Nov 2023 Mod notice:
There may be other, more specific, threads about some aspects of US politics, but this one tends to act as a hub for all sorts of related news and information, so it's usually one of the busiest OTC threads.
If you're new to OTC, it's worth reading the Introduction to On-Topic Conversations
and the On-Topic Conversations debate guidelines before posting here.
Rumor-based, fear-mongering and/or inflammatory statements that damage the quality of the thread will be thumped. Off-topic posts will also be thumped. Repeat offenders may be suspended.
If time spent moderating this thread remains a distraction from moderation of the wiki itself, the thread will need to be locked. We want to avoid that, so please follow the forum rules when posting here.
In line with the general forum rules, 'gravedancing' is prohibited here. If you're celebrating someone's death or hoping that they die, your post will get thumped. This rule applies regardless of what the person you're discussing has said or done.
Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
What is the obvious reason? We're over two weeks after the election was called - how many Republicans in Congress have openly, with no takebacks, acknowledged that Biden won? I think it's like 20. And some of them are preexisting Trump-defiers like Romney who did it immediately. I'm not sure how many of the ones who didn't do it at first have come around, even though it's been obvious for days now that the lawsuits were going nowhere.
Pat Toomey admitted Trump was out of options in PA today and needed to begin the transition, but I've lost count of how many failed lawsuits were needed to bring him around, and he's still the exception to the rule.
Edited by nrjxll on Nov 21st 2020 at 12:56:27 PM
Figure of Hourai
There's no benefit to them by doing it. In fact, it would be a very bad move to stage a blatant coup in the middle of DC.
It doesn't even advance their agenda to try and install Trump again.
Avatar Source
I actually wanted to be Resileaf
You're basically asking us if we're sure that the Republicans won't commit political and possibly real suicide by demanding that Trump be called the winner anyway. They have literally nothing to gain from doing this. Not admiting that Trump has lost yet is just a delaying tactic to avoid getting Trump and his base's ire.
That band-aid's going to have to come off at some point, though. The longer that gets delayed, the harder it seems like doing it would be.
Plus, again, I worry that there's a catch-22 with the Georgia runoff results. If they lose the Senate, the hardliners are going to say it's their fault for not appeasing Trump's base enough, and if they keep the Senate, then the hardliners will view that as validating their intransigence. I don't like that both of those possibilities can happen before Congress plays its role in the election results.
Again, I don't think this is something that a majority of Congressional Republicans wants to do. I'm concerned more about the possibility of them getting backed into a corner on it by the crazies.
Figure of Hourai
Does it benefit McConnell to let the crazies go wild or work with them? No. In fact, he'd probably take it as a PR victory and claim bipartisanship to side with the Democrats and overrule them, then get right back to being an obstructionist.
Kentucky just voted him in for another 6 years and he's nearly 80, electoral consequences don't exist.
Avatar Source
I actually wanted to be Resileaf
Who cares what happens to the Republicans who get burned by the crazies they once courted? It's their own damn fault and the fallout of Trump will fall on them, not on the Democrats. They're stuck between a rock a hard place of their own doing, and nothing they can possibly do will change the results of this election.
Biden won. Start getting that in your head. He's not going to suddenly lose because minority Republicans have to deal with Trumpsters.
@nrjxII, you already said before the election that nothing could convince you that Trump wasn't going to win reelection, right?
If I'm remembering that correctly then, respectfully, I'll have to say you're projecting that same sense of hopelessness into the current situation and, just like before, there's really nothing we can do about it if that's just the headspace you are in.
And there's not much point in constantly asking these questions if nothing you're told will actually matter.
That's a bit unfair. I have anxiety issues and, broadly speaking, no faith in people, but at this point the only way Trump stays in power is by winning a civil war (something I bring up more for rhetorical purposes than as a possibility). As I said, I think the legal result of Congress indefinitely holding up the process is the Speaker of the House becoming acting president.
Ugh, that probably is his strategy, isn't it? Draw out acknowledging Biden's victory for as long as legally possible, probably using "I'm just doing what my constituents ask of me" as justification, and when it can't be denied anymore, he lets the result be certified and says "I did what I could" to the Trump base and "see, we can work together" to the Democrats. Hell, he might even hold up his allowing the certification to go through as a concession he gave to Democrats so now they should give him something he wants.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
If you have anxiety-problems then one way to deal with them is not to spread that anxiety around to others like the Ring-Tapes or something.
It doesn't help.
No, what you need to do, is to ask yourself this. "What can I do about it?"
Ask yourself that first before asking others in case the answer comes up as a "Nothing".
The Wanderer
And so the Trump campaign is having Georgia go though a second recount
This is a farce.
Eating a Vanilluxe will give you frostbite.
A procrastination in of itself
They can request it all they like, Georgia has already certified the results.
As for senate shenanigans, Mitch has committed to a peaceful transition of power (so no shenanigans), at least one Democrat Senator is on record as being willing to give their life to stop a coup (a very good deterrent against shenanigans and a possible solution if they are attempted), enough Republican senators have acknowledged Biden’s victory to make a majority alongside the Democrat senators, shenanigans would just make Pelosi president (so no incentive even if Republicans could succeed) and finally DC is much a blue city and the public backlash would be so huge that there would be a serious risk of an angry mob adjusting the partisan balance of the senate by force.
Now I’ve shot this bloody idea down yet again, can I suggest that people with anxiety issues that make them constantly come up with elaborate sceneries spend their time accessing mental health resources (such as the free ones I linked in the results watch thread) rather than spending time disrupting the thread with their problems. I am sympathetic to your problem, but I know just enough to understand that posting your problems here isn’t helping you and that it’s certainly not helpful for the rest of the thread.
"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran
Foreign Troper
Because of the low margin they do have the right to do it
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/21/politics/georgia-presidential-election-recount/index.html
Which will only cause further delay. Guess they know they lost by now, so they REALLY try to make it as annoying as hell, just because.
Certified: 48.0% West Asian, 6.5% South Asian, 15.8% North/West European, 15.7% English, 7.4% Balkan, 6.6% Scandinavian
Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54972389
A BBC news article on why minorities do vote from Trump.
Also included the part where they disagree with racism and Trump. They say it's just the media hyping it.
"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"
Industrious Incisors
Tl,dr: a lot of minority people are socially and/or economically conservative.
Foreign Troper
While there have been a sizeable number of conservative blacks and latinos voting for Trump, conservative muslims rarely do, as far as I've seen.
Certified: 48.0% West Asian, 6.5% South Asian, 15.8% North/West European, 15.7% English, 7.4% Balkan, 6.6% Scandinavian
Republicans are too blatant in their Islamophobia, probably.
That's Dr. Title, thank you!
Basically, this is doomed to fail. A state's electoral college votes can only be thrown out by Congress if both the House and Senate agree to it, and there's no way the House will approve that for any state this year given the current lack of evidence.
Not to mention the house being democrat controlled.
So how do we rationalise Trump's claims that Biden is senile and incapable of stringing a sentence together with Trump's claims that Biden personally masterminded the biggest electoral fraud scheme in US history?
"Yup. That tasted purple."
Trump just says whatever comes to his mind and suits him regardless of logic.
Project, project, project. That's all there is to Trumpeteers in the past couple of months.
Scaled seeker
It's the typical fascist rhetoric. Your enemies are inferior on all levels physical, intellectual, genetic, moral, etc., while at the same time being an overwhelming, insidious threat that will topple the natural order, steal your womenfolk, kidnap your children, poison the soil, and so on. That way they get to be the unassailable strongmen while simultaneously being embattled on all sides by underhanded cheats.
It's been fun.
Biden is just a puppet, the REAL masterminds are the Clintons, George Soros, Barack Obama, and the undead cyborgized Epstein. But is probably more likely. The Doublethink is strong in those.
Edited by Reflextion on Nov 22nd 2020 at 8:17:54 AM
You realize you're basically asking "What reason is there to expect them not to do this besides the obvious reason they will not do this?"
Edited by Perseus on Nov 22nd 2020 at 5:48:53 AM
Trans rights are human rights.