Trump wins presidency for second time • Hacker News Board

Re: Trump wins presidency for second time

#491

Post by stronglikedan » Wed, Nov 06, 2024, 2:35 PM UTC

voisin wrote: post #447

“It’s the economy, stupid” has never been truer. People will trade their rights for more basic needs being fulfilled and most people simply aren’t happy with the one sided economy that has prevailed since the late 80s. Interest rates were too low for too long beginning circa 2000, and the massive flood of QE led to an explosion in house prices, car prices, and food. This is what the world gets for poor monetary and f…

> People will trade their rights for more basic needs being fulfilled

Seems like people got the best of both worlds - they will be able to keep more rights than they otherwise would have and they will enjoy a better economy. Win-win!

Re: Trump wins presidency for second time

#492

Post by chrismsimpson » Wed, Nov 06, 2024, 2:35 PM UTC

goethes_kind wrote: post #165

From a game theoretical perspective this is a good result. It is a clear reiteration of the message to the Democrats: you won't win by claiming to be 0.1% less bad. The Democrats should have fielded a strong personality in their own right. This is not about left or right. It's about mobilizing people by giving them something to care about. "More of the same" and "not like that guy" isn't very enticing. I don't think…

In other countries we have this thing called civic duty. Do try it sometime.

Re: Trump wins presidency for second time

#493

Post by lnxg33k1 » Wed, Nov 06, 2024, 2:35 PM UTC

m4r1k wrote: post #313

the biggest problem is the climate. with trump winning, most/all of the climate policies will be revered irreparably damaging our planet bringing us to the brink of extinction. ofc it won't be all trump fault, current trends are gloomy enough yet those are the very last few years to actually do something..

I feel like they were not only the most useless policies, with decades away targets, but also had the most damage on labour, see car manufacturers all in crisis cutting jobs

Re: Trump wins presidency for second time

#494

Post by schmorptron » Wed, Nov 06, 2024, 2:36 PM UTC

cynicalpeace wrote: post #308

Parties basically switched sides this election. From 2008 to now: - Pro war party: Repubs -> Dems - Dick Cheney party: Repubs -> Dems - Elitist party: Repubs -> Dems - Working class party: Dems -> Repubs - Pro free speech party: Dems -> Repubs - Bigger spending party: Dems -> Repubs - Skeptical of large corps: Dems -> Repubs There are some issues where they haven't switched (eg. abortion)

>Skeptical of large corps They will surely get rid of Lina Khan almost instantly, who is one of the few people in a position of power who is actually poutting skepticism of large companies into action.

Granted, there is a good chance that she would be fired either way if Harris had won.

Re: Trump wins presidency for second time

#495

Post by stronglikedan » Wed, Nov 06, 2024, 2:37 PM UTC

m4r1k wrote: post #313

the biggest problem is the climate. with trump winning, most/all of the climate policies will be revered irreparably damaging our planet bringing us to the brink of extinction. ofc it won't be all trump fault, current trends are gloomy enough yet those are the very last few years to actually do something..

> most/all of the climate policies will be revered irreparably damaging our planet bringing us to the brink of extinction

The valid policies will remain. I've been hearing the rest for decades now.

Re: Trump wins presidency for second time

#496

Post by sourcepluck » Wed, Nov 06, 2024, 2:38 PM UTC

From far away, it looks obvious.

When he ran the first time, the tactic was "oh easy, we'll say we're not as egregious as that guy".

They even sabotaged Bernie to this effect (see Podesta emails), even though he was polling much better than Clinton. This failed miserably, probably in essence because the Democrats were underestimating the power of clicks to drive reality, which Trump understood, at least intuitively.

This was a historical moment where the Democrats could have reorganised things and refocused on their traditional base, namely, the working class. It seemed obvious they should, I personally really thought they would have to.

No no, it turned out. We were treated to years and years of full on circus shenanigans. They doubled down, blamed others - the Russians, Wikileaks, whoever really. Anything but blame themselves and admit that they were offering nothing which was substantively different enough from the Republicans, in the eyes of the voters.

And here we are again. Will they be able to gut the decrepit power structures keeping the zombie Democrat party afloat this time, injecting new life? Or will they find a new scapegoat, treating us to more utterly pointless pontificating through a series of never-ending media cycles.

In summary, it seems they think pandering to identity tropes will be enough to distinguish them in the eyes of the voters, but that is simply playing on Trump's territory where he decides the rules. He does it better than them. It's one of the quite few things you could say he's "good" at.

Re: Trump wins presidency for second time

#497

Post by Davidzheng » Wed, Nov 06, 2024, 2:39 PM UTC

the5avage wrote: post #96

Is there some analysis why the polls didn't correctly predict the result? A failure in representative polls like this should be avoided with statistical methods.

The polling system even without herding is broken because no one wants to respond to random texts

Re: Trump wins presidency for second time

#498

Post by brodouevencode » Wed, Nov 06, 2024, 2:39 PM UTC

m4r1k wrote: post #313

the biggest problem is the climate. with trump winning, most/all of the climate policies will be revered irreparably damaging our planet bringing us to the brink of extinction. ofc it won't be all trump fault, current trends are gloomy enough yet those are the very last few years to actually do something..

When someone's grocery bill exceeds 40% of their total income, they're not going to worry about the climate.

Re: Trump wins presidency for second time

#499

Post by natch » Wed, Nov 06, 2024, 2:42 PM UTC

This was a self-inflicted wound.

* Weak, deceptive, evasive candidate

* Entitled attitude in the party

* Unknown people running the party. Still.

* Full embrace of cray cray ideologies, rejection of meritocracy

* Disengagement and withdrawal from free discussion forums

* Using X to talk only about sports. Looking at you, Gruber

* Constant ineffective, ignorant, and ill-informed trolling of their perceived opponents while unwittingly creating new ones

* Disingenuously labeling the other side as "garbage" (said by Biden, and he is President, not a jerk racist comedian)

* Assuming and never questioning the assumption, that people voting for a bad candidate love that candidate.

* Taking the low road

* Hiding Biden's incompetence, then, when caught, letting him stick around

* Accepting the notion that one can negotiate a peace deal with Hamas

* All the other things people are pretending were the only problems: the economy, immigration, etc. which genuinely also were problems.

There are a lot of things the Democratic party had going for it. They really snatched defeat from the jaws of victory:

* The Republican candidate is one of the worst people you could possibly imagine for the job.

* He is (I believe) a rapist, for god's sake

* He's nearly as demented as Biden

* He lies even more than Kamala

* Anti-woman is an understatement

Democrats have to ask themselves, who is running our party, and for what ends? I don't think they know. I don't even recognize what they are now.

It's not the economy, stupid. It's the trolling, the disengagement, and the entitlement. They are off-putting.

Re: Trump wins presidency for second time

#500

Post by futureshock » Wed, Nov 06, 2024, 2:43 PM UTC

harimau777 wrote: post #333

What's the best way for someone from one of the groups that Republicans hate to move to a Western European or Nordic nation where they are less likely to be marginalized or threatened? I'm sure there will be plenty of time to analyze exactly what happened, but right now my only concern is getting out.

I think people get ridiculed for thinking like this, but as a gay man married to a EU citizen, I am 100% ready to pull up stakes. We spend months at a time in the EU and have several favorite places we’ve talked about returning to. Western Europe has a progressive, pro-worker culture that the US will never have. I live in Florida and am financially independent. The moment the mood darkens, I’m off to greener pastures. I think the key here is that political stability is the icing on top of a great lifestyle we are already enjoying for part of the year.