Explaining the 2024 Election

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1. Catherine King says:

   December 8, 2024 at 12:12 pm

   Everyone was constantly lied to, and half of the country either didn’t listen and voted on superfluous ideas or just believed the lies.

   Trump is a conman, and con men . . . guess what . . . con. CBK

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2. Lloyd Lofthouse says:

   December 8, 2024 at 12:24 pm

   They didn’t mention the endless lies and threats from the MAGA cult and that cult’s convicted rapist, fraud and felon, and Putin’s help.

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   • ECE Professional says:

     December 8, 2024 at 12:40 pm

     It was recently discovered that Russia interfered in Romania’s election & they get a do-over because of it! What are the chances that Putin saw Romania’s president as being MORE important than ours? Nil, I think. Maybe they just got better at concealing how they hack us, but this guy found nefarious stuff in our election & he sent this Duty to Warn letter to VP Harris about it, so I hope they investigated it thoroughly –though I suspect they did not (since he called for hand recounts in swing states): https://substack.com/home/post/p-151721941

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3. quikwrit says:

   December 8, 2024 at 12:38 pm

   An element in all the learned analysis of the election results is the idea of self-destruction, and I think that this element is — more than any other factor — the actual subliminal basis of why so many people voted for Trump: I call it The Samson Syndrome because it is akin to what happened in the biblical story of Samson.

   In that story, Samson brought down the temple upon himself in order to destroy that which he hated. So, too, tens of millions of Americans so despise the dissolute oligarchy that America has become that they are willing to bring it crashing down upon their own heads in revenge. They have been left behind, they are unheard in the halls of power, they are suffering — so to hell with it all.

   After researching government laws passed since Citizens United, Princeton University researcher Martin Gilens and Northwestern University researcher Benjamin Page documented that the U.S. has for decades been an oligarchy and no longer a representative republic because the government does not represent the interests of the majority of the country’s citizens, but is instead ruled by the rich and powerful. The researchers analyzed 1,800 U.S. policies enacted over a period of two decades and compared the laws and regulations that were passed to those favored by average Americans to those favored by wealthy Americans and corporations, and here’s what the research revealed: “EVEN WHEN A MAJORITY OF CITIZENS DISAGREES WITH ECONOMIC ELITES OR WITH ORGANIZED SPECIAL INTERESTS, ORDINARY CITIZENS GENERALLY LOSE.”

   America has become an oligarchy because of the Supreme Court. Today’s Roberts Court will live in the same odious infamy as the Taney Court whose 1857 Dred Scott ruling declared that human beings are mere property, which lit the fuse to the ruinous Civil War from which America has yet to recover. In its 2010 Citizens United ruling, the Roberts Court ruled that mere property is equal to a human being, leading to corporations being given the “human right” to pour unlimited dollars into America’s political system, putting government up for sale to the highest bidder and corrupting the system to the extent that our nation has become an oligarchy that no longer represents or serves We the People. The result: The Samson Syndrome.

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   • retired teacher says:

     December 8, 2024 at 1:11 pm

     So true. What is worse by giving Trump and company the power they crave, these voter victims installed a much more brutal and corrupt oligarchy to lead us into the inferno of wrath and destruction. They will not address any of our pressing problems, and they will cause a massive amount of harm and death with their reckless policies.

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   • Bob Shepherd says:

     December 9, 2024 at 1:07 am

     Nailed it, Quickwrit

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   • bethree5 says:

     December 9, 2024 at 8:03 pm

     I have to quibble with you on pointing the finger at SCOTUS Citizens’ United ruling. Just like the repeal of Glass-Steagall, it was an example of putting the final, legal imprimatur on something that had already been happening for 10 – 15+ yrs.

     In the case of Glass-Steagall, the wall between consumer and investment banking had already been steadily eroding with one or another deregulation since the late ’70s [when greed started becoming good]. As early as 1977, I had a Money Market account I could draw from stock investments in exactly the same way as a checking account.

     Changes like that helped propel the gross transfer of national wealth from middle class to tippy-top. Between 1985-1989 alone, the long-stable # of [inflation-corrected] billionaires quadrupled from 13 to 59; it was 99 within just another year. Today it’s 801.

     All that $$ has to go somewhere, and no surprise it found its way through one channel or another to those legislating policy that would preserve and grow that wealth… Hence, Citizens’-United.

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   • bethree5 says:

     December 9, 2024 at 8:28 pm

     I don’t buy it. For one thing, the popular vote win was only 49.9%, winning by 1.6%. Perspective.

     But a month before I had those numbers, my conclusion was: it was pretty prosaic. Making ends meet has been difficult for middle & working classes for a number of years now. Hence: 1 term only Trump, 1 term only Biden, now 1 last term only for Trump. Americans typically vote based on today’s kitchen table economy– regardless of improving trends that they may feel in 2 or 3 years, or anything else candidates have to say (other than promising to fix your problem immediately).

     Not to mention, inflation is a killer for incumbent party, regardless of where it came from or who dun it. (This has been reflected in other OECD countries’ elections too.) I am reminded of the trouncing good Pres Jimmy Carter got in 1980. Not only had the public been suffering from inflation since the oil embargo– it doubled in his term due to Iran Revolution and Iran-Iraq war. Global devpts over which he had no control– just like Biden had no control over pandemic and its consequent inflation when demand surged while supply-chains were still rebuilding.

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4. FLERP! says:

   December 8, 2024 at 12:47 pm

   What about “the election was stolen”?

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   • Bob Shepherd says:

     December 9, 2024 at 1:08 am

     haaa!

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5. Jack Burgess says:

   December 8, 2024 at 5:57 pm

   From Sunday’s Chillicothe Gazette:

   What Now?

   By Jack Burgess

   Readers know I thought Biden dropping out and Harris moving up was a winning combination. So what happened? I don’t have any breakthrough information, but I’ve worked a lot of campaigns and voted for some losers and winners, starting with my vote for John Kennedy in 1960.

   I did suggest that Biden resign the Presidency itself, making Harris the first woman President. I thought women especially would rally to her defense, and a sitting President has always done better than a Vice-President in the election. Think of VP Nixon losing to Kennedy in ’60, Humphrey to Nixon in ’68, and Mondale to Reagan in ‘84. Historically, VP’s are not held in high esteem by the public nor other politicians. Think of Quayle, Gore, and Pence—who was threatened with hanging by members of his own party.

   Gender was a factor, but not everything. For instance, Michigan—which now has its 2nd woman governor–voted a majority against Harris. Nor was racism the total explanation, considering the election and re-election of Barack Obama.

   Democrats also lost because of poor communication and misinformation. And authoritarianism—the need in all of us to have a strong leader so we feel safe and don’t have to think about the big problems.

   It’s a tough time. We’re funding two wars—Ukraine and the Middle East—we’re worried about global warming, grocery prices, and we are told—though it’s not true—the economy is not doing well. Actually, employment is up, gas prices are down, and the economy is improving. But powerful media and other sources of propaganda tell us otherwise.

   And Democrats didn’t do a great job of communicating. Some media programs mentioned the improved economy, but millions no longer get news that way—or they watch right-wing Faux News, which is dedicated to making money by savaging Democrats, and government in general.

   The US has had much worse times than today’s. We had enslavement until the 1850’s. Women weren’t guaranteed the vote until the 1920’s. Thousands of kids went to work daily in factories and coal mines, instead of school.

   In 1940, Hitler’s fascism had taken over most of Europe. Fascist Japan controlled most of Asia. And until they bombed Pearl Harbor, most Americans didn’t want to aid Europe or Asia. Some of our heroes—like Henry Ford or Charles Lindberg—were openly pro-fascist.

   Trump’s ideas are on par with general Republican policies of the 1920’s. They want to take away through privatization many of our important government programs—like Medicare and Social Security.

   Maybe Trump can help end the Ukraine war. He’s friends with Putin. Democrats lost a lot of support in several states—especially Michigan—by continued support for Israel’s war on their neighbors. Some of us warned, these wars had the political effect of Johnson’s Vietnam War, which elected Nixon in ’68, in spite of a good economy.

   But things have been worse and we recovered. We have to be vigilant to the excesses of electronic media—especially A.I.—which can be turned against us by a Trump and his allies such as Elon Musk. Be careful how you use it. You may want to turn it off when you can—remember Orwell’s “1984” in which the government put a TV in every room, which you couldn’t turn off. Thus the phrase, “Big Brother is Watching!”

   For Democrats I would say, coalesce—with Green Party types, Bernie Sanders followers, dissident Republicans—of which there are many. We are a majority, but it doesn’t matter if we don’t work together and communicate better. Use every tool. Wealthy Dems, buy a TV or radio network. Use billboards. Consider old-fashioned door-to-door and newsletters, printed and online. Leave messages on the phones. Teachers: Give kids chances to actually do democracy. You can’t learn it just from a book or a screen.

   Above all, stand up for the rights of all. Paraphrasing the words of Robert Kennedy, Sr. “Each time we stand up for an ideal, we send forth a tiny ripple of hope, and those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” Only about 65-70% of us vote. Let’s change that next time.

   Jack Burgess is a retired history teacher who has worked in presidential campaigns of both major parties, back to 1960.

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   • dianeravitch says:

     December 8, 2024 at 8:26 pm

     Thanks, Jack.

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   • jsrtheta says:

     December 9, 2024 at 3:22 am

     Green Party types and Bernie Sanders followers?

     Seriously?

     The idea is to win, not alienate those we have left in the party.

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   • bethree5 says:

     December 9, 2024 at 8:33 pm

     Great post, thanks Jack Burgess.

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6. bpollock42 says:

   December 8, 2024 at 10:30 pm

   “Democrats also lost because of poor communication and misinformation.” from Jack Burgess, above.

   In campaigning the Dems get trapped in believing that people are rational and vote on rational issues and the details of those issues. Most people are guided by their emotions. The Trumpicans make things up and never back down. Truth doesn’t matter! repeat and repeat and don’t stop, never apologize. Must be true then? They don’t get topped in detail. Why can’t the Dems do it with truth. Repeat, over and over and over: the Trumpicans will eliminate Social Security as their party has always been against it. How about the the truth about everything we take for granted from the New Deal and more. Against Medicare? Against your community schools? ETC! Don’t let the “journalists” trap you in demanding detail. Not necessary. Steer back to the emotional part. Propaganda techniques can be used for the truth.

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7. Bob Shepherd says:

   December 9, 2024 at 1:12 am

   If Democrats stopped ALSO being a tool of the oligarchs, then they would start winning elections. The people want universal health insurance with vision and dental. You know, a program as good as that the people in Congress vote for themselves. In a time when a single dental implant costs north of two grand, many seniors in the US simply cannot afford to have decent teeth. It’s a national scandal, and the Democrats ignore it, as they do so much else, because they are ALSO owned by the US health insurance industry.

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   • bethree5 says:

     December 9, 2024 at 8:44 pm

     Just one quibble, Bob. It’s my understanding that since 2010, Congressmen/women and their staff members, since ACA passed in 2010, are required to buy their health insurance from the plans offered on DC ACA markets. They don’t get to vote themselves some universal plan offering vision and dental.

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