American election
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Another aspect is the Lincoln Project and the “Never Trump Republicans” were insignificant in their impact despite some of the best anti-Trump videoes and tens of millions of dollar advertising. Full story here.
And as ALB has warned us, there is always the possibility of the faithless electors.
December 8: State executives are to resolve disputes over, and designate, their state’s electors (those named by the party whose candidates won the state’s popular vote) by sending a “certificate of … ascertainment”
December 14: The states’ designated slates of electors (which, as noted might not be clear in some states), meet in their respective state capitals to cast the official votes that elect the president.
December 23: States are to send their electoral votes to the president of the Senate ( i.e., Vice President Pence).
January 6: With the vice president presiding, the electoral votes are tallied before the newly convened Senate and House of Representatives, and a president-elect certified—assuming a candidate gets an Electoral College majority of at least 270.
As you said, confirmed by this, if the decision goes to the House of Representatives it is not every Representative that gets a a vote as they vote by state delegation.
And, apparently, the Republicans control 26 of the 50 State delegations. So they could chose Trump. As we have seen, the US constitution is bizarre from a democratic point of view. Who got the most individual votes doesn’t come into it anywhere.
I can’t remember which thread we were discussing fascism on but here’s a criticism of the tactics espoused by antifa;
https://www.eurozine.com/why-street-fighting-is-no-way-to-resist-fascism/
Howie Hawkins of the Green Party, endorsed by most leftie pseudo socialists, has so far got 0.2% 328,102 votes.
On the other hand, here is how the Libertatian Party candidate did. They appear to be noting that they might have prevented Trump from winning in some key swing states (though Trump can hardly be seen as a “libertarian” on any sense).
Here is Richard Wolff’s comment on the election. Notice that there’s no talk of any “fascist coup” and how he’s taken over our quip of “the evil of two lessers”.
The truth is the United States lost.
What won was a constricted politics defined by the range between the GOP and Democrats, Trump and Biden. Voters chose between two similar fantasies differentiated by two names: a return to “greatness” vs a return to “normal.” How ironic that Trump’s greatness and Biden’s normal both name the recent history that drove the US to its current scary conditions. In the ever more hyped blame game that this election was, US politics truly became “the evil of two lessers.”
Fundamental questions actually confront the US now. Is US capitalism in terminal decline amid China’s ascendance? How do we do better than capitalism as our economic system given its inequalities, instabilities, and gross failures to safeguard public health? How can we best undo capitalism’s environmental damage? What can really overcome the centuries of damage done to African-Americans and other indigenous and people of color via white supremacy? On such basic questions, this election’s major parties and candidates offered no engagement, let alone answers.
The 2020 presidential election teaches, yet again, a basic lesson. Any real political choice requires competition (real dialogue and debate) among multiple parties with genuinely different positions on US capitalism and its relation to the fundamental questions. Only then can such questions and the parties’ alternative answers to them become inescapable centerpieces of US politics and subject to democratic decisions.
Neither the establishments controlling the GOP and Democrats, nor the Trumps and Bidens among them, want real political party competition. They seek to retain their 2-party monopoly and keep sharing power 100% between them.
They are all integral parts of a declining system, one we must move beyond
Other than many states relaxing their draconian drug laws, San Francisco voted for tax increases on the rich.
Any company whose top executive earns 100 times more than their average worker will pay an extra 0.1% surcharge on its annual business tax payment. If a CEO makes 200 times more than the average employee, the surcharge increases to 0.2%; 300 times gets a 0.3% surcharge and so on.
Voters also agreed to sweeping business tax changes that will lead to a higher tax rate for many tech companies, and a higher transfer tax on property sales valued between $10m and $25m.
“We’re not gonna shed any tears if penthouse dwellers have to cough up,” the San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters wrote in its voter guide.
(Nice name which perhaps we should register … Party of Pissed Off Workers – PPOW !!)
On the other hand:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/04/california-election-voters-prop-22-uber-lyft
Incidentally, I have been following events on CNN and am surprised how partisan it is. It makes no pretence that it is opposed to Trump denouncing him on every occasion as an anti-democrat. Not used to this sort of thing from tv stations here in UK.
Just listened to Trump claim that the Democratic Party had rigged the election through fraudulent postal votes. He also claimed, in true populist style, to be the party of workers against Big Money, Big Media and Big Tech. He said he was going to challenge the results in the courts right up to the Supreme Court.
The wanna-be fascist dictator and some of his fascist supporters are doing everything they can to thwart the election. In parts of the US, trump’s brown shirts are trying to stop the vote counters from counting votes where Biden is expected to win by a small margin in areas where the menace is currently in the lead. Funny how these stooges don’t do it at polls where Biden is in the lead, claiming vote rigging.
LT, are you denying that Trump still has a massive support albeit a slightly less number than Biden?
If not then you must offer some sort of analysis of his appeal. They aren’t the White Guard but ordinary working men and women who very erroneously believe Trump has answers to their problems. Whereas the Biden supporters are less ideological, more an anti-Trump movement and willing to accept any compromise on principles if it means getting rid of Trump.
Trump may disappear but will the Trumpeteers fade away with him? Against Obama there was the righgt-wing Tea Party that destroyed his mandate in the mid-term elections. What can the Democrats offer in 2022 except, you don’t want another Trump. do you?” and the answer will be “Yes we do.”
Roger Harris may be a member of a left-wing political party we are opposed to but he has been posting interesting commentaries on the election.
His latest here
” Substantial differences exist between Trump and Biden, but those differences do not extend to which class they serve…never before have so many voted for so little….After campaigning for the Democrat, it will be problematic for these same left forces to credibly do an about-face and fight him.
Intriguing speculation –
“I won’t say the Republican Party is a working class party right now, but more and more are seeing that as the only plausible future to actually win elections going forward,” – American Affairs editor Julius Krein
… industrial policy issues are one of “the last remaining areas of legislative common ground” between both parties.
“Given how divided the Congress is going to be, regardless of who wins the presidency, if anything possible is going to happen, it’s going to be along those lines,” Krein said.
Meanwhile
George Goehl, director of People’s Action, said on Hill.TV’s “Rising” that Democrats need to embrace populism if they want to win over rural voters.
Goehl said that the nation is in the middle of a populist moment that Democrats are not recognizing, adding that they fail to name some of the “villains” facing the nation such as pharmaceutical companies and “big banks.”
“Everybody talks about narratives these days, well narratives need villains and heroes,” Goehl said. “And, if you’re not going to name them, then the other side’s going to name them for you, and they will name women, people of color, Muslims, big government.”
It does look like in Pennsylvania the Libertarian vote will be greater than the margin of victory:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/us2020/states/pa
Fnar…
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