Like many, I didn't see that coming. I'm sure someone will make a sculpture of this image in the months to come. The CNN election news crew seemed disappointed when Kamala ran out of opportunities to make up the difference in Pennsylvania. John King kept showing all the large blue dots that indicated areas that still hadn't been fully counted, but one by one the dots shriveled up and she hardly made a dent in Trump's lead. All that was left was for Van Jones to deliver his eulogy in the early morning hours, just like he did in 2016.
I guess greed and anger trump hope and joy. That's the message that has been heard around the world. One Guardian columnist offered a snarky if accurate take on Trump 2.0. Yep, those who think they will gain favor in his administration are forgetting what happened to the last one. Objectively, we know what will occur given Trump's "dysfunctional relationship with power."
Many thought we had learned our lesson from the first administration and that Kamala would sneak in, if barely. What got me was how she lost states that Democrats won in their Senate races, namely Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada. Collectively, it wouldn't have been quite enough to win. I think it would have given her 267 electoral votes. But, why did Democrats, or at least Democratic-leaning voters, not give Kamala their vote in these states?
It wasn't about Gaza, or inflation or any one of the number of other issues bandied about. I couldn't help but think there were just enough disgruntled Democrats who didn't like the way Biden was forced out of the race, particularly in Pennsylvania, a state he took by 80,000 votes in 2020. The turnout was about equal between the two elections in this state.
The battleground states all reported high turnouts that matched or exceeded 2020. Since all the focus was on the states, the turnout diminished in other states that had little bearing on the outcome, even with pivotal Senate and House races on the line. If a presidential candidate doesn't campaign in the state, these voters feel little reason to turnout. They seem to think the President controls everything. Of course, if Donald gets his way he will. It comes down to a handful of House races to determine the final outcome of Congress.
If the Republicans pull off the trifecta, they may very well cede government to the executive branch, as Project 2025 is insisting they do. Only in this way can they remake government in their radical conservative image. I doubt there will be much resistance among Republican ranks.
California is already prepping for such a nightmare scenario. They may even want to consider secession. There really is nothing in it for them these next four years and as far as most Americans are concerned, the state can cleave off into the Pacific as it does in disaster movies. That probably won't happen. Instead, California plans to fight its battles in court.
We still have ten weeks left of a Democratic administration. Biden better squeeze through as many judicial appointments as he can so that states will be able to challenge Trump's executive orders in federal court. But, Donald holds the "trump card" in the US Supreme Court, which can overrule any of these decisions and probably will. After all, they gave him executive immunity.
B'bye Jack Smith. He no longer seems interested in pursuing the insurrection charges. Trump is still due to face Judge Merchan later this month for sentencing in New York, but what can the judge do in the wake of this unprecedented election victory? Then there is Fani Willis, who won re-election in Fulton County, but I'm sure the State of Georgia will continue to block her efforts to prosecute Trump on racketeering. After all, the two major figures in this case, Gov. Kemp and Sec. of State Raffensperger, both gave their support to the convicted felon, despite all the death threats that followed Donald's "request" to find 11,780 votes in 2020.
We are in for a rough ride, not just in America but all around the world, as his re-election has sent shockwaves through Europe and beyond. Hungarian PM and current titular head of the EU Viktor Orban is ecstatic! He hopes Trump's victory will finally win over countries in Europe and lead to the break down of the EU. However, Brussels is bracing itself just like California. It has been doing so ever since Biden began to slip in the polls. Leaders hoped Harris would win, but were preparing themselves for the worst.
Ukraine finds itself once again in purgatory. Biden has promised to release the remainder of the military funding before inauguration day. That may last them through the worst days of winter, but beyond that Ukraine appears to be on its own unless European leaders like Scholz and Macron find their balls. Not much chance of that happening though. Ukraine won't be admitted into NATO any time soon. That's for sure.
How and why Trump won a second tour will be parsed out for months to come, but it really comes down to a relative handful of the electorate that had voted for Biden in 2020 but switched back to Trump in 2024, trading one dotardly old man for another. It's like America has a "grandpa" fixation.
Anyway, I'm signing out for a while. I spent way too much time on politics and will think of other things to write about. Needless to say, Trump is not my president.
This from WaPo expresses my sentiments pretty closely: “I’m most worried that this country is not what I thought it was, but someplace much more cruel and nasty and selfish, both in its attitude toward our fellow Americans and in its conception of America’s place in the world,” Ruth Marcus wrote.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like he will get the same amount of votes he got in 2020. So, nothing new here. What is unsettling is that Americans chose to turn off Kamala. She will get about 10 million fewer votes than Biden from 2020. Yet, the battleground states were pretty much on par with 2020 but the swing went Trump's way this time by as much as 150,000 votes in PA, GA, and NC. We are talking about a swing of approximately 720,000 persons across the seven battleground states that Kamala devoted virtually all her time toward. Even there, she focused mostly on the metropolitan areas. Her campaign team chose to concede the rural areas to Trump. I don't think this changes the dynamics of the country significantly. We are talking about a relatively small margin. The problem is that it was just enough to tip the balance of power in a very significant way.
DeleteMy takeaway is that Democrats have to develop a rural game. They used to do well in Iowa, Missouri, South Dakota and Kansas. You can win over voters in these states if you target them. Right now they feel the only party showing any interest in them is the GOP, and so they reward it with their votes, as self-defeating as it may be.
I would take solace in your assessment, except that his support didn't waiver in light of all that we now know. He has the same level of support as before January 6, before his convictions and before the classified documents case. He ran a campaign of hate and retaliation and that resonated with the majority of America. We live in two alternate realities.
ReplyDeleteApparently more Americans think Kamala is a communist than those who think Trump is a Nazi. Boy are they in for a rude awakening!
DeleteI'm still trying to sort this out mentally. Like in 2016, he seemed to act like he was losing the election. Even Republicans were distancing themselves from him, hoping he wouldn't tarnish their Senate and House campaigns. Yet, he literally pulls the election out of his ass. How is that?
ReplyDeleteI was looking at the so-called inflation. Sure, prices spiked in 2022 but they had been steadily coming down. Eggs, which were such a big issue, spiked at $4.25 in Dec. 2022, and then plummeted to 2.10 in 2023. They had been climbing again but were still under $3.00 in most places. Given their sharp rises and falls, the prices seemed to be due more to speculation than inflation but whatever.
I suppose Kamala never properly addressed the issue, at least in voters' minds. They still held the Biden administration responsible and she was the stand-in. Joe seemed resentful that people weren't hailing his economic recovery with all its high water marks. Nope, eggs and gas and high rent and utilities were foremost on everyone's mind. It didn't matter what economists said. You have to relate to the people, fill 'em full of anecdotes, even if most related back to the spike in prices in 2022. Kamala never found her footing here. She was painting in broad strokes, whereas Trump focused in what seemed to addle Americans most.
PS: Al-Jazeera noted that Trump made gains in every single state, although not necessarily reflected in Senate and House races.
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