2024 United States Presidential Election

[Dennis Reynolds 20,371]

Just now, Snow said:

Trump is already giving his victory speech. Because of course he is.

Current electoral vote tally based on calls (270 to win):

• Donald Trump: 267
• Kamala Harris: 214

I really don't know how the US, and the world, is going to come back from this. Like where do we go from here? The last Trump presidency started a wave of politicians with Trumpian values taking office all over the world. We're supposed to have that.. again? We barely made it out last time. 

This is a nightmare.

This is something that is also not spoken of enough. Just yesterday I was seeing polls in Canada that showed more would prefer Pierre Poulievre as Canadian Prime Minister next year because he’s a “better match” for Trump. Which he is.

[Dennis Reynolds 20,371]

Kamala is up to 224. Again, would have to win basically everything from here on out to have a chance at winning (that would be extremely highly contested if she somehow did).

[Katy Petty 533]

Its over they got the Senate, House and Presidency. There’s gonna be so many changes in the next years. 

[Physical 1,472]

Still hoping she wins 💙 

[Snow 27,838]

Horrifying.



Where do we even go from here? Genuinely.

[Snow 27,838]

Trump is even winning Nevada. I don't know how much miracle we need to get back from this, or if that's even possible anymore. 

The next 4 years are going to be extremely turbulent and terrifying. 

[Dennis Reynolds 20,371]

Not to get anyone’s hopes up falsely but it is odd that neither numbers have budged in the two hours of sleep I kind of got since I last posted.

[Dennis Reynolds 20,371]

 

Very, very disappointing results here…..

[Princess Aurora 31,749]

[V For Vendetta 7,259]

I am so fucking disappointed, and I don’t even live in the US.

Seriously, what the HELL happened????

Do people not care about abortion rights or reproductive rights????? Do people not care about affordable health care????? Do people not care about the environment?????? 

Fuck right off. I’m done. 

[Kristina 16,998]

This is so crazy. Like.. imagine the majority of voters ACTUALLY voting for a racist, misogynistic, disgusting, incompetent criminal.  That’s a scary thought, and I’m so glad it isn’t my country. But truth be told, to an extent this affects the whole world, not just America.

Crazy, backwards country. Of course not everyone, but well.. The voting doesn’t lie. Sadly I think a democrat could’ve won if it was a white man, but the country wasn’t ready for a FEMALE president of COLOR. That’s the truth.

[Kristina 16,998]

And I’m sorry to everyone who voted Kamala. You did what you could and you did the right thing. Sorry you have to live the next 4 years under president Trump.

[Snow 27,838]

Kamala ran a STELLAR campaign and destroyed Trump on all fronts, so much that he didn't want to do another debate. None of that mattered. Trump won with absolutely no plan, no policy, no strategy, no planning. His rallies were half empty, nobody was there to actually listen to his ideas. Like he won literally PURELY on hate and fearmongering.

And it's not like he ran against a weak candidate. This is not a Hillary situation where the candidate was unpopular on both sides and we were only voting to stop Trump from winning. Kamala is highly popular and is among the most qualified candidates, she literally has over 20 years of experience in all 3 branches of government. And she lost to a TV host.

And a big part of this is that it's not even that Trump has gotten wildly more popular, he's as unpopular as ever. Trump currently has 71 million votes compared to 74 million he got in 2020, and it's looking like he will end up in the same vote range. But Biden got 81 million votes in 2020, while Kamala so far got a bit over 66 million (87% votes counted). There are still more votes coming, but that's still a 15 million gap, and she's losing many of these swing states by 2-3%. If even 1 million more people had voted in these states, we would've won because there's only 100-150k vote differences in these states.

I really didn't want to make it about gender// but something tells me if a white man had the same exact same views, personality, age, charisma and job experience, he would have been winning by a landslide.

[Snow 27,838]

This was arguably far worse than 2016.. you could chalk up 2016 to people being tired of the political establishment and saw Trump as a fresh breath of air or whatever, most people were none the wiser (even though you would've known if you paid attention - but as we know, people don't), but voting for him in 2024 is insane work.

He's literally shown us who he is. He's vowed to "be dictator on day one" and has called to put political opponents in front of a firing squad, on top of an endless amount of other things. 72+ million people saw and heard all this and said yes.

And I know I have asked this on this thread multiple times now.. but genuinely, where do you go from here? How do you, as a nation, move forward when half the country has voted to willingly embrace fascism?

[Dennis Reynolds 20,371]

9 minutes ago, Snow said:

Kamala ran a STELLAR campaign and destroyed Trump on all fronts, so much that he didn't want to do another debate. None of that mattered. Trump won with absolutely no plan, no policy, no strategy, no planning. His rallies were half empty, nobody was there to actually listen to his ideas. Like he won literally PURELY on hate and fearmongering.

And it's not like he ran against a weak candidate. This is not a Hillary situation where the candidate was unpopular on both sides and we were only voting to stop Trump from winning. Kamala is highly popular and is among the most qualified candidates, she literally has over 20 years of experience in all 3 branches of government. And she lost to a TV host.

And a big part of this is that it's not even that Trump has gotten wildly more popular, he's as unpopular as ever. Trump currently has 71 million votes compared to 74 million he got in 2020, and it's looking like he will end up in the same vote range. But Biden got 81 million votes in 2020, while Kamala so far got a bit over 66 million (87% votes counted). There are still more votes coming, but that's still a 15 million gap, and she's losing many of these swing states by 2-3%. If even 1 million more people had voted in these states, we would've won because there's only 100-150k vote differences in these states.

I really didn't want to make it about gender// but something tells me if a white man had the same exact same views, personality, age, charisma and job experience, he would have been winning by a landslide.

I don’t disagree, but I also find it hard to imagine what the ideal candidate to run against Trump looks like anymore. How do you devise a reliable strategy against someone whose supporters literally do not care in the slightest about what he says, when that includes saying they’re totally worthless to him?

 

2020 was kind of a perfect storm, and frankly if COVID hadn’t been a thing Trump likely would’ve won then too. Paired with that year’s issues, Biden was both centrist and recognizable enough to have a shot, but I don’t know if I think he would’ve done much better if he had stayed in the race this time. The idea that the Dems could just basically take a page from the GOP’s book and try to run a celebrity like Oprah or Taylor Swift or The Rock or whoever doesn’t seem very well-liked, so I’m not sure who it is. Trump supporters will literally be read a statement they were told was from Biden and call it disgusting, only to be told it was really Trump who said it and then completely backpedal. They move their moral compass around Trump. I don’t think it’s impossible to beat him, since it obviously happened once, but I don’t see how you can really run someone against him who will never be held to comparable standards by their own base.

[Snow 27,838]

7 minutes ago, Dennis Reynolds said:

I don’t disagree, but I also find it hard to imagine what the ideal candidate to run against Trump looks like anymore. How do you devise a reliable strategy against someone whose supporters literally do not care in the slightest about what he says, when that includes saying they’re totally worthless to him?

2020 was kind of a perfect storm, and frankly if COVID hadn’t been a thing Trump likely would’ve won then too. Paired with that year’s issues, Biden was both centrist and recognizable enough to have a shot, but I don’t know if I think he would’ve done much better if he had stayed in the race this time. The idea that the Dems could just basically take a page from the GOP’s book and try to run a celebrity like Oprah or Taylor Swift or The Rock or whoever doesn’t seem very well-liked, so I’m not sure who it is. Trump supporters will literally be read a statement they were told was from Biden and call it disgusting, only to be told it was really Trump who said it and then completely backpedal. They move their moral compass around Trump. I don’t think it’s impossible to beat him, since it obviously happened once, but I don’t see how you can really run someone against him who will never be held to comparable standards by their own base.

It is the core of the issue, yeah. Facts don't matter to his supporters, and he's conditioned and desensitized them to the point where he could literally shoot someone in the middle of a street and none of them would care or even bat an eye. He could just say Democrats made him do it and they'd believe him.

The bigger problem at large is that Americans are highly uneducated. 54% of all American adults read at, or below, a sixth grade reading level. About a fifth of American adults are functionally illiterate. Populism tend to thrive in a countries with large amounts of uneducated population. It's not coincidence that Trump wants to abolish the Department Of Education. This very issue has also made them very susceptible to foreign interference, like the disinformation campaign Russia has been running.

Unfortunately, there is little Democrats can actually do about that. There's no quick fix to something like that, and we need a quick solution. 

....

This has been a long running issue with Democrats in general. They lose an election, and instead of taking a stand, they tend to move further towards where Republicans are. Republicans will keep pushing to the right, and we're trailing behind them like idiots and moving more and more to the right every election year until we reach the point of no return. We've seen this over and over again, including in the last few elections. They could've actually stood up, be a bit bolder and ran someone like Bernie or whatever, but instead they chose the safe establishment Dem candidates - Hillary & Biden - to appeal to the conservative base, which is a stupid strategy. It's past time for Democrats to accept that they will never get Trump's base. 

So how do we beat Trump? I'm going to very, very cautiously say that Trumpism will be weaker once he's no longer able to run again.. but will that even matter? Will there even be another election? Trump has said that people won't need to worry about voting again once they vote him in, and  he's already granted himself presidential immunity. He can do literally whatever he wants as president and not get checked for it. 

The Democratic Party has died. The party as we know it won’t exist anymore in 2028. This election has put a nail in their coffin, and they've practically gone extinct -- most people just don't realize it yet. They're either going to turn into what the OG Republicans are (and some would argue they already are), or they're finally going to grow a backbone and actually do a 180 to fully go against fascism. Or a secret third option: A movement will take over it the same way Trump took over the Republican party in 2015. What movement? We don't know it yet.

One thing for sure: if they respond to this by running another generic safe Democrat in 2028, they're not going to win ever again and we can all just accept that the US has fully become a Trumpian country. 

[Dennis Reynolds 20,371]

1 hour ago, Snow said:

So how do we beat Trump? I'm going to very, very cautiously say that Trumpism will be weaker once he's no longer able to run again.. but will that even matter? Will there even be another election? Trump has said that people won't need to worry about voting again once they vote him in, and  he's already granted himself presidential immunity. He can do literally whatever he wants as president and not get checked for it. 

The Democratic Party has died. The party as we know it won’t exist anymore in 2028. This election has put a nail in their coffin, and they've practically gone extinct -- most people just don't realize it yet. They're either going to turn into what the OG Republicans are (and some would argue they already are), or they're finally going to grow a backbone and actually do a 180 to fully go against fascism. Or a secret third option: A movement will take over it the same way Trump took over the Republican party in 2015. What movement? We don't know it yet.

One thing for sure: if they respond to this by running another generic safe Democrat in 2028, they're not going to win ever again and we can all just accept that the US has fully become a Trumpian country. 

This is one of the things that I definitely believe is true. I don’t see JD Vance or anyone like that picking up where Trump left off once he’s not in a position to run anymore. That’s not to say I don’t think he would probably run, but he doesn’t have the same cult of personality as Trump and I don’t think he’ll really inherit his legacy. And honestly, more than that, I don’t think he’s really a huge threat without Trump. He has no scruples, he’s basically an opportunist who will just do whatever Trump wants and without Trump himself I don’t see him going out of his way to be an extremist. He’s married to an Indian-American woman, he was friends with a trans person and according to them he was pretty supportive about it too, and according to said former friend he’s pretty much flipped on every issue since they knew him, not the least of all publicly calling out Trump and comparing him to Hitler. I guess the next best bet for them would be one of Trump’s children but I don’t think any of them are very viable either.

I honestly don’t know what the Democratic Party will do, but I really hope people show up for the midterms like they did in 2018. There’s a part of me that does want to agree with you about the party being over…..but I remember that back in 2020 there was a lot of talk that while the Republican Party was pretty much going to become the “Trump Party”, huge swaths of conservatives who at least have a foot in reality like Mitt Romney and such might finally create a third, conservative-but-at-least-we-negotiate-reality-kinda-like-you-do party which didn’t happen. 
 

I’m not sure who is left that would be a generic“safe” choice in four years. Biden again would be totally bonkers and although losing candidates later becoming president has happened, I would be surprised if it was Kamala again as early as then, although I don’t think it’s impossible for her to throw her hat into the ring again at some point. Maybe Gavin Newsom?

 

I would be very happy to see AOC run for president now that she’s 35. I do understand the frustration with the Dems capitulating and slowly moving further to the right - after almost a decade, voters constantly being told “it’s too important to take a stand here, united front, etc” gets old, especially with younger people really dying to see change. At the same time, I do think that you can’t approach voting like you do marriage and just be waiting for “the one” that matches up with all your views because it’s just never gonna happen, but AOC has the fewest flaws and the highest name recognition of anyone I can think of.

[Dennis Reynolds 20,371]

Biden better come out swinging to save and block as much as he can. Better yet, he could step down and have Kamala do it for the next three months.

[Snow 27,838]

23 hours ago, Dennis Reynolds said:

This is one of the things that I definitely believe is true. I don’t see JD Vance or anyone like that picking up where Trump left off once he’s not in a position to run anymore. That’s not to say I don’t think he would probably run, but he doesn’t have the same cult of personality as Trump and I don’t think he’ll really inherit his legacy. And honestly, more than that, I don’t think he’s really a huge threat without Trump. He has no scruples, he’s basically an opportunist who will just do whatever Trump wants and without Trump himself I don’t see him going out of his way to be an extremist. He’s married to an Indian-American woman, he was friends with a trans person and according to them he was pretty supportive about it too, and according to said former friend he’s pretty much flipped on every issue since they knew him, not the least of all publicly calling out Trump and comparing him to Hitler. I guess the next best bet for them would be one of Trump’s children but I don’t think any of them are very viable either.

I honestly don’t know what the Democratic Party will do, but I really hope people show up for the midterms like they did in 2018. There’s a part of me that does want to agree with you about the party being over…..but I remember that back in 2020 there was a lot of talk that while the Republican Party was pretty much going to become the “Trump Party”, huge swaths of conservatives who at least have a foot in reality like Mitt Romney and such might finally create a third, conservative-but-at-least-we-negotiate-reality-kinda-like-you-do party which didn’t happen. 
 

I’m not sure who is left that would be a generic“safe” choice in four years. Biden again would be totally bonkers and although losing candidates later becoming president has happened, I would be surprised if it was Kamala again as early as then, although I don’t think it’s impossible for her to throw her hat into the ring again at some point. Maybe Gavin Newsom?

 

I would be very happy to see AOC run for president now that she’s 35. I do understand the frustration with the Dems capitulating and slowly moving further to the right - after almost a decade, voters constantly being told “it’s too important to take a stand here, united front, etc” gets old, especially with younger people really dying to see change. At the same time, I do think that you can’t approach voting like you do marriage and just be waiting for “the one” that matches up with all your views because it’s just never gonna happen, but AOC has the fewest flaws and the highest name recognition of anyone I can think of.

Yeah, someone will definitely run on Trump's platform but they're not going to pull it as well as Trump himself did. I don't even think Don Jr could pull it off well. I'm sure whoever does run will definitely get a boost from Trump effect still, but it'll be much weaker and will only last for one election cycle.

As for new Democratic  candidates for 2028, the party is not in a good place with it.. 

• Josh Shapiro - The generic cookie cutter safe candidate coming from Pennsylvania, but he has sexual assault allegations that he's burrying that not a lot of people seem to know about yet. It would 100% get dug up nationally if he runs, and he'll lose. 
• Gavin Newsom, another generic safe candidate, but he'd be an awful one and has little going for him.
• Gretchen Whitmer - I don't know if she has presidential ambitions, last I heard she seems to be unwilling to leave Michigan. I also don't see us putting yet another woman at the head of the presidential ticket anytime soon.
• Andy Beshear - Great image but boring as hell. 

Less safe is Pete Buttigieg, who is fantastic, but gay. Seeing how many reacted to Kamala possibly being the first woman president, I think a "first gay president" is.. decades away. 

With AOC.. I love her views and ideas, and she is different enough from the generic establishment Democrats we've been fed. But I don't think she has a chance, at least not right now. She's popular with the younger crowd but no one else even within the Democratic Party - and with Republicans, her image is purely made of the constant mudslinging and misrepresentation, and she is despised because of it. She hasn't had the chance to actually introduce herself yet on the national stage. I don't think most Democrats even know her beyond her name. 

I do think we probably shouldn't count Kamala out yet. Despite her current underperformance, she is still the strongest current option and the Democratic Party has been mostly united under her in ways I haven't seen since Obama. I do feel passionately for her still, and I think a lot of people also feel the same way. At the same time though, I think a lot of people will be hesitant to have another ticket led by a woman so soon. But if we do have another woman-led ticket in 2028, it might just be her again. And she'll face off someone who isn't Trump this one.

We'll have to see how much Trump will fuck up and piss people off.. I have a feeling it'll be followed by a lot of dissent. People just needed a fresh reminder of what Trump's presidency was like I guess. 2026 should give us an insight on how people feel. If it's anything like 2018, it should be promising.

[Dennis Reynolds 20,371]

1 hour ago, Snow said:

Yeah, someone will definitely run on Trump's platform but they're not going to pull it as well as Trump himself did. I don't even think Don Jr could pull it off well. I'm sure whoever does run will definitely get a boost from Trump effect still, but it'll be much weaker and will only last for one election cycle.

As for new Democratic  candidates for 2028, the party is not in a good place with it.. 

• Josh Shapiro - The generic cookie cutter safe candidate coming from Pennsylvania, but he has sexual assault allegations that he's burrying that not a lot of people seem to know about yet. It would 100% get dug up nationally if he runs, and he'll lose. 
• Gavin Newsom, another generic safe candidate, but he'd be an awful one and has little going for him.
• Gretchen Whitmer - I don't know if she has presidential ambitions, last I heard she seems to be unwilling to leave Michigan. I also don't see us putting yet another woman at the head of the presidential ticket anytime soon.
• Andy Beshear - Great image but boring as hell. 

Less safe is Pete Buttigieg, who is fantastic, but gay. Seeing how many reacted to Kamala possibly being the first woman president, I think a "first gay president" is.. decades away. 

With AOC.. I love her views and ideas, and she is different enough from the generic establishment Democrats we've been fed. But I don't think she has a chance, at least not right now. She's popular with the younger crowd but no one else even within the Democratic Party - and with Republicans, her image is purely made of the constant mudslinging and misrepresentation, and she is despised because of it. She hasn't had the chance to actually introduce herself yet on the national stage. I don't think most Democrats even know her beyond her name. 

I do think we probably shouldn't count Kamala out yet. Despite her current underperformance, she is still the strongest current option and the Democratic Party has been mostly united under her in ways I haven't seen since Obama. I do feel passionately for her still, and I think a lot of people also feel the same way. At the same time though, I think a lot of people will be hesitant to have another ticket led by a woman so soon. But if we do have another woman-led ticket in 2028, it might just be her again. And she'll face off someone who isn't Trump this one.

We'll have to see how much Trump will fuck up and piss people off.. I have a feeling it'll be followed by a lot of dissent. People just needed a fresh reminder of what Trump's presidency was like I guess. 2026 should give us an insight on how people feel. If it's anything like 2018, it should be promising.

I think Donald Jr. and Eric would be the only ones with some level of interest, yeah, but I don’t see them doing very well. People talk about Ivanka but nothing about her convinced me she would be interested - I get the impression that she misses being kind of a milquetoast socialite and is somewhat uncomfortable with her father’s rhetoric, but is also insulated enough that she gets over it fast. Side-note and somewhat straying from the topic at hand, but she is the only one in his family that I somewhat feel sorry for - not because of any of that other stuff I just mentioned, but due to all the absolutely appalling things he’s said about her publicly since she was a child. If he thinks that’s all OK to say in public, I don’t want to think about what he thinks it’s OK to say (and do) in private…..

 

I didn’t even know that about Shapiro! Allegations about him personally, or ones towards other people that he’s covered up? If it’s the former, it isn’t even mentioned on his Wikipedia page which is pretty wild.

 

Maybe this is one of the areas I’m uncharacteristically optimistic in, but I don’t think we’re necessarily that far away from seeing a gay president. We already had Obama, and no matter how many steps we’ve taken backwards since then, electing a black man was a big step forward, and that was 16 years ago now. Although they lost the elections, Hillary won the popular vote and even if Kamala didn’t, it wasn’t as though the people resoundingly rejected her. Like, to make a clumsy analogy, sometimes you’ll see these factories in rural areas vote on whether or not they’re going to join a union, and the numbers will be like 70/30 against joining - that’s poor beyond any circumstance, and basically just tells me that places like that are simply not ready for it. That didn’t happen with Kamala’s campaign. She still got tens of millions of votes, not a fraction of the votes Trump did or anything - there was less than a 4% difference between the number of people that voted for each. So I don’t necessarily feel that we would be (or at least, that we have to be) that far away from a gay president if all the cards are played right.

 

In spite of what I said before about Trump’s supporters not caring about anything he says or does personally…..I do think there is a limit in what can be tolerated in terms of his policies just due to the fact that his base consists of too many wildly different groups. He owes too many favors and he either isn’t going to repay most of them or they’re going to come into conflict with each other. When the groups supporting him consisting of puritanical religious extremists, incels/MRA types that just live on the internet, selfish opportunistic types that would claim not to agree with Trump’s views but like the fact that he would allow them to get more money, etc. - eventually their goals clash and it’s impossible for Trump to achieve everything they individually want, and if he does do some stuff, it’ll be a “leopards ate my face” thing, if in more of an “evil vs. evil” sense. Like, imagine how the Andrew Tate types would react if he gave in to the puritans and greatly restricted internet access. There are definitely a lot of people that will never ever turn on him no matter what for reasons I’ll never understand, but the amount of different ideologies currently backing him isn’t sustainable in the long term.