US US Politics 2024

[Second Summer]

My condolences to those of you who value democracy, rule of law, the climate, science-based medicine, women's bodily autonomy, not cosying up to dictators and other authoritarian figures ... And to Israel's neighbours ... And to Ukraine ... And to all those who Trump sees as the "enemy within". These are truly dark days.

Europe is going to have to learn to fend for itself. And deal with our own authoritarian politicians and their supporters who now probably feel emboldened to emulate Trump over here.

 

[Lou]

I'm starting to think there has to be a reason America needs to go through this...like we need to get knocked down a peg or two. But Again? Because we didn't learn the first time? I mean, we've had it pretty good up until 2016.

not exactly the first time. Pretty much the same thing with the McCarthy years. And pretty much the same **** in the late '30s. Pretty hard to learn lessons from history when you don't remember them. And here it wasn't even long -ago history.

It's my nature to look on the bright side. Maybe this time Americans will learn the lesson.

 

[Emma JC]

I did not sleep last night - we turned off the election around 1am and I tried to go to sleep but my brain would not stop trying to comprehend what was happening as I did not, in a million years, think that It was going to win again. So I read, basically, all night long and refused to check the news as I wanted to live, as long as possible, in a world where she maybe won. I feel sick and depressed (and tired) and really can't believe that 75 million Americans did that. Big hugs to all of you there and to all of us around the world as we are going to need to all the love we can find to share.

Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com

 

[Raven]

I did not sleep last night - we turned off the election around 1am and I tried to go to sleep

I switched off the TV about midnight. I was flicking through the channels before that and watched a show with Stormy Daniels and our ex-Prime Minister talking about the election! I checked the results when I woke up during the night and saw what happened.

 

[Lou]

Sad

 

[Freesia]

Saw it all afternoon and evening. Extremely surprising, was not expecting that result. Final result came in at 8pm NZ time. I will definitely be paying even more attention to the news now, it has never been more important to keep up with what is going on.

 

[Brian W]

I was taking a lunch break at work when I found out. My heart sank. I had been posting pages of Trump's history and statements on FB in the naive hope of swaying a few people and now I will take them down, apart from the ones that show how unchristian christian nationalism is. I was reminded of a psalm which says about not putting your trust in leaders but put it in God who never changes. Thankfully I have that hope - not everybody does. I wish America all the best.

 

[Brian W]

I just had a shock. My pro-Trump evangelical cousin had posted a list of "I believe" statements concerning abortion. I commented "I also believe in a woman's right to an abortion if she would die without one." I could not believe her answer. She wrote "women do not die from not having an abortion." I had to send her links to information about three women who had died and a reuters fact check. It seems people have been posting videos saying that women cannot die that way.

 

[KLS52]

I think I might cry if I watch this. It's going to be so sad.

 

[KLS52]

I just had a shock. My pro-Trump evangelical cousin had posted a list of "I believe" statements concerning abortion. I commented "I also believe in a woman's right to an abortion if she would die without one." I could not believe her answer. She wrote "women do not die from not having an abortion." I had to send her links to information about three women who had died and a reuters fact check. It seems people have been posting videos saying that women cannot die that way.

I know I share too much in this forum sometimes. Then I regret it lol.

But here goes...

Interestingly enough, in 1979 I was pregnant with my third child. At 12 weeks the fetus (which was my baby to me) had died. This was on a Monday. Because my doctor was Catholic and affiliated with a Catholic hospital, I had to carry the dead fetus until I went into natural labor, which didn't happen until Friday night. I'll spare the gory details. It was torture and took a tremendous physical, not just mental, toll on my body. I could have easily been a statistic had something gone wrong. And this wasn't even due to some law at the time, but rather a religious aspect. I just don't understand the mentality of making someone go through that. And I'm a practicing Catholic.

Fortunately, my son was born two years later. After him I got pregnant again and the same thing happened where the fetus died at 8 weeks. You can bet I had a different doctor at that point and was able to have a D&C. Made a world of difference in my physical recovery.

 

[Chryssie]

Big hugs to you @KLS52! I am so sorry you had to go through that!

 

[SuicideBlonde]

@KLS52

 

[Raven]

I'm so sorry xxx

 

[PTree15]

I know I share too much in this forum sometimes. Then I regret it lol.

But here goes...

Interestingly enough, in 1979 I was pregnant with my third child. At 12 weeks the fetus (which was my baby to me) had died. This was on a Monday. Because my doctor was Catholic and affiliated with a Catholic hospital, I had to carry the dead fetus until I went into natural labor, which didn't happen until Friday night. I'll spare the gory details. It was torture and took a tremendous physical, not just mental, toll on my body. I could have easily been a statistic had something gone wrong. And this wasn't even due to some law at the time, but rather a religious aspect. I just don't understand the mentality of making someone go through that. And I'm a practicing Catholic.

Fortunately, my son was born two years later. After him I got pregnant again and the same thing happened where the fetus died at 8 weeks. You can bet I had a different doctor at that point and was able to have a D&C. Made a world of difference in my physical recovery.

How awful, KLS. I am so sorry that you had to go through that. This is my big fear for women of childbearing age, that they will die needlessly because they can't get the care they need when a pregnancy threatens their lives. The cesspool of disinformation that is social media is making me sick, not to mention the complete lack of critical thinking among so many voters.

 

[Second Summer]

Agreed, that sounds truly awful and traumatising, KLS. A miscarriage is bad enough on its own, without the additional burden of being denied modern medicine on top of everything.

 

[Second Summer]

Some of the election analyses from my favourite YT experts and insiders suggest that Harris simply couldn't win, regardless of her campaign performance. Let's face it, she ran a fairly good campaign, whereas Trump's campaign was terrible - with the Puerto Rico "joke", the supposed "eating the cats and the dogs", and other racist statements - and yet more blacks and latinos voted for Trump in this election than in 2020.

It also had less to do with her being a woman and mixed race, and more to do with either: 1) The right's better social media ecosystem vs the left's reliance on corporate media, and also the electorate blaming the hardship with the economy on the Dems who are in office - in which case they might vote the Dems back in office once they improve their social media game and Trump messes up the economy even more. Or 2) that it's the result of a historical tendency of global, irreversible democratic decline due to forces mostly beyond our control - in which case it could be a long time before we return to sensible politics again.

 

[Lou]

Some of the election analyses from my favourite YT experts and insiders suggest that Harris simply couldn't win, regardless of her campaign performance.

I know this is overly simplistic but I'm going to say it was a combination of both misogyny and racism.
Basically all the racists and misogynists voted for Trump. And Trump is in both clubs.

 

[Lou]

 

[PTree15]

Some of the election analyses from my favourite YT experts and insiders suggest that Harris simply couldn't win, regardless of her campaign performance. Let's face it, she ran a fairly good campaign, whereas Trump's campaign was terrible - with the Puerto Rico "joke", the supposed "eating the cats and the dogs", and other racist statements - and yet more blacks and latinos voted for Trump in this election than in 2020.

It also had less to do with her being a woman and mixed race, and more to do with either: 1) The right's better social media ecosystem vs the left's reliance on corporate media, and also the electorate blaming the hardship with the economy on the Dems who are in office - in which case they might vote the Dems back in office once they improve their social media game and Trump messes up the economy even more. Or 2) that it's the result of a historical tendency of global, irreversible democratic decline due to forces mostly beyond our control - in which case it could be a long time before we return to sensible politics again.

I agree on the possibility of this global shift to the right as a factor in the outcome of the election, but the U.S. Democratic Party needs to get with the program. It has drifted away from the party of the people to the party of big business, as it has become more aligned with corporate interests over the past few decades. They are as much about big business as the GOP is because ... money, but Dems at least purport to give a crap about average Joes, which I never got from the GOP. Both parties have been complicit in the decades-long erosion of consumer and environmental protections, the watering down of anti-trust laws, and basically letting big corporations get bigger and and bigger and thus, more powerful. It's no wonder that Latinos and other groups traditionally aligned with the Democratic Party have soured on it. I still don't get why they would vote for the GOP, which has an even worse track record at protecting programs and consumer rights, but trying to understand the psyche of voters who would cast a ballot for the orange one is no easy task.

Another thing with the Dems is that they haven't been as unified as the GOP of late. The far left faction has been a bit of a thorn in the side of party leadership. (The leadership needs to be cleaned out, as these people have been tone deaf for years. See: 2016 election when Hillary Clinton was foisted upon many voters who did not like her.) And that may have played into their dragging their feet on dumping Biden in favor of Harris. When Biden got elected, he intimated that Harris would be the heir apparent in the next election. But the power that comes with the presidency is no doubt addicting and hard to give up.

 

[Lou]

So I already posted this in the what I was listening to thread but I'm going to repost it. Along with an explanation.

Back in 2022, Taylor Swift made a political statement. She had been staying out of it because she had been taught that performers don't have the right to influence politics. But in her home state of Tennasee, there was a senate race, and the Republican nominee, Marsha Blackburn was antathema to Taylor's beliefs. So she came out for Blackburn's opponent. Blackburn won and then Taylor wrote this song,
I am a big fan of Taylor's but this song is not really all that great. A YouTuber, Teller 13Taylor, combined footage from Netflix's documentaries Miss Americana and Knock Down the House, making this video inspiring and very relevant in this moment.