Sunday, November 8, 2020

Biden vs. Harris preview

I had a long drive Saturday evening which allowed me to listen to the Harris and Biden speeches. Two lines summed up where we may be heading for the next four years. 

Biden:

I'll work as hard for those who didn't vote for me as those who did. Let this grim era of demonization in America begin to end here and now. 

Not quite "with malice toward none, with charity for all," but close. 

Harris:  

protecting our democracy takes struggle. It takes sacrifice...our very democracy was on the ballot in this election, with the very soul of America at stake,..

Not quite "to you 70 million of Tump voters, you did not just hold your nose and vote to slow down the progressive agenda, no, you voted against democracy, you deplorable fascists, and we will treat you as such," but close.

The battle will be interesting to watch. 

First up, it will be very interesting to see what the voters of Georgia do with Senate races. Now that the Trump issue is off the table, the calculus is entirely different. Whether Republicans encourage or put the brakes on the Biden-Harris-Pelosi-Schumer agenda is a quite different question than the one facing voters a week ago. 


 

25 comments:

  1. You read more than is present into Harris' statement. And you don't cite the NPR broadcast so we can check out your assertion. Not a post up to your usual rigor.

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    1. How would you interpret Harris's claim, "Our very democracy was on the ballot in this election?" Do you think Harris would count a vote for Trump as a vote for democracy or against it?

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    2. A Trump vote is a vote for a man who, prior to the election, did not commit to respecting the election outcome. I'm sorry, but if that is not a vote against democratic principles, I don't know what kind of vote qualifies as such...

      It is disturbing to see so many high profile conservatives and libertarians that keep downplaying the systemic risk arising from the deeply undemocratic mindset of Trump and his entourage. And in a knee-jerk reaction keep justifying a vote for Trump as just another GOP vote.

      The GOP of Trump has nothing in common with a conservative or libertarian political agenda anymore. The sooner true conservatives will finally realize that, leave the Trump era behind, and rebuild the GOP, the sooner there will be a credible political force to counterbalance the ideas of the Left in arguments based on facts, science, and democratic values. The country desperately needs such a renewed Republican party.

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    3. Wow? I thought, until now, that up holding the Constitution meant starting with the words of the original document. I didn't realize how ignorant and quaint this was. I'll be pleased to see the revised improved living document and it's foundation.

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    4. I agree. There's far too much excuse-making for Trump (and a significant chunk of the current Republican Party) from people who should know better. The woke may indeed be loony and intolerant, but that's no reason to emulate them.

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  2. Today NPR seemed to be pretty up front about the media's "unofficial" role in declaring the winner. The excerpt below is from Weekend Edition Sunday.

    https://www.npr.org/2020/11/08/932744212/trump-goes-through-with-lawsuits-insists-he-won-election

    GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah. I mean, to be clear, the media doesn't declare the winner. They just...

    KEITH: That's true.

    GARCIA-NAVARRO: ...You know, talk about the counts that they get from the local authorities and then make their calculations. So where does...

    KEITH: The counts are against him, to be clear.

    GARCIA-NAVARRO: To be clear. So where does his campaign go from here?

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  3. Absolutely: When FDR wanted pack the Supreme Court, cabbies, among others, said this was not kosher! The Trump loss translates into a Republican Senate gain, for this, and hopefully other reasons.

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  4. https://apnews.com/article/fb5a5f7da21d460bbffb6985cb01cb2c

    >The Associated Press finds that Clinton won 487 counties nationwide, compared with 2,626 for **President-elect Donald Trump**

    https://apnews.com/article/64fbe074e90f44d58fd4f60ea5ee0e6c

    >**President-elect Donald Trump** is telling the American people that “I promise you I will not let you down.”

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  5. I strictly prefer pumping the brakes. I do wonder how aligned the views of the ticket are with respect to the folks who did not vote for them.

    The Rs should at least split in GA. Tillis race not called yet, though.

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  6. I think both statements by Biden and Harris are channeling the frustration of a good number of people with the most powerful person in the world being someone of such...singular...personality traits for the last 4 years. Many Republicans will resort to arguments along the lines of "I certainly don't condone Trump's behavior, but I still stand behind the general policies relative to those of the Looney left." (anecdotally, these types then go on to discuss their views on taxes or personal convictions on abortion, etc.). I think there are some valid points to some of these arguments, but I also think there are some who think there is some sort of character-based "threshold" for holding the position of the most powerful person on the planet. I think many thought Trump did not pass that threshold (although the same can probably be said by ~50% of the population every time we have someone in office), but even my ardent Republican friends have been discussing in recent days how, even though they hate the Looney left policies, it's going to be a bit of a relief to have a Presidential President again.

    Regarding your point about whether news agencies declare the winner (maybe that got taken down after the original post for some reason, but I thought it was an interesting point but maybe it ruffled too many feathers? Either way I appreciate your willingness to exercise your right to freedom of speech...as a faculty member at your university I will never post on this site in a non-anonymous fashion for fear of retaliation from the administration!). This seems analogous to when, say, an academic faculty votes on who to hire/promote. Sure, it has to go through additional layers of approval (and these sometimes fall through), but the news agencies employ analysts to make reasonable predictions so half the country can celebrate and the other half can commiserate ~30 days earlier. Sure, there's a margin of error (not sure how many times it's been wrong in history), but even Fox News called this one within a few minutes of the other outlets. Again--point well taken on the matter.

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    1. The US had to entertain the Left's claim about meaningful foreign meddling in the 2016 election for a little over 2 years. Then, when the Muller report fell flat, they turn around and ran with another story and went as far as holding a 100% partisan impeachment vote.

      Today, Trump supporters believe some odd things should be investigated. Everyone had to indulge Democrats, but somehow Trump supporters should not be indulged now? Let Trump file his lawsuits. Let him makes state his case. In all likelihood, there are some problems, but not enough to change outcomes -- in which cases finding the problems allows to prevent them in later elections.

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  7. You're a smart guy but I think you're reading too much into that Kamala statement. Almost as bad if a read as a past post of yours expressing worry about dems not accepting the election.. I saw Hilary concede within 2 days of the election, despite tight margins in a few states. Unfortunately, we are yet to see the president concede, quite the contrary. To top is off, you have several high profile elected Republicans playing along.. Peaceful transfer of power is much more successful when the loser of an election accepts that they lost.

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    1. Tons of evidence and witness there show significant election frauds in favor of Biden. Open your eyes unless you do not care about the integrity of US system.

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  8. Change has always been incremental, save for a few events in America's history. You can bet if the Senate stays GOP, Biden's agenda will hit a wall. If it flips Dem, get prepared for radical change, some of which will be good, some not so much. It's really a fight about how to use wealth and resources in the end. That's real power.

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    1. If the Democrats gain the Senate, one of their 50/50+VP majority will be a Democrat from a red state who only has two years in her term before she has to run again. Don't expect rubber stamping for a radical change.

      -dk

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  9. Supporting someone who openly rejects peaceful transfer of power after a democratic election is support of antidemocratic politics. There's no two ways about it. You don't dare to mention the baseless claims of election theft, an outright attack on the democratic process, because the intellectual dishonesty in your invective against Harris would be immediately apparent.

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    1. The claims of election theft is based on numerous solid evidence and witness. If you really care about evidence, call the court, DOJ, etc.

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  10. What do you think about the chance of keeping the Senate? Although statistically speaking runoffs usually benefit Republicans, I don't know if "statistics" applies in this election cycle. GOP needs to get in there right now and get people to vote, vote vote---forget about what Trump said about mail-in voting: doesn't matter if you vote by mail, absentee, or in person. Every Republican (and moderate Democrat) should get out and vote as if their children's lives depend on it. The GOP should immediately jump on the mail-voting train and launch the largest get-out-the-vote campaign in GA history--basically pull the same thing Stacy Abrams did for the democrats.

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  11. I live in Georgia. While the Senate race will continue, I am curious to see how deals are made in the House now that the margin between the Dems and Repubs has narrowed.

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    1. Given how the far-left has performed in the current electoral cycle, I suspect moderate Democrats might just be feeling enough heat from a potential Republican challenge in 2022 to push away from the far-left. Now, they have a real threat: screw us over and we're siding with Republicans on the next vote. If the Senate stays Republican, that threat is very real and very credible -- and, maybe, we'll get back to sane debates.

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  12. I can see moderate Democrats hoping Republicans win the Senate. Then the Republicans can battle the further left. If Democrats are in control they will have to do the fighting. Imagine a Venn Diagram, 50/50 left and right a two party system. Now imagine a Venn Diagram with 50 in the middle and 25 to the left and 25 the right. This is a more accurate image of Americans. Most are moderate with valid but somewhat more extreme views on the left and right.

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  13. John, as you commented on JB and KH speeches, I wonder if could you please comment on what DT has said after the election and his posture over the last few weeks? You seem quite willing to interpret what was behind the speech lines, I wonder how you interpret what has been said and done so far by the President.

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    1. The world does not need my help in offering outrage at Trump tweets. I comment when I think I have something original to say.

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    2. Fair enough. But: (i) I am not asking for your outrage or anyone else's for that matter, (ii) you may have something original or insightful to say, even if you don't think so, and (iii) what the current president is saying and doing may be of more significance to national security and the pandemic than speeches by JB and KH right after being called winners by the media. Your inclination to comments on the speeches made me curious about your opinion on DT and the Rs after the election. Again, I am not looking for outrage at anything ad I am referring to your reading of what is happening now (post Nov 3 2020) and how it compares to the post-Nov 8 2016 period. Cheers and thanks for replying.

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