2024 US Presidential Elections Megathread

[Valmy]

The Klan got demolished by the depression and then put out of its misery by Roosevelt so not really.

Maybe the America First movement?

Wasn't the heyday of the Klan around the time of Wilson's administration?  I'm operating on imperfect information but I thought they had ceased to be an important factor in national politics long before the Depression.  How did the Depression demolish them?  All unemployed and couldn't afford sheets and crosses?

I just wikied America First.  Gerald K. Smith got 1,780 votes in the 1944 election.

It's hey day was in the 1920s, and loomed particularly large in the 1924 election to the point that the Democratic nominee had to denounce it. But it was designed to be a business empire as well as a terrorist one and the depression killed its financial footing. So it was a husk by the time Roosevelt killed it.

I was just speculating what Tamas was referring to. I think Roosevelt did a great job stopping extremist movements from starting despite a load of charismatic  demagogues out there.

[Valmy]

I believe it was written down in plan 2025. So, I will concede it more likely that Vance or one of his minions came up with it.

To clarify, are you saying that plan 2025 says birthright citizenship should be stripped *retroactively*?

That sounds like way too much work for the Trump Whitehouse to do. They would probably just change it going forward.

[Admiral Yi]

Internal divisions, criminal behavior by leaders – especially Stephenson's conviction for the abduction, rape, and murder of Madge Oberholtzer – and external opposition brought about a collapse in the membership of both groups. The main group's membership had dropped to about 30,000 by 1930.

wiki on the Klan

[Tamas]

I meant also Europe not just the US. Nowhere the recipe for success against the far-right was to shut up and let them roam.

[Josquius]

I hope the age of misogyny angle gets some examination out of this. I do think its quite the cornerstone factor of everything here.
As the power of women in the world rises, factually they're increasingly the ones getting the good education, the jobs (albeit not the TOP jobs), etc... whilst traditional "mens work" and "values" collapses...this has a lot of men pissed off and jumping to reactionary nonsense.
Harris being a woman was an issue in itself but it also helped tie her to the trash about "woke" gender changing immigrants eating dogs in schools. Also she was Caliofornian. That's not good for reactionaries.

I have seen examinations in Europe of how this is the way things are increasingly diverging here... But nothing from an American angle yet.

That's great.  Is there a way we use this knowledge to get more votes?

If the easy solution was known people would be doing it.

I do think long term the solution is clear; education, focus on improving quality of life for the working class.
But this doesn't happen overnight, and the other party have a direct interest in sabotaging any efforts in this direction.

Tackling social media could also be something.

[Sheilbh]

Thing I'm struck by is that it's a real win on all sides - by the looks of it electoral college, popular vote and a broader coalition than 2020 or 2016.

That means the comfort of illusions about quasi-illegitimacy (Russia, didn't win the popular vote) won't be available to Democrats and they'll instead take a bit of a root and branch approach of what went wrong.

Obviously the bigger context is that, with very few exceptions, very few incumbents have done well in elections since 2022 - and inflation is lethal politically in a way unemployment isn't. But I'm sure there are also specifics we'll learn in the analysis of voting patterns in the coming days - one that I do think is a problem, is that I think Democrats did have a tendency to basically tell voters they're wrong. That they're wrong to complain about the economy as these three charts show, it's doing well; that they're wrong to have concerns about the mental state of the President, he's sharper than ever and have you seen the other guy. I think they maybe put a bit too much hope in the power of how things are talked about rather than how they're experienced by voters.

[Tamas]

This is so depressing.

[Admiral Yi]

I meant also Europe not just the US. Nowhere the recipe for success against the far-right was to shut up and let them roam.

What countries are you thinking of?  Spain, Germany, Italy, Austria and the UK certainly aren't examples of successfully resisting a surging far right.  France maybe?  Unless you have an example of a far right party gaining control of government and the left winning it back, I don't see that's very helpful to our situation.

[Grey Fox]

Wow, my bubble was so wrong.

[Sheilbh]

One other quick thought is that I think this should make us look at Biden 2020 in a different light and worth looking at closely.

[Iormlund]

What countries are you thinking of?  Spain, Germany, Italy, Austria and the UK certainly aren't examples of successfully resisting a surging far right.  France maybe?  Unless you have an example of a far right party gaining control of government and the left winning it back, I don't see that's very helpful to our situation.

The far right is nowhere near power in Spain, though.

It's bad enough, seeing there was no far right party 20 years ago and now Vox is third, but they are still very far behind the main two.

[jimmy olsen]

*edit* wait, Yi said that the republicans would nominate a black man? That's quite an out there prediction.

I think I might have said the first black president would be a Republican.

I think that was a pretty common belief before Obama got elected when people thought a Colin Powell type could win as a republican

[Josquius]

I would agree with the first woman as a republican angle. It makes sense.

[Valmy]

I would agree with the first woman as a republican angle. It makes sense.

Well we have an example: Kari Lake. We had lots of people who voted for Trump and then voted for her male Democratic opponent.

[Valmy]

Thing I'm struck by is that it's a real win on all sides - by the looks of it electoral college, popular vote and a broader coalition than 2020 or 2016.

No. This is a huge win with a big mandate.

It was a massacre.

Another one. This just keeps happening to us. Just usually it is on a midterm.