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Stella P.'s avatar

It's not even that he won; I was prepared for that. The margin of victory is absolutely staggering to me. All polls and surveys (including the Selzer poll, which was off 17 points) might as well have been conducted on a different planet.

And unlike other times when Republicans took control, straight white men won't be able to say "well, it's fine for us!" When tariffs drive up the price of everything, and food isn't safe to eat and medicine isn't available because RFK Jr. is in charge of the CDC and the FDA, and their favorite foreign-born athletes get deported, they might have some buyer's remorse. But by then, it won't matter.

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Dr Bob's avatar

Never underestimate the American voter. Harris had a big hill to climb, with Trump supporters thinking he was better on the economy (maybe for rich people!) combined with rampant misogyny and racism, which was amplified at his events.

I'm devastated by the results but looking at our history, we've had these problems since our country was founded!

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Susanna J. Sturgis's avatar

Same here. First I went back to the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts of the mid-60s. That led me back to Jim Crow, which led me back to the Civil War, which led me back to the founding -- and maybe to 1619.

Add in the abysmal economic ignorance of the U.S. electorate, which has much to do with the fact that we rarely talk about it, and the fact that we rarely talk about it can be traced back to the mid to late 19th century when even the mildest criticism of unregulated capitalism was trashed as socialism, communism, anarchism, etc. Compare the U.S. labor movement to its European counterparts. Joe McCarthy died but McCarthyism never did.

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Ellen Mahoney's avatar

My feelings, exactly. How can any candidate overcome baked-in prejudice, especially racism?

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