Some aspirational words from Kamala, and I agree with them. However, I expect many, but hopefully not most, Democratic voters will not treat Trump voters with kindness and respect. We will be bitterly divided and America will be at war with itself for the forseeable future.
Here is what I see. Democrats are going to be asked to be the adults in the room. Be good sports for the good of the country. Forget January 6. Forget all the personal insults and taunts of commies and socialists and destroyers of America. I think that's going to be a tall order for a lot of people and I don't blame them. Furthermore I don't think Trump and his legion of brownshirts care. They got their control of government so let the losers whine. I have already cashed MAGAs. Some of my greatest vitriol is saved for Gaza protesters. You got what you wanted. The evil Biden is gone. Now you got the guy who plans to restrict or outright ban immigration for Muslim countries. Happy?
I am adding to this based on many things I have seen online since last Tuesday. I have seen many comments from both sides of the political spectrum, but particularly conservatives, asking that we all unite to work together for a better future. We'll gee whiz- that sounds wonderful! What a shame conservatives didn't think of that 4 years ago before January 6, before spending zillions of dollars challenging election results, before Biden and all liberals every name in the book, labeling them as destroying America, and many others. I'll pass.
In my opinion, Trump's otherwise baffling popularity comes from how much he gets away with. His followers seem to identify with him in the sense of "Wow, wish I could break all the rules without being held accountable too!" Admitting that Trump's deeds are destructive and criminal, not just naughty, would shatter their fantasy of him as a rascally fun party guy and antihero, so they just wall off that fact.
Indeed, the problem seems to be that voters pay far too much attention to a candidate's personality / mannerisms, and far too little to the person's qualifications. Those voters have spent a lifetime making like / dislike decisions for themselves, but relatively few have had to take responsibility judging someone qualified / not qualified for a major role. They discount that a presidential election is not a Prom Court popularity selection, but an interview and hire for the world's most consequential job,.
For a long time I've imagined that American presidential elections would benefit if Constitutional scholars and historians got together (now would be a good time!) to define President Blank. President Blank would be an imaginary person of unspecified age, gender, race, looks, charisma, etc. -- but that fictional character would embody all the experts' agreed-upon characteristics of an individual ideally suited to perform the WORK of the office.
For example, President Blank ought to be thoroughly familiar with the Constitution and support its ideals, plus generally conversant with federal law. PB is astute, open-minded, resolute, diplomatic, and able to express life-guiding personal principles -- the Golden Rule; prioritization of persuasion over aggression; rule of law tempered by extenuating circumstances;; balancing individual freedom with public welfare; whatever -- rather than bowing solely to polling, lobbying, or political pressure. PB has prior experience in democratic governance and has demonstrated confidence in it.. Etc., etc. etc.
Then the next time presidential candidates are considered by parties and by voters, each candidate repeatedly is held up for comparison with President Blank. No one ever will equal PB's sterling perfection, of course, but the exercise might better focus voters' minds on the serious task they're being called upon to accomplish.
I don't disagree with you. I just look at things slightly differently. Over the years we have put down a lot on paper over how people should treat each other. Many of those new rules allow people to be different than what used to be considered the norm. People are allowed to choose different sexual identity. They are allowed to fall in love and marry the same sex. They are allowed to look at read things that used to get people thrown in jail. The biggest changes are acceptance of women in all aspects of society and rights of non-whites to do anything that whites are allowed to do. The problem is putting something on paper doesn't necessarily change what many people really feel. There are still many that don't accept non-whites. They consider don't accept social practices they consider non-Christian. They are excellent at quoting things from the Bible while ignoring the rest. I do not consider Trump a smart person. But he was just smart enough to tap I to a wellspring of feelings that many Americans have kept under wraps for decades. I personally know more than a few people that say things to others of their own kind they would never say in a public situation. When before Trump would January 6 have happened? The last time there was anything close was early 1950s when anyone different was a dirty commie. Does it sound like I'm putting all the blame on whites when there is enough to go around? Much of the black situation is based on economics. I wonder what ,ind of person I would be had I grown up in a roach and rat infested tenement in a neighborhood where just going out the front door could mean death? MAGAs constantly whine about illegal immigration from south of the border. What makes them think many legal immigrants have been any more welcome? Read the stories in the paper about random attacks in public against non-whites or the verbal slurs they must endure? I don't think Trump started anything original. He just tapped into something that has always been there. That makes me respect him even less. But he didn't put the fee,wings of hatred into people. They just feel entitled to display them.
Please stop blaming VP Harris--she ran an excellent campaign for a time that has passed--or President Biden--he has been an excellent president who is leaving the best economy in the Western world to the depredations of Agent Orange--or the Democratic party. Please start blaming, first of all, the majority of American voters who, motivated by dark impulses, Christian nationalism, or sheer stupidity, voted for a rapist, racist, addled fraudster, All Star bloviator and useful idiot for evil people. They will get what they wanted--good and hard--and so will the rest of us and the whole world.
michael - what harris campaign were you watching? apparently not the one where harris, multiple times, could not ID what she wd have done different from biden, or what she wd do different from biden if she were elected. not the campaign that cldn't own up to the biden admin's own failure in contributing significantly to inflation, and was bereft of rational economic ideas on how to make economic life better for middle and working class families. [note - price controls are not a rational economic idea.]
but don't take my word for this. not only did trump win the electoral college vote handily - incl'g at least 5 of the 7 battleground states, and all of the blue wall states - he was up almost 5 mill [!] in the popular vote - this after he lost by 3 mill to clinton and 7 mill to biden. that is an astounding swing in 4 yrs - 12 mill votes.
i'm not blaming just harris - there's plenty of blame to go around. but she ran a terrible campaign. as noted football pundit bill parcells said, 'you are what your record says you are'.
see also my comment below - per james carville, 'it's the economy, stupid.'
You think was a terrible campaign (as compared to whatever it was Trump ran)? As you are a keen observer of electoral methods, perhaps you have noticed that VP Harris ran about 1.5% worse than President Biden in the seven "battle ground states" (the places in which her campaign was on the airwaves most and most active) and about 4% worse in the other. states in which the campaign was not as active. That in the face of facts that all the countries in the world are suffering from the effects of the world wide epidemic and the inflation it brought and that has bred resentment in all countries of the incumbents and that VP Harris had about 100 days to introduce herself to a country in which a person who was running for the third time and was universally known.
Can we talk about the fact that Trump beat two women to win the Presidency? This had little to do with how Harris ran her campaign, or the short amount of time she had to do so. This has everything to do with the majority of men and sadly scores of women as well, who won’t consider a woman for the highest office in the land. Throw in a woman of color and the odds of her winning are further reduced. If Biden hadn’t declined to run for reelection, a Democratic man would have run and beaten the hell out of Trump. A guy like Trump will forever be seen as a “strong man” because of his vulgarity and misogynistic rhetoric. A woman who dares to think she can lead will always be a bitch or worse, in the eyes of far too many.
popular vote - trump got 74.2M in 2020, 72.8M in 2024. biden got 81.3M in 2020, harris 68.1M in 2024. trump got 1.4M less votes than he did in '20; harris got 13.2M less in '24 than biden did in '20. that's an absolutely stunning loss of support. and we were in the throes of a pandemic in 2020.
now, you can blame for the '24 results biden [he deserves a lot], biden's handlers [remember, harris was one of those handlers], sexism, racism, etc.
but the facts remain: harris was unable to distinguish herself from biden, who proved himself to be addled, stubborn and demented. and, again, to you & harris and anyone else who thinks otherwise, per james carville: it's the economy, stupid.
Biden is not addled or demented! He had one bad night from his idiot handlers overpreparing him, by spending too much time telling him stuff & tiring him out before that debate.
Most people have never met a transgender individual, but somehow even the possibility of that scares the hell out of the Right. It’s utterly ridiculous that Trump was able to foment so much hatred and fear around a small group of people who just want to live their lives authentically and in peace. Conversely, the very same demographic of Trump voters don’t give a shit about a straight, white male walking into a school and shooting dozens of children on an almost daily basis. Their fear and outrage when that occurs is practically nonexistent, because the 2nd Amendment must be held sacred in this country. Basic human rights, like life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Not so important apparently. I’ll never wrap my head around it.
I think many, if not most, people have met a transgender individual, they just didn't realize it. Same with gay or bi- people, you know them, you may love them, you just don't know every little thing about them.
It was surprising to me how many commentators, both in your newsletter and in legacy media, responded to the Republican Trump win with- “his voters are garbage, deplorable, and bitter clingers.” The Picayune Sentinel itself started the issue with a list of why the voters are ignoring “facts about Trump” and voted for him anyway.
Blaming the loss, which many commentators on television and in print did on “racism, sexism, and stupidity” is not the way forward for Democrats.
Insanely progressive policies are the downfall of the Democrats.
I try to read and watch a variety of commentators. Surprisingly the host of Morning Joe, as opposed to his guests, seemed to be the only one to dismiss the “their voters are garbage people” line and asked if the policies of the Democrat party were helping them win elections.
The locker room I frequent after my workouts have more Arab and Black members then Irish members. Overwhelmingly the locker talk from men of color was about “men in women’s bathrooms” and “boys competing with girls” in school sports. Men may be concerned about abortion rights for their daughters (Rush Limbaugh would always say his friends were anti-abortion until one of their daughters got pregnant out of wedlock) but are much more animated about men being allowed into girls bathrooms.
Hispanic, Arab, and Black men are much more socially conservative than the legacy media gives them credit for in this election. Want to elect more Democrats? Look to your policies.
Clinging to “his voters are too stupid” is not a good way forward.
Your comment, Dr. O’Donnell, suggests that promoting equality for transgender people was the cause of the Democrats failure. “If they had just been as transphobic and bigoted as the Republicans,” you seem to suggest, they would have done better. That’s like blaming black people for the election successes in the 1960s of George Corley Wallace whose mantra was “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” Do you really want to suggest that the way forward is to exclude transgender people from participating in society on an equal basis with everyone else? Is that what you want to be known for? We (transgender people) are not going to be forced back into the closet to assuage the gender insecurities of men like you and your locker room pals who insist on calling transgender women “men.”
Transgender kids are at high suicide risk and I've heard that these kids living in red states are terrified. Dear God, please no emotional or psychic harm to vulnerable people-any vulnerable people anywhere
I am not sure what Dr. O'Connell actually believes, but he is simply giving advice as to how to win elections. He is telling us what part of the election message broke through to men of all nationalities. Gay marriage has been widely accepted but the further push for trans kids in school bathrooms, drag shows in public libraries, trans kids on girls sports teams, discussion of gender affirming surgery on minors and the now widely pushed practiced of declaring how you want to be identified (they/them, or she/her or Latinex vs. Latino) has pushed many men and more culturally conservative women of all races to vote for Trump. Are you really happy with that trade off?
I want to be treated equally as a citizen of this country. And that means that I should be allowed to use the women’s bathroom like any other woman. And transgender kids should be allowed to use the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity—with who they are. You say that “[g]ay marriage has been widely accepted,” but that the movement for transgender equality is “pushing” people to vote for Trump. By the same token, in the 1960s you could have said that the movement for civil rights for black people, letting black people in white spaces, was “pushing” people to vote for the populist racist George Corley Wallace. And then that the movement for women’s equality “pushed” people to vote for opponents of the Equal Rights Amendment. And that the movement for gay rights “pushed” people to vote for the supporters of Anita Bryant’s “Save Our Children” campaign. The fact of the matter is that a considerable number of weak people can feel better about themselves if they can look down on other people, different from them. And certain politicians, like George Corley Wallace, like Trump, like Hitler, are very good at demonizing and marginalizing people in minority groups to secure political power from those weak people. You could have said in 1930s Germany that allowing Jews to participate fully in the German economy and society was “pushing” people to vote for Hitler. The solution, however, is not to indulge in hate and bigotry in order to win elections. We need to call out the hate and bigotry. And, in this regard, I think Kamala Harris failed, in part, in that she did not really explain that immigrants and immigration are not bad, and that providing transgender people medical care is a good thing. She didn’t really highlight the humanity of the people that Trump was demonizing and marginalizing. She didn’t, to my knowledge, bring “dreamer” immigrants to her rallies to show that they are our neighbors, that they are hardworking people, rather than a problem to be dealt with. She almost acknowledged that immigration was a “problem” when in fact it is a solution to what would otherwise be a declining population and workforce.
All very good points except that it is unfair to blame Harris for not explaining and emphasizing your points in a two month campaign what Biden and the Democratic Party have failed to explain and convince the majority of Americans in 9 years. Not all people that question the need to choose gender affirming pronouns, or question gender surgery on minors (something that has only been recently possible medically) are total bigots. Yes, most straight people need more education about this subject. Voters also need more education about our necessity for immigration, free trade, and climate action to secure our economic future. But sadly the result is now we have Trump, with his minions and judicial choices for at least 4 years, and the results will be even worse for the LGBTQ community than not being able to choose pronouns, bathrooms, or sports teams.
Yes, all people who question the need for gender affirming pronouns are bigots. And transitioning surgery for minors is extremely rare and is done only where the parents, the doctor, and the child agree that it is necessary. As to your claim that the next four years will be worse for transgender people than having to live with their gender dysphoria, you have no absolutely idea. Do you? But yet you explain to us what our lives are like without having any knowledge whatsoever. And that’s not bigoted? It’s cis-splaining—mansplaining on steroids.
Please don't put things in quotes that are not quoted. Very bad manners and intellect. Ummmmm...... could you help me out ..... without sarcasm... I really want to know....."What is a Woman?" Please define without using the word woman. I am not trolling. I honestly want you to explain your jump of logic. PS as other more intelligent readers have noted I have not said my opinion on equality of transgender people. Please try to be civil. If you can dial back the insults a bit and please answer "What is a woman?"
Talk about “[v]ery bad manners and intellect”! Your comment to which I’m responding sort of epitomizes and reflects that! I don’t know about the “more intelligent readers,” but if anyone cannot discern your opinion on equality for transgender people from what you have written, then they are dumber than a box of rocks, as we used to say. And you obviously are trolling when you ask, “What is a woman?” But I suppose I should give you the benefit of the doubt. Maybe you really don’t know. A woman is an adult with a female gender identity.
I thank Morning Joe for bringing some sanity, charity to the election post-mortem. the majority of Trump supporters are absolutely not racist garbage. They are friends coworkers and family members. I believe that the alternate universe of 'news' and information is responsible for the Trump win. Think Fox, Newsmax and places like that. I was emailing a Trump ex-friend during the horror that was 1/6 and she had no idea about what had happened thanks to her right wing news sources I believe then they tried to blame Antifa or the FBI, nor the attack-never DJT. Think for a minute how much money the alternate news sources have made spreading lies and misinformation.
I don't think any people are garbage and deplorable. I do think many Trump voters are uneducated on the issues and do not grasp exactly what they've chosen. They think they chose their economic interest, but they are in for a surprise. That they did not care what this will do to women, people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, and Palestinian, Taiwanese, and Ukrainian people, makes them unfeeling or oblivious to others. Not good, but doesn't make them garbage.
Not garbage or deplorable---- just stupid. OK then....... PS the majority of the View television show agree with you. My point was mainly-- as long as you look at others as "stupid" you won't understand what you need to do to win elections. Sunny? on the view says trump voters should have listened to more news radio. Clueless
The lesson from this election is that it's not the economy, but the *perception* of the economy. The Economist's latest issue had the cover story and headline calling American economy "the envy of the world". Stock market is at record highs, wages are up, inflation rate slowing, etc etc. Yes, eggs are more expensive than they were 4 years ago, I wonder what happened.
But the constant drone of disinformation bled into unsophisticated ears, convincing them that their lives are terrible. And here we are.
Agreed, great economic numbers, but the trouble spot was real wages adjusted for inflation. For the working class, that "trumped" everything else. They needed a better explanation on the causes of inflation (which included Trump), along with highlighting what dems have been doing on healthcare & housing costs vs. Trump (zilch). Price control talk was not the way to go. A decent answer to "Would you have done anything different than Biden?" may have been something like "inflation, which is a lagging economic indicator, was growing post-pandemic due to supply chains & pent up demand. By the end of Trump's final fiscal budget (Sept 2021) it had already grown 6%. We put together The Inflation Reduction Act to help the American people with this, but during inflationary times, the bill could have been more downsized & targeted. It has been a complex, world-wide problem to solve since the pandemic, but the inflation rate has been dropping over the past year."
1] the so-called Inflation Reduction Act had almost nothing to do with reducing inflation - it was a bill to address climate change.
2] inflation is caused by 2 things - too much money chasing too few/too little goods [and services]; and consumer expectations. one of the biggest drivers of the early '20s inflation was the biden American Rescue Plan - $1.9T [trillion, with a T] in cash payments to americans - at the time the supply chains were all clogged up.
too much money chasing too few goods & services = accelerated inflation. the ARP was not the only cause of incr'd inflation - but it was a significant contributor.
and the Fed's failure to act promptly - powell and biden both called the incr'd inflation 'transitory'; it wasn't - only made the situation, and the perception of the situation, worse.
My point was A) Voters completely blamed Biden for inflation when there were many factors, and B) when asked, Harris could have admitted that it's something that could have been handled differently.
you're splitting hairs. i'm a regular reader of The Economist, have been for 10+ yrs. i read the entire issue you've referenced. you & i get it about the US economy.
but are you upper middle class? or 'high end' of the middle class? or 'economically comfortable'? have you benefited from the significant increase in stock price during the bidn admin? i'm economically comfortable - so i don't worry so much about the price of groceries, or most anything else. but i do notice the price of groceries - and, absent sale prices, they're a lot higher than they were 4 yrs ago.
that's the economy that a lot of new trump voters voters don't like - and blame biden for. and they're right to blame biden - not that he's the sole cause - but he is a big cause of the inflation we've experienced.
and while inflation is down, prices aren't - the rate of inflation has decreased, but prices continue to increase, albeit more slowly than 3-4 yrs ago.
for most of the middle class, the working class, and the economically disadvantaged - most of whom get no comfort from dbl-digit increases in the stock imdexes - the economy is bad.
Not arguing with you. But which Democrat should they have run? Biden was a questionable candidate from the start even among his fellow Democrats. The top Democrats did little other than to question Biden's ability. Between the economy and the immigration problem, Biden got hammered and no Democrats really stepped up to support him. The problem with Harris is that she had no record. The GOP did an outstanding job of hanging everything the Biden administration did on a vice-president who really didn't have much to do with it. What did she actually do? Can anyone here tell us about her legislative record without having to first look it up? Forget her prosecutorial record. What is happening in LA and San Francisco doesn't impress anyone. Check the roster of presidents going back to World War II. Not too many vice-presidents, are there? VPs aren't chosen for leadership ability. They somehow politically balance the ticket. JFK couldn't stand Lyndon Johnson. But he needed the southern background. Blame Harris? You might as well blame poor prey caught by the lion. The Democrats mismanaged the entire nomination process and got stuck when they forced Biden to throw in the towel. Harris was like a deer in the headlights.
Truman was FDR's VP and became President and was re-elected. Johnson was Kennedy's VP and was re-elected in 64. Nixon was Eisenhower's VP and was elected President in 1968 and 1972. Bush was Reagan's VP and was elected President in 1988. Biden was Obama's VP and was elected President in 2020. That seems like quite a few VPs who became President between WWII and now to me.
Truman was re-elected because as Alice Roosevelt Longworth said about Dewey, he looked like the man on the wedding cake & the public was disgusted by the do nothing Congress that Truman had from 1947 to the election.
Interestingly, the most recent Congress, did less than that one & the incompetent Democrats never brought that up!
The Democrats problems are simple, they have been wimpified since Reagan & just refuse to fight.
This was characterized by that appallingly moronic comment from Michelle Obama: "When they go low, we go high".
No dummy, when they go low, you must go even lower!
Bob E is correct. They voted with their pocketbooks and they were upset by the border fiasco. And a lot of Democrats voted Republican this time, including your neighbors and friends. There seemed to be a silent majority if you will. Democrats' agenda was to keep telling everyone that Trump is a bad guy, we got it. Now Democrats, what are you going to do for us? Kamala did the best she could. I like her a lot more today than I did a year ago. She was the party's sacrificial lamb. She's classy, wish her the best.
The economy was important but so many voters have no concept of how the global economy works and so just chose "different than we have now." The entire world economy was affected by COVID but the US is bouncing back faster than others. Wages are up, unemployment is down. Yes, groceries cost more - which is a choice by suppliers/manufacturers. They raised prices during supply difficulties but have not brought them back down once the supply issues resolved. It's corporate GREED keeping prices high, not the government. If Trump's tariff proposals are adopted, prices will keep going up. The American people will pay those tariffs, not the countries and manufacturers on which they are levied.
I hate to be a wet blanket, when Eric was trying to steer us into something less politically depressing. But talk of college football playoffs doesn't help me. The new transfer rules mean that a coach recruiting a player has no idea how long he or she will stay. What a way to organize a program! Now athletes can be pad. So now players will go the highest bidders. But they work oh so hard! So do math majors, English majors, medical students- a lot of students not on athlscholarships and will have big debts when they graduate. Then there's the players who have no idea of attending class or getting degrees. They only plan to use the schools as NBA or NFL trading camps. Let the NBA and NFL do it for themselves, like MLB, Quit wasting the time and space of colleges. Yeah, I know it will never happen. Many schools Jack up their their programs to use them to attract students to mortgage their futures to attend. Wealthy boosters contribute big bucks to go rah rah for good old State U. Hopefully no one here will feed me the old saw about the money made for good old State U. Most athletic programs run at deficits and even the ones that make money shovel it right back in to their programs. Those palacial stadiums and indoor workout centers cost money. A team going to a bowl game can spend a million dollars to haul players, equipment, school officials, boosters and other items to the game. Sorry, Eric but the spectacle of television money, corruption, the buying of players, ignoring the academic reasons for colleges even existing- this doesn't thrill me. And don't forget how many top stars will skip bowl season so they don't get hurt and damage their potential NFL careers.
My take many years ago was to let them be paid professional players on teams managed by the college, where many students not actually playing the game learn valuable OTJ skills such as sports medicine and facilities management. The NFL could pay the athletes’ salaries while the college would pay for everything else.
I suppose in a way your idea has some practicality in a country that places rrah-rahing for sports teams so high on their list of priorities. But that would still placing athletes far above all over college students. How many here are college graduates? From the level of discussion, I'll bet more than a few. For those you not former athletes, did the college pay for your tuition? Or your books, room and, meals? Did you get a special dorm? Did you get your very own highly equipped training center, complete with trainers and medical specialists? I used loans. I ate the same dorm slop as everyone else. On a busy study night, good luck finding an open seat in the library. The effort put in by athletes? I carried a full class load and worked 3 jobs- the overnight shift at the main desk in my dorm, dishwasher at a restaurant, and in the intramural department. And none of this was in preparation for a pro career, the college didn't offer to pay me, and there were no endorsements offered. So forgive me if I evince little sympathy for the athletes. Like I said, your idea has some practicality due to the reality of the situation. But just why does college exist?
In my haste to respond, I failed to include that we drop the pretense that these athletes are there for the college education and experience. Spend those full-ride scholarships on actual students who deserve them. Not to say that some of the athletes might not also want to attend classes, but they can pay to do so like anyone else.
Let me say that I overgeneralized. Gymnasts and softball players are not there for the future pro experience. They aren't getting the same media attention and endorsements although they might still get free rides. My main vitriol is directed at basketball and football it's al most as if there is no purpose for the colleges without them. I was a student football manager for three years. I personally knew players that could not have described either the inside of the classrooms or the instructors. And when talking about funding, let's remember that WE fund colleges, at least the public ones.
As for the implied suggestion that colleges give up football programs that bring in tons of money and lots of exposure, I don't see that happening. I suppose the silver lining is that at least those lucrative programs already pay for all those perqs the athletes get today, as well as funding other sports programs that aren't as high-profile.
I agree and said that. The priority in this country we put on viewable college sports is unbelievable. As far as funding, I admit to not being as knowledgeable about it as I used to be. But I read an article a few years back. Out of all the major football programs, maybe half a dozen were profitable, including Eric's alma mater, Michigan. Last summer I took a tour of the relatively new athletic center at NIU, my alma mater. The weight room was humongous. A portion of it was set aside for just football, the other teams shared the rest. There was a football meeting room and auditorium. I said football, not athletic. See the picture. NIU is now planning a big expansion of the football stadium. They haven't once come close to filling the present stadium. No matter where the money comes from, I have better ideas, like you, on how it could be spent.
We got taken by a scam artist and lost our shirts. We were just no match for a massive campaign of disinformation and propaganda, from both foreign and domestic sources. I'd like to share the explanation that I agree with. from the historian Heather Cox Richardson:
"There is also no doubt that both racism and sexism played an important role in Harris’s defeat.
But my own conclusion is that both of those things were amplified by the flood of disinformation that has plagued the U.S. for years now. Russian political theorists called the construction of a virtual political reality through modern media “political technology.” They developed several techniques in this approach to politics, but the key was creating a false narrative in order to control public debate. These techniques perverted democracy, turning it from the concept of voters choosing their leaders into the concept of voters rubber-stamping the leaders they had been manipulated into backing.
In the U.S., pervasive right-wing media, from the Fox News Channel through right-wing podcasts and YouTube channels run by influencers, have permitted Trump and right-wing influencers to portray the booming economy as “failing” and to run away from the hugely unpopular Project 2025. They allowed MAGA Republicans to portray a dramatically falling crime rate as a crime wave and immigration as an invasion. They also shielded its audience from the many statements of Trump’s former staff that he is unfit for office, and even that his chief of staff General John Kelly considers him a fascist and noted that he admires German Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler."
I’m staying at a hotel in NYC right now. The room has a kitchenette, which I have been using for breakfast and late night snacks. In addition to the usual tasks, housekeeping here also does the dishes! Why wouldn’t I tip? (I will also leave my MetroCard, so someone can use the couple of days left on it.)
RE: the school board elections - some of us intentionally voted for candidates who weren’t in the pockets of either the CTU or the charter school lobby.
Boy does this electoral disaster send me back to all those wisdoms about things you can and cannot control. I suggest we all get out our mirrors. If I really want to hold in my heart the belief that more than half of my fellow American voters, across all areas and demographics, are evil because they don’t see the same existential dangers in Trump that I see, then I’m just counting the days until I’m curled in fetal position all day, mumbling about injectable bleach and but her emails and lock him up. No thanks! The message is loud and clear regardless of what’s rattling in my head: more people see things differently than I see them. Life is a miraculous feast to be enjoyed every day, and we can’t waste what little time we have tilting at windmills for masochistic entertainment. So, I’d suggest we keep our wary eyes on our leaders as always, stay engaged for the good of humanity, but stop the “can you believe what he said today” stuff, as reliably entertaining as funny cat videos, because that’s one reason why he’s so popular. Those numbers don’t lie. As for politics, Dems need to figure out how messaging in the new media works. I hear angry conservative radio shows and podcasts coming from suburban yards where children are playing and moms are gardening. I hate this, but there’s a reason why millions of regular folks who I love dearly consume a steady diet of this stuff, and it’s not because they want to destroy the entire country. We have to engage all of our voters where they live. I wept bitter tears yesterday, and my heart aches for those who surely will suffer because their leaders choose to disrespect their rights to exist. I’ve told my “kids” to do what they should always do in times of trauma: feel your feelings, then find your friends, don’t hate anyone, help some folks around you, do your own job well, then start thinking about how you can help change the world. Thanks to this wonderful forum as a place of healing and reflection. Peace, friends.
Same with me. In fact, since I don’t use cash much at all, the only bills I tend to have in my wallet are $20s because that’s the lowest denomination the ATM spits out.
Really? I've been with the $5. And I always tip b/c that is SUCH a hard job and the cleaning staffer deserves it. Also tip every day b/c the person might be different everyday. I'll definitely boost my rate though I'm not sure about $20.
I don't have a problem with $20 because in the larger hotels, like the wait staff in restaurants, the cleaning crew often share those tips with others working behind the scenes, such as the laundry workers and kitchen staff. And in smaller hotels the same person cleaning the room might also be the one washing the sheets and towels.
The reason she lost is that the voters of this country are appallingly stupid!
Go to YouTube & watch Kimmel's monologue from Wednesday night, where near the end, he sent a staffer out on Hollywood Blvd to ask people how they were voting that day, the day after the election & be appalled at their answers!
As for the best Quincy Jones, I'll go for what he did for Sinatra with "Fly Me To The Moon". It's the quintessential Sinatra song. In fact in one version of Sinatra singing "Mack The Knife", he starts riffing 3/4ths of the way through & thanks Quincy by name for all his help.
The first election I was old enough to participate in, I was swayed by the Willie Horton ad against Michael Dukakis along with the terrible image of him riding in a tank looking like Snoopy (I was in the army at the time). I later came to realize how misleading that attack ad was and never forgave the relatively decent George HW Bush for it (even though it was a PAC that ran the ad, Bush’s campaign were the ones that focused on the issue). Watching the flood of ads this year during football games reminded me so much of that Willie Horton ad, especially the one about the “migrant gangs” supposedly taking over cities. They rely on voters being ignorant, and if these ads didn’t work they wouldn’t spend so much money on them.
As a progressive, liberal independent I understood that Harris was the better choice, but honestly it was marginal even to me. The Democrats essentially ALWAYS react to Republican claims and statements rather than proactively providing solutions, such as with the border issue for example. Don't they have a real plan? I never heard it. What about actually stating that they were actively deporting criminals? Why not discuss that the reason that migrants were showing up at our border Mexico was letting them into their country? That's a political problem with Mexico. Why not dicuss the history of American foreign policy, including our failed "war on drugs", that helped create the dysfunction that was the reason that people were leaving? There's far, far more, but I will leave it at that.
The Democrats did this to themselves. I hate the GOP because they openly spit on my values, but the Democrats have been a big, big disappointment to me and I'm a progressive, liberal independent.
It's disingenuous to say the Democrats didn't have a plan for the border -- they had a bill drafted by a staunch conservative Republican with broad bipartisan support ready for Biden to sign, until suddenly the GOP killed it on Trump's orders. Harris mentioned plenty of times, but perhaps not often enough for it to sink in.
It was NOT enough to sink in. My point is that I never heard it, I knew it was there, somewhere. The GOP would talk, talk, talk all day about the "problem" but the Democrats didn't talk, talk, talk about their plan.
Biden and Harris could have railed continually about it, but they didn't. The f'ing Republicans will not shut their whining mouths while the Democrats refuse to open theirs. In context of this issue, the Democrats should have given better than they got and they did not. Now we have to contend with these cretins and their tax cuts for the rich and corporations.
Think about what Republicans learned from this victory. Lying works, and they'll never need to speak the truth going forward to retain power. The closest analogy I can think of is Orwell's Animal Farm. I don't know how bad things have to get before the majority of Americans reject this type of messaging.
BTW, it is amazing that people think that the GOP is better economically for them when it is the GOP's economic policy that has help erode the middle class through their tax cuts for the rich. The fundamental truth is that it was the income tax with its high upper marginal rates that created the middle class and Reagan's tax cut from 75% to 35% accelerated the erosion started by inflation and the capital gains tax cuts intended to save small savers but allowed the rich to keep even more of their wealth because most of their wealth was from capital gains!
The wealth and earnings gap between rich and middle class is due entirely to the GOP's efforts to help the rich because they believe the myth that they deserve their wealth because they are more industrious. However, it comes at the cost of the economic well being of the dupes who vote Republican.
In the days and weeks to come, Pundits will explain why Kamala Harris lost to the Fanta Menace. Among the list, in no particular order, will be:
Racism
Misogyny
Muslim and Arab Americans disappointment with Biden's policy re: Israel and Palestine
The democratic party's inability to appeal to the progressive left
Voter suppression
gerrymandering
3rd party siphoning votes
Not having a legitimate primary where people could truly choose the nominee
It's a combination of all of the above. It does look like White men and women noped the idea of the a POTUS with a vagina in the oval office. Though I'm sure when pressed they would say "it was for other reasons"
And they, themselves, would probably believe “it was for other reasons.” All people tend to internalize the “isms” of the culture in which they were brought up (racism, sexism, etc.) and, on some level, to judge others based on those “isms.” We may, in the executive function portion of our brains, reject those isms, but, unconsciously, they often affect our judgment. After growing up in the sixties watching women on TV and in the movies always depicted as either sex objects or domestic support for the men in their lives (nurturing mothers), is it any surprise that on a gut level, many people have difficulty imagining a woman in the most powerful office in the world? Don’t get me wrong. I imagined it and voted for Harris. I am just truth telling as I think you were. In terms of electability in 2024 United States, Harris’s biggest negative was the same as Hillary Clinton’s.
That more than anything should tell people that trans women aren't making some lifestyle choice on a whim, or to win some sporting events, or to sneak into women's restrooms. It's like when people say homosexuality is a lifestyle choice, my first question is why someone would choose a lifestyle that might cause them to be ostracized or even killed if discovered?
One thing to add, my in-laws down here cancel my wife and my vote 2-1. When I told the FIL some of things Trump is planning to do, he said he had no idea. That's because Fox presents him in the best possible light.
If Trump killed Eric and Jr, Fox would report it as "President Trump disciplined his kids today".
The problems with polling is that the pollsters weight the results, because some goof decided that if they don't get enough people from a specific demographic, they must adjust for that.
STOP THAT!
just report the raw numbers & let us figure them out!
Is the question we should be addressing what did the Democrats do wrong? MAGA is a fascist movement. Extremely right wing and nationalistic, othering minorities and blaming them for society’s problems, wanting to put “undesirables” (here immigrants) in concentration camps before eliminating them from society (here by deporting them). The blame for this election result lies, quite frankly, with the voters who supported MAGA. In 1932, the Nazi party got more votes than any other party in Germany’s federal election. Was that the fault of the other parties, or was it the fault of the voters who wanted the party led by a racist megalomaniac and “strong man.” Everyone wants to assume the essential goodness of their fellow country men and women. But is that really justified? My brother recently told me, “Just heard the son of holocaust survivors say his parents used to warn him that it can even happen in America. ‘All you have to do is take away a few dollars from Americans, and you will see.’” Eggs cost more so let’s vote for the guy who promises to put our undocumented neighbors in concentration camps. The blame for this election result is on the people who voted for Trump. The absurdity of asking what Democrats did wrong is apparent when one imagines a German in 1932 saying what could we have done to address the concerns of the people who voted for the Nazi party. The United States has become, for the time being, a fascist country in the sense that it is controlled by fascists: the Presidency, the Senate, the House, and the Supreme Court. I get it that that's a hard pill to swallow, but that's where we are.
You make it sound as if it was destiny that Trump would get six million more votes than Harris and there was nothing that could have been done to prevent that. You noted earlier that sexism was a factor, which I agree that it was, but didn’t that confer upon the Democrats an obligation to steer clear of nominating a woman this time, especially with the disaster of 2016 still fresh in their minds, and the opposition party offering the same fascist thug who defeated Clinton that year?
I think it is partly Biden’s fault for running for the office of President a second time after he said that he would be a one-term President and at a time when he was experiencing cognitive decline. If Biden had stood down and the Democrats had had a vigorous contest in the primaries, the Democrats would have had their strongest candidate—I’m not saying that their strongest candidate would not have been Kamala Harris, but we’ll never know. And I think Biden’s mistake in not standing down, although tragic, was somewhat understandable. I had two parents that experienced cognitive decline, and I am familiar with the concept of “sundowning,” where an older person can be with it during the day and get confused at night. Biden may have believed that he was just tired at night, as opposed to experiencing cognitive decline. But, yes, a tragic mistake in my view because, as you say, we currently have a President-elect who is a fascist thug.
One thing that hasn't come up in the comments (though I might have missed a few) is that Joe Biden endorsing Harris on his way out the door, so to speak, was a giant middle finger to Obama, Pelosi and others who forced him out. You'll note Obama did not endorse for several days. If Biden hadn't done that, perhaps there WOULD have been an "open primary" or convention or whatever.
Some aspirational words from Kamala, and I agree with them. However, I expect many, but hopefully not most, Democratic voters will not treat Trump voters with kindness and respect. We will be bitterly divided and America will be at war with itself for the forseeable future.
Here is what I see. Democrats are going to be asked to be the adults in the room. Be good sports for the good of the country. Forget January 6. Forget all the personal insults and taunts of commies and socialists and destroyers of America. I think that's going to be a tall order for a lot of people and I don't blame them. Furthermore I don't think Trump and his legion of brownshirts care. They got their control of government so let the losers whine. I have already cashed MAGAs. Some of my greatest vitriol is saved for Gaza protesters. You got what you wanted. The evil Biden is gone. Now you got the guy who plans to restrict or outright ban immigration for Muslim countries. Happy?
Netanyahu is happy, though.
You are absolutely correct. And he has already been quoted as such. Hey, why not? Both are elated they are not behind bars.
I am adding to this based on many things I have seen online since last Tuesday. I have seen many comments from both sides of the political spectrum, but particularly conservatives, asking that we all unite to work together for a better future. We'll gee whiz- that sounds wonderful! What a shame conservatives didn't think of that 4 years ago before January 6, before spending zillions of dollars challenging election results, before Biden and all liberals every name in the book, labeling them as destroying America, and many others. I'll pass.
Sorry to come to this unavoidably a day late.
In my opinion, Trump's otherwise baffling popularity comes from how much he gets away with. His followers seem to identify with him in the sense of "Wow, wish I could break all the rules without being held accountable too!" Admitting that Trump's deeds are destructive and criminal, not just naughty, would shatter their fantasy of him as a rascally fun party guy and antihero, so they just wall off that fact.
Indeed, the problem seems to be that voters pay far too much attention to a candidate's personality / mannerisms, and far too little to the person's qualifications. Those voters have spent a lifetime making like / dislike decisions for themselves, but relatively few have had to take responsibility judging someone qualified / not qualified for a major role. They discount that a presidential election is not a Prom Court popularity selection, but an interview and hire for the world's most consequential job,.
For a long time I've imagined that American presidential elections would benefit if Constitutional scholars and historians got together (now would be a good time!) to define President Blank. President Blank would be an imaginary person of unspecified age, gender, race, looks, charisma, etc. -- but that fictional character would embody all the experts' agreed-upon characteristics of an individual ideally suited to perform the WORK of the office.
For example, President Blank ought to be thoroughly familiar with the Constitution and support its ideals, plus generally conversant with federal law. PB is astute, open-minded, resolute, diplomatic, and able to express life-guiding personal principles -- the Golden Rule; prioritization of persuasion over aggression; rule of law tempered by extenuating circumstances;; balancing individual freedom with public welfare; whatever -- rather than bowing solely to polling, lobbying, or political pressure. PB has prior experience in democratic governance and has demonstrated confidence in it.. Etc., etc. etc.
Then the next time presidential candidates are considered by parties and by voters, each candidate repeatedly is held up for comparison with President Blank. No one ever will equal PB's sterling perfection, of course, but the exercise might better focus voters' minds on the serious task they're being called upon to accomplish.
I don't disagree with you. I just look at things slightly differently. Over the years we have put down a lot on paper over how people should treat each other. Many of those new rules allow people to be different than what used to be considered the norm. People are allowed to choose different sexual identity. They are allowed to fall in love and marry the same sex. They are allowed to look at read things that used to get people thrown in jail. The biggest changes are acceptance of women in all aspects of society and rights of non-whites to do anything that whites are allowed to do. The problem is putting something on paper doesn't necessarily change what many people really feel. There are still many that don't accept non-whites. They consider don't accept social practices they consider non-Christian. They are excellent at quoting things from the Bible while ignoring the rest. I do not consider Trump a smart person. But he was just smart enough to tap I to a wellspring of feelings that many Americans have kept under wraps for decades. I personally know more than a few people that say things to others of their own kind they would never say in a public situation. When before Trump would January 6 have happened? The last time there was anything close was early 1950s when anyone different was a dirty commie. Does it sound like I'm putting all the blame on whites when there is enough to go around? Much of the black situation is based on economics. I wonder what ,ind of person I would be had I grown up in a roach and rat infested tenement in a neighborhood where just going out the front door could mean death? MAGAs constantly whine about illegal immigration from south of the border. What makes them think many legal immigrants have been any more welcome? Read the stories in the paper about random attacks in public against non-whites or the verbal slurs they must endure? I don't think Trump started anything original. He just tapped into something that has always been there. That makes me respect him even less. But he didn't put the fee,wings of hatred into people. They just feel entitled to display them.
Please stop blaming VP Harris--she ran an excellent campaign for a time that has passed--or President Biden--he has been an excellent president who is leaving the best economy in the Western world to the depredations of Agent Orange--or the Democratic party. Please start blaming, first of all, the majority of American voters who, motivated by dark impulses, Christian nationalism, or sheer stupidity, voted for a rapist, racist, addled fraudster, All Star bloviator and useful idiot for evil people. They will get what they wanted--good and hard--and so will the rest of us and the whole world.
michael - what harris campaign were you watching? apparently not the one where harris, multiple times, could not ID what she wd have done different from biden, or what she wd do different from biden if she were elected. not the campaign that cldn't own up to the biden admin's own failure in contributing significantly to inflation, and was bereft of rational economic ideas on how to make economic life better for middle and working class families. [note - price controls are not a rational economic idea.]
but don't take my word for this. not only did trump win the electoral college vote handily - incl'g at least 5 of the 7 battleground states, and all of the blue wall states - he was up almost 5 mill [!] in the popular vote - this after he lost by 3 mill to clinton and 7 mill to biden. that is an astounding swing in 4 yrs - 12 mill votes.
i'm not blaming just harris - there's plenty of blame to go around. but she ran a terrible campaign. as noted football pundit bill parcells said, 'you are what your record says you are'.
see also my comment below - per james carville, 'it's the economy, stupid.'
You think was a terrible campaign (as compared to whatever it was Trump ran)? As you are a keen observer of electoral methods, perhaps you have noticed that VP Harris ran about 1.5% worse than President Biden in the seven "battle ground states" (the places in which her campaign was on the airwaves most and most active) and about 4% worse in the other. states in which the campaign was not as active. That in the face of facts that all the countries in the world are suffering from the effects of the world wide epidemic and the inflation it brought and that has bred resentment in all countries of the incumbents and that VP Harris had about 100 days to introduce herself to a country in which a person who was running for the third time and was universally known.
Can we talk about the fact that Trump beat two women to win the Presidency? This had little to do with how Harris ran her campaign, or the short amount of time she had to do so. This has everything to do with the majority of men and sadly scores of women as well, who won’t consider a woman for the highest office in the land. Throw in a woman of color and the odds of her winning are further reduced. If Biden hadn’t declined to run for reelection, a Democratic man would have run and beaten the hell out of Trump. A guy like Trump will forever be seen as a “strong man” because of his vulgarity and misogynistic rhetoric. A woman who dares to think she can lead will always be a bitch or worse, in the eyes of far too many.
popular vote - trump got 74.2M in 2020, 72.8M in 2024. biden got 81.3M in 2020, harris 68.1M in 2024. trump got 1.4M less votes than he did in '20; harris got 13.2M less in '24 than biden did in '20. that's an absolutely stunning loss of support. and we were in the throes of a pandemic in 2020.
now, you can blame for the '24 results biden [he deserves a lot], biden's handlers [remember, harris was one of those handlers], sexism, racism, etc.
but the facts remain: harris was unable to distinguish herself from biden, who proved himself to be addled, stubborn and demented. and, again, to you & harris and anyone else who thinks otherwise, per james carville: it's the economy, stupid.
Biden is not addled or demented! He had one bad night from his idiot handlers overpreparing him, by spending too much time telling him stuff & tiring him out before that debate.
He has been very sharp at all times since then!
Most people have never met a transgender individual, but somehow even the possibility of that scares the hell out of the Right. It’s utterly ridiculous that Trump was able to foment so much hatred and fear around a small group of people who just want to live their lives authentically and in peace. Conversely, the very same demographic of Trump voters don’t give a shit about a straight, white male walking into a school and shooting dozens of children on an almost daily basis. Their fear and outrage when that occurs is practically nonexistent, because the 2nd Amendment must be held sacred in this country. Basic human rights, like life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Not so important apparently. I’ll never wrap my head around it.
I think many, if not most, people have met a transgender individual, they just didn't realize it. Same with gay or bi- people, you know them, you may love them, you just don't know every little thing about them.
It was surprising to me how many commentators, both in your newsletter and in legacy media, responded to the Republican Trump win with- “his voters are garbage, deplorable, and bitter clingers.” The Picayune Sentinel itself started the issue with a list of why the voters are ignoring “facts about Trump” and voted for him anyway.
Blaming the loss, which many commentators on television and in print did on “racism, sexism, and stupidity” is not the way forward for Democrats.
Insanely progressive policies are the downfall of the Democrats.
I try to read and watch a variety of commentators. Surprisingly the host of Morning Joe, as opposed to his guests, seemed to be the only one to dismiss the “their voters are garbage people” line and asked if the policies of the Democrat party were helping them win elections.
The locker room I frequent after my workouts have more Arab and Black members then Irish members. Overwhelmingly the locker talk from men of color was about “men in women’s bathrooms” and “boys competing with girls” in school sports. Men may be concerned about abortion rights for their daughters (Rush Limbaugh would always say his friends were anti-abortion until one of their daughters got pregnant out of wedlock) but are much more animated about men being allowed into girls bathrooms.
Hispanic, Arab, and Black men are much more socially conservative than the legacy media gives them credit for in this election. Want to elect more Democrats? Look to your policies.
Clinging to “his voters are too stupid” is not a good way forward.
Your comment, Dr. O’Donnell, suggests that promoting equality for transgender people was the cause of the Democrats failure. “If they had just been as transphobic and bigoted as the Republicans,” you seem to suggest, they would have done better. That’s like blaming black people for the election successes in the 1960s of George Corley Wallace whose mantra was “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” Do you really want to suggest that the way forward is to exclude transgender people from participating in society on an equal basis with everyone else? Is that what you want to be known for? We (transgender people) are not going to be forced back into the closet to assuage the gender insecurities of men like you and your locker room pals who insist on calling transgender women “men.”
Transgender kids are at high suicide risk and I've heard that these kids living in red states are terrified. Dear God, please no emotional or psychic harm to vulnerable people-any vulnerable people anywhere
I am not sure what Dr. O'Connell actually believes, but he is simply giving advice as to how to win elections. He is telling us what part of the election message broke through to men of all nationalities. Gay marriage has been widely accepted but the further push for trans kids in school bathrooms, drag shows in public libraries, trans kids on girls sports teams, discussion of gender affirming surgery on minors and the now widely pushed practiced of declaring how you want to be identified (they/them, or she/her or Latinex vs. Latino) has pushed many men and more culturally conservative women of all races to vote for Trump. Are you really happy with that trade off?
I want to be treated equally as a citizen of this country. And that means that I should be allowed to use the women’s bathroom like any other woman. And transgender kids should be allowed to use the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity—with who they are. You say that “[g]ay marriage has been widely accepted,” but that the movement for transgender equality is “pushing” people to vote for Trump. By the same token, in the 1960s you could have said that the movement for civil rights for black people, letting black people in white spaces, was “pushing” people to vote for the populist racist George Corley Wallace. And then that the movement for women’s equality “pushed” people to vote for opponents of the Equal Rights Amendment. And that the movement for gay rights “pushed” people to vote for the supporters of Anita Bryant’s “Save Our Children” campaign. The fact of the matter is that a considerable number of weak people can feel better about themselves if they can look down on other people, different from them. And certain politicians, like George Corley Wallace, like Trump, like Hitler, are very good at demonizing and marginalizing people in minority groups to secure political power from those weak people. You could have said in 1930s Germany that allowing Jews to participate fully in the German economy and society was “pushing” people to vote for Hitler. The solution, however, is not to indulge in hate and bigotry in order to win elections. We need to call out the hate and bigotry. And, in this regard, I think Kamala Harris failed, in part, in that she did not really explain that immigrants and immigration are not bad, and that providing transgender people medical care is a good thing. She didn’t really highlight the humanity of the people that Trump was demonizing and marginalizing. She didn’t, to my knowledge, bring “dreamer” immigrants to her rallies to show that they are our neighbors, that they are hardworking people, rather than a problem to be dealt with. She almost acknowledged that immigration was a “problem” when in fact it is a solution to what would otherwise be a declining population and workforce.
All very good points except that it is unfair to blame Harris for not explaining and emphasizing your points in a two month campaign what Biden and the Democratic Party have failed to explain and convince the majority of Americans in 9 years. Not all people that question the need to choose gender affirming pronouns, or question gender surgery on minors (something that has only been recently possible medically) are total bigots. Yes, most straight people need more education about this subject. Voters also need more education about our necessity for immigration, free trade, and climate action to secure our economic future. But sadly the result is now we have Trump, with his minions and judicial choices for at least 4 years, and the results will be even worse for the LGBTQ community than not being able to choose pronouns, bathrooms, or sports teams.
Yes, all people who question the need for gender affirming pronouns are bigots. And transitioning surgery for minors is extremely rare and is done only where the parents, the doctor, and the child agree that it is necessary. As to your claim that the next four years will be worse for transgender people than having to live with their gender dysphoria, you have no absolutely idea. Do you? But yet you explain to us what our lives are like without having any knowledge whatsoever. And that’s not bigoted? It’s cis-splaining—mansplaining on steroids.
Please don't put things in quotes that are not quoted. Very bad manners and intellect. Ummmmm...... could you help me out ..... without sarcasm... I really want to know....."What is a Woman?" Please define without using the word woman. I am not trolling. I honestly want you to explain your jump of logic. PS as other more intelligent readers have noted I have not said my opinion on equality of transgender people. Please try to be civil. If you can dial back the insults a bit and please answer "What is a woman?"
Talk about “[v]ery bad manners and intellect”! Your comment to which I’m responding sort of epitomizes and reflects that! I don’t know about the “more intelligent readers,” but if anyone cannot discern your opinion on equality for transgender people from what you have written, then they are dumber than a box of rocks, as we used to say. And you obviously are trolling when you ask, “What is a woman?” But I suppose I should give you the benefit of the doubt. Maybe you really don’t know. A woman is an adult with a female gender identity.
I thank Morning Joe for bringing some sanity, charity to the election post-mortem. the majority of Trump supporters are absolutely not racist garbage. They are friends coworkers and family members. I believe that the alternate universe of 'news' and information is responsible for the Trump win. Think Fox, Newsmax and places like that. I was emailing a Trump ex-friend during the horror that was 1/6 and she had no idea about what had happened thanks to her right wing news sources I believe then they tried to blame Antifa or the FBI, nor the attack-never DJT. Think for a minute how much money the alternate news sources have made spreading lies and misinformation.
No one is above the law except the treasonous DJT
Enjoy your glass of Kool Aid.
I don't think any people are garbage and deplorable. I do think many Trump voters are uneducated on the issues and do not grasp exactly what they've chosen. They think they chose their economic interest, but they are in for a surprise. That they did not care what this will do to women, people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, and Palestinian, Taiwanese, and Ukrainian people, makes them unfeeling or oblivious to others. Not good, but doesn't make them garbage.
Not garbage or deplorable---- just stupid. OK then....... PS the majority of the View television show agree with you. My point was mainly-- as long as you look at others as "stupid" you won't understand what you need to do to win elections. Sunny? on the view says trump voters should have listened to more news radio. Clueless
hey, harris supporters, harken back to james carville & bill clinton: it's the economy, stupid
The lesson from this election is that it's not the economy, but the *perception* of the economy. The Economist's latest issue had the cover story and headline calling American economy "the envy of the world". Stock market is at record highs, wages are up, inflation rate slowing, etc etc. Yes, eggs are more expensive than they were 4 years ago, I wonder what happened.
But the constant drone of disinformation bled into unsophisticated ears, convincing them that their lives are terrible. And here we are.
Agreed, great economic numbers, but the trouble spot was real wages adjusted for inflation. For the working class, that "trumped" everything else. They needed a better explanation on the causes of inflation (which included Trump), along with highlighting what dems have been doing on healthcare & housing costs vs. Trump (zilch). Price control talk was not the way to go. A decent answer to "Would you have done anything different than Biden?" may have been something like "inflation, which is a lagging economic indicator, was growing post-pandemic due to supply chains & pent up demand. By the end of Trump's final fiscal budget (Sept 2021) it had already grown 6%. We put together The Inflation Reduction Act to help the American people with this, but during inflationary times, the bill could have been more downsized & targeted. It has been a complex, world-wide problem to solve since the pandemic, but the inflation rate has been dropping over the past year."
seriously?
1] the so-called Inflation Reduction Act had almost nothing to do with reducing inflation - it was a bill to address climate change.
2] inflation is caused by 2 things - too much money chasing too few/too little goods [and services]; and consumer expectations. one of the biggest drivers of the early '20s inflation was the biden American Rescue Plan - $1.9T [trillion, with a T] in cash payments to americans - at the time the supply chains were all clogged up.
too much money chasing too few goods & services = accelerated inflation. the ARP was not the only cause of incr'd inflation - but it was a significant contributor.
and the Fed's failure to act promptly - powell and biden both called the incr'd inflation 'transitory'; it wasn't - only made the situation, and the perception of the situation, worse.
if that was meant as a reply to me, you're not saying anything new. Covid, Trump, Biden, Fed all contributed:
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/03/is-inflation-bidens-or-trumps-fault-the-answer-isnt-so-simple.html
My point was A) Voters completely blamed Biden for inflation when there were many factors, and B) when asked, Harris could have admitted that it's something that could have been handled differently.
you're splitting hairs. i'm a regular reader of The Economist, have been for 10+ yrs. i read the entire issue you've referenced. you & i get it about the US economy.
but are you upper middle class? or 'high end' of the middle class? or 'economically comfortable'? have you benefited from the significant increase in stock price during the bidn admin? i'm economically comfortable - so i don't worry so much about the price of groceries, or most anything else. but i do notice the price of groceries - and, absent sale prices, they're a lot higher than they were 4 yrs ago.
that's the economy that a lot of new trump voters voters don't like - and blame biden for. and they're right to blame biden - not that he's the sole cause - but he is a big cause of the inflation we've experienced.
and while inflation is down, prices aren't - the rate of inflation has decreased, but prices continue to increase, albeit more slowly than 3-4 yrs ago.
for most of the middle class, the working class, and the economically disadvantaged - most of whom get no comfort from dbl-digit increases in the stock imdexes - the economy is bad.
sadly, trump is likely to make it worse.
Maybe they should change the saying to "it's the grocery prices, stupid", since all the other indicators are in good shape.
If we're willing to trade freedoms for cheap eggs, we deserve and will get neither.
Not arguing with you. But which Democrat should they have run? Biden was a questionable candidate from the start even among his fellow Democrats. The top Democrats did little other than to question Biden's ability. Between the economy and the immigration problem, Biden got hammered and no Democrats really stepped up to support him. The problem with Harris is that she had no record. The GOP did an outstanding job of hanging everything the Biden administration did on a vice-president who really didn't have much to do with it. What did she actually do? Can anyone here tell us about her legislative record without having to first look it up? Forget her prosecutorial record. What is happening in LA and San Francisco doesn't impress anyone. Check the roster of presidents going back to World War II. Not too many vice-presidents, are there? VPs aren't chosen for leadership ability. They somehow politically balance the ticket. JFK couldn't stand Lyndon Johnson. But he needed the southern background. Blame Harris? You might as well blame poor prey caught by the lion. The Democrats mismanaged the entire nomination process and got stuck when they forced Biden to throw in the towel. Harris was like a deer in the headlights.
Truman was FDR's VP and became President and was re-elected. Johnson was Kennedy's VP and was re-elected in 64. Nixon was Eisenhower's VP and was elected President in 1968 and 1972. Bush was Reagan's VP and was elected President in 1988. Biden was Obama's VP and was elected President in 2020. That seems like quite a few VPs who became President between WWII and now to me.
Truman was re-elected because as Alice Roosevelt Longworth said about Dewey, he looked like the man on the wedding cake & the public was disgusted by the do nothing Congress that Truman had from 1947 to the election.
Interestingly, the most recent Congress, did less than that one & the incompetent Democrats never brought that up!
The Democrats problems are simple, they have been wimpified since Reagan & just refuse to fight.
This was characterized by that appallingly moronic comment from Michelle Obama: "When they go low, we go high".
No dummy, when they go low, you must go even lower!
Bob E is correct. They voted with their pocketbooks and they were upset by the border fiasco. And a lot of Democrats voted Republican this time, including your neighbors and friends. There seemed to be a silent majority if you will. Democrats' agenda was to keep telling everyone that Trump is a bad guy, we got it. Now Democrats, what are you going to do for us? Kamala did the best she could. I like her a lot more today than I did a year ago. She was the party's sacrificial lamb. She's classy, wish her the best.
The economy was important but so many voters have no concept of how the global economy works and so just chose "different than we have now." The entire world economy was affected by COVID but the US is bouncing back faster than others. Wages are up, unemployment is down. Yes, groceries cost more - which is a choice by suppliers/manufacturers. They raised prices during supply difficulties but have not brought them back down once the supply issues resolved. It's corporate GREED keeping prices high, not the government. If Trump's tariff proposals are adopted, prices will keep going up. The American people will pay those tariffs, not the countries and manufacturers on which they are levied.
I hate to be a wet blanket, when Eric was trying to steer us into something less politically depressing. But talk of college football playoffs doesn't help me. The new transfer rules mean that a coach recruiting a player has no idea how long he or she will stay. What a way to organize a program! Now athletes can be pad. So now players will go the highest bidders. But they work oh so hard! So do math majors, English majors, medical students- a lot of students not on athlscholarships and will have big debts when they graduate. Then there's the players who have no idea of attending class or getting degrees. They only plan to use the schools as NBA or NFL trading camps. Let the NBA and NFL do it for themselves, like MLB, Quit wasting the time and space of colleges. Yeah, I know it will never happen. Many schools Jack up their their programs to use them to attract students to mortgage their futures to attend. Wealthy boosters contribute big bucks to go rah rah for good old State U. Hopefully no one here will feed me the old saw about the money made for good old State U. Most athletic programs run at deficits and even the ones that make money shovel it right back in to their programs. Those palacial stadiums and indoor workout centers cost money. A team going to a bowl game can spend a million dollars to haul players, equipment, school officials, boosters and other items to the game. Sorry, Eric but the spectacle of television money, corruption, the buying of players, ignoring the academic reasons for colleges even existing- this doesn't thrill me. And don't forget how many top stars will skip bowl season so they don't get hurt and damage their potential NFL careers.
My take many years ago was to let them be paid professional players on teams managed by the college, where many students not actually playing the game learn valuable OTJ skills such as sports medicine and facilities management. The NFL could pay the athletes’ salaries while the college would pay for everything else.
I suppose in a way your idea has some practicality in a country that places rrah-rahing for sports teams so high on their list of priorities. But that would still placing athletes far above all over college students. How many here are college graduates? From the level of discussion, I'll bet more than a few. For those you not former athletes, did the college pay for your tuition? Or your books, room and, meals? Did you get a special dorm? Did you get your very own highly equipped training center, complete with trainers and medical specialists? I used loans. I ate the same dorm slop as everyone else. On a busy study night, good luck finding an open seat in the library. The effort put in by athletes? I carried a full class load and worked 3 jobs- the overnight shift at the main desk in my dorm, dishwasher at a restaurant, and in the intramural department. And none of this was in preparation for a pro career, the college didn't offer to pay me, and there were no endorsements offered. So forgive me if I evince little sympathy for the athletes. Like I said, your idea has some practicality due to the reality of the situation. But just why does college exist?
In my haste to respond, I failed to include that we drop the pretense that these athletes are there for the college education and experience. Spend those full-ride scholarships on actual students who deserve them. Not to say that some of the athletes might not also want to attend classes, but they can pay to do so like anyone else.
Let me say that I overgeneralized. Gymnasts and softball players are not there for the future pro experience. They aren't getting the same media attention and endorsements although they might still get free rides. My main vitriol is directed at basketball and football it's al most as if there is no purpose for the colleges without them. I was a student football manager for three years. I personally knew players that could not have described either the inside of the classrooms or the instructors. And when talking about funding, let's remember that WE fund colleges, at least the public ones.
As for the implied suggestion that colleges give up football programs that bring in tons of money and lots of exposure, I don't see that happening. I suppose the silver lining is that at least those lucrative programs already pay for all those perqs the athletes get today, as well as funding other sports programs that aren't as high-profile.
I agree and said that. The priority in this country we put on viewable college sports is unbelievable. As far as funding, I admit to not being as knowledgeable about it as I used to be. But I read an article a few years back. Out of all the major football programs, maybe half a dozen were profitable, including Eric's alma mater, Michigan. Last summer I took a tour of the relatively new athletic center at NIU, my alma mater. The weight room was humongous. A portion of it was set aside for just football, the other teams shared the rest. There was a football meeting room and auditorium. I said football, not athletic. See the picture. NIU is now planning a big expansion of the football stadium. They haven't once come close to filling the present stadium. No matter where the money comes from, I have better ideas, like you, on how it could be spent.
We got taken by a scam artist and lost our shirts. We were just no match for a massive campaign of disinformation and propaganda, from both foreign and domestic sources. I'd like to share the explanation that I agree with. from the historian Heather Cox Richardson:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/november-6-2024
"There is also no doubt that both racism and sexism played an important role in Harris’s defeat.
But my own conclusion is that both of those things were amplified by the flood of disinformation that has plagued the U.S. for years now. Russian political theorists called the construction of a virtual political reality through modern media “political technology.” They developed several techniques in this approach to politics, but the key was creating a false narrative in order to control public debate. These techniques perverted democracy, turning it from the concept of voters choosing their leaders into the concept of voters rubber-stamping the leaders they had been manipulated into backing.
In the U.S., pervasive right-wing media, from the Fox News Channel through right-wing podcasts and YouTube channels run by influencers, have permitted Trump and right-wing influencers to portray the booming economy as “failing” and to run away from the hugely unpopular Project 2025. They allowed MAGA Republicans to portray a dramatically falling crime rate as a crime wave and immigration as an invasion. They also shielded its audience from the many statements of Trump’s former staff that he is unfit for office, and even that his chief of staff General John Kelly considers him a fascist and noted that he admires German Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler."
I’m staying at a hotel in NYC right now. The room has a kitchenette, which I have been using for breakfast and late night snacks. In addition to the usual tasks, housekeeping here also does the dishes! Why wouldn’t I tip? (I will also leave my MetroCard, so someone can use the couple of days left on it.)
RE: the school board elections - some of us intentionally voted for candidates who weren’t in the pockets of either the CTU or the charter school lobby.
Boy does this electoral disaster send me back to all those wisdoms about things you can and cannot control. I suggest we all get out our mirrors. If I really want to hold in my heart the belief that more than half of my fellow American voters, across all areas and demographics, are evil because they don’t see the same existential dangers in Trump that I see, then I’m just counting the days until I’m curled in fetal position all day, mumbling about injectable bleach and but her emails and lock him up. No thanks! The message is loud and clear regardless of what’s rattling in my head: more people see things differently than I see them. Life is a miraculous feast to be enjoyed every day, and we can’t waste what little time we have tilting at windmills for masochistic entertainment. So, I’d suggest we keep our wary eyes on our leaders as always, stay engaged for the good of humanity, but stop the “can you believe what he said today” stuff, as reliably entertaining as funny cat videos, because that’s one reason why he’s so popular. Those numbers don’t lie. As for politics, Dems need to figure out how messaging in the new media works. I hear angry conservative radio shows and podcasts coming from suburban yards where children are playing and moms are gardening. I hate this, but there’s a reason why millions of regular folks who I love dearly consume a steady diet of this stuff, and it’s not because they want to destroy the entire country. We have to engage all of our voters where they live. I wept bitter tears yesterday, and my heart aches for those who surely will suffer because their leaders choose to disrespect their rights to exist. I’ve told my “kids” to do what they should always do in times of trauma: feel your feelings, then find your friends, don’t hate anyone, help some folks around you, do your own job well, then start thinking about how you can help change the world. Thanks to this wonderful forum as a place of healing and reflection. Peace, friends.
Well-stated!
I propped my little plaque with the Serenity Prayer inscription on my TV stand yesterday.
You need to reconsider your $5 standard. Not what it was in 2005. My usual is now a $20.
Same with me. In fact, since I don’t use cash much at all, the only bills I tend to have in my wallet are $20s because that’s the lowest denomination the ATM spits out.
Really? I've been with the $5. And I always tip b/c that is SUCH a hard job and the cleaning staffer deserves it. Also tip every day b/c the person might be different everyday. I'll definitely boost my rate though I'm not sure about $20.
I don't have a problem with $20 because in the larger hotels, like the wait staff in restaurants, the cleaning crew often share those tips with others working behind the scenes, such as the laundry workers and kitchen staff. And in smaller hotels the same person cleaning the room might also be the one washing the sheets and towels.
Excellent point. Thanks.
you are generous - and thoughtful.
The reason she lost is that the voters of this country are appallingly stupid!
Go to YouTube & watch Kimmel's monologue from Wednesday night, where near the end, he sent a staffer out on Hollywood Blvd to ask people how they were voting that day, the day after the election & be appalled at their answers!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JxELubSgJg
As for the best Quincy Jones, I'll go for what he did for Sinatra with "Fly Me To The Moon". It's the quintessential Sinatra song. In fact in one version of Sinatra singing "Mack The Knife", he starts riffing 3/4ths of the way through & thanks Quincy by name for all his help.
The first election I was old enough to participate in, I was swayed by the Willie Horton ad against Michael Dukakis along with the terrible image of him riding in a tank looking like Snoopy (I was in the army at the time). I later came to realize how misleading that attack ad was and never forgave the relatively decent George HW Bush for it (even though it was a PAC that ran the ad, Bush’s campaign were the ones that focused on the issue). Watching the flood of ads this year during football games reminded me so much of that Willie Horton ad, especially the one about the “migrant gangs” supposedly taking over cities. They rely on voters being ignorant, and if these ads didn’t work they wouldn’t spend so much money on them.
i love sinatra's 'fly me to the moon'. didn't know QJ arranged a version of it for him.
Thank you for the JimmyKimmel link! It was so good to laugh!!
As a progressive, liberal independent I understood that Harris was the better choice, but honestly it was marginal even to me. The Democrats essentially ALWAYS react to Republican claims and statements rather than proactively providing solutions, such as with the border issue for example. Don't they have a real plan? I never heard it. What about actually stating that they were actively deporting criminals? Why not discuss that the reason that migrants were showing up at our border Mexico was letting them into their country? That's a political problem with Mexico. Why not dicuss the history of American foreign policy, including our failed "war on drugs", that helped create the dysfunction that was the reason that people were leaving? There's far, far more, but I will leave it at that.
The Democrats did this to themselves. I hate the GOP because they openly spit on my values, but the Democrats have been a big, big disappointment to me and I'm a progressive, liberal independent.
It's disingenuous to say the Democrats didn't have a plan for the border -- they had a bill drafted by a staunch conservative Republican with broad bipartisan support ready for Biden to sign, until suddenly the GOP killed it on Trump's orders. Harris mentioned plenty of times, but perhaps not often enough for it to sink in.
It was NOT enough to sink in. My point is that I never heard it, I knew it was there, somewhere. The GOP would talk, talk, talk all day about the "problem" but the Democrats didn't talk, talk, talk about their plan.
Biden and Harris could have railed continually about it, but they didn't. The f'ing Republicans will not shut their whining mouths while the Democrats refuse to open theirs. In context of this issue, the Democrats should have given better than they got and they did not. Now we have to contend with these cretins and their tax cuts for the rich and corporations.
Think about what Republicans learned from this victory. Lying works, and they'll never need to speak the truth going forward to retain power. The closest analogy I can think of is Orwell's Animal Farm. I don't know how bad things have to get before the majority of Americans reject this type of messaging.
BTW, it is amazing that people think that the GOP is better economically for them when it is the GOP's economic policy that has help erode the middle class through their tax cuts for the rich. The fundamental truth is that it was the income tax with its high upper marginal rates that created the middle class and Reagan's tax cut from 75% to 35% accelerated the erosion started by inflation and the capital gains tax cuts intended to save small savers but allowed the rich to keep even more of their wealth because most of their wealth was from capital gains!
The wealth and earnings gap between rich and middle class is due entirely to the GOP's efforts to help the rich because they believe the myth that they deserve their wealth because they are more industrious. However, it comes at the cost of the economic well being of the dupes who vote Republican.
In the days and weeks to come, Pundits will explain why Kamala Harris lost to the Fanta Menace. Among the list, in no particular order, will be:
Racism
Misogyny
Muslim and Arab Americans disappointment with Biden's policy re: Israel and Palestine
The democratic party's inability to appeal to the progressive left
Voter suppression
gerrymandering
3rd party siphoning votes
Not having a legitimate primary where people could truly choose the nominee
It's a combination of all of the above. It does look like White men and women noped the idea of the a POTUS with a vagina in the oval office. Though I'm sure when pressed they would say "it was for other reasons"
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-elections/exit-polls
And they, themselves, would probably believe “it was for other reasons.” All people tend to internalize the “isms” of the culture in which they were brought up (racism, sexism, etc.) and, on some level, to judge others based on those “isms.” We may, in the executive function portion of our brains, reject those isms, but, unconsciously, they often affect our judgment. After growing up in the sixties watching women on TV and in the movies always depicted as either sex objects or domestic support for the men in their lives (nurturing mothers), is it any surprise that on a gut level, many people have difficulty imagining a woman in the most powerful office in the world? Don’t get me wrong. I imagined it and voted for Harris. I am just truth telling as I think you were. In terms of electability in 2024 United States, Harris’s biggest negative was the same as Hillary Clinton’s.
That more than anything should tell people that trans women aren't making some lifestyle choice on a whim, or to win some sporting events, or to sneak into women's restrooms. It's like when people say homosexuality is a lifestyle choice, my first question is why someone would choose a lifestyle that might cause them to be ostracized or even killed if discovered?
One thing to add, my in-laws down here cancel my wife and my vote 2-1. When I told the FIL some of things Trump is planning to do, he said he had no idea. That's because Fox presents him in the best possible light.
If Trump killed Eric and Jr, Fox would report it as "President Trump disciplined his kids today".
The day before the election the media and manny polls had people thinking the election was extremely close. They were wrong…big time.
They were not interested in accuracy, they were interested in keeping people on the edge of their seats and “tuned in”.
If one poll had Trump winning, suddenly another poll had Harris winning.
The election results showed us a lot of things. One takeaway, polls are poorly done and very biased.
These so called experts are charlatans and belong in the same section as horoscopes.
In fact maybe horoscopes could use some of the “poll speak”…this is your horoscope today within “margins for error”.
The problems with polling is that the pollsters weight the results, because some goof decided that if they don't get enough people from a specific demographic, they must adjust for that.
STOP THAT!
just report the raw numbers & let us figure them out!
Is the question we should be addressing what did the Democrats do wrong? MAGA is a fascist movement. Extremely right wing and nationalistic, othering minorities and blaming them for society’s problems, wanting to put “undesirables” (here immigrants) in concentration camps before eliminating them from society (here by deporting them). The blame for this election result lies, quite frankly, with the voters who supported MAGA. In 1932, the Nazi party got more votes than any other party in Germany’s federal election. Was that the fault of the other parties, or was it the fault of the voters who wanted the party led by a racist megalomaniac and “strong man.” Everyone wants to assume the essential goodness of their fellow country men and women. But is that really justified? My brother recently told me, “Just heard the son of holocaust survivors say his parents used to warn him that it can even happen in America. ‘All you have to do is take away a few dollars from Americans, and you will see.’” Eggs cost more so let’s vote for the guy who promises to put our undocumented neighbors in concentration camps. The blame for this election result is on the people who voted for Trump. The absurdity of asking what Democrats did wrong is apparent when one imagines a German in 1932 saying what could we have done to address the concerns of the people who voted for the Nazi party. The United States has become, for the time being, a fascist country in the sense that it is controlled by fascists: the Presidency, the Senate, the House, and the Supreme Court. I get it that that's a hard pill to swallow, but that's where we are.
You make it sound as if it was destiny that Trump would get six million more votes than Harris and there was nothing that could have been done to prevent that. You noted earlier that sexism was a factor, which I agree that it was, but didn’t that confer upon the Democrats an obligation to steer clear of nominating a woman this time, especially with the disaster of 2016 still fresh in their minds, and the opposition party offering the same fascist thug who defeated Clinton that year?
I think it is partly Biden’s fault for running for the office of President a second time after he said that he would be a one-term President and at a time when he was experiencing cognitive decline. If Biden had stood down and the Democrats had had a vigorous contest in the primaries, the Democrats would have had their strongest candidate—I’m not saying that their strongest candidate would not have been Kamala Harris, but we’ll never know. And I think Biden’s mistake in not standing down, although tragic, was somewhat understandable. I had two parents that experienced cognitive decline, and I am familiar with the concept of “sundowning,” where an older person can be with it during the day and get confused at night. Biden may have believed that he was just tired at night, as opposed to experiencing cognitive decline. But, yes, a tragic mistake in my view because, as you say, we currently have a President-elect who is a fascist thug.
One thing that hasn't come up in the comments (though I might have missed a few) is that Joe Biden endorsing Harris on his way out the door, so to speak, was a giant middle finger to Obama, Pelosi and others who forced him out. You'll note Obama did not endorse for several days. If Biden hadn't done that, perhaps there WOULD have been an "open primary" or convention or whatever.