TOM NICHOLS:
"Uncharacteristically, I'll say that Democratss should stop beating up on themselves and firing volleys back and forth. (They can get back to that later.) American voters - as I've been warning for years - are changing, and becoming more like Trump. That's hard to counteract.
Maybe the mistake we all made was thinking America would elect a Black woman. I had a gut feeling they would not. But in any case, when elections are about feelings, fantasies, boredom, and resentment, the candidate who services those delusions has a natural advantage.
Democrats are understandably focused on voters who flipped because they're suffering economically. But a far larger number of voters were un-flippable and not poor! They're the comfortable Trumpers who think, like, 'Canada conspired with Michelle O to hijack voting machines.'
When millions of people think that way, you can't agonize *too* much over losing another three points during a global backlash against inflation (that no government could have stopped and that the US handled well).
Especially when you've won important House/Senate races in all those states.
The Democrats should definitely have a reckoning about their inability to recognize that becoming the party of the college-educated (which is what the GOP used to be) has affected their ability to message. And you're seeing some rumbles already.
But no Democrat can change the fact that millions of ungettable GOP votes are set in stone not because of economic conditions - which were the best any candidate could have hoped for - but because even relatively affluent voters have spent years marinating in complete craziness.
And I'll add, again, that this is not some post-hoc rationalization based on this week. I've written about this for years, and warned about it at length in a book I wrote more than four years ago. That's really why I just couldn't be optimistic about this election."
but because even relatively affluent voters have spent years marinating in complete craziness.
ReplyDeleteCollege educated voters (affluent) are swimming in "luxury values" marinara sauce.
The richest man in the world, Musk, will be co-presidenting with billionaire Trump, whose VP choice was hand-picked by billionaire Peter Theil.
DeleteAll of the oligarchs named above are college educated men who own several "luxury value" homes, and live in a marinara sauce of elitist privilege.
They are the new leaders of the on-coming Trumpification of the US: low and base moral values, more wealth for the wealthiest among us, misogyny on steroids, and forced birthing of girls and women.
The difference between Musk's 'elite" values and the SoJus' crowd's is that Musk isn't blinded by racial guilt-pride the prevents justified cultural criticism and circumvents meritocracy. DEI won't catch a rocket ship.
DeleteComing from an apartheid culture and a rich privileged family, it’s not surprising that Musk isn’t bothered about racial justice. He never had to be. Like Trump, he’s the elitist rich boy who never struggled for anything in his white privileged life.
DeleteBill Maher: "The only reason we're sitting here so peacefully now is because the one party that still believes in conceding elections lost. If the other guy had won, it would be a shit show now."
ReplyDeleteThe anti-Constitutional criminal won, the law abiding and criminal prosecutor lost.
America chose the criminal over the prosecutor.
"American voters are becoming more like Trump."
Nichols is spot on, frighteningly so.
ReplyDeleteAmerica will remain changed in so many negative ways for years to come. The result of the Orange Authoritarian fascist.
Here's what's going to happen.
ReplyDeleteTrump inherits an unemployment rate @ 4%. Rising wages (largest % gains in lowest quintile). GDP growth @ 3%. Inflation rate @ 2.1%. Falling interest rates. All due to the Biden admin. policies.
Trump said the economy is a disaster. By spring he will tout the same numbers and call it a Trump miracle. His Rubes will heap praise and if past performance indicates future results, the MSM will play along.
Trump will eff it all with massive tax cuts for the "luxury values" class and corporations. Add in massive tariffs and deportations. The economy goes to shit. 2026, congress flips to Dem. Economy continues to tank. Trump blames Dem congress. Enough unhappy people elect a Dem president and and he/she? (not likely) will spend 3 years cleaning up after another Republican president.
This isn't new, Clinton, Obama, and Biden all had to clean up messes left by Repubs. One caveat, we still have a functioning constitutional republic that values democracy in 2 or 4 years. That's a 50/50 proposition. I'd say 80/20 in favor of autocracy if Trump and his minions weren't so ignorant and incompetent.
"Relatively affluent voters marinating in craziness."
ReplyDeleteNichols, a conservative who taught at the US War College, hits the nail on the head. That was driven home to me earlier this week when I received a text from a friend. He and his wife, both with advanced degrees, make over 200K annually, own their home outright and do quite well...
Here's part of it...
"Dem votes in 2012 for Obama (65.9); Dem votes for Hillary in 2016 (65.8); Dem votes for Biden in 2020 (81.2); Dem votes for Harris in 2024 (69.2). Does the Biden 2020 number look weird to you?? I think this is what fomented the 2020 riot at the capital— 4 years of non-stop false accusations against Trump (Russia, Russia, Russia) and then a poor candidate, Biden, gets 20% more votes than Obama? People thought something was fishy but couldn’t put their hands on it. Admittedly, Republican votes were up a bit in 2020 also but not 20%"
Again, college educated, advanced degree, 200K+ income and "something was fishy". That's the craziness Nichols speaks about. No evidence. No objective proof. Nothing. Just something "fishy".
Nichols is correct. How do we argue against that?
American voters are tired of the insane social positions of the left and the throw money at any issue because it won't help but we can cover it up. Lets let massive amounts of people cross the border, spend massive amounts to take care of the, spend massive amounts buying votes from rich college kids and ignore our homeless and vets living on our streets.
ReplyDeleteNo it was not that the majority of voters are more like trump they are just less like harris. They got tired of being lied to about biden's condition, the economy, the border being secure, crime in cities being down and found the yellow brick road lead to a cliff.
Of course there is no question that Trump and the modern R party are vicious fascists, and that their voters are fools; but contempt for ordinary people, in service to luxury virtue signaling beliefs, has eviscerated the Democratic party. Maureen Dowd's brief editorial https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/09/opinion/democrats-identity-politics.html nails the three principle reasons for the destruction of the D party.
ReplyDeleteSeen on a meme: "We could have shown our daughters that girls could do anything. Instead we showed our sons that they can rape, cheat and lie, and still become the most powerful man in the country."
ReplyDeleteThis has been manifested in the young men who broadcast this meme right after Trump won:
"Your body; my choice."
The Amerikan voters voted. And the rifle toting, flag waving, bible toting, liberty loving conservatives and trumpublicans (assisted by delusional indefendenrs) voted to install an authoritarian facist regime and firmly implan the DEEP STATE MODEL their facist leadership projected as being the democrats and liberalism.
ReplyDeleteRight. As the suffering begins January 20, 2025.
PS: Remember when tRump said, just get out and vote for me and you'll never have to vote again? Well... he wasn't just making a joke. He meant it.
Fascism walked in peacefully. Invited by a sleeping ungrateful nation. After being rescued by Biden and Harris rescued in 2021-2024 following tRump's first disasrerous run.
Ignorance and stupidity is never in short supply apparently.