Its just been announced: The german coalition has failed. Scholz to address the nation within the next hour. We will have elections very, very soon. Guess which party will be the bigly winner.

(November 6, 2024 at 11:17 am)Thumpalumpacus Wrote:

(November 6, 2024 at 8:53 am)arewethereyet Wrote: That doesn't mean he will leave quietly.  We can only hope that four years will be too many Big Macs for him.

At this point I hope he lives out his term. If he dies, we get Vance for who knows how long -- but long enough to cement the destruction of our democracy. I believe that this will be the last free and fair election I'll see in my lifetime.

I don't see that being the case at all. I don't see any evidence the Trump administration would do anything to impact the electoral process to the extent that one could argue such a thing?

Other than the odd attempted coup, obvs.

(November 6, 2024 at 6:56 pm)Aegon Wrote:

(November 6, 2024 at 11:17 am)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: At this point I hope he lives out his term. If he dies, we get Vance for who knows how long -- but long enough to cement the destruction of our democracy. I believe that this will be the last free and fair election I'll see in my lifetime.

I don't see that being the case at all. I don't see any evidence the Trump administration would do anything to impact the electoral process to the extent that one could argue such a thing?

1) SCOTUS has immunized him against acts in office that are illegal.
2) Trump, or Vance if Trump dies in power, rounds up opponents in advance of 2028.
3) ?
4) Profit!

(November 6, 2024 at 7:12 pm)The Grand Nudger Wrote: Other than the odd attempted coup, obvs.

Because it's an official act. "National security" yadayadayada.

(November 6, 2024 at 5:41 pm)Angrboda Wrote: Thinking things through this morning, while it's comforting to focus on the details at hand, ultimately this is a result of the interplay between our systems of governance and human nature.  Democracy is an imperfect system.  Every few years, instead of looking to preserve what few successes we managed, we focus on the problems that remain and look for someone to blame for the way we feel.  Democracy, at least as practiced in the United States, is reactionary.  Without a more informed and wise electorate, which is a limit imposed by our nature, we likely can expect regime change after regime change after regime change.  Democracy is not an ideal system, at least not in its current form.  Could it be a good solution, with just a few tweaks here and there?  Maybe.  For now though, the problem of governance will remain for all of us.  All we can do is accept the progress we've made, and not fear and dread the reversals.  Is this the end of democracy in the U.S.?  Perhaps.  But if it is, what replaces it will be temporary as well.  Nothing lasts.  Nothing is finished.  And nothing is perfect.  The best we can do is hope for the future.

In Thea Alexander’s book 2150 AD, they have an AI that is responsible of governing the colony where the events are happening.

   Also in 2150 BC people had God-Kings with all the magical rituals that were supposed to transform the Pharaoh into some sort of channel for the universal energies to rule the country directly.
 
   Apart from that, I used to think it’s about education. But it’s not education. If it was education Brexit would never happen, the AFD would not get so positive results, France would not need to politically isolate its own far-right movement. A mad man like Javier Milei could not even dream of becoming a president (if you ask me).
 
   In the 70’s, 80’s and even the first half of the 90’s, the less satisfied layers of society (factory workers, people with low paying jobs, small scale farmers, owners of small businesses etc.) would vote for left wing parties when they were dissatisfied with the government. Today when they are impoverished because of ultra-liberal policies (I’m specifically thinking of Emmanuel Macron here) they simply go and vote for even more liberal political parties thinking that the populist guy is more likely to understand their low or middle class problems.  
 
   So there is this change of dynamics in the world of politics. And right wing parties all over the world seem to understand these dynamics better than older more traditional types of politicians.   

Quote:WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden’s name wasn’t on the ballot, but history will likely remember Kamala Harris’ resounding defeat as his loss too.

As Democrats pick up the pieces after President-elect Donald Trump’s decisive victory, some of the vice president’s backers are expressing frustration that Biden’s decision to seek reelection until this summer — despite long-standing voter concerns about his age and unease about post-pandemic inflation as well as the U.S.-Mexico border — all but sealed his party’s surrender of the White House.

“The biggest onus of this loss is on President Biden,” said Andrew Yang, who ran against Biden in 2020 for the Democratic nomination and endorsed Harris’ unsuccessful run. “If he had stepped down in January instead of July, we may be in a very different place.”

Biden will leave office after leading the United States out of the worst pandemic in a century, galvanizing international support for Ukraine after Russia’s invasion and passing a $1 trillion infrastructure bill that will affect communities for years to come.

But having run four years ago against Trump to “restore the soul of the country,” Biden will make way after just one term for his immediate predecessor, who overcame two impeachments, a felony conviction and an insurrection launched by his supporters. Trump has pledged to radically reshape the federal government and roll back many of Biden’s priorities.

“Maybe in 20 or 30 years, history will remember Biden for some of these achievements,” said Thom Reilly, co-director of the Center for an Independent and Sustainable Democracy at Arizona State University. “But in the shorter term, I don’t know he escapes the legacy of being the president who beat Donald Trump only to usher in another Donald Trump administration four years later.”

https://apnews.com/article/biden-harris-...5db21291d2

Biden isn't to blame. The neo-conservative people are.

In a historic sense, sure...neocons greatly contributed to the current moment... but in the present they've been exiled by king donald. Going forward democrats will have to shoulder this for the same reason neocons do. They've spent years pointing out that donny is a fascist and an existential threat to america..today, they're shaking his hand and wishing him good luck.

The NYT speculates that the backlash against "elites" is the reason for the result. The gulf between college educated elites and high school diplomaed is reflected in the Trump win. The Times excoriates the elite class for not seeing how education affects social class.

"That great sucking sound you heard was the redistribution of respect. People who climbed the academic ladder were feted with accolades, while those who didn’t were rendered invisible. The situation was particularly hard on boys. By high school two-thirds of the students in the top 10 percent of the class are girls, while about two-thirds of the students in the bottom decile are boys. Schools are not set up for male success; that has lifelong personal, and now national, consequences.

Society worked as a vast segregation system, elevating the academically gifted above everybody else. Before long, the diploma divide became the most important chasm in American life. High school graduates die nine years sooner than college-educated people. They die of opioid overdoses at six times the rate. They marry less and divorce more and are more likely to have a child out of wedlock. They are more likely to be obese. A recent American Enterprise Institute study found that 24 percent of people who graduated from high school at most have no close friends. They are less likely than college grads to visit public spaces or join community groups and sports leagues. They don’t speak in the right social justice jargon or hold the sort of luxury beliefs that are markers of public virtue."

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/06/opini...class.html

I can see this in my own biases. I truly can't understand how anyone could look at the bucket that is Trump and say, I like that. It's a fundamental gap in understanding. It's easy for me to assume racist or misogynist anger when it's far more nuanced.

Zooming in on the blue states, it becomes obvious that the red is slowly overtaking even them. I'm fairly certain there might be no recovery for democracy in a country that favors regression.