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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.

#601

Post by tertiary »

The thing that will sit deep within me for at least the next few years is that, no matter how you slice it, a vote for Trump is complicit acceptance of his divisive and harmful behavior. Of course you don't need to be a racist to vote for Trump, but you do need to fear the other options so much that you agree that his behavior and the way that he represents our country to the rest of the world is tolerable compared to what might come after him.

I was on the phone with my mom earlier and one of her friends called her up. She's a republican, but they avoid politics. She asked her, genuinely afraid, if she thought that Harris would steal the presidency and convert the country to socialism. She's not an idiot. She's a physician, but was still so caught up in fear mongering that she genuinely believed that the government would steal her income and that there would be riots in the streets as we turn into a third world nation. I'm going to think about her differently after hearing that.

This is probably the first time in my life where I am going to look at people differently based on who they voted for and I hate that. However, I can't get it out of my head that they voted for a president that has so disgraced the highest office in our country and that they did it because of a fear of the future burning so far inside them that they felt another four years of Trump was preferable to even as bland of a change as a Biden presidency will be.

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

#602

Post by 2ion »

sdfhbdf wrote: post #83

Interesting fact I noticed: If Biden is to take the presidency after the Electoral Collage voted that would make him the oldest president to take office yet, also interesting that wikipedia already marked Biden as president-elect [0]. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_the_Unit...

This is actually, in any jurisdiction, what I take the most issues with: presidential systems headed by practically very soon-to-be-dead men. I have changed with age; surely the flexibility, inventiveness, and power an individual can constructively wield on his own is highly impacteded by age. Half-dead men should retire, not take office, or consult, at the utmost.

This fact is more illustrative of whatever divide the US is under than anything else. It's generational conflict. And face it, the American president is not of any generation that has yet to build their future. A waxy president who is full of thought and reflection might not be the wise emperor who is still mighty enough to control the backstabbing theatre that is politics.

Effectively, in terms of foreign policy, I think nothing, absolutely nothing will change. From a non-American point of view, Trump did nothing too different from what Clinton would have done, and a Biden will not do something too different from what a Trump would do. Or do what he is told, for that matter.

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

#603

Post by opportune »

jseliger wrote: post #257

A big problem that divides us is property renters versus owners: owners have spent the last several decades restricting access to property, and that's now raised the cost of the most productive metro areas to unacceptable levels: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/03/the-ren... Many millions of people, especially but not exclusively the young, have in effect been gated out of prosperity. Matt Yglesias'…

It would be cool if Georgism or at least Land Value taxes made a bigger come back. My hopes are low after seeing Prop 15 fail in California though. I think we're sadly not even close to the breaking point. It will probably require the proportion of renters:owners to increase among older people.

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

#604

Post by entire-name »

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…

> Where did all the intellect go?

I think that's the key point. Decades of undermining the education system, plus many other problems such as "big money lobbying" is likely what led to such extremisms.

You know... the key metric of "education" used to be "what percentage of your population can read and write". By that measure, the US is fairly "educated". However, just like the value of each dollar goes down as the economy grows (i.e. inflation), I think it's important to apply a similar idea to education; just as the access to information increases, the value of _only_ being able to read and write is no longer enough to be considered as "educated".

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

#605

Post by Dumblydorr »

TheRealPomax wrote: post #536

No: he hasn't, and that's confusing to both "the world" as well as waaay too many Americans: the election isn't until mid December, when the electoral college casts its votes. You didn't vote for the president, you voted for what your state will try to vote for in December. Unfortunately, state representatives in the presidential election are not universally required to vote along the state election result, and while…

The math is in incredibly against this fever dream. Biden will wind up with 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232. You think he can steal over 30 elector votes against the will of their people?

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

#606

Post by punnerud »

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…

Starting to feel that the only way out of it is to remove the «Winner takes it all», to let more political parties participate. And the one with majority, by uniting them, get the president.

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

#607

Post by gimboland »

opportune wrote: post #600

My biggest concern is how seemingly so many conservative people are becoming huge conspiracy theorists. I don't mean normal conspiracy theories like there being something more behind the JFK assassination, but like QAnon, Bill Gates injecting people with microchips, Pizzagate, etc. A lot of people in my own family in a rather backwards state believe that stuff. It's making me completely lose faith in this country and…

Interestingly, it's not just conservatives. I'm in the UK, and some of the circles I move in are a bit "hippy" (and thus not conservative/right wing at all) and some of those folks are absolutely lapping it up. It is bewildering to see.

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

#608

Post by Austin_Conlon »

opportune wrote: post #600

My biggest concern is how seemingly so many conservative people are becoming huge conspiracy theorists. I don't mean normal conspiracy theories like there being something more behind the JFK assassination, but like QAnon, Bill Gates injecting people with microchips, Pizzagate, etc. A lot of people in my own family in a rather backwards state believe that stuff. It's making me completely lose faith in this country and…

It was baffling listening to an SF tech worker in 2016 try to convince me Pizzagate was real.

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

#610

Post by konjin »

opportune wrote: post #600

My biggest concern is how seemingly so many conservative people are becoming huge conspiracy theorists. I don't mean normal conspiracy theories like there being something more behind the JFK assassination, but like QAnon, Bill Gates injecting people with microchips, Pizzagate, etc. A lot of people in my own family in a rather backwards state believe that stuff. It's making me completely lose faith in this country and…

Not much different to the democrats after the last election and Russia. Turns out everyone reaches for conspiracies when they would rather not change their world view.
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