Oligarchs now in full control of America? What does Hacker News think of this?

Post by canucker2016 » Fri, Nov 08, 2024, 6:07 PM UTC

    Four months later, when the campaign ended, Trump finished with 133 billionaire backers who collectively gave him $37.8 million. Biden, meanwhile, had 230 donors who contributed $39.1 million.

    Those sums only tell part of the story, though. Many of the biggest donors to the campaigns also funneled huge amounts into super-PACs supporting the two candidates. Super-PACs cannot coordinate with campaigns, which is why Forbes did not count those funds as part of the totals raised by Biden or Trump. But the groups, which are allowed to raise unlimited sums, can nonetheless plow money into television ads that support a candidate.

Post by Rapzid » Fri, Nov 08, 2024, 6:40 PM UTC

marcuskane2 wrote: post #11

Honestly, after a brief bit of despair, I took a hard look at what Trump supporters were saying and particularly the priorities and beliefs of people in the demographics that shifted in his favor and I think there's a clear path to Democrat victories in the future. This election shouldn't be understood as some sort of "the oligarchs won", but rather that the American voters have signaled that they're "anti-woke" to t…

Post by jfengel » Fri, Nov 08, 2024, 6:49 PM UTC

Rapzid wrote: post #23

Sol2Sol wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is also a source of great frustration to me. That so many people discounted the character issue when many who worked directly with him including his own former VP, Chief of Staff and military leaders said that his character issues disqualified him for the job is amazing to me. My motto for the rest of the year and going forward is to no longer try to understand the actions of others, but to just accept. Peoples…

That many people from his previous administration and own party coming out against his character issues? It's unprecedented. Mind boggling. Plus January 6th and all his legal problems(plus convictions). That whole government documents circus. And we have collectively looked past this and put him back in office? He won the GOP PRIMARY?! I know people aren't "feeling the economy vibes" but dang.

Post by Rapzid » Fri, Nov 08, 2024, 7:52 PM UTC

jfengel wrote: post #26

Rapzid wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That many people from his previous administration and own party coming out against his character issues? It's unprecedented. Mind boggling. Plus January 6th and all his legal problems(plus convictions). That whole government documents circus. And we have collectively looked past this and put him back in office? He won the GOP PRIMARY?! I know people aren't "feeling the economy vibes" but dang.

I'm not really convinced of the "economy" argument. It's easy to make, but there is no reason to think that the other guy is actually any better. They may not be thrilled with where they are now, but they were not noticeably better off four years ago. Some are worse off; some are better; many are about the same. It's just not sufficient to explain electing a literal criminal . I'm sure it figures in somewhere, but I…

Post by taylodl » Fri, Nov 08, 2024, 8:52 PM UTC

JansjoFromIkea wrote: post #21

taylodl wrote: post #8

This day has been decades in the making. I'm thinking 1,000 years from now they'll pinpoint the start of the transition of America from a democracy to whatever it is we're transitioning to as starting with the Nixon administration. One thing I think you're feeling is the end of the post-war period. WWII shaped global politics for the latter half of the 20th century. Not to put too fine of a point on it, but that war…

Returning to 70 years ago would involve an upper income tax rate of 91% and (as far as I can gather) 25% on capital gains tax