Kamala Harris was given an assignment that no other person in American history was given — to construct a presidential campaign in 90-100 days with absolutely no expectation or anticipation that she would be called to that assignment
Canada’s federal election process is 36-50 days, or half that.
I agree with most of what was written, but I wanted to point out that countries put forth a scalable platform every 4-5 years in half the time. It’s a bag-drive, but it’s the timeline.
Dude this is America, it takes us four months to shop for Christmas gifts. Spikes in “did Joe Biden drop out?” happened on search engines during November 5th. We’re idiots.
To be fair, that also included variants like “when did Joe Biden drop out?” Obviously, people are idiots, but that was at least somewhat misleading.
It is true, election cycles are much shorter in other countries but that’s just not the case in the US. There’s a saying that there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Trump has been in the news with his bat shit crazy rhetoric for years now. That’s hard to defeat in just a few months. Especially when his base is so fanatical they will vote for him even if he killed someone.
Before Last Week Tonight, John Oliver was on a podcast called The Bugle and I can remember him bemoaning how long US elections were compared to Britain. I wonder how he feels about covering our bullshit all the time now, I imagine similar to the exhaustion that led Jon to mostly retire
If all candidates are on the same timeline then I agree. That’s not the case here. 100 days vs literal years of planning.
Yes and no, the official campaign is a month and a half but the campaign starts way before that. Also the leaders are chosen way ahead of the campaign, Harris became the candidate 3 months ahead of the election.
Tbf, Canada has like 15% the population, mostly in a smaller amount of areas. The US has more states than Canada has major cities.
We have mass media, you can scale that up. It’s not like Trudeau had to meet everyone in person to get elected.
I dunno what most people are like in America anymore but there’s at least a hefty portion that get their news via social media apps and side sources.
Which can be easily scaled as well, it’s mass media too.
Everybody is warning us of the impact of the election. They’ve been warning us for years.
The problem is that Americans stood up and either said “We know. We just don’t care.”, or “We know. We want it that way.”
To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.
-Charles Haddon Spurgeon
After briefly speaking to one of my younger (white, male, most likely straight, but turns out he’s prob an “enlightened centrist”) co-workers earlier today, it seems like there are people who just don’t believe it can happen.
He told me that “both sides have their propaganda” when I asked if he’s read Project 2025. I wanted to scream.
The conversation literally ended with me telling him that this has happened before. He said, yeah, but not here. I was like, we’re not special. Such a disappointing conversation. Ruined my day/night. Literally used the “it will never happen here” line.
This is a man with a STEM degree. He’s not stupid.
I think there are a lot of people who are in for a shock when the shit really starts hitting the fan.
You can have tons of degrees and still be stupid.
Buckminster Fuller, who was smart enough to predict the geometry of the most common object in space, the ‘Bucky Ball’ and designed geodesic domes, thought that eating steak was more efficient than plants because the cow focused the nutrients.
Stay in your lane, experts.
Look at Ben Carson
Confirmed I knew a man who worked doing advanced particle research at cern but who also voted for the Tory party. In the words of a wise man, ‘that’s the dumbest smart guy I know’. People are retarded and it’s extremely annoying.
No reason to be ableist about. You can just say they’re stupid.
22% of America said Fuck America, and thus we were fucked.
Then you’ve got the “Did Joe Biden step down?” crowd just completely oblivious lol.
In the aftermath the number of fuckwits I saw not voting or voting against their own interests has been insane.
Socialists sitting out because of Gaza.
Black women complaining Trump won but not voting.
Working class woman whose husband is in a union and he himself voted Harris; whose son is gay… Yep, she voted Trump.
I’m so tired of trying to drag along stupid people.
Or we know but don’t think it’ll actually happen
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Just remember, America. You voted for what’s coming. You asked for it and so you have no one to blame but yourselves.
They told you exactly what they are planning to do.
The problem isn’t that America voted for this. Only 21% of the country voted for Trump.
The problem is that America didn’t vote at all.
That only makes them more blameworthy, not less.
Unless we understand why they didn’t vote it’s just going to keep happening
I think most didn’t vote because they are apathetic, ill-informed morons with the attention span of a gnat. They don’t understand inflation, tariffs, deflation, international relations, trade, renewable energy, oil production, gas prices, vaccines, healthcare, or much of anything else. They also don’t care to learn about how anything works. It’s not like the last chapter of the history book on the United States is going to blame the pro-democracy candidate for not doing enough to appeal to a public that was too lazy to continue living in a democracy. They have access to more educational resources than any humans in history and they just ignore it.
If that’s the case then we are well and truly fucked because that’s not changing without significant education investment, and Trump is going to get rid of the Department of Education.
I believe we are well and truly fucked.
Education and critical thinking is lacking in the majority of the electorate and the trend is that we elect leaders that reinforce that instead of mitigate it. Defunding education doesn’t improve this situation, and I feel we hit a tipping point where we might not be able to get these skills back in the curriculum going forward.
Defunding education doesn’t improve this situation, and I feel we hit a tipping point where we might not be able to get these skills back in the curriculum going forward.
People always say education is to blame but the educational system was significantly better when the majority of Trump voters were in the school system. It’s only gotten worse in my lifetime and I responded to say that I think the tipping point was COVID.
Those attending school four years ago appear to have suffered a large blow educationally and I’ve read lots of things suggesting that those losses may be permanent. Some losses are from the school closures, some are from COVID itself which has a deleterious effect on mental acuity.
In addition to all of this, the amount of microplastics Americans have been eating since 2016 has roughly doubled. We’re finding microplastics in people’s balls and brains.
Humanity in general is fucked. This isn’t a uniquely American problem. The growth of entertainment and technology has broken our primitive monkey brains.
This time, the election wasn’t about dems or reps, it was about democracy or fascism. If you didn’t vote, means you are ok with fascism.
Or just incredibly ignorant. I think we vastly overestimate the political intelligence of the people in this country.
There are a metric fuckton of apathetic people that are “too busy” to give a shit about politics unfortunately. Hell just look at the articles after the election that called out Google searches for “did Biden drop out?” spiking on election day.
These people are too busy watching whatever braindead Netflix bullshit, or just not watching anything at all to know what’s even going on.
That can’t excuse them.
Even if they lived in a bubble, it’s impossible that they never heard anything about all the orange turd rants and how dangerous he is. Not voting for any reason makes you an accomplice of whoever wins, because your apathy means you are ok with whatever goes, including fascism.
That might be correct but it’s not going to get more people to vote, which is what we need to happen.
But when you look at what people said in the exit poll interviews, most were not voting for fascism when they voted for Trump. They were voting on the illusion that he would be better for their pocket book.
In exit polls, people actually hated Trump and his extremism significantly more, but they’re hurting so much financially that they were willing to roll the dice on his “I’ll take you back to 2017-19” bullshit.
He go in the same way other strongmen often get into power, claims of economic populism.
Billionaires own the legacy media and most social media.
In other words, they control the means of social reproduction.
Yes, it’s true that this election was about democracy vs fascism, but the election result tells us that it’s possible to see the election from other angles where it’s about other things. I think the Democratic party has to view the election from those angles, see what those things are, and take that to heart.
Yes, it’s true that this election was about democracy vs fascism, but the election result tells us that it’s possible to see the election from other angles where it’s about other things.
Yes and it’s extremely possible to think the election was about something else when every available form of media talked about it being about something else.
I think that’s a great way to look at it. I’m hoping we can get some better leadership in the democratic party willing to listen to people and offer fresh ideas instead of taking the “if you don’t vote for me then you’re hitler” approach.
Leaning to the right didn’t work for Harris. We need someone to energize the base by offering meaningful change.
It’s your right to point fingers and blame people, but if you want to get them to vote and bring them over to your side, that is historically not been the best motivator.
I think there’s truth to this. The Democratic party has to engage with people in good faith and learn what it’s important for them and why they voted the way they did.
I don’t think my vote does anything, but I know if I don’t vote my mom will disown me.
So guilt might work.
This election showed us that the majority of americans are some combination of stupid, hateful and too apathetic to even vote to save their neighbor’s lives. It doesn’t matter which one, these people are dangerous.
The people who abstained from voting, made their vote. When fascism is on the line, you don’t get to sit out and be absolved. They’ve signed on for everything that is to come.
You can’t count people under the voting age and you need to add the people who didn’t vote because it means they supported whoever got in power. 170m registered voters in 2020 so must be similar. 43% of registered voters voted for him, 40% for Harris, 1% others, that’s 16% who didn’t vote that we can add to Trump’s number… But that’s just registered voters and doesn’t count eligible ones who didn’t register!
Not taking a vote, just like postponing or not taking a decision, is equivalent to taking one, so here we are.
Right, and unless we figure out why people didn’t bother voting this election we will be right back here in another four years. Just like we get right back here every single time there’s low turnout that gets a Republican elected.
Seriously good luck having an election in 4 years.
“There comes a time when the… the risk of doing nothing becomes the greatest risk of all.”
I didn’t ask for it. I voted for Harris. If what you said they are going to do is the truth, you’ll suffer the consequences too, and will be just as guilty as I am.
Yes.
Only about a 4th of us…a fourth voted counter and the rest didn’t or can’t vote…
I voted against trump. Why am I to blame?
They told you exactly what they are planning to do.
Which is why half of the country voted against Trump, and why a lot of the other half voted for Trump. He told us exactly what he was planning to do.
We have very little say in how our government works. Over the course of US history the material decisions have been whisked away to less democratic structures (eg the supreme court, the federal reserve). Even early on the democracy was built for property owners (owners of people and land). People are feeling disenfranchised and the vote for trump is a (petulant) vote to flip the gameboard. Of course voting for trump is one of the worst things you can do if you want you and your community’s lives to improve, but the fundamental motivation is disenfranchisement and anger
Yes. Blue MAGA disenfranchised left wing voters.
MAGA emboldened right wing voters.
Republicans are always at fault for being right wing fascists.
Democrats are currently at fault for being right wing fascists.
The 2/3rds of American adults that are disenfranchised without representation are the victims.
Maybe AOC will learn from that spectacular sell out she did at the Nth hour, and will learn from her mistakes.
Both her and Sanders said to vote for the one that could be persuaded to come further left, and you’re throwing her under the bus? Wow, it’s everyone’s fault. Jefferson was right.
They said “blue MAGA.” Not worth engaging.
Yes, that is the spectacular selling out to a right wing fascist that disenfranchised left wing voters that I was referencing.
I see you have taken this loss, this spectacular failure of your making, and you are pausing to learn from it. /s
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The 2/3rds of American adults that are disenfranchised without representation are the victims.
The real victims (with a say/vote) are the Americans who voted for Harris. The people who voted for Trump and those who abstained from voting actively and passively chose what’s coming.
You actively sought loss, despite all warning, caught in a fascist riptide, again, you didnt listen and lost, but you are the victim.
Give me a break.
You actively sought loss…you didnt listen and lost…
I’m genuinely confused. What are you saying? The American voter currently only has two options: vote Democrat or vote Republican. Anything else, as it stands in present day America, throws the vote away.
I think you’re saying voting Democrat is “actively seeking loss,” yet the only other option is to…vote Republican, which they wanted even less?
Help me out here, as your logic ain’t logicing.
They’re equating voting Democrat with being part of the DNC’s push to the right. At least that’s the only sense I can make of it
Funny, I checked this third box that was on my ballot. Was that an error? Did some terrorist hackers hack the printing machine and put that third box on my ballot?
When Blue MAGA took the Democrat party off the deep end into deep right wing fascism, I checked that box. After the harassment at the hands of Blue MAGA, most disenfranchised Democrats just kept the ballot envelope sealed.
If you cant understand that everyone who fervently supported Harris, did not demand better, did not demand acceptable platforms, actively sought out defeat and a Trump presidency, then I dont know how to help you.
The tragic part is that enough people allowed themselves be bullied into not voting ala “A VOTE FOR STEIN IS A VOTE FOR TRUMP!!!”, and we are now set up to just do this again, no campaign funding for the Green party, and still a long way way out of this purple fascist nightmare.
Be prepared for at least 12 more years of Republicans, because I anticipate the next many election cycles, after this absolute shit show, are going to be Dems and Greens struggling for the left vote, Harris voters flipping Republican when the policy gets too left, and Republicans sitting back on their haunches thinking FutileRecipe and his ilk for being oblivious.
🤡
despite all warning, caught in a fascist riptide,
What warning? Most average people don’t understand your concept of fascism.
A major problem I noticed here on Lemmy is some people use the “jargon” of their in-group without consideration of the audience they are speaking to. If you want to convince people you need to speak their language. A typical person here will hear fascist and immediately think Hitler, not government subservience to and protection of corporate interests at all costs utilizing the full power of violence of the police force.
Can you or anyone else tell me what “blue MAGA” is?
Edit: It sounds like the term means centrist/center-right Democrats who want to uphold the status quo. How is that “MAGA” of any flavor? I thought the MAGA movement was just a bunch of Christofascists.
It’s what the bOtH SiDeS knobs use to justify their apathy.
I usually don’t use the term because it makes me sound like a tankie, but when I say blueMAGA it’s to describe the “hold your nose and vote Harris you fucking donkey” condescending pricks who that they’re both entitled to shut down all criticism of their preferred candidate and actually convincing anyone to vote by doing it. You know, the people now trying to convince themselves Harris only lost because Americans are sexist and racist and not at all because Harris’s campaign fucking sucked. How to tell: They’ll call anyone who criticizes Harris (they still do it but less often than before the election) MAGA, a Russian bot or a troll and seem convinced everyone who cares about Palestine is/was part of a Russian conspiracy to get Trump elected.
Establishment democrats who are pro Israel, and anti Ukraine. They are concerned with the super rich, and stand in the way of progressive policies. They say they are democrats, but their actions sound much more republican
So in response people let the literal republicans win. Who are more pro Israel, more anti Ukraine, more concerned with the super rich and more in the way of progressive policies.
Smart.
If Americans were smart trump wouldn’t have won.
You guys keep doing that.
You ask. You get the answer. Then you go “BuT tRuMp Is WoRsE!!!”
Here is the thing. The conversation about killing 1 baby being better than killing 2 babies is pointless. YOU DON’T KILL BABIES.
Baby killers don’t get left wing votes.
Baby killers get fascist right wing votes.
Republicans will ALWAYS get more right wing fascist votes.
You lost. You fucking lost. You made this happen.
LEARN SOMETHING FROM IT.
Nah. Shut the actual fuck up. Everyone very clearly laid out the exact outcomes of these choices, you just felt the desire to be self-righteous instead of doing literally anything beneficial for anyone besides yourself.
To make it clear I’m not mincing words: this is your fault.
At the very least own it instead of whining like a kicked dog.
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The babies are getting killed anyway. Not voting for one is essentially a vote for 2. 2 babies won. So regardless 2 babies are now dying you did nothing but double the number.
I’m not American. I didn’t do shit.
The people in my country voted with the main opposition even if it wasn’t our first choice to kick out the shitty trump-lite right wing government we had.
Any vote that wasn’t for the Dems helped trump end of. Yes the Dems are a bunch of idiots who didn’t help themselves. But the people chose Trump.
I hope it’s not too bad for them. And I hope they learn from it.
Throwing your vote away and getting the much shitter option is not a good thing and won’t change anything.
This isn’t Dems Vs republicans. This was everyone Vs trump and they fucked it.
Almost seems like you’re trying to convince yourself…
Unfortunately for you, it’s a really bad argument.
Blue maga is not a thing, has never been a thing, and will likely never be a thing.
It’s a subtle rebranding label to say “both sides” while not actually engaging in discussion of the problems. And there are problems, all over the place. But now not only have they (they are the ones pulling the strings, not MAGA) got the power placement they wanted, they’ve succeeded in pitting the peons against each other in this rhetoric of finger pointing and blame. Bread and circuses…this thread is an example of one of the rings in that circus.
Oh noes! You couldn’t pick your in-flight meal? Yeah, opening the emergency hatch at 30,000 ft was probably the smart move.
/s (for the stupids)
Genocide. Cheney endorsement. Boarder wall. Cop cities. Removal of trans treatment. Republicans in the cabinet. The most “lethal” military in history.
In-flight meal.
Seriously dude. Wake up.
Boarder wall
There it is lol. Fucking 🤡 👟👟
The 2/3rds of American adults that are disenfranchised without representation are the victims
Maybe those lazy fucks should have gone out and voted then.
“YOUR VOTE IS MEANINGLESS! IF YOU VOTE FOR ANYTHING BUT THE GENOCIDE, YOU ARE VOTING FOR TRUMP! DONT EVEN BOTHER VOTING! YOUR VOTE IS A WASTE OF EFFORT UNLESS YOU ARE VOTING BLUE MAGA!!!”
An incredible amount of disenfranchised Democrats don’t vote
“THOSE LAZY FUCKS!”
I said nothing about who to vote for.
If they didn’t vote, they are either lazy, or don’t want their voice to be heard. Two thirds of your voting population didn’t vote. You get what you deserve, and the rest of the world gets to watch helplessly.
Here’s a downvote and a block. Feels like that’s what you were going for so congrats!
I was going for conversation about what all the Blue MAGA fascists here learned through all of this.
You are demonstrating how you learned jack shit and all those downvotes demonstrate you arent the only one.
Democrats have absolutely shit messaging and refuse to speak to the working class unless they deign to condescend and you’re blaming checks notes “blue MAGA”? What planet are you on?
Not all 32 left wing voters in America!
I’ll vote for her.
If you get another vote.
Oh no, women are gonna lose reproductive rights, climate change will get worse, Trump wont face any consequences for his rampant crimes, prices will outpace wages and minimum wage will be forgotten. There will be genocide and protests will be crushed.
Wait who was president the last 4 years?
