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Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

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Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#541

Post by de_Selby »

bfieidhbrjr wrote: post #224

It's amazing. My friends on the left think the only reason for voting trump is racism, and friends on the right think the only reason for voting biden is socialism. Where did all the intellect go? The social dilemma documentary I think is very useful. It feels like social media bubbles are a large component, although of course there have been many contentious elections in the past. Being centrist I can relate to part…

It seems to be everywhere (even on the top rated comment here). Biden himself is dismissed as being not left enough by a lot the online population from what I can see.

Because he wasn't the the fashionable choice for Democratic nomination (Sanders) he's reduced to being just an old guy who isn't Trump but is in the right party without anyone even bothering to even read his Wikipedia page or look up some of his speeches on youtube.

He's a passionate politician and an empathic speaker who has the experience to be a realist and appeal to republican voters too. He's exactly what is needed right now.

Sanders wouldn't have had a chance to get in, but even if he did he would just polarise things even further.

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#542

Post by RedBeetDeadpool »

throwaway201103 wrote: post #411

To me what this election (as well as the 2016 election) illustrates, is what a poor set of choices we have had. In no sane world should it have been difficult for the Democrats to defeat Donald Trump in 2016. He had no history in political office, and he lost the popular vote to just about the worst candidate the Democrats could have put up. Had the Democrats put up anyone who was less divisive than Hillary Clinton t…

What I disliked so much about this election was that I believed based purely on policies drafted by both parties, that the democrats did not bring anything better to the table than what republicans did, and this is against a party that spent billions and counting building a wall that will basically not work as advertised.

What Trump got right and why he won against Hillary back in 2016 is that US is on the brink of losing its hegemony. Nationalistic Americans flocked to his appeals to close off borders, to renegotiate trade deals, back out of agreements that hurt the US, and promise bringing manufacturing back into our borders.

Biden is a career politician so he knows how to say all the right words to appeal to as many people as possible, but where those words fail is in their over-promise in that the sum of policies put forth simply don't add up. Not that trump hasn't made promises he couldn't keep, but he has taken and put into motion a lot of things that represent a very nationalistic ideology.

Personally I think that even with the dysfunctional pathologically lying brain that Trump had, he was on the side with the better economic playbook. Regardless of what one may think about him, Trump is the one with business experience, and Biden is the one with political experience. And as much as I would love to believe that we live in a world where we can make allies, and negotiate, and hand out financial aid, and work together to green the earth, the reality is we live in a Corporatocracy, and that even Biden came to power by its merits.

I was very much on the fence. Lets just say I wasn't feeling very positive about the next four years even before the election was called.

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#543

Post by beamatronic »

throwaway201103 wrote: post #411

To me what this election (as well as the 2016 election) illustrates, is what a poor set of choices we have had. In no sane world should it have been difficult for the Democrats to defeat Donald Trump in 2016. He had no history in political office, and he lost the popular vote to just about the worst candidate the Democrats could have put up. Had the Democrats put up anyone who was less divisive than Hillary Clinton t…

I voted for Kamala

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#544

Post by justatdotin »

jimnotgym wrote: post #479

Please permit me a ramble, there are too many points to fit in a hn box and I'm typing on a phone. I'm sure our stateside friends would be happy to acknowledge that US politics has a major effect on the whole world. I have had it pointed out to me before, however, that the USA can vote in whomever they please, and it is none of our business. But American companies sell us our books and films (understatement), take cu…

> this works so long as the USA is a legitimate ally.

so, never.

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#545

Post by thatwasunusual »

gigatexal wrote: post #138

What is really keeping me up at night is the existential problem the US faces for the next 50 years: the ever increasingly large divide that is the polarizing of the electorate. We have to come together as Americans or someone will divide and conquer us.

> We have to come together as Americans or someone will divide and conquer us.

Pardon, but isn't USA already divided approx. 50/50?

From the outside (I'm from Norway), I can't even believe how shit the US politics is.

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#546

Post by pferde »

putlake wrote: post #254
gigatexal wrote: post #138

What is really keeping me up at night is the existential problem the US faces for the next 50 years: the ever increasingly large divide that is the polarizing of the electorate. We have to come together as Americans or someone will divide and conquer us.

I feel like a big reason for the divide is the filter bubbles[1] the public has trapped themselves in. I wanted to force myself to read news from both sides of the divide rather than simply NPR, which was my go-to source for several years. In spite of RSS readers being essentially dead, there are still RSS feeds available. So I mashed up feeds from 10 left and right leaning sources each and created Smash the Bubble[2…

Looks like a read-worthy site. Are you planning to add a RSS feed to it?

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#547

Post by pbuzbee »

bosswipe wrote: post #84

If Republicans keep the Senate Biden won't accomplish much of his agenda. Especially with Mitch Mcconnell's uncompromising approach expect gridlock, government shutdowns, probably a constitutional crisis or two, and a complete inability to respond to any further crises.

This is a major problem the US is going to have to figure out. How do you get anything done in the legislature when one party has the incentive and ability to stop everything?

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#548

Post by m0llusk »

glitcher wrote: post #318
gigatexal wrote: post #138

What is really keeping me up at night is the existential problem the US faces for the next 50 years: the ever increasingly large divide that is the polarizing of the electorate. We have to come together as Americans or someone will divide and conquer us.

IMO the saddest part of it all is that many people seem to be choosing paths of division. I have different family members who are firmly inside bubbles on both sides of the political spectrum. And all of them are way too comfortable in parroting the divisive language they hear on their favorite network news channels. The terms right/left, red/blue, republican/democrat, conservative/liberal are commonly used with insu…

When people focus on the details of strategies for success in facing our shared problems it is relatively easy to test ideas and get people from all political views on board with effective solutions. When people focus on identifying and criticizing enemies it turns people off, builds barriers, and prevents the generation and spread of effective strategies for facing shared challenges.

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#549

Post by madeofpalk »

chmod600 wrote: post #526

A voting system needs to be accurate but it also needs to inspire confidence. I think the U.S. failed on the latter point. Let me be clear that I don't think this affected the outcome , only the confidence in the outcome . Mail-in voting has existed for a long time, but it is being done at a larger scale and in new ways and new places. It was a mistake to do it during such a contentious election. Covid is not a good…

> would actually prefer voter ID as well as people standing there to do a brief check. In addition to preventing fraud, it also helps remind voters if they forgot to sign or something.

I’m just unsure why you would want to make it harder for people to vote.

I’m honestly uninformed on this, apart from being from Australia which has compulsory voting without voter ID and there’s no issues, but have there actually be scenarios where there’s been fraud instances where showing ID would have resolved things? Has voter ID shown to help more people vote around the world?

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#550

Post by [deleted] »

jimnotgym wrote: post #479

Please permit me a ramble, there are too many points to fit in a hn box and I'm typing on a phone. I'm sure our stateside friends would be happy to acknowledge that US politics has a major effect on the whole world. I have had it pointed out to me before, however, that the USA can vote in whomever they please, and it is none of our business. But American companies sell us our books and films (understatement), take cu…

[deleted]
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