2020 Election Results

[Treedbear]

Biden just past the +4 million mark on the popular vote.

You beat me to it.

I had the reply all set to go and was waiting for it all evening. For hours it just sat there about 77,000 shy of +4M and then suddenly it zoomed by it and now it's 80,000 beyond and holding. This has been fun but I've gotta get to bed soon.

Now they're arguing about what kind of voter is more likely to bring a mail-in ballot when they vote in person in Maricopa County, AZ. Like I did but I'm in Connecticut. Republicans claim even though Dems are more likely to apply for a mail-in, that then waiting to vote in person is Republican behavior. All I can say is dream on. And btw when I voted in person at 2:30 in the afternoon at the local elementary school the place was empty. They didn't even want to see my mail-in ballot. Took me less than 5 minutes. But I think that from now on mail-in ballots will have to be the norm. This has set the precedent.

 

[lpetrich]

Trump used federal authorities to clear protesters from the park in front of the White House in June, calling the group an anarchist mob.

But he has tiptoed around intimidation carried out by his supporters, declining to directly condemn the far-right group the Proud Boys or demonstrators who stormed Michigan’s legislature earlier this year over coronavirus pandemic restrictions.

Trump also cast doubt on the federal investigation of an alleged kidnapping plot against Michigan’s Democratic governor, saying last month that people “should have the right” to decide for themselves whether the alleged plotters were guilty of anything.

After a caravan of supporters surrounded and delayed a Biden campaign bus on a Texas highway last week, Trump cheered them on.

“In my opinion, these patriots did nothing wrong,” Trump said in a tweet Sunday. “Instead, the FBI & Justice should be investigating the terrorists, anarchists, and agitators of ANTIFA.”

What a disgrace. He likes lawlessness when the lawlessness is on his side, it seems.

 

[prideandfall]

Does that mean that the Democratic Party now has the problem that the Republican Party has?

think it means the citizenry of america has a representation problem - with only two parties, both of them being entrenched in and caring more about the acquisition and sustaining of power than of having an ideological purpose and following it.
well... ok that's not so true with the republicans, honestly they seem to do a pretty good at doing both simultaneously.
but the democratic party is god fucking awful at it, and we the people are ill served by it.

there needs to either be a third political party that serves an actual progressive agenda, or a substantial takeover of the democratic party to move it in a more progressive direction.
having the US political system only be represented by either flat out fascism or a whinging limp-dick party walking meekly along behind the fascists only cleaning up the worst of their steamy leavings is not a viable strategy for the long term progress of civilization.

 

[Politesse]

Centrist House Democrats lash out at liberal colleagues, blame far-left views for costing the party seats - The Washington Post

An angry dispute erupted among House Democrats on Thursday, with centrist members blasting their liberal colleagues during a private conference call for pushing far-left views that cost the party seats in Tuesday’s election that they had worked hard to win two years ago.

An angry dispute erupted among House Democrats on Thursday, with centrist members blasting their liberal colleagues during a private conference call for pushing far-left views that cost the party seats in Tuesday’s election that they had worked hard to win two years ago.

...
Party leaders had expressed certainty that Trump’s divisiveness and mishandling of the pandemic would help them expand their majority with wins in GOP-held districts — and yet they lost at least a half-dozen seats and failed to retake the Senate. The explanation laid out by centrists, according to multiple people who were on the call and spoke on the condition of anonymity, is that Republicans were easily able to paint them all as socialists and radical leftists who endorse far-left positions such as defunding the police.

“We need to not ever use the word ‘socialist’ or ‘socialism’ ever again. . . . We lost good members because of that,” Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.), who narrowly leads in her reelection bid, said heatedly. “If we are classifying Tuesday as a success . . . we will get f---ing torn apart in 2022.”

Other centrists, including Rep. Marc Veasey of Texas, made similar points. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a Florida Democrat who suffered an unexpected loss to a Republican challenger, argued through tears that the party’s infighting on Twitter needs to stop.

Liberals, meanwhile, fired back. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, argued that Democrats shouldn’t single out people and ideas that energize the party base. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), a self-described democratic socialist, grew angry, accusing her colleagues of only being interested in appealing to White people in suburbia.

“To be real, it sounds like you are saying stop pushing for what Black folks want,” she said.

It's disappointing that it is not the Republicans who are squabbling. But if Trump is defeated, as he is likely to be, then it will be the Republicans' turn to squabble.

Unbelieveable cheek. They got their guy in the spot, spent their money doing things their way, and completely sidelined the Progressives as much as they possibly could without outright disowning them. And then the far Left, despite this ill treatment, overwhelmingly voted for Biden. It's their so-called crossover votes from disaffected white Repulican housewives that somehow failed to appear. This egg is on their traitorous, cowardly faces. What a joke we have for a "Left" in this godforsaken country.

 

[bilby]

The right wing (not just in America, but worldwide) have always used 'Law and order' as code for 'Obedience to authority'. Particularly in situations where the authorities are flouting the law, or stirring up disorder for the specific purpose of scaring the people into support for authoritarianism.

Politicians help to make the law, but that doesn't place them above the law; Nor does it imply that they can change the law at a whim.

Police help to enforce the law, but that doesn't imply that all force used by police must therefore be lawful.

In both cases, there's due process. And the absence of due process is itself an undermining of law and order. Indeed, the absence of due process justifies disorder by the populace, in support of the law.

Rioting in the streets is frequently an indication that there's too much policing, or too much inappropriate and unpopular legislation. It indicates a need for more law and order, not to put down the riots, but to put down the authoritarianism that has inspired the riots, and to redress the social imbalances that allows them to start and to spread.

The best way to address theft isn't to catch more theives; It's to ensure that nobody's in a position where they must steal in order to live.

The best way to address rioting isn't to use teargas and baton rounds against rioters; It's to ensure that few people feel powerless to resolve their grievances with authority via more peaceful means.

Tough on crime just means more grievances and more crime. We need politicians who are tough on the causes of crime - poverty, powerlessness, and marginalisation.

 

[lpetrich]

Trump turns angry and despondent as possible defeat looms - The Washington Post

During a midday visit Tuesday to rally staff at campaign headquarters, the president said he had not yet given much consideration to either a victory or concession speech.

“Hopefully, we’ll be only doing one of those two,” he said. “And, you know, winning is easy. Losing is never easy. Not for me, it’s not.”

But by Tuesday night, it became increasingly clear that Trump would deliver neither speech.

Then him grumbling about Fox News calling Arizona for Biden.

Trump began complaining about voter fraud and the election being stolen, and by the time he appeared in the East Wing around 2 a.m. Wednesday to make remarks, he was determined to declare victory, even though his prepared notes did not say that.

“Frankly, we did win this election,” Trump said in comments that were roundly criticized, including by many allies.

...
By Wednesday evening, however, Trump had begun telling allies he believed he could lose — but only because the election was being “stolen from him,” a campaign official said. And when he woke up Thursday, he was angry again and eager to take a more defiant tone, advisers said.

...
But on Thursday evening, the president appeared in front of reporters at the White House around 6:45, seeming subdued and deflated, and made unproven claims about voter fraud and vowing to continue the fight through legal channels.

...
“The ballgame is not over but it’s fading away from Trump a lot,” Eberhart said. “It could be a fitting end to Trump. He was so litigious for his business career, and he might go down in a torrent of lawsuits.”

Trump has never had a very big defeat any time in his life, as far as I know. He has been bailed out all too often. But will his aides decide that he is not worth trying to bail out this time?

 

[blastula]

Less than 20k deficit in PA. Biden should take the lead within hours. But I hope they call it when everyone is awake.

 

[lpetrich]

Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005 - YouTube - it has an especially interesting part where he described how painful it was for him to be expelled from Apple back in 1985. But he grew from that experience.

Trump has never had anything like that, as far as I know.

In a speech of historic dishonesty, Trump tried to reinforce his long-planned effort to retain power - The Washington Post

For 15 minutes, he delineated nonsensical allegations about the state of the presidential election, claiming to be the victim of nefarious efforts to prevent him from earning a second term. And when he finished, after espousing obviously false claims to a room of reporters who knew better, he didn’t even have the courage to face their inevitably probing and challenging questions.

His argument:

The president claimed that Democrats supported the use of mail-in ballots to alter vote totals after Election Day. He claimed the media, pollster and technology companies were arrayed against him as well. He spent some time on the polls, claiming they were efforts to “suppress” Republican turnout. He complained the margins he enjoyed shortly after polls closed in some states had since eroded — something he suggested was suspicious — and insisted he had evidence of impropriety that would be upheld by the courts.

Trump’s White House statement: Falsehood upon falsehood - The Washington Post

Like “If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.” and “A lot of votes came too late. I’ve already decisively won many critical states, including massive victories in Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, to name just a few. We won these and many other victories.”

Judges in two states reject Trump campaign lawsuits as the president continues to press unsubstantiated claims of fraud - The Washington Post

In PA, Trump is ahead by 0.27% - a fraction that continues to decline.

 

[bilby]

 

[J842P]

Centrist House Democrats lash out at liberal colleagues, blame far-left views for costing the party seats - The Washington Post

An angry dispute erupted among House Democrats on Thursday, with centrist members blasting their liberal colleagues during a private conference call for pushing far-left views that cost the party seats in Tuesday’s election that they had worked hard to win two years ago.

An angry dispute erupted among House Democrats on Thursday, with centrist members blasting their liberal colleagues during a private conference call for pushing far-left views that cost the party seats in Tuesday’s election that they had worked hard to win two years ago.

...
Party leaders had expressed certainty that Trump’s divisiveness and mishandling of the pandemic would help them expand their majority with wins in GOP-held districts — and yet they lost at least a half-dozen seats and failed to retake the Senate. The explanation laid out by centrists, according to multiple people who were on the call and spoke on the condition of anonymity, is that Republicans were easily able to paint them all as socialists and radical leftists who endorse far-left positions such as defunding the police.

“We need to not ever use the word ‘socialist’ or ‘socialism’ ever again. . . . We lost good members because of that,” Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.), who narrowly leads in her reelection bid, said heatedly. “If we are classifying Tuesday as a success . . . we will get f---ing torn apart in 2022.”

Other centrists, including Rep. Marc Veasey of Texas, made similar points. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a Florida Democrat who suffered an unexpected loss to a Republican challenger, argued through tears that the party’s infighting on Twitter needs to stop.

Liberals, meanwhile, fired back. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, argued that Democrats shouldn’t single out people and ideas that energize the party base. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), a self-described democratic socialist, grew angry, accusing her colleagues of only being interested in appealing to White people in suburbia.

“To be real, it sounds like you are saying stop pushing for what Black folks want,” she said.

It's disappointing that it is not the Republicans who are squabbling. But if Trump is defeated, as he is likely to be, then it will be the Republicans' turn to squabble.

Unbelieveable cheek. They got their guy in the spot, spent their money doing things their way, and completely sidelined the Progressives as much as they possibly could without outright disowning them. And then the far Left, despite this ill treatment, overwhelmingly voted for Biden. It's their so-called crossover votes from disaffected white Repulican housewives that somehow failed to appear. This egg is on their traitorous, cowardly faces. What a joke we have for a "Left" in this godforsaken country.

I really hate Spanberger. I'd rather that district go red than have to work with her as some sort of political ally, because we are not allies, and her district being nominally blue doesn't help me or my interests. Fuck the CIA.

But "defund the police" is probably the worst political messaging you can imagine.

 

[Politesse]

But "defund the police" is probably the worst political messaging you can imagine.

This is true, though I doubt anyone who is appalled by it enough to therefore not vote for Biden (who of course did not endorse it) likely believes that Democrats are anti-police to begin with. I wish they were, but of course they themselves ran on the ever-popular "tough on crime" dogwhistle for decades.

 

[lpetrich]

As to messaging, I think that "defund the police" is an awful slogan. I'd prefer "reform the police" or "rebuild the police" or "reject overpolicing".

I'd also say about a Green New Deal that it involves a *lot* of job creation.

Six Takeaways From Election Night - The Daily Poster

"1. Democrats’ Weak Economic Message Hugely Helped Trump"

"2. The Lincoln Project And Rahm Emanuel Embarrassed Themselves"

By trying to court Republican voters. But there were not many "Biden Republicans", and if anything, rank-and-file Republicans supported Trump 93% this time around instead of 2016 90%.

"3. People Don’t Love The Affordable Care Act"

A lot of people like a "public option" - Medicare for all who want it

"4. A Lot Of Grassroots Money Was Set On Fire"

For Senate races in KY, SC, TX, and AL, supporting candidates who were defeated by 10 points or more.

"Democratic Senate candidates saw a massive surge in donations after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death in September — before the party barely put up a fight and Justice Amy Coney Barrett was quickly confirmed to the Supreme Court."

What cowards they were. What did they expect their cowardice to get them?

"5. Democrats’ Court Calculation Was Wrong"

The Democratic leadership was worried that a fight over the Supreme Court would only motivate the right wing.

"6. A Large Percentage Of Americans Have Lost Their Minds"

In mid-October, Bloomberg News reported that “the proportion of Americans dying from coronavirus infections is the highest in the developed world” — and yet exit polls show 48 percent of Americans believe their government’s efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic are going very well or somewhat well.

After a season of destructive wildfires and hurricanes, the same exit polls show 30 percent of Americans say climate change is not a serious problem.

We may credit the likes of Fox News.

Pleasant surprise. Vote counting in GA continues, and Trump now leads by only 0.013%. That's 665 votes.

 

[dannyk]

View attachment 30144

Yes that is gold!

 

[TV and credit cards]

Didn't like the way MSNBC cut Trump's live press conference (sans questions) off after the first sentence. Then they have Nichol Wallace come on again after he's done and start trying to justify what they did. They forced me to switch down one channel to FoxNews to hear what BS he had to deliver. I don't appreciate their edifying what is and isn't news. Fortunately Maddow didn't back them up. Quite embarrassing.

They have no obligation to allow anyone to use their platform to spread lies. Further, I would think their concern is by allowing such blatant falsehoods to be aired over their network they could be abetting violence and rioting.

 

[J842P]

Biden takes the lead in Georgia.

https://www.ajc.com/politics/democr...margins-tighten/A4YKJJ5ZLRF3RFQNFV5EJ6745U/?d

 

[repoman]

2012 NYT article about mail in voting.

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/us/politics/as-more-vote-by-mail-faulty-ballots-could-impact-elections.html

Without Republican led voter suppression Biden would have won almost all of these toss up states. But the remedy of ballot stuffing afforded by the mail in voting is also terrible.

This country is in a bad state. Two wrongs make a double wrong.

 

[blastula]

No update out of PA for 8 eight hours. Biden will surely be ahead at next one.

 

[lpetrich]

Gravel Institute on Twitter: "Biden condemned Cuba and Venezuela all the time and he had the worst Democratic performance among Hispanics in decades. Pandering doesn't work." / Twitter
Was that an effort to get the Miami Cuban vote?

Gravel Institute on Twitter: "The Lincoln Project raised $67 million to win more Republican voters to Biden. They spent it on "consultant fees." And Joe Biden just did worse among Republican voters than Hillary Clinton did in 2016. Biggest grift in years." / Twitter

Emma Vigeland on Twitter: "No matter the outcome, the fact that this election is so close is a clear indicator that Americans aren’t connecting material conditions on the ground — a depression, pandemic, low wages, etc — to the consequences of politics. Which is an abject, disgusting failure of Democrats." / Twitter

Nina Turner on Twitter: "This election has proved that Trumpism is alive and well. The sad truth is that it will be here to stay unless we can learn to deliver BIG for working people and stop marginalizing progressives.

The outcome of this election is a wake up call! https://t.co/YI93uuGuZb" / Twitter


Sunrise Movement DC on Twitter: "We know Trump is doing everything he can to steal this election. We’re in the streets and will continue to be to #DefendDemocracy and ensure every vote is counted. We can’t fight climate change or pass a #GreenNewDeal with an organized white supremacist in the People’s House. https://t.co/A3BZ96NzmY" / Twitter

One of the banners says "This is a democracy. Act like it."

The Truth About the Electoral College - YouTube - criticism of it.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Gravel Institute on Twitter: "Biden condemned Cuba and Venezuela all the time and he had the worst Democratic performance among Hispanics in decades. Pandering doesn't work." / Twitter
Was that an effort to get the Miami Cuban vote?

Gravel Institute on Twitter: "The Lincoln Project raised $67 million to win more Republican voters to Biden. They spent it on "consultant fees." And Joe Biden just did worse among Republican voters than Hillary Clinton did in 2016. Biggest grift in years." / Twitter

Emma Vigeland on Twitter: "No matter the outcome, the fact that this election is so close is a clear indicator that Americans aren’t connecting material conditions on the ground — a depression, pandemic, low wages, etc — to the consequences of politics. Which is an abject, disgusting failure of Democrats." / Twitter

Enough of this bullshit! It is pissing me the fuck off!!!!

Biden won over 70 million votes! A guy that didn't perform well (forget win) in a primary until South Carolina. A guy none of us were excited about. He won over 70 million votes... and the majority of the popular vote. Biden and the Democrats can't have failed if they pulled this off.

Yes, it is very disappointing that there wasn't a wave. But there are a couple reasons for that. The electorate is shifting. The Trump supporters are insane (politically). The Senate map was hopeful in a wave, but we needed Iowa, Montana, South Carolina, North Carolina to switch. These aren't Democrat safe states. Not winning Senate elections in Montana isn't a failure! Maine... no idea what happened there, other than Collins wasn't guilty of a crime, just bad judgement, so that probably got her across the line.

The House? Do people remember how gerrymandered that place is? The Democrats won a higher percentage of the vote in 2018 than the Republicans did in 2010... and had 10 or 15 fewer seats.

If the failure is anywhere... it is the State Legislatures that we were hoping would change. But it appears Trump has successfully pushed the polarization of the US into a near permanent state.

But back to fucking Biden... who fucking won Georgia (or came as close to winning as possible)... looks to have won Arizona... re-established blue wall. These are not failures. They are not remotely failures. Blacks turned out in Georgia, incredibly well. Blacks turned out in Pennsylvania as we see the returns pour (trickle) in. Blacks turned out in Michigan! These states are not as blue as they were, but Biden and the minority vote got them back as Blue!

So enough of this fucking whining bitch Democrat pity party. We need to look at the massive successes from 2020, and apply that to other areas, if possible, and stop having the centrists attacking the liberals... and vice versa. The Democrat Party is a wide spectrum of political beliefs due to having representatives in rural, suburban, and cities. The Republicans don't have that to deal with. The Democrats represent all of America, not just rural and racist white suburban areas. So grow the fuck up everyone! America is changing, it is always changing and we need to stay with it.

 

[barbos]

Biden leads in PA !
by 5587 votes.