2024 US Presidential Elections Megathread

[Tamas]

Sure but in terms of news-time he is number 3 behind the well-meaning slow grandpa and the demented old pervert.

[Admiral Yi]

Remember that poll that had RFK at 33% of the vote?

[grumbler]

RFK, or RFK, Jr? 

RFK is a lot more plausible.

[Barrister]

RFK, or RFK, Jr? 

RFK is a lot more plausible.

I know I think I might choose the 50 year plus dead corpse for president at this point...

[Jacob]

Interesting article on Trump's plans if he loses the election: https://www.salon.com/2024/05/13/ready-for-a-loss/

Crazy to think we could be witnessing the death of American democracy.

[crazy canuck]

Interesting article on Trump's plans if he loses the election: https://www.salon.com/2024/05/13/ready-for-a-loss/

Crazy to think we could be witnessing the death of American democracy.

This is a good example of my concern about people not reading newspapers anymore and getting their news content from places like this. There isn't any actual reporting. This is just a bunch of assertions based on statements mainly pulled from other stories and social media comments.

The funny part is the article makes a job at mainstream media for not doing enough job reporting.


I think we have more than anything else now is a crisis in the way in which people form their opinions.  Someone who supports Trump can read this article and say well this is just Terrible reporting. And they're right.

A person who doesn't support Trump will say right on man that's exactly it.  And they may be right, Those things might happen.

But all this article is doing is talking to its likeminded readers and not making any attempt at news reporting.

[celedhring]

Interesting article on Trump's plans if he loses the election: https://www.salon.com/2024/05/13/ready-for-a-loss/

Crazy to think we could be witnessing the death of American democracy.

Looking at the polling I'm afraid this won't be an issue... But yeah, it is very worrying.

[crazy canuck]

Interesting article on Trump's plans if he loses the election: https://www.salon.com/2024/05/13/ready-for-a-loss/

Crazy to think we could be witnessing the death of American democracy.

Looking at the polling I'm afraid this won't be an issue... But yeah, it is very worrying.

What part of that article did you not already know and is "very worrying"

[garbon]

Interesting article on Trump's plans if he loses the election: https://www.salon.com/2024/05/13/ready-for-a-loss/

Crazy to think we could be witnessing the death of American democracy.

This is a good example of my concern about people not reading newspapers anymore and getting their news content from places like this. There isn't any actual reporting. This is just a bunch of assertions based on statements mainly pulled from other stories and social media comments.

The funny part is the article makes a job at mainstream media for not doing enough job reporting.


I think we have more than anything else now is a crisis in the way in which people form their opinions.  Someone who supports Trump can read this article and say well this is just Terrible reporting. And they're right.

A person who doesn't support Trump will say right on man that's exactly it.  And they may be right, Those things might happen.

But all this article is doing is talking to its likeminded readers and not making any attempt at news reporting.

Yeah it was a dreadful piece.

[Jacob]

Okay CC and garbon, it was a dreadful piece.

My main take aways were:

• Trump (and his associates) are going to attempt to undermine the fairness of the election to a significant degree, using both rampant voter intimidation and their control of state governments.
• If Trump wins, he and his associates has a robust plan to undermine American democracy significantly.
• If Trump loses, there's a high chance of violence and unrest by his supporters.

From your point of view, are those things true and real risks and the shittiness of the article was in how it talked about those real and significant risks?

Or are those risks significantly overblown, and the shittiness of the article is because it's unnecessarily alarmist?

[Barrister]

I feel dirty for defending Salon, but it wasn't a "dreadful piece".

OK, it didn't contain any original reporting, but it was well sourced to other primary reporting.

The main point of the article is that in 2020 (even with the powers of incumbency) many Republicans stood up in different ways to prevent Trump from trying to steal the election.  Mike Pence was most obvious (God Bless Mike Pence), but from Brad Raffensperger to Mitch McConnell they insisted that the election process go through as normal. 

All those voices are now gone.  Well, Raffensperger is still in Georgia, but almost all Republicans now support the "big lie", which was not the case in 2020.

What that means in the case of a Trump defeat I don't know.  As the Salon article points out in 2024 Trump is not the incumbent.  But there's no chance Trump just goes quietly into the night if he loses.

And I'm worried he won't lose.  He's polling much better then he did in either 2016 or 2020.

[Razgovory]

Okay CC and garbon, it was a dreadful piece.

My main take aways were:

• Trump (and his associates) are going to attempt to undermine the fairness of the election to a significant degree, using both rampant voter intimidation and their control of state governments.
• If Trump wins, he and his associates has a robust plan to undermine American democracy significantly.
• If Trump loses, there's a high chance of violence and unrest by his supporters.

From your point of view, are those things true and real risks and the shittiness of the article was in how it talked about those real and significant risks?

Or are those risks significantly overblown, and the shittiness of the article is because it's unnecessarily alarmist?

For 1, I am skeptical that Trump and his crew can do much voter intimidation.  So far they have been unsuccessful on that front and claims of voter intimidation have been overblown in recent years.

2, is a real worry

3, What are they going to do?  The unrest from 2020 while impressive on TV was feeble.  Thanks to the arrests of the Jan 6 people the rest of the lot are too scared to protest.

My big concern is Trump loses but they try the mess with the slates of electors again.  If Biden wins but Republicans control the house they may declare fraud and try to give it to Trump regardless.  Then the shit hit the fan.

[Barrister]

My big concern is Trump loses but they try the mess with the slates of electors again.  If Biden wins but Republicans control the house they may declare fraud and try to give it to Trump regardless.  Then the shit hit the fan.

So in 2020 things focused on Mike Pence, as his constitutional duty was to "count" the electoral votes.  But it was a Democratic-controlled senate.

What if in 2024 it's a GOP controlled senate?  What if they refuse to ratify the election?

What if secretaries of state in key states refuse to ratify the election results?

[Jacob]

Speaking of trash article, I saw a clickbait article with a title like "8 ways for Trump to lose the election". I clicked on it (what can I say), as I needed a bit of hopium...

It had a few basic ones like "Biden takes enough states to win" (well duh), but it also had things like "he dies of old age", "he's imprisoned and the supreme court says he can't run", and "he's assassinated."

Didn't do much in the hopium apartment, alas

[Jacob]

So in 2020 things focused on Mike Pence, as his constitutional duty was to "count" the electoral votes.  But it was a Democratic-controlled senate.

What if in 2024 it's a GOP controlled senate?  What if they refuse to ratify the election?

What if secretaries of state in key states refuse to ratify the election results?

Yeah, there's a lot of ways things can get ugly in the US with this election