What is your take away from the 2020 election?

1. The American electoral system needs major reform, standardisation, ID systems etc to avoid the debacle we have witnessed.

2. No blue wave, people voted against Trump because they didn't like Trump, the GOP actually did pretty well. The midterms will be interesting.

3. The Trump movement is not over, he lost narrowly. Even as the loser of this election he still wields considerable popular support.

4. The Pollsters need to reform their game from the ground up.

 

It took a while to get the results but with Biden getting over 300, trump got buried. Do away with the EC and we wouldn't have had that pain in the ass in the first place.

 

There were no great surprises and in general terms I didn't see anything I've not seen before.

I have often said that the key element of electoral reform the USA continues to miss is political independence in the electoral system. Currently, the elections are run by Democrat or Republican politicians (depending on who runs the state) and that is a major factor in the disputes you're now seeing (and have seen before, albeit less exaggerated). Politically biased electoral officials lead to both greater suspicion and actual malpractice.

It seems obvious to me that what you need are politically independent electoral commissions to run everything, from districting and registration through to counting and declaring results. The political class don't want that though because they all think they can play the current system in their own favour - legally or not - and often do.

Ultimately, the fundamental problem, still being demonstrated today, is that America is all about the us or them conflict between Democrat and Republican so you never have the people standing up to the politicians, even when they're literally conning you.

 

Take-away?

That we really, really need a viable centrist party in this country that doesn't have the baggage of the current Hatfields and McCoys.

 

The most SIGNIFICANT takeaway is the biggest LOSER*-in-Chief was HUMILIATED by "sleepy joe" who spent the majority of his campaign in his basement.

Remember all that bragging about the SIZE of those rallies compared to Biden's?

How did that work out for the SUPPORTERS of the biggest LOSER*-in-Chief?

Tens of thousands INFECTED by Covid as a direct result of those rallies.

The ONLY mistake the Dems made was to stop the GOTV ground campaign. Had they persisted they could have taken the Senate. Hopefully they go all out in GA between now and January.

Overall the most IMPORTANT takeaway is that We the People completed the job that the PARTISAN GOP Senate refused to do and REMOVED the ODIOUS biggest LOSER*-in-Chief from the Oval office.

Congratulations to PRESIDENT Biden!

 

Totally agree on all four points.

I think the Trump movement is not so much about Trump himself. It's more about reacting to the problems caused by having career political establishment elitists in government. They are the problem, not the solution. The 2016 election, to large extent, was about the rebuke of the entrenched political establishment, and Trump was the only outsider option offered. The establishment, republican and democrat alike, have spent the last 4 years making damn sure that no outsider will ever dare to challenge their apple-cart ever again.

 

Yep, I understand your reasoning. A centrist Party would be ripe for a Socialist takeover. The Democrat Party used to consider themselves "Centrist". There is no middle ground with oil and water. Do the experiment sometime. It's like sitting on a barbed wire fence. (I tried that one time when I was little) You go to one side or the other. The left knows that and they have exploited it for years!

 

They like "go along to get along candidates!

 

One take-away is that, if we are going to use mail-in balloting, that mail-in ballots and absentee ballots have deadlines. They all must be sent out in time for the recipient to fill it out and return it by election day, including members of the military overseas. Election day should be "voting" day, and the following day should be "counting" day. No ballots count that come in past "voting" day. Final results should be available on "counting" day.

 

The differences and directions have become clear. Tell you what......let's all confess we are in an American Republican Democracy, and that Socialism has no place in America. Then we can all be nice and share our differences. We were like that at one time.

 

I like that. However no ballots should be mailed if they are unsolicited.

 

Two sides to that coin - populists outsiders like Trump have often made promises of change, it's how Castro, Mao, Hitler, Pol Pot, and Lenin all came to power.

 

Biggest takeaway for me was the rise in minority enrollment in the Republican Party. If the GOP can hammer home "bread and butter" issues that impact John Q. Taxpayer, then thw future for the GOP is very bright.

 

It appears they like to have a sharp pressed empty suit and sparkling smile to stand before them reciting carefully prepared and focus-grouped statements off a teleprompter containing just what they want to hear just when they want to hear it, regardless of the fact that almost none of the high priority promises really have very high priority at all. Someone who bypasses the approved media filter and blurts out what's on their mind directly to the People is intimidating to them, for some reason.

It seems that modern establishment politics is about politicians enriching themselves and their families while maintining "plausible deniability" and dangling enough carrots in front of voters (or warnings of doom) to keep them in office.

 

I doubt Trump had any political aspirations beyond 8 years in the presidency. Those who think he wanted to be some kind of king/dictator have been propagandized beyond rational thinking.

 

How do you "solicit" a ballot? If you register to vote, isn't that soliciting a ballot?

 

Another take-away is that the Republican Party and conservatism in general are still strong in this country. The House and Senate outcomes are proof of that.

Trump's loss wasn't even determined in the final analysis by policy. If Trump had been more likable, he would have won.

And one more thing ... The Democratic Party would be wise to stay centrist and not go off the deep end to the left. If they follow the lead of their left wing, they can say goodbye to 2022 and 2024.

 

As far as the Democrat Party is concerned, I HOPE they go balls to the wall and warp speed further Left.

 

That makes sense. Let's take an example. Think of places where there is a large population that is predominantly Democrat leaning liberal. Seattle, San Francisco, New York City, as examples. Let's say they believe in free-at-point-of-service medical care. Those populations are large enough that they could choose to tax themselves to support it for their residents. (Non-residents would pay for their medical care in those cities in the traditional manner.) There is nothing stopping them, really. They do not need the rest of the country supporting a program like that.

You are also right that we need to stop thinking of a president as a central power. It was never supposed to be that way. The center of our politics was meant to be in Congress, not the Presidency.

 

and Obama's platform Hope and Change was very Hitler-like then.

 

There was no debacle. Just the fake news crowd making noise.

The dem party has been out of touch with much of America for a decade or more now.

Trust in gov't is at lows. No one likes or trusts congress. Congress is gutless and has been yielding more power to presidents so they don't have to make tough votes to piss of their voters.
Voters need to churn out incumbents as much as possible. We can enforce term limits.

 

What I refer to are unrequested ballots. Absentee ballots are requested. I just don't feel comfortable with unrequested ballots all over the place! Can't we have individual responsibility when it comes to voting once again? How 'bout voter ID for all voters?

 

When has this country been as you suggested?
Do you know how many groups have been discriminated against over the years?