What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[DGuller]

Most powerful dems just accept Biden will be a sacrificial lamb for this election and don't want to rock the boat. 

It's absolutely nuts. Trump was, is and will continue to be one of the most consistently unpopular major politicians in American history, with a dismal electoral record.  He is beatable, easily beatable.

What we have is a beatable candidate facing off a party desperate to be beaten.

[Barrister]

I think VPs rarely matter, but Vance was a complete dud of an electoral pick. He is just a copy of Trump's base, does nothing to broaden appeal.

Tim Scott or Nikki Haley were easy lay up wins, Tim Scott I genuinely think would have given Trump a +2 durable polling boost. Haley I get they probably hate each other too much, but there's a few other non-Kristi Noem female prospects who also could have helped him out.

J.D. Vance doesn't broaden the appeal at all beyond the base of voters who were already Trump loyalists.

Vance also isn't clearly that strong on the "Trump loyalist" front, he was a vitriolic Trump critic before he flopped to supporting him. Which is often a sin that Trump may forgive if you bend the knee, but rarely forgets.

Trump is leading in the polls, and he wants to avoid a repeat of what happened with Pence.  In the end Pence refused to go along with stealing the election.  Trump figures Vance will be more loyal.  Most of those other names you mentioned have some independent power base apart from Trump.  Vance really doesn't - he's a junior senator who was only elected by help from Trump.

And the fact Vance used to be a critic I think appeals to him - like I said it's a power move to get someone to change their principles so thoroughly.

[Tamas]

as well as the 'has a hot Indian wife' vote.

 

  OMG the level of copium these disgusting bastards need to engage in so they can tolerate a brown person.

[Valmy]

That is kind of like rationalizing how the ruins of Angkor Wat, or whatever, were actually built by exiled white people.

[Valmy]

What we have is a beatable candidate facing off a party desperate to be beaten.

 

[Sheilbh]

Also just the return of race science is grim.

[crazy canuck]

Also just the return of race science is grim.

Yep

[Barrister]

Also just the return of race science is grim.

Blame Twitter.  Elon doesn't want to censor it.  As a result I see a fair bit of scientific racism BS on that platform.  Maybe not so much the kind posted above, but more about IQ rates or college admissions based on race.

[Valmy]

Racists are incredibly obsessed with IQ tests. As if they are some kind of flawless objective thing we should base our entire society on. And I am about pretty sure the IQ test data they produce is just dreamed up in their imaginations and isn't the result of some kind of thorough scientific statistical study but I have never bothered to confirm or deny that.

Only they the numbers they quote are so ridiculous and unlikely I find them very hard to believe. Unsourced, of course.

My father was a psychologist who did IQ tests all the time and he was pretty clear they only have a narrow utility.

[Oexmelin]

The Democrats have had seven years to reflect on the measure of Trump, the sort of politics he dies and what he represents. In the face of a growing celebration of strength they decided to appear innocuous.

They preferred to run yet another campaign of policies, based on political wisdom developed during the Clinton years, careful to send carefully crafted messages devoid of passion or meaning, and generally clutching their pearls about the actual threat of to democracy while doing fuck all about it - like using the institution of the presidency and or the DOJ to prosecute aggressively. Why does Merrick fucking Garland still have a job?

And now, the Dems are too busy telling critics to shut up about their abysmal failures to actually produce a strategy to salvage what can still be salvaged.

[Josquius]

It's bizare. You'd think Indians would slot neatly into a decent position in a racist worldview without needing to twist yourself in knots what with the whole caucasian indoeuropean thing.

[Barrister]

Racists are incredibly obsessed with IQ tests. As if they are some kind of flawless objective thing we should base our entire society on. And I am about pretty sure the IQ test data they produce is just dreamed up in their imaginations and isn't the result of some kind of thorough scientific statistical study but I have never bothered to confirm or deny that.

Only they the numbers they quote are so ridiculous and unlikely I find them very hard to believe. Unsourced, of course.

My father was a psychologist who did IQ tests all the time and he was pretty clear they only have a narrow utility.

Yeah.  IQ is measuring something real (although it is heavily effected by culture), but is hardly the be-all, end-all of measuring human inteligence and capabilities.  The racists are apparently right that there's a measurable difference in IQ rates between (say) blacks and whites.  We also know that IQ is at least partially heritable.

So it's not impossible to imagine that some of the difference in IQ rates is based on race.  I'm not saying it is or it isn't.

The thing is - so what?

These broad differences across populations don't tell you anything about any specific person.  Just because, say, blacks are on average score 5 points lower on IQ tests (I'm just making this up, I'm not bothered to try and research it) doesn't tell you anything about any specific person.

And if you're the kind of person who is constantly going on about IQ differences between races - why are you doing this?  I don't think you're just really, really into IQ tests...

[Josquius]

Don't minorities tend to score lower on IQ tests because a lot of the questions have a particular cultural bias, and the very concept of test taking being something more priveleged people tend to be more used to?

[Tamas]

Do they even score lower or this is one of those self-affirming BS that somebody reads or hears about and since it confirms their worldview take it on face value and then spread it?

[Razgovory]

Do they even score lower or this is one of those self-affirming BS that somebody reads or hears about and since it confirms their worldview take it on face value and then spread it?

Yes.
Honestly, it looks like it is tied to wealth.  China is an outlier.