SUPERTHREAD: 2020 United States Elections

[His Divine Shadow]

Shit Biden passed Trump in Georgia

[Gandalf]

Here's something for which to look out; how many Republicans will now disavow Trump and act as though they never had or wanted anything to do with him?

[Crazedwraith]

Some places are now calling Pennsylvania and thus the election for Biden.

[Iroscato]

Pennsylvania and Georgia have both been narrowly flipped, with very few votes left to be counted. This is so close to being over.

[Nicholas]

Here's something for which to look out; how many Republicans will now disavow Trump and act as though they never had or wanted anything to do with him?

My bet is on very few, and those who do are going to switch parties not stay Republicans. Win or lose Trump has created a GOP coalition that has a real possibility to be a long term majority party. He is not going to be abandoned by the party until and unless that possibility proves to be a mirage.

Trump built a coalition consisting of:

Social Conservatives - who are desperate to control the courts in order to protect the laws they want in areas where they are still a majority and prevent the courts or the national majority from outlawing their beliefs as racism has been outlawed.
American Nationalists - there are white supremists here, but also people who believe that America has generally been good and want American history to be presented as a steady improvement and people who believe American culture is superior and immigrants should embrace it.
The Middle/Working Class - by this I mean the middle 60% of the US population income wise. These voters support trade and immigration restrictions because both threaten to cut their wages and favor entitlements for themselves but tend to feel those who refuse to work are ripping the system off and that the wealthy are being protected from the consequences of their actions and they resent both groups.

This coalition proved quite loyal and resilient in this election and also capable of attracting non-white voters to the GOP. The exit polls I have seen say that Trump won about 35% of the non-white vote, which is the highest the GOP share of the minority vote has been since 1960. This despite Trump's racism. If Republicans can raise that to 40% there is a Republican majority here, Trump won't be abandoned while this possibility is in play.

Nicholas

[FireNexus]

Current mood in Philadelphia.

https://youtu.be/rHDs1ZJ74po

[FireNexus]

Here's something for which to look out; how many Republicans will now disavow Trump and act as though they never had or wanted anything to do with him?

It will take a loss in the special election and probably a midterm clock cleaning. Both of which are longshots.

[Knife]

Here's something for which to look out; how many Republicans will now disavow Trump and act as though they never had or wanted anything to do with him?

It will take a loss in the special election and probably a midterm clock cleaning. Both of which are longshots.

Until the Democrats drop this ridiculous "once we're in power, things will go back to normal and we'll all be friends" nonsense, it will remain a longshot.

[FireNexus]

Until the Democrats drop this ridiculous "once we're in power, things will go back to normal and we'll all be friends" nonsense, it will remain a longshot.

I dunno, man. They were saying that at the same time as basically saying they would be packing the courts, and they failed to take the senate.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Aren't there mandatory recounts in states that are extremely close though?

[Borgholio]

Aren't there mandatory recounts in states that are extremely close though?

Depends on the state. I think Georgia is mandatory if it's under half a percentage point or something like that.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Aren't there mandatory recounts in states that are extremely close though?

Depends on the state. I think Georgia is mandatory if it's under half a percentage point or something like that.

What do you reckon the odds are he'll run again in 2024?

[Raw Shark]

What do you reckon the odds are he'll run again in 2024?

Short of dropping dead, he'll probably run again every four years.

[bilateralrope]

Unless he's in prison or has fled the country. Then he might not try to run again.

[Borgholio]

There's no legal prohibition for a convicted felon to run for president, but it would be a very interesting thing to see having a presidential candidate trying to run a campaign from a jail cell. Then what if he's elected? It's still unclear if a president could pardon themselves...so running a 4 year term from prison? That would be quite a thing to see.

[Mr Bean]

Unless he's in prison or has fled the country. Then he might not try to run again.

He's 74 now and already visibly mentally deteriorating, about to head into massive amount of legal cases and plenty of state level charges from New York alone even if he tries the self pardon route. A 78 year old Trump is going to be in a bad physical place to run. Let alone legal, let alone the massive amount of 2024 Republican challengers who are going to want to start taking him down as soon as possible to improve their own chances.

[Knife]

Yeah, they'll start eating each other sometime next spring.

[bilateralrope]

US Election: Trump faces tough road in getting Supreme Court to intervene

Jessica Gresko and Mark Sherman
12:33, Nov 07 2020

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly said there’s one place he wants to determine the outcome of the presidential election: the US Supreme Court. But he may have a difficult time ever getting there.

Over the last two days, Trump has leaned in to the idea that the high court should get involved in the election as it did in 2000. Then, the court effectively settled the contested election for President George W. Bush in a 5-4 decision that split the court’s liberals and conservatives.

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Joe Biden should not wrongfully claim the office of the President. I could make that claim also. Legal proceedings are just now beginning!

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
I had such a big lead in all of these states late into election night, only to see the leads miraculously disappear as the days went by. Perhaps these leads will return as our legal proceedings move forward!

Today, six members of the court are conservatives, including three nominated by Trump. But the outcome of this year’s election seemed to be shaping up very differently from 2000, when Florida’s electoral votes delivered the presidency to George W. Bush.

Then, Bush led in Florida and went to court to stop a recount. Trump, for his part, has suggested a strategy that would focus on multiple states where the winning margins appear to be slim. But he might have to persuade the Supreme Court to set aside votes in two or more states to prevent Joe Biden from becoming president.

Chief Justice John Roberts, for his part, is not likely to want the election to come down to himself and his colleagues. Roberts, who was not on the court for Bush v. Gore in 2000 but was a lawyer for Bush, has often tried to distance the court from the political branches of government and the politics he thinks could hurt the court’s reputation.

It’s also not clear what legal issues might cause the justices to step in. Trump has made repeated, unsubstantiated claims of election fraud. Lawsuits filed by his campaign so far have been small-scale efforts unlikely to affect many votes, and some already have been dismissed.

Still, Trump has focused on the high court. In the early morning hours following Election Day he said: “We’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court – we want all voting to stop.” And on Thursday, as Biden inched closer to the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House, Trump again told Americans, “It’s going to end up, perhaps, at the highest court in the land, we’ll see.” On Twitter too he urged, “US Supreme Court should decide!”

There is currently one election case at the Supreme Court and it involves a Republican appeal to exclude ballots that arrived after Election Day in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. But whether or not those ballots ultimately are counted seems unlikely to affect who gets the state's electoral votes.

Biden has opened a narrow lead over Trump, and any additional mail-in votes probably would help Biden, not the president.

Still, Trump's campaign is currently trying to intervene in the case, an appeal of a decision by Pennsylvania’s highest court to allow three extra days for the receipt and counting of mailed ballots. Because the case is ongoing, the state’s top election official has directed that the small number of ballots that arrived in that window, before 5pm. Friday, be separated but counted. Republicans on Friday asked for a high court order ensuring the ballots are separated.

Beyond the Pennsylvania case, if Trump wanted to use a lawsuit to challenge the election outcome in a state, he’d need to begin by bringing a case in a lower court.

So far, Trump’s campaign and Republicans have mounted legal challenges in several states, but most are small-scale lawsuits that do not appear to affect many votes. On Thursday, the Trump campaign won an appellate ruling to get party and campaign observers closer to election workers who are processing mail-in ballots in Philadelphia. But Judges in Georgia and Michigan quickly dismissed two other campaign lawsuits Thursday.

Trump and his campaign have promised even more legal action, making unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud.

Biden’s campaign, meanwhile, has called the existing lawsuits meritless, more political strategy than legal. “I want to emphasise that for their purposes these lawsuits don’t have to have merit. That’s not the purpose. ... It is to create an opportunity for them to message falsely about what’s taking place in the electoral process,” lawyer Bob Bauer said Thursday, accusing the Trump campaign of “continually alleging irregularities, failures of the system and fraud without any basis.”

On the other side, Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien, in a call with reporters Thursday morning, said that “every night the president goes to bed with a lead” and every night new votes “are mysteriously found in a sack.”

It’s common in presidential elections to have vote counting continue after Election Day, however. And while most states make Election Day the deadline to receive mailed-in ballots, 22 states – 10 of which backed Trump in the 2016 election – have a post-Election Day deadline.

AP

I see a significant difference between 2000 and now:
- Back then, the question before the Supreme Court was "Should we make sure the votes were counted correctly ?"
- Now the question is "Should we count all the votes that were cast ?"

Getting the supreme court to agree to the second is going to be much harder, because throwing out votes that were cast legally is the point at which it becomes impossible to claim that the US is a democracy. If that happens, everybody should be worried about what happens next.



Also, it sounds like Trump was fooled by the red mirage.

[Civil War Man]

There's no legal prohibition for a convicted felon to run for president, but it would be a very interesting thing to see having a presidential candidate trying to run a campaign from a jail cell.

I mean, it has already been done, but you are right in that it'd be interesting to see.

He's 74 now and already visibly mentally deteriorating, about to head into massive amount of legal cases and plenty of state level charges from New York alone even if he tries the self pardon route. A 78 year old Trump is going to be in a bad physical place to run. Let alone legal, let alone the massive amount of 2024 Republican challengers who are going to want to start taking him down as soon as possible to improve their own chances.

Don't forget that he also contracted Covid, which is known to possibly cause heart, lung, and brain damage even in people who recover, and we're still not sure of the longer-term health complications that could result from having it. Considering that he's a walking morbidity checklist with noticeable signs of dementia and a diet comprised mainly of fast food cheeseburgers and fried chicken, I would be shocked if he doesn't keel over within the next couple years. It's a wonder he's survived even this long.

[Crazedwraith]

Biden's won

Trump does not plan to concede according to his campaign

[Knife]

Biden's won

Trump does not plan to concede according to his campaign

He doesn't have to. But he lost, all that's important.

Let him spend a month or two devoted to and focusing on some hail Mary legal thing on the vote he lost as to not to other dumb shit things.

[Solauren]

Question - now that he's been voted out, are his powers limited between now and his final day in office?

What kind of damage could he do as a 'fuck you' on the way out?

[Lost Soal]

Technically he has all the powers of the President until he leaves office. I'd be more concerned with McConnell spending the next 2 months confirming as many batshit judges as he can.

[Civil War Man]

Question - now that he's been voted out, are his powers limited between now and his final day in office?

In theory no. He holds the office of the Presidency until Biden is sworn in. In practice, yes-ish, since the civil servants are more likely to start transitioning towards prepping the new administration, so they might be less likely to go along with a lame duck administration if they are ordering stuff that is obviously being done to sabotage the incoming administration. Depends entirely on the willingness of the person being given the orders to go along with them.

Also, to be a little pedantic, he technically hasn't been voted out yet, since the actual Presidential election isn't until December 14th, when the electors vote. All of this was just the process of picking the people who would be allowed to vote for President. In practice, he pretty much has been, since the margin is wide enough that it's unlikely that faithless electors would swing it.

What kind of damage could he do as a 'fuck you' on the way out?

A lot, potentially. As mentioned above, depends on the people being ordered to actually do the grunt work of causing the damage.

EDIT: corrected election date

[ray245]

Now we can get back to boring USA. Still very right-wing with Joe Biden at the helm, but a boring right-wing government instead of a lunatic in charge of the most powerful nation on Earth.