Here are reading recommendations. There’s a great commentary by David Atkins at Washington Monthly saying that Republican voters are not prepared for Trump to lose, and that’s a problem. Democrats are hoping for a win and increasingly expect to win, but I think I speak for most when I say we’re braced for a loss. But while Republican party leaders may realize the poll numbers don’t look good for them, Republican voters appear to be oblivious to this.
Republican voters have been primed to believe that every reputable poll is a lie, that official elections results are not to be trusted, and that they have a silent majority millions of voters strong. If 36% of the country’s voters walk into election night with that belief and Biden ends up winning easily with over 350 electoral votes, it is impossible to predict what might happen.
Atkins goes on to say that “It is improbable that triumphalist bullies who have spent the last four years hailing their president as a God Emperor and posting memes about drinking liberal tears will easily accept resounding electoral defeat.”
There’s a likelihood of organized violence, of course. Many on the Right will not accept a Biden victory as legitimate. But we’re not obligated to be anyone’s grief counselors. The snowflakes can suck it up, as we did, or face penalties if they get out of line.
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See also Paul Waldman, We May Not Be Facing Apocalypse, but the Near Future Doesn’t Look Good.
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At NBC News, Sahil Kapur writes that the GOP bets Democrats won’t expand Supreme Court. Progressives say: Call their bluff.
When Senate Republicans voted on a rainy Sunday to put Amy Coney Barrett on a glide path to a lifetime Supreme Court appointment one week before Election Day, they were making a bet that Democrats wouldn’t retaliate and erase conservative gains.
“A lot of what we’ve done over the last four years will be undone, sooner or later, by the next election,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Sunday after the 51-48 procedural vote against Democratic objections. “But they won’t be able to do much about this for a long time to come.”
But it’s not just progressives talking about expanding the Court. I’m seeing Washington establishment fixtures like Ruth Marcus and E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post say that Dems don’t have a choice but to expand the court. This is a big, fat signal that Dems would get at least some cover in media if they expand the Court. Joe Biden probably doesn’t want to do it, because he knows what firestorm will follow, but he hasn’t ruled it out. IMO there’s a good chance that if Biden wins and the Dems control the Senate, they will increase the number of justices on the court. And not by just a couple. I’m thinking a total of 17 justices would ensure that no one future president will get enough nominations to make that much difference. They may expand some other federal courts as well.
The most common counter-argument for this is that Republicans will add a bunch more justices to the court when they regain power. To which I say — pass laws to end political gerrymandering and protect voting rights. Make Washington DC a state, and Puerto Rico, too, if it wants to be a state. Then watch the Hard Right fail to claw its way back for a long, long time.
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Worthless entitled privileged wonder Jared Kushner stepped in a big ol’ pile of racist doodoo.
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Trump has failed utterly to stop the flow of manufacturing jobs going overseas. See Trump’s Carrier deal fades as economic reality intervenes.
I think Biden is smart to convene a commission on the courts, and if the R's insist on being idiots, go and expand it, too bad for them. They had a chance to be reasonable. We absolutely have to go nuclear and make sure they have an extremely long climb back to power. I hope he understands this.
I've been reading around the web about how this time the media didn't fall for "butter emails". Trump was certain the smoking laptop would kill Biden but it fell flat. The WSJ news side was at odds with the WSJ opinion writers. The wall held, this time.
In short the reality distortion bubble is closing in on the wingnuts, aided by COVID and Trump the Incompetent. Too damn bad if they can't handle losing. I hope Biden is ready for their anger.
Moonbat,
I hope he "welcomes their hatred!"
They will do their worst. Let us do our best.
The war begins the day after the results of the election are settled. The significant war won't be with Trumpsters – it will be with Democrats in the Senate who do not want to face the essential task of re-balancing the US Supreme Court. This is where organizing and demonstrating after the election has to force the issue.
The way of modern politics on a sticky issue which might cost Democrats the Senate in 2022 is to dealy. The House of Representatives and the White House are fully capable of procrastination to protect Senators from taking a stand. WE have to be the force which demands legislation is written, voted on and Senators put their names on the vote they cast. We're looking at record turnout for this election – we have to harness some of that energy AFTER the election to get this done WHILE DEMOCRATS HAVE POWER!
The good news is that the US Supreme Court may do a crackerjack job of building support for our side. Obamacare is likely to be a casualty before Biden is even sworn in. The consequences will begin in 2021. The greed of the insurance industry will be unleashed. Depending on the wording of the rationale of the majority opinion, the US Supreme Court may deliberately try to make national health care unconstitutional and delegate it to each individual state.
Again, it depends on how far the Supremes go, but because if the Federalist Court bans a national approach to health care, the public will want to reform the court. It's not something voters will wait 20 years for. (And I've seen the idea of term limits for the Supremes floated, which means we wait decades to reverse a ban on universal health care.) Other issues are high on the agenda of some conservative justices, same-sex marriage, gays in the military, and abortion. It's entirely possible that by early 2022, the support for expanding the court will reach 70% AND it's possible that the vote to confirm Justice Coat Hanger will come back to haunt Republican Senators in 2022. The conventional 'wisdom' that we shouldn't exercise our power because it will cost us the majority in the Senate might not apply
I have two sisters who share the same birthday but five years apart. Yeah, April 14th. It's the same day that Lincoln was assassinated, so for that reason anytime anybody asks me on what day Lincoln was assassinated I have the answer on the tip of my tongue. Not that it should mean anything to anybody, but it's just one of those things where you have to say, Gee, what are the odds of that happening?
I mention that because when I saw what the final vote for Barrett's Supreme Court confirmation was (52-48) I thought, I wonder what the final vote tally on Trump's impeachment was. I went back and checked…and guess what? Turns out that the vote tally in article 1- Abuse of Power was the exact same as Barrett's confirmation vote. (52-48) So, as it turns out it's another case where I have to say, Gee, what are the odds that happening?
And that kind of brings me back my reasoning of why I understand how corrupt the Repuglican party is. Back during the invasion of Iraq there was some issue that came up for at vote. I don't remember what the issue was, but whatever it was the Repuglican's voted in lockstep on an issue where it was impossible not to have some degree of dissention. It was an in your face issue that required sober deliberation and honest reasoning, and yet they all chose to abandon their responsibilities and follow the party line. The lesson I learned from that is that the Repugs are not serving the American people.. They are serving themselves and the Repuglican party.
Vote them out!! We owe it to those who come behind us,