He garnered less than 50% of the vote…again. He has a tiny majority in the senate and a 1-seat majority in the house.
Yes, the GOP controls all branches of government and he controls the GOP, but a landslide it ain’t.
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If you look at it from the perspective of eroding norms and crumbling institutions, it’s definitely a landslide.
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Oh, for sure. And he’ll rule like it was a Mondalesque shellacking. But it wasn’t.
It’s an election, not college football. Doesn’t matter if it’s by one vote or 10 million votes, a win is a win.
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Not true. You’re supposed to represent the people and adjust accordingly if your victory is narrow. Treating politics like sports is one of the big problems we have with how politics is covered.
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And you think Trump is actually going to say to himself “well, it was close, so I’d better adjust accordingly”? My point is that it doesn’t matter if Trump won by 1 vote or 10 million, he’s going to be the same self-absorbed jackass he’s always been. Margin of victory doesn’t factor into his thinking. He won the election. He gets to be President. That’s how it works.
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I’m not arguing that this isn’t what Trump is going to do. I’m just saying that politics isn’t sports (college or otherwise) just because Trump treats it as such. To do so is to normalize the behavior of Trump and the GOP at large.
Well the past few elections show that’s already happened.
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You’re missing the point. Elections have consequences. One of those is that the person who wins gets to hold office. There is no distinction between a close race or a landslide. As much as you want it to be, that’s just not how it works.
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The last Republican president prior to Trump had a margin of victory vastly greater than Trump has ever achieved. He tried to privatize Social Security and got totally shut down. That’s how things used to work before 2016.
That is how it works for Trump (because his political support is a cult). As I posted to Sid above, that is not how it has worked for every other president not called Trump. It’s not how it was for Biden, and he followed Trump into office.
Saying “it’s just how it is” because that’s how it is for Trump, is normalizing Trump.
You’re suggesting that winners of elections typically back off and soften their agenda if it’s a close vote. That is simply not historically accurate. Trump outlined his agenda. Harris outlined hers. More people said “I want Trump’s” than they said of Harris’s. We get Trump’s. Yes, there are checks and balances, allegedly, but to suggest that the winning party typically tries to advance their policies proportionate to the vote is revisionist history.
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I never said “proportionate to the vote”. A politician - not a cult leader - has to weigh up the political cost of pushing an unpopular agenda. Trump is anomalous in that he is free from the political consequences of his actions because of the nature of his supporters; his uncritical, unthinking, loyal supporters.
You are trying to say that Trump is normal. He isn’t, and it is dangerous to accept that he is.
I’m not saying Trump or his particular policies are “normal” in the absolute sense, I’m saying that a party in charge pushing their agenda, irrespective of their margin of victory, is typical. As for whether or not his agenda is unpopular…he did garner the most votes, so there’s that evidence to suggest otherwise.
I would say most people chose Trump simply because they are not happy with their current lot in life and Biden is a Democrat.
Its as simple as that.
I know so many people that are educated and intelligent, and I respect who simply didn’t take the time or interest in actually learning what each candidate stands for.
Sadly, many of them are family members that I love.
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Casual voters akin to casual sports fans.
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Casual fans don’t determine the outcome.
Dr. Oz and Linda McMahon (yes, that Linda McMahon…the WWF Linda McMahon) join the list of Trump cabinet nominations as Administrator for the Centers of MediCare & MedicAid and Secretary of Education respectively. Proving that there is still yet more room in the clown car.
Fun Fact: the Centers of MediCare & MedicAid has 6,000 employees and a budget of $1 trillion. Yes, trillion with a “tuh”.
McMahon is infinitely more qualified than was Betsy DeVos, so you could argue that’s an upgrade.
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For a department they want to eliminate!
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