[Politics] The 2024 US Election - *MATCH DAY*

[Kinky Gerbil]

What I find difficult to determine from here is how many (if any) of the charges against him are politically motivated. If he’s doing what thousands of other people are doing and those others aren’t being investigated or charged then I’d have to say there’s a political motivation behind them.

However, if he’s actively trying to overturn the fair running of a democracy, as the Capitol riots and his phone call to request that votes be “found” for him suggest, then I don’t believe any democracy could or should allow such actions to go uninvestigated or unpunished if proven.

All he had to do for this to be a clean run for him, was not try to fix the previous election in his favour or intimidate lawmakers on Jan 6th. It’s quite a low bar to set, yet he still fails to get over it.

I think the are a bit of both.

Biden wants/wanted it to be v Trump, he knows he can beat him, however I think they know they have gone OTT in chasing him now.

I am not saying he is innocent of the charges, but sometimes its best to just leave it for a few years.....

 

[beorhthelm]

Yep. If he gets in he'll try to change the constitution. If that happens then we can stop worrying about North Korea, China, Russia, Iran etc. because there'll be a meltdown like we've never seen before.

pretty sure constitutional changes need 2/3rds majority in both Senate and Congress, then ratification by similar ratio of states. he wont get the support for change.

 

[portslade seagull]

Only in America would you get two 80yr olds vying for the top job

 

[happypig]

Forgive my ignorance (although if there's a place for ignorance its surely a thread about Trump) but who votes in the primaries ? Is it party members or anyone eligible to vote or some other group ?

 

[raymondo]

I think Republicans (sane ones) know that the party is in a state of crisis. It's been hijacked by the far right. They know that Trump is the only horse in the race, but they're looking further down the road to a post-Trump world. He and Biden won't be here in 5 year's time.

Despite our reactionary views on here, there are a lot of very sane Americans. There's just a dearth of political leadership. I work with a whole load of US companies and the people I talk to don't want Trump, but they don't want Biden either. They want some kind of leadership. They want politicians that will promise to make things better.

It's the same over here really. It might be amplified by Trump's persona, but the same concerns are playing out. It's why I'm now trying my hardest not to judge people who are voting Right or Left. I'm just trying to understand what's driving their fears and hopes. The vast majority of people are not racist, sexist, anti-woke, narcissistic etc. I think most people in this country care about one another, I think they don't hate immigrants, they respect people that just want to work and live in peace, BUT they're fed a media agenda by a few powerful men that distorts society. Sadly, I don't think any of us are truly aware of the power of media and how it does change and reinforce our reactionary thinking.

Anyhow, going off at a tangent. Short answer is, I think they are playing a longer game.

Yes to all of that, but they should want politicians who actually WILL strive hard to make things better (I suspect you meant that) rather than just 'promise to make things better'...as there's too much of that just to win votes!

 

[raymondo]

As this is the Primary, it is worth noting that New Hampshire voted Democrat in 2016 and 2020 election.

Seemingly, the Republican turn out was low, which didn’t help Haley.

Disillusioned with their options then

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Forgive my ignorance (although if there's a place for ignorance its surely a thread about Trump) but who votes in the primaries ? Is it party members or anyone eligible to vote or some other group ?

Good question. It varies from state to state according to this from CNN.

https://edition.cnn.com/politics/us-primaries-explained-what-matters/index.html

 

[BBassic]

pretty sure constitutional changes need 2/3rds majority in both Senate and Congress, then ratification by similar ratio of states. he wont get the support for change.

That'll probably be seen as "The Establishment" trying to stymy Trump. Which will just invigorate his base.

Going to be an interesting year or so.

 

[A1X]

Only in America would you get two 80yr olds vying for the top job

It's an interesting comparison that in the rest of the western world things have been going the other way and political leaders have generally been getting younger (Sunak, Macron, Meloni etc.) whereas in the US it's just kept getting older.

 

[chickens]

I think the are a bit of both.

Biden wants/wanted it to be v Trump, he knows he can beat him, however I think they know they have gone OTT in chasing him now.

I am not saying he is innocent of the charges, but sometimes its best to just leave it for a few years.....

I agree with you that Trump is trying (and at least partially succeeding) in turning these court cases into further publicity for himself, and encouraging the idea that he is somehow “anti-establishment” (he isn’t)

However, I don’t know what else the prosecutors could have done. It looks to me as if there were genuine attempts to undermine American democracy, and it takes time for court proceedings to proceed. Trump has ensured his lawyers have delayed proceedings right into the time of the next election, which absolutely plays into his hands, as no convictions will boost the idea that this is a political witch hunt.

Yet if the alternative was to do nothing, could anyone have any faith that US democracy was not being undermined?

 

[Zeberdi]

I think they should have just let him be after he lost the election, all they have done is gain votes for him

That was always going to be a possibility tbf and yes, Trump has weaponised victimisation very much to his advantage but it is not down to the Democrat Party to bring charges for criminal convictions, it is the DoJ and Grand Juries that have indicted him in most incidents and one has to trust that, despite Trump’s protestations, they are still capable of acting impartially. Also, the majority of the House voted to impeach him (twice) including 10 Republicans for insurrection on Jan 6 following cross party committee investigations. The Supreme Court will rule on whether Trump should be barred from running on February 8.

One could argue that the US AG Merrick Garland is a Biden appointee and State AG, Jack Smith (in the overturning of the general election case in Washington DC) is a Merrick appointee etc but it swings in roundabouts - during Trump’s Presidency, he flooded the federal courts with Republican leaning judges as well as appointed 3 Justices to the Supreme Court (174 Judges for the district courts and 54 federal judges). Such is the American judicial system, it is impossible to disentangle politics from judicial interference and vice versa - however, if there is prima facie evidence to suggest crimes have been committed , these can’t be ignored either but conversely, it makes it very easy to make false claims of political ‘witch-hunts’

Why has Trump appointed so many judges - and how did he do it?

Trump promised in 2016 to fill the courts with conservative judges – signaling to evangelical Christians and others he was a safe pick

www.theguardian.com

pretty sure constitutional changes need 2/3rds majority in both Senate and Congress, then ratification by similar ratio of states. he wont get the support for change.

‘Congress’ is both chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate but yes, the safeguards are there while the ‘out’ party has a workable majority in the Senate - but Trump/the Republican Senators might try and change that too by invoking the Nuclear Option that allows the Senate to avoid a 2/3 majority on procedural matters and use a simple majority instead - it was used by the Republicans in 2017 to nominate Neil Gorsuch onto the Supreme Ct.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Good question. It varies from state to state according to this from CNN.

https://edition.cnn.com/politics/us-primaries-explained-what-matters/index.html

That's one screwed up voting system - give me FPTP any day of the week over that ( and I'm a PR supporter ! )

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Amerika's only hope is that somehow the Supreme Court finds it within itself to bar the malevolent vindictive narcissistic **** from running for office. Else Amerika will get the president it deserves - and the rest of the world doesn't deserve

 

[lasvegan]

Caught a clip on MSNBC, which I don't believe is a Trump positive channel, who said much the same.

Democrats are making the same mistake of calling Trump voters stupid and dumb, which only leads to more votes for him, the same tactic failed in 2016.

People view Trump as being right on a couple of policies, the main one being the Southern Boarder and the mess it is currently in

Jamie Dimon’s MAGA warning to Dems is right on target

J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon praised former President Donald Trump and warned Democrats against demonizing his supporters during an interview in Davos for the World Economic Forum’s annu…

nypost.com

 

[Crawley Dingo]

As this is the Primary, it is worth noting that New Hampshire voted Democrat in 2016 and 2020 election.

Seemingly, the Republican turn out was low, which didn’t help Haley.

Trump got a new record number of votes, Haley got over 70% of her votes from non registered republicans(Rumoured to be lefty students.)

 

[US Seagull]

Forgive my ignorance (although if there's a place for ignorance its surely a thread about Trump) but who votes in the primaries ? Is it party members or anyone eligible to vote or some other group ?

It depends on the state. NH was an open primary. You just turn up and ask for whichever ballot you want. Others require you to be registered as either a Republican or a Democrat and you get that ballot. However, some with closed primaries (you can only vote for the party you registered as) let you switch registration on the day.

 

[US Seagull]

Couldn’t agree more. The fact he hasn’t stood aside and let the Democrats find a younger, more dynamic candidate is beyond stupid. I fear significant numbers are either going to vote Trump or - most likely - just not bother to vote at all due to
Biden’s age being such an off-putting factor.

You can't claim Biden's age is a factor and ignore the fact that Trump is only a couple years "younger" and clearly in a steep mental decline. Also Biden is the only one that has actually beat Trump.

 

[bhafc99]

You can't claim Biden's age is a factor and ignore the fact that Trump is only a couple years "younger" and clearly in a steep mental decline. Also Biden is the only one that has actually beat Trump.

I'm not ignoring it.

Agree 100% they're BOTH way too old to be running. But I see 'age' losing Biden way more votes than it will Trump. Trumpies will vote for Trump even when he's dead.

 

[raymondo]

Jamie Dimon’s MAGA warning to Dems is right on target

J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon praised former President Donald Trump and warned Democrats against demonizing his supporters during an interview in Davos for the World Economic Forum’s annu…

nypost.com

That was an interesting clip from Dimon, thanks, plus the generated comments were a good read too.

 

[Motogull]

Fire up the woodchipper.