The Trump Presidency

[JayUtah]

One was that the millions of dollars spent on TV ads by the Democrats appear to have had no effect on changing people's minds.

The other was that the success of the Democrats in Georgia has been due to the work of Stacey Abrams in building the party up by the grassroots.

I feel old-guard Democrats are still deluded into believing elections are still all about issues and candidates and rational evaluation.  There's a great piece in today's Washington Post about Republican victory simply being making the liberals cry.  Beyond that there's really no policy, no agenda, no sense that they're actually now going to have to lead a country and make decisions.  Electoral politics in America seem now to be simply about winning as an expression of dominance.

I do believe I've made a couple of comments in the last year or so about the importance of doing exactly that. Assuming it's an accurate assessment, hopefully the party in other states will follow her example.

I think younger Democrats would be very open to that.  Evan McMullin started a right-of-center party here in Utah with just grass-roots efforts to lure moderate Republicans away from the Tea Party.  They're still one of our recognized state parties.  It proves the effect of bottom-up coalition instead of top-down indoctrination.

[Bryanpoprobson]

Listening to Trumps speech live, he is clearly insane.

[LunarOrbit]

Listening to Trumps speech live, he is clearly insane.

I half expected him to declare himself Emperor. It turned out to be nothing but a bunch of false claims about fraud, and a pity party. He's pathetic.

[Allan F]

Listening to Trumps speech live, he is clearly insane.

Maybe Dr. Grande will have an analysis up soon.

[Count Zero]

Here in Australia it seems we elect footballers instead. Or journalists.

In Italy, they had Ilona Staller, a.k.a. Cicciolina...

[Allan F]

Here in Australia it seems we elect footballers instead. Or journalists.

In Italy, they had Ilona Staller, a.k.a. Cicciolina...

We had an olympic medalist shortputter for 4 years. What a waste of oxygen.

[Obviousman]

Here in Australia it seems we elect footballers instead. Or journalists.

In Italy, they had Ilona Staller, a.k.a. Cicciolina...

We had an olympic medalist shortputter for 4 years. What a waste of oxygen.

Australia has Pauline Hanson. Absolutely an oxygen bandit.

Her claim to fame was she owned a fish & chip shop.....

[JayUtah]

Her claim to fame was she owned a fish & chip shop.....

Did it lose $900 million?

[Peter B]

Not relevant to anything in particular, but something I found really uplifting in the last week or so before the election: hearing Barack Obama in full flight.

Such a great speaker...

[JayUtah]

Indeed, we can cite many past Presidents who were thoughtful, articulate, compassionate, and intelligent.  And it's hard to imagine how anyone could disagree with that.  But in fact a large fraction of America has come to regard such talents as signs of liberal elitism.  Rather than being comforted and inspired by such performances, they're put off by them.  They've been conditioned to regard them as Establishment leadership that's far removed from their everyday problems.

In contrast, there was a guy reviewing The Comey Rule in some ephemeral video who pointed out that Donald Trump has never finished a sentence in his life.  Hyperbole aside, he's not very wrong.  It's something I've always referred to as a "stream of semi-consciousness."  And ironically this appeals to vast numbers of Americans.  Despite his being inarticulate and illiterate, Trump comes across to his base as speaking from the heart directly to them, instead of carefully-prepared, politically-vetted speeches.

They're already talking about running Trump again in 2024.  I honestly don't think he'll live that long.

[Peter B]

Indeed, we can cite many past Presidents who were thoughtful, articulate, compassionate, and intelligent.  And it's hard to imagine how anyone could disagree with that.  But in fact a large fraction of America has come to regard such talents as signs of liberal elitism.  Rather than being comforted and inspired by such performances, they're put off by them.  They've been conditioned to regard them as Establishment leadership that's far removed from their everyday problems.

In contrast, there was a guy reviewing The Comey Rule in some ephemeral video who pointed out that Donald Trump has never finished a sentence in his life.  Hyperbole aside, he's not very wrong.  It's something I've always referred to as a "stream of semi-consciousness."  And ironically this appeals to vast numbers of Americans.  Despite his being inarticulate and illiterate, Trump comes across to his base as speaking from the heart directly to them, instead of carefully-prepared, politically-vetted speeches.

They're already talking about running Trump again in 2024.  I honestly don't think he'll live that long.

But it's okay if their pastors are articulate?

[Bryanpoprobson]

So what odds are being given for Trump to actually concede the election?
Come on Donny be the big man. 1000-1 on him actually doing it.

[gillianren]

They're already talking about running Trump again in 2024.  I honestly don't think he'll live that long.

I'm genuinely shocked he's lived this long.  Clearly he's not a man who let the stress of the Presidency get to him; I suppose that would have required actually doing the work of being President.

[LunarOrbit]

So what odds are being given for Trump to actually concede the election?
Come on Donny be the big man. 1000-1 on him actually doing it.

I don't think he will concede because that would be an admission that he lost. He will accuse people of stealing the election, call it a coup, and maintain that until the day he dies.

I do think he will flip his desk and quit, making Pence a temporary seat warmer for Biden (I hope Biden hasn't made any merchandise with the number 46 on it yet). At the very least Trump will just play golf until January 20th. Why would he start doing the job now?

[JayUtah]

So what odds are being given for Trump to actually concede the election?
Come on Donny be the big man. 1000-1 on him actually doing it.

Not even that high.  Voluntary concession of failure is not in his character.  I gather his strategy is to be handed the Presidency by the judiciary his party has spent so much time packing with allies, irrespective of what voters actually say.  And if they fail to do that, he'll blame them for being corrupt.  Yes, he may relinquish the White House, but only under whiny protest.  And his followers will spend four years claiming Joe Biden stole the election.  Keep in mind what happened in 2016 when he legitimately won the Electoral College vote, but claimed he would have won the popular vote too if not for millions of fraudulent votes.  He will never, ever concede that he lost the election.