Turnout update, 4 counting days later

As of this morning:

Donald Trump
312 electoral votes
Republican Party
74,686,551 votes (50.5%)

Kamala Harris
226 electoral votes
Democratic Party
70,964,692 votes (48%)

Total:
145.6 million
=============================================================
2020:

Biden -- 81.2 million

Trump -- 74.2 million

Total -- 155.4 million

2024 as of Wednesday:

Harris -- 68.0 million

Trump -- 72.7 million

Total -- 140.7 million
==============================================================

I have no idea how many ballots are still uncounted, which is fishy enough, by itself. As of now the falloff in turnout is still around 10 million.

This could be due to massive vote fraud in 2020 or it could be a measure of voter alienation from electoral politics.

Either way, it stinks to high heaven. American politics is beyond absurd, so absurd that you can easily come up with plausible "conspiracy theories" on how the results are manipulated by invisible forces.

In turn, this adds to the general paranoia as the "conspiracy theories" become "disinformation" promoted by sinister forces like Putin or Iran.

The powerful temptation is to label people who perceive a different reality as crazy, sick, or lacking in "critical thinking skills." This further isolates opposition to the fraudulence of our political system.

Recently on this board, I saw a description of a child's game of joining everyone together in a human chain. Great idea, even inspirational!

Having spent a lifetime as a labor organizer and political activist, I can relate that getting people to link arms together is MUCH more difficult if you harbor literal contempt for the benighted souls you are trying to organize.

Lenin recognized this problem in What Is To Be Done? The working class, he asserted, will never develop revolutionary consciousness on their own. His solution to this brick wall of a problem for The Revolution was the creation of a "revolutionary vanguard" to educate and lead the working class to victory over capitalism.

How's that working out?

The still open question, a century later, is how does a vanguard persuade people to fight back?

The shitlibs have long since given up any dream of seizing power, and therefore are not revolutionary at all.

Nobody has yet come up with a message that unifies people to take action rather than just vote. My thought on this is to urge like minded souls to let go of your contempt and condescension for the quivering scaredy cats who can't cope with the idea of Trump.

Unity is always almost impossible. Just not quite.

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QMS's picture

you got that right
we are getting sick and tired
of these nd meaningless games
somehow being called democracy
our vote only matters until it doesn't
does the rest of the world see this farce
for what it is?
power plays and white-washed money
doesn't seem very democratic from here

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5 users have voted.

question everything

Cassiodorus's picture

First passage:

Lenin recognized this problem in What Is To Be Done? The working class, he asserted, will never develop revolutionary consciousness on their own. His solution to this brick wall of a problem for The Revolution was the creation of a "revolutionary vanguard" to educate and lead the working class to victory over capitalism.

Marx wanted to assume that the revolution would occur "naturally," in the way he thought the Paris Commune of 1871 arose (see The Civil War in France for more on this). But the Paris Commune had a theoretician, one Marx didn't like much: Proudhon. And Lenin, for his part, despaired of "revolutionary consciousness" in Russia in 1902, when "What is to be Done?" was published.

I tend to think of Marxism-Leninism as a sort of Eastern Orthodox Marxism. Cornelius Castoriadis' critique of Marxism-Leninism in "The Pulverization of Marxism-Leninism" stands, but Lenin didn't worry much about being a fraud, which is what Castoriadis said he was (much later of course). His notion was: have a revolution, become a czar, and worry about the details later. His success was, frankly, due to the fact that the actual Russian Czar of the time, Nicholas II, was an inept fool ruling at a time when someone really smart was needed, which is to say, in the middle of a perfect storm, the First World War. Lenin's revolution was, however, prep work for Stalin, who appears in the history books as a fake-Marxist version of Peter the Great. The more things change...

At any rate, it is no surprise that Castoriadis viewed Marxism-Leninism as a fraud, since he ditched the Stalinists during the Greek Civil War after having joined them. It also shouldn't surprise us that the history of attempts at liberation from capitalism is full of false starts. It's far easier to be a capitalist than it is to be a liberator, in an era of expanding capitalism. Perhaps this situation will change in the future.

Second passage:

The shitlibs have long since given up any dream of seizing power, and therefore are not revolutionary at all.

The "shitlibs" appear to be drifting into a vortex of sorts. What causes this drift is an increasing desperation, a desperation to find some meaning in the promotion of political careerists, and Kamala Harris is nothing if not a political careerist. Joe Biden appears to have destroyed any notion that the "shitlibs" stand for anything outside of their financial portfolios. May they all find anti-capitalist therapists in the wake of Harris' defeat.

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6 users have voted.

“The loyal Left cannot act decisively. Their devotion to the system is a built-in kill switch limiting dissent.” - Richard Moser

is always a slow process once the EC is decided for the state and down ticket races are decided. After that it saves counties the need to fully staff the counting rooms as the decisions have been made. Quite a mess ensues when the win/lose outcomes of races aren't quickly established and re-count processes are demanded.

The numbers do not suggest to me that there was any widespread election fraud in 2020. More eligible voters were more motivated to oust he POTUs and voter disenfranchisement was at a low.

Consider Texas - a red state with a growing population (natural and in-migration), and generally 3rd parties don't do well. 2008 - votes 8,087M and 2012 votes 7,994M. (normal 2nd term drop-off). Rep added 100M and Dem lost 200M. 2016 - votes 8,969M; Rep 4,685M Dem 3,878M, and +280M 3rd party. Compared to 2012, HRC added 570 (recapture 200M 2012 loss plus 370M), and DT added 110M. 2020 votes 11,315M, DT 5,890M, Biden 5250M and 3rd down 240M.

The same pattern was seen in GA. However, the Rep began with a lower percentage statewide. Possibly higher voter disenfranchisement than TX, and possibly lower voter disenfranchisement in 2020 that combined with Covid anger flipped the state by a meager amount.

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2 users have voted.
The Liberal Moonbat's picture

(I'd have said "error", but that's too polite)

...has always been an inordinate obsession with having the majority.

The Marxist discomfort with the inconvenient truths of evolutionary biology is really starting to reveal itself for the handicap it has always been.

"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."

― Oscar Wilde

The majority would rather take poison than take a stand, and will go along with anything (sickeningly, it even makes evolutionary sense!).

On the other hand....

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

— Margaret Mead

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3 users have voted.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

This could be due to massive vote fraud in 2020 or it could be a measure of voter alienation from electoral politics.

The latter's been the case (actively encouraged as it was, after all, by "inverse totalitarianism") for a VERY long time.

As for the former, I am open to the possibility (the idea that there was exceptional turnout when it was more difficult than ever TO turn out certainly seems strange)...but first step would be to get quite a few more data-points than just the last two Elections!

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3 users have voted.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!