From across the pond: OK, America, so what the hell happens now?

[MH1]

Excellent bit of writing here. If you enjoy reading Charlie Pierce, you will probably enjoy this bit from Marina Hyde at The Guardian.

Things are surely a mess, but at least we might as well laugh at the parts we can, right? (the rest of the world is, sigh.)

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/04/ok-america-so-what-the-hell-happens-now

Donald Trump, America’s howling id, has not lost this election. Then again, Joe Biden has not won it. Shortly before 6am UK time, Biden addressed a rally – never a better time for one, mate – and told the Delaware crowd he was “optimistic”. In split-screen Trump addressed his Twitter retinue, and told them of “a big WIN”, adding “they are trying to STEAL the election … votes cannot be cast after the Poles are closed.” Expect him to invade Pole-land in the coming days.

Still, whatever happens now, no one can argue that a result this close was a repudiation of his way of doing business, so anyone expecting the gibberingly loyal Republican party to tack away from its current psychiatric space for the next couple of decades ought probably to get used to disappointment.

...

Militia fears, a barricaded presidential compound, open calls to disenfranchise voters – it’s a mood very much borrowed from what Trump would call “shithole countries”. As the weeks unfold, please don’t rule out Donald’s two large adult sons – Uday and Schmuday – downing a Black Hawk within the White House autonomous zone. Already, expectations have been so profoundly commuted that if gun-toting convoys of Klansmen aren’t firing celebratory rounds into the sky from vehicle convoys by the time this article is published, it’ll be regarded as a positive.

...

Should Biden edge a victory, thanks to the way the self-styled greatest democracy in the world works, we will have months of grimly incendiary Trump claims that it was stolen. Or, to put it in terms the rest of the planet would understand: this is like winning the World Cup in November, then having the losing captain use it as a toilet for three months before finally handing the brimming trophy over to you in late January.

If, after reading the full article, you wonder why I didn't select your favorite bit ... hopefully you will agree to the difficulty of selecting just 4 paragraphs from this excellent piece.

(really, "Uday and Schmuday" >> how perfect. )

[EarlG]

1. Can I just say

I don't think it matters that there wasn't a "repudiation." If Biden wins, THAT'S what matters. (And by the way, defeating an incumbent president after a single four year term IS a repudiation!)

We on the left tend to be so hung up about moral victories that we'll happily gloss over an ACTUAL victory that is staring us in the face.

If Biden wins, that is all that matters now. We will have the power of presidency and the federal government, and what matters in the future will be how Biden uses that power to lead the country. My guess is that he will do his best to defuse the incendiary atmosphere that Trump created over the last four years, which can only turn this country in a more positive direction.

I guess I see this election as less the allies marching on Hitler's Berlin bunker, and more as D-Day. Assuming we win, then we won an important victory, and we turned the Nazis back and forced them to retreat. I'll gladly take that for now.

[lunatica]

2. Hear, hear!

[MH1]

3. I agree, and a Biden win is a HUGE VICTORY, of course.

THAT said, I also agree with the columnist on her specific point, and particularly with her way of putting it:

... anyone expecting the gibberingly loyal Republican party to tack away from its current psychiatric space for the next couple of decades ought probably to get used to disappointment.

in other words, Republicans will keep being Republicans, and for the overwhelmingly most part, they won't suddenly get any attacks of moral compunction to do the right thing on a particular decision, if it might affect their ability to keep their jobs.

[EarlG]

4. Yes indeed

I guess the question is -- assuming that Biden wins -- what happens to those gibbering loyalists? The current Republican Party is a cult of personality, and without Trump as president, who will hold together their strategy of economic nationalism/racism/divisive "own the libs" behavior?

I think going forward we're going to see a large "Trump-only-Trumpier" group of Qanon nutcases who, while not holding on to a great deal of actual political power, will attempt to capture that old Trump magic but will just utterly disgust moderates vs. a much smaller group of Romney/Collins/Lincoln Project types who will try to take their party back, be despised by the wingnuts for fraternizing with Democrats, but will actually have a significant amount of political power they can wield as deciding votes in the Senate.

The resulting shitshow could be problematic for the Republican Party at large.

[MH1]

5. I like your analysis

I really LIKE it

and also, it seems likely to prove accurate. Which I also like.

[EarlG]

6. Well we can only hope

We are still very early into this thing... assuming Biden wins, I think that the removal of Trump as the glue holding the current Republican coalition together is going to have all kinds of ramifications that we can't imagine at the moment.

[whttevrr]

7. SHHHuttt UPPP, Jan 😬

Perfection is the enemy of progress, and we like it that way! {stomps feet}

I hope the 'shut up' echoes like a sarcastic teenager when it is read and the "perfection is the enemy of progress" is seen as an agreement with what you are saying in the form of a pseudo-repudiation.

Yeah we won, but we wanted more, seems to negate that we have 2022 to retake the senate.

And, 2024?

Ha ha, I kid. Let's white knuckle our way through this win first.