;)
The Commentariat -- November 5, 2020
Afternoon Update:
Joe Biden made a brief statement late Thursday afternoon:
Mrs. McCrabbie: 12:40 pm ET: Updates in vote totals for the undeclared states generally are going in Biden's direction, except for Arizona, where the changes -- so far -- are not critical. However, Biden has not overtaken Trump in Georgia (where it looks like a stretch to suppose he will) or Pennslyvania, where Trump's margin continues to diminish with every ballot dump. Biden's margin has increased in Nevada.
Biden is expected to speak again this afternoon. Trump is in his hideyhole & hasn't been seen since his early-morning crazy-rant Wednesday, tho occasionally he limbers up his Twitter thumbs & emits plaints like "STOP THE COUNT!" & "STOP THE FRAUD!" Very presidential.
The New York Times' live election updates Thursday are here. The Washington Post's live updates, which are free to non-subscribers, are here.
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Election News
Arizona. The newest batch of votes dropping in Arizona (@9:15 pm ET Wednesday) are mostly same-day drop-off votes from Maricopa (Phoenix) County. The first batch heavily favored Trump, & Biden's lead was cut from about 93K to 80K. It has since been cut to about 68K. Despite the AP's call for Biden, it appears Trump could still take Arizona.
The New York Times' live election updates Wednesday are here: "President-Elect Biden delivers very presidential remarks Wednesday afternoon: "The undecided presidential election entered a new phase on Wednesday as former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was declared the winner of Michigan and Wisconsin, two key swing states that President Trump won four years ago.... The president found himself with few paths remaining to winning the 270 electoral votes needed to win re-election. By Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Biden was holding slim leads in several key states that, if they hold, could propel him to the critical Electoral College threshold and the presidency. The lingering uncertainty of the 2020 campaign was perhaps unsurprising in an election with record-breaking turnout where most ballots were cast before Election Day but many could not be counted until afterward.... With millions of votes yet to be counted across several key states -- there is a reason that news organizations and other usually impatient actors were waiting to declare victors -- Mr. Biden was holding narrow leads in Arizona and Nevada. If Mr. Biden can hold those states, the former vice president could win the election even without Pennsylvania, which has long been viewed as a must-have battleground state."
President-Elect Biden delivers very presidential remarks Wednesday afternoon:
MEANWHILE. Jim Rutenberg & Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "With his political path narrowing, President Trump turned to the courts and procedural maneuvers on Wednesday in a last-ditch effort to stave off defeat in the handful of states that will decide the outcome of the bitterly fought election. The president's campaign intervened at the Supreme Court in a case challenging Pennsylvania's plan to count ballots received for up to three days after Election Day. The campaign said it would also file suit in Michigan to halt the counting there while it pursues its demands for better access for the observers it sent to monitor elections boards for signs of malfeasance in tallying ballots, modeled on a similar suit it was pursuing in Nevada. On Wednesday evening, Mr. Trump's team added Georgia to its list of legal targets, seeking a pause in the counting there in the wake of allegations by a Republican poll observer that a small number of ineligible ballots might be counted in one location. In Wisconsin, which along with Michigan was called on Wednesday for his Democratic opponent, Joseph R. Biden Jr., the president's campaign announced it would request a recount." ~~~
~~~ Amanda Holpuch of the Guardian: "With millions of votes waiting to be counted in the US presidential election, Donald Trump has effectively threatened to sue his way to re-election. As of Wednesday evening, the president and his campaign had promised to bring the election to the supreme court, sued to halt vote-counting in three battleground states [-- Michigan, Pennsylvania & Georgia --] and requested a recount in [Wisconsin]. But at this moment, there is no evidence the campaign's legal challenges will have a bearing on the election result under the law. Instead, the concern is how litigation plays in the court of public opinion, where the suggestion of fraud in one battleground state could cast doubt on the whole election." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Ron Klain pointed out on MSNBC Wednesday that Trump's suit to halt the vote count in Michigan is a particularly stupid distraction: Biden is ahead & has been declared the projected winner. ~~~
~~~ Rick Hasen: "What to make of all of this [litigation]? First, the effort is to slow the vote in places where the Trump campaign is behind so that these states are not called for Biden leading to a call of the Presidency for him should Biden reach 270 votes. Optically that makes it very hard for Trump. The concomitant effort is to push for further counting where Trump is behind to help him reach 270. On top of that, the hope is that these Hail Mary legal plays could lead to court intervention to throw out votes and help Trump capture one of these states. This is possible but very unlikely.... Finally, and most disturbingly, the effort is perhaps one to cast doubt on the legitimacy of a Biden presidency should he win. We always knew Trump would claim without evidence that fraud cost him the election. These suits let him pile up what might appear to some supporters as evidence but are actually unsupported assertions of illegality."
Isaac Stanley-Becker, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump, his son and top members of his campaign on Wednesday advanced a set of unfounded conspiracy theories about the vote-tallying process to claim that Democrats were rigging the final count. Eric Trump tweeted a video, first pushed out by an account associated with the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory, that purported to show someone burning ballots cast for his father. The materials turned out to be sample ballots.... Trump's son and others, including White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, claimed falsely in tweets later hidden by warning labels that the president had won Pennsylvania -- even though no such determination had been made. And the campaign's spokesman, Tim Murtaugh, claimed without evidence that crowd control at a processing center in Detroit was an effort to thwart Trump's chances of reelection."
Alexander Burns & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "With no winner declared in the 2020 presidential race, President Trump appeared in the White House just after 2 a.m. on Wednesday to brazenly claim he had already won the election - and to insist that votes stop being counted even though the ballots of millions of Americans had yet to be tallied. Speaking with a mix of defiance, anger and wonder that the election had not yet been called in his favor, the president recounted his standing in an array of battleground states before falsely declaring: 'Frankly, we did win this election.' No news organizations declared a winner between Mr. Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr., and a number of closely contested states still had millions of mail-in ballots to count, in part because state and local Republican officials had insisted that they not be counted until Election Day. Mr. Trump said, without offering any explanation, that 'we'll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court,' and added: 'We want all voting to stop.' No elected leader has the right to unilaterally order votes to stop being counted, and Mr. Trump's middle-of-the-night proclamation amounted to a reckless attempt to hijack the electoral process as results in key battleground states were still not final, something without precedent in American politics." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "Addressing the nation from the White House about 2:30 a.m., Trump challenged the integrity of the vote to an unprecedented and breathtaking degree. The president said the ongoing vote count in Georgia, Pennsylvania and other key battleground states amounted to 'a major fraud on our nation,' and he vowed to file lawsuits to stop it. Claiming a conspiracy to keep from declaring him the victor, Trump said: 'This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ David Bauder & Lynn Elber of the AP: "In a stunning scene in the middle of the night, news organizations rebuked ... Donald Trump after he falsely said on live television that he had won reelection even as votes were still being counted.... CBS News' Nora O'Donnell said Trump was 'castrating the facts' by 'falsely claiming that he has won the election and disenfranchising millions of voters whose ballots have not been counted.' 'Donald Trump is losing right now both in the popular vote and the electoral vote and there are many states left to be called,' ABC News' George Stephanopoulos said. Said NBC News' Savannah Guthrie, 'The fact of the matter is we don't know who won the election.' Guthrie had interrupted Trump's speech to tell viewers that several of Trump's statements were not true.... 'This is an extremely flammable situation and the president just threw a match into it,' said Fox News Channel's Chris Wallace." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Mark Sherman of the AP explains what's going on to Fuckface von Clownstick: "... Donald Trump says he-ll take the presidential election to the Supreme Court, but it's unclear what he means in a country in which vote tabulations routinely continue beyond Election Day, and states largely set the rules for when the count has to end. 'We'll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court -- we want all voting to stop,' Trump said early Wednesday. But the voting is over. It's only counting that is taking place across the nation. No state will count absentee votes that are postmarked after Election Day.... Joe Biden's campaign called Trump's statement 'outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News: "In the early hours of Wednesday..., Donald Trump declared: 'We will be going to the Supreme Court.' That's not how the courts work, though. With rare exceptions that don't apply to the election, no one can simply bring a case to the US Supreme Court.... Regardless of whether the Trump campaign's lawsuits succeed in stopping any ballots from being counted, they've underscored Trump and his campaign's efforts to falsely question the lawfulness of ballot counting that extends beyond Election Day -- something that happens in every election. On Wednesday, dozens of Michigan residents tried to disrupt ballot counting at a site in Detroit, spurred by fake information that spread online of widespread fraud."
Max Greenwood of the Hill: "Joe Biden said early Wednesday that he is on track to win the 2020 presidential election, as vote returns show a narrowing, yet still viable, path to victory for the former vice president. Speaking to supporters at a drive-in election night event in Wilmington, Del., in the early hours of Wednesday, Biden urged patience while election officials across the country tally outstanding ballots. But he projected confidence in his chances of capturing the White House, laying out a path to victory that runs through Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. 'It may take a little longer,' Biden said to honking car horns. 'As I've said all along, it's not my place or Donald Trump's place to declare who won this election. It's put to the American people. But I'm optimistic about the outcome.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
The Long Arm of Trump's Personal Lawyer Bill Barr. Katie Benner of the New York Times: "The Justice Department told federal prosecutors in an email early on Wednesday that the law allowed them to send armed federal officers to ballot-counting locations around the country to investigate potential voter fraud, according to three people who described the message. The email created the specter of the federal government intimidating local election officials or otherwise intervening in vote tallying amid calls by President Trump to end the tabulating in states where he was trailing in the presidential race, former officials said. A law prohibits the stationing of armed federal officers at polls on Election Day. But a top official told prosecutors that the department interpreted the statute to mean that they could send armed federal officers to polling stations and locations where ballots were being counted anytime after that.... [The DOJ official] sent his email about half an hour before Mr. Trump made reckless claims including falsely declaring himself the winner of the election and began calling for election officials to stop counting ballots.... The new legal interpretation about armed officials at vote-counting locations appeared to be another example of the attorney general mirroring Mr. Trump's public posture, former Justice Department officials said."
Giovanni Russonello of the New York Times: "As the results rolled in on Tuesday night, so did a strong sense of déjà vu. Pre-election polls, it appeared, had been misleading once again. While the nation awaits final results from Pennsylvania, Arizona and other key states, it is already clear -- no matter who ends up winning -- that the industry failed to fully account for the missteps that led it to underestimate Donald J. Trump's support four years ago.... It is ... possible, said Patrick Murray, the polling director at Monmouth University, that Republicans' efforts to prevent certain populations from voting easily had a sizable impact -- a factor that pollsters knew would be immeasurable in their surveys.... He added, 'We will never know how many ballots were not delivered by the post office.' But what is now clear based on the ballots that have been counted (and in almost all states, a majority have been) is that there was an overestimation of Mr. Biden's support across the board -- particularly with white voters and with men, preliminary exit polls indicate."
William Saletan of Slate: "It's been a crazy election, and ballots are still being counted, but we can get a few ideas from the exit polls.... First, this electorate seems to have been more conservative than the 2016 electorate. In the 2016 exit polls, conservatives outnumbered liberals by 9 percentage points. In the initial 2020 numbers, the margin is 13 points.... Despite this, Joe Biden held his own by connecting with people in the middle.... Biden won 8 percent of people who said they had voted for Donald Trump in 2016. Trump, in this election, won only 4 percent of those who said they had voted for Clinton. That gap may decide the eventual outcome.... The patterns so far suggest several lessons. One, Democrats are having trouble attracting self-identified Christians. Two, they can't count on the votes of people of color, just because the Republican candidate is overtly racist. Three, they need better turnout on the left. And four, they need to consolidate a majority of independent voters. If they don't fix these problems, they could be looking at difficult maps for a long time to come." --s Firewalled.
Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times: "... I fret about Trump's efforts to do Russia's work and delegitimize this election, I also keep wrestling with this question: How is it that so many millions of Americans watched Trump for four years, suffered the pain of his bungling of Covid-19, listened to his stream of lies, observed his attacks on American institutions -- and then voted for him in greater numbers than before?"
Fred Kaplan of Slate: "This [election] raises a much broader, more disturbing question. During the campaign, Biden and many of his surrogates, including former President Barack Obama, one of the most popular men in public life, would recount a few of Trump's inadequacies and say, 'This isn't who we are.' Well, maybe in fact, it is.... Trump may wind up defeated, but Trumpism very much endures." --s Firewalled.
Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Republicans, buoyed by an unexpectedly strong performance by President Trump in key battlegrounds, grew increasingly confident on Wednesday that they could maintain narrow control of the Senate and make a considerable dent in the size of the Democrats' House majority.... Even as they continued to game out possibilities, Democrats emerged on Wednesday decidedly downcast.... Privately, House Democrats who survived were licking their wounds and contemplating whether leadership changes needed to be made at the party's campaign committee. The losses stung."
Frank Jordans & Seth Borenstein of the AP: "The United States on Wednesday formally left the Paris Agreement, a global pact it helped forge five years ago to avert the threat of catastrophic climate change. The move, long threatened by ... Donald Trump and triggered by his administration a year ago, further isolates Washington in the world but has no immediate impact on international efforts to curb global warming." ~~~
~~~ Mike Murphy of Market Watch: "Hours after the U.S. officially pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement, Joe Biden said that if elected president, he would immediately rejoin it. 'Today, the Trump Administration officially left the Paris Climate Agreement. And in exactly 77 days, a Biden Administration will rejoin it,' Biden tweeted."
The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here: "The United States on Wednesday recorded over 100,000 new coronavirus cases in a single day for the first time since the pandemic began, bursting past a grim threshold even as the wave of infections engulfing the country shows no sign of receding. Nineteen states have recorded more cases in the last week than in any other seven-day stretch. The total number of cases is expected to continue growing into the night as more states and counties report data." Emphasis added.
Way Beyond the Beltway
Brazil. Tom Phillips of the Guardian: "Jair Bolsonaro's eldest son has been formally accused of embezzlement, money laundering, misappropriation of funds and directing a 'criminal organisation' as sleaze allegations continue to swirl around the family of Brazil's far-right president. Prosecutors in Rio de Janeiro announced late on Tuesday that they had filed the charges against Flávio Bolsonaro, 39, a senator whose affairs have been under the spotlight since the eve of his father's January 2019 inauguration." --s
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Reader Comments (23)
Going to bed, Bea. Also a little tired out.
Fortunately, was easily able to turn off MSNBC when the talking heads began their customary post-election pleas for the Democrats to reach out to Pretender supporters, to try to understand them and their grievances...
We've heard it before, and while I believe there's some justice in the charge that we Dems tend to look down on anyuone not sharing our large view of life, moments like this make it very clear the challenge is a large one:
A headline from the WAPO:
"Trump supporters chant ‘count the votes’ in Arizona," standing outside a Maricopa County facility inside which people from both political parties are busily engaged in.....counting the votes.
A long one to chew on, but worth it, I think. Believe the author has the voting patterns right (in October), but still thinking about the reason(s) he adduces. I know I would add a few more, like the two G's of geography and greed.
https://eand.co/americas-problem-is-that-white-people-want-it-to-be-a-failed-state-bac24202f32f
No matter the outcome of the presidential race, the Democratic Party has to double down on increasing their numbers in the House and taking the Senate back from the traitors who have surrendered themselves wholly to the will to power by any means, and the criminal, greedy and nefarious desires of the Trump Crime Family.
Restoring the Senate to its original position as a body of legislators—not charlatans—representative of and representing the entire country will be vital, especially if Trump and the future Nuremberg Trial defendants on the confederate-controlled Supreme Court, succeed in stealing this election.
Polls should be reduced to a blunt instrument rather than the razor sharp scalpel status they’ve been unfortunately, and still, perhaps fatally accorded.
Democrats nationwide should pay careful attention to the strategies employed by their colleagues in Arizona. Flipping states, in the same way that confederates did to the entire south over the last 30 years, is a long game. We don’t need our own Powell Memo, but maybe we should be developing a sort of Marshall Plan to win hearts and minds (where possible), but mostly to grow and harvest the next generation of young voters who can ultimately knock off the traitors.
The arrogance and poorly developed assumptions, plus a weak stomach for the trench warfare that sunk Gore, Kerry, and Clinton must be extirpated with extreme prejudice.
The promised Blue Wave that died out before reaching the shore can still become a reality. Be smart, be strong.
I am with Kristof: how in the hell can there be SO MANY people who approve of the monster Trumpsterfire is?? I don't think I will ever trust a repugnican again, with anything. They don't care about others to the nth degree-- there is simply no doubt. They are racist and ageist and womanist, if that is a word...they don't even pretend otherwise. They are truthers and birthers. I just saw the mob gathered outside the vote-counters' HQ in AZ, when that was going on in their favor. So they are also stupid and mean.
Nothing changed here in Lancaster County. No Democrat won anything he or she didn't have before, cuz repugnican always...I live in a mostly blue area/enclave, which is comforting, but all around is a sea of red.
Worrying that the House repugs may have picked up some noise-makers and we lost some from 2018. There are many able Dems to pick up Pelosi's mantle if she truly is on her last stand, so that doesn't worry me much for 2022...I realize that old-line politics are not going to be played much longer, but that is fine.
I have to say: the prospect of no longer having to look at his piggie face or read crappy tweets gives me giddy joy, and the progeny being gone is uncompromisingly glorious to contemplate. Imagine a world where every policy decision doesn't make you gnash your teeth, that maybe we can yet save the planet, hopefully, and some of the reversals of bad decisions can start very quickly. So that gives me the warmth of many suns of hope, even though the jerks of the other side are simply hiding, not gone... The Senate makes me sick, though-- all the bad people have been rewarded with re-election except Cory Gardener and he was small potatoes. I wanted Susan and Lindsey and Mitch punished and they were not. Maybe Chicken Perdue will lose, but I doubt it. It will be a tough one to work with them. And so it goes...
HE will not go gently into the night if, indeed, he loses. He has months to go before he has to surrender and because he is an unscrupulous bastard he will and he can achieve a monumental amount of destruction.
The "we are better than this" said by many who want to believe that–-Obama's no red states or blue–-just one big old United one rings hollow now and did back when he first said it. There is in this country a deep division that culminated in a Civil War and it looks like that divide has never really healed–-has never really been acknowledged throughly until we faced it again with the "Black Lives Matter" movement, the White Supremacy movements, the pandemic, etc. and the reign of Trump. What we have seen during this election is stunning in its overwhelming support for Trump; we need to understand why–-there are no easy answers, in fact, the complexity of this division looms large.
I am bringing up one of my late comments from yesterday because it shows another aspect of how many have been totally taken in by the CON ––an almost erotic surrender to magical thinking.
Mark Danner, attending many of Trump's rallies, gives us the flavor of the crowd . One example is one of the rallies in Michigan where Trump begins his con job with this:
"We brought you a lot of car plants, Michigan! We brought you A LOT of car pants. You know that, right?"
And the unmasked crowd cries back positively. This, of course is a lie–-plus since his ascension not less than three thousand Michiganders has lost jobs in the vital auto sector.
Danner scans the crowd and comments on the many men with T.shirts that have the face of Trump as Superman, Rocky, and other super heroes. He then has a conversation with a woman with whom the reality of their fealty stands stark:
"He had promised Michigan new car plants and within the chilly expanse of his own mind he had delivered. And the roar of worshipful approbation meant that he had carried these thousands of souls to that place with him. “Dang!” a sweatshirted middle-aged woman told me afterward as we waited in line to buy hot dogs and lemonade. “I had no idea he had done so much for the state! I mean, people hardly even talk about it…” She was a nurse, trained in anatomy, physiology, biology—science, that is to say. But to her the president’s word was Truth; the idea that “people hardly even talk about” the car plants because they don’t exist was not only heretical but inconceivable. She couldn’t conceive it and neither could the thousands of others shouting around me."
This says so much, don't it?
It’s looking more and more like the Fat Fascist will once again lose the popular vote. More evidence of the dangerous insufficiency and inexactitude, not to mention the essentially anti-democratic nature, of the Electoral College, especially when one folds in the scary possibility that electors can subvert the will of the majority by rejecting the winner in favor of their own choice.
Just imagine building a house (or a space shuttle) by eyeballing it as opposed to using exact measurements. We have irrefutable proof of the stupidity of that plan in the “elections” of the Decider and the Orange Menace. What would our house look like had we used exact measurements? The roof wouldn’t constantly leak, doors and windows would keep out the cold air, and that hole in the floor where rats and snakes crawl in unimpeded would be non-existent. And it’s highly likely that our space shuttle would not have exploded on the launch pad, and prior to that, would not resemble something built by the Three Stooges Space Administration.
But the traitors have had two lessons absolutely drilled into their black hearts: the Electoral College is their best path to the White House (this thing would be over without it), and vote suppression is their best strategy in all races up and down the ballot.
They ain’t giving up on either any time soon.
Jeanne, don’t rejoice too heartily over the possibility of no future Trumpen Tweets. That fat little birdie will screech like a vulture with its wings torn off.
And PD, the story you pass on about an ostensibly smart (okay, well, trained in a specialized discipline) woman wondering why she hadn’t heard about all the amazing (non-existent) wonders Fatty had delivered to her state is another in the long list of baleful two-fers that have buoyed Trump’s fat ass.
First, he knows that his slaves will believe whatever lie he tells them. Then, they’ll all be sure that the wonders he invents have been hidden from them by the deep state and the liberal commie media, both of which are full of anti-American schemers who are out to get them and hate Trump.
And whatever else happens, a big thank you to Marie for manning (womaning?) the battlements over the last few days when the rest of us were paralyzed with exhaustion and sputtering outrage.
This is no mean feat. Yesterday morning, looking for some small corner away from thoughts of four more years of unbridled fascism and gold digger grifting, I popped in a movie (“The Bandwagon”). And even though I laughed for the umpteenth time watching Fred Astaire, Nanette Fabray, and Jack Buchanan dressed as babies in the Triplets number, wishing for a “widdle gun” to shoot the others, I could not escape a sense of impending doom.
And I didn’t have to keep my eyes glued to the field glasses watching enemy movements, as Marie was doing.
So many thanks, Marie, for your steadfast efforts on behalf of all of us, of democracy, and the US of A.
One more thought...and not a good one.
Lindsay Graham will continue his smarmy slithering on the belly and Susan Collins lives to be “concerned”, for six.more.years.
Jesus.
I have been trying to think of the reasons close to half of U.S. voters chose Trump, from innocuous to creepy. I'm sure you can think of more.
I've always voted Republican.
Trump is the only living person with on-the-job training eligible for the job.
Trump is very macho.
Trump is a successful businessman and he runs this country like a business.
Joe Biden is a life-long bureaucrat.
Joe Biden is a socialist.
It's my civic duty to vote even though I don't know anything about any of the candidates.
I'm completely ignorant, but my Uncle Fred dragged me to this polling place.
I believe everything I hear on Fox "News" & I'm grateful to Sean Hannity & Tucker Carlson for keeping me informed.
I don't read much besides Donald Trump's tweets, and I'm grateful to him for keeping me informed. Especially the parts in all caps.
The best way to reform the country is to have a horrible president who ruins it so we can start again.
I don't like women and neither does Trump.
I hate women & so does Trump.
I don't like minorities & neither does Trump.
Okay, I'm a virulent racist & enjoy going to Nazi gatherings.
I join Akhilleus in thanking Marie for her steadfast Womanning this day after day deluge of disasters. You, my friend, to clear the rumbles in the noggin resort to Bandwagons and such:
" I popped in a movie (“The Bandwagon”). And even though I laughed for the umpteenth time watching Fred Astaire, Nanette Fabray, and Jack Buchanan dressed as babies in the Triplets number, wishing for a “widdle gun” to shoot the others, I could not escape a sense of impending doom." Yes to both one of my favorites–-those Triplets–-how I love it–-and yes, the doom doesn't disappear. I, myself, resort to YouTube videos of babies and rescue dogs. Perhaps Marie, in order to clear her mind at times, takes hikes in the hills of New Hampshire and yodels like Maria Von Trapp–-worked for Maria.
Good list, Bea, which I'd summarize this way:
I see the core of Pretender supporters as simply the latest iteration of previous American generations who followed radio preachers like Father Coughlin, a man who preyed on the nativist fears of ignorant people trained by their fundamentalist religions to believe anything their favorite strong man told them. Note the "father" and the "man."
For these people, there is no room for dispassionate analysis, for science or reasoning, so the easiest and only way to deal with personal or social discomfort is to dismiss the causes by ignoring (hence: ignorant) and denying them.
This morning I kinda sympathize with them.
While I know the people who inhabit the red swathes in America's middle (the vote percentages in those states in favor of the Pretender are startling, often double or more than Biden's) are the nation's real problem, but I'd like to ignore or deny it because I have no idea what to do about them.
A bit of the old QED...
It’s worth pointing out that had the ignoramus pretending to be a leader done something about the coronavirus besides lying, hawking bleach as a cure, lying, waving his magic wand, and did i mention lying? it’s quite possible that there might not be as many mail-in ballots. Not only that, had he actually taken the appropriate steps to protect the health of millions of Americans, he might not be losing the popular vote (AGAIN).
In short, had he been a real leader, he might not be screaming to stop counting votes.
Exhibit number 32,678 and counting, that Fatty is unfit for the job he stole in 2016.
QED, little donnie.
A simple answer for the Why Trump? question is two-fold. These people are not citizens of the United States. They belong to the Tribe of Trump. They pretend to constitution the Constitution, but most of them have never read it and only know a single amendment anyway.
Secondly, they love their hatreds more than they love the country, or at least the idea of America as broadly envisioned by the founders. All that Originalism bullshit is just a parlor trick to get out of actually dealing with the realities of 21st century America by pretending fealty to what they magically claim slavery supporting 18th century rich white men believed in.
So, as much as they claim to love them some ‘merican values, it’s all a put on. They’re perfectly content with vote suppression, election rigging, the constant beat down of minorities, women, and anyone or any idea that doesn’t add to their waning power and influence.
They’re not Americans. They’re confederates. And, as we all know, the original confederates were traitors who killed Americans.
The influence of unchecked propaganda going to the confederates cannot be overstated. From foxnews to whackadoodle facebook feeds, people are getting (mis)information that completely envelopes them.
@Akhilleus: I guess I should have added,
I will support Donald Trump even if he shoots someone in the face on Fifth Avenue, but I hope the person Trump offs is not a white Christian man.
Why do they love him?
He justifies lack of accountability and responsibility, and signals approval of "just being yourself." As opposed to "being a responsible citizen." His people feel that they should not have to consider the welfare of the country as a whole or people who are not their own family/clan. They resent it when "liberals" create the means of sharing the country's welfare by saying "its the right thing to do." They believe nobody should tell them what is the right thing to do (notice how often you hear them saying that something is being "shoved down their throat"), because they are willing to do the right thing of their own volition ... or, they were, until "liberals" MADE them do it, so now they won't, see?
Boil it down and they love him because he justifies selfishness, even though they know it isn't justified. Salesmen work to make you feel good about yourself so they can gain your confidence and make the sale. He's a salesman.
Marie,
At least not a white Christian man I care about.
Another crack in the whole faux Christian thing is how so many of these Trumpbots forget, or just ignore as inconvenient, one of the central tenets of Jesus’ teachings, love thy neighbor as thyself. Parading around without masks in the middle of a pandemic in order to show the little king your support and to “own the libs” regardless of how such stupidity may affect others, up to, and including, death, is not loving your neighbor. In any way.
It’s loving Trump, and yourself, more than anything.
WWJD? Prob’ly not that.
@Patrick: Very likely you got to the heart of it.
Bea: Maybe you left it out on purpose, but the reason I heard the most was some variation of "Yes he's a jerk but my 401K is doing great."
@joynone: Very good point. "It's all about me!" and "Freedumb!" are real reasons people voted for Trump. Plus, "Joe Biden is going to take my gun away."
Yes, to all Patrick said.
Ian Frazier weighs in with what I see as a supporting perspective on red state country, which he knows very well.
According to Frazier, those folks feel abandoned in part because they have been abandoned (presumably with the exception of government largesse in the form of massive subsidies--29 billion from the Pretender to compensate for his silly tariff war) by the rest of the counttry, and (Ken, not Ian) because they live in what has become an increasingly foreign and even unattractive land, which those who do not live there find very hard to understand.
A place to visit, maybe, but not one to live.
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/11/19/election-rural-america-could-stand-remembering/
My thanks as well to all Marie--and everyone who comments here--have done over the past four plus years. And just to add some levity, my favorite comment so far from an early-in-the-day NY Times brief: trump's legal actions will work as well as trying to walk up a down escalator.