Election 2020
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
and indeed, that is exactly what he's doing
laying the final groundwork for a claim that a loss is illegitimate
everywhere he's ahead, he can't [validly] be caught
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
and he just said it point blank
"frankly we did win this election"
and openly claiming fraud
"frankly we did win this election"
and openly claiming fraud
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
538 live coverage going absolutely nuts as Nate Silver and co. try to stress the extreme degree to which that was complete bullshit
and specifically, irresponsible, dangerous bullshit
and specifically, irresponsible, dangerous bullshit
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
again, I'm not surprised but even after everything, even for Trump it was still shocking in the degree of its brazen and shameless dishonesty
blunted somewhat by the fact that he was telegraphing it for weeks beforehand but still
even Pence could only half-heartedly back that nonsense up
blunted somewhat by the fact that he was telegraphing it for weeks beforehand but still
even Pence could only half-heartedly back that nonsense up
Is it too early to talk about what this means for the Electoral College? Or rather, views of it. Looking like Biden is going to be up by a few million votes in the end, yet may only just win the election very narrowly. It shouldn't feel as close as it does, and you'd think the calls to scrap the EC will only get louder.
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
no, because people have been complaining about it since 2016, and really since 2000
besides being anti-democratic, the EC is antiquated and hasn't reflected how America actually functions politically for a very long time
there are two problems. 1) it's really hard to change the Constitution and 2) it's a partisan issue, even tho it shouldn't be
if Trump wins, it'll be 3 out of the last 6 elections a Republican has won the EC and lost the popular vote
GOP know very well that the EC and Senate (plus gerrymandering as much as possible in the House, and in state legislatures) are its bulwarks against unfavorable demographic change
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
on a related note, I think a big takeaway not just from tonight, but tonight as the culmination of the last 20 years, is that it may be an existential issue for American democracy to move toward some kind of proportional representation that makes parties outside the big two a viable possibility, even if it's a UK-style minor parties are just spoilers/kingmakers/coalition filler rather than a true multiparty democracy. Two-party democracy simply becomes untenable when mutual antipathy builds to a point where one side begins systemically gaming and subverting political norms to keep the other side out of power. there has to be some kind of release valve for the buildup of toxicity in the current zero sum binary.
I always bring it up, but that was the immediate cause of the end of the Roman Republic. 80 years of increasingly bitter (and often violent) partisan divide culminating in the Optimates so hating and fearing Caesar that they were willing to do anything to keep him from returning to power, even bluff civil war, which bluff he of course called. our partisan divide is younger, its underlying causes are different, and it's (so far) not as bloody, but the lesson is that once you destroy political norms and faith in those norms they're extremely difficult to restore. again that isn't just about Trump, tho he has done more than any other individual to destroy those norms.
MA had a ranked-choice voting measure on tonight's ballot but it lost. a couple other states I can't remember had similar measures and idk how they turned out.
I always bring it up, but that was the immediate cause of the end of the Roman Republic. 80 years of increasingly bitter (and often violent) partisan divide culminating in the Optimates so hating and fearing Caesar that they were willing to do anything to keep him from returning to power, even bluff civil war, which bluff he of course called. our partisan divide is younger, its underlying causes are different, and it's (so far) not as bloody, but the lesson is that once you destroy political norms and faith in those norms they're extremely difficult to restore. again that isn't just about Trump, tho he has done more than any other individual to destroy those norms.
MA had a ranked-choice voting measure on tonight's ballot but it lost. a couple other states I can't remember had similar measures and idk how they turned out.
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
and on that note, I'm done for tonight. we're not gonna definitively know any more for a while anyway.
just hope it's settled without having to wait for the PA count so we don't have to endure 2-3 more days of preemptive Trump victory declarations.
just hope it's settled without having to wait for the PA count so we don't have to endure 2-3 more days of preemptive Trump victory declarations.
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
oh well one more thing
Fox News and Christie both just went on Trump for that bullshit speech, so that's something
Fox News and Christie both just went on Trump for that bullshit speech, so that's something
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
wait for the post-mortem to see if they can figure out where they went wrong. it doesn't seem as bad as 2016, but I'm not a psephologist, so.
but yeah I'm sure it'll the final nail in the coffin for many ppl in terms of trusting polls at all
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
well as I said I'm not surprised, by the results or by Trump
but it was still shocking to watch him come out and actually do it. I mean his own people are calling him out for being wildly irresponsible.
it's been shocking but not surprising to see him do any number of things over the years.
but that's really it, I'm gonna go to sleep and hopefully when I wake up there's a definitive result.
but it was still shocking to watch him come out and actually do it. I mean his own people are calling him out for being wildly irresponsible.
it's been shocking but not surprising to see him do any number of things over the years.
but that's really it, I'm gonna go to sleep and hopefully when I wake up there's a definitive result.
@padraig (u.s.) that's sort of what I was getting at. I think only Warren had scrapping the EC as part of her platform? Meanwhile, Biden explicitly said he wouldn't. I'm just wondering whether you're going to see these kind of reforms become an issue that plays a big role in campaigns. Although as you say it's so partisan, given how much Republicans benefit from the current system.
Nor can I. I don't think I predicted anything in those days. I was the comedy right wing poster, getting drunk in front of the TV.