Alright, two things:
1) Biden won. Just accept it. This pandering to conspiracies is pathetic. Grow up.
2) Speaking as a doctor, the COVID-19 pandemic is NOT “just the flu”. You try working in A&E with 20 patients requiring oxygen. Cases and deaths are rising again in both USA and UK. No, it’s not “obedience” to wear a mask; it’s fucking common sense. Hopefully these vaccines will work and next year we’ll be back to somewhat normal life. Until then, just act responsibly.
I find it hard to believe that Trump didn't speak to normal Americans. I live in a suburb in the Milwaukee area, and even here, this close to a major urban center, there were Trump signs everywhere. The night before the election there was a small rally in the downtown center near where I work. Go out into the Wisconsin countryside and it's practically nothing but Trump signs. Add to that all the people like me who won't put a sticker or sign up because I don't care and don't want to get vandalized, and you have a pretty sizeable chunk of the population.
Won't argue that, though I always have cared about it and think it undermines the fabric of the entire country. I think this particular one though it was probably taken to new extreme levels.
I didn't forget. All these voting machines are suspect in my book. This isn't about Republicans vs Democrats. This is where you have already lost sight of the real issue. This is about the forces hidden beneath the surface that ACTUALLY set the agenda for a government, no matter whether and elephant or a donkey sits in a particular part of it.There was the Diebold machine election controversy in 2004, which Republicans have conveniently forgotten about this time around. There hasn't been a Republican election in my lifetime where they didn't try to steal it.
Won't argue that. They should have expected this shit after Trump managed to win the last one. But again, this ISN'T about Republicans vs Democrats. Note that Republicans other than Trump are on track to make big gains in congress. Trump isn't REALLY a Republican, he does now represent a focus of directional change in the Republican platform, and we see some following suit, others kind of keeping their distance. He was NOT the party favorite to get their nomination in 2016.Republicans are always talking about election fraud, but they do nothing to fix the issue. We still defend them, like we're doing in this thread. Even the supposed politically-atheistic Libertarians.
Yeah, none of those versions of the Republican platform are popular. But TRUMP Republicanism sure as fuck is. The guy got people who had previously voted for Obama to vote for him (I'm one of them, though I only voted for him this time, I was skeptical of him back in 2016). I also know he even mobilized longtime nonvoters to vote for him.Republicans love to point to election fraud to direct peoples' attention away from their pathetic platform. Romney Republicanism is not popular. Bush Republicanism is not popular. McCain Republicanism is not popular. There's a reason these guys got fucking steamrolled by Obama.
Maybe California does have a "Night of the Voting Dead" problem. But I think most Republicans would agree the state at large is a lost cause for them because they are too unpopular with the big city crowds, and California has three such cities.Republicans will say "There sure are a lot of DEAD voters in California!" (as if they could ever fucking win California) because it's a way to gaslight their supporters and make it seem like they are somehow the winning side, but the other team cheated. They have the right ideas, and they are truly moral and virtuous. The fact of the matter is, the Republicans have shitty ideas and they're also not virtuous.
Republican spending stances are (usually) on the side of responsibility. Responsibility is not something people at large are drawn to, unfortunately.Part of the reasons Democrats win is because their campaign platform does more for regular people. Just to be clear, it's not like they actually go through with it. I'm not a Democrat. They too are establishment neo-liberals. But their message speaks about things that matter to regular Americans. Meanwhile, McConell, in the middle of a lockdown, is concerned about a second round of stimulus because it'll "hurt people's work ethic".
I wasn't exactly keen on politics at that time, but I'm pretty sure the idea behind amnesty was "okay, we fucked up and let all these people in, so let's let them have amnesty, and going forward stop fucking up and letting more people flood in". Unfortunately, only the amnesty part happened. Otherwise, amnesty combined with clamping down on border security and speedy deportations of anyone who comes in illegally is a pretty solid compromise approach.The Republicans are trying to run on Ronald Reagan talking points to win an election in 2020, which only 6% of the electorate actually believes in. Ironically, the amnesty on illegals which was to primarily help Big Business (the GOP has always been in bed with Big Business) meant that Reagan's own political moves made it very difficult (if not impossible) for Republicans to ever win a national election ever again in the future by turning so many of these states permanently blue.
Again, you are equating Trump with the mainstream Republican agenda. He has unfortunately had to try and work with these people, and I'll admit many times he let them take advantage of him to get their pet shit passed while getting no reciprocity for his own initiatives. I think a lot of people rightly realize that the Saudis are going to get their arms deals and Wall Street is going to get their bailouts, again, regardless of whether a donkey or an elephant gets to sit in a particular chair.Trump lost this one because his message doesn't speak to normal Americans, and the last 4 years have shown him to be just another establishment Republican. People don't want to be fed more lines about conservative bootstrap-ism economics, only to then watch their conservative leadership send billions in COVID-19 stimulus to Wall St. or set up 10-year arms deals with Saudi Arabia. What's in it for them?
I'm a millennial, much as I hate to admit it. I do not like the idea of UBI. People are more and more willing to take government money because they are DESPERATE. But the answer isn't UBI. The answer is to create an environment where they DON'T HAVE TO BE DESPERATE. Trump does not have the only primarily boomer following you think he does. I watched livestreams of that march in DC. There were people of all fucking stripes in that group. A LOT of young men. I imagine like me, they just want a world where they can make a living, live comfortably, and raise a family. Even before the economic side effects UBI brings in, it does not provide that. UBI isn't a magic save for the shitty situation people are in, UBI is the 21st century version of "let them eat cake". A thousand dollars a month, much as it may seem great to people struggling, is fucking crumbs. Shave a mouse and throw it out in the cold, and it'll come right to your hands for warmth even if those same hands are the ones that put them through the whole ordeal. That is what is being perpetuated on the world. "Communism for thee, but not for me" is the goal. Which is how communism usually pans out anyway. But this time, it's rich assholes pushing for it and I have no doubt the new "system" will somehow involve them keeping all the comforts they enjoy as rich people.Average Americans are, understandably, finding less and less troubling with the idea of taking every fucking cent they can from the US government if it is going to improve their lives and let them have a family. Ideas like Universal Basic Income, and student loan forgiveness, don't compute with white, boomer Republicans because they came up and made their wealth in a post-WW2 America which simply no longer exists. We live in a world where wages haven't kept up with growth, and have absolutely flat-lined since the early 2000's. Typically, those vehemently opposed to UBI (or muh socialism) are those who not affected by student loan debt. Those who, due to the era in which they were born, are economically removed from the associated hardship. They are not living it, so predictably they don't care about it.
Again, not at all a boomer. I'm a millennial who has a great deal of difficulty finding ANY work regardless of my qualifications. But UBI isn't the answer, a world where I can get a job and earn money by contributing my talents to society is the answer.Yes, this generation worked hard but they have deluded themselves into thinking they gained all their success and riches solely on their own merit, and not because their side had effectively bombed their economic enemies into submission. There was no legitimate economic competitor to the US and therefore there was unparalleled economic prosperity. They don't understand the empire is now decaying, and things don't work that way anymore. It doesn't surprise me that these hyper-individualistic boomers can't understand UBI, debt jubilees or the idea that what happens elsewhere in the country will eventually affect them.
Online is the only place I can even find detailed opinions OUTSIDE my own personal echo chamber. If I stick to offline, I have the small group of people I personally know and mainstream media, which is pretty much lock step with the real rulers of the country. The internet is the only place you can actually explore other viewpoints besides the "approved" ones. Why do you think they are trying so fucking hard to put a collar on it? I don't know if he ACTUALLY lost primarily due to fraud. But it sure fucking looks like it. Joe Biden is the weakest presidential candidate I have seen in my entire life. Even before his brain started to visibly break down, he was a pretty mediocre politician and was known to say a lot of dumb stuff and plagiarize speeches (just unload a double barrelled shotgun into the air, that's how you defend your home, you don't need a gun with an actual magazine!).After nearly a month of this election malarkey, it does seem like the only people who still think Trump primarily lost this due to voter fraud are those who are Extremely Online, and get their sense of reality from their online echo-chambers.