I stopped following the media in the run up through the election and am taking another break. They're clearly afraid of losing eyeballs (this includes th..."
Good choice. I think a lot of this talk of a potential coup is exaggerated right now because they want to keep people watching. But at the same time it is true that Trump and his allies would love to overturn the election if they could; if he's successful at nothing else, he's already convinced a majority of Republicans that it was rigged. That doesn't bode well for the future.
I find myself more concerned about the Democratic Party. I'm not sure they've learned what they needed to from what just happened. Black voters and Progressives helped put them over the top as part of an anti-Trump coalition, but now Pelosi and the neos are marginalizing them. If this persists, they will get slaughtered in the midterms.
Michael wrote: "I find myself more concerned about the Democratic Party. I'm not sure they've learned what they needed to from what just happened. Black voters and Progressives helped put them over the top as part..."No, I don't think they've learned at all. They've mostly come to the opposite conclusion. I met up with a few older guys I run with the morning after the election, when it still looked like Trump could pull out the victory, and one of them was really pissed- not at Biden for running such a lackluster campaign, but at Bernie and the left-wing of the party. They scared people off with all their talk of socialism, this guy believed. It's kind of amazing that they can draw that conclusion when Bernie wasn't even on the ticket, and Biden's about as far from being a socialist as any Democrat can be.
This is exactly the kind of denial that can be lethal. Let's recall how Biden got the nomination in the first place. It was rigged. I switched to no-party about 30 years ago and I try to look at all of this analytically. It seems to me the Democratic Party has not accomplished much since ACA. I think Pelosi and Schumer were constantly out-maneuvered by Trump.
This interview with AOC highlights how outdated they are in election tactics that resulted in losing several seats in the house and no Senate flip.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/07/us...
Michael wrote: "This is exactly the kind of denial that can be lethal. Let's recall how Biden got the nomination in the first place. It was rigged. I switched to no-party about 30 years ago and I try to look at ..."
Yeah, I agree. Do you think there's any hope in a third party?
I have not put any thought into third party. The Pelosi regime may have to run its course before a more dynamic regime can take over. check this out.....
According to many Democrats, Dianne Feinstein, 87, is often “confused by reporters’ questions, or will offer different answers to the same question depending on where or when she’s asked.” After the Comey Barrett hearings, she hugged Trump lackey Lindsey Graham.
Physical decline is likely to be a major feature of the next few years of American politics, at least. The current line of succession, after Biden, 78, features Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is 80, and the Senate president pro tempore, Charles Grassley, 87, who also runs the Senate Finance Committee. Pelosi’s two most powerful deputies in the House, James Clyburn and Steny Hoyer, are both 80 or older. Over in the Senate, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee is 85. The chairman of the Appropriations Committee is 86.
On a more serious note, this addresses the third party discussion....https://thebaffler.com/latest/the-par...
There are lots of problems with two-party systems, but how does one transition to a functioning three (or more) system? England has always had a third party, plus a few others, but at any one time, there are only ever two with any power at national level. Any breakthrough is shortlived.
It is a distinct problem. I find myself pining for fresh leadership, which will probably not be until 2024 at soonest.I don't think either party is doing the best for the country. We've been living in new Gilded Age and it's definitely reflected in these parties. Greed and power.
Michael wrote: "On a more serious note, this addresses the third party discussion....https://thebaffler.com/latest/the-par..."
Thanks for the article, Michael, I'll finish reading it and get back to you.
Agreed about the Gilded Age. Trump was/is an avatar of any such age, but he at least adopted the rhetoric of working-class concern. It might all have been disingenuous, but I think that in the future, more right-wingers are going to notice that a Democratic Party that ignores the working class is ripe to be defeated. In fact, it's already happened. Missouri Republican Josh Hawley even tweeted it on election night: "we're a working-class party now." If the Democrats quash any possibility of change from the left, they might just get change from the right.
The Democrats are so flush with donor and special-interest money that it's hard to see how they can reform themselves even if they wanted to. Seems like their appeal is going to become, by default, more and more superficial and detached from the concerns of everyday people. There will be more emphasis on symbolism and "restoring the soul of America", the kind of rhetoric that can mean anything to anyone.
I think the first step for any third party would have to be winning a few seats in Congress. And I hate to say it, but they should take some inspiration from Trump. What I mean by that is that they need name recognition- Bernie would be great, but I think he'll be too old to run in '24- and a few splashy, easily-digestible ideas that stick in people's minds. If you horrify the establishment- with a platform of medicare-for-all and the green new deal, for example- they won't be able to turn away from covering you.
Michael wrote: "On a more serious note, this addresses the third party discussion....https://thebaffler.com/latest/the-par..."
That article does a great job of laying out the obstacles, including the fact that both major parties prefer things the way they are.
Mike, you accurately describe the reality of the situation. The Citizens United decision opened the floodgates of money into both parties. It costs a fortune to run for office, especially POTUS. (link below). So, it's correct to say things are not going to change without some form of disruption perhaps, as you say, from a third party that's more progressive.
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020...
A rare GOP who is not a coward...https://www.propublica.org/article/tr...
GOP only wins if pull off voter suppression....
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...
Seth Meyers does a brilliant job of showing the bizarre degree of lunacy that all of this post-election nonsense reached before Trump finally conceded. The GOP is out of their damn minds!https://www.thedailybeast.com/seth-me...
Michael wrote: "Seth Meyers does a brilliant job of showing the bizarre degree of lunacy that all of this post-election nonsense reached before Trump finally conceded. The GOP is out of their damn minds!https://..."
It is pretty nuts. At the same time, Trump is such a cosmic-class bullshitter that it's almost impressive. He's making it so difficult for things to proceed, despite the fact that there's no evidence of voter fraud- imagine what he could do with the slightest hint of real impropriety?
I wonder if this is going to be the standard from now on- every candidate that loses an election tries to challenge it.
The usual GOP playbook is voter suppression. I guess they were disappointed and frustrated it did not work this time.Trump losing means the Make America White Again project is in jeopardy. A brilliant GR connection I have put it well....
“The U.S. demographics are sliding away from white male conservatives and they are very aware of this. It has yet to change structures of power¬–-at least not as much as it should have had- --but when you’ve swum in privilege your whole life, equality feels like oppression.”
The world is changing. By 2024, the U.S. will be less white and Millennials will pass Boomers as the majority. Time is against White privilege.
The only caveat I'd offer is that Democrats can't act like those votes are theirs by divine right- "if you don't vote for me, you ain't black", as Biden put it. If the Dems stick with symbolism and keep nominating people who did things like write the crime bill, they'll negate their seeming demographic advantage.
I also wonder if it is going to remain quite the advantage that it has been during the Trump era. I would think that some shrewd people in the GOP are probably going to evaluate this loss and conclude that their future nominees had better not be so alienating to most minority voters. That may not mean a change in policy, but they may try to present a softer, more inclusive image and candidate- someone like Mitt Romney or Jeb Bush, perhaps.
Trump has left the GOP in a terrible quandary. The media will play this up, but I can't see Trump getting the nomination in 2024. He will likely succeed Limbaugh, who has terminal cancer, in some way.
Michael wrote: "Trump has left the GOP in a terrible quandary. The media will play this up, but I can't see Trump getting the nomination in 2024. He will likely succeed Limbaugh, who has terminal cancer, in some way."Yeah, it's impossible to say what things will be like in four years. But I think that there will probably be some internecine clashes within the GOP. One faction will want to get back to "respectability" and being the party of family values and all that, even though they agree with Trump on 99% of the substantive issues. And on the other side there will be Trump himself, or one of his kids, or someone who tries to imitate him, possibly utilizing the "best" (in this hypothetical candidate's view) aspects of Trumpism, and jettisoning some of the perceived liabilities.
The latest from Mary Trump. I read her book very carefully and there were a lot of similarities between the Trump family and my own.If this sounds implausible, I have no trouble believing this because my two living siblings suffer from this same psychosis.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/jgq5b...
Rather than blaming "socialism." Pelosi, et al, need to take a closer look that their own mistakes https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/...
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/...
Now we know what a president without character looks like in the midst of a governing crisis. We see a dishonest president, spinning lie after lie about the electoral system. A selfish president, incapable of preferring any duty above his own narrow interests. A reckless president, undermining the transition between administrations and exposing the country to risk. A vain president, unable to responsibly process an electoral loss. A corrupt president, willing to abuse federal power to serve his own ends. A spiteful president, taking revenge against officials who have resisted him. A faithless president, indifferent to constitutional principles and his oath of office.