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Well, it’s basically official now: Trump has lost.
Now all we have to worry about are the 70 million people who thought voting for his variety of fascism was a good idea. (Also the Senate, probably.)
But for right now I’m just going to celebrate.
Open thread!
EDITED TO ADD: A little celebratory music.
Don’t forget all the centrist fence-sittters who think that the best way to solve the societal issues that pushed those 70 million+ voters to fascism is to ignore said issues and hope they go away. Let’s be honest, the fat cats have their claws in the Democratic Party as well and Biden’s already giving the impression that he’ll be bending over backwards to give the right everything it wants (and that’s if the Senate and SC both suddenly decide to not be obstructionist) while dressing up the old Trump policies just enough to keep people from rioting over them. If we don’t push this administration to the left from day 1 and keep it up through the entire term, we’ll have just delayed the slide into fascism.
Really, at this point we should either work to make a new leftist movement that can get progressive elements of the Dems to split off from the corporate-dominated leadership (and ideally one which won’t go the way of Syriza in becoming just another political party) or work to dismantle the whole rotten system entirely.
I’d prefer the latter to happen, but the former is more likely to occur in the relative short-term (i.e. within the next four years). As good as it is to know the situation won’t be actively degrading further, I’ve never been one to celebrate when there’s still so much more to be done.
Well, I think this video is appropriate. We still got lots to do, but this weekend, we celebrate and take a well-deserved breather!
TBH I’m feeling so many things it’s much the same as being numb. I’m horrifyingly glad and scared and relieved and in despair and disgusted and grateful and tired, and it all blends together until it just feels like a surreal disconnect.
Edit: Sarah Kendzior nails it, again.
https://twitter.com/sarahkendzior/status/1324754677586665474
@Anonymous
All real concerns.
But there’s a hard limit now on how far the “kumbaya” crowd can push this time. 200,000+ people are dead from Covid.
Not terrorists, not combatants, but American citizens. There must be consequences. They must involve federal prison.
At this point I think the main focus should be the senate races in Georgia. With NC and AK being long shots, Georgia is still a bit of a reach (though less so since it did go blue for Biden) but much more likely.
I know there’s still so much left to do and that the fight is far from over, but this just gives me hope. I’m really enjoying all the people mocking Trump online and the crowds celebrating his loss. I know Biden isn’t great, but just knowing that Trump lost feels like a huge relief. It’s like we’ve been in darkness for the past four years and finally there is some chance we’ll see light. Still work to do, but I’m a lot more optimistic than I would be if Trump had won. It’s a morale booster if nothing else, and I desperately needed that.
Some more fun video montages:
https://twitter.com/therealhoarse/status/1325166946443169792
https://twitter.com/CopingMAGA/status/1324821569017839616
(that whole account has lots of screenshots and videos of conservatives falling apart, great for schadenfreude)
Yes, we definitely need to do this. Unfortunately, the party is already trying to claim that leftism is what lost them house seats, even though more progressive candidates won their races more than centrists this year. People want progressive policies, we need to fight for them.
What’s the over/under on Trump acting out of pure spite and trying to punish districts that voted him out?
@nobody
I mean… they should, but they won’t ever. We’ll be lucky if they get him on tax stuff, he’s probably gonna skip town on Jan 20, just like he said he would. And no one else will ever take responsibility for propping him up, they will only ever say, “Trump did it.” There will be no consequences at all. That’s just not how life has ever worked. The guilty always get away with shit. And 5 will get you 10 the Republicans win in the 2022 midterms.
@Nobody
That’s what I thought after Obama was elected in the midst of the economic crisis in 2008, and look what happened there. Everyone responsible for that got off scot-free, and as Cyborgette mentioned the centrists will happily turn on their progressive “allies” as soon as they outlive their usefulness.
Oh, how I look forward to the day it becomes their turn to have their ideas marginalized and derided as fundamentally unworkable. They could use some lessons in empathy, after all.
Yes, time for celebration !
As for the asshole that try to pretend “socialism” caused them to lose seats, they are transparently disingenuous. We don’t have remotely enough information to know if it’s true or not, so it’s pretty clear they use that to push their own agenda and not in good faith.
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1325172137464885248
I’m just going to take the day off, watch videos of people celebrating and savor the Trump supporter rage and angst.
Yeah, there are plenty of issues and we didn’t get everything we hoped for, but unseating a sitting President is extremely difficult and we did it. Take some time to enjoy the moment.
@Anonymous
But economic fuckery doesn’t have the same weight as death. There is a reason murder has no statute of limitations.
Particularly completely avoidable unnecessary death. And with the pandemic spiking again, reminding everyone of the point, the soft centrists might not be able to default to their comfort zone. We certainly can’t afford to not press the issue.
So I understand the pessimism, but I remain hopeful.
@ Big Titty Demon
I’m sure they’ll try to pretend they barely know him, but the Internet remembers.
Before Covid I would have been happy if the Trump clan fled to Russia and we never saw them again.
But they killed people and caged children. We have to try to make the pay, even if they do manage to flee.
@Ohlmann
It’s impossible to prove, maybe, but all evidence suggests that more progressive candidates and those who supported policies like Medicare for All won their races compared to centrists. The Democrats are only bashing the left because the establishment doesn’t like the left wing. That’s something I hope to change at the local and federal level.
@Kobun37
This has basically been my attitude. We defeated an incumbent in spite of a pandemic with mass voter suppression. We get to celebrate for just a little bit now.
I will, however, reiterate that the real people responsible for this are not the establishment, but are grassroots activists who worked to register voters, fix ballot issues, and get people to vote. These are the people we must thank.
So, seems Trump was golfing when the election was called.
What the hell is it with fascists ending their rule in bunkers?
LOL!. that is a great burn
@Nagfljar : I don’t think it’s impossible to prove, but that Very Important Politician, TM, that jump the guns to conclusion even before counting is finished don’t have proof. For now, we can have casual, low level analysis.
I am more interested in seeing the low level responsible, the sheriffs, the ICEs managers and grunts, thoses people to pay for what they did. For the most part, Drumpf can go die under a rock anywhere he want.
I mean, Drumpf don’t have long to live, and even if he did he won’t be redempted and won’t serve as more of an example as now, and I believe his pitiful, small life is painful enough for my revenge fantasy. I mean, whatever money he have would be better taken by the government to pay for his horrors, but that’s all.
I am much more interested in making sure that the guy who commanded cages for immigrants, or the guy who didn’t think about keeping some log to make sure they can reunite family, to be publicly humiliated, shamed, and mostly share the fate of Drumpf. It’s thoses people who I feel are currently dodging karma.
@Nobody
They say that hope is the first step on the road to disappointment, and while I am sure some of Trump’s lesser toadies might get thrown under the bus his higher-ranking officials will get a slap on the wrist right before they’re allowed to go back to what they were doing. Biden might curtail the worst of their idiocy, but he’d still screw the populace over before even considering Medicare for All unless it’s made unquestionably clear that not doing that will make sure he joins Trump as a one-term wonder. (And even then I get the feeling he’d still take the side of his pals in insurance.)
I’d also like to remind you that the child-caging began in Obama’s presidency (the fact that his presidency was still less anti-immigrant than Trump’s doesn’t do that much to excuse it) and Biden didn’t seem to care about it back then. Why would he make an about-face on his old boss’s policy now?
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/11/7/1993648/-Calling-GOP-voters-fascists-is-the-right-thing-to-do-Taking-a-conciliatory-approach-kills-people
@Surplus to Requirements
The fact they’re trying to reconcile at all is proof that the people who are doing so aren’t much better than fascists who are too cowardly to admit it to themselves.
“In politics, the victorious candidate only holds rallies after the victory has been won”? 🙂
I’m an emotional roller-coaster right now. On one hand, ding, dong, the Drumpf is dead. On the other, today was the day I finally said goodbye to my old Animal Crossing: New Leaf village so I could move on to New Horizons.
I’m sick. People I love are sick. Fuck everything. If I die from this shit I’m haunting trump and all of his fucking ass kissing puppets If i stop posting randomly for months it’s because I probably fucking died.
I am in a particularly joyous mood at the moment. That might be the gin. At some stage no doubt we’ll be having lots of discussions as to the direction of the Dems etc. But for now I am just so happy that Trump is out. I have no sense of time these days, but I vaguely remember four years ago and the shock back then. Well, anyway, you all prevailed; and I am so glad to know you.
I can’t stop laughing about the fact that the Trump campaign tried to book the Four Seasons hotel for a press conference this morning, and ended up in the parking lot of Four Seasons Landscaping on the outskirts of Philadelphia. It‘s like something out of Spinal Tap.
Apparently Four Seasons Landscaping is located between an adult bookstore and a crematorium. As Kurt Eichenwald said, “they can all fuck off and die without needing to travel.”