There is no person in the recorded history of the world who sought power seeking retribution and vengeance against his enemies, who didn’t deliver on the promise when gaining power.
Harris ran a nearly flawless campaign. She was as well qualified and experienced to become the next POTUS as any candidate has ever been. Our country wouldn't vote for a woman! BS!!
Not vote for a woman or specifically this time, a woman of color. And it is BS. She is immensely qualified. Talk about the ultimate example of white (male) privilege. A corrupt, immoral, convicted felon, twice impeached, fascist, and mentally failing white guy wins the presidency. WTF?
Yes, and Harris graciously 'concedes', despite so much collusion, corruption, threats and insults from DJT and cohorts; too many Americans chose a lying MALE Fascist.
As I’ve said before, the backroom boys will ensure that - read the Miller boys Stephen and Jason, Peter Navarro and every other lackey he adds to that group, including Roger Stone, Gen Flynn and of course Steve Bannon if they can persuade him to shower everyday.
I was dreading it when I found out that my brother (who looks more like Harris than Trump and who had a life time experience of prejudice against his race and color), did not want to vote for Harris. It is deeply ingrained in the ordinary people’s perception of seeing her gender and race as representing inferiority; it is impossible to overcome and MAGA understood that better than all of us.
Much too high a quotient of Americans won't vote for reason, evidence and love. One cannot successfully do flawless rationality with a cadre of Trump psychotics. Jonestown on steroids lies only a few hate-driven depredations away from an exponentially greater presence in Trumpism.
How can it be Biden’s fault? I don’t believe that for a second no it’s old fashioned racism and anti women! This country is so far behind our allies, if we still have any after Trump who cozies up to his dictator boyfriends from Russia and Hungary! Trump is also on the brink of Dementia how on earth is he going to manage the office of the President with all the stress and strains that entails? Thanks to you Trump voters you may have just ended this Democracy forever due to your stupidity! You fell for the CON man! I will never forgive you for what you’ve done! You have ended our Democracy!
Being lied to, over and over and having it amplified in their SM feeds and thus succumbing to confirmation bias and being misinformed is not the same as stupidity. That's a dangerous and oversimplified excuse. But agree with the misogyny and racism.
Agree that this happened, Mike, but I think willful ignorance is a kind of stupidity. Accompanied by the misogyny and racism you cite, it's a poisonous cocktail they've forced on us.
Biden failed us in his promise to be a one term president. Had he stepped aside after his first term, we would have had adequate time to choose and prepare the nation for his successor (who may or may not have been Harris). As it was, the Democratic campaign felt rushed with little time to allow the candidate to position herself comfortably in the minds and hearts of voters across the nation. Latino and black voters were heavily swayed with a year plus of lies and misinformation. Harris only had a few months to push back and show them her true vision and potential….. We move forward 🇺🇸
65% of Latino and 22% of black MALE voters voted against Harris simply because their fragile egos couldn’t stand having a woman as president. The same number of men voted for Biden in 2020. Pure misogyny.
This, I think, is the most justified criticism of Biden. The problem was that he’d been waiting his chance for a long time, found out that he really liked the job, and that he was really good at it. So he was reluctant to give it up and then learned that he was not good at one important aspect of it- communicating his message to the people. It’s both a personal and natural tragedy
I love and respect Biden, I wanted him to be POTUS when he first ran, way back when. However, something happened to him, and it was evident at the debate. Dr. Biden had to help him down the stairs afterwords. When I saw videos of him getting around, it was noticeable that his walk was different, more of a shuffle. I wonder if he had a mild stroke, and the family and administration kept it from becoming public. If that is the case, then they should have told Biden to forget a second term, instead of making him look so foolish at the debate, and until he finally gave up.
After Trump's first days in office, settling scores, he will probably fall back into his daily "executive time" and golfing, leaving his minions to gleefully run amuck.
Yes sadly there are some really awful people here the proof is that Trump won. I also think that those Fox watchers are dumbas dirt and I won’t apologize for saying so. They just sit there and never question the filth that pours forth from that network that cozies up to that so called president who makes all sorts of horrifying threats against those who don’t agree with him and what he will do to them, shades of Hitler and Stalin. Yes and Americans couldn’t wait to vote for him to get even with those they don’t agree with. How unAmerican they actually are more like those in Nazi Germany getting even with their enemies. It’s so SICK! Sick to vote for a dictator, It’s unAmerican!
I'm so angry too. I need some time to figure out what to do. I'm feeling like fighting but I don't know how yet. My vote didn't matter. The evil took over anyway.
In fairness, Biden owns a large part of this. The people who chose Trump may have been mis-or disinformed. That's a failure of communication, the media, and SM platforms. I said this in a DM earlier:
It doesn't help, but I'm bugged at Biden. Not running in 2016, albeit dealing with the death of his son the year before, brought us Trump 1.0. Hillary was qualified but had four distinct disadvantages: 1. Female 2. Last name of Clinton 3. Comey's bombshell of nothingness 10 days before the election 4. Took the swing states for granted and failed to effectively (if at all) campaign there. There is absolutely no way Biden, the VP from a very popular and successful Obama administration would have lost. He would have won PA and he would have campaigned and won Wisconsin and Michigan. Then he did it again with his refusal to do what he said: be a one term president to transition away from Trump. That meant no primary to choose his successor. I thought Kamala was fine, but because she HAD to be the nominee or the DNC would have tossed over $100M to get another candidate and the primaries were over. I like her, I respect her, she earned my vote, but if we're being honest about it, a full primary was necessary to see if she would have been the chosen nominee. If not her, and I hate to say this because of what it implies about Americas current refusal and inability to elect a woman, and a woman of color has an even larger hill to climb. There is no way Trump would have EVER beaten a white male candidate.
Sadly i think you are right. Of course hindsight is 20/20. Biden was grieving for his son and not emotionally able to conduct a campaign in 2016. And Hillary won by 3 million votes but she and her campaign managers took the blue wall for granted. Thus Trump 45 but Trump 47 is not Biden’s fault. Its Harris- though i supported and voted for her - i kept saying she needs to be more forceful and specific about the dangers of another Trump reign with no guardrails and Immunity. She generalized the threat and was too nice about it. She needed to break glass and scream Emergency!!! Every day of her campaign .
Why should Trump be 47? Biden should resign sometime in the next few weeks and Kamala should be president, even if only for a few days. That would also screw up Trump 47 merchandise.
2024 is ALSO Biden's fault, at least in part. He was unable to run, decided to forego his own promise to be a one term, basically turning the primaries into a rubber stamp with no real competition (who runs against an incumbent?). After his miserably failed performance in his debate on June 27th that exposed the grave concern with his ability to complete a sentence adequately, let alone run a successful campaign, he then took 3 and 1/2 weeks to reluctantly withdraw from the race on July 21st. The primaries were over, Kamala had to be the nominee or the DNC could not transition the money to someone NOT named Biden or Harris, and this left her 107 days (3 and 1/2 months) to effectively run a campaign for president that usually takes a minimum of a year and a half.
Please tell me exactly how Biden's refusal to honor his own commitment, ego, and stubbornness did NOT, at least in part, affect the outcome?
That as well. But Steve is right. He was a transitional president. He gave us his word. And no matter how the American people complained about him running again, he still ran. As a result he deprived the American people of a primary by which the strongest would have risen to the top. I think Kamala was amazing but she probably was not the strongest candidate and because of Biden was given little time to campaign.
Yeah. I can’t put this on Biden or Harris or the Dems. It wasn’t the economy either. The US has always embraced lots of hate and and now there’s permission to let it out. And there are people we need to help because they are scared whether born here or not.
And you are so right. However, castigating the haters must be accompanied by noting the failure of MSM to inform the public that Trump is in bed with racists bigots, and misogynists:
"In a post on X to his nearly 100,000 followers, Evan Kilgore, an “ambassador” for Turning Point USA, hailed a potential coming crackdown on minorities, LGBTQ people, immigrants, and women. “Women, back to the kitchen; Abortions, illegal; Gays, back in the closet; Interracial marriage, banned; Illegals, pack your bags; Trannies, back to the asylums; Jesus, back in our schools,” he wrote. “We are so back.”
“I was promised Hitler shit. I demand Hitler shit,” someone else wrote on Patriots.win. “When do we start rounding up all the gays into camps?” wrote another. “I was told this would happen.”
David, I am with you. I keep asking myself how could more than half of my fellow American citizens choose a rapist, felon, bigot, antisemite, misogynist and hateful being to represent our country to the rest of the planet. And whoever would vote for anyone who paints his face. And how do we make sense of this public model to the young boys who already know what a creep he is.
He is a political strategist by trade, he is giving it from that point of view. And purely from that sense, he is not wrong. But there are 1,000 reasons and this one has some weight. It's hard to say whether the survivor of a normal Democratic primary would have won either.
Sentencing for the 34 felony convictions? Gone. Three other trials? Or is it four? Gone. Pardons for 1/06 "patriots"? Given, even for those who pled guilty. Seriously, WTF on steroids.
The problem with blaming the people is that they simply don't see the same news we see, the same SM feeds we see, and don't share the concerns we have. Yet assuming they see, know, and believe everything we do. Kamala has lost 14 million voters who supported Biden in 2020. 14 million. Trump has lost fewer than 2 million.
Excellent point. I had business dealings for many years in Pennsylvania Dutch country. I have warm feelings for the Mennonites that were my Pa. associates, and I bought my beloved furry Golden girl from a nice Amish family. In some ways I admired how cloistered they chose to be. With that said, News-Talk radio (aka the right-wing liar format) prevailed as the go-to for information. Sinclair propaganda TV broadcasts spin as news, and Fox News played in the large lobby of the company that employed most of the town where I stayed when I visited. Mainstream media is our proverbial butter knife against a billionaire funded disinformation bazooka.
We can blame social media, Fox, etc. but when the electorate has lost all empathy for their fellow humans, we've crossed the chasm. I think many are willfully ignorant to opposing facts; they don't want to question their fantastical beliefs that it's illegal immigrants, transexuals, and brown people who are their enemy. They are too blind to see that The MAN is their problem. And by The MAN, I mean billionaires and businesses who trade their work for crap wages and little to no healthcare or benefits. My god, I could go on.
They could see all the filth and hatred spewing from Trumps mouth everyday. Trump voters are disgusting people and I will never be convinced otherwise.
I am devastated….and very angry. The American experiment has failed. It is January of 1933 in Germany. The Nuremberg Laws will be enacted within a few months. We will watch the rounding up and deportation of millions of brown people. The Jews will be blamed soon, if they haven’t been already. Decent people will find their lives devoured by expensive law suits. I’m 72. I am Jewish. My father barely got out of Nazi Germany. His parents got on a ship 5 days before the Kristallnacht. The rest of the family was murdered. This story is embedded in my soul.
Helen I pray you are wrong but I too worry that they’ve elected another Hitler! The only spark of hope I have is the obvious fact that he is showing the signs of dementia, both parents died of Alzheimer’s! He is not behaving anywhere’s near like a person in his right mind and the Republicans know it, shame on them little “ Nazis” that they are. We will not let them get away with any “ Kristal Nachts” or any other antisemitism ! The shame I feel about this election goes so deep, Americans are racists and anti women and way behind any other western country. They think we are so much better but it’s so obvious they we have fallen so far behind with these fascist supporters and the Fascist Republicans. We won’t let them hurt the Jewish people, there are good people here we won’t let them!
Helen, you said exactly what I believe. My family doesn’t have Jewish roots but both my parents were Army veterans during WWII and my father was a medic involved in providing health care to people liberated from the camps. I grew up with those stories as part of my DNA. The future of America is bleak and promises to be violent towards “others”. I am desolate.
And many more women will suffer terribly as they await an abortion until they are deemed
to be at the point of death, not because their doctors don't know an abortion is necessary to save the woman's life, as in the case of an ectopic pregnancy, but because they justly fear doing the right thing will cause them to spend the rest of their lives in prison.
The seething, private hatred of many Americans toward the open culture and modern society of today’s America has propelled them to bring Trump back to the White House again. Using all the new powers that he has, he will snuff out the free expression of our society and will surround himself with the billionaire class to turn the government , with the help of a Republican majority House and Senate , to model this presidency on Orban or other autocrats. Many who voted for him will directly feel the pain of his new initiatives . We are about to see an America that we have never seen in our lifetimes. It will not be good.
I want to add that in 2024, many non-college educated men, spanning Hispanic, Black and White cultures will never vote for a woman for President. The macho, bro culture will not support it. I realize now, that in my lifetime, which may not last more than another 20-25 years, will never see a person of my own gender , leading our nation. That fact makes very very, very sad.
I , 77, and based on my health and family history, have at most 5 years left. My belief in what Pres Harris could do was great. My despair for us and more for those voting for the first time for which the outcome was to be good and historic, is intense. The extreme hate toward immigrants and the human & economic consequences of deporting them will bring the US down. I wanted so much more for my last years. And a woman President born of immigrant parents was high on my list.
"Many who voted for him will directly feel the pain of his new initiatives." And with the help of their corporate overlords they will find someone else to blame for their ills, rather than looking in the mirror.
Introspection is not in their emotional toolbox. They operate on confusion, coupled with fear , anger and even hatred. Mostly an Id way of functioning.
Steve--we can blame Biden, Harris, whomever we want. But, the real blame lies with Americans--the more than 50% who voted for Trump. When Americans tell you who they are, believe them.
Agree. Not only did he win the Electoral College, but the popular vote. Americans own this. As Charles Dickens said after witnessing a slave auction here in 1842 — your country is not as great as you think it is.
Im shell shocked Steve and have followed you for many years. I honestly don’t know how Harris could have run a better campaign which gives me little hope for future campaigns. What I don’t understand is how Liberals Dems Progressives and a significant amount of republicans make up less than 50% of the electorate. The enthusiasm gap was tremendous between Harris and DT. He couldn’t fill his venues while thousands waited outside hers…these numbers do not add up.
I had been skeptical about Harris’s chances of winning this election. But I became more hopeful in the last few days before the election, as polls showed some movement in favor of Harris. But I did not imagine there would be such a decisive win for Trump.
Yes, Biden must share some responsibility, as must the Democratic Party itself. But let’s not forget that the majority of our fellow citizens chose a divisive, misogynistic, racist, hateful, narcissistic serial criminal to be the leader of the free world. Please tell me: how do I forgive THEM?
America blew it. The findin’ out part is going to be painful for the majority of people who voted him in.
The only vestiges of American supremacy are the military and the dollar. Trump/Vance/Thiele/ Musk will break the dollar. When that happens, this country will find out what happens on an international playing field. Pain.
The feelings of loss, frustration, disgust, fury, and above all, incredulity…yes, the sun and moon will rise at the appropriate time each day. But Steve, your voice is essential for helping us through this dark and unreal time.
When Biden stepped aside you praised him, today you write he was selfish. You know better than anyone how stupid this country is, how conservative. This is not a surprise, although, disappointing. Just as a quick example, Trump is categorically against EVs. He will probably roll back the federal 2030 mandate, the tax breaks, and what has been built over the last 4 years. There are projects for building battery, recycling, and EV car plants in South Carolina that are at risk of not commencing. The SC voters voted for the person who is potentially taking these plants away. This is just one very basic and simple example of the stupidity of the American voter.
Tesla stock is up big today. Probably in anticipation of all the contracts and concessions for EVs and space rockets that will go to Musk. Trump will have to honor some of the private deals he made with Musk and other billionaires.
Yeah. Proof again that voting is an expression of hatred. I at least credit Biden with recognizing he had to give up. Agree 100% that Schumer has to step down, though I can't think offhand of anyone better.
Dems unfortunately have to accept the ugly reality that a woman cannot win the presidency.
Evil is ascendent. Glad we have a few liferafts like The Warning & Bulwark to huddle in while the ship of state takes on water.
Sam. I'm not even feeling like watching any news at all today. BS MSM. I'm sticking to the Bulwark. The Warning, MSNBC, MTN. But today I'm avoided the networks.
Long ago I became concerned about 1)the explosion of right wing media both cable and radio, 2) social media sites, podcasters and influencers, ALL rife with lies and mass misinformation, gaslighting, and on and on. I had hoped that we would get back to a solidly, honest, decent government that would regulate and reign it in OTHERWISE I really believed we could lose our democracy in such a lying, chaotic environment where no one knew what was truth or lies...by the way, classic Fascistic tactics. I just thought it wouldn't be now, but here we are, it is NOW. There certainly can be lots of places to lay blame but make no mistake here, it is the grotesque, out of control mass media clusterfuck that we're presently in that created this awful day...and future. This very environment that we're living in is the exact same one that brought Hitler to power.
Oh, and I meant to add as well, the proliferation of Christian radio stations! This election of Trump was a give-away to the Christian Right. Now, with Trump, they can run roughshod over the American people and impose a theocracy into our government.
Biden’s fault? I lay it squarely on the people who chose hate.
Harris ran a nearly flawless campaign. She was as well qualified and experienced to become the next POTUS as any candidate has ever been. Our country wouldn't vote for a woman! BS!!
Not vote for a woman or specifically this time, a woman of color. And it is BS. She is immensely qualified. Talk about the ultimate example of white (male) privilege. A corrupt, immoral, convicted felon, twice impeached, fascist, and mentally failing white guy wins the presidency. WTF?
Yes, and Harris graciously 'concedes', despite so much collusion, corruption, threats and insults from DJT and cohorts; too many Americans chose a lying MALE Fascist.
Seems the patriarch in the 21st century is still scared shitless to have a woman at the helm. Especially someone as qualified as Kamala Harris.
Yes, and they did not play a fair, dignified race against Harris. Scoundrels.
Women have to constantly prove themselves, and it still does not matter. The truth is, many women are too insecure to support/raise-up another woman.
They hate our powerful female Governor here in Michigan!
I've noticed that. She is brilliant and true.
Right you are, Lisa.
I envision trump's staff putting papers in front of him and he signing without reading. So much will slip by him.
As I’ve said before, the backroom boys will ensure that - read the Miller boys Stephen and Jason, Peter Navarro and every other lackey he adds to that group, including Roger Stone, Gen Flynn and of course Steve Bannon if they can persuade him to shower everyday.
Just replace their names with Goebbles, Himmler, Goering etc there’s no difference, they’re all fascists .
Indeed, you are correct.
Bannon and a shower...thanks for making me laugh 1x today.
That is horrifying to think about but might happen. We have to join in force to Save Democracy!
They are going to let him go play golf. The aides will need to learn to drive a golf cart to go find him for the signatures.
Bravo for calling it for what it is. 👏👏.
I was dreading it when I found out that my brother (who looks more like Harris than Trump and who had a life time experience of prejudice against his race and color), did not want to vote for Harris. It is deeply ingrained in the ordinary people’s perception of seeing her gender and race as representing inferiority; it is impossible to overcome and MAGA understood that better than all of us.
🎯Well said, May. (So sorry about your brother; "deeply ingrained", yes it is!"
Much too high a quotient of Americans won't vote for reason, evidence and love. One cannot successfully do flawless rationality with a cadre of Trump psychotics. Jonestown on steroids lies only a few hate-driven depredations away from an exponentially greater presence in Trumpism.
How can it be Biden’s fault? I don’t believe that for a second no it’s old fashioned racism and anti women! This country is so far behind our allies, if we still have any after Trump who cozies up to his dictator boyfriends from Russia and Hungary! Trump is also on the brink of Dementia how on earth is he going to manage the office of the President with all the stress and strains that entails? Thanks to you Trump voters you may have just ended this Democracy forever due to your stupidity! You fell for the CON man! I will never forgive you for what you’ve done! You have ended our Democracy!
Being lied to, over and over and having it amplified in their SM feeds and thus succumbing to confirmation bias and being misinformed is not the same as stupidity. That's a dangerous and oversimplified excuse. But agree with the misogyny and racism.
Agree that this happened, Mike, but I think willful ignorance is a kind of stupidity. Accompanied by the misogyny and racism you cite, it's a poisonous cocktail they've forced on us.
And white supremacy
Biden failed us in his promise to be a one term president. Had he stepped aside after his first term, we would have had adequate time to choose and prepare the nation for his successor (who may or may not have been Harris). As it was, the Democratic campaign felt rushed with little time to allow the candidate to position herself comfortably in the minds and hearts of voters across the nation. Latino and black voters were heavily swayed with a year plus of lies and misinformation. Harris only had a few months to push back and show them her true vision and potential….. We move forward 🇺🇸
65% of Latino and 22% of black MALE voters voted against Harris simply because their fragile egos couldn’t stand having a woman as president. The same number of men voted for Biden in 2020. Pure misogyny.
But Argentina voted for a lesbian Jewish woman.
But Argentina voted for a lesbian Jewish woman.
This, I think, is the most justified criticism of Biden. The problem was that he’d been waiting his chance for a long time, found out that he really liked the job, and that he was really good at it. So he was reluctant to give it up and then learned that he was not good at one important aspect of it- communicating his message to the people. It’s both a personal and natural tragedy
I love and respect Biden, I wanted him to be POTUS when he first ran, way back when. However, something happened to him, and it was evident at the debate. Dr. Biden had to help him down the stairs afterwords. When I saw videos of him getting around, it was noticeable that his walk was different, more of a shuffle. I wonder if he had a mild stroke, and the family and administration kept it from becoming public. If that is the case, then they should have told Biden to forget a second term, instead of making him look so foolish at the debate, and until he finally gave up.
I think spinal stenosis - already known to the public. Nothing to do with a stroke.
Steve, I hope you will figure out a way to stay safe. I hope you will help us figure out how to survive.
Yes, except how much strain is it if you just sign a few EOs then go golfing?
After Trump's first days in office, settling scores, he will probably fall back into his daily "executive time" and golfing, leaving his minions to gleefully run amuck.
We are still here. A member of .y community last night urged "creative" resistance. If we're so smart, then let's prove it.
I never want to hear again that this is not who we are. It clearly is for over 70 million of us even if they are blind to it.
Yes sadly there are some really awful people here the proof is that Trump won. I also think that those Fox watchers are dumbas dirt and I won’t apologize for saying so. They just sit there and never question the filth that pours forth from that network that cozies up to that so called president who makes all sorts of horrifying threats against those who don’t agree with him and what he will do to them, shades of Hitler and Stalin. Yes and Americans couldn’t wait to vote for him to get even with those they don’t agree with. How unAmerican they actually are more like those in Nazi Germany getting even with their enemies. It’s so SICK! Sick to vote for a dictator, It’s unAmerican!
I hope that those who voted for Trump get what they deserve! Too bad that we too will have to suffer the results of a Trump/Vance dictatorship!
I'm so angry too. I need some time to figure out what to do. I'm feeling like fighting but I don't know how yet. My vote didn't matter. The evil took over anyway.
In fairness, Biden owns a large part of this. The people who chose Trump may have been mis-or disinformed. That's a failure of communication, the media, and SM platforms. I said this in a DM earlier:
It doesn't help, but I'm bugged at Biden. Not running in 2016, albeit dealing with the death of his son the year before, brought us Trump 1.0. Hillary was qualified but had four distinct disadvantages: 1. Female 2. Last name of Clinton 3. Comey's bombshell of nothingness 10 days before the election 4. Took the swing states for granted and failed to effectively (if at all) campaign there. There is absolutely no way Biden, the VP from a very popular and successful Obama administration would have lost. He would have won PA and he would have campaigned and won Wisconsin and Michigan. Then he did it again with his refusal to do what he said: be a one term president to transition away from Trump. That meant no primary to choose his successor. I thought Kamala was fine, but because she HAD to be the nominee or the DNC would have tossed over $100M to get another candidate and the primaries were over. I like her, I respect her, she earned my vote, but if we're being honest about it, a full primary was necessary to see if she would have been the chosen nominee. If not her, and I hate to say this because of what it implies about Americas current refusal and inability to elect a woman, and a woman of color has an even larger hill to climb. There is no way Trump would have EVER beaten a white male candidate.
Well stated, Mike. A black woman with a white Jewish husband evidently was a bridge too far for small-minded Americans.
You give those small-minded idiots too much credit. I think it was just the streak of mean in them that T**** brought out.
Sadly i think you are right. Of course hindsight is 20/20. Biden was grieving for his son and not emotionally able to conduct a campaign in 2016. And Hillary won by 3 million votes but she and her campaign managers took the blue wall for granted. Thus Trump 45 but Trump 47 is not Biden’s fault. Its Harris- though i supported and voted for her - i kept saying she needs to be more forceful and specific about the dangers of another Trump reign with no guardrails and Immunity. She generalized the threat and was too nice about it. She needed to break glass and scream Emergency!!! Every day of her campaign .
Why should Trump be 47? Biden should resign sometime in the next few weeks and Kamala should be president, even if only for a few days. That would also screw up Trump 47 merchandise.
Ha! That would be a mean trick worthy of Trump.
2024 is ALSO Biden's fault, at least in part. He was unable to run, decided to forego his own promise to be a one term, basically turning the primaries into a rubber stamp with no real competition (who runs against an incumbent?). After his miserably failed performance in his debate on June 27th that exposed the grave concern with his ability to complete a sentence adequately, let alone run a successful campaign, he then took 3 and 1/2 weeks to reluctantly withdraw from the race on July 21st. The primaries were over, Kamala had to be the nominee or the DNC could not transition the money to someone NOT named Biden or Harris, and this left her 107 days (3 and 1/2 months) to effectively run a campaign for president that usually takes a minimum of a year and a half.
Please tell me exactly how Biden's refusal to honor his own commitment, ego, and stubbornness did NOT, at least in part, affect the outcome?
Actually on his book, Biden made clear that Obama talked Biden out of running. He wanted to run.
Yep, it’s on us.
That as well. But Steve is right. He was a transitional president. He gave us his word. And no matter how the American people complained about him running again, he still ran. As a result he deprived the American people of a primary by which the strongest would have risen to the top. I think Kamala was amazing but she probably was not the strongest candidate and because of Biden was given little time to campaign.
Yeah. I can’t put this on Biden or Harris or the Dems. It wasn’t the economy either. The US has always embraced lots of hate and and now there’s permission to let it out. And there are people we need to help because they are scared whether born here or not.
And you are so right. However, castigating the haters must be accompanied by noting the failure of MSM to inform the public that Trump is in bed with racists bigots, and misogynists:
"In a post on X to his nearly 100,000 followers, Evan Kilgore, an “ambassador” for Turning Point USA, hailed a potential coming crackdown on minorities, LGBTQ people, immigrants, and women. “Women, back to the kitchen; Abortions, illegal; Gays, back in the closet; Interracial marriage, banned; Illegals, pack your bags; Trannies, back to the asylums; Jesus, back in our schools,” he wrote. “We are so back.”
“I was promised Hitler shit. I demand Hitler shit,” someone else wrote on Patriots.win. “When do we start rounding up all the gays into camps?” wrote another. “I was told this would happen.”
https://www.wired.com/story/donald-trump-far-right-supporters-violent-memes/
Thanks for posting this, Anthony. It is so dark, but we need to know what is going on :-(
David, I am with you. I keep asking myself how could more than half of my fellow American citizens choose a rapist, felon, bigot, antisemite, misogynist and hateful being to represent our country to the rest of the planet. And whoever would vote for anyone who paints his face. And how do we make sense of this public model to the young boys who already know what a creep he is.
Exactly
He is a political strategist by trade, he is giving it from that point of view. And purely from that sense, he is not wrong. But there are 1,000 reasons and this one has some weight. It's hard to say whether the survivor of a normal Democratic primary would have won either.
I am comfortable placing some blame on Merrick Garland, but my anger is more for the white women and men who voted for Trump.
Sentencing for the 34 felony convictions? Gone. Three other trials? Or is it four? Gone. Pardons for 1/06 "patriots"? Given, even for those who pled guilty. Seriously, WTF on steroids.
The problem with blaming the people is that they simply don't see the same news we see, the same SM feeds we see, and don't share the concerns we have. Yet assuming they see, know, and believe everything we do. Kamala has lost 14 million voters who supported Biden in 2020. 14 million. Trump has lost fewer than 2 million.
Excellent point. I had business dealings for many years in Pennsylvania Dutch country. I have warm feelings for the Mennonites that were my Pa. associates, and I bought my beloved furry Golden girl from a nice Amish family. In some ways I admired how cloistered they chose to be. With that said, News-Talk radio (aka the right-wing liar format) prevailed as the go-to for information. Sinclair propaganda TV broadcasts spin as news, and Fox News played in the large lobby of the company that employed most of the town where I stayed when I visited. Mainstream media is our proverbial butter knife against a billionaire funded disinformation bazooka.
We can blame social media, Fox, etc. but when the electorate has lost all empathy for their fellow humans, we've crossed the chasm. I think many are willfully ignorant to opposing facts; they don't want to question their fantastical beliefs that it's illegal immigrants, transexuals, and brown people who are their enemy. They are too blind to see that The MAN is their problem. And by The MAN, I mean billionaires and businesses who trade their work for crap wages and little to no healthcare or benefits. My god, I could go on.
They could see all the filth and hatred spewing from Trumps mouth everyday. Trump voters are disgusting people and I will never be convinced otherwise.
I am devastated….and very angry. The American experiment has failed. It is January of 1933 in Germany. The Nuremberg Laws will be enacted within a few months. We will watch the rounding up and deportation of millions of brown people. The Jews will be blamed soon, if they haven’t been already. Decent people will find their lives devoured by expensive law suits. I’m 72. I am Jewish. My father barely got out of Nazi Germany. His parents got on a ship 5 days before the Kristallnacht. The rest of the family was murdered. This story is embedded in my soul.
It is truly hard to know how to go on.😞
Helen I pray you are wrong but I too worry that they’ve elected another Hitler! The only spark of hope I have is the obvious fact that he is showing the signs of dementia, both parents died of Alzheimer’s! He is not behaving anywhere’s near like a person in his right mind and the Republicans know it, shame on them little “ Nazis” that they are. We will not let them get away with any “ Kristal Nachts” or any other antisemitism ! The shame I feel about this election goes so deep, Americans are racists and anti women and way behind any other western country. They think we are so much better but it’s so obvious they we have fallen so far behind with these fascist supporters and the Fascist Republicans. We won’t let them hurt the Jewish people, there are good people here we won’t let them!
And it’s very likely we won’t have mid-terms or another presidential election ….
Helen, you said exactly what I believe. My family doesn’t have Jewish roots but both my parents were Army veterans during WWII and my father was a medic involved in providing health care to people liberated from the camps. I grew up with those stories as part of my DNA. The future of America is bleak and promises to be violent towards “others”. I am desolate.
Thanks for your sensitive response.
I empathize with you 110% Helen.
Let's face it....today's America is an ugly, cowardly society, motivated primarily by fear and hate. How could Trump not appeal to such a people!
Don t forget greed
Women and Black haters! What a country, ugh!
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.
La commedia è finita.
Yesterday Americans voted:
To put an insurrectionist, felon, and adjudicated rapist in the oval office.
For the deportation of millions of immigrants, including their American born children, citizens of the United States.
To end aid to Ukraine and allow Putin to expand his cruel regime to include Ukraine and pose a serious threat to the rest of Europe.
To abandon our Western European allies.
To end the ACA and replace it with concepts of a plan.
To replace a progressive income tax with an economy stifling regressive 20%
tariff.
To ignore our Constitution , norms, and tradition of rule by law.
Those who voted for Trump will live to rue their decision.
An incredibly sad day. We must continue to resist.
Sometimes I find it hard to breathe! I am so sad that a qualified person like Kamala was rejected. Just seeing that family up there with Trump
brought such unpleasant memories back into my consciousness, Will we survive as a country ? I think all the negative forces will engulf us
Also Gaza is doomed.
You are right. I should have included: To continue enabling Netanyahu in his genocidal attack on Palestinians.
And many more women will suffer terribly as they await an abortion until they are deemed
to be at the point of death, not because their doctors don't know an abortion is necessary to save the woman's life, as in the case of an ectopic pregnancy, but because they justly fear doing the right thing will cause them to spend the rest of their lives in prison.
Gaza is as good as gone. And Lebanon. Then where else? People and the lives that were overseen by another occupier. Ukraine? What are we?
The seething, private hatred of many Americans toward the open culture and modern society of today’s America has propelled them to bring Trump back to the White House again. Using all the new powers that he has, he will snuff out the free expression of our society and will surround himself with the billionaire class to turn the government , with the help of a Republican majority House and Senate , to model this presidency on Orban or other autocrats. Many who voted for him will directly feel the pain of his new initiatives . We are about to see an America that we have never seen in our lifetimes. It will not be good.
I want to add that in 2024, many non-college educated men, spanning Hispanic, Black and White cultures will never vote for a woman for President. The macho, bro culture will not support it. I realize now, that in my lifetime, which may not last more than another 20-25 years, will never see a person of my own gender , leading our nation. That fact makes very very, very sad.
I , 77, and based on my health and family history, have at most 5 years left. My belief in what Pres Harris could do was great. My despair for us and more for those voting for the first time for which the outcome was to be good and historic, is intense. The extreme hate toward immigrants and the human & economic consequences of deporting them will bring the US down. I wanted so much more for my last years. And a woman President born of immigrant parents was high on my list.
This is how I see it also.
"Many who voted for him will directly feel the pain of his new initiatives." And with the help of their corporate overlords they will find someone else to blame for their ills, rather than looking in the mirror.
Introspection is not in their emotional toolbox. They operate on confusion, coupled with fear , anger and even hatred. Mostly an Id way of functioning.
Steve--we can blame Biden, Harris, whomever we want. But, the real blame lies with Americans--the more than 50% who voted for Trump. When Americans tell you who they are, believe them.
Agree. Not only did he win the Electoral College, but the popular vote. Americans own this. As Charles Dickens said after witnessing a slave auction here in 1842 — your country is not as great as you think it is.
I’m done. I’ve lost faith in people. When the chickens come home to roost, it will be shattering.
I totally agree
Im shell shocked Steve and have followed you for many years. I honestly don’t know how Harris could have run a better campaign which gives me little hope for future campaigns. What I don’t understand is how Liberals Dems Progressives and a significant amount of republicans make up less than 50% of the electorate. The enthusiasm gap was tremendous between Harris and DT. He couldn’t fill his venues while thousands waited outside hers…these numbers do not add up.
Something is "rotten in Denmark", but I don't want to be a conspiracy nut or maybe I'm just plain disgusted 😔
I had been skeptical about Harris’s chances of winning this election. But I became more hopeful in the last few days before the election, as polls showed some movement in favor of Harris. But I did not imagine there would be such a decisive win for Trump.
Yes, Biden must share some responsibility, as must the Democratic Party itself. But let’s not forget that the majority of our fellow citizens chose a divisive, misogynistic, racist, hateful, narcissistic serial criminal to be the leader of the free world. Please tell me: how do I forgive THEM?
I know I can’t.
America blew it. The findin’ out part is going to be painful for the majority of people who voted him in.
The only vestiges of American supremacy are the military and the dollar. Trump/Vance/Thiele/ Musk will break the dollar. When that happens, this country will find out what happens on an international playing field. Pain.
I cannot stop crying
Right there with you, Cali💕, and others here who are hurting. I appreciate this community :-)
Same here. I have no words.
Hold your heads up. We have not been sent to the gulags just yet.
💕
The feelings of loss, frustration, disgust, fury, and above all, incredulity…yes, the sun and moon will rise at the appropriate time each day. But Steve, your voice is essential for helping us through this dark and unreal time.
When Biden stepped aside you praised him, today you write he was selfish. You know better than anyone how stupid this country is, how conservative. This is not a surprise, although, disappointing. Just as a quick example, Trump is categorically against EVs. He will probably roll back the federal 2030 mandate, the tax breaks, and what has been built over the last 4 years. There are projects for building battery, recycling, and EV car plants in South Carolina that are at risk of not commencing. The SC voters voted for the person who is potentially taking these plants away. This is just one very basic and simple example of the stupidity of the American voter.
Tesla stock is up big today. Probably in anticipation of all the contracts and concessions for EVs and space rockets that will go to Musk. Trump will have to honor some of the private deals he made with Musk and other billionaires.
Yup. The Autocrats won this election. Musk and Putin and Murdoch and Orban and their pals. See Anne Applebaum.
Yeah. Proof again that voting is an expression of hatred. I at least credit Biden with recognizing he had to give up. Agree 100% that Schumer has to step down, though I can't think offhand of anyone better.
Dems unfortunately have to accept the ugly reality that a woman cannot win the presidency.
Evil is ascendent. Glad we have a few liferafts like The Warning & Bulwark to huddle in while the ship of state takes on water.
Subscriptions to WAPO & NYT cancelled.
Sam. I'm not even feeling like watching any news at all today. BS MSM. I'm sticking to the Bulwark. The Warning, MSNBC, MTN. But today I'm avoided the networks.
Long ago I became concerned about 1)the explosion of right wing media both cable and radio, 2) social media sites, podcasters and influencers, ALL rife with lies and mass misinformation, gaslighting, and on and on. I had hoped that we would get back to a solidly, honest, decent government that would regulate and reign it in OTHERWISE I really believed we could lose our democracy in such a lying, chaotic environment where no one knew what was truth or lies...by the way, classic Fascistic tactics. I just thought it wouldn't be now, but here we are, it is NOW. There certainly can be lots of places to lay blame but make no mistake here, it is the grotesque, out of control mass media clusterfuck that we're presently in that created this awful day...and future. This very environment that we're living in is the exact same one that brought Hitler to power.
Oh, and I meant to add as well, the proliferation of Christian radio stations! This election of Trump was a give-away to the Christian Right. Now, with Trump, they can run roughshod over the American people and impose a theocracy into our government.