President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

What role does Trump play? Don Rickles?

 

Remember that Der Spiegel cover of Trump with the bloody decapitated head of the Statue of Liberty? Here's the sequel:

 

It'll take some time to sort out where the American electorate goes from here. Ohio and Florida have gone from the pivotal swing states to perma-red. Nobody talks about Colorado or New Mexico or Virginia anymore, either.

The assumption has always been that there was a vast Democratic sea of voters so higher turnout would favor them. But we saw incredible turnout this election and it seemed to benefit both sides evenly. If you had told Republicans a year ago that Trump would get ~72m votes, they would have gleefully taken it. That's so fucking many red votes, it's just going to be drown out by 76-78m blue votes, which is also a fuckton. And Republicans down-ballot generally ran ahead of Trump. They gained some ground in the house, held the Senate, and did pretty well at the state level (just in time to redraw the maps).

With Georgia, Democrats finally got one of those "someday the demographics are gonna flip it" deep red states that they always talk about. But Wisconsin looks especially ripe for the picking for a non-Trump Republican.

And there's also the weird fact that Republicans actually did a little better with minorities this time around. Hispanic men seem to be especially receptive to their message.

The suburban/rural divide was already pretty fucking deep and somehow it got deeper.

It's a mess out there and I don't think anyone has a good take on it for 2022 or 2024 yet.

 

The southwest turning blue (assuming the Arizona and Nevada leads hold) is a development that's been years in the making. But that's been accompanied by the upper Midwest voters leaning more conservative.

Never imagined Michigan being a red state, but it took a massive effort to keep it from the Trump column this time.

 

Is Florida really perma-red? Seems like Biden outperformed Clinton everywhere except Miami-Dade.

But, yes, Ohio is gone and Wisconsin is heading in that direction.

 

I can see the argument that Florida isn't permared, but it's definitely a few states past the tipping point on the red side.

 

And of course, candidate matchups make elections, so that could all change. Maybe the Dems find someone who can compete in Iowa in 2024, or Republicans come up with someone that puts Minnesota back into play.

The map going forward is as wide open as I've ever seen it. 12 years ago, there was this feeling the that US electoral map had solidified and we'd be fighting over Ohio and Florida forever. It's definitely not solidified anymore.

 

Biden first Dem presidential candidate to win Tarrant County, Texas (Fort Worth) since LBJ and first to win Williamson County (lots of retirees north of Austin) since Carter. But the state as a whole seems like a way off for the Dems.

 

I agree, Montana is practically purple now.

Arkansas might be an outlier in that it was one of the last states to hold onto the old yellow-dog ideology that begat Clinton. But when Win Rockefeller and Bill Fulbright are your progressive icons, that's a tough one, buddy.

 

There are some real angry crazies in the cult of 70 million.

Some presidents elected in years ending in 0 have not fared well.

Secret Service and others are really going to have to ramp it up for the next few weeks and months.

 

He tried just as hard as the guy who won!