So, I'm going to make it clear, I believe the results of the 2024 results were as legitimate as legitimate gets, BUT...just because the results are what they are...doesn't mean the other side played fair. You know what I mean? It's like the democratic primaries. The democrats like Clinton and Biden win legitimately, but then they play dirty politics at times to get the result they want. Well, it can be argued that Trump did it here.
Kyle Kulinski had a guest on his friday program where he interviewed someone who claims that trump "stole" the election. How? Via voter suppression. Now, I don't deny that this happened either. It happens. And it's not just a trump thing, it's not just a republican thing. Basically, the argument centers around how the republicans filed lawsuits to get ballots thrown out in 2024 and if they were counted, harris would've won WI/MI/PA/GA. I don't deny this. All of those states were pretty close. But again...this isn't just a trumpian thing.
Remember "voter ID" laws? I remember back in 2012, republicans wanted to pass voter ID laws here. They made all of these claims about election fraud and dead people voting and illegals voting and how we need a voter ID law to ensure that people are who they say they are. The real reason the GOP wanted these laws was to disenfranchise minorities. They even gave the game away at one point, claiming that mitt romney would win PA because of these laws. Yeah, republicans are scummy like that. They don't play fair.
Hell, around this time, and in the aftermath of that election, I kind of realized that democrats, at the time at least, seemed to be a majority of the country. And that the GOP mostly held the massive institutional power they did through things like gerrymandering and voter suppression. If things came down to a popular vote the democrats would win handily. But the republicans kind of find ways to gerrymander congressional districts and nerf the voter turnout of democrats through suppression tactics that they can win.
This is why in 2016 I kind of realized that what we need is an election cycle with massive turnout, one that overwhelms the republicans and creates another 2008 style blue wave that btfos them. Then we get in, undo their nonsense, and are able to actually undo their stuff. Sadly, the democrats are incompetent and half of their problem is they can't get critical mass to overcome this stuff.
Like, seriously. I do wanna point that out. yes, republicans engage in voter suppression. However, they ALSO kind of diminish their own turnout by being weak and unappealing. They generally CAN win if they are able to drive out their base in large enough numbers. Until this election cycle, I would argue that the democratic base is actually much larger than the republican base. We are the majority. We are the coalition of the ascendant...but we have to want it, we have to fight for it. And democrats suck at doing that. They keep being like "well we need to compromise and run to the center", and "well we can't really actually fight them on things" and "well HR1 sounds like a good idea in theory, but we just can't get past that darned filibuster..." and crap like that. So even when they have power, they don't do anything with it and then the GOP goes for the touch down. It's like every year is a down in football. We end up doing crap plays and making no progress and then we get stomped by them. The GOP are the eagles, we're the chiefs, to make a modern super bowl reference. It's a joke.
So..I do wanna point out that, yes, voter suppression may have played a role in 2024, but that doesnt mean that the results arent legit, and that the democrats havent kinda played themselves into this corner. Even now, they're SO FRICKING WEAK at calling out the GOP. AOC is doing good, she's on fire right now, some people are finally saying, gee maybe she should be our nominee in 2028. But the party as a whole? CHuck schumer is just wagging his finger over something trump did like a week ago while talking in his boring monotone voice and the party is apparently mad at organizations like moveon and indivisible being like THROW A FRICKING PUNCH ALREADY!
Ya know, I really wonder if the democrats actually WANT to win, or if they ARE really just paid, controlled opposition in the pockets of billionaires. Their resistance against trump is pathetic. They dont fight. The NAZIS, THE LITERAL NAZIS, are at the gates, and they're sitting around with their thumbs up you know where being like "oh gee, idk what we can do here." DO EVERYTHING YOU FRICKING CAN! We need 215 AOCs in congress STAT! 47 AOCs in the senate. The progressive wing is the only one doing anything because it's like they're the only ones who care!
Honestly, it really does make me mad. I really think this wouldve been avoided had the democrats just done good politics in the first place. You know, lead with Bernie, prime younger candidates like AOC and Andrew Yang for positions that could give us good leadership. But no, they had to do their own suppression BS AGAINST THE PROGRESSIVES. That's why i think they're paid to lose. Because they're pathetically useless against the GOP but vs progressive dems? They fight us like the GOP fights the dems.
And honestly, this is why i think much of the public is so passive in this age of trump. Faith in democracy has been falling for a while. I believe trump is a symptom of this. He's BEEN a symptom of this. People despise the democrats because push comes to shove, they're almost as bad as the GOP with this stuff. They'll shut down real left wing populist movements to force corporatists almost no one wants on us, they structure their own primaries to prioritize the concerns of more conservative and moderate voters, and then they frame the narrative around those guys. Ya know, "OMG THE BLACK VOTE! THE BLACK VOTE! YOU SEE YOU WHITE PROGRESSIVE, YOU JUST DONT GET BLACK PEOPLE."
Counter point: "WHY THE HELL ARE OLD BLACK VOTERS FROM SOUTH CAROLINA THE MOST FRICKING IMPORTANT VOTERS WHO DECIDE THE NOMINEE FOR THE ENTIRE COUNTRY?! IS SOUTH CAROLINA A SWING STATE? NO? THEN SHUT UP!" It's like the equivalent of republicans prioritizing massachusetts in their primaries and then forcing some rockefeller republican no one likes on people (hello, 2012...we democrats won that one...). Like, really, these MFers end up disenfranchising ME where by the time we actually get to my state of PA, the nominee was chosen MONTHS ago! And then they go on to lose PA to agent orange because actual swing voters dont like them here!
So yeah. With all of that said. I'll admit that yeah, there is voter suppression from the GOP. It's as American as apple pie. I didn't even get into jim crow and literacy tests and our entire sordid history with that. It's actually normal for that to happen. Still, if the democrats ever wanna undo it, as I said, what they need is a massive blue wave to give them power, and then they need to actually DO SOMETHING WITH IT! And that's where they suck. I do believe that in 2016 and 2020, dems were still statistically favored to win. Trump ended up overperforming because the GOP drives up the enthusiasm of their own base, while the democrats throw cold water on theirs. And when you throw cold water on your base...you get...shall we say...shrinkage. Like losing a few million votes that you got in the previous election cycle.
Seriously campaigning with liz cheney. The cringey "opportunity economy" bullcrap. WTF WERE YOU THINKING?! Really. I keep saying it. I think the real problem is these guys are paid by billionaire donors to lose. They dont fight. They push cringey candidates with cringey campaigns and cringey platforms and then lecture and browbeat voters into voting for them...and then they lose because no one actually likes these guys. That's the real lesson here. Yes, if the GOP didn't do XYZ voter suppression strategy, maybe Harris would've won. Maybe if she didn't campaign with liz cheney she also would've won. Maybe she would've won if she distanced herself from Biden on economics and israel. Maybe if the democrats didnt force the 82 year old with dementia onto us in the first place, they would've won. You know? You can say ANY of these things, and they're all valid.
Again, the GOP does whatever crappy tactics they can get away with. Our side refuses to fight. They play to win. We rule police, dont do anything, and then get played into a corner. And now we're basically being checkmated. Way to go, way to go. I'd almost have more schadenfreude if the people who werent suffering from this are the same constituents you failed in the first place.
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