stevenkesslar

Does Trump have a mandate? It's kind of a stupid question. Because a mandate is in the eyes of the beholder. The more interesting crystal ball question to me is this: now that Trump has won, can he consolidate the win into a coalition that holds for more than one election? We know he failed to do that in 2016. What I find most interesting is that when Biden won by 7 million votes in 2020, with 51.3 % of the popular vote, Republicans said it was a stolen election. Trump will win by something like 49.8 % of the popular vote, and something like a 2.5 million vote margin, when the last votes in California are counted. On the electoral college side, it is a repeat of both 2016 and 2020. Change 200,000 votes or so in the blue wall states and it changes who the winner is. So my answer, until further notice, is that the Republican Party is just deeply unprincipled. Politicians lie and flip flop every day of the week. Voters expect it. But when they say Biden stole the 2020 election, and they have a Jubilant Patriotic Cop Beating and try to steal the election themselves, that just doesn't get swept under the rug. Even if Trump just won the popular vote, narrowly, thanks to inflation. These are deeply unprincipled people. And I don't believe a word they say about their mandate. This way of thinking actually connects very will with what VOTERS seem to have said, in terms of a Trump mandate. In a new Harris poll by Mark Penn, who was very close to correctly predicting the vote outcome, 68 % of all voters said their biggest hope for Trump 2.0 is "end inflation and price increases." Whatever mandate Trump won is focused on working class affordability. If Trump does his tariff thing, which I doubt he will, it will raise prices on Americans. If he deports every low paid farm worker, the same. Oops! Of course, Matt Gaetz is looking for a job now. Picking cherries, Matt? 😨 Most Democrats, and half of Independents, said in the latest Harris poll that their worst fear is that Trump acts like a dictator. I take that as confirming that the message got through loud and clear, and is still felt by many voters in the middle. Including many who voted for Trump, because of the economy, stupid. One other little hint in the Harris poll is that 53 % of all voters, and 55 % of Independents, want Trump's trials to continue. So you can argue that voters did give Trump a mandate to be tried by a jury of his peers, as POTUS. It won't happen, of course. I suspect this may help explain why Gaetz imploded. Senate Republicans can read polls, and know there is no mandate for lawlessness. Or sex with children. So if we are very lucky they nipped that idea of a mandate in the bud. Pod Save America: The Biden campaign had internal polling showing that Trump was going to win 400 electoral votes at the same time that they were insisting he was a strong candidate. This is the part I am most interested to learn more about, when the books are written. Because there are lots of reasons to believe that Trump may have been on his way to a much more significant electoral blowout. Many Democrats and Republicans were saying this in the Summer, around when Trump was coronated at the RNC. What did Biden know? What did Pelosi do? Is it true, as I have read repeatedly, that Obama wanted Mark Kelly to be the nominee? How could that ever have happened, legitimately, without a Democratic primary? I do think the history books are going to blame this more on Biden, and his ego, then on Harris, and her politics of joy and caution. The thing that might have worked better is if Biden had not run, and Harris fought her way through a Democratic primary. Or if they had been selfless, and choreographed a show where Harris threw Biden under the bus on immigration, and some other things. But any idea premised on Biden not having an ego was always going to fail. And it might have just made Harris look like a disloyal flip flopper. The simple explanation I keep coming back to is that Biden and Harris both had a massive wall of lava coming at them. As did every leader who presided over COVID-era inflation. So it isn't a shock that neither could outrun it. But I also buy the idea that if Biden had been on the ballot, it would be a whole lot worse. The other question I hope lots of strategists write about is: why did Mexico dodge the bullet, and elect a woman from the left-wing incumbent party in a landslide? I think the simple answer is Mexican voters felt they had a working class party that fought for the working class, and won for the working class. In the eyes of the US White working class, Biden and Harris failed to do that. 41 % approval - Bush 41 in 1992 - Incumbent party (Bush 41) loses by - 5.6 % 39 % approval - Biden in 2024 - Incumbent party (Harris) loses by -1.7 % 37 % approval - Carter in 1980 - Incumbent party (Carter) loses by -9.7 % I posted that whole list of 19 elections since Truman on a different thread. What is surprising is how incredibly simple this is. There are 19 races. In 18 out of 19, the incumbent party won the popular vote if the incumbent President had an approval rating of 50 % or higher. The one exception was Nixon in 1960, who lost the popular vote by - 0.2 % The other two caveats are that Gore in 2000 and Clinton in 2016 also won the popular vote, on the tailwinds of an incumbent with over 50 % approval, but also lost the electoral college. So Presidents with 50 % approval or higher will always see their party win, with the one big caveat being "the third term curse." A sitting President with a 50%+ approval rating is a proven ticket to victory, so far. Unless it is a popular President who can't run again. Then all bets are off. In all 8 examples where the incumbent President had an approval rating under 50 %, the incumbent party lost. The highest approval rating of these 8 was Gerald Ford in 1975, with 44 % approval. So all eight incumbents in these losing elections were well below 50 % approval. And it is clear that the degree of unpopularity influenced the vote outcome. Ford lost by -1.9 %. Stevenson, carrying the baggage of Truman's 30 % approval rating, lost by - 10.9 % The two candidates who outperformed in relative terms were Humphrey in 1968, and Harris in 2024. Humphrey lost by -0.7 %, and Harris by -1.7 %. Of the four incumbents with approval ratings under 40 %, three of four led to wipeouts: Truman had 30 % approval, and Stevenson in 1952 lost by -10.9 %. Carter had 37 % approval, and Carter in 1980 lost by -9.7 %. W. had an epic low approval of 26 %, and McCain lost in 2008 by - 7.2 %. Biden had 39 % approval, but Harris did way better than the other three, losing by "only" -1.7 % What the numbers suggest is that incumbency helps. But only when the incumbent is popular, and only when they are the ballot themselves. Incumbency hurts when they are unpopular. And in 1968 and 2024 Democrats very likely cut their losses by switching out unpopular incumbents. I think the two examples on either side of Biden 2024 help answer the question of whether Trump has a mandate. And how this is likely to play out. Reagan 1980 had as big a mandate as you can get. In addition to a crushing national victory, Republicans won 12 Senate seats, 34 House seats, and 4 Governorships. That all got translated into a legislative agenda that had liberalism and Big Government on the ropes for decades. Clinton 1992 was an election quite like 2024, in this sense. It was the original "it's the economy, stupid" election, thanks to Jim Carville. Like in 2024, voters took an unpopular incumbent out. But in 1992 Democrats won no Senate seats. And Republicans, the losing party, won 9 House seats. Clinton had a rocky first two years, with lots of big failures, like Hillarycare and Gays In The Military. Mandate? Not so much. The fact that the down ballot results in 1992 actually favored Republicans, slightly, could be taken as a harbinger of the 1994 Republican blowout that was to come. That said, Clinton licked his wounds and moved to the center and did manage to consolidate his 1992 victory. This time Democrats lost 4 Senate seats, they will likely gain 1 or 2 House seats (the final two uncalled California races), and they lost no Governor races. That's much more like 1992 than 1980. It's bad news that Democrats had no chance to hold 3 Senate seats in red states, as it turned out. It's good news that Democrats won 4 of 5 Senate seats in swing states that voted for Trump. It's also good news if Democrats learn lessons from winners like Ruben Gallego, among others. About how to appeal to the working class by being like them, and promising economic populism. The scariest news to Democrats is this. Of the 8 out of 19 Presidential elections since Truman that incumbent parties lost due to unpopular incumbent Presidents, the winning party was able to consolidate their victory in 5 out of those 8 elections: Eisenhower in 1952, Nixon in 1972, Reagan in 1980, Clinton in 1992, Obama in 2008. The two times the winning party failed to consolidate were Carter in 1976, and Biden in 2020. In both cases, inflation was the big nail in the coffin. So unless inflation comes roaring back, history does suggest that Republicans, now that they are in power, have a very good chance of consolidating their victory. That said, we have seen this movie before. Trump won in 2016 despite the fact that Obama had a 52 % approval rating, and Clinton won the popular vote by a 2.2 % margin. Given that Biden's approval rating in 2024 was 13 % lower than Obama's in 2016, it certainly makes sense that Trump would do better in 2024 than 2016. Many Republicans have said that if they had a nominee with fewer liabilities, they really would have won in a landslide. We'll never know. The other close example to Trump on a mandate is George W. Bush in 2004. He claimed a 50.7 % win gave him a mandate. He did more unpopular things, as his Iraq War became more and more unpopular as well. That "mandate" did not end well. If I had to bet, I'd bet that Trump will again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, and fuck it up. He really doesn't seem to have a strategy, other than retribution and rage. Tax cuts for billionaires, tariffs that raise prices at Walmart, and cutting programs that help the working class may be what Elon Musk wants. But it was not Trump's mandate. I think Democrats who are popular Governors who want to be President in 2028 - and there are many of them - are smart to sit back and give Trump enough rope to hang himself with his own mandate.

I WILL NOT READ! I WILL NOT READ! MANY AMERICAN JEWS ARE JEW HATERS! IF ALMOST HALF OF AMERICAN JEWS THINK MY POSITIONS ARE RACIST, OR SUPPORTING GENOCIDE, OR SUPPORTING APARTHED, JUST BECAUSE I THINK PALESTINIANS HAVE NO RIGHT TO OBJECT TO THE MASS SLAUGHTER OF THEIR WOMEN AND CHILDREN, THAT IS BECAUSE JEWS ARE ANTI-SEMITIC. You sure do have a twisted idea of facts, don't ya honey? Meanwhile, fact still is that Bibi The Baby Killer is now a war criminal in 120 countries. Give genocide a chance! It does seem like that is the idea. Mass slaughter and ethnic cleansing now, and we'll see where we get later. At least we'll have fewer Palestinians. Majority support for Bibi The Baby Killer's woman and child killing genocide machine is gradually falling apart, most slowly among Republicans. But you must be thrilled @EmmetKruely. More reinforcements are on the way, thanks to Trump, to kill Palestinian women and children. Woo hoo! Let's celebrate. How many women and children can we kill without trying to kill them, do ya think? 41 % of Democrats, a plurality, now want to decrease military aid to Israel. 35 % of Independents, a plurality, want to decrease military aid to Israel. So the debate as of today among Democrats, had Harris won (she will lose by about 1.5 %, a narrow loss), would be do we cut military aid, or keep it the same? Republicans are all over the map. 30 % want to increase military aid, 30 % want to keep it the same, 24 % want to cut it. What we know for a fact is that, across the board, support for military aid to Israel keeps going down among Democrats, and Independents, and Republicans. Nobody likes genocide. Especially when we are paying for it. A very good round of genocide should get Democrats to 50 % support for cutting military aid to Israel. Frankly, I am happy to let this be Trump's problem. It is clear that Israel keeps electing their Baby Killer, who wants his genocide. Trump doesn't, But he can't tell Bibi The Baby Killer what to do. Saudi Arabia and all the others can't and won't make peace with Bibi The Baby Killer's woman and child killing genocide machine. So Trump can spin his wheels for four years, as Bibi The Baby Killer gets his way and quietly continues with his ethnic cleansing while he buys time. At some point he will die, and be replaced by someone worse. The sad and pathetic thing about you is you really have no idea that Hamas is winning. You are so short-sighted and close-minded and bigoted that you just can not grasp what they are doing. But facts are facts. They have figured out how to gradually transform the global perception of Israel into Genocide Jewland. All over the word, the leader of Genocide Jewland is seen as a murderous war criminal, who starves innocent woman and children to death. Yes, Hamas is a sadistic terrorist organization willing to see countless more innocent Palestinians and Jews die. Duh! But you are so bigoted that you really can't see how they are winning. That's how small and distorting your hatreds are. You are letting Hamas win the war, and you can't even see it. They have not been rooted out, as they were supposed to be in a month or a year of whatever. And they won't be rooted out. Their ideology of hate is growing, thanks to Genocide Jewland. All over the world, people look at Israel and now see Genocide Jewland, and Bibi The Baby Killer. You are so caught up in your enthusiasm for Bibi The Baby Killer that you just don't see it. Ehud Barak does. He's a man of peace. But he is also the personification of the Israeli military. His motivation is he is smart enough to see what Hamas is gradually doing. You don't. Poor hateful thing! After four more years of genocide and unrelenting ethnic cleansing and torture and starvation, we'll see where we are. For now, I am happy to let it be Trump's problem. Enjoy your genocide while it lasts.

You always manage to think of something that trashes The Gays, and endorses the rapey, slimey, "just put your dick in the bitch and shut her the fuck up" gross underbelly of Trump and Trumpism. Why are you so cruel? Hey, at least you are not a war criminal, though.

Sadly, yes. I took it as an encouraging sign that there are still adults in the room. Or, more precisely, in the Republican caucus in the US Senate. Sen. Cornyn said it would be "Kavanaugh on steroids." Ya think? Thanks, Republicans, for sparing us of that.

And as of now Democrat Derek Tram is leading by 400 votes in CA-41, which would be a Democratic pickup. Incumbent Republican John Duarte is leading by 350 votes in the other uncalled race, CA-13. But his winning margin went from 3000 votes one day to 2000 votes the next day 350 votes yesterday. At least so far the trend with the final ballots being counted is they favor Democrats. There are an estimated 5000 votes left to count. The outcome in 2022 was 222 Republicans, 213 Democrats. At the time, the idea was that Democrats escaped a red wave. At the very least, even if Democrats lose both of these California races, we did no worse than in 2022. We might pick up a few seats. Some Republican landslide! It's still a very big defeat. But as it has sunk in, I hope that is good in the long run. Either Democrats have to embrace economic populism and the multi-ethnic working class, or they continue losing. It is not really a difficult choice. What I think we know for sure is that in 2026 and 2028 Democrats won't have a massive wall of lava coming at them, called inflation and higher costs.

BLAH BLAH BLAH I WILL NOT READ! I WILL NOT READ! IT CAN NOT BE TRUE THAT ALMOST HALF OF YOUNGER AMERICAN JEWS THINK I SUPPORT RACISM, APARTHEID, AND GENOCIDE. I WILL NOT READ THAT! MY MIND IS CLOSED IT CAN NOT BE TRUE THAT FOMER IDF HEAD AND PM BARAK SAYS BIBI THE BABY KILLER NEEDS TO CONTINUE THE WAR AND SLAUGHTER BECAUSE HE IS EMPOWEWRED BY RACIST ALLIES! I WILL NOT READ THAT. PALESTINIAN LIFE HAS NO VALUE. IT IS ANTi-SEMITIC TO WHINE ABOUT HOW BIBI THE BABY KILLER SLAUGHETERED TENS OF THOUSANDS OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN. THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT TO BE BELIEVED WHEN THEY COMPAIN ABOUT BEING KILLED. AND EVEN IF THEY WERE SLAUGHTERED, WE TRIED VERY HARD NOT TO KILL THEM. MY MIND IS CLOSED. I WILL NOT READ! ANYONE WHO DOES NOT SUPPORT BIBI THE BABY KILLER IS ANTI-SEMITIC. ICC issues arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu over war crimes in Gaza BIBI THE BABY KILLER: WAR CRIMINAL IN 120 COUNTRIES BIBI THE BABY KILLER: WAR CRIMINAL IN UNITED KINGDOM BIBI THE BABY KILLER: WAR CRIMINAL IN THE NETHERLANDS BIBI THE BABY KILLER: WAR CRIMINAL IN BRAZIL BIBI THE BABY KILLER: WAR CRIMINAL IN NIGERIA BIBI THE BABY KILLER: WAR CRIMINAL IN FINLAND BIBI THE BABY KILLER: WAR CRIMINAL IN AUSTRALIA BIBI THE BABY KILLER: WAR CRIMINAL IN COSTA RICA BIBI THE BABY KILLER: WAR CRIMINAL IN KOREA ALL OVER THE WORLD, BIBI THE BABY KILLER IS A WAR CRIMINAL THE WHOLE WORLD IS ANTI-SEMITIC! HOW SMART TO HAVE A MURDEROUS LEADER THAT THE WHOLE WORLD SEES AS WAR CRIMINAL! I WILL NOT READ! I WILL NOT READ! TRUMP2024 MAGA STARVE WOMEN AND CHILDREN KILL WOMEN AND CHILDREN ETHNIC CLEANSING FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN

BLAH BLAH BLAH I WILL NOT READ! I WILL NOT READ! IT CAN NOT BE TRUE THAT ALMOST HALF OF YOUNGER AMERICAN JEWS THINK I SUPPORT RACISM, APARTHEID, AND GENOCIDE. I WILL NOT READ THAT! MY MIND IS CLOSED IT CAN NOT BE TRUE THAT FOMER IDF HEAD AND PM BARAK SAYS BIBI THE BABY KILLER NEEDS TO CONTINUE THE WAR AND SLAUGHTER BECAUSE HE IS EMPOWEWRED BY RACIST ALLIES! I WILL NOT READ THAT. PALESTINIAN LIFE HAS NO VALUE. IT IS ANTi-SEMITIC TO WHINE ABOUT HOW BIBI THE BABY KILLER SLAUGHETERED TENS OF THOUSANDS OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN. THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT TO BE BELIEVED WHEN THEY COMPAIN ABOUT BEING KILLED. AND EVEN IF THEY WERE SLAUGHTERED, WE TRIED VERY HARD NOT TO KILL THEM. MY MIND IS CLOSED. I WILL NOT READ! ANYONE WHO DOES NOT SUPPORT BIBI THE BABY KILLER IS ANTI-SEMITIC. ICC issues arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu over war crimes in Gaza BIBI THE BABY KILLER: WAR CRIMINAL IN 120 COUNTRIES BIBI THE BABY KILLER: WAR CRIMINAL IN UNITED KINGDOM BIBI THE BABY KILLER: WAR CRIMINAL IN THE NETHERLANDS BIBI THE BABY KILLER: WAR CRIMINAL IN BRAZIL BIBI THE BABY KILLER: WAR CRIMINAL IN NIGERIA BIBI THE BABY KILLER: WAR CRIMINAL IN FINLAND BIBI THE BABY KILLER: WAR CRIMINAL IN AUSTRALIA BIBI THE BABY KILLER: WAR CRIMINAL IN COSTA RICA BIBI THE BABY KILLER: WAR CRIMINAL IN KOREA ALL OVER THE WORLD, BIBI THE BABY KILLER IS A WAR CRIMINAL THE WHOLE WORLD IS ANTI-SEMITIC! HOW SMART TO HAVE A MURDEROUS LEADER THAT THE WHOLE WORLD SEES AS WAR CRIMINAL! I WILL NOT READ! I WILL NOT READ! TRUMP2024 MAGA STARVE WOMEN AND CHILDREN KILL WOMEN AND CHILDREN ETHNIC CLEANSING FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN

BLAH BLAH BLAH I WILL NOT READ! I WILL NOT READ! IT CAN NOT BE TRUE THAT ALMOST HALF OF YOUNGER AMERICAN JEWS THINK I SUPPORT RACISM, APARTHEID, AND GENOCIDE. I WILL NOT READ THAT! MY MIND IS CLOSED IT CAN NOT BE TRUE THAT FOMER IDF HEAD AND PM BARAK SAYS BIBI THE BABY KILLER NEEDS TO CONTINUE THE WAR AND SLAUGHTER BECAUSE HE IS EMPOWEWRED BY RACIST ALLIES! I WILL NOT READ THAT. PALESTINIAN LIFE HAS NO VALUE. IT IS ANTi-SEMITIC TO WHINE ABOUT HOW BIBI THE BABY KILLER SLAUGHETERED TENS OF THOUSANDS OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN. THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT TO BE BELIEVED WHEN THEY COMPAIN ABOUT BEING KILLED. AND EVEN IF THEY WERE SLAUGHTERED, WE TRIED VERY HARD NOT TO KILL THEM. MY MIND IS CLOSED. I WILL NOT READ! ANYONE WHO DOES NOT SUPPORT BIBI THE BABY KILLER IS ANTI-SEMITIC. ICC issues arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu over war crimes in Gaza BIBI THE BABY KILLER: WAR CRIMINAL IN 120 COUNTRIES BIBI THE BABY KILLER: WAR CRIMINAL IN UNITED KINGDOM BIBI THE BABY KILLER: WAR CRIMINAL IN THE NETHERLANDS BIBI THE BABY KILLER: WAR CRIMINAL IN BRAZIL BIBI THE BABY KILLER: WAR CRIMINAL IN NIGERIA BIBI THE BABY KILLER: WAR CRIMINAL IN FINLAND BIBI THE BABY KILLER: WAR CRIMINAL IN AUSTRALIA BIBI THE BABY KILLER: WAR CRIMINAL IN COSTA RICA BIBI THE BABY KILLER: WAR CRIMINAL IN KOREA ALL OVER THE WORLD, BIBI THE BABY KILLER IS A WAR CRIMINAL THE WHOLE WORLD IS ANTI-SEMITIC! HOW SMART TO HAVE A MURDEROUS LEADER THAT THE WHOLE WORLD SEES AS WAR CRIMINAL! I WILL NOT READ! I WILL NOT READ! TRUMP2024 MAGA STARVE WOMEN AND CHILDREN KILL WOMEN AND CHILDREN ETHNIC CLEANSING FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN

Rand Paul breaks with Trump on using military for mass deportations: ‘Huge mistake’ GLOBALLY BELOVED CLOWN EMMA CRUELTY DECRIES MARXIST EXTREMIST FOR DEFYING MANDATE TO ROUND UP THE VERMIN FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: 202-IAM-BOZO Today universally beloved clown Emma Cruelty denounced "vermin lover" Rand Paul for defying the biggest mandate in human civilization. "After having the 2020 election stolen from him, President Trump fought back and won the biggest mandate since God gave Israel to the Jews," Emma Cruelty said. "America voted overwhelmingly to round up the vermin and get rid of it. Immediately." The pro-cruelty clown dismisses Paul's statement that Trump's plan to have armed soldiers round up housekeepers, farm workers, construction workers, and children to bring to armed camps is extreme. "These are extremists who want to protect vermin and defy Trump's overwhelming mandate. No one in this great country has ever won by 49.9 % of the vote," the clown said. "Even George W. Bush, the last Republican President who used his mandate to do really unpopular shit and lose, could only win 50.7 % of the popular vote. Trump left that loser in the dust," Emma Cruelty stated. The Cruelest Clown Ever also called out "MAGA fucker" Rand Paul for extremist and Communist ideas like "compromise" and "moderation." "This is treason, pure and simple. And we need purity right now. Pure American blood," stressed Clown Cruelty. "Paul is sticking up for vermin. He should be thrown in the camp as well." Emma Clown also warned patriots. "Don't be fooled by so-called "polls" by un-American so-called "news" organizations, like Fox News," the most beloved clown in all human history warned. "These people hate President Trump, and hate losing," Cruelty said. "He could win 99.9 % of the vote, like he did in 2020. And they would still cheat, and say he doesn't have a mandate to sweep up the vermin and get rid of it. We should deport these extremist Americans, too. Let's send them to Gaza, where justice will soon be unleashed!" Emma Cruelty also stated that she will not comment on the rumor that President Trump will nominate the globally revered clown for Attorney General if Rep. Matt Gaetz's nomination fails. "Frankly, no one is a bigger clown than Matt Gaetz," she said. "Plus, he plays well with children." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Note: Emma Cruelty is a fictional character. Any resemblance to asshole blowhards on any website is purely coincidental.)

You still refuse to say whether you think half of younger American Jews are "anti-Semitic" or Jew haters. About half of younger (under 40) American Jews say your positions are racist, and/or pro-apartheid, and/or committing genocide. Are half of younger American Jews "Jew haters"? Are they correct that you are a pro-Genocide Jew? TRUMP2024 MAGA NO! NO! NO! I WILL NOT READ FACTS! UNLEASH BIBI THE BABY KILLER JEW HATER! IF YOU DON'T SUPPORT GENOCIDE AND RACISM YOU HATE JEWS.

Trump lost the majority of the vote. Right now he is at 49.9 %. And it is going down. His mandate? In the new Harris poll 68 % of Americans say their top priority is they want him to "end inflation and price increases. Inflation had pretty much ended. Even conservative economists agree his tariffs plan will RAISE prices on the working class. Most Democrats and half of Independents say their worst fear is "Trump behaving like a dictator". 53 % of all voters and 55 % of Independents still want to see Trump tried on criminal charges. Trump does not have a mandate for lawlessness and dictatorial behavior. But he doesn't care. Just ask Matt Gaetz TRUMP2024 MAGA NO! NO! NO! I WILL NOT READ FACTS NO! NO! NO! TRUMP HAS A MANDATE FOR CRUELTY NO! NO! NO! TRUMP HAS A MANDATE FOR LAWLESSNESS

There is another answer, to give the devil his due - so to speak. Policy. Poll after poll reveals that they like Trump's conservative policies. They would love a national abortion ban. When asked whether they are voting for the person, or the policies, they usually answer the policies. If we are talking evangelicals, these are also the people who would like to repeal same sex marriage, if they can. They are happy to make a deal with the devil, so to speak. We could care less about Trump's crimes and infidelities. We just want our conservative policies. And judges. And they got them.

Sweetie. That was 2016. Get with the times. Trump has moved on from scapegoating Muslims. Now he is scapegoating The Illegals and some of the The Gays. And the proper word for them is "vermin".

Thanks for your expert advice. People all over the world look to Russia for advice on how to make democracy genocide work. Your point is both 100 % right, and 100 % wrong. Here's where you are 100 % wrong. This election was a referendum first and foremost on inflation and immigration, as it turned out. The polls of actual voters were incredibly clear about that. Had there been zero inflation after COVID, Harris would have won. Biden would have won if he did not drop out, probably. I've read at least a dozen conservative pieces saying the Democrats "blew it" because of inflation. Not one of them is realistic, or even vaguely logical, about how the world was supposed to stop either COVID, or the inflation that followed. One reasonable estimate I read is that Biden's liberal, and popular, pro-working class legislation - like stimulus checks and child tax credits - added something like 0.3 % to the inflation rate experienced in the US and all over the world, anyway. So in practical terms it works out this way for a Latino working class family. Their grocery bill is $300 more a month, due to inflation. And maybe $15 of that is the stimulus effect of Biden's working class programs. You get a $300 a month child tax credit to offset it. If that's the deal, the Latino working class family is way better off having 9 % inflation, rather than 8.7 % inflation, and a $300 tax credit. Even when inflation goes away, as it has, the child tax credit stays. That was the plan. The problem is Democrats did not have the votes. The expanded tax credits died after one year of cutting child poverty in half. And lots of other things - like child care promises - did not get close to being met. Again, Democrats did not have the votes. There is a word for this: democracy. I can personally relate, since all my tenants - nine in total - are working class families, almost all with kids or grandkids. And they are about half White families and half Black or Brown families. The expanded child tax credits helped them. Not a lot, but a little. When they went away, after one year, it made their lives a little harder. If Joe Biden was fighting like hell for them, they did not get the memo. In Genocide World, the solution is simple. Genocide Man can kill his opponents, send them to jail, or send them to be processed into meat in Ukraine. Even in Genocide World Putin has to spend the nation's wealth paying off poor families to send their men to be processed into meat. We don't do that here. The child tax credits paid poor children to not be poor, basically. Which leads us to the flip side, where you are 100 % right. Many Democrats wanted to ignore Democrats like Ruy Teixeira, saying you need to focus on the moderate, patriotic and diverse working class. Now they no longer can. Our coalition problems with the working class are now obvious. So Democrats will need to figure that out. More than anything, what Latino men - and all men and women - want to do is work hard and get ahead. That said, ideas like Social Security, Medicare, Obamacare, Medicaid, child tax credits, and government help for schools and child care are wildly popular. As are tax increases on billionaires to pay for it. So either Democrats fight like hell to win working class votes, or they don't. A lot of my more affluent Gay friends don't care about most of these pocketbook issues, except for Social Security. So they will have to decide whether they want to be part of a coalition that absolutely needs Latino working class men, who are mostly quite tolerant of LGBTQ rights. Or whether we would rather have them vote for Trump. This should not be hard. First, inflation will not be the issue in 2026 or 2028. Hopefully. Maybe it will be, if Trump tries the crazier versions of his tariffs. Which will punish the working class he says he wants to help. Unless Trump gets more graceful rather than more senile as he ages, the issue in 2026 and 2028 will be Trump. And he has basically promised tax cuts for billionaires. Oh, and maybe he won't tax tips. As this plays out, I am more and more pleased that Trump won a narrow trifecta and will barely have the votes to get what he wants. That way, whatever happens is on him. Maybe peace will break out in Israel. Maybe Trump will decide child tax credits and child care for working class Latino parents trumps tax cuts for his billionaire donors. And himself. And Elon Musk. But probably not. He'll unleash tax cuts for billionaires, and Bibi The Baby Killer's genocide, more likely. We'll see. I hope I am wrong again.

Do you have any proof of that? All the proof suggests the exact opposite. I post a lot of facts, because I care about facts. So here is one. Republicans have been comparing Joe Biden to Jimmy Carter for years. And they have a point. Carter had a 37 % approval rating when he lost in a massive landslide in 1980. Democrats lost 12 Senate seats and 34 House seats. That landslide defined a political generation, and also led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Peace through strength. Joe Biden's party just lost in a close race. Democrats lost no House seats. We may still gain one. We lost no Governor races. We won four Senate seats in states Trump just won, narrowly. Which breaks the pattern that Democrats can't win in states that vote for Trump. So, yes, it was a bitter defeat for Harris. People, including me, are feeling the pain. But the idea that it was a landslide is ridiculous. Carter's losing margin was 9.7 %. Harris lost (so far) by 1.7 %. If Trump's win is a landslide, then Joe Biden's win in 2020, when he won by 7 million votes, was the biggest landslide in human history. Instead, the lying and anti-democratic core of MAGA is still saying the 2020 election was stolen. They are deeply unprincipled. I have a niece who feels this way, who I love going to nice places with. She is wrong, and unprincipled. But I still love her. All the polls taken of voters - CNN, Fox/Votecast, Edison - show that people very concerned with US democracy and Trump's authoritarianism voted overwhelmingly for Harris. There was another group - about 10 % of voters - who said democracy and authoritarianism were big concerns, but the economy was a bigger concern. They leaned to Trump, hoping he will "fix" the economy. Whether it makes sense that tax cuts for billionaire Trump donors will "fix" the economy is irrelevant. They voted based on the economy, stupid. That group, which we know has lots of Latinos and/or younger voters, handed Trump his narrow win. Was it a realignment? Give me a fucking break! It was one election. This is also clear in a brand new Harris poll by Mark Penn, taken after the election. (Penn, by the way, was exactly right in his polling: it was a close election that Trump won.) 68 % of voters say their greatest hope for Trump 2.0 is "end inflation and price increases." That is why he won. When asked to name their top fear of Trump 2.0, 78% of Democrats and 49 % of Independents fear "Trump acting like a dictator." Trump won the Independent vote. So that means many Independents had to vote for him based on the economy, stupid. Despite their fear of his dictatorial tendencies. 53 % of all voters and 55 % of Independents say Trump's criminal trials should continue. They won't, of course. But there was no mandate for lawlessness and dictatorship in this election. There is a mandate to make things more affordable. So it's impossible to prove that all the campaigning about democracy and dictatorship moved the dial with 100 % certainty. But there is already a Mount Everest of facts suggesting it did. We now know polls taken right before Biden dropped out suggested he was so unpopular he would lose in a landslide, with Trump getting 400+ electoral votes. That is not quite as horrific as what happened to Jimmy Carter in 1980, who also had high inflation and a very low approval rating. Democrats were on track to a brutal shellacking that never happened. I think it was because Harris did a good job making the case against Trump. The fact that the argument against Trump did not work quite enough is not the same as saying it did not work at all. There is unlimited data coming in that lots of people voted for Trump despite their fears of what he will do. And he still could not get a majority. He is now at 49.9 % of the vote. Again, I know this thread is about @EmmetKruelty. He is a symbol for the hate, the cruelty, and the over reach of Trump. He wants to be as cruel as possible to Palestinians, to The Illegals, to The Gays who are transgender, and to anyone else that he wishes to be close-minded and cruel to. He could give a flying fuck that the polls say this is NOT what Americans voted for. And it is not what they want. He is happily ignorant. He says this clearly. "NO! NO! NO! I WILL NOT READ A THING! JEW HATER!" He is happily and gloriously spewing division and cruelty.