As an independent who did not vote for Trump, I have observed how the Ds have treated the Rs and vice versa. As a result, I am highly pessimistic that either side will give the other a chance anytime soon. I am in my 60s. I think it unlikely this will happen in my lifetime. Maybe that of my kids? Hope lives eternal.
26
This report is inexpressibly sad.
It accepts premises that we must reject to have any chance of restoring even a semblance of comity in our civic life.
Republicans (even Trump supporters) are no more a monolithic group than Democrats. Just as some progressives voted for Biden intending to "pressure" him to be less moderate, some voters chose Trump because their lives actually are better than when he was elected. I don't need to read more denigrating caricatures. I need interviews that help me understand the complexity of Trump voters' lives and their thinking. What moved them to support this sociopath?
The "battle for the soul of America" barely began with the 2020 election. Did anyone really think that one election was going to narrow a chasm that existed long before Mr Trump widened it?
Democrats have a great deal of work to do to demonstrate, not just assert, that this government serves all the people. When a post-election commentator recently referred to "white working Americans," James Carville snapped, "Black Americans work, too"--an essential rebuke of our polling-driven categories. Why not policies that benefit all working Americans?
Those of us who want to contribute to healing must stop demonizing those who disagree with us and start listening. The president-elect's respect for all citizens is the role model we need to follow. Divisive labeling just emulates Trump.
39
@Thinking Matters
"Those of us who want to contribute to healing must stop demonizing those who disagree with us and start listening. "
I will do so when they stop threatening to jail, harm or kill me.
37
To the woman who said democrats haven't earned it, I have news for you. It is you and yours who have abandoned decency and embraced dishonesty and cruelty. It is you and yours who must ask forgiveness. It is you and yours who need to do the work of recognizing that you have been in a cult, to extricate yourselves, and to look inside at your own shadow.
When you hate more than you love, something is wrong. When you think you and yours are actually more deserving of a decent life than people who are different from you, something is wrong with you. When you value money over life, you have lost your way, and when you choose to follow a proven liar, your moral compass is broken.
85
Deep divisions? Its past time to justify Trump's cult. They are deeply dangerous, fascist, unforgivable. We cannot let Trump enact a coup. He is in process. Right now.
Democrats remain asleep at the wheel.
28
To the woman who said democrats haven't earned it, I have news for you. It is you and yours who have abandoned decency and embraced dishonesty and cruelty. It is you and yours who must ask forgiveness. It is you and yours who need to do the work of recognizing that you have been in a cult, to extricate yourselves, and to look inside at your own shadow.
When you hate more than you love, something is wrong. When you think you and yours are actually more deserving of a decent life than people who are different from you, something is wrong with you. When you value money over life, you have lost your way, and when you choose to follow a proven liar, your moral compass is broken.
18
What are you talking about? Democrats, Republicans, & Independents elected Biden!
19
Biden must not send his cabinet choices to appear before the senate to be insulted for the entertainment of the cult
Acting members have been good enough - they are still good enough
Strip every appearance of power held by the GOP
Biden needs to learn from Obama's biggest mistake and fight
Obama never fought for anything he folded like a cheap lawn chair
If the GOP isn't ground into paste - dems failing to show in 22 will hand the GOP both houses - thats how dens roll
17
Despite the many talents of your reporter Astead Herndon's gallant efforts, I fail to see the journalistic value of yet another "Trump Voter Safari" from the New York Times. For Times readers such as myself who vote Democratic while residing in so-called "red states," it erases the efforts of activists, candidates, and elected officials here while glorifying nimrods, whose anecdotal nonsense is already status quo. How about some articles on how Arizona and Georgia, along with three other states Trump won in 2016, turned blue? Who are those voters? I'm far more interested in what they might say, and I'm positive that writing about those voters is a better use of Herndon's time.
47
Now they can feel the I felt when vulgar Trump won the Presidency with the Christian/Evangelicals blessings...
At least I don't have to use religion in vain... only reasoning...
13
It's futile for Biden/Harris to reach out to the GOP for help in healing the nation. The Republicans will not budge an inch if it would help the Dems. It's time to grow some and just do what is needed to help the economy, deal with the Covid crisis, repair our foreign policy issues, implement health care reform, balance income inequality, etc. Obama tried to meet the GOP half way on health care and see where that got him. Biden needs to use the power of the executive office to further the policies the country needs. The Republicans will not lift a finger to help.
32
These are the laments of older voters who are dead enders living in their dead end towns. The world has passed you by because you refuse to learn and grow. The world has changed and instead of adapting, you resist and worse yet, demand that other cling to your reactionary and outmoded ways. Get over yourselves.
30
Mr. Smith isn't watching very carefully, if he thinks the immigrants are "just sitting on their butts". A local roofing contractor told me recently about his 100% Latino crew that "You can't find Americans who will work this hard and carefully." He's not the first small business owner I've heard say pretty much the same thing.
So, Mr. Smith, we've never met, but I sincerely hope you'll consider using the time you have left on this earth to learn and grow. Get to know some immigrants who do things you value. You can do it, and if you get to know them, and they you, what's the harm in that? Maybe your wife would be interested to join you.
Either way, I think you'll appreciate it after a few months that there is less racist name calling, fewer lies, and less family profiteering from the office time--and, I'll wager, no attempts to recruit help from foreign powers in smearing your opponent. All these things we've been living with for four years now--surely you'll be glad *they* are in the rear-view mirror? If Trump stays in the limelight, insulting and lying, I don't think you can expect people to love it, though. Good luck.
35
Trump supporters fully armed, entered polling places to see if anyone was intimidating voters.
White Trump supporters outside mostly black precincts demanded they “stop the count”.
White Trump supporters outside mostly white precincts demanded they “count the vote”.
Trump supporters believe they are protecting our democracy but say they will not accept a Biden win no matter what.
Trump supporters don’t want the government giving money to others, but their red states take more money from the government than they give.
Hypocrisy has never gone out of style, but they’ve been wearing it for awhile.
43
It’s time for the GOP to go. It has become a party of fringe lunatics and has no business governing. I do not understand the vitriol and hate of fellow Americans. I truly don’t.
29
“Now you want healing,” she added. “Now you want to come together.” So true!
5
There is something sick, and rotten to the core about the Republicans. They have been on this path since Nixon, really.
Petulant children holding their breath, refusing to cooperate.
Biting off their noses to spite their faces - and chewing.
23
I hate the Red States. And I don't use that vulgar verb lightly.
I hate their ignorance, their bigotry, their phony Christianity, their boring beer, barbecue, and Trump culture.
Judging from this article, they feel pretty much the same about Blue states such as Connecticut.
I don't want them to pray for me at their comical mega-churches. I sure won't pray for them at my little Episcopal church on the town green.
The country is irretrievably and definitively split and that's okay. Let's figure out a path to go our separate ways over the next couple of decades, a divorce that, as with a bad marriage, is necessary and therapeutic.
We will both be so much better off.
21
I hold out hope that Biden's skill at building and nurturing personal relationships, especially across the aisle, will soften the Grinchy hearts of McConnell and his ilk and Congress will be permitted to do its job.
5
It’ll take more than a week. Lol... I do believe Biden’s presidency will slowly calm this country down, but it’s on all of us to control our tone and lower the temperature.
13
American liberals, Democrats and progressives, at what point do you clue in that the Republicans declared war on not only truth and reality, but on you decades ago when Reagan appeared? At what point do you fight back?
It shouldn't take a Canadian to point out what is so bloody obvious - they have no interest in working with you on anything at any point. So stop trying! Acknowledge what they really want - war - and give it to them. Enact your legislation as they would. Cram the courts as they would. Let them whine and complain - they were going to do that anyways!
29
He hasn’t asked Trumper’s to give him a chance, unless they want to join reality. And time to call the remnants in the House and Senate what they are: Trump Party. You have conjones (for the guys) and common sense for the females, you either become an independent or switch parties (long tradition there). Trump intends to kick you the curb and steal your wallet and spare change.
10
Given the fact that even with this years record turnout, American voter participation is still not very high when compared to peer countries who have much higher rates of the number of people voting as a % of the total pool of eligible voters. Out of this group of 35 Countries...the U.S consistently ranks 30th with Voter Participation rates varying between 50-58% of all who could vote.*
Thus, (broadly speaking), Biden won 50.9% and Trump 47.3% of the popular vote which was around just 55% of the total number of eligible voters.
So one could say that Joe Biden won the 2020 Presidential election with the highest number of votes cast for a President in history...garnering just a little bit over 25% of the number of Americans who can vote and Trump with the second highest number of votes cast in history...yet represented LESS than a quarter of the eligible votes that potentially could be cast.
Given these numbers and the historically low voter turnout rate...the growing divisions and acrimony among Americans across party political lines...seems to suggest that the nation is being torn apart and divided by a motivated Minority of its people!
That's just so wrong.
More Americans need to vote and get involved.
Voting must be made much easier.
Many Americans need to think about others more...try to be less selfish and more inclusive.
It's a start.
* https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/11/03/in-past-elections-u-s-trailed-most-developed-countries-in-voter-turnout/
14
Are we all just gonna be cool with the “string them up” comment, referencing (presumably) BLM protestors? Something is deeply broken and this article has nothing to do with politics. Unacceptable.
19
The left hasn't "earned" healing? I say this to Trumpers. We could have healed under Trump. We could have come together. But did you hear your president ASK the people to come together and heal? No, you did not. You heard your president urge us to hate each other. Your president told you to "own the libs," and "make the libs cry." Well, you are not going to hear that kind of language from President Biden. If we are ever going to make peace, we have to start somewhere.
28
Now Ds want healing? And they haven't earned it? What high horse is that Church Lady on?
12
Clearly, these Trump supporters are a dying breed; when they assemble en masse, where are their masks and where is their social distancing. In the middle of this lethal COVID-19 pandemic, their ignorance and disregard of basic science will certainly destroy them.
13
These southern Republicans need to learn to respect and appreciate us Northern Liberals. Without our taxes they would not have the life they then have. They take this for granted and offer nothing in return.
13
And when you wonder why the divide can't be bridged, read the last couple of paragraphs of this story.
7
As I have always thought, the wall was being built on the wrong side of Texas.
11
Trump supporters whose primary source of news is Infowars and Brietbart (now that Fox has declared their candidate a Loser), are irredeemable and irrational!
This is not the news!! So why does the river of newsprint ink continue to run on about them?
It’s time to leave them to their delusions. And the rest of us free from the constant bombardment of same.
12
Time to step away from Trumpland and stop pandering to his base. There’s nothing there to understand. Stop giving utter lies and nonsense and backwardness and racism a voice. We need to move forward as a nation that respects science, facts, and reality. They need to get with the program or shut up. I’m over it!
11
How do you ''un-dumb'' America? The bookends of ultra-conservative media and the lack of critical thinking skills have plunged our country into a real life ''Idiocracy'' that is regurgitated at every (esp rural) peer group, including church. No one is raising their hand and saying ''but what about?'' as that would require being ostracized forever. That small box of inward facing mirrors leads to extremism and opens the door to conspiracy theories and cult-like movements, some even dangerous.
One of the more troubling issues is the indoctrination of this absurdity. This Idiocracy is being taught as truth at home to the impressionable young as though it were part of some misguided 24/7 home school. For those paying attention, a cult can become the next religion regardless of moral basis of good or evil, Nazis as example. Christ would be considered good and I'm sure today's public idols are just the opposite. This problem should be self correcting in a Darwin process, but there has to be logic and reason to ''un-dumb'' the country.
9
That these people still think Trump is their’s, or the Union’s, savior, is telling. It’s time to throw the flag and tell the “Old South”, “Okay, you can have it”. Let the Progressive Secession proceed and leave those fools behind. Let the Top 10 in everything third-worldly carry on... at least they’d be isolated.
5
Biden should ask them to grow up.
6
These people are delusional. Theyre afraid of a bogeyman that doesnt exist. But they're right about the division. Who is there to meet in the middle ? There can't be any give and take when 1 side refuses to live in reality
9
Can we please have a replay of 1861 only it's Trumpworld that secedes and instead of going to war to stop them we just wave goodbye?
6
They're not interested because half of them took Russian money and are going to prison.
3
“Everything I worked for, Biden wants to give to the immigrants to help them live, when they don’t do nothing but sit on their butts,” Mr. Smith said.
As someone who is married to an immigrant, Mr. Smith has clearly never met or interacted with an immigrant. He wouldn't know how hard immigrants in this country work to help support their families and improve their communities.
22
“'Everything I worked for, Biden wants to give to the immigrants to help them live, when they don’t do nothing...'"
...Except pick your crops, deliver your mail, build your houses, drive your taxis and buses, clean your homes, repair your streets, run your bodegas, nanny your children and grandchildren, cook your food....Yeah. Sitting on their butts.
The cultural resentment is probably too strong for us to overcome, but the idea that hate and grievance can maintain our society, in a simulacrum-wrapper of "christian" living, is simply a stance we need to start walking away from as a nation.
Many of us didn't want Trump, but when he became president, we gave him the opportunity to be our president. He gave us the finger instead. Now, these folks appear to be doing the reverse to Biden -- he is trying to offer himself as a president to all of us, but they now are the ones flipping him off, along with the rest of us.
And yet, I still have hope that we will get past this moment, and find our footing as a good people, and a great country for the future.
16
The minute Biden was called, I took out Alexa in my driveway, called for party music, dressed up and proceeded to dance my head off hoping to find a way to celebrate and some solidarity.
It was awesome! Ppl stopped to wave, take videos, honk, smile or just drove by.
Well I’m in a pink district that was baby blue before and it just flipped again. But as the day went on, I noticed certain cars speed up angrily after they catch on to why I’m dancing I guess.
Then as evening approached (yes I did dance and yell all day), a car very creepily pulled up and the young man inside proceeded to stare me down. Then another car joined him and then another. A small procession of creepy cars and even creepier drivers?
My gut told me to stop and go inside. So I did. The cars hovered for a while then left.
I wondered if these were just angry Trump ppl. Really folks?? You intimidated the middle aged suburban lady whose worse transgression in life is dancing publicly?? What has it come to. And why did I let them intimidate me?
17
It has been exact a week and we get a gratuitous schadenfreude article to churn the media conflict narrative. Sigh.
2
I taught for one year in a small rural Kansas town before going to graduate school. It was very interesting to teach farm children because there were two distinct sets of students. First, my best set of students knew their only way to escape the farm forever was to obtain a college scholarship. They worked their tails off! Second, my worst students were farm children who knew they would inherit the family farm and they were lazy students and into drugs. I had students doing drugs and told the principal and nothing was done. Towards the end of the school year, I went to the teacher’s lounge and there were two Topeka police detectives wanting to know which students were peddling drugs. The next year the Kansas Bureau of Investigation planted an agent as a janitor in the high school and they busted 26 kids for drugs including the police chief’s son. The first set of students made it out of the farm/drug den and the dumb/drug kids are today’s Trumpsters. They also decry “socialism” as they cash their Federal checks because Trump destroyed their foreign markets with his stupid trade war!!! The year I taught in the small Kansas farm town was 1975-76 and I believe things are worse 45 years later!!!
12
The ignorant need to be represented in our democracy too! If we keep getting dragged down, so be it.
1
No one thought Republicans would simply say, "Yeah, we're tired of stupid bickering and demonizing. Let's give Biden a chance to govern." did they? No, it's not going to happen that way if it ever does. One thing the democrats must Make Happen right away is bringing back the Fairness Doctrine. Some counter to outright lying and mendacious innuendo in the media has to happen and soon. The level of ignorance and indoctrination of misinformation among Trump supporters is untenable in a civil society based on Democracy. Democracy depends on an informed citizenry. Right now nearly half of the citizenry is wrongly informed. Once disinformation is discredited, if people still insist on willful ignorance then that's what the rest of the country has to address.
But... Biden and democrats can move ahead with policy that helps with problems in rural America. Just as they ahead with problems of wealth inequality and police violence. Help with the material economic and health issues without acquiescing to ridiculous identity political demands on the right or the left. Over time, some portion of rural voters will see that Biden, and Democrats (In spite of the democrat financial elite who still own the party) do intend to remedy wrongs all across the country. Unlike Trump, who didn't actually help anybody except himself and people that would increase his own celebrity.
8
Trump gave them Covid and rallies....oh, and tariffs. How is Biden going top that? Competent governance? Fairness? Sooooo boring. Biden’s certainly no President Camacho, but our democracy has been replaced with an Idiocracy.
5
If Trump had won a second term, does anyone seriously believe he'd be talking about reconciliation? Why in God's name should Americans attempt to play pattycakes with people who've spent the last four years actively trying to destroy democracy? There are no longer two political parties in the U.S. There's the Democratic Party, and a death cult. If this country has any hopes of surviving, Democrats and progressives MUST push through a swift, agressive agenda, no matter how much Fox News and the White Supremacist media whine.
12
What Biden is facing is the trashed remains of a government, wrecked by a loser. If Trump can’t win the big prize, he will happily ruin everything in his wake. That’s the long and short of his warped non-strategy. I wish the genuine news would stop tiptoeing around the obvious.
11
Obama tried bipartisanship with the ACA, then the Republicans pretended like they had nothing to do with it, and are still completely dishonest about the law. Biden would be a fool to think Mitch Mcconnell hasn't already began the predictable sudden caring about the deficit for 2022. He's a snake, so treat him like it.
9
One only has to read these comments full of hatred, contempt and perceived superiority to understand why the other half of the country won’t work with Biden and his followers.
8
“Not everyone thought the election was over, and not everyone said they would respect the results.”
“My Democratic friends think Biden is going to heal everything and unify everyone,” said Jeanie Smith, who attends the more conservative Spring Street Gospel Church in Mason, which is about 100 miles west of Austin. “They are deceived.”
Yeah, Ok. And you’re covering these folks, why? I’ve seen enough of this behavior from the extremists on both sides. Enough already. Stop covering it.
6
1. I felt the same way when Trump’s family cheated and asked for help from Russia to smear Trump’s opponent. I could not believe people elected this grifter.
2. The people in the photos are not wearing masks. Maybe they have not yet experienced the pain of this pandemic...yet. This pain in my state led to mail in voting which made it easier to vote safely. Democrats did this. Republicans did not. Trump told them to vote in person even though they would have to stand in line and risk getting Covid.
3. The people in this article did not understand or try to understand that my state could not open the ballots until Election Day. Our very nasty Republican legislature would not allow it. Why? Because they wanted people like them to think there was fraud. There is no fraud. It takes a long time to open and count the ballots. They should try doing it.
4. Biden vs. Trump? Trust me when I say more people in Pennsylvania voted for Biden. They trust him here. Why do you think Trump bribed the leader of Ukraine to find dirt on Biden.?Trump knew Biden could win Pennsylvania. He and his family were successful in spreading the dirt on Hillary but not on Biden. Tump got caught.
5. To the woman who said she would string up the protestors who came to her town ...I ask will she do it wearing the cross around her neck?
There are Republicans who will accept the outcome of this election. They do not listen to conspiracy theorists or right wing radio. They read newspapers and rely on the facts.
9
The President preaches hate and division. Is it any surprise his followers do the same?
9
Biden needs to learn from the mistakes of Barack Obama.
Obama tried to create a "Big Tent" for all to work together to heal the country after two disastrous terms of GW Bush. But the Republicans set fire to that tent and pursued a scorched earth policy - absolutely no compromise with our first African-American president.
Joe : Take no prisoners! Or they will eat you alive!!
10
I have a dear relative who is an intelligent, loving person. He honestly and truly believes that the US is on the cusp of being overtaken by communism, which will be ushered by all the "socialists" in the Democratic party. He also believes we are on the edge of our cities being destroyed by violent antifa criminals.
I really hope Biden can put these nonsensical ideas to rest. It will be an uphill battle.
8
Is this article a joke? Democrats never gave Trump a chance. They wanted him impeached form Day 1. Republicans will do the same to Biden. This country will forever remain divided.
6
This looks so Northern Ireland, 1974.
5
Biden's message of civility and respect is great, but 90 percent of Trump's message was "vote for me no matter what I do because those people hate and despise you and want to undermine and destroy all you stand for and care about and micromanage your life" so yeah no kumbaya moment forthcoming.
5
"And if those protesters come here, if they go tearing up stuff, I guarantee you they won’t be in this town very long,”
He means if they act like the Trump supporters who invaded Portland.
9
The Smiths are just wonderful Christians, aren’t they? Sporting the cross while talking about stringing up people who protest for humanitarian rights.
14
Doing nothing to assist the People of the United States from this administration in a deadly pandemic is not protecting the citizenry to any degree at all. Death, in horrifying numbers avoided in countries that have effective leadership, are suffered here in mal intent’s wake. Why is this not referred to as mass murder?
6
“Not my President”
is a 2 way street.
5
Hello NYT. After the election in 2016, you made a commitment to searching more broadly for a wide range of views from across America — pushing your readers to understand “the other side” of tough issues. I’m very grateful for your work. However, this article is full of warmed-over comments that seem intended to inflame rather than inform. There was nothing new here for regular readers of your paper. Sadly, we’ve “met” these people before. I expect more from the most important paper in our country. Dig deeper.
9
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”
— Isaac Asimov
Christopher Krebs, director of DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, put out a joint report, with state and local election officials, calling the 2020 election, “the most secure in American history.... there is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised." The tribal anti-truth spewing out of right wing media, landing on people not discerning enough to see it, or honorable enough to reject it, is a serious on-going problem. The wall of misinformation and partisan hatred is high and solid. Dealing with this has to be near the top of Joe Biden’s agenda.
8
Color me surprised.
All the more reason to abandon the corporate Democratic politics of the past 3 decades that have obviously failed.
If Democrats are actually interested in data and results, it’s time to revisit progressivism and the “liberal” agenda that even Richard Nixon supported. It is impossible to win over people who honestly think Democrats are drinking baby blood.
It is disappointing to me that some Democrats even... I... let’s just be real here.
2
“It’s just a little upsetting when you go to bed at night, and all of a sudden, four days later, these votes are magically appearing,” Ms. Strong said."
How many times do we have go over this? For Ms. Strong, Ms. Bell, and all the rest. Once more, slowly...Trump encouraged all of his loyal followers to vote on Nov. 3, in person. Biden supporters, respecting each other and the community at large, including all of you, voted by mail so as not to spread the pandemic. So Nov 3 returns showed Trump voters, and later counting showed Biden voters. Especially since Repub legislators tried to muddy the waters by refusing to permit early voters to be counted early. See? There is no magic, Ms. Strong, and nothing suspicious, Ms. Bell.
As for Jeanie Smith, how dare you say I haven't earned the right to want the country to heal. How dare you!
12
Never thought I’d say this but I agree w/these ppl, as a liberal progressive, I have ZERO interest in a “Kumbaya” moment w/these or any, hateful, bigoted rightwingers.
I’ve heard ad nauseam since the election, “what about the trump supporters...we have to let them accept the election, we can’t judge them”. Never ONCE have I EVER heard from ANY republican, politician or voter...we have to listen to the Democrats, let’s hear what THEY care about, see how they’re feeling since our guy never gets the popular vote just the electoral college.
These ppl were sore winners, is anyone surprised they’re sore losers?? Biden was the last person I wanted to vote for, he’s basically a moderate republican, and without the Senate he’ll accomplish exactly zero so why are these ppl STILL complaining??
McConnell has already kidnapped the ENTIRE Federal judiciary ensuring we’ll continue to be governed by the MINORITY for the next forty years. I’ll go out on a limb here and surmise they’re simply not smart enough to realize they won...at least for the foreseeable future.
7
The real agenda—protecting their white supremacy—comes out at the end of the article. These “hard-working” people are constantly terrified and resentful that some “immigrant” is going to take what little they have. It’s always them vs. us. Always assuming the poor-me victim role—just like “their” president. Maybe they are the ones who have to “earn” the right to participate in civilized society after the horror show they helped inflict on the rest of us in the form of Donald Trump.
7
First thing Biden should do is EO that states only get back the money they pay in so when when the red states lose 20-50% of their GDP ....
9
While they scream “Stop the Steal” and “their” president rushed to appoint a Supreme Court justice just weeks before a presidential election after stating that President Obama couldn’t do so 10 MONTHS before he was to leave office, they will now just have to learn to shut up, take a seat in the dunce corner and squirm a while just like Democrats had to do for the last four years. What goes around has come around. Get over your science and truth-denying selves and put on your masks or take your chances with the ineffective leadership your candidate demonstrated with COVID-19. The ignorance is beyond comprehensible.
7
I mean, it's Texas, the state that flies it's flag above the United States flag, the placed that gave us the Waco incident. This is not a good litmus test of "crossroads America". You might as well be doing an poll in Iran of what brand of bacon they like best.
4
Mr. Herndon: I believe your article is setting up a self-fulfilling prophecy...You want to emphasize division...you look for is the divisive voices....you are acting like Trump's echo chamber...keep it up and you will find what you are looking for because that is what you choose to look for and therefore that is what you will see...this is not the depth of truly thoughtful journalism...it is cheap and petty and reaching for the low hanging fruit to stoke controversy to instill fear and doubt...to sell papers...I am not impressed...especially at this juncture in our culture...
5
Did the Democrats give Trump a chance in 2016? As I recall he wasn't their President. Prominent Democrats claimed he was illegitimate. Half the Democrat congressional caucus failed to show up to his inauguration. Thousands demonstrated violently during his inauguration and the Democrats and media spent four years demonizing Trump. Hahaha, now you wonder why Republicans have no interest in working with Biden. Game on. What goes around comes around.The Biden administration is going to spend four years tied in knots..
5
I don’t know. You tell them the same things Trump did and they will still call you a socialist gun hating grubby liberal. It only in action that it will work. But we need the Senate for that. Get people jobs and healthcare and protection during these disasters and they will come over. They are stubborn and have been manipulated by powers that they can’t see. First thing is first. Stop worrying about their feelings or motives. You can’t win there. Get on with governance as soon as possible.
24
“Now you want healing. Now you want to come together. You have not earned it.”
This statement, coming from a professed Christian, is so deeply emblematic of the masses of church-goers who have, in actuality, lost their religion in their support of not just Trump, but in evangelizing the gospel of the aggrieved white Republican. They have forgotten (or ignored) that their creed is supposed to be gospel of forgiveness, of “love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you...”
As a fellow Christian, I mourn for these people who put their political tribe before country, and even their God. Their exclusionary definition of patriotism is, ironically, the single greatest threat to the continuity of our great country; not the liberalism and “socialism” that their “great leader” and his sycophants in conservative media decry as if it were still 1951. They supported and propped up the most authoritarian and anti-Christian president in our nation’s history... how could that possibly be patriotic? What comes next?
59
Pres-Elect Biden is decent, honorable, virtuous, forthright and patriotic. So are those who support him. But it's been conclusively proven ad infinitum that Republicans are the opposite: indecent, dishonorable, malicious, bereft of virtue, even traitorous. And those are just the elected ones. Republicans are and have been priming this country for a civil war. They cater to 70 million self-defeating Americans who couldn't pass a civics class or an ethics course. Blissfully ignorant people without critical thinking ability; all too happy to swallow the kind of dogma and mythology that is ultimately against even their own interests.
Under Trump, McConnell, Barr, SCOTUS, et. al., Republicans and conservatives gleefully flout, undermine or give the Law the middle finger while shamelessly threatening: "What are you gonna do about it?"
The Democratic House of Representatives has the purse strings and we have a Democratic President. It's way past time for them to use a strong-arm approach in the face of Republican terrorism.
42
I am sadly not that interested in supporting losers and that is what they are. Just like the President they just refuse to accept the obvious. Everything is fake to them.. The News, The Vote, The Deficit, Covid, the failing economy. They don’t work why else do they have the time to attend rallies, drive around in their pickup truck with their Trump
flags. The labor participation rate for prime age men (25-54) has never been lower. They were not working before covid. They are on SS disability and VA disability gaming the system. Their wives are supporting them.
24
The Republicans will never listen to honest, decent people.
19
All politicians with an (R) next to their name - and all their partisan propaganda media soldiers (here and abroad) in TV, Radio, Print and Digital formats - have caused our beloved country incalculable harm by conning the less informed, less educated, and less engaged 1/2 of our voting public . . . and they MUST be held accountable for it.
A Republican win in today's US Senate, would not be what America's Founder's intended, when they created government checks and balances. No. No, today they would see something they never could have envisioned 200+ years ago. A party that exists, solely, for the betterment, and enrichment, of only the informed, well funded, and well connected Republicans at the very top of the economic spectrum.
Tragically, the vast majority of Republican voters, those mesmerized by the big lie and conspiracy con, do not even benefit from the right-wing agenda (dig the country deeper in debt by robbing the treasury to give the ultra-wealthy tax breaks for even more greedy wealth; blame their own larceny on the poor, the sick, the liberals and Democrats; and con uninformed voters into thinking that they are the better stewards of the economy, foreign trade and of our National Defense). It's all a lie, all a con.
The biggest con artist of them all just happens to lead todays US Senate. Georgia matters folks! Stop obstruction of action and progress in government, and vote the (R)'s out.
26
if these trump show cult worshipers who accept dRump's fascistic authoritarianism view of america over democracy, than i am glad that many of them are following their leader's ignorance by not wearing masks.
11
"... and the state’s (Texas) Republican lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, has offered $1 million for anyone who produces evidence of voter fraud."
Dan, is this a tax free $1 million because I will find one for this amount of money, US cash dollars only no debit cards, $20.00 denominations, and less, accepted.
Oh by the way I voted for Biden, but I cheated on my ballot. I created my own little oval with my Sharpie, and filled two ovals next to his name. Will this 'count' as a fraud? If so would like to collect my payoff. My contribution (the two ovals) to the Biden Campaign instead of a traceable monetary donation and future tax deduction.
Gullible ignorance is bliss, I know and realize this, however...
Learning and trying to find some humor in all this 'fraud' going around. If it can make me a million....am counting on you Dan. Be it I'm the first one taking you up on your offer...
Unbelievable, just when you think you can't make this stuff up!
4
You don't want to meet Joe Biden halfway?
A pox on your house.
How dare you refuse this decent "plain Joe" American his offer of help and common ground because you're devoted to a myth of wrongful mail in voting and other far Right agendas.
If you imagine that by proceeding this way you secure a truer America you could not be more wrong.
16
Being polite to the invading Barbarians did not go well for Rome. We Demos are reminded to be nice and understanding of the other side. Typical. They hate us for our weakness and every liberal motion. Limp through another four years and they will be back. They have had a plan since Nixon, at least. Hatred is a powerful motive. Add in religion and fanaticism, blind to the history of fascism and strong leaders and here we go again.
12
Why over intellectualize the Trump supporters? They’re just bruising for a fight.
13
The election did not diminish the number of dumbells in America. You can see it in the simple-minded comments in this article. The intensity of Republicans' anger is fueled by their utter ignorance of the facts. No not everybody in rural America is a bigot rube. But it seems to be getting more so, which defines the challenge for Democrats going forward. These people fear the diverse new America the Democrats represent. Intead of progress they see depravity. Biden's victory doesn't change that. One thing that might is for the American outback to continue to hollow out. And, the Trumper core can die off. That they continued to skew old in this election is one of the few consolations Democratic strategists will find.
13
No importa. With a Republican majority in the Senate, the next 4 years will be a waste of time. Biden's Cabinet appointees will be rejected and other Key positions will be filled with proven Fools. I'd bet that Biden & Harris will not last out their Terms. World events will cancel them. Get ready - Trump 2024!
4
These poor people reject every legitimate news source as “fake news” and hold tight to Facebook memes and conspiracy theories as fact. They only hear things that echo their own misguided hopes.
12
Outwardly, my optimism is usually informed but idealistic. A conscious, deliberate naïveté, a “non-believer” that believes in our angels and potential . Closer to the core, I’m a stoic. But now, I believe we’re witnessing the brewing of a civil war. Gargantuan social and economic divisions, shredded social trust, financially motivated dis/misinformation and social manipulation defended as free speech, mind-boggling degree of legal and illegal weapon ownership and sales, existential threat to health and livelihood due to COVID pandemic, massive drug use epidemic (all types)... Biden isn’t going to solve the collective damage/trauma inflicted by decades of political abusiveness upon Americans - by Americans. He could help change the tone, yes. But much of America’s soul has rotted by $ worship, selfish aims, general arrogance, backwardness, simple mindedness and more, at exactly the time in history that requires an ability to acknowledge and comprehend complexity, when collaboration is required- not optional, when fixing society and environment is more urgent than fulfilling self and exploiting nature and natural resources for one’s “fun” or “lifestyle”. We’re our own worst enemies. So ya, now, I feel the worst has yet to come. I long for the days with pockets of loons, like the Branch Davidians. Now, insanity is legitimized. Me, I’m going to keep creating brightness in small ways - for work and in family & community, regardless of who the POTUS is. US politics is poison.
5
A couple of follow-up questions that should have been posed to these Trump supporters: “Do you belive President Obama is a U.S. born citizen?” and “Do you believe President Obama is a Muslim?” Interview over, depending on their response.
How about profiles (and evidence other than exit polls) on the supposed increase of Black and non-Cuban Latino voters who backed Trump?
3
SO are all the Republicans who won down ballot races also illegitimate?
12
I politely asked a customer to put his mask on at our business, where it is required by law. He chewed me out and said he was sick of people being on his case about not wearing a mask. I said I was asking because we don't want to be shut down, and he just scowled. Now, it turns out, we are being shut down because of a surging rate of coronavirus locally, which would not be a problem if people weren't so stupid about this. All of our employees will be out of work again next week -- they are crying, scared, desperate, unsure how they will weather it, thinking this time they may lose their house, unable to think about paying property tax, one guy already moved in with his family to his mother in law's from last time we were shut down and he did lose his house, taking me aside and begging me for a way to solve their problems I can't solve. I am sick of people not taking this pandemic seriously and making it worse. They are toying with our lives and our jobs and our futures. Maybe next time when I see a stubborn jerk who can't be troubled to wear a mask I won't be polite, and I'll show him what being on his case is really about.
25
It's understandable why Donald Trump's supporters are reluctant to embrace Joe Biden as their new president. It isn't like Hillary Clinton's supporters were accepting of a Trump presidency or all that interested in mending fences and compromising with the right. Healing the nation will take time, and our next president clearly has his work cut out for him. Trump's tough stance on immigration was distasteful to many, just as I'm sure many are put off by Biden's foreign policy agenda. If our next president could just help set a different tone in congress I think we'd be on our way to lowering the divisive tone that dominates our politics.
11
@Leonard
In 2016, Trump tried to pretend that he won the popular vote and those millions who voted against him weren't real Americans. I cannot think of a single example of Trump acknowledging the need to unite with those people. Can you?
44
@tamtom I agree that Trump did nothing to unite us as Americans. The best opportunity for some sort of American unity would have been how we addressed the coronavirus pandemic. But that was used by Trump as political wedge with horrific consequences. The tribal nature of politics preceded Trump, and clearly he fanned the flames with no interest in helping those who didn't support him. My point is that I'm not too optimistic about a less divisive political climate even though we will have a new president committed to tackling this issue. My prayer, and indeed it is a prayer, is that the adults in the room (e.g. congress) set a different tone for political discourse. Biden can continue take his message directly to the people as he as done so far, but if we don't have a functioning congress with a will to work with the other side, I don't expect we'll see the progress we need.
10
At least he has an agenda. What would you call what Trump has done? He hung the Kurds out to dry for no good reason at all. They were keeping the peace and it cost us a pittance to support them. Now who will be our ally? We have proven ourselves untrustworthy.
12
Dennis and Jeannie Smith. Likely victims of FOX.
They are captives of anger.
Some days sad. Some day mad.
17
Well that was depressing.
13
At the top of the article, Jeanie Smith, a Trump supporter says, "“Now you want healing,” she added. “Now you want to come together. You have not earned it.”
FIrst, what's the grievance? That we disliked Trump, that we thought his "disrupting" was possibly illegal, but definitely disruptive to Democratic principles itself? That we resisted the authoritarian who said that he alone could fix it and broke everything around him for self aggrandizement and enrichment?
Or is there more? I haven't heard clearly why they are so aggrieved, except what Fox news spits out, or what CNN is reporting about the Trump voter.
Second, I think the way to soften the hatred, to get to a place where Trumpsters might give Biden a chance, is to give them jobs, good "green" jobs. It's part of Biden's plan but can he execute it? The outcome in Georgia runoffs will go a long way to answering that question. McConnell has an interest in insuring Biden's failure, so he can get more power in 2022 and 2024. That's who McConnell is. If he remains in the majority he will work towards Biden's failure as job one.
It all comes down to Georgia.
17
Let’s dispense with the both-sidesism. The last couple interviewed here, both Trump supporters, actually threaten to lynch their opponents. Read their words.
24
I just hope Biden realizes quickly that he will not get bipartisan support in Congress for a while. Do your best Joe!
6
Republicans aren’t going to help Biden because they just intend to blame him when he cleans up trump’s and the republicans mess. Won’t be the first time thinking Obama cleaning up for Bush.
6
Joe Biden may have to play hardball like republicans before it's all said and done. Maybe it's about time!
10
This union is not worth preserving . It’s a bad marriage and it is toxic . Time to move on and go out separate ways . When these so called patriots use terms like “ satan and evil” and hide behind their “Christianity” , then there is no amount of dialogue that will bring us together .I wish my fellow Americans well but I am ready to actually live in a democracy that actually conforms to the ideals of the constitution .
Respectfully written .
13
While I greatly admire the work of the NYT, I doubt it understands the representation of the loud, proud and visible I Love Trump Republicans - versus quieter Republicans who voted for Trump for a multiplicity of reasons.
Let these flames burn out -- stop fanning them.
10
The confederates that run the Republican party have no interest in uniting the country. They are perfectly happy tearing the nation apart and setting up a confederacy. They have been trying to delegitimatize the federal government for 50 years. They hoped Trump would destroy it.
The deaths of thousands of Americans are on their hands.
7
The logical conclusion of being the president of all Americans will be for President Biden to pardon Trump for any federal transgressions from the beginning of the Trump Presidency up to Jan. 20th. That still gives enough rope to hang Trump (figuratively speaking) or for Trump to suicide by felony. If Biden announces that now, he gives Trump one less avenue of media speculation. I consider the cerebral embrace of Biden by Trump supporters to be borderline delusional fantasy. A Presidential pardon would bring Trump supporters over and as well will allow Biden to take control of the narrative, pull it away from Trump.
1
“It’s just a little upsetting when you go to bed at night, and all of a sudden, four days later, these votes are magically appearing,” Ms. Strong said.
Votes don’t “magically appear”. Votes are counted.
22
Believable, yet horrifying
I would love to know if all these people truly believe this complete nonsense about the magic ballots or whether some of them just playing dumb to save face...Trump has been selling this story for years though & so many in the GOP/right wing infrastructure support this as well including the wealthy fake-infotainers
Either way, I suspect we’re in big trouble - especially if the GOP keeps this up - organizing these brainwashing protests for folks that sadly sound brainwashed
This County will explode if the left decides that Biden is their time to push through the most “progressive” (liberal) agenda of all especially with culture wars, more extreme “social justice” issues, etc.
We all can’t have it all.
I think that we need to cool the drama & focus on surviving Covid, helping those suffering from job losses, appreciation for the economy & sensible restrictions based on realistic risks & social distancing & trying to get GOP to support economic relief for those in trouble, small businesses - not Kanye West types (allegedly he got $$ from Feds)
Green energy infrastructure if possible trying to demonstrate the real damage - the Arctic
I think that this isn’t the time for endless protests to “abolish the police” etc- folks need to spend their hours daily of protesting instead doing the hard work in their communities & States on issues of police reform,
Reality not fantasy unless you want another Trump-type in 2024 be better than them
4
I don't really care for those Republicans unwilling to give Biden a chance - they are beyond reach. For God's sake, what is it about Trump that is so blindingly obvious to most of humanity, that these folks don't see . . . I suppose it must be the art of the con - those being conned don't know they are being taken to the cleaners . . .
20
“It’s going be hard — impossible — to get people to come together.”
It’s not impossible. It’s called, get over it and accept the election results (mail in ballots are not a new thing, nor are they hard to understand). Demand your representatives in Congress and the Senate to work on items we as a country want done. Infrastructure, climate, health care....there are hundreds of things the majority of Americans agree on, and yet, the Senate just confirms judges. Just because your guy isn’t president doesn’t mean the world is ending.
8
“Everything I worked for, Biden wants to give to the immigrants to help them live, when they don’t do nothing but sit on their butts,” Mr. Smith said.
“And if those protesters come here, if they go tearing up stuff, I guarantee you they won’t be in this town very long,” he added. “We’ll string them up and send them out of here — and it won’t be the same way they came in.”
I think Mr. Smith summed up the Trump voter very well; bigoted, anti-human and individualistic. And before anyone replies by telling me I can't paint all Trump voters as bigots because some Trump voters were people of color, please keep in mind there are people of color who believe the negative stereotypes that torment our existence (it's called internalized racism).
They can't forgive us? I can't stand the sight of them after voting for a man who separated children from their parents causing their inevitable trauma and abuse. Wow. I really needed to get that out.
I don't know what to do about the Trump people. Trump voters are not new, they've always been a part of this country; supporters of slavery, anti-reconstructionist, anti-suffragists, segregationists, the family values people ect.....
I've studied the histories of far too many countries to not recognize how special the idea American democracy is and how lucky I am to be here, so I am not leaving. I also don't see the Trump voter ever accepting progress. Alas, we're at an impasse.
17
Trump should never have been able to run for president. He has divided the Republican party (if only splitting it one way). He was never qualified to lead for and by the people. The RNC needs to ensure only those qualified run. To elect a terrible at business man, someone married three times, someone unfaithful beyond imaginations, someone who cannot quote from any holy book, someone who does not read, who is an absolute racist IS NOT QUALIFIED TO LEAD THE COUNTRY FOR THE PEOPLE BY THE PEOPLE.
10
“Now you want to come together. You have not earned it.”
Earned it? Blue states taxes keep red states alive. Democrats fix the economy after Republican Presidents destroy it. I don't want to come together. I am sick of Republican racism, voter suppression, religious hypocrisy, low education drag on the economy, and utter disregard for science, facts, and the truth. Let's split up. I'll happily head for the blue states and lets let the red states govern themselves to extinction or have the so called "Christian" theocracy so many of them crave. I give it a generation before they're third world status and teetering on the brink of economic collapse while suffering the effects of numerous environmental disasters and the flight of their disillusioned young. Then, when THEY beg for blue states help, remind them they have not earned it. I'm fine going our seperate ways. If the last four years have taught us nothing else, it should be that we would be so much better off without them.
25
I remember clearly how the Republican legislators treated Obama. Not only were they unwilling to come to the table and talk, they were utterly disrespectful and beyond rude, with some members positively racist in their behavior and how they referred to President Obama. I do not recall any president who was treated so insultingly. The Republicans set the bar at a new low of contemptibility in the Obama era - they perfected an obstructionist game plan and their outrageous refusal to consider Merritt Garland was only one sick example. With Trump, almost all Republicans showed themselves to be craven cowards. The age of public civility ended with Trump's Republican party: its members perfecting their roles as enablers of Trump's gutter talk and malevolent actions or remaining silent and, in doing so, condoning the utter lack of human decency that pervaded 4 long years of this current administration. If these public officials want to follow Trump's lead, act like selfish children, and aim low, cynical, and destructive by working against positive, healing and constructive approaches to governing, I, for one, applaud Biden for being the only adult in the room. Whatever the Republicans do or don't do, at least we have a president elect whose aspirations and values are to be admired and emulated.
16
Biden needs to wake up. The Republicans in this story are not interested in even considering him a legitimate president. The Republicans in the House and the Senate are not going to do any deals with Democrats. If Republicans keep the Senate it will 4 years of getting nothing done. Biden is a one term president and at this point he's looking like a lame duck before he even gets sworn in. The US is a failed state.
3
Just imagine if we treated Republicans the way they have treated us for four years with a president demonizing them daily while we celebrate it. Take the hand of unity republicans. You don't deserve nor have you earned it but it has been offered.
For all our sakes. And turn off Fox media.
14
“It’s just a little upsetting when you go to bed at night, and all of a sudden, four days later, these votes are magically appearing,” Ms. Strong said.
Ms, there aren't any votes magically appearing. You continue to be duped by a professional con artist who very well could end up in jail for his schemes.
9
The Proud Boys, Alex Jones and other "Fine People" took part in the "Million MAGA March" today but it looked like less than 30.000 people. Donald Trump showed his heartfelt commitment to the "Million MAGA March" by waving to his supporters from his car on his way to play a round of golf, showing the world why America has 244,000 dead from Covid-19.
6
Reading this article is frustrating on so many levels...but the most frustrating thing of all is that it is now quite clear that for many Trump supporters the only outcome that will convince them that the election was fair is if Trump wins. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised, after all most Republicans believe in QAnon, and I'd argue that QAnon doesn't even pass the sanity test.
8
Unity? How about a truce? Republicans got their Supreme Court what else do they want ? Seriously? I can’t think of anything more unifying for Republicans than anti-abortion and overturning Roe vs. Wade by appointing right wing Supreme Court justices. They got that. They got their run away economy. Isn’t that what the 2016 election was really about? I don’t even know what else Trump could have done for them besides just be Trump and get everybody mad at each other. It’s over, let just stop hating each other. You don’t have to like each other or agree, just don’t hate. Our country is not big enough for the hate we have seen over the last decade. The “obamacare” hasn’t turned us into socialist, it hasn’t hurt anybody as far as I know? Republicans just quit with the socialism bit, it’s old and tired.
2
What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger - Friedrich Nietzsche
Trump was a hammer blow to a citizenry that was rapidly losing losing faith in their government.
Why?
Citizens United (greatest misnomer ever).
Good paying jobs outsourced to the CCP.
Exploitation of illegal labor driving down wages.
More tax breaks for the wealthy.
A widening wealth gap.
Increase in homelessness.
Outdated and deteriorating infrastructure.
Larger class rooms.
High cost of higher education.
High cost of healthcare.
Unethical behavior by members of Congress.
Obstructionist instead of compromise.
Profiteers making money sowing hate and division.
Either we learn, heal and rise together or this nation will continue it's downward trajectory and will become to be known as the greatest failed Republic in history.
I'm hoping for the former but my faith in the US and it's elected representatives has been shaken to it's core.
5
As Americans we need to bury the hatchet, forget about who started it, and agree to try and patch it up. Otherwise we may as well get on with splitting this country up now and get it over with.
1
Perhaps some one can explain why people would not work with Biden? Do they not want healthcare? Employment? International relations with like-minded allies? A pandemic-free America? A moral leader? A nation that works together? Truth and not fiction or worse, lies? I really do not get it. The only reasons I can think of for the Trump supporters I know personally would not admit to and, I hope, do not believe.
5
This should be pretty much well understood by now. The perception of an existential nature of the election is fundamental to understanding how trump got 72+ million voters, all as devoted to him as those quoted in the article.
There is clearly a racial hostility, a racially driven dread that underlies how the majority of whites are understanding and interpreting what's happening. Their sense of imminent loss of their white privilege within a christian dominant culture, to which they are completely attached, is fundamental to their
over the top reactions. It is irrational but it is very much a defining core feature to their sense of self.
They are in their own world and attend only to what their echo chambers of disinformation propagate
and promote. The ways in which reality is distorted to justify this perception are hardly astonishing and run deep.
It would help matters if their religious institutions could address this directly. But one could just as easily
have said the same thing at any other moment comparable
to ours when the the scars are ripped open and the demons that have been with us since the beginning flow out en masse once again. So I doubt we'll find much healing or solace coming from the churches.
2
Now that we have a White House that wants to represent all Americans, it is time for the Republicans to drop their obstruction of government.
2
Americans are taking to the streets to protest fervently against democracy. Pozdravlyaiu, GRU comrades! Kudos to the brilliant hackers at the GRU trying to destroy the rule of law in their perceived enemy, the USA. Maybe next election concerned citizens can hire the GRU to convince my OAN-watching parents to support democracy, health care for all (duh, after a pandemic), justice for all, responsible use of energy, and can we throw in halting cruelty to animals and just being respectful of each other? The Russians would do it for the right price. Give them some solar panels.
3
it’s time democrats stop apologizing for having common sense and empathy. They need to start calling out republicans for what they are.
I am a centrist. There was a time i would push for common ground but the behavior of Mitch and his morally bankrupt enablers and the frat boys in the house who see this as a game and not people’s lives deserves repudiation. They sold their souls - the never deserve to be looked at in any other way.
7
When Trump won were we asked to heal? I think not.
2
It really is inescapable. Many, if not most, Trump supporters stand revealed as mean-spirited or -- (and it really cannot be accurately rephrased) -- profoundly stupid. For how much longer must we continue to tiptoe around the abundance of evidence that leads inescapably to this conclusion?
Political affiliation is an important correlate in the way people are willing to accomodate to the needs of others. A Republican orientation really IS different, and not in any way that is enviable in its current manifestation (assuming it to be a stance rationally understood and adopted). It reflects an immorality that has no analogue amongst Democrats.
I realize the actual culprit is, and has been, the gradual entrenchment of unregulated capitalism and its many allied institutions, but Republicans can recognize evil too, can they not? Our current predicament did not mature solely in the dimly-lit corridors of cronyism and corruption; no, it has grown and flourished with the public blessings of consecutive cohorts of Republicans who have unashamedly proclaimed their agenda.
Starting most recently with Reagan, fiscal and religious conservatism has achieved what will now be everyone's undoing. So shall it be ... and I am not pleased about it.
(I very strongly recommend the NYTimes' recent feature article "How Do You Know When Society is About to Fall Apart?" by Ben Ehrenreich, Nov 4, 2020.)[https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/04/magazine/societal-collapse.html]
1
Such hateful thoughts being expressed in a church on a Sunday!
Who are they to decide when something is earned, when Trump has caused more division in this country than any other president? I know that no healing will be done with Trump still as president. As divided as we are now, how can they say that? It is Trump who has not earned a second chance, having created a nightmare in his first term.
Perhaps a few peaceful and prosperous years will soften their feelings, although I doubt it. None of them will admit, even now, that Obama rescued Bush's diastrous economy.
BTW: a note to all you Trumpsters. He lost the popular vote twice, which means most people do not want him for president. Ponder that for a moment.
5
Give it some time.
Many Trump fans are currently hooked on hate, but a big percentage of Republican voters will probably be able to come down off the ledge, given the right approach. There are an awful lot of people in this country who are tired of all the conflict and dysfunction, on both sides of the aisle.
I'm not talking about the Proud Boys, of course, but rather about your Aunt Margie and Uncle Bob, and maybe their kids in college. Just because someone voted Republican doesn't mean they are an unchangeable, violent racist demon, just that they voted for their party. It's hard, but we have to reach out to the people who can be reached.
If the country is in fact split right down the middle, we don't need to persuade everyone, just enough people to get us un-stuck. If Democrats can create a healthy dialog that moves even just ten percent of the Republican voters, it would make all the difference in the world.
But we have to respect them as human beings, and be careful of our own divisive, hostile rhetoric. And there's plenty of that on our side, too. Few people are likely to listen to someone that's calling them names.
Words matter, as do actions. The message is: we need to move forward as a nation, and face the challenges ahead. Who wants to join us?
3
Try as I might, I don't understand Trump supporters any more than I understand Trump himself.
But that has more to do with the fact that he's a vainglorious sociopath who has no interest in anything other than himself; which is also why he's so frightfully unqualified and inept at the office he now holds.
Then there's the string of racist anecdotes and false accusations that have come streaming out of him for years, which as a person of color I find particularly offensive.
Hence his appeal to all the bigots and right wing-camo-wearing-assault rifle-carrying masses who see him as their champion and savior.
That's why it's no surprise they aren't interested in Joe Biden's attempt to "restore the soul of the nation."
It's because Trump has no soul.
And quite possibly, neither do they.
6
Biden will likely be the last fairly elected President the USA ever has. Next time the GOP will demand some kind of special treatments once the previous election was, “stolen.” A never ending barrage of lawsuits and grand standing will follow 2024. Democrats will never win anything again because there won’t be real elections.
No surprises. It's the new normal.
“It’s just a little upsetting when you go to bed at night, and all of a sudden, four days later, these votes are magically appearing."
...statements like this demonstrate that the solution is *not* rational conversation to inform and seek a better understanding. That works only if both sides participate in good faith and respect public reason, otherwise it's a foolish waste of time.
5
I’d like to see a headline that says this: Media asks Democratic voters to understand Trump supporters. Democratic voters aren’t interested.
Democrats, win those 2 Senate seats.
1
The reason that many of us didn't "give Trump a chance" is that we recognized a career criminal when we saw one. Nothing he did before the election remotely qualified him for the job, and anyone who knew his career beyond the character he played on THE APPRENTICE (thank you, NBC) saw him as unfit for office. His conduct in the campaign, from vilifying the Khans and McCain to colluding (yeah, I went there) with Putin thanks to Roger Stone and company, made it obvious to anyone who still believes in facts that he was a dangerous narcissist. Nothing he has done in office suggests he has any redeeming human quality--a remarkable accomplishment, when you come to think of it.
When are we going to admit that he simply played to uninformed, selfish, bigoted voters? Before the election and right through his stay in office, support for him has consistently correlated with one major demographic feature: racial animus. The gentleman you quote who warns that protesters will be "strung up" personifies the Trump supporter. Once more the diehard Trumpist stands revealed as ignorant, cruel, bigoted, and/or lethally mischievous. If a vast pandemic doesn't shake their faith, nothing Joe Biden says will.
The entire Trump era has been a long, painful lesson in the vulnerabilities of the human animal.
5
4 years ago when President Trump won the election by a slim margin of 77,000 votes over 3 historically "blue" states no one questioned the validity of the vote. Hillary even conceded the next day at noon. Many of us were shocked that such a lying, immoral, bankrupt individual was elected. Then his "American Carnage" inauguration speech happened. Shortly into his presidency many of us Democrats started to look at the republicans as an issue. "Resistance" was born. How many of his cabinet have been swapped out? How many of his close circle of folks have been indicted and convicted of crimes? As his term kept going it was clear that republicans lead by Mitch McConnell were the enemy, as well as, the President.
Now 5 states have flipped and he has lost the popular vote by almost 5 million as I type this comment. Now these same republicans who were against President Obama will be against President Biden. Well I am over it. Obama never divided the nation like Trump has with the "red states/blue states" Obama prevented two possible pandemics from really taking hold. Obama was handed the worst economic situation since the depression and now Biden has been handed a massive pandemic with economic implications. These citizens are not true Americans. They are the issue and their failure to recognize they are the issue that will lead to violence and more division.
6
Trumps a crook. Period. And his final foray as President, claiming he won the Presidency is the most clear proof of that. He loves controversy. To say he hates losing is the understatement of the decade and if he doesn’t stand down after the recounts I truly believe the 2nd US Civil War will break out because we CANNOT ALLOW A FRAUD in the White House. And if Republicans don’t stand up for the constitution and bill of rights then their part will end. Not overnight but it will end and by 2040 The GOP will be a thing of the past. There are enough young Democrats now to insure that will happen if they spite the Constitution the USA was founded upon.
2
How does one reason with voters who believe that mail in ballots are fake or they go to sleep the night of the election with Trump ahead and the next morning Biden is ahead?
You can't because they only watch Fox News that peddle this falsehood. Fox does not tell the truth, i.e. the GOP State legislatures forced the election folk from counting early mail in ballots by the millions to give the illusion that Trump is winning.
Then we have this other person who believes immigrants sit on their butts getting money from the Government. Do they not see who is dying of the Coronavirus at the meat processing plants, at the customer facing jobs in hospitals, hotels, stores and other places? Immigrants are the hardest working people in the United States. But you can't convince these people. Truly sad.
5
I'm not going to bother explaining why Dennis Smith's views on immigrants are baseless and wrong. Instead, what I'm curious about is what happened in this man's life to make him feel like the only way to be empowered is to hatefully degrade and threaten violence upon others. Has life been so disappointing for Mr. Smith that hatred is all he has left?
6
Why do we always have to care what Republicans think? Thats all we get are stories about wild-eyed angry Republicans whether they win or lose. And there's the kicker... even when they win they are angy... there is simply no satisfying them so why bother? And got what depths one has to dig just to keep up with their barrage of non-facts, non-truths, and other imaginary beasts that dwell in their conversations. I'm tuning out voices like these for the next 4 years, I've had enough of it these last 4.
4
Wait—seriously? AOC just demanded that an enemies list be prepared and enforced! Are you now, or gave you ever been, a Trump supporter? We in Wisconsin have seen this show before.
4
"Something's fishy" when Trump is ahead when you go to bed at night and wake up the next morning and he is behind? Just because the doubters went to bed doesn't mean the counters did too!
I can't imagine what these people might think if they got on an airplane at JFK at 8p and arrived in Rome at 10a but had only been flying for seven hours. Would that be "fishy" too?
6
Republicans know that politics is a blood sport, something the Democrats have never quite come to grips with. Republicans understand one thing and one thing only, the exercise of raw power. You can't entice them to the negotiating table if they have a gun and you have a feather. You have to punch them in the face and bloody 'em up a bit. It's really the only thing they respect. Only when a victim fights back does the bully back down. Instead, Democrats continue to negotiate against themselves. Watch and see. Out of sheer desperation, Biden will cut horrific, one-sided deals with McConnell just to be able to say he accomplished something. And then he or Harris will lose in 2024 anyway.
I think all of us who didn’t vote for Trump are tired of hearing about all the pro Trump, Stop The Steal garbage. If Dems knew how to steal an election, Trump wouldn’t be in office.
Poor Biden, what a mess he has to unravel and without the normal courtesy of transition coordination. In 6 months, Republicans will blame him for not fixing the chaos he’s walking into.
Meanwhile a pandemic rises and people are financially strapped, while Nero fiddles on the golf course.
3
"Biden Asked Republicans to Given Him a Chance. They're Not Interested."
A few obvious comments.
First, there is still divisiveness in America. It is a real problem going forward.
Second, headlines likely the above are part of the problem, not part of the solution. They're really not helpful.
Third, the great majority of Republicans believe Mr. Biden won, and are fully ready to accept him as President.
Fourth, if there is a mindset accepting of conspiracy theories about elections, much of its origins trace to the progressive media's obsession with "the Russians rigged the election in 2016." There's little hard, public evidence that this really happened. The 25 page report by our intelligence agencies, so often quoted by the media, said little more than "there was evil activity by the Russians. Sorry, but we can't provide specifics. Trust us." Sorry, but we'd like to see hard facts and documentation.
The rumors of Russian meddling in 2016 are overblown, but the effect of the rumors on the public willingness to accept conspiracy theories lingers.
Finally, a thought on "multiculturalism." Many, perhaps most, Republicans support multiculturalism, and think it's a good thing. What we object to is the toxicity of identity politics; the cancel culture, which is very real and the very antithesis of multiculturalism; and Affirmative Action, which the Times so loudly and strongly supported in an editorial a few days before the election.
3
Trump knew there were people like Mr. Smith just waiting for someone to give them permission to flaunt their hatred and mistrust of immigrants. Hence his focus on "Mexican rapists" when announcing his presidential run.
Other presidents understood that empowering these bigots would create division and undermine the very foundation of America as a country that welcomes immigrants.
Or used to, anyway, before electing a man who cares so little for the ideal of "one country, under God, indivisible" that he eagerly played on the prejudices of our most intolerant citizens for his own benefit.
Trump loves being his worst self, and his supporters love him because he encourages them to behave similarly.
And not only without shame, but with actual self-righteous pride.
3
We have the Trumpian template: take the conversation/ discussion to the people. Crisscrossing the country, particularly areas that didn’t support him will help him as long as he wants to advance the economic interests of working families. Provided he ignores Wall Street’s “masters of the universe”, “brilliant pundits/genius philosophers/ self-professed smartest prophets, know-it-all scam artists - aka, industry/ technology disruptor innovators”.
Biden should hold no prisoners. Who the Republicans are is clear, we don’t need another compromiser.
1
Biden is not going to heal everything, WE must heal everything. Start with us and go from there.
You can’t negotiate people who deny the rules of math (Trump lost the election) and science (coved pandemic), sorry. Biden will have to fire executive orders like artillery shells. If the Supreme Court strikes them down, write some more orders.
2
Self fulfilling prophecies are seldom wrong. I wish you might have thought about unintended consequence s b4 putting pen to paper . Biden has not even been inaugurated yet and you are dashing his and our hopes b4 we even leave the gate. I know that as someone who writes commentaries knows dangerous it is to feed peoples fears.
We must get past the Trump travesty. Republicans have as big a stake as Democrats.
The only culture war these people are engaged in is in their heads. Okay, I'm a liberal. But I did not learn my liberal values in college or from the New York Times. I learned them many years ago from my hard-working, church-going parents, neither of whom had a high school diploma, in a blue collar town full of similar people, when I was growing up. Back in the days when people like my parents had enough sense to think, and vote, in their own self-interest. When they had the clarity of mind to understand that, contrary to what Ms. Thatcher would later say, there is such a thing as society. And that it consists of all of us.
The people of my parents' generation were not perfect and I'm afraid I have inherited that. I'm not perfect either. The people quoted in this article, and many Trump-supporting culture warriors across the country, may in fact be better persons than I am in many ways. I know a number of them who certainly are. They are not to be scorned or disrespected. But when anyone somehow acquires, as part of their humanity, a set of beliefs that is delusional and dangerous -- I have no sympathy for that part at all. And not an ounce of respect for the ideas and attitudes that go with those beliefs.
We're all left in a quandary. Madness is afoot, and there's no vaccine for it.
1
We don’t want healing. Healing is the ends, not the means. We want someone to fight for what’s right: Healthcare not tied to your employer. Meaningful oversight of policing. A plan to tackle corona virus that doesn’t impoverish millions. A commitment to fight climate change. Clean air, water and soil. A deescalation of tensions abroad and a more introspective and restrained use of military power. Equitable treatment of all citizens. A fair tax policy that applies to EVERYONE, including billionaires. Free and fair congressional districts and voting laws. Reasonably priced higher education. An immigration policy that benefits us economically and socially. If you did all that, the healing would follow.
1
Boy, that is rich. Especially after we were kind enough to give Trump a chance in 2016, even though he did not win the popular vote and was singularly unqualified for the position.
3
Trump was not a politician. He was basically a businessman. His brand of campaign in 2016 attracted many Americans who were fed up of the real politicians. Trump boasted that he would bring back jobs and improve the economy. People really believed him and gave him a chance. But, after four years, he could not deliver much.
Biden, I believe, won much of votes this time, not because people supported his candidature, but mostly people did not want Trump to return to power. America is witnessing problems from many fronts because of Trump's mishandling of issues. It is losing its grip on Nato, Eruopean leaders are not friendly as before, and domestically, people are left with no good health care system, due to replacement of Obamacare, growing white supremacy etc. It was neutral people who decided the presidency of Biden and not regular Republicans. They still feel Trump is best suited to lead the country in present circumstances. Conservatives certainly would reject Biden and favour Trump because he holds the Christian values and his Supreme Court appointees are also conservatives when it comes issues like abortion.
1
Maybe someone should explain to Ms Strong that votes didn't magically appear. It's just a little something called the USPS, they picked up our vote and dropped them off at our county courthouse. What happens is Republicans here in Pennsylvania made a law so that no one can begin to count those millions of votes until the morning of election day. So it's not magic, it's math.
4
Biden must not make the same mistake as Obama did and constantly try the impossible - work with Republicans. Republicans took that as a sign of weakness and ran all over him.
Biden must be forceful. He was elected by Democrats and all those that couldn’t stand Trump and McConnell. Any intent of working with a Republican Senate controlled by McConnell will go nowhere. Republicans must know that Biden is no push over and that if they want to salvage anything for themselves THEY will have to work with Biden, not the other way around.
1
We need to be honest with ourselves...this fanatical Trump support is almost exclusively a white vs everyone else issue. The overwhelming majority of all of these hardcore supporters are white, and want the status quo. I am a white 60 year old man in heavy Trump country, where most people just assume I am a supporter of his and speak freely about their true reasons for supporting him. In polite company, they say it's because "he's good for the economy", or "he loves America" but you can best believe that the hardcore supporters are staying behind him because they know that he is obsessed with white superiority and advancing that agenda. It breaks my heart that I have found some of my closest friends to be in that camp, but the absolute truth is that this is mainly about race.
2
Unfortunately the hardened core of trump supporters is most likely to embrace conspiracy theories and indulge in apophenia. There’s a simple explanation for the way the vote counts went; they choose to discard that explanation so they can continue to voice their many grievances against people who aren’t like them.
Many of the core thought trump was heaven-sent, chosen by god to lead America. Well, can’t the same god choose someone else? Or do they think god owes trump his/her loyalty too?
1
Biden should follow through on his commitment to unite us not divide us. Some Republicans will come along or maybe none will. It will be their loss...
We have to be vigilant against Trump supporters. No inch given now or in the future. They as a group are beyond reason and like the people who vote in dictators must be stopped. It is unfortunate but when a group seek to continue to cause dissension for no other purpose than destabilization than it is no longer political dissent it is an attack on our Republic.
2
Of course the Republicans won't cooperate with President Biden. Remember what McConnell said the night President Barak Obama was elected: to paraphrase (acturately I think), McConnell said the Republicans's job was to make President Obama fail. He didn't fail, but he could have a complished so much more. In 1999, the New Republic or some such journal predicted that the United States during the 21st century would divide into two countries, along the lines we see in this election. The latest election data shows that 2/3 of white voters voted for President Trump. We have no Lincoln to bring us back together, and the Trump voters believe nothing that tells them that Biden was elected. They are lost to the rest of us, believing not a word of the results from Naional Public Radio, PBS news, the New York Times, reporting venues that work to bring responsible coverage of events. Is it time to say to the middle zone, as some Norherners said to the south in order to prevent the coming civil war, "Erring sisters depart in peace." I don't believe that I am contemplating this possibility. I am both heartbroken for my country and terrified of the future.
It's strange to write stories like this and not include the role that hyper-partisan media outlets and target social media disinformation campaigns play in stoking social division. We learn today that the Mercer family has invested in the creation of Parler, yet another fever swamp for far-right agitation. So long as we pretend that these are all organic reactions based on good faith differences of opinion we're going to be unable to address our social divisions.
1
Good to recognise that the GOP isn't interested in healing, instead of focusing on the division caused by the GOP.
It's as if the USA keeps getting punched in the face, and the media focuses on the bruises and cuts, instead of focusing on the attacker - the GOP.
3
I do not know what else there is to say about this situation. If Biden cannot fix it, no one can. Sometimes I think we are on the cusp of another civil war, and that is a terrifying thought.
Republicans do the work of Vladimir Putin. Trump undermines American democracy. The GOP senate will purposely hurt our economy because a democrat is president. they will cut funding for anything, even their donors favorite big military spending. There is nothing American about anything the GOP does.
2
What is most concerning is that as I’m typing this comment, Trump is feverishly scything through the branches of our Republic. People in positions of national security, those who swore oaths to defend all Americans, are being removed. This impeached and lame duck President is currently installing people whose only qualifications are fealty to Trump and only to Trump.
National security impacts the people of all 50 states. Red, blue, conservative, liberal and moderate. These labels don’t concern those who seek to inflict pain and harm on the people of our Republic.
This is the transition of power happening in the mightiest nation in history. What will history reflect on this time? Our time?
Instead of being led by men of integrity, intelligence and high character, such as Washington, Franklin, Adams, Jefferson and Hamilton, we have Graham, Cruz, Q Anon, McConnell and the remaining members of the GOP.
These men only know divisiveness and obstruction. Their constituents are obviously accepting of that. Until they’re not.
If by some unfortunate incident the people are harmed during this toddler tyrant’s temper tantrum, then the victims blood will squarely be on the hands of those who enabled Trump. Not just in the beginning, but also those involved to the bitter end.
1
By region Americans have always distrusted and even hated each other. Only wars and a huge depression, external threats, united the country. Now the threats are really internal, Americans facing up to the fact that the Confederacy was never really defeated, only temporarily suppressed. We are two hostile countries, and that will not be healed because one of those countries does not accept the reality of the one external threat that could unite the nation - climate change as it strikes locally.
When Lincoln was elected Congress was ready to let the South go. Other regions, supported by their representatives in Congress, then planned to secede. Only Jefferson Davis's foolish deision to fire on the US flag (Fort Sumter) united the rest of the United States against the Confederacy.
If the current situation continues, despite the accelerating need to confront climate change, then a breakup of the not so United States will need serious consideration. California, for instance, if it kept all its federal taxes and had its own central bank and currency, would be better able tio handle its growing climate problems. A US breakup, however would also require some states to break up. There is precedent foor that, West Virginia.
2
Back in 1966 folks in Alabama fought against civil rights in Lowndes County. They had bumper stickers that stated "Open Season." In Europe's eyes we looked more backward than Leopold's Belgium that year.
I have a low bar of expectations for Americans. We are not superior beings.
3
President-elect Biden is an honest man who has repeatedly stated that he intends to work for the good of all Americans.
President Trump over the course of his time in office has lied everyday. He has demonized democrats as evil, monsters, anti-religion, etc.
Democrats see an urgency to tackle real problems: the pandemic, climate change, systemic racism, income inequality etc.
Republicans have come to believe that democrats are the problem.
You hear it in the pitches made to voters in our crucial senate races here in Georgia.
Democrats Ossoff and Warnock both make the case for working to solve the problems facing our state and country.
Republicans Purdue and Loeffler make the case that their rivals are evil, radical socialists who will work to turn the country into a dystopian wasteland.
The choice is clear, but the outcome is not.
3
Biden needs to stop trying to win Republicans over. It won't work. Instead, he needs to win over young voters and progressives who feel (and have been) betrayed by the Democratic party and voted for Biden unenthusiastically, if at all. Contrary to establishment Democrats' beliefs, the party is not unified. It's fractured. Young people are worse off financially than they have ever been. If he will actually adopt progressive ideas rather than continue to act like the party of diet Republicanism, the Democratic party will truly become a force to be reckoned with and more consistent Democratic voters will weaken the Republican platform.
2
The left and the right live in two separate universes. Millions of us weren’t ready for the internet.
1
Where is any rational thought? Ballots didn’t just “magically appear.” There was a massive surge of mail-in and early voting, the counting of which couldn’t begin in many places until Election Day. It takes time, not magic. There has been zero evidence of fraud presented, but somehow it just “magically“ happened? Yikes.
1
Well at least Biden tired. Maybe we should dust off the plans that American troops used when helping people of other defeated movements learn to deal with their new reality. Eisenhower did pretty good in Germany. Macarthur fixed Japan up. Who will fix America?
1
I first wrote a long comment on all the historic ills that lead us to where we are now, but ultimately found it depressing and not helpful.
The way forward is to counter hate and fear with compassion for everybody and courage of your convictions. Be the change you want to see in the world.
May I suggest the following as a possible solution. Congress must respect the Constitutional right of states to conduct Presidential elections. But there is nothing stopping Congress from enticing states with money. Give states money to create national standards for Presidential and Congressional elections: uniform voting hours, uniform layout of ballots, uniform training of poll workers. Abolish mail-in voting. Instead have polls open for a full 14 days 9am-8pm ending on Election Day. I understand the distrust arising from mail-in ballots, and can sympathize with the Trump argument. What he should have done was organize legislative change 2 years ago, long before the election. I understand that abolition of mail-in voting creates hardship for some people that cannot physically travel. In Canada, in exceptional circumstances, two Elections Canada poll workers visit such people in their homes to administer the ballot. While we do have mail-in ballots as well, I do not believe they are used very much. Better to just get rid of mail-in ballots in their entirety, if they are going to cause such problems.
7
@Stephen
We’ve had universal mail in ballots in Oregon for years and no hint of complaints or election fraud. For those working two or three jobs, single parents, older retired people and those without private transportation, mail in ballots are easy and very convenient. It took me about 20 minutes to fill out my ballot, sign it and drop it in a secure ballot box.
58
@Stephen Republicans would love to get rid of mail-in ballots because they know if people can vote easily they'll never win another presidential election.
2
You don’t get it. The point is not to make voting easier. When turnout is higher, Democrats generally win. It’s a fact. Republicans in my state chose to make voting this way. And the Republicans are crying foul at their own mess. They do it all the time.
1
My take on is that after a very close election, a true leader would do everything he can to heal any divisions in the country. However, I can’t think of one time Mr. Trump asked for unity in the country after he was elected. In fact, he did more to divide us than to unite us. Now when republicans are blaming democrats for not getting behind Trump when he was first elected, I’d like to remind you he never once asked us to unite with him. Contrast that with Mr. Biden who has been extending his hand toward everyone and never making his political opponents the enemy.
99
Not hypocritical, Ron, naive.
3
@John Brews
Maybe you and others will be surprised with what Biden can achieve. After 4 years of Trump’s endless name calling, insults, hate mongering, chaos, divisive politics — maybe just maybe —the American people are just plain exhausted. I know I am.
1
The death of so many Republicans from the virus may have a salutary effect on the concept of cooperative governance
23
What Trump proved, unlike any of his predecessors in my lifetime, is a willingness to use the the full extent of executive power. The GOP, by their nature, only respond to power. They are skillful in using their minority power to block or when in the majority using that power to ram through their agenda. For example, although the GOP was in the minority when Obamacare was being written they slowed it down and added a ton of amendments. In the end not a single GOPer voted for it. And let me not even mention the SCOTUS picks they stole. President Elect Biden shouldn’t have any mercy on these clowns, they fight dirty. They lack honor and values. “Biden use the power, I know you’ll use it for good”. The ironic thing is I have yet to meet a Republican senior rejecting social security check or Republican with a pre existing condition rejecting insurance coverage.......
92
Selective reality bubble. Deny deny deny.
27
@Mark B
Belief bubble. No reality present.
Message to Biden - grow your base, which includes Democratically leaning Independents. Forget the others - they'll only drag you down.
56
When a movement is driven by hate and resentment... it would be extremely difficult to change. Republicans tend to be entitled and ignorant. That combination is lethal. Republicans, although they are not all rich, they feel that they are the “real” Americans and therefore they despise anything that is perceived as social benefits. Many of them actually they shut themselves on the feet... they rather starved than get government help. They are told that assistance from the government it is “socialism” Poor souls that are condemn to be feed conspiracy theories, and white-supremacy, those are their main staples to be able to survive.
29
I’ll bet you these folks draw social security, get farm subsidies, and, if over 65, get Medicare. Yep, their kids or grandkids attend public school, they drive on state and federal roadways, some maybe have had to take advantage of food stamps and/or subsidized housing sometime in their lives.
So their pronouncement that they don’t want government programs is nonsense.
They’re just against the programs that they think benefit someone other than themselves.
3
No votes magically appeared. Who are these people trying to kid? On the other hand, are they really not smart enough to understand the process? My fellow Americans mystify me. Do these people knowingly choose to believe things that are not true? The cognitive dissonance of that practice would surely drive a person nuts... oh, no, what have I said?
69
’You have not earned it.’ A statement from the elitist, entitled among us who have had the world handed to them on a platter. They will have it their way or no way at all.
28
And they were the words spoken by a Christian. A Christian saved by grace but practising life according to conditions and rules.
Trouble is there is no threshold low enough for anything to be 'earned'. The more willing a person is to placate, the more obstinate and bitter the other becomes. That's not justice.
From here in New Zealand it’s hard to see why Trump is so popular with his base. They don’t play the stock market, nor have they benefitted greatly from the tax cuts, have they got bigger pay packets or better healthcare? Seems to me that they should be angry that he did so little for them, he’s made the swamp swampier and the world more dangerous , 1000 people a day are dying of Covid. Yes he put 3 conservatives on the Supreme Court but how does that effect ordinary people? They know he’s a liar, tax dodger and a fake Christian, so why the love?
136
The answer to your question may be found—not so subtly—in the chilling final sentence of this piece...
1
@Maria Crawford
An interesting point that came up recently is that of the major Anglo nations, the ones without strong Murdoch influence differ considerably from those that do.
America, Australia and Britain vs. New Zealand and Canada. I'm not too surprised why it's hard to see the appeal that Trump voters have for an authoritarian fascist when you are lucky enough to live in a nation relatively un-poisoned by Fox News.
I only wish we could be rid of this scourge, since I believe it's responsible for a good deal of this lack of ability to think in a way that approaches an agreement with reality. Competitors have popped up recently that make Fox look like NBC, which proves that while the likes of Sean Hannity may be harmful enough, it's the mental virus itself that is the real danger.
3
Indeed, I ask myself these same questions ever day.
Maybe the resistance strategy implemented by Democrats within a day of Trump’s election in 2016 and pursued for 4 years has sown a poisonous seed.
12
Give me a break. McConnell is the master of resistance politics. During Obama’s last term, almost nothing was brought to the floor of the Senate simply because Obama was president.
Do you not recall that after 2016, we had Trump and Republicans had control of the both the House and the Senate? What’s been accomplished since then? A tax cut for corporations and the rich....and, well, not much else.
After Trump’s election, I heard plenty of Democratic grumbling, but everyone went about their lives and waited for this election. We were told “you lost, get over it”. So my words to you and most of the people in this article is this: You lost, get over it.
5
Jeff, The GOP chose to obstruct Obama’s presidency from day one for no VALID reason (think Tea Party, “birtherism” lies, Mitch McConnell). Trump showed America his true self long before the election with his own words, tweets and actions, and as a result many found him unfit to lead out nation. The two situations are not even comparable yet you take issue with the Dems behaviors?
3
@Jeff
That's rich. Blaming this on the Democrats. There was no "strategy" - there was simply normal response to an unhinged lunatic as a president who did everything he could every step of the way to rip our country to shreds. If that guy could muster even an ounce of ability, interest or competence he would have gotten nothing but hall passes for four years and would have sailed to victory a few weeks ago . But instead, he proved to be both deeply dangerous and unbelievable inept - at the same time! He had to go, and his ticket out was written in his own hand, trust me.
3
Gerrymandering, voter roll purges, polls that close at 6 PM (some people work, you know), hours waiting in line to vote, particularly in neighbourhoods with minorities, ridiculous voter registration rules, the governor of Texas pulling ballot drop off boxes, Republican-controlled states limiting advance voting, the President inviting foreign interference.
Of course the election is fraudulent.
62
@Abraham quisling
When you put it that way, it's a testament to how much this country needed this guy out of office. If the elections were free and fair and completely free of voter suppression and other vile tactics of the Republican party, imagine the margin.
2
Yes: Biden should have had 3 million more votes.
2
Back in the 70's, 80's and 90' I frequently traveled around the country for business purposes in towns around the country like Mason.
As a man of the Hebrew faith I was always wary. When I would visit a local establishment I would always go with a well known man in the community for cover.
Today, people in these type of towns don't usually ask if you're Jewish....they are more interested if you're a Democrat or Republican. For the record I am a very open-minded Democrat.
Generally, these type of folks are much more willing to overlook your religion if you agree with their politics.
I am not a sociologist so I am not sure what to make of this.
But I do know one thing....none of this hate is healthy
52
Would that the Times just quit with the trumpocracy already, and with the foot stompers who want to insist that reality is otherwise. Quit encouraging the histrionics. All I want to know about now is how President Elect Biden will put together a team of competent experts to get a handle on the virus, catch the falling economy, support job creation in renewables while not forgetting those still working in fossil fuels, make sure people have access to health care, and rebuild our relationships with our old allies. That's for starters. There is plenty of news coming to fill the void of not having to hear about that person currently in the White House.
61
Amen to that! A big part of the Trump fanaticism is fueled by the constant attention and hand-wringing by the media.
2
We have a name for a newly elected president. President Elect Biden. We do not have a name for a newly defeated president. How about newly defeated president trump. Maybe loser in chief. Before the election, we were concerned with how badly things could go on election day. It was one of the best elections we have had. Now were concerned with how long it will take the losers to calm down. I really don't care. They are ill educated and take conservative propaganda as God' truth. .
29
Republicans seem to have short memories. Many are acting as if Democrats drew first blood by opposing and holding Trump responsible for his transgressions. It was Trump himself who led the charge to delegitimize the nation’s first Black President, and Mitch McConnell who proclaimed from the outset that willful obstruction of President Obama would be his party’s primary goal. And that was before McConnell and Republicans stole a SCOTUS nomination from President Obama. So let’s not talk about who poisoned the political or legislative well. Instead of an endless cycle of blood feuds, how about we call it even and try to repair this mess together, with President Biden taking the lead.
64
Lying, cheating and stealing to maintain power, Republicans have pushed their ideology far away from accepted civilized norms. Its adherents have embraced such low standards of character and low morals, that they are making themselves pariahs to the majority of people. Continuing to behave this way will isolate them until eventually only other Republicans will want to associate with them. Many people already feel this way now.
22
@GMR
I very much hope that you and also hundreds of thousands that live in the same state as you are right, and turn up in early January...
4 years ago many of us feared what a game show host/real estate hustler with a reputation for lying and lawsuits would do as President. 4 years later we now know. He's been worse than anyone expected. He faced one crisis in his term and his response was too much vanity to even wear a mask. Trump himself is the disease that sickens an entire nation.
46
The country will not heal until the haters who pose as pious receive psychiatric help or just disappear. If Jesus ever came back and saw them, he would never stop throwing up.
26
Republicans do not believe that Democrats can ever be legitimate presidents. They have a perverse and un-American belief that they are entitled to rule from the WH as hereditary kings. It's disgusting.
32
The truth is Republicans want a dictatorship with them in charge.
43
So we have 1 million new cases since the election and Trump is golfing.
36
America is in grave danger IMHO. I believe it is a putsch and he still may succeed.
Pompeo's and Kayleigh's blunt though preposterous assertion that this person- already fired by 76 million people- will have a continued term may yet eventuate.
26 women have come forward with credible assertions- but of course They apparently are all lying. One of them sought and received solace from her father yet the father went ahead and voted for Trump.
I find him so easy to see through I am amazed that anybody could fall for it. Yet they do. Then I saw a Jimmy Kimmel segment where hardly anybody could name a single country. Many could not even point to the USA on a map of the world.
That enlightened me as to the curious phenomenon of people attending super spreader Trump rallies without a mask. Yet one must not call them dumb. That is really snow-flakey right?
27
Biden should not beg the Republicans to cooperate for restoring the soul of the nation. You can not disarm unilaterally when other side is loading their guns and sharpening swords. You look weak . Biden has to act like winner not a looser. Be ready for unlimited executive orders. Biden is extending olive branch but the Republicans are getting ready to make him failed one term president. We know McConnell’s playbook. As long as McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Cotton, Rubio, Ron Johnson and Ted Cruz are in senate , FOX TV and right wing talk radio are in business, there will be more and more polarization and extreme divisiveness .
32
Biden was not really serious. Even during the campaign he called Republicans "chumps".
7
Anti-intellectualism is alive, well, and propagating like wildfire on the right. It has become nearly impossible to use critical reasoning to have a fruitful discussion with a Trump supporter.
40
God bless them.
This is a part of Central/West Texas that use to vote reliably Democratic when the party was, effectively, conservative on a state wide basis but people were loath to identify as Republicans. Grandma and Grandpa had voted for FDR because of the depression and the party identification stuck.... until 1980.
Since then most of these 2-3 stop light town in Texas have become philosophically attune to whomever can run farthest to the "right;" someone running for dog catcher as a Democrat these days would most likely be asked to move their church membership.
These are the type of folks where if your kids go off to college at the University of Texas at Austin instead of Abilene Christian College, it raises eyebrows. Folks that while well intentioned are petrified if they hear high schoolers blasting out AC/DC on their car radios and still refuse to believe that former Governor Rick Perry was once a Democrat and headed-up Al Gore's Presidential race in Texas (He did).
Even though Trump does not have one genuine conservative bone or belief in his body, these are small town Texas people that are looking for and will continue to believe in "anyone," liar or not, that reminds them of a place where everyone knows everyone and the most scandalous thing that occurs every few years is when a high school football player and cheerleader have to get married.
23
Churchgoers expressing utter contempt for their fellow human beings, and threatening physical harm.
I am so over them.
58
I really wish you would stop profiling Republican voters who are displeased. It's apparent they do not want to work together to make this nation better. Focus on the people who want to talk about and solve our nation's most critical problems, starting with COVID-19, which is again raging across America.
42
Social media platforms which operate in the United States must be regulated as if they were publishers, because they are publishers.
Non-news, non-journalistic outlets should not be able to pose as news outlets. On certain radio and television stations, and on certain websites, baseless rumors, conspiracy theories, and opinions that are unsupportable by facts and logic are presented as assertions of established fact. This has gotten so out of hand as to be a national security threat.
Freedom of belief and freedom of expression are things I believe in strongly. But expressing an opinion as an opinion and presenting an opinion as a fact are two different things. Holding a belief is one thing, and subjugating, disenfranchising, and abusing others based on a belief is another.
Non-news programming on any platform, in any venue, should be labeled as such. If amoral companies want (to allow) their talking heads to spew lies and baloney, they should be required to provide audible and visual warnings (this is a rumor with no supporting evidence, this is my personal conspiracy theory, this is only an opinion, this is actually not true, etc.) to the listener/viewer just as surely as radio stations are required to identify themselves on a regular schedule.
Should Americans be able to tell the difference between propaganda and news? Of course, but tens of millions of Americans, including many in the communities featured in this article, obviously cannot.
17
I don't think Obama and Biden had realized how far the GOP would go to block all the Dems proposed. Now Biden will have to fight.
Some will warn Biden -- don't be too 'hard left'. But that's how the GOP and their corporate mega donors define Dem policies ---as left. The GOP defines centrist as what profits their mega donors. We the People lose out.
The policies like HC for all that many Dems want, are centrist, normal, accepted policy in dozens of other capitalist democracies. But they don't exalt private profit as 1st priority over public protections. The govts that their citizens elect give them more respect than our govt gives Americans.
We have to give Joe a chance. His replacing King Donald the First---hopefully The Last-- will, in time, create a different atmosphere, maybe less dramatically polarized.
Right now, the GOP base voters are acting out the hostility that their King Donald uniquely enflamed and amplified.
With Biden, the rw racists won't have a national leader to inspire them, so may be less likely to act out.
We'll know better what the trends are after a year, or so. Biden may have the capacity to rise to the challenge. He may have developed, after seeing the damage of the Trump regime.
But anyway, we'll work on 2024! That will be the important post Biden election, where we can build more progress for reforms we need.
We must prevent another swamp creature from rising from the depths to take power.
Mitch McConnell is 78.
11
The idea that Biden will bring us together is ludicrous. It is not possible to bring together capitalism and socialism. It is not possible to bring together Medicare for all and yet let us keep our private health insurance. It is not possible to bring together those who are for and against the Paris Climate Accord. It is not possible to bring together those who favor abortion with those who don’t. It is not possible to convince people to give up their guns. It is not possible to take a tough stand with our adversaries and have them still like us. It is not possible to reach a compromise on who should be on the Supreme Court. And the list goes on. If Biden thinks he can bring these factions together he is suffering from a serious case of dementia. The only advantage in having Biden as presidency with a Republican controlled Senate is the possibility of cooling the nation’s proverbial heels for four years while we decide whether or not it will ever be possible for us to all get along. The challenge is to give everybody what they want but both parties are intent on cramming their own views down the throat of the other party. It seems to be my way or no way. God help us.
12
@All Shades Of Opinion Every country I’ve lived in combines universal healthcare with private insurance and none have problems agreeing who should be on their supreme court.
3
Fox news is the real problem - it alone is responsible for the current situation. If they report the facts, Trump's supporters will give up. Infuriatingly, Rupert Murdoch - the Australian! - has decided his bottom line is more important than our democracy. If this isn't foreign interference, why not?
23
This isn't news. Even since Bill Clinton was electedin 1992, the Republican Party has been throwing a nearly 30-year long tantrum. They harassed Clinton at every turn, and throughout the eight years when President Obama was in office and tried to work with Republicans for the good of the country, he was vilified, insulted, lied about and had his hand slapped away. Republicans are not interested in a better America for its citizens; they are interested in conspiracy theories, nursing grievances and planning revenge for perceived slights. Ignore them and move on. It is impossible to reason with unreasonable people.
37
I have personally banned any and all Trump supporters from my property. I grew up in rural Ohio so I know many Trump supporters. I don’t want them near me or my family. I really don’t care to get along with them after what I witnessed these last 4 years. I don’t care how long I’ve known them either. I am all done trying to understand them.
45
@matt. Doesn’t it feel good to finally say it out loud. I’ve been feeling this way for a long time. Whenever I express it people around me say” you don’t really mean it”. I do mean it. I’m tired of trying to Be understanding of people who don’t care to be understanding.
4
For months we watched boats flying Trump flags speed past our house. They were always on their way to the sandbars and small islands nearby. There they would gather in large groups, yelling and being so aggressive and intimidating many families stopped going out of fear. A family up the bay from us put a Biden flag on their deck and were profanely yelled at, mooned, and had their deck swamped by boats speeding past. On Election Day at one polling place in our county a Trump truck blocked access, and at our neighborhood polling place we had several Trump flag bearing cars speeding through the residential neighborhood where it is located. At one early voting site Trump supporters stood on the corner yelling at elderly voters. They were so aggressive some left out of fear. Law enforcement refused to intervene.
So yes, I am really tired of being told to listen and understand these people. Not all Trump supporters are as aggressive or intimidating as the ones I described, but as this piece so clearly states, they are not interested in restoring anything. They just want to keep airing their grievances, and blame others!
43
Like him or not, Trump did terrible damage to this country. The proof of the pudding is that our enemies, China and Russia, are sorry to see him leave. Given that he’s such a sore loser my hope is that his base will abandon him. After all, Trump himself said that he doesn’t like losers. Neither will his supporters. There’s hope for healing the deep wounds he caused.
18
Paul Krugman just reiterated how increases in population and education turns a place blue.
The party of the educated doesn’t want to keep hearing the about the uninformed views of the party of the uneducated...
Unless it’s for the jokes!
Jimmy Kimmel on the street asking the question which is better: Obamacare versus the affordable healthcare act is a prime example of mindless conservative supporters who really do say the stupidest things in an effort to look smart.
18
Charming people, these trump fans. It's a good thing they have each other.
14
Well this is depressing.
13
I agree completely with the previous comments. Please stop interviewing, profiling and otherwise giving any air to Trump supporters.
I don’t want to read anymore about how the Mr. Smiths of the US would like to string up anyone who doesn’t look white enough to them.
The Mr Smiths of the world are hateful, immoral human beings.
That’s all there is to it.
41
Biden is an automatic lame-duck, one-term president. The campaign for the open seat in 2024 has begun. "Healing" is code for "lie down and emasculate yourself on behalf of my successor." No one is falling for that.
6
This version of ‘masculinity’ you portray, where healing is ‘emasculating’, is actually profound weakness and stupidity covered up by bravado and a whole lot of hot air. So good luck making it to 2024! It’s going to take way more than a toxic brand of masculinity to get through the tough years ahead.
1
The GOP needs to go the way of the Whig party and the Dodo bird.
It's okay to be unhappy about losing an election but to reject an honest vote count shows a great disrespect for our democracy.
If you don't like our democracy, there are other countries you could live in.
Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
15
I think this is kind of misleading. Republicans are giving him a chance, and they will even more so when he is sworn in. A lot of Republicans are waiting for the legal processes to play through, and will accept the results when certified. Also, Trump tried to reach across the aisle, but Democratic disdain for him as well as some of his rhetoric made that prospect very difficult. We have to remember politics are a dirty game, and neither side plays by the rules anymore.
9
@Christian M True.There are good people on both sides !
7
Name a rule the Democrats have broken.
14
Did Trump wait for certification in 2016 when he won by the exact same electoral college margin? Did Hillary Clinton wait for certification to concede?
3
Biden hasn't even been inaugurated yet, and Trump still refuses to concede. The former means that any diminished observable divisions would occur as a leap of faith; the latter means that there's little reason for such a leap of faith to take place.'
Showing signs' is a longitudinal process. Mightn't it be a bit too soon to make these claims in anything but an anecdotal or speculative way? And mightn't speculation of this type only fan the flames of division: 'Well, conservatives haven't simply bought into Biden yet, so it's going to be another four years of a stalemate...'
I question whether or not Mr. Herndon and his editors have fully thought through the rhetorical function of this analysis.
1
Trumpers will not respect a Biden administration that tries to reach out and compromise - they will just laugh at what they perceive as that "liberal weakness". Conservatives loved Trump because he tried to do what he said he's do and he never compromised. In the next 4 years, I think Biden will impress far more liberals and even some conservatives by sticking to his liberal agenda and not trying to please everybody.
9
President elect Biden has spent his whole adult life in politics. He has worked across the aisle his whole career, sometimes to the detriment of the nation (see Clarence Thomas). But he has been a voice for cooperation.
He has also seen pure power politics and knows how to play that game also. With Mitch McConnell at the helm of the senate, Mr. Biden will need to call on his hard side to get anything done. He has the knowledge to do it and must not hold back.
If he wants to bring the country together he needs to have success with issues like infrastructure, renewable energy (climate change) and income inequality. He will likely need to do it by executive orders because Big Bad Mitch will only try to thwart Joe and his agenda.
Let's hope he still has the fire in his belly.
14
It sounds that the chances for reconciliation in this climate are pretty slim. The divide between red and blue has pretty much taken a set. Barring an unlikely reconciliation breakthrough, it would seem that one side will need to electorally overwhelm the other and gain working control. But can our "union" stand that?
2
Joe Biden held out an olive branch to Republicans. Now that that is out of the way Biden can move on to the country's business.
The rural folks had their way and elected a person in Donald Trump who reflected every bit of their stilted personalities. Despite what they think those folks are not the heart and soul of America. They were only right one time in their lives and that was with the election of Donald Trump.
5
Republicans should take the highroad and support President Biden if he is the one who ends up being our leader. They should not do what the Democrats did in 2016 and never accept President Trump as the legitimate president. They don’t have to like him or agree with his policies but for the sake of our country they should support President Biden.  We have become terribly divided as a nation so let’s let’s try to mend our brokenness. The Republicans need to lead the way if we are to survive.
2
Given the low road they took in their (non) support of President Obama, I’m really not holding my breath, nor am I staking any outcome at all on their support. I don’t expect it and the country will still be just fine.
1
I think it would be best if the country split in two with Trump governing one country and Biden governing the rest. Each state legislature/governor should hold elections to decide which country to be a part of. States may have to be split in two if there are significant disagreements (a la West Virginia 1863).
It's high time to declare an end to this American experiment. Time for an amicable split like Czechoslovakia before it's too late and violence begins.
In the background 250k more Americans die of COVID by next year.
God Bless the Divided States of the Two Americas
2
Too soon to call, Mr. Herndon - in my opinion. I think that once the estranged see in action an executive branch of mature, seasoned vets of demonstrated competence, a lot of them will come around. If not, well, then let's just move forward and hope they'll not dedicate themselves to sabotaging Biden's presidency.
2
Basically Americans are no longer interested in being 'United'. Two sides, so divided will only drag each other down. The marriage ain't workin'. The differences are irreconcilable. Too many benefitting from the divisions, too few possessing the critical thinking skills that are demanded of a democracy.
11
“It was startling to me . . . to realize that Americans could hate one another so intensely.” Lance Morrow, November 12, 2020, Wall Street Journal.
I was shocked to my core when I read those words. But they are inescapably, frighteningly true. Trump or no Trump, this is the situation the United States finds itself in today. Even if the Democrats continue to win the presidency in future elections, I do not see how the hate ever goes away. We may not have lost our “democracy,” but we have lost something even deeper and more important — faith in each other.
9
I’m 43. I was 15 when Bill Clinton was elected and I remembered being excited by his candidacy. Then came January 1993 and everything went out the window - the controversies, the constant refrain from Republicans he only received 43% of the vote, the story in the American Spectator that resulted ultimately in impeachment and all the ugliness in general. Despite this Clinton was able to work with Republicans to “some” degree.
Then came Bush and it just felt like 8 years of horror. By the time Obama ran in 2008 I was too jaded to be excited by his candidacy. I was rooting for him and I’m glad he won but by that point I understood that the presidency is only so much - if Democrats don’t have enough seats in the Senate nothing will get done.
So then we had 8 years of Obama and a do nothing Congress that infuriated me. Do these privileged members of Congress understand what’s its like to punch a time clock or deal with a difficult boss? I do. They hold all this power and can’t accomplish much of anything - it’s criminal. They work for US.
So now we’ve had 4 years of Trump and what I’ve witnessed is horrifying. So at the age of 43 I’m thinking this country has been torn apart with partisan politics for the last 28 years of my lifetime. It’s wrong on so many levels and I’m not optimistic about the future at all. The naive optimism I felt at age 15 is totally gone.
24
The Smiths and millions like them are grieving a way of life that is disappearing. They want America the way it was before, when a white man could raise a family on a manufacturing job, and never have to see a black person or a gay person or a woman in a position of power. Where you could succeed in the American economy without having to get an education. It would be easier to have sympathy for the Smiths if they weren’t so mean and misguided. The ironic part is, the policies that would most help these Americans who are getting left behind in the new economy are the economic redistribution policies favored by the far left. Bernie Sanders probably really was their man. Instead, they’ve fallen for the angry rhetoric of the right which has turned this into a culture war.
18
I grew up in Texas and I find it amazing that so many of these folks in Mason have so little interest in actually educating themselves with facts, weighing it out, and THEN deciding.
Being a US citizen is more than consuming right wing pap whole. Did Mrs Smith miss Mr. Trump's treatment of the last president? Or was that OK? There has to be some sort of requirement of intellectual honesty of oneself first.
15
If we want to eliminate Trumpism, we need to provide an alternative. He rose to power by jumping into the working class vacuum that Democrats left wide open. Lets close it again. People want jobs, they want security; if we can move even slightly in that direction, then more people will start to come on board. Its a war of attrition. The remainder will be far right extremists who will hold these views no matter what. This group has always been present and probably always will be. The trick is to keep them away from the launch button.
6
Biden hadn’t named a cabinet nor made any concrete legislative proposals. And BTW, he hasn’t been sworn in yet. So isn’t this hysteria a bit premature ?
4
Sometimes I wonder how Harry Truman would do in today’s political world or LBJ. Both were known to scold and shame the American public and their political opponents. Neither feared showing their anger, frustration and disappointment in people. MLK was a master at using shame to hurt racists especially on camera. I realize that Trump and too many Republicans have no shame but most human beings do. Sometimes people need to be told what’s wrong with what they’re doing in no uncertain terms. I’ve found in my own life that when I’ve done that the people feel bad and apologize. Maybe we need to to be forceful in not putting up with all the bullying and lying and delusion. Especially because it is hurting us and our institutions and democratic well being. Maybe we need democratic leaders to get angry and the rest of us too. I know I’m fed up with ALL of Trump’s enablers.
475
Much of the mistrust and tension caused by mail-in ballots might have been allayed we’re all states to allow the counting of such ballots as they arrive. I understand the reasons for delaying such counts, but it strikes me that the consequences of not doing so are much worse.
9
The Republican legislatures mandated that NO counting take place until election day. It was part of the plan all along to delegitimize our elections. It’s called sabotage.
In many cases the delays were enshrined in law by legislatures controlled by republicans.
@Christopher Ghiaurov
They’d have found some other pretexts to claim fraud.
Mel Brooks' son, Max Brooks, was on Bill Maher last night, and he repeated a story his father had told him about his time in Germany during and after the war. It is worth finding on YouTube as my reciting it will not do it justice. It is an answer so simple and so profound to the rising US problem, one wonders how a longtime politician such as Biden could not have stumbled over it in his sleep.
3
Of course Trump supporters don’t want to engage with Biden. Listening to Trump these past four years, you know exactly what they want to hear:
That white Americans are the only ones who matter. That white evangelicals have a corner on the truth. That waving the flag is a good substitute for actually understanding American history - our successes AND failures - and the legal basis of the country. That they can ignore science when they want. That they are entitled to everything they desire in life without sacrifice, suffering or compromise. That we (with a mere 240 years of history) are “the greatest” country on a planet that has a 4.5 billion history. That they are entitled to take whatever they want (from the earth, from other countries, from others) without consequences. That a lie will turn into the truth just by repeating it often enough.
The Trump mindset seems to me inflexible, arrogant, closed off, angry and entitled.
Life rarely turns out the way any of us wants. But suffering can be an opportunity to grow if it is acknowledged. When people are open to solving problems and not blaming others for their problems then a real conversation can begin.
24
I’m hoping Joe and his administration take the hard line from day 1. Make all Cabinet and department heads “temporary or acting” rather than going through the charade of Senatorial approval. Hit the ground running, hopefully have a minimalist Inaugural Ball and show the public just what the pitiful and traitorous GOP are by their historic actions that have created the current atmosphere of fear and loathing in America...
12
Let's all focus on thinking for ourselves in the future so we don't end up being controlled by Russia, again.
7
The Republicans soon won’t have to choose between party and country, they’ll have to choose between life and country.
5
I’m over it. Let the Trump supporter self select. They can die if they choose from not wearing a mask or from not getting the vaccine. I don’t care anymore. Let’s keep tax dollars in the states they earn them and let the others pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
17
This is where you end up when employ divisive political strategies. A bipolar electorate where nobody wins. Power at any cost is no power at all. Like a dog chasing a car, what can the dog do when it catches the car? Not a whole lot.
5
What's wrong with the Trump supporters. There is no such thing as "mystery votes." Trump encouraged his supporters to vote in person on election day. Because of the virus, most states allowed voters to vote early so they didn't have wait in line on election day. Most states decided this year, because of the virus, to allow people to vote by mail. This way they didn't have to risk their lives waiting in long lines.
The votes that were cast on election day were the first ones counted. The mail-in votes were counted after that. That's why Trump appeared to be winning on election day. Then during the night the mail-in votes were counted. There was nothing suspicious or evil or mysterious about it. Then for a week after that they were still counting mail-in votes.
More people voted for Biden than for Trump. Period. That's why Biden won. Donald Trump does not like to lose and he's been sowing doubt in our election like he does with everything else. When he won in 2016, the republicans told the democrats to get over it. Well, right back at you. Get over it. Biden will be a much better president than Trump. He is experienced, smart, and capable of putting this country back together after Trump destroyed it.
20
look at history. there has always been a split between town and country, rich and poor, educated and uneducated. it's structural sociology, social psychology and human nature all rolled into a clenched fist.
what motivates trumpers? fear. fear of the future, fear of losing their religion, their way of life, their livelihood; fear of immigrants, of drug addiction, of injury on the job, of moral relativism, change, plurality, foreignness; fear ginned up by social media and bouffant talking heads.
fear sells, fear votes, fear creates confrontation.
republicans are the party of fear. no mystery there. it's a little crank in the body politic and they work it like a hurdygurdy.
there needs to be a vast social and governmental outreach to disarm the fear of the future, because we need to get off the carbon profit machine as quickly as we can. we can't do it as a divided nation. and the coming consequences will only raise fear further.
and then we will be a country like the swimmer trying to save the guy flailing in a cramping panic.
not uncommon, you know, that they both drown in the tussle.
5
Trump will do any say anything to further his personal interests, including pushing conspiracy theories. This is all a fund raising tactic. Sadly, there are a lot of naive individuals that think he 'understands' them. Folks, you are being used. Trump's only concern is Trump. He has proven that time and time again. He thrives on being the center of attention. Perhaps if he gave Covid the same attention we would not ne in this sad situation.
11
It seems they continue to prove how very correct Hillary’s observation was every time they speak.
16
In my opinion, it’s premature to judge President-elect Biden’s ability to engage across the massive divide in our country. This article gives weight to the misinformation and negativism that permeates the media. Let’s Give Peace a Chance!
4
If you ever wonder what the Republican party is up to it’s as easy as pie to figure out: Simply look at what they accuse others of doing.
16
The Republicans only goal is to eradicate any semblance of democracy we have left. The days for trying to get Republicans cooperate on anything are over. The only thing they understand is brute force. Biden, Pelosi and Schumer are all utterly incapable of delivering it. They benefit financially from all the Republicans policies.
4
The Republicans refuse to work with anyone. Over 250,000 people are dead because Republicans refused to work with the CDC and Dr. Fauci. to control the pandemic. The US is the most infected country in the world. Trump feuds with Gov. Cuomo, the only governor to control the pandemic. Trump and Republicans hate success - they’ve sabotaged anything good and now they are trying to sabotage the election. Who will stop him? Do any Republicans have honesty and courage?
11
How about Democrats? I see no willingness for Democrats to work with Republicans unless of course Republicans give in to every silly thing Democrats want.
7
I grew up in Texas, but went to college and graduate school in California. Upon my return to Texas, my Texas high school cohorts were shocked and offended when I discussed subjects I studied.
Conservatives complained in the late 1970s that colleges were watering down Western culture requirements. My parents always warned me that those in power would look upon me as being less than, that I would have to be better just to be accepted. Thus, despite a major in another subject, I loaded up on course work in modern European History and Western Culture.
Ironically, it was European history that caused concern to my fellow Texans. Modernity was a threat to their provincial view of the world.
Slowly, Texas will catch up with modernity. Strangely, business leaders and politicians brag that Texas is a great place to do business. Those who have flocked to Texas from throughout the country have made Texas more diverse.
As Texas and other parts of the country embrace modernity, there will be greater tolerance. But it will take time.
19
@Ben I don't think that European history necessarily equates with "modernity". One must also remember that this nation was founded by those seeking to escape European history.
3
The shocking views of the Trump supporters in this article are nearly beyond comprehension. One thing is certain, and that is that Trump has succeeded in making a large number of people accept his falsehoods, his dog whistles, and his hatred.
These people sound like Viktor Orban or David Duke. No Democrats in these numbers ever expressed this kind of bitter hostility to Trump's narrow election in 2016, which was far more problematic than this year.
With Republican administrations in the swing states and better than expected Republican victories on the same ballot as Biden and Trump, how do these people imagine that something untoward could have happened this year? Their attitude toward Biden's victory seems to be "even if it's true, I don't believe it!"
How can rational people get through to these people? They seem beyond all reach.
43
@William I’m a Yankee transplant in south Texas. They ARE beyond reach. I love much of what TX has to offer but can confirm the natives will die before being the least bit receptive to anything they perceive as liberal.
1
I have one old friend who has gone down the Foxhole. We used to be close but now I am glad it is only the occasional phone call. I have one service provider who I will go to one more time for my dog but would switch if Covid was over. That is it. Who wants unity with these people. They are reactionaries and so highly propagandized that it is hard not to laugh at them when they talk or write about things. There leadership is hypocritical and in Georgia their two candidates used inside information about Covid not to inform their constituents but to enrich themselves. Sorry to me the Rs and their base are write offs.
28
I am certainly not saying that most everything that Trump has done or said had been damaging.
But, the Democrats still don't appear to understand why they lost to Trump 4 years ago and came close to losing an election that should not have been close at all.
Democrats seem to have lost the ability to FEEL other peoples' pain, and would rather prescribe what is good for them. A lot of people seem to think that Trump does, and 4 years to the contrary have not gotten them to see that he is lying to them too.
But, until the Democrats understand that globalization is fine if you have a job on Wall Street or are a tenured economist at Harvard, it doesn't work very well for a many less-privileged people in this country.
Having exported most of the good blue collar jobs and a growing number of white collar jobs, those in congress, who by definition are of a privileged class, have forgotten a lot of people. Somehow, Trump has deceived a lot of those people into thinking he cares.
The Democrats need to SHOW that they care. If they don't we will have Trump or neo-Trump in 4 years.
Every single smart phone in use today is built in China or Taiwan. There is a lot of manufacturing technology that goes into that, and while a lot of it was developed in the US, most of it has traveled elsewhere.
The Democrats must change the laws that prevent economical manufacturing in this country. The Democrats must make real change happen, or else another demagogue will be elected.
21
@Victor Gold. I don’t think Democrats have lost the ability to feel other people’s pain. I see it every day and long for a time when we can adequately address the inequities experienced by ALL Americans. Look at the marches for racial and social justice this summer...quite a diverse crowd (and probably more than a few that vote “blue”).
Democrats didn’t ship manufacturing jobs overseas. Corporations did! They took advantage of tax laws written to benefit their companies by moving jobs offshore. Who writes the tax laws? One could say Congress does, but aided and abetted by ALEC, a non profit organization of conservative legislators and the private sector.
Put “the people” over profit and party!!
3
Thanks Victor for being an observant voice of reason.
2
A company I worked for exported around 500 white collar medium skill jobs from NJ to Texas, where they were able to pay folks about 1/3 less. Next step will be for those jobs to move from TX to Mexico.
NJ adapted. But when step 2 comes I’m supposed to start a revolution? Things change. Deal with it.
4
I agree with many letter writers that it's far too early to prognosticate about the likelihood that Republicans will not give Biden "a chance." Somehow, it does not dilute my joy over the fact that Trump will not be president any longer. Biden is not Trump. There is no use in listing Trump's character and attributes anymore. We all know what he is. Biden is not Trump.
I think of a rather famous line from Marcus Aurelius during this time: "The best revenge is not to be like your enemy."
And although "revenge" might be the wrong word (substitute "policy " or any other fitting word) , I think at this point that may be good enough for us who have been suffering a "sickness unto death" of the lack of goodness by our leaders, and one leader in particular.
The Republicans may be interested in working with Biden later. At least the ones with power.
9
I’m 68 years old, and struggling to come to grips that the country I knew is over. Our politics has become our culture and it is now so rancorous, driven to an angry, frothing maelstrom by a two-bit con man who was only seeking to promote his “brand”.
I spent the past 4 years on tenterhooks of worry and sorrow over the incessant ugliness that Trumpism has revealed in our fellow citizens and I do not want to live the remainder of my life that way. When you can’t change the real world, your only hope is to change how you react to it. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.
At my age, emigration is unlikely. Most desirable countries don’t welcome retirees. I may become a perpetual tourist in Canada, on a budget. I would like to live the rest of my years without being surrounded by a miasma of anger and the fear it engenders. I am so exhausted and demoralized. And it’s all so unnecessary.
57
The only way this country will be healed is if Democrats keep winning by convincingly large margins. After Obama's victory, the Republicans realized their polarizing politics was not working and people like Reince Preibus and other more sane Republicans tried to establish a new, more inclusive Republican platform that reconized the ever expanding diversity of this country.
Then, Trump entered the race... and won. Had Hillary won, Republicans would have repudiated Trumpism. Instead, Trump showed Republicans that greivance politics and divisiveness is still very potent when you have the electoral college and decades of gerrymandering and voter suppression making it very possible for people to get elected with far less than a majority of votes.
Now, there's no turning back to sanity until Trumpism is completely destroyed at all levels of government. It's up to us - the Democrats once again - to save the country from this extremism. We must support all Democratic candidates, support science, facts, and stop fighting amongst ourselves. We must unite and help all Democrats across the country - starting first with the GA senate runoff race in January, then in the 2022 mid-terms.
Only by convincingly beating Trump style Republican candidates can we ever get our country back towards our pursuit for a more perfect union. The other choice leads us down the path of civil war and/or dark authoritarianism.
19
The man hasn't even been permitted to step into the White House and already he's deemed a failure. Can we not give the man a chance? It seems to me the failures in this election are the pundits and pollsters who promised us Democratic control of the executive and legislative branches. It will no doubt be a monumental undertaking to try to bring the two sides of America together, but let's not call the game just yet. The election was only last week!
9
@GMG Did Trump get a chance from the Democrats?
2
I was a child in Shanghai at a time of civil war between Mao's Communists and Chiang's Nationalist Republic. My father worked for the Nationalist government and, from family conversations, I grew up with a feeling of disappointment and sadness that China didn't have the strong leadership necessary to survive the turmoil of civil war and the concurrent war with Japan. When Japan occupied Shanghai, we became war refugees and were taken in by America.
We had so admired FDR, from a distance, in China. In the US, I read and heard many American politicians on the radio; they all seemed so strong, ethical and without corruption. It was then that I figured China's tragedy was not having powerful and good leaders in those critical crises of the 1940's.
Today, now thoroughly Americanized, I again regret my country lacks the strong and un-corrupt leadership it so needs at its critical time of need. From my experience, I believe the survival or fall of nations depends on the strength or weakness of its leaders. And good and honest leaders are rare commodities with no guarantee they will show up in times of dire need.
10
I applaud Biden for setting the goal of being a President who’s not focused on red or blue states. Here in Florida, however, former governor Rick (fifth amendment) Scott and Ron (Trump clone) DeSantis have shown zero interest in working with in-state or national Democratic leaders.
Many Republicans have little to no willingness to work with Biden to address the critical problems our nation faces. Their absolute failure to protect Americans from the COVID pandemic is inexcusable. Republicans will now revert to their former obstructionist, deficit hawk posture. It’s all an act from a party with no platform, little if any morals, no scientific worries and 24/7 propaganda spewed on Fox “News” and conservative radio.
The wonderful news for the United States of America is Donald J Trump lost the election fair and square.
16
What does it mean to be an American? Maybe an amalgam of the character of our population as a whole. With almost half of the voters choosing Trump, that amalgam is not very pretty picture. At this time I am not proud to be an American.
9
We Democrats worked hard, played fair, and we flat out won, overcoming voter suppression and the sabotage of the mail system.
And now we get accused of stealing the election.
If I’m asked to reach out to any of the 73 million Trump voters, my response will be that of a famous New Yorker cartoon.
“How about never? Does never work for you?”
13
These people keep saying all they want is a “free and fair” election. But to them, “free and fair” means the winner is Trump, and everything else is automatically suspect. I would be willing to bet that these folks could watch each ballot being counted right in front of them, but since it will still come out that Biden is the winner, “someone” must have tampered with “something” during the count. Trump winning is all they will accept. You can’t win.
17
These are terrified people standing in a demographic tide that is running out on their lives.
11
Personally, I think it's time that the Blue states and the Red states file divorce proceedings. If any marriage counselor could heal a spat, it would be Biden... but apparently it's gone on for too long, and the spouses cannot even talk with each other any longer.
8
I can't stand these "oh, woe is us" articles about Republicans who are rabid Trumpists. What I would like to see for ONCE is an article where a reporter pins down these people on what it is that makes them such avid supporters. Pin them down on what they think "socialism" means and pin them down on where their "information" comes from. Put them on the spot, for heaven's sake.
I know the first thing I'd ask is, "what has Trump done for you that makes you want to support him for another term?"
24
I don't understand why the GOP hates all Democrats so much. It's not like the Dems tried to keep Federal aid from Gulf states after a hurricane or nuke farm subsidies. The Dems always try to help the whole country and the GOP is all about themselves.
17
I’m dismayed that I haven’t seen any comments about Dennis Smith’s comments that he would lynch (“string them up”) protestors (presumably BLM) if they came to his town. People take offence at the actions of historical figures centuries ago but overlook the contemporary naked racism Dennis Smith personifies. Trump emboldened white supremacists when he called them “very fine people.” Instead of arguing about the virtues of Biden over Trump in the comments section for this article, I think we need to take a stand that this behaviour, these utterances need to be made unacceptable once again. It’s the only way some people, with time, may come to the realization that their attitudes are wrong.
14
It’s impossible to compromise when only one side is interested in doing so.
12
This is so unfair of Trump supporters after the response of “The Resistance” immediately following his election in 2016. If memory serves, there were even massive Welcome Donald parades around the nation.
8
@John D Best comment on here, by far.
There’s no way Republicans will work with Biden. Remember what Mitch said the last time. His goal was not to heal the damage from ‘08. Mitch didn’t care about that, all he wanted was to make Obama a one term president. Don’t delude yourself by thinking he has had some change of heart. Mitch does not care how many people suffer, go bankrupt and/or die asking as he keeps his power.
11
Did he actually expect any other response? The hands across the aisle junk needs to end pre-inauguration. Why is it only democrats who think this way? The last Republican president who even gave 10 seconds thought to the idea was Gerald Ford.
5
The Republican Party has no interest in the American people, only large corporations. The common man is simply a tool to be exploited. The sooner Red states realize they are being used, the sooner we can regroup and get the government and the economy working for us, and not just the 1%.
6
When Trump resigns, then divisions can have a chance to repair themselves. Trump’s actions are meant to continue his control on the news and activity of the US government. Once he is forced to resign, Biden can start calling the shots. If there is a way force Trump out, it should be done.
14
@ARETE’ He needs to concede (though that is unlikely). But, were he to resign before inauguration day, I believe Pence would take over until Biden's swearing in.
1
Yes, it will be extremely difficult to unify a country in which millions of citizens are so ill-informed, so twisted in their attitude, so devoid of critical thinking skills, and so obstinate in their bigotry based in quicksand of disinformation. If Biden manages to quell the pandemic in a reasonable fashion and restores the economy that has been badly damaged by Trump, not just the virus, it will certainly help convince some Trumpists that Dems can in fact do a better job. But the entrenched intellectual dissonance in Trumpists and Rs in general is so severe that only a miracle can shake this warped mentality.
I don't think it's up to Dems to do all the heavy lifting in this democratic crisis. It's up to citizens in our democracy to understand the challenges, inform themselves properly, and make rational judgments. It's not my job any more to understand their grievances--most of which are shared by the vast majority of Americans--or try to talk sense to them. They are the problem and must fix themselves, recognizing that they have a duty to be better citizens and work constructively with the rest of us to save this democracy. If they can't see beyond the edge of their kitchen table, their stubborn selfishness is way beyond simply caring about the necessities of life. I have no patience with such hard-headed bigotry and failure to face the bigger reality of a nation in peril.
30
This is one of dozens of reasons why I did not support Biden in the primaries. He learned nothing about negotiating with republicans from serving eight years under Obama. Not a surprise---Obama didn't learn anything either.
Republicans are not interested in negotiations. They are interested in winning. Period.
I hope Biden has a successful four years. I have been somewhat surprised from what I have seen so far. But I expect four years of stagnation. Biden, like Obama, will be stymied. Follow that up with Kamala Harris being rammed down our throats as the 2024 nominee. The result will be a Mike Pence presidency.
10
No, Pence is toxic now.
What’s wrong with Harris anyway? She’s competent, which puts her far and above Trump. I don’t think she’s as hated as you think. She was not my first choice but she is one I could live with.
6
@smilodon—Originally, I was hoping for an Elizabeth Warren presidency with Kamala Harris as attorney general. But I am more than happy with her as president especially compared to the current occupant.
2
@Concernicus
Nobody is "ramming" anybody down your throat.
Maybe you forgot that in 2016, there were about 20 Rs who ran in the primaries for POTUS, and the Rs in their infinite wisdom selected a con man, Donald Trump, as their nominee. He ended up co-opting them entirely, and now the Rs are the personality cult of Trump.
Maybe you forgot that in 2020 there were about 20 Ds who ran in the primaries for POTUS, and when the dust settled, Joe Biden was the selection of most D voters.
We allow a couple for totally unrepresentative states (Iowa, New Hampshire, both well over 90% white, insular, not particularly attuned to a wide range of political interests) to bump off a bunch of the candidates before the rest of us even get a say.
That is how our system operates.
The fact that we rarely nominate "the best and the brightest" is probably a reflection of the tastes and interests of most voters. Last time I looked, the really well educated, competent professionals among us were a small minority. But what do I know? I am a "pointy headed intellectual" with multiple postgraduate degrees, and a somewhat weird sense of humor.
2
Perhaps the question is: Do the people who refuse to work with the Democrats (politicians, judges and ordinary citizens) want to live in a democracy? I suspect despite their vociferous claims of patriotism, the answer is negative.
66
I think the problem is the opposition’s definition of democracy is totally maligned from the actual definition of democracy and as set out by the constitution. The fact they are out shouting to discredit legitimate American votes highlights this in stark contrast to those protesting systemic racism.
3
Democrats love to speak in poetry and play softball. Sounds great on paper, but the GOP speaks in prose and knows only smash-mouth hardball. That's why talking heads like Limbaugh, Levin, Carlson, Hannity pull higher radio and TV ratings. Don't be surprised if Trump winds up on radio or TV soon. For whatever reason(s), the audience is drawn to the hardball, reality-show crowd. Good luck seeking compromise with McConnell.
15
@Alan Grossberg
Yes, that's a good idea. Trump can take over Limbaugh's chair on talk radio, when Limbaugh vacates it.
1
Why don’t we give it a second? Biden isn’t even in office yet. Let him do a good job and prove his competence, and folks may well come around. We’re all so quickly to assume the worst of each other these days that this article doesn’t surprise me at all. But Biden has the opportunity, once in office, to try to heal some of our divide. It’s literally not even day one of his presidency.
18
With key republicans not even acknowledging him as president-elect, it’s a long shot at best. Since Bill Clinton, these people went off the rails and have never come back.
3
My best friend is a very conservative Republican. She did not vote for Trump this time. However, when I told her how anxious I was by the Republican response to the election results, she was puzzled. She doesn't watch the news, and was shocked by my accounts of the post election Trump protests featuring assault rifles and Proud Boys, not to mention the venomous comments and veiled threats by people who are supposedly Christians. I feel that this large group is fully capable of violence. I'm not sleeping. I've developed a twitch. We, the Moderates, believe that the country must pull together in order to survive a chaotic world. It is terribly heartbreaking for me to hear that mobs of Trumpers would apparently rather burn everything down, rather than come together as Americans.
47
@Marnie I am spending the pandemic in a very very red state. Whilst I shared your concerns (all through this summer, I became increasingly convinced there’d be civil war), it has become increasingly apparent since September everyone here is accepting of the Biden win. All but one previously vocal Trump supporter I know has been gracious in defeat. And that one is merely whining.
Just a note of hope...
2
They're not interested now, but if the Dems are right and the Trump/McConnell/GOP machine isn't good for America not only in the ethical, moral and spiritual sense, but also in the practical, "things either work or they don't" sense - ie, still no food in the fridge, still no peace in the streets and half the country's in the hospital or dead - they might come around quicker than you'd think.
The GOP fantasy does not work for the vast majority of Americans. Biden may be in a position to prove that. Let's hope he can. Georgia Dems, you listening?
25
How many gave to die before they learn?
I voted for Biden - I wish it were possible to reconcile, and wish him well at making the attempt. But all the complaints by people in this column are essentially what they have been doing to the rest of us for the last four years. "hold half the country in contempt"? Do they ever look at themselves in a mirror? I have read many articles asking us liberal city dwellers to reach out and try to understand the needs and worries of people in the so-called "heartland", to reach out to them. But where are the pleas for them to reciprocate? We have been reaching out to them for years - they have not "not earned it" . They do not care about anyone but themselves, they reject our reaching out to them? They claim to be patriots and yet reject our democracy?
The real heart of America is in the cities - that is where things are happening, that is where people go to find their dream, that is where the economy generates most of our national product and that is where the extra tax money comes from that pays for stuff in all the states that refuse to tax themslves.
I, for one, am tired of it. If we need to reach out to these people, I hope Biden can do it but I will not. They hold us in contempt - I think they have at least earned our disgust.
34
Pieces like this are disturbing, because Biden is not in office yet, and needs at least some time before assessments like this are appropriate or newsworthy. Of course people who voted for Trump are upset now. What is less understandable is that they think it is "magic" that mail-in ballots went mostly to Biden. Many Republicans believed their pick, who trashed mail-in voting and varying counting rules, rather than the law, denying what is legal. Why? Hard to figure, since he has lied about so much, and endangered so many because of his lies. It will be interesting to see if the the president's followers, infused by his angry messages, will hold on to their grudges against voting laws, and decide to stay home on election days in the future.
It's also saddening to see regurgitation of Fox news and right wing media racist talking points about immigrants, most of whom work harder than most Americans, and often for far less.
8
There can be no peace.
Like slavery, the current version of minority rule via the senate, the electoral college, and the Republican packed judiciary, is incompatible with our founding principles.
Furthermore, Republicans cheat.
The imbalances in power by state may have once served a purpose. I don't know. Our system may have functioned better when there were unwritten rules that civic-minded politicians played by. I don't know.
What I do know is that now the Republicans will do anything to get and hold power, and that when they get it, they wield it viciously and corruptly on behalf of the rich. They turn again and again to inflaming racism to maintain their grip. They have no principles that can stay the acts of a totalitarian. Quite the contrary. The believe that power is its own justification, as long as it is in the white hands.
There can be no compromise with them. They will be vanquished or else (with or without a civil war) there will be a schism. And Joe Biden has all the wrong instincts for this moment that we all face.
13
Biden is still thinking we are in an era when Rockefeller Republicans existed. Now, Biden is the Rockefeller Republican and the Republican Party has left the reservation.
1
Republicans have been destroying the country for years now, especially from the moment Mr. Obama was elected.
Trump took it a step further by destroying or ridiculing great American institutions.
They lost badly this election, and now they still want to go on with doing whatever they can to undermine the evolution of the country.
I hope Mr. Biden, one he will have tried his best to somewhat reconcile the country and failed because of Trump’s gangsters, will have what it takes to serve them their own medecine.
13
As soon as the moderate Trump supporters see that their access to health care is protected by the Biden administration and that jobs in the earth-care industries are booming, they will wonder why Trump didn't bring those advantages to them. Many Trump legions seem to have deep-seated feelings of inadequacy. It's our responsibility to help them feel respected as individuals without college degrees. You can be a success without a college degree. All the service people I rely on to repair my plumbing, electrical, water system are the best at their work . . . but Trump makes them feel valued beyond their work.
1
Those who refuse to respond to reason sometimes respond to emotional appeals. Those who respond to neither and instead join a resistance movement against a duly elected government can be dealt with under federal law without infringment to their first amendment rights.
4
@ expat, not when the Justice Department and the FBI have always been controlled by right-wing Republicans. Are you not aware of what has happened in the last 4 years? There is no longer justice for Republicans, only non-Republicans.
2
To me that the national electorate that actually votes is so evenly divided is uncanny!
The real challenge of a democracy is to avoid both the dictatorship of the majority as well as that of the minority.
One might suspect that through compromise, debate, and group dynamics of competition that there would be shifting beyond identity and tribalism towards common goals.
Remember that large crowd individually at the fair guessing the weight of the prize ox and the actual average of the guesses being correct.
Is this how capitalistic competition shapes
public opinion?
What about just working towards reducing human suffering based upon truth, evidence, rationality, and empathy in the pursuit of happiness?
If I weren’t human, I’d be incredulous observing us all.
?
1
@brighteyed Keep in mind that our two-party system presents a binary choice. If we had viable additional parties some of the Trump voters would have voted for a less extreme rightist.
3
Democrats should play hardball. The states that pay more to the federal government than they receive (on a per capita basis) are Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. Step one should be for the House of Representatives to pass legislation requiring that each state's balance of payments be equal. It would never pass, but it would shine light on the fact that, for the most part, rural America is subsidized by the blue states.
14
In ANY compromise, BOTH sides have to give. Alas, I do not believe for one second the Republicans can do that - at all - ever. They haven't in decades. Just interacting with any of the Trump cultists it's plain to see, for them, as with the GOP "leadership", it's win - only win - at all costs - no compromises. That is one of the things that has brought this nation down - one side, the Republicans, refuse to cooperate and abide by the ideals this nation was built upon.
10
If Biden will settle for the areas where Democrats and Republican somewhat agree (and there are a lot of them), he will get a lot done. If giving him a chance means signing a surrender document, not much will get done.
1
Only if Republicans play along. And I don’t think they will
After reading this well-written article and then the top comments, I believe I am living in Yugoslavia just before it fell apart.
A little earlier, my wife accidentally tuned to Fox News just in time for us to hear Ken Starr advocate that state legislatures have the right to pick presidential electors in disregard of the popular vote.
How people like that can look at themselves in the mirror without shame is truly beyond me.
I am confident that Biden will be inaugurated on schedule. About much else, I'm not so confident.
9
Duane, if the election gets thrown into the house of representatives to determine who is elected, then each State legislature has one vote to cast either Democrat or Republican. However, we are well past that point, Biden was elected and we are just waiting for Trump to recognize he has lost and resign.
4
The Trump reality show wasn’t renewed for another season. Some viewers just can’t accept that fact. The Biden Show is about to start and I have no doubt it will increase it’s viewer base over time. I can’t wait.
8
Though this article does capture some of the Republican base, I think it overwhelms the truth with just a fraction of Trumpers who happen to be Republican. I think many Republicans are happy that Joe Biden is our President Elect over Trump. I have A LOT of Republican family members, and yes, some are acting like it’s the end of the world, but others are okay with this outcome. However, those who are concerned— it is not because Biden won, but because they are convinced their “freedoms” will be taken away by liberals. We have got to calm these irrational fears down through accurate reporting and especially the media’s honest care in how they phrase headlines to grab our attention. We must center our informational feed to a realistic and calm narrative. Trump’s fictional storytelling that stokes fears in the hearts of citizens has been used for centuries by many a tyrants, just look at Henry VIII in creating a traveling play negatively portraying the Catholic Church to encourage the dissolution of the Catholic Monasteries while he profited off the spoils and got his divorce(s)... Propaganda is the biggest threat to truth and one of Trump’s strengths. So, when we turn our noses down at Republicans, the media also needs to own up to their involvement in what has happened. The media gave Trump a free pass for several years while their ratings and profit climbed- it is time they completely revoke it.
8
My dad has been convinced the Democrats are coming to take his guns for the last 30 years. Hasn’t happened yet, but surely any day now it will. Fox News says it so it must be true.
1
The explosion of Covid will tank the economy. Trump will do nothing to prevent it but will be out of office when it happens. By rebuffing Biden, the Republican Senate should get the blame for not dealing with this. Maybe the urgency will prompt Georgia voters to flip the Senate.
8
We don’t have that long. Six Weeks at best
The concluding statements in this article says volumes about the minimal intellectual capacity of those who wish combative gridlock upon us. And the “ string them up” declaration leaves little doubt about their level of intent.
Democracy is currently on shaky ground.
8
Warren, what makes you think Democracy is on shaky ground? We just had a well run national election that the Democrats won. We are just waiting for Trump to surrender. And he will.
3
Patience young man. Let Biden get into office and show what kind of leader he is before you go negative.
Biden will not get all Republicans believing but he will get enough to make a difference and that is all we need.
Actions. Not words. Are what leaders are defined by and what makes people change their mind....
4
Well, a well-intended suggestion extended to Republicans for the sake of the Union and the people. But, better to come up with alternatives as they are not interested in the protection of the Union. Maybe why don’t you, Democrats, offer them to break up the Union: people who mock others wearing masks (an indicative of lack of empathy and that of appreciation of science) would follow Trump and Republicans.
@Josh They'd never agree. The blue states keep the red states afloat financially. They may hate us, but McConnell and the other GOP leaders won't let us walk away. They want our tax dollars. I've thought of this many a time. I would rather pay all my tax money in state taxes and get something for it.
1
Declaring attempts to restore a sense of national unity a failure less than two weeks after the election would seem to be a bit premature. However, it does serve to illustrate just how many journalists have narratives at the ready to declare all efforts at centrist compromise dead and buried and call for a return to full-throated partisan extremism. It is going to be a fun four years, eh?
5
The article’s most interesting observation was that not all Trump supporters believe the President’s contention that the election was stolen. To insure that Trumpism is beaten going forward, those who oppose it must try to put some daylight between Trump’s less-rabid supporters and the soon-to-be ex-President. We won’t create that daylight by hurling epithets intended mainly to condemn and humiliate Trump’s supporters. Let us remember that some of the concerns of Trump’s supporters, such as bias in some of the media, government intrusion in our lives, or territorial expansion by China, are certainly issues at least worth discussing, even if we may not at first agree on the extent of the problems and how best to address them. With a little more curiosity and empathy, we must try to start a conversation with Trump supporters, no matter how difficult that can be at times. Otherwise we are left with little more than shouting demeaning and accusatory remarks at each other from a distance, in which case America loses and the chaos and corrosiveness of one Donald J. Trump wins.
2
I'd like to offer a counter-narrative to the hate presented here. I do not claim it represents most Republicans.
I am friendly with a Republican. I am certain he voted for Trump, though I asked him not to tell me who he voted for. Everyone else in his extended family voted for Trump and like the Trump supporters here want more Trumpian wars; never peace. Why? Because Americans supposedly "have not earned it." Peace is a good in itself. Jesus stated (Matthew 5:9) "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God", so what are these pious Christians reading?
I spoke with this Republican 2 days ago by phone. He said: "I suddenly realize; I really like Joe Biden." I almost fell out of my chair. I didn't know what to say, so I said nothing. He then explained:
"Well, I agree with a lot of things Trump has done, but I realize many of the things I agree with, like protecting the country, Joe Biden will do, but most of all I realize how tired I am of hearing Trump constantly be angry and nasty. It always makes me angry and that's no way to live. I suddenly realized when listening to Joe Biden that it doesn't need to be that way. Biden's no radical no matter what Trump says; he'll do what's right. It's nice to feel that I don't have to fight about everything all of the time." When he finished I really didn't know what to say, so I just thanked him.
It may not be representative of most Republicans, yet it was meaningful to me. It means that there's some hope.
14
The truth is, Trump is really difficult to like. He’s a nasty, spoiled brat who acts like a baby when he doesn’t get his way or anyone even slightly suggests that he isn’t the best most perfect person of all time. Very few of Trump’s fan would tolerate Trump’s behavior in their own personal lives. They put up with it because he is rich and famous and powerful and on their side, which to them outweigh his character. But I bet many of them will be glad not to have to defend his every egotistical utterance.
1
After reading this article, I see it again: truth is not getting out to many Americans. The article notes that even Republican officials acknowledge there was no "steal" and there are no "illegal votes", but these folks in the article are listening to propaganda right-wing radio or watching propaganda Fox News and they don't believe it.
How are we supposed to compromise when half the nation is not recognizing the truth? If we can't even agree on facts then how are we supposed to evaluate ideas?
7
We needed a nominee for president who could inspire and who would have some “coattails“.
Instead we are losing seats in the House and may well not gain control of the Senate.
1
Trump's victory was rejected by Democrats the moment it was announced in 2016, and what followed was four years of investigations, protests, and riots attempting to discredit 2016. How can the same people who reacted this way expect magic overnight peace with "the other side" now? Biden won, but Democrats earned this reaction over the last four years. They earned the social unrest they're going to have to deal with. There's a price to pay when you spend four years attacking tens or hundreds of millions of people.
I'm eager to see what Biden can do, and I'm hopeful. But thinking this is as easy as a one-liner saying we're healed is naive at best.
7
@nilkn Trump was met with investigations and protests and yes, even impeachment proceedings, for a reason. Not because Dems just randomly decided they didn’t like him, but because he’s shown himself over and over to be a threat to our country and to democracy itself. Millions of people who feel disenfranchised and left behind by the sweeping changes in our society have enjoyed watching him wreak havoc. They don’t care what damage he causes because he makes them feel empowered. If only they knew he doesn’t care a lick about them, he just enjoys the attention. Fortunately, the people voted, and most of us are ready to move on under new leadership. It’ll take years to recover from Trump, but we’ve taken the first step.
11
@nilkn First, the Rs did the same to Clinton for 8 years and again to Obama for 8 years. The latter effort hurt the country. The right-wing propaganda machine has vilified the left for decades. As for social unrest and.... there are a lot of us on the left who are armed and well trained. My view is if they want unrest fine with me.
1
Where were these protests and riots over the last 4 years? I must have missed them.
Biden asks to be given a chance by Republican voters. Not a chance they'll do so. No matter that numbfer of deaths from covid 19 in coming months, Republicans will not give him a chance. He will have to figure out how to govern the country without help from them. Their motivation is what it's always been. Eyes are on the next election. By undermining Biden, they are sure to win. With Democrats' preoccupation with diversity backfiring in this past election, Biden may merely be a caretaker president until the next Republican president in 2024.
4
I think the speakers from Fox etc should be asked to testify under oath about the election. And those who supported the President's lies.
For the good of the country. Congress should have a hearing on it right now. About the election.
For all Americans. We deserve the truth. The Trump supporters deserve the truth.
With the evangelical branch of the republican party becoming ever more radical I see no reason to appease them. The church is structured as fascist governments are, and they are being force fed from their leaders as to how to think and whom to vote. This is a religious war in their eyes with the government competing with the church for their dollars. ‘Socialist’ democrats are seen as worshipping the State. How can you possibly reason with that mindset? I see one solution, and one only. Mass democratic migration from blue strongholds into regions of the country currently red. I calculated that it would take less than 4 million of us to gain a majority in Texas, Idaho, Wyoming, and Florida. Am I crazy,....maybe....but crazy times may require crazy solutions. Have at it.
9
VERY cool that the last guy felt comfortable enough to threaten to murder protesters -- and y'all quoted him! This is what white privilege looks like.
11
Trump supporters can breath easy, unless George elects 2 Dems, Biden’s hands will be tied. They will obstruct him as they did Obama. Santorum, Kasich, others suggest Biden reach across the aisle & work with those who have no desire to do so. I suggest, as a show of good faith, he nominate several Republicans to work in his cabinet and such. Once their seats have been filled, hopefully by Dems, he should fire them. But Biden is too nice for that. Well. Republicans have been waging war for decades & they take no prisoners. This is it Joe. If our Democracy is going to survive, you need to get more than a little Mitch in you.
3
“Biden Asked Republicans to Give Him a Chance. They’re Not Interested”
Gee, I wonder where they got that idea???
In January 2017, Rep. Jerrold Nadler said he was boycotting Trump’s inauguration (along with many House Democrats) because, though the president was “legally elected,” he wasn’t “legitimate.”
Sounds like "The chickens come home to roost"
3
@Miguel G The way that Biden is currently being delegitimized by Republicans has no precedent. After the last election Trump was accepted as President-elect in a timely manner and treated accordingly. What’s going on now is just craziness.
6
Wait a minute. Did anyone actually believe that Biden was going to sprinkle magic pixie dust on 4 Nov and the Republicans would be released from their DJT spell? Ha. Not a chance.
It will take years and a lot more than Biden, good man that he is, to heal what grieves the conservative right wing people. Maybe we can all start by referring to each other as “people”, and both sides dump the pejoratives. A tall order, I know.
6
I’m a Republican
I voted for Biden
Please don’t lump us all in to one category
13
@ Bay Dog, You’re still a Republican and responsible for where we are now - losing the little bit of democracy we had. I hold you responsible for the current disastrous state of affairs. You voted for Trump and chose to destroy our country.
Let's just be candid about this: Republicans hate America and its institutions.
9
Now it is time for the Democrats to reap what they sowed the last four years. Their hysteria and vitriol is what tore America apart. Biden's legacy will be to continue the trend. Don't expect Republican to forget soon how they were treated. At least they won't do around rioting and burning down cities like Democrat supporters did.
5
Yes, and all of this infighting from both sides creates a perfect opening for our international adversaries and reduces our standing on the world stage. Why does everyone care so much about their political ‘team’ like Democrats and Republicans are rivaling sports teams? We are one nation and we will disagree; it’s inevitable. But there is a need to be mutually respectful during political discourse, otherwise it only hurts our nation and benefits our international rivals.
1
@Steven The protests over the last months have been in the name of racial justice. Most were peaceful, but as with most mass movements there has been some unfortunate violence. What does that have to do with the point you’re trying to make? How have Republicans been mistreated? They’ve had the Presidency for four years. Now they don’t.
2
@T V
You are absolutely correct. You should have told the Dems that four years ago.
Meanwhile China is eating our lunch. Our allies view us as dysfunctional at best, a failed state at worst. And it’s all because ignorant Republican voters refuse to change with the times. You can only cut taxes so much before you tilt into Idiocracy.
One thing is for sure, any demographic advantage Democrats may have is being overshadowed by a shameless and savy Right Wing media machine.
9
Unfortunately, the right wing media doesn’t make money off of selling peace and unity. Their listeners love the anger, the fear. The talking radio and TV heads will keep dishing it because people keep eating it, and they’ll laugh all the way to the bank. Nothing, and I mean nothing, will change until those media outlets stop peddling their garbage.
8
@Deanna What right wing media?
Always exhausting to read Cult members unbelievable understanding of Democrats. Their addiction to a dangerous, false narrative is always the same. Sadly, they choose to lean into ignorance, racism and xenophobia, their comments are mendacious and cringeworthy.
14
What responsibility do we have to people in our country who think like this, e.g., "Everything I worked for, Biden wants to give to the immigrants to help them live, when they don’t do nothing but sit on their butts,”? This is an old trope and I'm tired of hearing it leveled against people like my, and probably this person's, ancestors. People who tried to make their lives better by coming to this county. If Trump is a symptom of a bigger problem, then what is that bigger problem? That people are inherently fearful, territorial, selfish, and cruel-hearted? I do hope Biden can find a way to heal us, but right now, I feel that Dems and Reps are in a broken marriage and separation or divorce may be the best answer so at least some of us can make progress towards living up to our country's ideals rather than complaining about others being the problem.
7
He wants conservatives to give him a chance yet for 4 yrs him and his chaos crews in the democrat party never gave President Trump a chance even when the economy was at its best ever,even when trump tried to get everyone to work together for america, what a joke, it's sickening that they thing their so above everyone else,
4
We simply want a president who stands for ALL Americans and who does not stoke further divisions. Simple. Does your family speak to other people the way Donald Trump speaks to and about people? Then by all means keep supporting him. I choose decency because I was raised to treat others the way I want to be treated.
6
Where is Trump’s evidence that Obama wasn’t born in the USA? We’ve been waiting on that for ten years now.
1
Has Dennis Smith ever met an immigrant? They are the hardest working people in this country.
21
Well Mr Biden they are right because you and your Democratic Party did not give any chance to the President in fact the whole USA did back you in your non stop criticism of Trump policy now show us what you can because the talk is over
4
Let's not kid ourselves. The last time the Democrats worked with a Republican president was Reagan, and the last time the Republicans worked with a Democratic president was Clinton (and that had its issues).
Then came Florida 2000 which ripped the parties apart. W was vilified as Hitler and Obama was beset with constant GOP claims of scandal and the Tea Party. It's not just Trump, we've been split for a good 20 years. Probably more.
Biden ran on a "bring us together" message and got quite a few Republican and centrist votes. Even more Republcians voted present rather than voting for Trump, who they despised.
If Biden wants to govern from the center, he'll have some GOP support. If he wants to move hard left, it's going to be a long four years.
157
Define “far left”, please. Too often that label is slapped in anyone who feels healthcare is a human right, and people should make living wages, and wealthy people should not be able to avoid taxes. Such far left radical stuff!
170
@Kevin The Democrats work with the Republicans on all kinds of stuff.
Such as bailing out Wall Street and approving Trump's military budgets and reauthorizing the Patriot Act.
The social issue stuff of it is theatrical diversion. Biden and the Dems make it very clear that they don't truly care all that much about working people and love well to do suburban Republicans.
25
@Kevin - Can you define governing from the center? The center in any given policy area is defined as something quite different to Republicans as to Democrats. Mitch McConnell is not likely to budge from the most extreme right wing position. Biden can try to negotiate all he wants, but McConnell's goal is to bring most of government to a stop when a Democrat is president, no matter how much harm he does to our country.
105
I’m a Biden guy through and through. But I’m pretty confident that he never expected that the olive branch he extended would be accepted. Unity talk might be good politics, but trust me:
Joe Biden may have successfully sold the conciliator image, and it does to some extent apply to him.
But Joe Biden can also exercise relentless political muscle with the best of them.
That’s the Joe Biden I voted for.
29
Me too. Personally, I always hoped the calls for unity were just a way to appease potential center-right voters, and would disappear as soon as he took the presidency.
3
The more things change, the more they stay the same. For a brief moment in time I felt hope for change in America. Reading this article I see Archie Bunker is not only still alive and well, but continues to thrive through large segments of the American populous.
32
It’s worse than that. The reason we could laugh at Archie Bunker rather than be turned off is that he was simply dim and ignorant. Hate was not part of Bunker’s equation. Trump is filled with rage, ultimately against what who knows. But rage defines him and his most ardent supporters.
I am a Democrat and supported each president who was elected, all except Trump. I could never call him president. Ever.
32
I understand that DT calls himself as a "stable genius." My generation of analysands would have called his claim that the election was rigged and he has really won a second term a textbook example of paranoid thinking -- classic delusions of persecution -- mixed with delusions of grandeur -- "stable genius" indeed!
However, today too many psychiatrists seem to have given up trying to get to the root of their patients' problems and think they have "solved" everything by dosing them with pills. No wonder they no longer enjoy the respect that they enjoyed (among thinking people, anyway) in my youth!
Especially sad are the many otherwise sane people accepting Trump's delusions as fact. This is understandable among the under-educated voters who constitute his "base" -- after all, most of them probably never heard of paranoia -- but what about all these Republican politicians who have not only college degrees but law degrees as well? The best I can say for them is that their passionate desire to keep their party in power leads them to fantasize that if they keep on buttressing Trump's ego, sooner or later they may get what they want.
Historically, I guess, the widespread acceptance of conspiracy theories goes back to the 1960s, and all the people who refused to believe that a single gunman killed JFK...and I suppose there are still people who refuse to accept the findings of the Warren Commission.... human nature is indeed curious, is it not?
8
Listen, if we all acted in our own professional lives the way we act as voters we would be fired from our jobs. You can't just refuse to work with a person or group of people. That is not how life works. As workers we may not like everyone we work with but we persevere and get the job done. Why is this so hard to replicate as voters and citizens. Stop it. Start acting like an intelligent adult we have a lot to get done in this country or we will lose our hard earned status as the greatest country in the world.
661
@Steve
But I voted for the republicans not to work with the democrats, so they are doing their job. I guess it's a matter of perspective
3
@Steve You're right. But it's more than just a status as the greatest nation in the world that we need to regain. Our democracy itself is in peril, largely because of the irrational thinking of so many in the electorate. Sure, we need to deal with economic and social justice issues, provide more stability for the average American and the poorest ones among us. But we also need our citizens to recognize their duty, see the current crisis clearly, and start thinking in a more rational way to make sensible judgments instead of the reactionary, grossly ill-informed and bigoted way that so many do now.
51
@Steve
I don’t mean to burst your bubble, but that quaint idea of being the greatest country in the world is really an idea just held by those in the US. If anyone else did think that, surely it’s been dispelled by the antics of your President, administration and Congress the past four years, on so many fronts. The government is a reflection of the people who voted for them, so it’s not just the government who has looked absurd to any outside observers. Greatest? No.
95
Globalization has brought great economic change. The evils of globalization have been blamed on Liberals who are engaged in great social change. Conservatives are mustering their anger against the Great Liberal War of Aggression. There are great similarities with the causes of the previous Great Civil War, another economic and social war who's causes smoldered for 40 years but who's fiery roots ran deep.
4
The difficulty blocking reconciliation between Trump and Biden supporters is that the struggle is not over ideology nor differences in views about how to achieve goals. Rather it is more akin to the Thirty Years War between Catholics and Protestants. That is, it is a war between faiths, contrasting, incontrovertible, absolute beliefs.
It probably will end only when the deluge of alternative facts and crazy conspiracies is arrested, FOX is shut down, and manipulation of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Google searches is regulated. In other words, maybe thirty years from now??
9
You are quite the optimist.
30 years?
I doubt I will live to see it.
Facebook is squarely to blame for this. Fox News will spout propaganda, but Facebook's algorithms hammer the lies into these folks' minds until they can't see anything else. It's sad and unfortunately I feel Trumpism will only get stronger and more violent until the sad social platforms take responsibility for what they have built. From product managers all the way up to executive level they need to fix it or accept regulation.
16
Don’t forget YouTube/Google. Video and search result suggestions do the same thing. Algorithms based on helping us find what we’re looking for have made being narrow minded tough to avoid.
2
I worked counting ballots in western WA. In the redder parts of our county I would say 5-10% of straight R voters left President box blank, voted for Biden or Jorgenson, or wrote in a candidate (Mike Pence was popular). The comments coming from the voters in this article who say votes magically appeared don't understand how mail in voting works. I learned so much in the three weeks I was working. I encourage everyone to check out their county's elections website. They are so many steps to getting a vote counted, basically 6-10 pairs of eyes will see it before final tabulation.
30
Thank you for your service :-)!
If Biden didn't have much luck bridging the gap with white rural Trumps supporters, people in small churches and Fox News watchers, then maybe he should try reaching out to different demographic groups in the Republican party. Perhaps he would have better luck with urban, college educated, African American or Hispanic Trump supporters. Maybe he would have more in common with Trump supporters that watch CNN or read The New York Times.
Also, I would give up on QAnon and conspiracy theory groups. Addressing them just makes them seem bigger in life and grow. They are not the swing voters or independents. I would focus on building a bridge to young Trump voters, minorities and college graduates first, then work on the harder cases later.
11
When you listen to the people who refuse to accept the election, you are hearing people repeating what they have been hearing from right wing media for years. Trump rode that messaging to the presidency.
This country will not come together so long as right wing media fans the flames of division.
9
@Larry Roth - Just for kicks, I toggled back-n-forth between Fox, CNN and MSNBC today. To my horror (but no surprise) FAUX NEWS was busy waging it's campaign of paranoia, misinformation, and hyper-partisan rightwingnutism....24/7.
And there you have it: Welcome to 1984.
"“It’s just a little upsetting when you go to bed at night, and all of a sudden, four days later, these votes are magically appearing,” Ms. Strong said."
How do your reconcile when people are this--to put it politely--fact starved? Votes did not "magically appear". They were waiting to be counted. It takes time to count votes. Turnout was huge. They were legal votes counted. Trump supporters were waving signs saying "Count every legal vote", which is exactly what the poll workers were doing.
22
@The Poet McTeagle - Say "hello" to Roger Stone's Inverted Truth campaign to destroy undereducated minds. Weee!
@The Poet McTeagle
They are not fact starved. Their identity is so closely tied to their political ideology that they literally cannot cope with any reality that doesn't confirm or support their political ideology and worldview.
These people are suffering from cognitive dissonance.
Perhaps it is time to no longer care about the other side. For 4 years we had absolutely no cooperation from the Republican side and they devastated all institutions and the commons. Now it should be about turning the other cheek and coming up with compromises that don’t fully address the damage done? No thank you. If they choose not to take the olive branch and give Biden a chance, well, it will be time to remind the other side that elections have consequences and do the work the electoral AND popular vote sent Biden to the Whitehouse.
12
You have got to face up to the fact that Trump only echoes what his followers believe. He does not instill the beliefs into them. They will be just as recalcitrant as ever. Do not try to claim an equivalence of liberal and conservative willingness to compromise. That kind of conservative was driven out of the fold long ago.
4
Today, the Minneapolis StarTribune reported that the leaders of the Republican majority State Senate had given coronavirus warnings on Tuesday to its members in the Senate, that several Republican senators had tested positive for Covid-19. They DID NOT advise the DFL (Minnesota Democrats) of this information. The Senate met on Thursday without any warning to the opposition party. Now everyone in attendance has been exposed.
This is another example of the disaster that has befallen us. It is horrible enough that the virus is here, that it has been allowed to spread, quite obviously because of Republican intransigence, and has killed and injured so many of us, across the political spectrum.
President Elect Biden has opened the door to Republicans to join with the rest of us in healing our country. Not only are they not interested; the evil act that they have just perpetrated in Minnesota serves to show us what we are up against.
How can we be expected to see such evil as anything that invites us to join together in any unified action? I am horrified and in deep grief at what has happened to us. Are we really the "United" States? Certainly "united" doesn't show up here.
18
I used to think that Hillary’s characterization of the “deplorables” was a bit over the top. In hindsight, I think it was a pretty mild description.
2
I saw Biden’s message of healing as a way to contrast himself on a personal, nonpolitical level, to Trump, in order to appeal to swing voters who aren’t fully accepting of Democratic positions but are weary of or even disgusted by Trump’s behavior and language. The absence of Trump by itself will be healing to some extent. I trust given his experience he won’t expect to “unify” the country inasmuch as that requires winning over many Trump voters. And he certainly won’t win over the likes of the Smiths, who have always been with us and always will be. These are the children and grandchildren who ran hate-filled newspaper ads when Kennedy came to Dallas and cheered when they heard of the assassination.
8
If Trump supporters want to blame someone for Trump’s early lead in swing states being slowly eaten away, they can start with Republican-controlled state legislatures. Here in Pennsylvania, the legislature refused to allow the state to begin counting mail-in ballots until Election Day. They initially offered to let them begin three days in advance, but it came with the condition of removing drop boxes, so the governor (rightfully) rejected the offer. In my county, along with several others, they decided not to begin counting them until the day AFTER Election Day. Trump told his supporters not to vote by mail because he knew it would create a “red mirage” where he could claim he was way ahead, and then say the election was being stolen from him as votes that slowly trickled in overwhelmingly favored Biden. But obviously not all of these votes were for Biden, so in states where Trump was initially ahead and Biden was closing the gap, he wanted them to “stop the count” and in states like Arizona where he was closing the gap on Biden, he wanted to “count all the votes.”
13
I have NO doubt that Biden will keep extending an olive branch to the Republicans and all of Trump’s supporters. It’s up to them to accept it and be willing to work for the good of ALL OF US or suffer the blowback. It’s a misconception to think of Biden as a socialist, far from it, and hopefully the Democrats will realize some of their mistakes from this election and get their points across more clearly to those 70 million trump voters who think their guns are going to get taken away and that their freedoms are in jeopardy. That was being HAMMERED into the Trump supporters’ minds and I’m sure that’s how they got to 70 million. So much misinformation. And it’s easy to get a certain segment of society to believe anything if they hear it enough and don’t do any fact-checking, which they aren’t. And Trump, McConnell, Graham, and the rest of them are banking on that, it’s pretty sad actually and harmful to our country.
5
Neither of these parties cares for one another really, nor do most of their followers. About the best America can hope for is four more years of the same, but I fear things will get a lot worse. Good luck, y’all.
1
I suggest that the Republican Party secede from the nation and form their own kingdom since they are so unhappy with the election results. These GOP office holders are certainly not showing any willingness to preserve our American democracy. In times past,their obstructive behaviors would have been singled out as treasonous.
While I commend Joe Biden for his willingness to establish a working relationship with the Republicans, I caution him not to be taken in, as was Mr Obama early in his presidency, so long as Mitch McConnell maintains his choke-hold over the Senate.
Charlie Brown eventually learned that he couldn't count on Lucy VanPelt to hold the football in place as he was about to kick. Unless the GOP shows a willingness to cooperate with the new administration, Mr. Biden should count them out, declaring them a lost cause, then proceeding forward with a determination to carry out his presidential duties in the best way he can.
6
The Republicans are certainly no good at all for health insurance. Republican states are blocking the expansion of Medicaid, and the Senate will block necessary fixes to the ACA.
(Biden proposed some, and acted like he thought he might get them the other day. but no way.)
We are going to remain the developed world's health insurance basket case, 27 years after the last holdout, Switzerland, put in its universal coverage. We still have 9% uninsured, some of those insured actually don't have insurance--just a loan (expanded Medicaid for people 55+ in 10-14 states).
The current ACA has serious unaffordability in certain cases---it's not an uncommon case to have 40% of income (pre-tax) needed for premium plus copay. (Try, on healthcare.gov, a couple, 62, income just over the 400% of Fed. Pov. Lvl. subsidy cliff, in IL that allows the max 3:1 premium ratio old to young.)
Biden proposes capping premiums at 8.5% of income for everyone (doing away with the "subsidy cliff').
Nice try, Biden. Democrats are more than 10 votes short in the Senate. The Republicans will stop you.
(Perhaps, compare us to Ontario, Canada. Max expenses by a family on health care seems to be capped at about 4% of pre-tax income. Ours is more than 10x as high (pre-tax is more than post-tax).
Bad, bad, bad.
3
In fact, seeing as we have the Republican blockade on ACA fixes, and, as well, still those 12 red states won't expand Medicaid, a good chunk of people in the country are still in the EMTALA-protection-only category.
EMTALA is the old 1986 EMTALA law (still in effect).
From that law, hospitals accepting funding from the Federal government have to treat people in emergencies:
a)Only in emergencies, to the point of stabilization only.
b)Patients are still responsible for the bills for that emergency-to-the-point-of-stabilization-only treatment.
So, we're still just right here:
"I mean, people have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room.".
--G.W.Bush, 7/10/07.
(Quote Source: Official Bush White House U.S. Government Archives, Paragraph 16, here: https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2007/07/20070710-6.html )
What a generous country!
People may want to check me on what I've said about the maximum costs to people in the Ontario, Canada system.
Thus:
The Ontario cap comes about because the main plan has virtually no copays, but omits out-of-hospital Rx's. A separate "Trillium" program caps those at about 4% of post-tax income.
The references on two parts of the coverage are :
Main system (everything virtually free, covering in-hospital Rx's, but missing out-of-hospital Rx's):
https://www.ontario.ca/page/what-ohip-covers#section-9
and, the "Trillium" program, capping expenses for out-of-hospital Rx's at about 4% of after-tax income. (It has a deductible of about 4% of after-tax income, but then pays everything except copays of about $2.):
https://www.ontario.ca/page/get-help-high-prescription-drug-costs#section-2 .
If they earnestly believe the election was stolen, that's hard to overcome.
Would anyone on the left who believed that about Trump be willing to forgive?
They'll need time and cooler voices on the right.
But, conflict is political strategy these days.
I don't know why the dems just don't make a video of Republican and Democratic election officials and front line people who handled ballots. Have them attest to how fair, bipartisan and strictly monitored the whole process is- from sending ballots to voters to handling them when they are returned.
Or else this is permanent wound.
1
When Trump was elected, I thought the best chance to bring the country together was the election of a moderate white male. We got that. Hyper partisanship is never going to last long and even though Biden will struggle on major legislation, small steps are better than none and there are ways to get stuff done as he no doubt knows. Former California Governor Brown once said governing was like rowing a canoe, sometimes you paddle on the left, sometimes on the right, but you are always going forward. That is my expectation.
1
At this point, I'm just convinced democracy can't work in this country if politicians are incentivized by partisanship. It will only be a matter of time when the other democracies in the world will succumb to such base temptations.
I wonder how the U.S. got out of that funk from during the days of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.
2
We needed a galvanizing candidate of literal and dramatic economic transformation—
Who would also directly appeal to the disgruntled white working class.
Unfortunately that candidate, who was leading in the primaries, was thwarted by a takeover of the party in South Carolina and then a startlingly rapid coalescing and closing of ranks by the other candidates to exclude him.
4
@srwdm
The irony here is Bernie Sanders inability to connect with southern Black voters in both 2016 and 2020 cost him any chance at the Democratic Party presidential nomination.
Also these disgruntled White working class voters where never going to support in great numbers a man who publicly described himself as a "Democratic-Socialist" and was Jewish. Sorry but there is simply too much ignorance and bigotry among large numbers of conservatives for Bernie Sanders to capture a significantly number of White working class voters.
I think it's time to wake up and smell the coffee, socially conservative people with racial animus or outright hatred toward non-White people, or have feelings for bigotry towards the LBGT community, or feel threatened by women empowering themselves are never going to be attracted to the Democratic Party in large numbers.
Expecting anything from GOP or their supporters to accept Mr Biden is a wishful thinking that is practically impossible.
This is the party whose leader started birther movement, Moscow Mitch stated he wanted Mr Obama to be one term president and blocked every legislative agenda including infrastructure spending.
Are they going to change?
If Mr Biden can overcome this - I will donate to the charity the highest amount I have ever done in my life. But I have serious reservations if anything can change.
I am rooting for GA voters to flip 2 senate seats.
2
Trumpers will not accept Biden. But they accept their Social Security and Medicare checks; they'll accept their free virus testing and free vaccine when it's available; they accept their farm subsidies and blue state welfare to red states.
What many Trumpers actually don't accept is reality. One reality is that their culture of anti-science and anti-knowledge is causing the world to leave them farther and farther behind. Another is that Trump and the Republican Party have for decades taken advantage of them by inciting grievances against other people: "Let's you and him fight, and while you do I'll steal both of blind," goes back to Nixon.
The only consolation I see is that large numbers of every new generation of Americans are defecting from their parents' reactionary views. The entire nation is moving to be more liberal and the right can not seem to adjust to that reality. The right will slowly become more and more irrelevant to hundreds of millions of citizens.
10
You know the best part about this little snowflake rally? It doesn't change a thing! Biden will still be sworn in on January 21st and there's nothing they can do about it!
4
I don't like labels, but if I had to describe myself politically, I think a Libertarian Conservative is more accurate. It's obvious what is happening here. Trump knows very well that he lost the election and it's not getting overturned. He's simply setting the stage for what could be an ideological shift in America. After everything that Trump has done and said, he still managed to get 72 million votes. This should be eye opening for the Democrats.
As a country, we need to examine why we're divided. There's a saying that "the fish rots from the head" and given in this context, if the politicians are divided, so will Americans. We need to get politicians back to the center of the political spectrum. Take a look at the 1980 and 1984 electoral map. It wasn't that America was more conservative per se , but rather, it was united.
If we're looking at solutions here, we need a 50/50 Supreme Court that has 3 judges with liberal views and 3 with conservative views. Obviously when one party tries to stack the courts, you're going to have divisiveness, because it doesn't work for everyone. Maybe even modifying how Congress works, where we have a permanent split Congress. Any policies being passed will have bipartisanship and are logical policies that work for all Americans, not a single group of people. You're also more likely to get better returns on your investments with a split Congress.
3
None of it will matter as long as corporate interests rule the day.
2
Nobody cares what these so-called disaffected, “disenfranchised” people think. They got their four years of fascism and they were never happy.
Let’s move on already.
16
This comment is hateful, and not at all constructive. Can you not think ahead, even two months? The executive branch, contrary to Trump's attitude, is not a kingship.
One is forced to a conclusion that Trump voters have only one reaction to those who are not of their opinion - hatred. There is no curiosity or reaching out to others - just baleful grievance. No longer are they interested (if they ever were) in open minded discussion, negotiation, the validity of other points of view that are grounded in facts and, most of all, the recognition that Biden voters are at least as deserving and patriotic as they are. Understanding why vote tallies drifted towards Biden after having been going to Trump is very simple - it was predicted - and certainly not evidence of foul play. This can only be either a disingenuous grudge or a true cult belief.
14
Honestly, I'm tired of being told that it's my responsibility to "try to understand these people."
I've been doing my utmost to "understand" them for the better part of my life (which has included living in a number of different (and culturally diverse) parts of the country, including rural Middle America and New England, urban East Coast and Midwest, etc.). While I've found that many of "these people" that I've known personally aren't as closed-minded as people depicted in articles like this, I know that large swaths of our citizenry are like this.
What do I mean by "like this?" Close-minded, uninformed about the world outside of their small bubble, and most importantly, unwilling to do their part to try to understand those of us who aren't "like them."
I'm tired of trying to "understand them" when they're not willing to try to "understand" people like me.
Civility is a two-way street, a give and take, and sometimes a compromise. It's not always easy, and it often takes some work. Many of them don't appear to be willing to do these things.
If they're not willing to try to meet us half-way, I'm ready for us to move on without them.
42
@Paul-A
I DO understand them. I'm from Trump country. If Facebook were giving out prizes for biggest Trump-Q-etc mouthpiece my brother-in-law would be a finalist.
When you explain your understanding using their very own words to demonstrate--their social media posts, their ads, quotes from individuals interviewed in the NYT itself--you get called an elitist hater of real Americans.
1
It never ceases to amaze me how some Christians pound their chests espousing love of God and yet so detest their fellow man so that they will not try to unify and heal with each other because "they have not earned it. "What happened to "love thy neighbor as thyself." I try to be a good Christian every day, I dont hate anyone, not even this corrupt incompetent president who finally is leaving office. I feel a sense of deep relief. Yet, I know that Republicans will try their very best to sabotage the incoming president. They seem to hate filled, using ugly and uncompromising verbiage that makes one shutter and wonder how these people ever got into office. I prime example is Senator Lindsey Graham. When I have seen him speak at some of these committee hearings, I have seen his face contort with rage and apparent hate. God, please have mercy on us.
27
In my opinion, republican officials have fanned the partisan flames for so long that any sign of compromise will surely make them a RINO in their constituents' eyes and cost them their seat at next election. I hate to say it, but Biden should not make the same mistakes Obama made by bending over backwards to gain their support. it just ain't gonna happen.
15
The main stream media needs to stop fueling this ridiculous movement. Just stop. This is disgusting and disgraceful on so many levels
16
Americans need to think about the long term outcome of our current politics. Talented young people who are able to leave the country will do so. My eleven year old twins have learned French and are getting EU citizenship.
10
Oh no. Who will grow up to fill the ranks of the PMC?
Through marriage? Desperate times call for desperate measures.
I’m a diehard Republican and this article’s premise is ridiculous.
Trump is a egomaniac who fell short on delivering any of his promises.
Governor Kasich is very capable of carrying on republican ideals.
14
Pure ignorance. The last 2 paragraphs say it all. Biden doesn't even list immigration in his top priorities. There are bigger worries like Americans dying from COVID and an economy in danger because of the virus raging through the nation. And threatening to lynch protesters? Disgusting.
16
They are deceived.” when speaking of healing.
“Now you want healing,” she added. “Now you want to come together. You have not earned it.”
Amusing sentences.
The deception began four years ago when there was a belief that Donald Trump would fix everything. Drain the swamp he told us. Rid us of career politicians he claimed.
Trump was the holy grail of deception.
The Democrats have not earned healing attempts. Hmm. As Trump fosters and incites hate in the post election days rather than initiate a transfer of power the Democrats are to blame?
Biden has his work cut out for him with that type of mindset.
16
There is no simple reason why anything happens. Trump supporters grasping at "stolen" elections or "fraudulent" activities, all un-substantiated, reflects the one-dimensionality in their thinking, which comes in part from right-wing bullhorns such as Rush Limbaugh. Trump supporters are in part brainwashed, just as I am probably a little brainwashed by the liberal media I prefer. However, Biden's victory comes from a tapestry of thoughts and motivations. I enjoyed watching the Trump supporters march today as I remembered the Women's Marches soon after Trump took office. Many of those young women (and men) were not old enough to vote in 2017 and 2018. Trump's base may have forgotten or discounted the dissatisfaction of whole swaths of American society, but these new young voters didn't forget, as they voted this election cycle.
2
GOP members of Congress are there because Trump voters put them there. It doesn’t matter what GOP members of Congress think or feel. What matters is they cannot cooperate with Biden until their constituents tell them too. And these constituents are locked in the FOX echo chamber of alternative facts and paranoid conspiracies.
7
To the Smiths - I do not know why you advocate violence when you condemn it in others. Also, it is beyond disgusting for you to say immigrants do nothing. What a shameful thing for you to now be immortalized for saying.
33
In this article :
"She, like others, took Mr. Trump’s position that it was strange that he had been leading in numerous places because of in-person votes on Election Day, only to be overtaken once mail-in ballots were counted on election night and over the days that followed. (The delay in counting mail-in ballots in several states was because of restrictions imposed by Republican state legislatures.)"
----------------------------------------------------------
This is something easy to explain, the most populated area like big towns vote for Biden, there's more Mail-in ballot in those place to avoid physical contact with others people not to catch the virus. The less populated area go to vote for Trump because there's not much people to encounter.
6
Democrats filed 300 lawsuits to get voting changed. They didn’t do this without good reason.
The mail-in voting system will need a complete overhaul, including the same guidelines as in-person voting, voter ID, no harvesting, etc., and states need to get their counting done promptly like Florida. If the Democrats have their way, none of this will change, however.
3
@LKS
Actually Democrats in Pennsylvania specifically made a request to the Republican controlled legislature to start counting mail-in voting early. The Republicans refused.
I'd suggest you do a little more research on this issue.
Hmmm...I do believe it was largely republican legislatures that refused to allow the counting of mail in votes until election day.
I think one of the most damaging legacies that Trump has left in his wake is the mistrust of the news media, which he has used as a wedge to drive people apart. One the people interviewed in this story got her information from Infowars. Many people, to the right and to the left as well, rely on news outlets that align with and reinforce their views. Others are attracted to websites that express extremist views and conspiracy theories. No good can come of this. We as a nation need to acknowledge each other and communicate with each other if we are to preserve our damaged social fabric. And there are a few hopeful signs, even among those who voted for Trump, such as Andrea Curry, who said it is time to move on, and believe that Biden would not use his office to intentionally do harm. Pastor Krebs has it right: Communities are complex and we need to communicate with each other. I honestly don't know if it's possible to repair the damage to our politics and broader society, but we need to step back and ease of the harshness as much as possible first.
7
In contrast to Obama, the new president elect needs to come to terms with the reality of an intransigent republican party whose only objectives are obstruction and power. The best approach is to leverage public opinion and executive powers to overcome the obstacles they will throw against any action by the Biden administration to repair the damage they caused.
7
Mitch McConnell and his cabal have shown their true colors- they are using mealy-mouthed arguments to block the peaceful transfer of power and to de-legitimize an election. Enough. Let’s stop calling them Republicans as if they still represented a legitimate political party. If you want to see how legitimate Republicans act, look to Gov Charlie Baker of MA and Gov Larry Hogan of MD. We are in for the fight of our lives to pry 1/2 the country away from their current belief that autocrats will serve them better than democracy. This belief has never worked out for average citizens and has always led to failed states, economic ruin and worse. This is no longer a fight between 2 political parties but a fight between those who support democracy and those who don’t.
17
I think it's condescending and patronizing to ignore the message that 70 million Trump voters were sending. Trump made no secret of wanting to upend decades of progressive legislation/regulation and judicial precedent - on the environment, on addressing racial inequality, on progressive taxation, on abortion.
The public didn't mind Republican obstructionism in the Obama era, and Republicans continue to be rewarded at the ballot box despite repeatedly giving tax breaks to multi-millionaires and opposing the ACA.
It seems as though Democrats continue to assume that the benefits of their agenda are self-evident, when all the evidence suggests that many voters are not on board.
A call for unity will not change anyone's mind.
6
@DebbieR
So true. I think Democrats continue to believe that most people want the best for everyone else. As this article and the response by many to mask mandates show, a good chuck of our country is extremely selfish and only care about themselves. It’s no surprise that they are so attracted to Trump, a completely selfish man who uses everyone around him to feed his ego and is totally lacking in empathy. As long as they are getting what they want, they don’t care about what is best for our country long term or how others might be harmed. Democrats have to stop thinking that most Americans are good, giving people. It simply isn’t true. You don’t end up with a president like Trump unless evil and selfishness runs very deep and wide.
1
@DebbieR
“...many voters are not on board.”
In our country, we don’t need the approval of all voters. Just enough to win elections. Which Democrats just did and Trump voters did not.
This article has drained quite a bit of the joy I felt after the Biden victory. For a day or two, I entertained the fantasy that minus the daily goading of their leader, the Trump faithful might experience a sense of calm as the dust settles and their minds clear. That instead of being incited on a weekly basis, we might actually see one another. But that hope has left me. I would like nothing better than to feel more kindly disposed toward the red state masses, but there is simply no way in. So I fall back on the sense of hatred I never knew I was capable of until Trump came along. There is no other way to feel about such impenetrable ignorance, the inversion of every Christian principle I was raised on.
823
@Brian
Biden is in a difficult spot.
On one hand, he ran as a one to unite the nation, implying compromise and cordial respect for all sides.
On the other hand, the Republicans want their agenda as the "compromise" Democrats should accept. Want evidence, look at the Republican "compromises" on the tax bill and supreme court justice appointment. Also, think of all "compromises" they did during the Obama admin.
I would prefer if the Dems played hard ball instead of "compromises."
181
@Brian
You can't just have a vast contingent of the electorate refuse to accept the results of a duly conducted democratic election for the entirety of that man's term, and expect not to have to endure a few days of similar discontent. It's not realistic. That same contingent cannot, in the words the Times and the rest of the establishment press have suddenly fallen in love with, "without evidence" scream that one half of the country are Nazi, Hitler, racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, -ist, -ist, - ist, -phobe, -phobe, -phobe, all day every day for four years, and then demand "unity" whilst many of that contingent are carping about panels and lists, as if they suffered anything worse than a political loss and some mean tweets and a few political abstractions that do not have anything to do with their lives in a direct and material form. Worst, you can't call that man and his supporters murderers because it needs to be true in order for a narrative not to get found out as disingenuous now that Biden has apparently won.
Do I think there's a way forward? Yes. But let's be honest and realistic about what has actually happened and why. Me, I'd settle for an apology and a mild one sentence confession were I the type to be recalcitrant: we couldn't get over losing, and it was all political, nothing more in the end. I can live with that.
10
@Michael Republicans looked the other way or even supported Trump as he played the divider-in-chief for the last four years. As one living in a "democrat-run city" (aren't they all?) I'd also settle for that apology.
64
I'm willing to give Biden a chance, but since he's been in politics his entire adult life with little if anything positive to show for it, I don't have much hope.
And if he appoints any "progressives" to his cabinet, that will end all hope. And his pick of Harris as VP didn't exactly give me a warm fuzzy feeling, either. But I know he needed to check off those boxes to get more support.
2
I have no idea what you are hoping for! Did Trump give you “hope”? Trump made it clear in his inaugural address that he was only going to be president of his base. Unity was not even a possibility. And, by the way, he even treated his base with disdain. Why they worship him is baffling.
And the Democrats gave Trump a chance after he was elected? We are much too divided. I remember listening to the news after Trump was elected, before he was sworn in and some people were all ready calling for his impeachment. Now the Republicans are saying they will not cooperate with Biden. Is anyone surprised? Sadly, I am not.
104
The biggest mistake we New Yorkers probably made was condoning Trump during the 2016 primaries. We should have celebrated the idea of him running for office and endorsed him at every turn. Because if there's anything a hard core Republican hates, it's something that a New Yorker likes. We should have used reverse psychology on them and Trump would have never made it past the primaries.
49
@Chris And don't forget the "Resistance" and all the Democrats who repeatedly stated that Trump as an "illegitimate" president.
I'd like to see some bipartisanship, but the Democrats didn't set a great example over the past 4 years.
23
@Chris ...and the Republicans gave Obama a chance after he was elected? I distinctly remember on the night of the election (or perhaps it was the evening of the swearing in) Mitch McConnell saying he would do every thing in his power to make sure Obama was a one term president. Policy meant nothing, politics was everything. Even policies that were previously Republican policies (think Obamacare as a reworking of Romneycare) were not supported by the very republicans that a year or two had voted in their favor. Let's not have too short of memories on some of these issues, OK?
145
There really is only one one way to fix this situation of division and it begins with jobs in the depressed areas of the country. Most Trump voters want jobs, another section only care about their investments and a smaller section simply want succession because they are incapable of adapting to modern day changes within their societies.
Biden needs to stop the rhetoric and get some action asap once President that will go a long way in healing the country nothing works better than success everyone wants to be on the winning side.
3
@Jane
You can have jobs for those Americans or you can have immigration.
The Democrats have chosen immigration.
Joe do't pussyfoot, like Obama did. Get as much done as fast as possible, starting with a huge push in Georgia, we need the Senate or all is lost. When we win brag about it and in the future publicize all advances we make. Stay in the spotlight. We won no republican support so push to reward those who voted for you. Trump's base will fight you all the way through the first two years. Use Trump's playbook and make use of all the presidential power available. The fight is only beginning. There will be no compromise. Forget about it, it won't work..
14
I wish the new Administration well in succeeding with their agenda. I'm confident that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will succeed in reducing the tension in the country so that everyday citizens can talk with their neighbors again regardless of political orientation. They shouldn't waste too much time to bend over backwards to "accommodate and console" with the Republicans. Look how hard Obama tried. They didn't have any interest then, and they don't have any interest now. It's time that the Democrats learn to better articulate their case to the American people, and develop sharper elbows.
7
Anybody who voted for Trump in 2020 cannot be reached by reason. It is pointless to offer them facts ("fake news," they'll say), compassion (a con, they will say), a way to stop the spread of COVID (don't tread on us, they'll say), or a solution to the economic crisis (Trump would have done better, they'll say). They have been transformed by right wing media into a zombie army that will walk off any cliff Trump points to. So-- ignore them, and win those Georgia Senate seats.
42
It’s too soon to ask and too soon to reach any conclusions.
Ask yourself how long it took in 2016 for you to stop shaking your head about Trump’s win and Clinton’s loss?
This article only fuels the partisan divide. What would it be like if the NYT, the WP and PBS (to say nothing of all the other media) stopped identifying Members of Congress, Senators, and Governors by party affiliations. I’ve been surprised when i hear some of the foregoing that I can’t immediately identify their party affiliations.
What would it be like to stop identifying judges by the President who appointed them?
3
Everybody votes with their own interests at heart. If you're a Bernie supporter, you're more likely in a hardship. If you're a Republican, you're more likely doing very well and want lower taxes-- or you're in retirement and thinking about taxes for your RMDs. The notion that Republican voters will "just die off" is simply not true, this has been a saying for decades now. Don't get me wrong, you have uneducated voters on both sides, but for the most part, people tend to vote in the best interest for them and their family.
5
@Johnny
Not true. Lots of Democrats I know vote against their financial interest because they want what is best for the country and others, not just themselves.
7
I would imagine that the Republicans will give Biden the same chance that the Democrats, and their media, gave Trump four years ago.
7
@BuddyM
Many lifelong Republican leaders quickly stopped giving Trump a chance when they saw the profound damage he was doing to our country. They tried to get others in the party to see the light. Good, principled people don’t give evil a chance.
5
Give Trump a chance to do what, separate children from their parents at the border, throw dreamers out of the country, take health care away from millions, stock the Supreme Court will judges who are poised to allow for the criminalization of abortion?
A lot of us on the left have been pleading this for months. Yes, there are moderates in the McCain/Romney mold that voted for Biden. But they voted (R) down ballot! And deep down, they loved President Trump’s agenda.
Mr. President-Elect, you will be a president for all Americans, but recognize that you cannot do what Mr. Obama did so many years ago, which was bend over backwards for Republicans. Our agenda, the Democratic agenda, will make us all prosper and even then, Trump voters may still deny it. That’s okay. We’ll do it without them, for all of us.
1329
@JM I, a moderate Dem, agree w/ most of what the Dems want to do, but let's be realistic. "Do it without them", if Mitch still runs the Senate, will be very difficult. The GOP has been Trumpified, stupefied and rightly vilified, even with DJT on his way out - eventually, I think.
35
@JM
When it comes to Trump's base I often wonder how many are there to support the man and his cause or are they more into the notoriety and the thrill of being attached to Trump and the chaos that comes with his antics.
Yes, we are presently looking at a group of people who may be choosing their ring corners, there seems to be a boxing match occurring, but like everything else, when the base and moderate Republicans begin to benefit from a Biden Administration when they see that their lives have improved, that the seriousness of COVID and its challenges are being addressed when the economy stabilizes and grows because investors domestic and abroad are seeing constant growth and calm enough so that many social programs that not only benefit Democrats but Republicans and Independents return to normalcy, there may be a positive shift onto a Biden Government, none of this will occur overnight.
It is well known that when International Governments see stability in any country and have a good relationship with the Leader then trade and dialogue occur.
What we need to remember is the fact that Joe Biden as difficult as it may be to step into a "colossal mess" left by a Trump Administration, has the proven experience and an already established relationship that brings with it dignity and respect, therefore it is projected onto the Nation bringing with it global prosperity.
35
@JM Agreed. In such a polarizing time, all those Republican endorsements of Biden amounted to little yield.
Don't let John Kasich decide what the Democratic Party should be.
39
I have been and remain an enrolled republican for 50 years; no kidding. I also proudly supported Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Biden should simply ignore all the republican and Trump base noise. Put in competent people (wouldn't that be a change); promote policies that improve the lives of Americans; restore leadership on the world stage; take realistic and practical steps to defeat Covid and the economic damage it has caused. The politics will take care of itself.
1164
Amen. Simple. Straight. Effective. Competent people can make a difference. This was always an American provenance. We've forgotten that in the 4-years in the chaos and vitriol. Let's refocus.
110
If Biden can deliver some economic relief to the rural and urban heartland, he will earn our loyalty. Democrats would do well to focus on getting some practical relief out here. People are angry and fearful because their lives are insecure.
It’s about our survival. Shore up Medicare/Medicaid and lower the eligibility age. Get this virus under control. Obtain fairness by raising wages. Address climate change with a huge JOBS and infrastructure program. Seek justice. Be pragmatic.
And for the Christians...It’s a problem that some have one vision of Christ’s message and some have one that is mostly opposite. Y’all read your Gospels and think about it some more. If we are this divided with our neighbors, we are really not doing a good enough job with Sunday school. We aren’t doing enough to listen or to serve.
88
@bob c
I wonder how naive you really are. Obama was a decent person who went in with a true mandate, and look where it got him. We got Obamacare and 10 years later we are on the verge of having the foundation of it chipped away enough for it to fall. On day 1 R's met for lunch and stated they would simply OPPOSE EVERYTHING Obama proposed. 6 years of fighting and blocking everything led, in a straight line, to trump. We are in for at least 4 more years of obstructionism. Why?
The R's believe (and with some degree of correctness) that the D's never accepted trump as President. That everything the D's did was to obstruct him, reject him, forsake him and to forget him.
Dont get fooled again. (with apologies to Pete Townshend and the Who.)
trump is a straw man, a carnival barker; McConnell, McCarthy, Cruz, Rubio, Nunes, Jordan, Loeffler, Graham, Blackburn, Cotton, NRA, Federalists and Judicial Originalists et al are the REAL "enemies" of Democracy, decency and the concept of Equal Rights for Everyone.
120
I really am sick and tired with reading about American people who voted for Joe Biden and do not seem to understand what he is up against and how while Trump pouts and fumes.....golfing while this virus wages out of control....President-elect Biden has already assembled his task force to tackle the virus. He's already doing as much as he can given the election has yet to be certified.
Wow are you all not reading what I am? You want him to make changes put your money where your mouth is-send money to the Democrats in GA so we can take back the senate and NOT HAVE GRIDLOCK BY OBSTRUCTIONIST MC CONELL... I mean really????
743
@JS I so agree. I hope our party (the Democratic Party) is going whole-hog on taking GA. If we don't take GA, we wont have the Senate. If we don't have a Democratically-majority Senate then we will get nothing done.
42
I am sending money weekly!
20
@JS
Agreed, I’ve already given twice to the GA dems for the runoff...this is VERY important to our nation, not just GA.
26
I am confident that after inauguration, President Biden, as he promised, will reach out to all citizens to accompany him in his quest to better the lot of Americans regardless of political affiliation. I am also confident that, as a result of his lifetime in politics, he has realistic expectations and will not jeopardize his agenda by waiting for conciliation to move forward.
My hope is that his efforts will heal the current political divide for a significant fraction of Republicans. Given the current social climate, however, I am not optimistic.
6
Per a conservative member of the Spring Street Gospel Church in Mason, Texas, “Now you want healing,.. Now you want to come together. You have not earned it.”
So Democrats were supposed to show fealty to a liar, a cheater, a serial philanderer, and a racist who accidentally won the presidency? A man who, before his election, admitted sexually assaulting women and also committed felony election fraud by paying off a porn star and Playboy model to hide affairs?
Once in office Trump obstructed justice multiple times as the Mueller Report described (and over a thousand former federal prosecutors and senior Justice Dept officials attested).
And then Trump got himself impeached by trying to extort made-up political dirt on the Biden's. Senate Republicans then protected him from consequences by refusing to hear fulsome testimony by senior administration officials. Trump had learned his lesson, they reassured us.
Trump only learned how to ignore an explosive pandemic leading to the unnecessary deaths of countless Americans and another great recession.
Trump lied repeatedly that Democrats would commit fraud to steal the election, but can't produce any credible evidence anywhere. Now he's blocking the orderly transfer of power out of pique and petty self interest.
So, I'm wondering, what exactly were Democrats supposed to do to earn healing? Drink gallons of kool-aid with Trump's willfully ignorant supporters?
9/10ths of the movement needs to come from the other direction.
36
No. But you do have to listen to the priorities of the people who still support him. Even if you think they are idiots for doing so. The reason for your current predicament is that you didn't in the past.
1
@Martin
Like denying gays the right to marry and women the access to birth control and abortion or separating children from their parents at the border? Or demonizing hard working immigrants and extolling white power? Many of their priorities are centered around denying rights and opportunities to others that they themselves enjoy. Why should I get on board with that? Our country has a long history of listening to such people and various minority groups have suffered mightily. Sure, I cam empathize that it must be painful for straight, white, Christians, especially men, to see others now getting the same opportunities that were once exclusively theirs. But I’m not willing to allow them to oppress others just because I have some empathy for them.
4
@Martin
'But you do have to listen to the priorities of the people who still support him. Even if you think they are idiots for doing so.'
Sorry if I didn't make this clear, but I stressed ignorance and not idiocy.
I also made no mention of Trump supporters' concerns. I've long thought that many are legitimately enraged by seeing virtually all the economic gains since the early 1980's going to the top 10%. And many have not yet recovered from the Great Recession of the oughts.
Unfortunately, too many of these people have bought into the scapegoating sold by the Republican Party and Trump. Namely blaming immigrants, bad trade deals, DC insiders, and Obama for their plight.
Regarding Obama, they forgot, of course, that he gave them the ACA with all its protections and expanded insurance options. They also forgot Obama lacked a Democratic Congress for his last 6 years in office, and that congressional Republicans were intentionally obstructive throughout.
1
I am sure Biden knows the current GOP at this time. He will give them a chance, I mean A chance, then work around them. First of all he has to reverse all those Executive Orders Trump made and re-hire those non-political appointees fired by Trump. He will have a busy week beginning January 20. Hope he gives maintenance time to fumigate the White House.
14
The only good news is that the good people of Texas might be more reasonable than the Senate’s Republicans.
4
Real sick of reading about Trump voters and their grievances. They, in contrast, never read anything beyond their own echo chamber-in fact, they never read anything. The Trump supporters I know were the kids who didn't do their homework and who cut school to go to the beach.
44
The left manipulated the populace into delegitimization of the 2016 election results via “Resistance,” and are shocked - shocked! to discover, four years on, enduring consequences.
9
One word—birtherism.
5
@Menckenite
What about all of the lifelong Republican leaders who have come out strongly against Trump and worked to defeat the sitting president of their party? Were they also manipulated by the left or are they moral, principled people unwilling to go along with gross incompetence and evil?
1
Identity politics, amnesty, Day 1 reversal of executive orders, attacks and blacklisting of folks in Trump administration... this is supposed to be 'giving Biden a chance'?
5
One person’s “identity politics” are another person’s civil rights.
1
Let's simply cut the bonds and create a situation in which we are not responsible for each others destiny. Stay strictly separate, both physically and financially for 20 years and see what happens.
4
Who ever said that the US was a melting pot was wrong.
9
the U. S. was previously a melting pot, until greed got in the way and division and scapegoating followed
Respectfully, this is just a silly discussion now. Any notion or hopeful expectation that Republicans, might--under any circumstances--start backing off at this extreme moment is naive. Biden could possibly gain popularity in their camp; obviously it won't be at the very height of Republican anger and toxic behavior.
5
Easier said than done, but I'd ignore and shut out the basket of deplorables. And I'd adopt a much more LBJ style of strong-arming and tactical diplomacy with the GOP. There is no trusting them, and little chance of working with them.
13
Agree. they laid down and let Trump ruin their party for a very very long time. Never trust them
Shame on the republicans. No integrity, no morals and no generosity of spirit.
13
Interesting (and telling) photo. Jeanie Smith sports a Christian cross around her neck. Her husband, Dennis, guarantees that, if "immigrants"/"protesters" come to Mason, "we'll string them up." Her hands resting on his shoulders, as if to bless his defiant words. Imagine how proud Jesus must be of the American caricature of Christian faith.
112
@KHC Hitler was also a Christian. And so were many Nazis. In fact the Vatican helped Nazis escape Germany at the end of the war and his some of them from the Allies. I still don't trust religion. They have their own set of rules.
7
KHC.....so right you are.
3
I shudder to consider what it would take for a Democrat to “earn” unity in the mind of a conservative Christian, Trump supporter like mean Jeane Smith. I suspect there are three options: switch, leave, or die.
Glad I’m not one of her Democrat “friends.”
25
People who intend to steal from you need to demonize you first, so that they don't feel bad about what they plan on doing.
If they can hate you, what they take from you doesn't count.
22
As someone who did not vote for Mr. Trump in either 2016 or 2020, I must ask the following. Have you read the comment sections of the Times for the last four years? They have been filled with contempt for those who voted for Mr. Trump, and for entire regions of our country. And now the Times asks for unity because their guy won? How hypocritical.
18
@Ron Wilson
It's the same way they demonized Bernie Sanders and his supporters (Bernie Bros!) and then scolded them for not being quick enough to unify behind Joe Biden.
4
The Times did not ask for unity. And I would not EVER consider asking you. I lived in Texas 30 years. The soul of a conservative is often afflicted.
2
Trump supporters have shown their true colors. its impossible to ignore the level of deviant and destruction
2
Republicans have shaped this country.
They have been fighting with all their might to restrict Americans access to voting, education, and healthcare.
We now have an uneducated, obese population that doesn’t know or care enough to reform the corrupt government.
Mission Accomplished.
40
@Alex
Nice try.
Democrats and ‘progressives’ have run public education in this country for over 50 years thanks to their reactionary teachers union allies. Higher education? Leftist through and through.
As for restricting voting, Democrats and ‘progressives’ oppose legitimate ballot integrity measures like voter ID.
2
If for more people are prevented from voting because of voter ID laws than any fraudulent votes cast, how can that be good for our democracy?
No mask wearing or social distancing in restaurants, and Fox News playing on the TV. Just another day in Trump’s America.
42
I'm watching the 'rally' in DC right now.
Wow, sure wish I had all the money that's been put in that ocean of flags.
Not one is the same.
Almost every one has the fake-golden eagle perched on top and is 10 feet long.
Lots moola, there, and that reminded me of where the Tea Party came from: The Koch Brothers bought and paid for them. Remember that?
What is the future of the Republican Party and the ones on tv right now?
The future is the same as the past: Not "grassroots", but pure "astro-turf", bought and paid for by the 1%ers.
... oh, and not one of them is wearing a mask.
Stop the steel?
Stop the whining.
27
They waste money of symbols of hate and division
2
At his age, they know where he stands and are not going to hug a tree or sing Kumbayah with him, his family, or Political friends.
5
Der! Because the Democrats forever play the Coyote to the Republicans Roadrunner I really have to agree with Ralph Nader's thesis back in the day that they are just totally in cahoots and we just witness a good cop/bad cop scenario where the bottom line for all of them is the bottom line for business, not people!
4
@Francis, that makes no sense.
@SandraH. When you're a little older you'll understand.
Cilvil war, we are heading fast towards it.
8
Geez, the man hasn't even been sworn in yet, and you're already declaring his efforts to unify the nation a failure. At least wait a month or two before starting your autopsy.
13
What are the ultimate goals of the GOP?
Throw away the results of a free and fair election? Civil War? Round-ups? Swear fealty to Donald J Trump? Obedience or non-existence?
Destroying the United States was way easier that I imagined. Get a "strait-shooting" liar to corrupt people's resentments. Mix in social media and bake until done.
46
Count me among the Democrats who don't expect or want us all to "come together." Republicans for the most part (not all of them) want to continue racial oppression and they have a heart attack if a kid living in poverty gets a free spoonful of peanut butter. They also are fine with filthy air and water. What is the compromise with that kind of value system? Our task is to out-vote them and hope that as they die off their younger generation has more humanity.
77
What I see are working class white folk who for some reason feel that others are “getting away with something”. Why do they feel this way when the reality is otherwise? I wish that these otherwise decent, honest people would entertain the possibility that the people who are actually playing them for fools are those who make such claims?
35
And Biden should not be interested in them, or their Repubican enablers. Don't make the same mistake Obama made, by trying to work with them. Forget being nice. Slam through as many Executive Orders as possible, and ignore the hypocritical taunts. Make America work again!
43
“My Democratic friends think Biden is going to heal everything and unify everyone,” said Jeanie Smith, who attends the more conservative Spring Street Gospel Church in Mason, which is about 100 miles west of Austin. “They are deceived.”
Ms. Smith is absolutely correct. Not since 1860 has there been such a massive rejection of election results, as demonstrated by the Trumpoid Cult gatherings today around the country. I'm not sure Biden really understands this; in any case, his Good Guy approach is totally misguided. Whether Trump personally fades away or not--and I don't think he will--his fascist legacy will live on in millions of MAGA hearts. And that means democracy is still much more in danger than liberals care to admit.
34
“We’ll string them up and send them out of here — and it won’t be the same way they came in.” In my view, this is hateful and reflects on Republicans generally and the President in particular.
46
Today’s Republican is living in an alternative universe and will not listen to reason or science.
They are the dark ages reborn.
41
@Erik Frederiksen
Science?
You mean like DNA and gender identity?
We don't need Republicans to accept the ideals of the far left. We just need Republicans to start paying attention to facts. Take turns watching ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, not just Fox News.
17
Pretty sure that the non-Fox News networks "both sides-ism" is just as big a problem.
I’m not interested in rapprochement. It’s a fool’s errand.
13
Lesson learned from 2020 Election Results: There are over 70 million who are racist or at least accept racism in the President of the United States. There is absolutely not any surprise that over 90% of Republicans are not of color, but racism is not restricted to "Whites Only." Those few Republicans of color are futilely hoping for equality and/or are the racists of their race.
11
@BitterTruth and many of them have guns
“It’s just a little upsetting when you go to bed at night, and all of a sudden, four days later, these votes are magically appearing,” Ms. Strong said.
In short, she is bitter.
12
@Eastbackbay
No, ignorant. She doesn’t understand the basics about how voting and elections work in the US. You don’t get so many people joining the Trump cult without a great deal of ignorance.
Americans have been hearing about these ‘forever Trump’ types for years now and are done with them. Bottom line is their over the top down the rabbit hole partisanship regarding COVID-19 has resulted in thousands of dead Americans and trillions of dollars lost.
26
Mike Pence said there will be four more years of Trump at a rally yesterday. Red meat for these cult followers. Joe needs to sidestep all of them and keep moving forward.
15
Sadly, I tend to agree with the primary conclusion. A majority of voters, AND 270 electoral votes means Biden will be in the White House soon. And I do believe he will try very hard to unite America. But their is a subset of 70 million tRump voters that do not want us united again, or at least that what they're told to think. They don't want it, they won't help, and many will fight it, personally and through their elected officials.
Perhaps we should start thinking about how to split this country up now without a war or near-war. I'm a little tired of paying Red State bills anyway.
19
@JP and be careful what you wish for. It may well happen, but don't kid yourself, there will be a war. Maybe keep that in mind.
@JP kinda like the libs worked at playing nice during a trump presidency? That's funny. Ive subsidized your w/e coaster's giant house payments for years through the tax code. And now I'm supposed to pay to bail out nyc? You need to look into who is paying for what around here. I think most of middle america would be fine with limiting fed tax dollars to interstate infrastructure and defense, things that benefit us all equally. And leaving the rest to states to fund for themselves as they see fit. Its how it was supposed to be in the first place, yet you keep insisting on bigger and bigger federal government. Not too smart my friend.
Jeanie Smith believes she is a Christian. Forgiveness is one of the fundamental and most important tenets of Christianity. She is quoted thusly:
'“Now you want healing,” she added. “Now you want to come together. You have not earned it.”'
In addition to this being 100% unChristian, it is not clear exactly what crimes Biden voters committed in her eyes. I guess just the existence of people who don't agree with her is a crime in this "Christian" woman's eyes. What else can be expected from someone who considers themselves Christian while voting for a man who mocked handicapped people and brags about assaulting women.
68
The Democratic Party is absolutely terrible at having a message and a vision and selling it to the American people. They've let Republicans dictate who they are and what they believe in. Democrats don't have an answer, except to run fast and far away from anything the Republicans label as "socialist" and "extreme". And then they start using the same words to attack the left of their own party! It's like watching an entire political party with Stockholm syndrome.
What's left is an empty, shallow party that rejects a popular platform (universal healthcare, getting the money out of politics, free college) and doubles down on unpopular wokeness.
They've written off rural people and labor in the quest for suburban moms, college town liberals, disaffected Republicans, and... NY Times readers.
When union workers are voting for the party that has conducted a decades-long campaign to destroy their unions, you've blown it bigly. When you see Trump signs all over a rundown house that is falling apart, you are so far out of touch with those people that they would rather vote for a selfish, billionaire con-man than you.
None of this is going to change until the 80 year olds who run the party are finally gone and replaced with less entrenched, less conservative Democrats who actually have something to offer the country and are willing to fight for those things. And Democratic voters have to stop falling in love at the drop of a flowery speech and stop resisting change.
11
As Jeanie Smith sits in her church and says, “Now you want healing,” she added. “Now you want to come together. You have not earned it.” And the flabbergasting hypocrisy continues.
30
I find it ironic that the woman who claims that Democrats "have not earned" unity is married to a man who openly talks about lynching people. Anyone want to bet whether she also owns a "Make Liberals Cry Again" t-shirt?
The Democratic leadership need to stop pretending that consensus can be found with these people. It's time to come out with bold measures that will stir the base.
31
Whenever you encounter a republican (by accident or purpose) always and immediately make good contact with your inner mongoose, and all will go well!
1
These pictures made me very sad for our country. They’ll never hear Biden because they are in thrall to their conspiracy-based media and echo chambers. Sad.
10
I want to know what Christian value Donald Trump has. Those who voted for Trump for the sake of religion better start reading the Bible for a change.
17
Publicly, it is fine (only in the short term) for Biden and others to say "heal."
If they believe this themselves behind closed doors, if they plan or waste time and effort trying to "heal," then they are colossal fools.
The worst outcome of this doome "heal!" idea will more appeasement, thinking that if Biden and Democrats install, appoint Republicans, it will lead to healing and lead to votes.
I sure hope they don't do that, or anything like that. Use the power they have to the extremes that they can.
Th biggest political mistakes our nation since the Great Depression occurred when, after Nixon stepped down, Democrats also shouted and proclaimed "Let's all heal! Let's not prosecute, let's agree to Ford's pardon of Nixon. Only Nixon was bad, Republicans are fine and won't hold power again anyway."
4 years later Reagan and Republicans swept into power.
Democrats: stop being "nice guys," stop being afraid of using power, stop reaching out to Republicans and wasting time, stop appeasing and pretending you can "win" Republicans. You cannot.
Address the real, root problems of propaganda on the right and you have a chance. That alone is the only path to healig. Republicans will never change as long as Fox, Rush Limbaugh and the vast right wing propaganda machine are churing out the lies.
2
Always a hoot to listen to someone sitting in a church talking about deception.
I agree with other posters, it's commendible that Joe Biden is trying. Ok, he tried. Now it's time to employ the Republican playbook of scorched earth. Minor exception is Joe will put the American people first.
10
It's the people he surrounds himself with. Already you have whispers about a shut down and far crazier policies. How can we give that a chance. We work hard and this is killing many businesses.
3
@Rickster, where exactly are you hearing these whispers? Biden has made very clear that he opposes a national shutdown.
Small businesses need help, as do schools, hospitals, states and local communities. But we can't expect a thriving economy until we drive down infection rates. If people fail to follow basic health policies like mask-wearing and infections soar, then local or state shutdowns are the only tool in the toolbox. Let's hope we can get the Covid deniers to acknowledge the science.
6
@Rickster Please stop listening to Fox, OAN and the like. They don’t know what they’re talking about.
6
Meanwhile the virus is killing over a thousand Americans every day. Don’t you think that’s crazy?
8
I don't want to hear about Trump any more. Please send him, his enablers and supporters to the anonymous ignominy they so richly deserve.
12
My hope is that Biden will do what Obama did not: call out Mitch McConnell on every single obstruction and keep pounding it in.
7
@MF calling out obstruction is pointless compromise is would will settle the divide. demonize the other party will just make getting things done tougher.
@MF
Yes, worked great for all the elections during his administration. Through his incompetence he managed to preside over worst losses Dems suffered in years,
It's always worth remembering that there is no modern republican party without the deeply racist southern strategy and every single person with an (R) next to their name today has made a choice to be part of that and to support it.
There is a reason that the republican party has for decades now repeatedly resorted to lying and cheating. It's because the only way they can win is by stealing. They are all complicit.
12
All of these Stop the Steal, QAnon, Trumpis are living in a Wonderland where cause and effect are reversed. Trump told Republicans not to vote by mail, a tried and true process, while Democrats urged everyone to vote by mail to avoid lines and crowds at in person polling stations. Of course the mail ballots favored Biden!
6
Don't want to play nice with the other team, eh?
We will vote you OUT!
1
playing nice guy in theory is fine BUT it won't work with the brainwashed.. the ones still supporting trump are anti anything dem so this will never work. this is how he has built his army. creating mistrust in everything and the weak minded latch onto what they want to hear. I had good friends turn into trump fan boys and there's no turning back. there gone.. some of the nicest hearted people too have turned into hate angry anti everything now
11
Republican voters may hate and oppose us, but our Democrat President will love them, and represent them, and stand up for them, and so will I.
7
Who could trust these so-called Christians? Would they seriously consider Trump an appropriate role model for their kids? Biden won, get over it.
11
As far as the Trump voter’s grievances go, we spent the past 4plus years listening to our country being graded by our President on a scale of red state, blue state, conservative or liberal, and listening to vocal demonization of people of color. Insults on social media was icing on the cake. As an over 65 liberal white woman living in a red state, I told my brown skinned husband I had never experienced the vulgar insults I experienced during this time. A dear friend feared for the safety of his daughter when she came home with a proudly displayed BLM sign in her car window. It humbled me and made me even more empathetic for people of color. I will say the quiet part out loud because I love my hispanic family. It is clear to me that you have to have a fundamental rejection of people of color to adore Donald Trump and cheer him on.
You have to love money more to excuse his racism. Even those who’s posts are not outwardly racist contort themselves to find justification to dislike, or even hate Kamala Harris, or ignore non disputable facts. So the wound will not heal, no matter how noble and true to his word Joe Biden is, until everyone begins to accept personal responsibility for who they are. I tried to like Donald Trump after having enjoyed The Apprentice. But just could not get past his mockery of people, including the handicapped, disrespect for women, lying, cheating, and failures as our President. Just my opinion. But, my retirement account has done well.
377
@MC Just so you know, your retirement account was probably doing better at the end of 2016 than it was at the end of 2008. It’s important to remind yourself and everyone else that, every day.
52
@MC It is instructive that New York, Connecticut and New Jersey didn't vote for Trump in 2016 nor in 2020. The residents in the tri-state area knew him too well from his activities going back to the 1970s. The rest 9f the country knew him mostly through the false image of him as a successful businessman (6 bankruptcies make you successful?) presented on the reality show "The Apprentice." Even that wasn't real. Staff who worked on the show have said it was heavily edited to make Trump look better than he is. Democrats are being told to listen respectfully to Trump supporters but they are not willing to extend the same courtesy. Frankly I despair for this country.
57
@MC Trump, and many of his court jesters, made racism fashionable along with stoking rabid hate of those who do not support him.
55
“Now you want healing,” she added. “Now you want to come together. You have not earned it.”
Bless your little hearts, Republicans. I remember all of the kind words spoken in 2008-2016, and the truly great efforts to rebuild trust and community from then to 2020. Nobody loves America more than you do, do they?
49
Despite appearances we are in a hole. A very deep hole and it's going to be a long hard slog to climb our way out. Some will be left behind and it's a safe bet that it will be those who continue to whine and express their grievances. That's as it has always been because it's just a fact of nature: Only the strong survive.
2
I wonder if these Trump voters know enough about American government to pass a U.S. citizenship test.
21
Reckless and silly, considering Republicans did quite well securing uncontested House and Senate seats on exactly the same ballots where voters were asked to chose their presidential candidate.
The firing of Mark Esper, by Tweet no less, "icing out" C.I.A. Director Gina Haspel from an Intelligence briefing, grumbling about Christopher Wray in the F.B.I., and planting loyalists in the DOD less than 70 days before Mr. Biden's Inauguration is far more alarming. This is the same man who couldn't, or wouldn't, denounce neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha, a paramilitary plot to kidnap a Governor, "Proud Boys," and for whom thousands of supporters are taking to the streets.
Gee, I wonder what 50.9% of Americans who DIDN'T vote for Mr. Trump can look forward to in this age of misinformation when all of Trump's legal challenges are exhausted?
Quite frankly, the author is correct to point out just how successful Mr. Trump, his Administration and his GOP Congress have successfully divided and conquered: What to be afraid of, and who to blame. Actually, I don't care enough about fracking in Pennsylvania, anymore than Pennsylvania cares about my wildfires. As for the battle for the country's soul? Mr. Biden has his work cut out for him, I reckon.
4
I raided a trump rally three weeks back (it was huge) as I live 5 minutes away from trump's Bedminster golf course and it's been a hotbed for pro- and anti-trump protests all summer into the fall. After some extremely disagreeable encounters, I had some relatively civil conversations that were nevertheless disturbing. There's not a lot of comity to be had there, and I agree with commenters who point out that we've had four years (more than a belly full) of trump supporter profiles. On a day when Covid cases have spiked to over 180,000, there are over 240,000 Americans dead of the coronavirus, and after trump appeared in the Rose Garden spouting more of his "the cure can't be worse than the disease" nonsense, please, Times, keep your eye on the ball. Thank you.
11
Obama tried to work with the Right and it was a dismal failure as when we witnessed their refusal to even hold a hearing on his SCOTUS choice. Biden should learn from that since he was by Obama’s side through it all. And didn’t Obama just have an article published about how he was too conciliatory in the Atlantic? Please read it, Joe!
9
Lying, cheating and stealing to maintain power, Republicans have pushed their ideology far away from accepted civilized norms. Its adherents have embraced such low standards of character and low morals, that they are making themselves pariahs to the majority of people. Continuing to behave this way will isolate them until eventually only other Republicans will want to associate with them. Many people already feel this way now.
10
It is striking how folks, like Jeanie Smith, Sarah Palin's "real" Americans, have such an entitled sense of their own moral superiority. I mean, Joe Biden has to "earn" his leadership position about uniting Americans?
She tells us that fear, falsehood, and hate win the day.
She and her cohort of 71M Trump supporters are not going away.
We are not unique as a country - far from it. Half of the voting population prefers a realty show strongman of devastating incompetence!
Danger Will Robinson, America is in deep trouble.
9
Republicans have a short memory. was it not the Tea Party and Donald J Trump that sought to de-legitimatize Barrack Obama? This is all about race and racialism. Republicans have no interest in government as they are to acquire political power.
7
Let’s face it. Republicans are done with the two party system.
4
“Now you want healing,” she added. “Now you want to come together. You have not earned it.”
Healing has been wanted since Trump won his election four years ago. But all he can do is divide, degrade, and destroy. Who's earning what here? Those who didn't want Trump are generally willing to work towards healing. It's Trump, his sycophants, and supporters who still trying to divide.
10
@historyRepeated
Can't recommend enough. It has always been about racism and division. He is the aggrieved rich man and his voters feel his grievance and want to crush and destroy the opposition.
If enough fair minded Republicans — and Democrats — can’t start to come together in the next four years, it looks like we are headed for some kind of civil disorder or even civil war. I’m trying to be an optimist about all this, and am ready to work with Republicans in order to save our country from further division or worse.
1
My republican family told me a couple years ago they didn’t believe Obama had done a single thing to help them, the working class. Despite my laundry list of policies, they were unshaken. I believe this is entirely because of Obama and most dems refusing to give Fox News their time. I get it, their standard talking heads are tinfoil hat fear mongers that talk over everyone. I think the solution is for Biden or Harris to do monthly or quarterly town halls on Fox, where average people can ask questions and get informed on what’s being done to help them, all without some pompous guy in a bow tie interrupting. If dems made it in your face obvious how they help the working and middle class, it’d help a ton on at least pulling the moderates back from the cliff.
8
with respect, those don't sound like moderates that you are describing.
2
How much longer do we have to listen to geriatric Democrats talk about unity and bipartisanship and all that nonsense? Republicans are not our friends and never have been. They are an authoritarian party that will do whatever it takes to stay in power and enforce their terrifying will.
Democrats need to grow a spine and start fighting fire with fire. Otherwise we will lose and they will win and this country will plunge into the darkness even further.
14
The end of this article with the Smiths neatly distilled what support for trump in 2020 was all about.
This ugly and angry viewpoint is as much a part of America as baseball and apple pie. It's been used to justify exclusion (Chinese), slavery (Africans), and slaughter (Indians).
To put this viewpoint to rest is what it means to form a more perfect union.
13
@Phil Hurwitz With Mrs. Smith telling Democrats that they haven't earned healing while her husband talks lynching, I'm surprised that cross hasn't burned tight through her chest.
5
This is extremely frustrating. Have conservatives whipped themselves into such a frenzy that reconciliation is impossible? Unity is something not to be pursued?
If this is the attitude of Republicans, conservative Latinos and rural whites then why are we wasting time masquerading as a unified country anymore? The GOPs premise is built upon the idea that certain groups of Americans willingly accept 2nd class citizenship with no hope of remedy.
Is it time for an academic team of sociologists, civil rights leaders, cartographers, economists and military/foreign policy people should come together to draft a workable plan to split up this country? The toughest part of this would be how to decide which states would have to be “given” to the other to ensure that both countries are contiguous and culturally homogeneous. Perhaps a peaceful and well funded partition like India and Pakistan
This insistence that we live under a far right supremacist, xenophobic society with 2nd class citizenship is totally unacceptable.
5
It's impossible to imagine that those who chose Trump are going to put aside their rancor and conspiracy theories overnight. Like all brainwashed zealots it's going to take time and perhaps even more hardship before they see the light. And then there are those who never will.
6
Who cares? The next Republican President elect will get the same exact treatment. We should be demanding recounts in every election where a Republican beat a Democrat by a close margin. This voter fraud idea cuts both ways and to me the Republican Party seems to have a guilty conscience. It would also explain why the pols were wrong.
4
It's always seemed that Biden's heart and head lie in a different, long ago, all but forgotten era. Joe seems to think Trump is the entirety of the current threat. Far from it.
As has been said many times. there is a disease that's rotting our democracy, but Trump is only a symptom, a pimple. The disease is in the hearts of those 70 million who voted for him despite everything.
Biden wants to make peace and find common cause with an extinct tribe, the reasonable (or "moderate") Republicans. He needs to give that up and figure out how to win a few battles instead.
7
I saw one interview of a CNN reporter discussing with a female Trump supporter about her slogan sign: Stop stealing the vote. There were two steps in the discussion. 1.) The Trump supporter said on election day Trump was leading ahead and then over the four following days his advantage disappeared magicly. The CNN reporter explained that in some states mail in ballots were not allowed to be counted before election. Now second escalation happened. 2.) The Trump supporter told that's what the media tell. They (the Trump followers) have their own channels they are not filtered by the media.
It's easy to conclude that in Trump's follower eyes the media stands for corruption, deep state and swamp. In this atmosphere it's hard to find any common denominator. She will even disagree to 1+1=2 not because she actually disagrees to this fact but very soon in the discussion the truth is not important but the "we" and "you". You are not part of our "believe". That is scary and reminds me as German very much to our past in the beginning of 20th century, The parallels between 30ties and 40ties in Germany/Europe and first two decades in America are really frightening.
17
@Christian Faust We studied Nazi Germany and lectured decades ago. There are too many parallels but people will not believe us. Perhaps that period should be taught in schools so that more people are aware.
“My Democratic friends think Biden is going to heal everything and unify everyone,” said Jeanie Smith, who attends the more conservative Spring Street Gospel Church in Mason, which is about 100 miles west of Austin. “They are deceived.”
I am an independent.
No one I know thinks Trump supporters deserve an iota of compassion or outreach. Regardless of class or background or ethnicity, what these people have in common is that they are takers and bullies - they don’t understand anything except force majeure. They spit on anything resembling empathy, fairness, or reciprocity. To them, these qualities show nothing but weakness. My friends and I - a diverse set of people none of whom voted for Trump - would prefer to offer Jeannie nothing. Absolutely nothing - no help, no money, no attention. She and her ilk do not deserve our time or effort.
But none of us are in charge. None of us ran or were elected to the Presidency. Biden was. And he will use his office offer succor, compassion, and help to everyone regardless of whether they deserve it or not.
He’s a better person than me. Jeannie is lucky to have him as her President. And so am I. And so is America.
28
@Julu Hi - I wish you could hear how you sound. substitute "Trump supporters" with any other group, and you would have a wicked stereotype there. Despite what you may think, the sheer numbers alone would indicate we are not a monolithic group that can be called undeserving of decent treatment. This is exactly the kind of moral superiority that makes it easier to pull the lever for a Trump-like person. No one wants to be told they are evil. Btw, my "ilk" is likely as highly credentialed as yours, if not more so (not that I really care, but just a reality check since you seem to live in that kind of world).
2
@peacelover
And yet people that vote for Trump endorse him in word and deed.
Where is the personal responsibility for that?
1
@peacelover
Good post.
Since they are not interested, the house should simply not fund anything for a Repubican Senator that won't work with Biden. Won't play ball with Biden no funds for Kentucky McConnell.
8
The Adam Schiff led Witch Hunt was ill-advised, too self-righteous and selfish. Joe’s just going to have to factor its consequences into the American soul he thinks his empathy and pleading will heal. He can begin with an apology to all of us for its four years of insufferable preaching from his side.
4
@John Doe Do you think trump, McConnell and crew made any efforts to reach out to the other side and/or make attempts at encouraging unity? Can you provide an example?
3
@John Doe The Adam Schiff investigation was brought on by Trump's unending misdeeds which included asking another country to interfere in our election for t's benefit. Joe Biden owes no one an apology for the last four years. Trump, however, should apologize for his complete lack of knowledge and competence as he turned this country into low-grade potty mouth hate.
Biden said horrible things about Trump, lies about Trump, his stance on many issues and about many facts about his own life. Why would anyone trust him now.
1
I’ll note that you didn’t give any examples. Much like with the so-called stolen election.
@Mary Obviously you ignored everything that Trump said about Biden and even Obama. Trump led the witch hunt saying that Obama was an illegitimate president and was not born in the U.S. Both Obama and Biden were too nice to Trump. They made a big mistake.
Which things were lies?
The Democrats’ chances of winning both Senate seats in Georgia: slim.
Biden’s chances of getting cooperation from Senate Republicans: none.
3
So after Trump won, we were treated to four years of having to hear what the Trump voter thinks on every issue. When will they listen to us? When will Trump voters try to understand how their policies come across to us. The NY Times political coverage continues to bitterly disappoint.
10
I’m a Republican. I accept the results. So much for your hypothesis.
1
@JEF Speaking as a Democrat, thank you for your candor and levelheadedness.
3
There is no “hypothesis” offered - There are actual statistics given as to how many Republicans reject the results. Many.
2
@JEF Yeah, but you are not in charge. The Trump Administration is refusing to give Biden briefings. That is unheard of. Biden and his team are trying outreach but are being rebuffed by Trump and his team. That is truly deplorable.
What is it they say about the five stages of grief? It seems Trump is true to form dragging his followers through his process; first denial, then anger, we’ve seen plenty of that, into bargaining - “what can my army of lawyers do”, possibly dropping into slight depression - but that will be short lived as he lacks the essential humanity that it requires, will he get to Acceptance? Probably not, like flawed human he is , he will stay in a loop of Denial Anger and Bargaining. As for damage Trump has done to American society, health, governance and standing well that is cause for grief.
4
Americans, coexisting with Republicans is like trying to bring a family member, who lived in a cult, back into the household. They are obstinate and fixated on what they believe the truth is even though it is far from reality. It will not be easy. Some will transition back into our democracy and some will not. But the train is leaving the station. It has too for our our democracy to survive. Americans want Republicans on the train, and need them on the train, but the train is leaving nonetheless, whether they are on it or not.
10
I listened, and I am interested. I will absolutely meet President Elect Biden and VP-Elect Harris halfway. Thank you for caring about me. And guess what. Trump's obnoxious, hideous behavior this last week has caused me to regret my vote (which was shaky to begin with, but I had my reasons).
Looking forward to a product 4 years because after all, grown ups know how to lose graciously and work toward the common good. There is much work to be done.
20
For weeks before the election the media was talking about the red mirage due to the huge turnout of Democratic voters using mail in ballots. Pennsylvania could not start counting those mail-in ballots until 7am on election day. There was no possible way to have them counted in a single day or even two days. Did Texas not hear about the red mirage?
Let's remember that House and Senate seats were won by Republicans on the same mail-in ballots. How does a voter accept and celebrate those wins and condemn Biden's win as illegitimate?
Funny that the Smith's think immigrants are lazy. We are a country of immigrants. My Irish great grandfather came here in 1880 and was persecuted for his religion, his "laziness", taking jobs from residents and expecting handouts. None of it was true then and none of it is true now.
28
Want longer lasting change? Begin by educating youth by teachers trained accordingly in civics, how to debate civilly, and the Constitution. Curricula should be age-appropriate. Ensure all registering to vote can explain the Preamble to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Appoint Stacey Abrams as Secretary of Education.
7
The country is so traumatized, and with Trump fans living in a netherworld where everything was “stolen” from them, the divisions will only grow deeper. A lot of very large children need to accept defeat like an adult.
Biden must understand that he won’t sway anyone in these raw moments after the election. But the rest of the nation needs a leader who can bring the U.S. back from the brink as the pandemic rages and employment flounders.
6
Our country is in deep trouble.
Aside from the Biden win, the election results were terrible. Apparently the American voters chose to give a pass to every Republican enabler who allowed Trump to be Trump -- in the House, the Senate, and the state legislatures.
This election was a disaster, and Trumpism survives (even if without Trump the man).
Democrats have a lot of work to do.
12
If all these people (Republicans) don't want to cooperate with Biden then perhaps they should move to an authoritarian country like Russia. If they are not supportive and interested in working with Biden then they are not interested in our Democracy.
11
As long as Republicans control the senate, none will give any Democrat the time of day, at least in public. Plan to govern without them, President Biden, and even to ignore them, since they're already united in ignoring your welcome victory. Let's hope that Georgia is wise enough to sent Warnock and Ossoff to Washington to allow you and our fellow Democrats to do what we need to pull the country back from trumpism.
9
I overheard a conversation today where one man said he thought things would go down like this:
Biden shuts the country down for the virus, millions more lose their jobs and companies close, but soon after, he hands out generous checks and people are grateful to receive the help.
A bit later, taxes go up on almost everyone to pay back what Biden initiated, he resigns within his first year due to health issues and Ms. Harris becomes president. She leans left and brings in far left advisors in critical roles. Our country becomes more aligned to Socialism but all of the people who got financial help are good with more handouts because they don't need to work.
Plausible?
4
@mainesumm
No. Another talking point, suggesting that Dems are trading handouts for votes.
COVID and the Grim Reaper really don't care how people voted.
1
@mainesummers
Of course. Sure. Keep making up conspiracy theories.
The idea that any human has control over the pandemic is absolute folly. The idea that Biden and Harris have some masterplan to control the unfolding of history is QAnon through and through.
1
@mainesummers
That is plausible in a land of conspiracy theories and alternative facts, inhabited by members of a cult.
1
Biden cannot restore the soul of America. Much of America feels like an abused woman who has suffered for 4 years at the hands of the Democrats. Biden will get from Republicans what the Democrats gave to Trump. Be prepared. If the GOP gets 1 or both Senate seats in Georgia, the Dems plans will be frozen in place for the next 4 years. He, and they, deserve it so welcome to our world.
1
@ehillesum Wecome to "your world," indeed. Back in reality, Trump and the GOP had total control of the federal government from 2016-2018... and what did they do with it? Healthcare? Nope. Infrastructure? Nope. Tax cuts that mostly benefitted billionaires and large corporations. Bingo.
6
So funny and hypocritical after the treatment President Obama received from the Republican Senate including Merrick Garland. Then they had the audacity to do the Barrett nomination.
The division in this country is a mirror image of the division in our government.
@ehillesum You seem to forget the GOP controlled all three house for Trump's first 2 years. Not your fault all they did was pay off their diners with tax cuts an more spending. Along with appointment of judges. No health care changes more jobs went to Mexico. The national debt skyrocketed how much worce can Biden do?
Trump’s cult followers in the GOP are the most un-American ‘lawmakers’ since the Civil War. They are all guilty of sedition and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Perhaps President-elect Biden should deny these GOP states federal funding. If they’re going to shirk their allegiance to American democracy, there should be a price to pay.
9
The real question that must be asked in 2020 is whether Donald J. Trump is the symptom or the cause of the great divisiveness that has enveloped the country? If most conservatives and liberals were to gather in small discussion groups with their neighbors from the other party they would soon discover that their goals for the country and their children's future were very much alike. But the political rhetoric and especially the talking heads on cable TV and talk radio, who get paid by attracting listeners who are fired up by their rabble-rousing rhetoric, can sway gullible minds into believing the worst about their opposites. We need peace-makers and we keep getting war-mongers. America is doomed if an equally divided populace can't get together to advance ideas that are good for all.
194
@RLW I disagree with this. The individual goals of liberals and conservatives alike is the same; I.e. have a good job, a roof over their heads and a good future for their children. But it ends there. Liberals believe that helping minorities and immigrants is the path to shared prosperity for all, and conservatives only want prosperity for people who look like them. This is a base worldview that cannot be bridged; either you care about people or you don’t.
18
@RLW
Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party started in the same summer.
Occupy continually reached out to the Tea Party because many of our grievances were the same, but the responded with insults as usual.
One side wants to make life better for themselves. One side wants to make life better for ALL.
We are the 99%, but they want to be the 48%
18
@RLW
You would have to look at American history to understand. Trump supporters’ rhetoric and beliefs are not new. Just take a visit to the antebellum south (that his supporters love to celebrate), ‘Reconstruction,’ or even the racial animosity of the Civil Rights movement in the 60s. The rhetoric and racial hatred were even worse then than they are now.
So to answer your question, Trump is neither a symptom nor a disease. He is a representation/symbol of a foundational aspect of the United States of America—the ugly part, that until we confront head on (like Germany did with their Nazi past), we will never dismantle. What is so ironic is that many of his supporters—- like he himself—are only a couple generations in as Americans—(his grandfather was born overseas). So the reality is that many of them don’t really know American history other than the whitewashed nonsense that is taught in American schools. What you don’t know you are doomed to repeat.
16
I wonder, how many more problems people need to have before they can stop spewing hate on one another.
Whether it’s partisan division, measures taken to address the pandemic, or efforts to slow climate change- to name a few.
I came to the conclusion that if we can afford to put the fighting above the issues we fight about, we are not troubled sufficiently.
It is my hope that Biden will get on with governing for all and end political point scoring. The biggest favor he can do all of us is not to mention the mess he has inherited but just get on with it and help all Americans. If you really want to get under Trump's skin, don't mention him. Get on with the job, do the right thing by the citizens, and focus on what is needed with compassion and wisdom.
7
The war on the truth is to keep us divided so that we remain an unfettered marketplace. If we were not divided then we may actually become a self-directed people rather than a profit center for global players. We are 4.4% of Earth's population and 40%+ of global pharmaceutical revenues and the buyer of healthcare for our elderly and poor, our military and veterans cannot exercise it's market power by law. It cannot negotiate drug prices with manufacturers. A single payer is terrifying to pharma.
We have a family walking away flush from Purdue and our opioid crisis. We have another family in Switzerland, the Hoffman's who control Genentech, our largest biotech company, whose agents literally wrote the PPACA and lobbied against a single payer here for decades while Switzerland's citizens got a single-payer by referendum. A foreign-owned company based in NJ lobbied for years and wrote the ACA!
For profit-health insurance is pure financial rent charged to Americans. It destroys value and makes us a weaker nation (but remember we're not a nation, we are a market). No insurer can be more efficient than Uncle Sam whatever libertarians tell you. Costs go down with bigger risk pools and CMS operates at 20% of the overhead (S,G,&A) of the Aetnas of the country. Our health outcomes are abysmal.
Our politicians just sell us out constantly, both parties. Government Relations departments at multination corporations give to both parties. Our chaos is a planned strategy.
2
I have no doubt that Biden wants to work with the Republicans to better America and Americans. Obama wanted the same thing. How did that work out? But if Mitch still runs the Senate... Biden has to be realistic, not naïve. If he sees GOP obstruction from the get-go, the gloves have to come off. He'll have to ram through whatever he can, through executive order or any other mechanism, to try and right the ship, formally known as the UNITED States of America. Biden's patience can't last long during Covid and when the country is suffering, as a result of GOP mismanagement. Too much is at stake.
3
The absolutism of some people in this country (and world) has sadly created a society where decisions are made based on emotions rather than common sense or the intelligence we are all capable of having. I have long thought Mr. Obama's biggest mistake was trying to work so much with his political opponents even though I agreed it was the correct thing to do. It is hard to work with, or even discuss issues at times, with persons who are not willing to discuss, not willing to have open minds, not willing to make changes themselves while claiming anyone they disagree with is wrong. Why has compromise and unity (similar to United as in United States) become an evil?
6
Possibly it’s time to split the country: Trump supporters and the new Republicans from the remaining political entities who believe in democratic principles, and investment in all things “capital” (infrastructure, education, healthcare).
There is an obvious rupture between those who believe in plutocracy and autocratic rule and those who believe in dialectic discourse which to find solutions for complex and vexing problems.
Splitting the nation resolves the problem when the north conceded to the south to create a Union in the 18th century. By accommodation, the Union never had a chance to achieve, and to be blunt, a desire for a more perfect Union.
Corporatism, religious extremism, exceptionalism, bigotry, racism, and self centered unadulterated individualism is the proverbial nail sealing the United States demise. Ironically election interference resulted in domestic interference and not by foreign governments. The US is the modern version of the fall of Athens.
We send humans to space, say grace, and hate our next door neighbors.
Amen
5
I can believe the earth is flat, although it is not true. What exactly will cause these people to realize they are deluded? Would they deny a cancer diagnosis?
Perhaps they are just too far gone. That is tragic.
4
Okay. Biden asked. They said no. Time for Joe to start governing. With an open door and an open mind. But he cannot drag them some place where they don't want to be. Demographics tell you that the country is growing less white every year. The GOP has tried to stop that but America will continue to grow with more people of color and more women in positions of power. To think these are bad things is the definition of bias.
5
We must CUT THEM LOOSE.
It is long past time to let the former slave states and other anti-democratic red states forge their own path to autocracy and banana republic status, without dragging the remainder of the United States down with them.
There cannot be amendments to the constitution to change how our ancient dictatorship operates, because of built-in counter-majority rule design aspects of the system. The only solution is therefore to break up the nation and allow the two irreconcilable factions to go their own separate ways. It is a tragedy that this did not happen after the civil war, but we must act now if we want to avoid a much bigger tragedy.
7
Time to stop coddling the Republicans. Biden and the Democrats should use whatever means they have to push through their agenda. Get Trump tied down with as many lawsuits as possible and for a change, make it harder for R’s to access government services. Try to make McDonnell and company irrelevant whether they control the Senate or not.
10
I don't see the point of gathering all these opinions 2 minutes after the election. Is Biden facing a lot of challenges? Yes, of course, but he isn't even in office yet! Give him a minute, wouldja? Let's see what he can do.
6
Well there's not a lot he can do with a sociopathic tyrant in the shadows, intending to impede and undermine his every move.
3
@Carol But the Republicans have already stated they will prevent him from any accomplishments. That is why it is being discussed now.
1
The Republican Congress has betrayed our democracy (with the exception of righteous few, like Romney). They have acted in step with all world's autocrats like Lukashenko of Belarus, or Vladimir Putin of Russia....among many others).
When the transition finally takes place, those traitors, all of them should be paraded in DC, with Trump leading the procession, in open vans, with signs saying
SHAME...
6
@Kenell Touryan
Oh, what a great idea - that would look just like many photos you see of the victims of China's Cultural Revolution. Those individuals who were suspected of not conforming to the dominant thought of the day were publicly shamed and humiliated. Many were forced to stand in public places for hours, wearing dunce caps on their heads and placards around their necks, proclaiming their "crime." Oh, yes, let's do that here in America! Republican members of Congress have "betrayed our democracy" because they don't agree with or support the policies of democrats and the Democratic party.
And while we're at it, we should include all those citizens who didn't vote Democratic; clearly they don't know what's good for them. Hey, we can do what they did during the Reign of Terror in France! Condemn and execute those who failed to recognize that they didn't know what was in their own best interests and didn't support the right-thinking revolutionaries who were only trying to create a better world for them, the ungrateful wretches.
As much as you hear about “the Radical Left” Republicans are the true radicals. They have made it clear, some times explicitly (hi Mitch McConnel), that they’d rather not do their jobs than compromise. That orthodoxy is radicalism. GOP: Gaslight Obstruct Project
12
Thomas Jefferson wrote that a well-informed electorate is a prerequisite to democracy. And Benjamin Franklin, when asked what form of government the Constitution created, replied, "A republic, if you can keep it." What we see set forth in this article is how little informed -- and mis-informed -- way too much of the electorate seems to be. So we may be in danger of losing Jefferson's prerequisite, and so at risk of not being able to keep our republic. But just how do you pose that to these folks? To be flip, the minute you said Jefferson, they'd switch off, sure he was a communist, so who'd listen to him? However, we have to try. THE line of Biden's speech was "Let's give each other a chance." How about it, good people of Mason, and all of "red" American? Maybe stop and think, am I being told the truth, or am I being fed a line? And examine your standard of evidence. BE A CITIZEN OF A DEMOCRACY. ... Or continue to wallow in your grievances and bring the nation down. Your choice.
5
Thomas Jefferson wrote that a well-informed electorate is a prerequisite to democracy. And Benjamin Franklin, when asked what form of government the Constitution created, replied, "A republic, if you can keep it." What we see set forth in this article is how little informed -- and mis-informed -- way too much of the electorate seems to be. So we may be in danger of losing Jefferson's prerequisite, and so at risk of not being able to keep our republic. But just how do you pose that to these folks? To be flip, the minute you said Jefferson, they'd switch off, sure he was a communist, so who'd listen to him? However, we have to try. THE line of Biden's speech was "Let's give each other a chance." How about it, good people of Mason, and all of "red" American? Maybe stop and think, am I being told the truth, or am I being fed a line? And examine your standard of evidence. BE A CITIZEN OF A DEMOCRACY. ... Or continue to wallow in your grievances and bring the nation down. Your choice.
So, Trump's circle included many people who were either indicted for breaking our laws or convicted for breaking our laws. Trump was impeached for obstruction. His followers have never acknowledged any of these facts. They have adhered to a set of claims that are not true and have damaged our Country. For them to say they are not interested in a unified Country is in line with their hate filled singular focus on denagrading other people and hurting them. Why do you think it is more valuable for them to own the libs than see that no one get the virus?
4
Joe was there when the GOP trashed Obama for 8 years.
He should learn from it.
6
I’m so confused as to why republicans are getting away with the “Democrats stole the election” argument, and yet those are the same ballots that elected republicans to the senate. Why is nobody calling them out on this?
997
@PhillyWhiteMom Trump followers and most Republicans are not susceptible to logic.
136
@Alan J. Shaw I disagree. As a software engineer, I'm pretty logical. It's pretty logical if you observe the bigger picture. You don't have to believe it in order to go along with it.
8
@Alan J. Shaw not susceptible to logic and also lack critical thinking skills.
62
What is not being said here is Americans wanted to
vote AND STAY SAFE...we opted for a mail ballot.
trump castigated mail ballots as a conspiracy for
fraud and corruption. He urged his followers to
vote in person now these people cannot understand
the enormous effort needed to count and tally
these votes. He is using their ignorance to undermine
and destroy the validity of our democracy and
election process by citing the enormous shift in votes
between Electionr Day and the receipt of mail ballots.
Drumming on with his conspiracy theory. Aided and
abetted by GOP congressional members and his
cult like supporters.
2
Biden is not a bad man though he is not cognitively prepared for the presidency. He's so weak that half the country could simply ignore him and continue to believe Trump is president. Even those who hated Trump were unable to ignore him. I'd say there is a 60% chance he will be officially defeated by Trump in 2024 despite having the entire establishment and big media/tech on his side.
@Ben Biden was Obama's VP and knows what he is doing. And Biden is not a liar. Trump has told over 30,000 lies so far. That is a record accomplishment. Just not a good accomplishment.
How do you reason with those who have been brainwashed by Trump and his media enablers. It is obvious why there was a blue shift when mail in ballots were counted: Democrats encouraged people to use mail in ballots, Republicans pushed the conspiracy theory of them being fraudulent and asked their voters to vote in person, no matter the danger to their health from Covid.
6
The biggest Trump/GOP campaign strategy mistake was to discourage his believers from using mail-in ballots. Biden and Dems encouraged it for months (make a plan). Oops.
Silver lining...it also allowed people to vote who may have been intimidated from or physically unable to vote in the past.
@Alan Kaplan we learned about a resistance movement from Democrats. This is what happens when you call a presidency illegitimate, it never ends. Welcome to the world dems and the media created. How do you like it so far?