Election Results Are Just a Battlefield in the War for Reality
The Democratic candidate for president has (likely) won the electoral vote. That fact may or may not be the same as winning the election. The latest group of people to be “otherized” are election workers as right wing mobs seek to disrupt vote counting.
In states where Trump is nominally ahead in the announced ballot counts, they are demanding that tallying be stopped; in states where he’s behind, they’re calling for counting to continue.
Misinformation networks are cranking out conspiracies at an astonishing rate. One Facebook group is reportedly [according to an unverified tweet] adding a thousand new members per second.
https://twitter.com/brooklynmarie/status/1324380043267600384?s=20
Mob rule remains a --slim, I hope-- possibility as law enforcement agencies are reticent to reign in attempts to obstruct state officials doing their duties as defined by law.
The President’s Twitter feed looks like a bunch of cigarette packs with warnings facing out, as the social media platform tries to make good on its promise not to spread election misinformation. Trump supporters are now calling for Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to be jailed.
Here’s Kerry Eleveld at Daily Kos:
As Democrats try to make sense of a disappointing election night, one stubborn fact that has become clearer than ever is just how broad and deep the conservative disinformation machine is.
"This won’t be a popular take, probably, but: if Biden wins, it will be an achievement," writer Elon Green observed Wednesday morning. "The campaign will have (barely) overcome the most sustained assault on voting rights in recent memory and the largest disinformation operation—conservative media—in American history.”
With more than 2,500 retweets and counting, Green's observation was actually more popular than he originally thought. And as he noted in a later tweet, it's so much more than just Fox News—it's talk radio, Sinclair Broadcasting Group's several hundred stations, Facebook, and even the YouTube rabbit hole that's delivered plenty of QAnon followers. As Green observed, "It’s millions of thumbs on a single scale.”
While the Joe Biden/Kamala Harris ticket has already set a record for most votes cast for a candidate in US history...
https://twitter.com/SethCotlar/status/1324393786391240706?s=20
...the Trump/Pence ticket garnered more votes than 2016.
The repudiation of everything Trump didn’t happen this year, because it was always about more than just one man, though it’s now been branded with his name.
The way we conduct elections is based on rules created to preserve the power of slaveowners.
We’re looking at centuries of beliefs built on the foundation of white male supremacy manipulating fears of displacement or economic loss; lie upon lie accumulating over the course of our nation’s history.
Facts don’t matter to people living inside this manufactured reality. If you’re gonna change the voting behavior of such people, issues don’t matter.
It’s a matter of incorporating their self-worth into an election pitch. This doesn’t mean “changing positions” on issues. There’s no need to compromise on people-first policies on economics, racism and/or the patriarchy.
Significant majorities of the American public agree with much of the Democratic Party’s platform; Republicans didn’t even bother creating one for this election, choosing instead to appeal to the self-obsession of a base that seemingly believes in magic.
Even as Democrats govern, they should be looking at a complete and total overall of the entire electioneering approach of the party. Rejecting the poll-based religion of the party’s establishment would be a good start, if for no other reason than the wrong questions have been asked in recent years.
Data is good, but making people feel less alienated and better about themselves in the future is powerful.
Via Ishaan Tharoor at the Washington Post:
But the inescapable reality of the election results is that Trumpism remains a powerful current in American politics. It’s akin to political tendencies in other parts of the world where strongmen have co-opted democracies. The president’s brand of demagogic nationalism, his ceaseless campaigning through every year of his term and his unrepentant embrace of divisive messaging and tactics have clearly mobilized tremendous support.
“Trump over-performed in myriad polling measures. There would be no landslides, only squeakers and clenched jaws — and, possibly, court fights,” wrote my colleague Monica Hesse. “Win or lose, Trumpism will not have been swept into the dustbin of history; it will remain all over the furniture. It’s part of the furniture.”
Indeed, it may have captured right-wing politics in the United States for years to come. “Trumpism might be becoming America’s version of Peronism,” tweeted Dan Slater, director at the Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies at the University of Michigan, referring to Argentina’s own legacy of populist nationalism. “Highly mobilizing, highly polarizing, not always in power, but never going away.”
A solution to this isn’t for Democrats to become more or less ideological. It’s an appeal to become more creative. Republicans and the billionaire backers win on economic and personal freedom issues because they control the framing of the conversation. In both instances, they simply suggest that something is going to be taken away.
Let me use a theoretical example on such an issue: the vast majority of the public agrees on the idea of regulating firearms transactions.
Creating guidelines (and incentives) for a national program of classroom instruction on firearms including history and public health data, plus the option of lab classes in using weapons eliminates the “yer takin’ away mah gunz” argument, while acknowledging the reality of the popularity of gun ownership.
Better minds than mine can come up with approaches on all the issues concerning the American voter and effectively block the traditional arguments against change.
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The down ballot victories for progressive candidates around the country have been lost amid the noise about the presidential contest.
Here’s a sampling of those achievements via the Political Charge newsletter:
Wisconsin voters prevented the GOP in the state legislature from gaining veto-proof majorities. This was important as we go into redistricting; this means that Governor Evers (D) can veto unfair maps. Wisconsin has terribly gerrymandered maps and this will make the process much fairer.
Michigan flipped their state Supreme Court.
Democrats Mondaire Jones and Ritchie Torres won their congressional races in New York. They will join Congress as the first openly gay Black men in the U.S. House.
Black Lives Matter activist Cori Bush won the election to Missouri’s 1st Congressional District, making her the state's first Black congresswoman.
Democrats won a supermajority in the Delaware Senate, securing a supermajority in both chambers of the state General Assembly. The Republicans had been blocking various voting rights efforts there, so this opens the door to getting Automatic Voter Registration, no excuse mail balloting, and more.
Mississippi has voted to end a Jim Crow-era constitutional provision intended to ensure white voters would be able to choose governors and other statewide officials. Until now, gubernatorial candidates couldn't just win the popular vote. The winning candidate ALSO needed to win a majority of the 122 state house districts.
Stephanie Byers, a retired teacher, made history and become the first transgender legislator elected not only in Kansas but in the entire Midwest.
Voters in Utah and Nebraska approved measures Tuesday stripping references to slavery from their state constitutions. Nebraska approved it by 68%, and Utah by 80%.
Mauree Turner won her election for state House in Oklahoma’s 88th district, making history as the first Muslim person elected to the state’s legislature.
Linda Anderson has the historic honor of being the first Black candidate elected to the Hollywood Commission. The city was founded 95 years ago.
I’ll have more analysis in the coming days about the results in San Diego and California. For now, we have to wait while the national drama plays out.
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Finally. I want to celebrate assembly member Lorena Gonzalez’s willingness to go toe-to-toe with reactionaries and crazies.
https://twitter.com/JeffOlsonSD/status/1323879254929494017?s=20
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PS- Due to personal scheduling conflicts, it’s probable there won’t be a Friday posting here from me. I’ll make it up to you over the weekend.