Joe Biden the 46th President of the United States
All the major outlets are finally acknowledging the obvious.
More than 24 hours after it became obvious the Joe Biden has won Pennsylvania and thus crossed the magic 270 Elector threshold, the Associated Press, BBC,CNN, ABC, NBC, and most other major outlets have made it officially unofficial. We can now call him “President-Elect Biden.”
It’s storybook, man. A big effing deal.
AP (“Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided US“):
Democrat Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump to become the 46th president of the United States on Saturday, positioning himself to lead a nation gripped by historic pandemic and a confluence of economic and social turmoil.
His victory came after more than three days of uncertainty as election officials sorted through a surge of mail-in votes that delayed the processing of some ballots. Biden crossed 270 Electoral College votes with a win in Pennsylvania.
Biden, 77, staked his candidacy less on any distinctive political ideology than on galvanizing a broad coalition of voters around the notion that Trump posed an existential threat to American democracy. The strategy proved effective, resulting in pivotal victories in Michigan and Wisconsin as well as Pennsylvania, onetime Democratic bastions that had flipped to Trump in 2016.
Biden was on track to win the national popular vote by more than 4 million, a margin that could grow as ballots continue to be counted.
Trump seized on delays in processing the vote in some states to falsely allege voter fraud and argue that his rival was trying to seize power — an extraordinary charge by a sitting president trying to sow doubt about a bedrock democratic process.
As the vote count played out, Biden tried to ease tensions and project an image of presidential leadership, hitting notes of unity that were seemingly aimed at cooling the temperature of a heated, divided nation.
“We have to remember the purpose of our politics isn’t total unrelenting, unending warfare,” Biden said Friday night in Delaware. “No, the purpose of our politics, the work of our nation, isn’t to fan the flames of conflict, but to solve problems, to guarantee justice, to give everybody a fair shot.”
Kamala Harris also made history as the first Black woman to become vice president, an achievement that comes as the U.S. faces a reckoning on racial justice. The California senator, who is also the first person of South Asian descent elected to the vice presidency, will become the highest-ranking woman ever to serve in government, four years after Trump defeated Hillary Clinton.
NYT (“Biden Wins Presidency, Ending Four Tumultuous Years Under Trump“):
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was elected the 46th president of the United States on Saturday, promising to restore political normalcy and a spirit of national unity to confront raging health and economic crises, and making Donald J. Trump a one-term president after four years of tumult in the White House.
Mr. Biden’s victory amounted to a repudiation of Mr. Trump by millions of voters exhausted with his divisive conduct and chaotic administration, and was delivered by an unlikely alliance of women, people of color, old and young voters and a sliver of disaffected Republicans. Mr. Trump is the first incumbent to lose re-election in more than a quarter-century.
The result also provided a history-making moment for Mr. Biden’s running mate, Senator Kamala Harris of California, who will become the first woman to serve as vice president.
With his triumph, Mr. Biden, who turns 78 later this month, fulfilled his decades-long ambition in his third bid for the White House, becoming the oldest person elected president. A pillar of Washington who was first elected amid the Watergate scandal, and who prefers political consensus over combat, Mr. Biden will lead a nation and a Democratic Party that have become far more ideological since his arrival in the capital in 1973.
He offered a mainstream Democratic agenda, yet it was less his policy platform than his biography to which many voters gravitated. Seeking the nation’s highest office a half-century after his first campaign, Mr. Biden — a candidate in the late autumn of his career — presented his life of setback and recovery to voters as a parable for a wounded country.
The race, which concluded after four tense days of vote-counting in a handful of battlegrounds, was a singular referendum on Mr. Trump in a way no president’s re-election has been in modern times. He coveted the attention, and voters who either adored him or loathed him were eager to render judgment on his tenure. Americans rarely turn incumbent presidents out of office, but from the beginning to the end of the race, Mr. Biden made the president’s character central to his campaign.
This unrelenting focus propelled Mr. Biden to victory in historically Democratic strongholds in the industrial Midwest, with Mr. Biden forging a coalition of suburbanites and big-city residents to claim at least three states his party lost in 2016.
WaPo also has a “BIDEN DEFEATS TRUMP” headline banner but it currently links to a live-blog with lots of minor stories. Among them:
Pennsylvania projected to put Biden over the top
The state of Biden’s birth, where he was affectionately deemed an honorary third senator over his decades representing neighboring Delaware, is now projected to deliver him the presidency, according to Edison Research.
Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes will put Biden over the 270 votes needed even with a handful of other states still too close to call.
Pennsylvania was among the most hotly contested states of the cycle, with both Biden and Trump making regular trips to the state for most of the campaign. Both candidates spent considerable time there in the final days of the race, with Biden holding a final rally there the night before the election and making an additional two stops on Election Day.
Hillary Clinton, who also held her campaign’s final rally in Pennsylvania, lost the state by less than a point in 2016, in a shocking upset. Then in 2018, Democrats rallied and flipped several Republican-held House seats in the Philadelphia suburbs.
Prior to 2016, the Republican presidential candidate hadn’t won Pennsylvania since 1988, though John McCain and Mitt Romney each made a concentrated push in the state.
America has elected a vice president. For the first time, she is not a man.
A vice president-elect stepped forward on Saturday and for the first time in American history she was not a man.
Kamala Devi Harris, a daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, is set to become the highest-ranking woman in the nation’s 244-year existence, as well as a high-profile representation of the country’s increasingly diverse composition.
Harris’s victory comes 55 years after the Voting Rights Act abolished laws that disenfranchised Black Americans, 36 years after the first woman ran on a presidential ticket and four years after Democrats were devastated by the defeat of Hillary Clinton, the only woman to win the presidential nomination of a major party.
Though her own run for president fell apart last year partly because of a lack of enthusiasm, Harris has since been embraced by Democrats, who saw in her a reflection of themselves — a party supported by women and, especially, Black women.
It’s noteworthy that, as of 1144 Eastern, Fox News—which was the first to call Arizona for Biden on Election Night even though most outlets have still yet to do so—has not made the call.
UPDATE: It took Fox about 10 minutes and they’re now all-in:
Fox News (“Biden wins presidency, Trump denied second term in White House, Fox News projects“):
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has defeated incumbent President Donald Trump, denying him a second term in the White House, Fox News projects, a victory for the former vice president after a bitter campaign and dramatic, prolonged vote count in battleground states sparking lawsuits from the Trump campaign.
It came as the Fox News Decision Desk projected Saturday that Biden will win the state of Nevada and the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
“I am honored and humbled by the trust the American people have placed in me and in Vice President-elect Harris,” Biden said in a statement. “In the face of unprecedented obstacles, a record number of Americans voted. Proving once again, that democracy beats deep in the heart of America.”
He added: “With the campaign over, it’s time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation.”
A year and a half after launching his White House bid, Biden secured enough states to put him over the threshold of 270 electoral votes and bring an end to the four game-changing years of the Trump presidency, according to a projection from the Fox News Decision Desk. For Trump, the loss comes four years after a stunning upset – when he came from behind in 2016 and outperformed the polls in a historic White House victory against the Democrats’ nominee, Hillary Clinton.
It’s 11:44 AM and my wife and I just popped the cork on a bottle of champagne.
A bigger effing deal – Kamala Harris will be Vice President. A woman is elected to a formal role in the Oval Office for the first time in history. And only the second person of color so elected.
Fox News:
Biden wins presidency, Trump denied second term in White House, Fox News projects
Hosanna seems appropriate. Right down to Mitch McConnell, played by a black guy, and Rick Scott as himself on the balcony.
I knew we needed Pennsylvania!
Even if Arizona evaporates (which doesn’t seem likely), we still have 273 EC votes and Pessimus Minimus Trump is gone for good!
Congratulations to America for stepping back from the brink.
Any experts on the Federal Vacancies Act here? Can Trump fire enough people over the next two months (and not replace them) that if McConnell refuses to do any confirmations, Biden won’t be able to find people that meet the necessary requirements to even install “acting” people in the top levels of the departments/agencies?
@Mikey:
It’s 5 o’clock somewhere!
Go Joe!!!
Over at Lucianne.com, the Trumpkins are refusing to accept this, by which I mean they claim not to believe it. It’s Fake News.
Had a coworker explain to me last night that the election was stolen and he had proof. Showed me the video of the camera guy loading the red wagon. Also apparently all the Republican witnesses are part of the conspiracy…
A small anachronism to further brighten your day.
@Kathy:
I do love the expression on Donny’s face.
The rage and paranoia over at Lucianne.com emanate from the page. Sample comment:
“The democrat communists are already compiling a list of all who supported our legally elected President Trump. They are coming for us.”
They finally called this thing!!!
This is how Germany is reporting it°
The world is celebrating!!!
Looking forward to the future where our focus and debates are on on policy and ideas that will help further the American dream. But for today, the words of Jimmy Cliff…
“I can see clearly now the rain is gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It’s gonna be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny day
It’s gonna be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny day”
@Min:
Oops this is the link I wanted to share.
I’m hearing a lot of cheers and honking of horns here in a suburb of Chicago.
Congratulations.
Bloody well done.
Thank you.
Cheers!
Now, let us come together to build the communist hellscape we’ve always wanted.
First step: much smaller windows.
Second step: burn down the suburbs!
But we still haven’t seen Biden’s long form birth certificate. /s
@Sleeping Dog:
All day today is 5 o’clock everywhere.
This tweet is kinda perfect for today:
Fake News exacts its revenge on Trump. In the end, this right now is just a guess by increasingly partisan poor journalists. We still have challenges, recounts, canvasses that may turn up more software glitches, to get to certified election results, then the Electoral College before it is all settled sometime after 1 pm on Jan 6, 2021. Obviously, as things move along, the odds of a flip decrease.
But through it all, Joe Biden has to avoid the end result of old age and declining health. Or we might end up with Donald Trump as president and Kamala Harris as VP. Win for both sides as it keeps the historic moment aspects being propagandized so hard right now.
@mattbernius:
Yeah, regardless, Trump isn’t moving until January 20, 2021. At which time, he will depart frigid Washington, DC for warm sunny Florida
@JKB:
Oh, come on.
Now you’re just being silly.
Nothing like reading the man who predicted *checks notes* that Trump would decisively win both the Electoral College and Popular Vote… not to mention stating that cities are “corpses” and that this time we would see the results of the voices of “Real America”(TM)… pontificate about the election or political futures like he’s someone who deserves to be taken seriously on any of these topics.
@JKB:
I am sorry. Was this supposed to make us feel bad?
@JKB:
Your delusions won’t hurt anyone more than yourself.
Double down often.
@JKB: Yeah sunny and humid as hell with terrible water quality (whats left of it). The only people who want to retire to Florida are those without enough money to move some place where the weather is actually nice.
@JKB: Too bad you don’t have the guts to admit that your guy lost fair and square. Americans have had enough of Trump’s chaos.
@JKB:
“Yeah, regardless, Trump isn’t moving until January 20, 2021. At which time, he will depart frigid Washington, DC for warm sunny Florida”
I hope he invites you over for a round of golf, and a few beers sometime. Lord knows you earned it, faithfully and tirelessly spreading baseless lies for him.
FWIW, this might be a good time to see how all of us were reacting 4 years ago, when the race was called for Trump:
https://www.outsidethebeltway.com/donald-trump-defies-pollsters-pundits-and-the-odds-to-become-45th-u-s-president/
https://www.outsidethebeltway.com/president-elect-trump/
Not surprisingly, the snark was often on the other foot.
I have this earworm going through my head. From the Wizard of Oz:
Ding-dong! The Witch is dead
Which old Witch? The Wicked Witch!
Ding-dong! The Wicked Witch is dead
Wake up you sleepy head, rub your eyes, get out of bed
Wake up, the Wicked Witch is dead
She’s gone where the goblins go
Below, below, below
Yo-ho, let’s open up and sing and ring the bells out
Ding-dong’s the merry-oh, sing it high, sing it low
Let them know the Wicked Witch is dead!
@JKB:
More? Your first would be??
You really think he will hang around Washington in the winter, when he could be golfing in Florida?
Bear in mind his highest current ambition is throwing a metaphorical middle finger to all those people who have let him down.
Never thought I’d see people dancing in the streets for Joe Biden.
So do conservative voters do a complete 180 on the state of the U.S. economy now or will they wait until JB is inaugurated? Asking for a friend.
I posted this late on yesterday’s forum, so I’m reposting it this morning (at least on the Left Coast) in case it’s worth discussing:
Interesting take on the election outcome. The, to me anyway, money quote (or maybe only the first)
Now I would normally inquire about the “what’s wrong with this picture” qualities of this yahoo’s viewpoint, but today, I will simply observe that his silver lining is that we’ll continue getting stuff without trying to pay for it–passing the cost onto Reynold’s kids, among others–and cut to my Sonny and Cher riff
@JKB: Loser. I mean him, tho I suppose it applies to you too.
@ImProPer: “But for today, the words of Jimmy Cliff…”
With all due respect, those words (and music) are actually by Johnny Nash, although Cliff’s cover is wonderful as well.
@charon:
There was ONE county in Michigan where the County Clerk forgot to update some reporting software. The error was quickly caught and has been corrected.
JKB thinks it’s going to save his idol.
It’s a bit like waiting for Steiner’s decisive counter attack against the northern flank of Zhukov’s 1st Belorussian Front.
@charon:
In Antrim County, there was an issue that caused the results to initially be flipped from Trump to Biden (and also in down-ballot races). It was found and corrected as part of the overall tallying process. There is no evidence of this being intentional sabotage.
https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/11/06/antrim-county-results-election-2020/6185031002/
But give him his straws to grasp on. Grieving is a hell of a process.
@JKB:
Now, everyone stop picking on @JKB. I think it’s generous of him to drop by and give us the pleasure of reveling in his utter, utter defeat.
@wr:
Thank’s for the correction.
@mattbernius:
BTW, this is also a prime example of why Election Security folks are ademantan that it’s so important to maintain the paper ballots as part of the process (which is what they did in this case).
@Michael Reynolds:
I know you’re not serious, but even so: I’m not in a particularly forgiving mood.
He has been lying and propagandizing on behalf of a party that actively sought to dismantle American democracy (such as it is) and replace it with an authoritarian regime based on minority rule.
Even now, he is looking at ways to invalidate the legally cast votes of his fellow citizens who happen to be of the “wrong” political persuasion.
He is trash and should be treated as such.
Theon had some redeeming features at the end. I’m not seeing that with him.
@Michael Cain: Probably. We’ll see what they both do over the next ~3 months.
@mattbernius:
Not a “software glitch” as I define that.
https://www.michigan.gov/sos/0,4670,7-127–544676–,00.html
My bolding.
IOW, human error in using the software.
@charon:
Fair. I agree that “software glitch” in this case is a non-expert’s term–I try my best to be somewhat forgiving of those.
I would say it was a process breakdown.
@Min: In München klingeln die Glocken!
Biden is at 290 and so has won. But Trump only has 214. However, when I look at the map I only see Alaska not called. There are 538 EC votes total. Where are the rest? Or am I being a dumb ass?
@mattbernius:
I think the use of “update software” at that web site was sloppy – the human error was neglecting to run the software combining the vote totals – providing I am understanding correctly.
@Michael Reynolds: I’m guessing Drew’s currently got his tinfoil rabbit ears tuned in for his marching orders from Q. From what I’ve seen so far, according to Q, this is all part of “the plan”, the preface to locking up all Trump’s political enemies in Gitmo.
@JKB: “Trump isn’t moving until January 20, 2021. At which time, he will depart frigid Washington, DC for warm sunny Florida
So after all these years, JKB seems to believe that people want Trump out of the White House because they want him to be personally unhappy, not because they want an end to the damage he’s causing the country and the world, and that we’ll all be sorry when he leaves the White House to live in one of his mansions. What else do you need to know about how he views politics?
@Matt:
The Democrats have to be some of the most incompetent thieves in history. Why steal just the presidency, when the senate was sitting right beside it? Just goes to show, you simply can’t get good help anymore.
@MarkedMan:
North Carolina and Georgia?
(GA recount; NC taking a d@mn long time!)
@Northerner: They never have an answer for that. A bunch of sputtering is all I really got before he went back to qanon type crap…
At Gateway Pundit:
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3pKyug7gU5E/X6bh2fWIWJI/AAAAAAAARsI/V8zj3cv2qeQIHTs_9Gx_3iJu2zewJKxIgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/GP2.PNG
Lot’s of barking there, I wonder how much biting will materialize.
It’s hard to describe what I feel right now but it’s closest to a profound sense of relief. Getting rid of an incumbent President is really hard. Getting rid of one who had a good economy — at least before COVID — is even harder. The Dems do have some thinking to do; they did poorly in Senate, House and State legislatures (and no, not just because of gerrymandering). I won’t believe it until he’s out of the White House. But this rejection feels good.
I look forward to the next four years of opposing a normal President in normal ways with normal debates about normal policy. I’ll probably disagree with Biden the majority of the time. But seeing him in the White House won’t make me feel sick to my stomach.
@JKB:
Is he going to drain that swamp too?
@JKB:
Good, then the US won’t have try to extradite him from, I guess Russia, when New York is charging him for tax fraud etc.
@charon:
No bite will materialize, and not just because I said so. The only reason most people are now are of sites like infowar, lucianne, gateway pundit and other sites just like them is because of Trump.
Come January 21, many of these sites will go back to being fringe sites filled with crackpots that many folks do not normally visit or are aware of. When Biden is sworn in I have a favor, nay…nearly a demand to ask of this site. Please, no more posts saying I went to gateway pundit, etc., and what they are saying on those sites is yada, yada, yada…give them no voice and just let the ignorant on those sites pleasure themselves.
@Paine
On Monday.
@Hal_10000:
Wow. That sounded so nice. Less shouting at creeps and morons.
@inhumans99:
My guess as well. I think their balloon sprang a leak and it’ll be hard to re-inflate.
But we’ll get some racist mass-murders dedicating their spree to Trump. Some chubby old white guys working on their second heart attacks will blow up a post office for Trump. There’s nothing more ridiculous than a broken autocrat.
@MarkedMan:
With Biden at 290 and trump at 214, AZ, NC, GA and AK were not official.
@charon:
The FOX news people have declared Biden the winner, which means FOX management has to either get their entertainment people in line or face an internal civil war.
I foresee little hope for an Al TRUMPA insurgency without a united and dedicated FOX News behind them. Lacking that they will likely be but a few yahoos self-immolating in isolated, stupid acts of violence or in public yakking about such, easy pickings for the FBI.
https://twitter.com/profmusgrave/status/1325048875397378048
@grumpy realist:
Yes! They do…
Tbh the whole world does too. That’s why there’s celebrations everywhere now.
@charon:
The most common form of computer glitch is PEBKAC: Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair.
@MarkedMan:
290 must include PA, AZ, NV
so adding GA (16), NC (15), AK(3) – not in either total – would get to 538.
@Kathy: When someone misses a putt my buddy says “Oh, you missed because there was sh*t on your putter” and when they go to look at it he says “No, the other end”.
According to TPM, when Trump returned from his golf outing today, he was greeted by mobs of jubilant people giving him the finger.
I saw reports that Mr. Trump was on the golf course today. He doesn’t appear to be taking this election dispute stuff very seriously.
We’ve reached the moment that TV Tropes calls “Villainous Breakdown.”
@Kylopod:
My reply was “Sir, this is a Wendy’s.”
Slugger, It is just another example of Trump being Trump and re-defining being lazy. He just feels that if he puts out the call to defend him that like magic the courts, his MAGA rally supporters, etc., will provide all the proof needed to show that he will still be President in 2021.
If you really feel like you can prove fraud, gather up the evidence and put it in front of a judge, which is what Politico notes in some of their articles that even Republican’s are telling him to do. Some rando on twitter who loves Trump is not going to convince a judge to throw out hundreds of thousands of ballots. People are telling Trump to put up or shut up.
He is such a sore loser and quite frankly I expect that in a day or two prominent members of the GOP will tell him stop sounding like such a loser and just man up and concede because he is making the GOP look bad. Folks would actually regain some respect for Trump if he was not acting like a child and stomping his feet and refusing to concede.
It is never a good look when anyone throws a tantrum regardless if your age is 2, 17 (in your teen rebel phase thinking you know so much better than your parents due to how much wisdom you have accumulated in all the many years you have been alive…lol), 30, 0r in your 70s. I get it…people throw tantrums occasionally, not just teens and 2 year old’s but the 74 year old President of the U.S., yikes!
Eventually, the GOP will realize they can start to abandon Trump and rip him apart without fear of being MAGAed/Primaried due to Trump, because right now it is inexplicable why they continue to hold water for the guy. He is a loser, Trump knows it, McConnell knows it, and letting Trump be Trump for too much longer will start to hurt the GOP.
Threats from Trump to ruin a GOP politicians shot at re-election in 2022 should just be met with a derisive laugh, so yeah…the election ended already GOPers, start tossing Trump under the bus before he does real damage to your brand.
Just had a nice talk with my 87 year old mother about the street celebrations of Joe Biden’s Presidential victory over Trump. She says that it is the largest victory celebration she has witnessed since V-J day in 1945.
@inhumans99:
In a Tom Clancy novel, an advisor to the president tells him to yell and throw tantrums, if he has to, at the staff behind closed doors. They can take it. But never to lose his cool in public.
@JKB:
See, this is what I meant by “idea fixation” in a previous thread. JKB has had it explained to him that the error in Michigan (which was caught by the standard process, as it should be) was human error — there was no software glitch. He has it from multiple reliable sources. And yet, it’s stuck in his head — no matter how many times he is reminded of the truth, for him it will now always be “the software glitch in Michigan”. His grasp of the correction slips inexorably away, leaving only the original error, indelible and insistent.
@mattbernius:
Ah, but you lack context — in another thread, JKB was claiming that therefore ALL of the ballots in Michigan are suspect, because they were all using the same software. It being an actual glitch (as opposed to human error) is important to his “case”.
@inhumans99:
Yes, but why would Trump care? He’s never given an orange turd for the GOP; it’s all about him. If they can’t help him, he’d just as soon hurt them if he can — it’s a feature, not a bug.
Hmm. Maybe we should be encouraging him in this. The GOP certainly deserves to reap a little bit of whirlwind here.
@Jax: I thought Q disappeared on Election Day, Sean Watkins stepped down from 8Kun, and Jim Watkins coincidentally got charged with wire fraud and child pornography 3 days later…
@Blue Galangal: Nah, they’re still trolling and sending out mass emails via all Trump’s channels.
@Blue Galangal: The “brand” is entirely too valuable to lose for any….foreign actors, or those beholden to them. They’re not done fuckin shit up yet.
@charon:
Or poor design of the software that causes errors like that to be able to do without immediately noticing. Which we would call a bug.
@Teve:
Different Behan…
And the the black bird broke the silence
As you whistled it so sweet
And in Brendan Behan’s footsteps
I danced up and down the street
The Pogues – Thousands Are Sailing (Across the Western Ocean)
Best song of Irish immigration though the pool is small.
—
Some of my best life was at Half-Time Rec listening to trad Irish music with friends and a pint. I met a really cool future partner there – so smart and feisty.
@DrDaveT:
.
Vindictiveness like that is his pattern, his history, pretty normal behavior for malignant narcissists. He likes yes men, turns on his supporters if they are perceived as insufficiently totally supportive.
We should not be seen doing that. Counterproductive and fodder for the “conservative” propaganda wurlitzer. There is an old saw attributed to Napoleon about not interfering when the opponent is making a mistake.
My Grands called the Ben Franklin general store in town the “dime store”.
Who knew there was super interesting linguistic shit happening in nothing town NW Wisconsin?
@inhumans99:
A lot of the GOP has already moved on, as has Rupert Murdoch and his properties – Fox, NYPost etc.
OTOH, a lot of other GOP has not and will not, so 2024 “non-RINO’s” like Nikki Haley and Tom Cotton will likely continue to fluff Trump to play for his supporters.
Trump said on Oct. 19: “Can you imagine if I lose? My whole life–what am I gonna do? I’m gonna say, I lost to the worst candidate in the history of politics. I’m not gonna feel so good. Maybe I’m gonna have to leave the country. I don’t know.”
@Blue Galangal: According to Mary Trump, what probably putting REAL salt in the wounds is the fact that on the whole, the Republicans did pretty well in the election. This was a purely an anti-Trump vote. Trump knows it. And he’s madder at the people who “didn’t support him” than his standard “enemies”.
@de stijl:
That comes from “Five & Dime”. It’s a pre-inflation “Dollar Store” (5¢ SMITH’S 10¢)
@charon:
I was looking a twitter thread, and via a couple of steps ended up in MAGA-land.
They are riding the crazy train there.
To paraphrase (cause I didn’t bookmark) a convo between one who had utterly lost it, and one relatively sane:
“If they don’t back Trump, I’ll never vote Republican again! ”
“So why should they care if you don’t?”
“I’ll vote against the traitors in the primaries!”
“Yess, but to do that you’ll have to vote for a Republican.”
“…… “ RAGE!
As I’ve said before; it’s now in the interest of the GoP to destroy Trump.
Even (perhaps especially) those who want to play for his supporters; will someone like e.g. Tom Cotton fancy playing second fiddle to Ivanka or Don Jr. in 2024 or even 2028?
I think not.
The art will be pressing for it without being seen too obviously to wield the knife.
@JohnSF:
Trump was the perfect embodiment of R aggression. They pretended to be stalwart stewards when they actually radical change agents.
Conservativism is raucously misnamed. Very radical rightist + ethno-nationalist. I object. Shenanigans! I declare shenanigans.
Had the Rs elected Pence in 2016 they would have moved the peg considerably farther than under Trump. I am more conservative (little c) as in prudent incrementalism than these fools.
Trump is chaos incarnate. Chaos is the antithesis to prudence.
@Teve: Idiocy, tone deaf idiocy.
Biden making rhetorical gestures to the other side, reaching out, is how you mitigate Trumpists ability to get on-side the wider non-Dem population to their narrative. Your win was not commanding and it’s nothing more than adolescent petulance what you quote – never mind bad politics.
As for the substance side, reaching out to the white working class segment of Trump support to detach them, finding areas of common interest, that’s also how to reduce their reach as well.
Sneering at them, insisting they abject themselves, that’s how you reinforce the only semi-coherent coalition Trump had.
@Lounsbury: “Don’t sneer”, he sneered.
One of our friends who lives in the Asheville, NC, area posted a video of last night’s celebration in downtown Asheville. Folks were, literally, dancing in the street.