2024 Elections Thread

[hmaria1609]

It's the big day!

This morning I voted at the local elementary school near home before going to work. It wasn't a long wait to enter and vote. With many area public school systems closed, plenty of kids are enjoying a free day out of the classroom.

Some places are offering freebies if you show your "I Voted" sticker.

[secundem_artem]

It's the big day!

This morning I voted at the local elementary school near home before going to work. It wasn't a long wait to enter and vote. With many area public school systems closed, plenty of kids are enjoying a free day out of the classroom.

Some places are offering freebies if you show your "I Voted" sticker.

I'm not eligible to vote. So my sticker just says "I farted".

[Sea_Ice]

I voted last week, in favor of retaining a democracy in this country, of course!  If a theocracy has ever worked, I'm not aware of when.

[Parasaurolophus]

Well shit. I'm very sorry.

[Wahoo Redux]

Well, Trump was funny first time around.  He was entertaining in the same way the Stooges were.  His damage was real but not as terrible as most thought.

And whatever happens, it's on the heads of the Republicans.  So it goes.

[spork]

Well shit. I'm very sorry.

This country can be so disappointing at times.

Michael Lind on the end of political parties: https://unherd.com/2024/09/trump-vs-harris-is-just-a-front/.

[AmLitHist]

Lay a good bit of it at the feet of Biden and the Democratic leadership (if there actually is any deserving of the name). Harris and the organization did a masterful job considering she had only 4 months in the game. I voted for her, but even I agree she didn't make any real strides in revealing who and what I was actually voting for, beyond "joy" and "opportunity."

I weep for Ukraine and Gaza this morning.

[nebo113]

I was born into a country that had defeated fascism and I will die in a country that is now fascist.  I weep and I fear.

[Sea_Ice]

Neil Postman, in Amusing Ourselves to Death got this right even before the rise of social media.

It seems we're in for a variation on a short poem by e. e. cummings:  "red-flag and pink-flag / blackshirt and brown / strut-mince and stink-brag / have all come to town / some like it shot / and some like it hung / and some like it in the twot / nine months young".  All of it, of course, will still be swathed in hypocritical statements designed to hide what it truly is.

This is not going to be fun, constructive, or anything else positive.  Especially with the pseudo-religious faction that seems about to be handed a bunch of power.  I've seen traces of them working toward this my whole life, and am sickened to see their efforts rewarded.  I'm struggling to remember what the Bible says about recognition of evil - it included the inability to create, having instead only the ability to imitate, corrupt, and destroy, and it takes great pleasure from doing all of that.  It's also disgusting that so many truly religious people have been so focused on doing good that they got suckered into siding with evil, thus becoming the tools of that evil.

However, they cannot change objective reality - only the perception of it, the subjective reality.  And the subjective reality that they prefer is a disaster.  That is already becoming obvious with the steadily increasing amounts of death and disability resulting from the lack of reproductive care for women that have been imposed in so many states - the hypocritical statements about "protecting" women and life only serve to illuminate the evil behind the laws.  There is no telling what other aspects of health care will be eliminated, thus increasing suffering, disability, and death.  Climate change is another bit of reality that they prefer to deny - again, it can't be negated by refusing to believe in it.

I'm not going to beg God for mercy - we, collectively, brought this hell onto ourselves.

[Ruralguy]

There's nothing I'd like more than Trump not being as bad as we say he is. Its on odd claim by his cultists (that he isn't as bad as we say he is), because they know they voted for him because he is that! They just don't all want to admit it.

I'm afraid I and everyone else who voted other options will only be a little wrong. Hope we're a lot wrong, but I just don't think so.

Hey, I was wrong about Harris winning, so I can be wrong about this too.

[ciao_yall]

Lay a good bit of it at the feet of Biden and the Democratic leadership (if there actually is any deserving of the name). Harris and the organization did a masterful job considering she had only 4 months in the game. I voted for her, but even I agree she didn't make any real strides in revealing who and what I was actually voting for, beyond "joy" and "opportunity."

I weep for Ukraine and Gaza this morning.

What about the Republican leadership who allowed themselves to be co-opted by a criminal?

What about the people who voted for him, cheering mass deportations and 45 minutes of grooving to his favorite tunes?

[Diogenes]

If RFK Jr. actually gets appointed and "goes wild" on HHS as Trump promised, we have an anti-science anti-intellectual crackpot at the head of the NIH. So much research funding universities rely on goes bye bye. Not to mention the harms to the CDC.

[secundem_artem]

Countries usually get the government they deserve.  America just did.

Mrs.Artem is just apoplectic at how this turned out. I'm not surprised at how it turned out.

Americans love a blowhard, they love the wealthy and the famous,  they look down on the educated, they believe the sun shines out their arse, and that they are the most important thing on the planet.  So, they voted for a guy that reflects all of those values.

All the polls said this was going to be a squeaker and decided on the margins. Turns out it wasn't even close.  Got to wonder what this means for the polling industry.

Gonna be an interesting few years.

[Sea_Ice]

Countries usually get the government they deserve.  America just did.

Mrs.Artem is just apoplectic at how this turned out. I'm not surprised at how it turned out.

Americans love a blowhard, they love the wealthy and the famous,  they look down on the educated, they believe the sun shines out their arse, and that they are the most important thing on the planet.  So, they voted for a guy that reflects all of those values.

All the polls said this was going to be a squeaker and decided on the margins. Turns out it wasn't even close.  Got to wonder what this means for the polling industry.

Gonna be an interesting few years.

Please give a little more consideration to the rather large minority who did see through that schmuck, don't worship Mammon, and did vote correctly.  Please?

[kaysixteen]

Polls did not distinguish themselves this time round, no.  I am thinking about a question, and wonder (political scientists here, etc., please do comment)-- how can we assess how much of Harris's defeat can properly be laid on the Bradley Effect?  Were studies to this effect made, and when might the results be published?   There obviously are a lot of other reasons for her defeat, most importantly perhaps the ahistorical cult of personality her opponent has constructed, but, well... she is black, and she is a she....