This election could be the first time since before the Civil War (!!!)......

[DFW]

If Harris is elected, it will be the first time since 1856 that a Democrat has succeeded another Democrat as president in a situation where the sitting president didn't die in office (e.g. FDR/Truman, JFK/LBJ). There should have been two such occasions (2000, 2016), but although Democrats Gore and Clinton got more votes, Republican machinations managed to make sure that their man took office instead.

Electing Harris would be precedent-setting in more ways than one.

[DeepWinter]

1. It is interesting

It is interesting how the political pendulum always swings. I tend to look at it as more of an 8 year swing. If Harris gets a second term that will really be something.

[DFW]

4. For that to happen, the economy would have to continue its general upswing

There have been such long stretches, most recently during the eight year presidencies of Clinton and Obama (both Democrats--you'd THINK some Republican voters would have gotten the hint, but apparently not). If the economy turns south in the middle of her second term, only a miracle would enable a Democratic successor (they could always renominate Trump--Make Alternative Geriatrics Acceptable). By then, one would assume, anyway, the Republicans will have figured out that moderation is more attractive than fanatic extremism, but maybe not.

Already, today on German radio, there was a report that the Euro Zone's inflation was receding, which will enable the EC to reduce Euro interest rates. That, in turn, will make the US Dollar more attractive. It has already gained a cent on the Euro in the past day. This, in turn, will make American products less competitive in the Euro Zone, and squeeze our export sales. The exchange rate is a delicate balancing act. We want the dollar strong enough to make imports cheap, but not so strong that it discourages buyers outside of the USA from buying American.

[displacedvermoter]

13. Fairer tax policy, moves toward universal health

care, stabilizing Social Security, and expanding green technology as a manufacturing base could be goals of the Harris Administration. Accomplish these things and the "economy would continue its general upswing".

Combine these things with fundamental changes in how Congress operates, such as ending the filibuster and doing away with the annual fight over the "debt limit" and a string of economic boom years could be on the horizon.

And if Brian Kemp is the most "moderate" candidate they have on
deck -- he will still be hated by Trump
dead enders and who knows how much sway they could have down the road, so his nomination is no gimme (and see also Nicki Haley) -- Harris should be able to maintain her winning coalition of women, younger voters, black and brown voters, and progressive labor.

All very interesting to discuss now of course, but all hinges on a successful GOTV effort and wins for Democrats up and down the ticket.

[GusBob]

2. I been reckoning this in my limited mental capacity

But if she wins this election, it could be a bell weather change for the country, in that MAGA will be done and perhaps the GOP will realize the patriarchy is of the past and come up with more reasonable candidates

[Probatim]

8. Your optimism is inspiring - what's likely to happen is MAGA decides they weren't pure enough and double down

on their insanity.

They aren't know for their introspection.

[displacedvermoter]

20. That is why a Kemp or a Haley (or a Haley/Kemp

or Kemp/Haley) ticket is not a given, even though the media is already slobbering for such "moderates" to run against an incumbent Democrat.

In terms of the crazies doubling down, keep up an eye on Tom Cotton. The Times and the weekend gas refineries love him for some sick reason. A Cotton/Tim Scott ticket is not an impossibility.

[JohnSJ]

3. If we don't win, our democracy is really over. That isn't an exaggeration. We missed a bullet on January 6th, I don't

think we will be so lucky next time if we lose.

[DFW]

6. And we have to win more than just the election

We have to win a victory over all the Republican shenanigans that they will pull afterward to reverse the result of the election.

[Probatim]

9. I made the same comment yesterday - republican legislatures around the country used "widespread voter fraud"

to make it more difficult for some people to vote and changed the rules for how votes are certified. Not only do we have to run strong candidates and GOTV, we have this garbage to contend with.

[CTyankee]

23. I am afraid of this happening. But how can we avoid this so close to the election?

[Probatim]

25. It sounds like the Harris team has hired many more lawyers for this election than Biden needed to.

If I had to guess, they're planning for the inevitable electoral challenges.

The right's combination of political and judicial traitors is likely to be problematic though.

[CTyankee]

28. Yes, and I am comforted by our team being so alert and think through ways to deal with them.

I'm almost certain that they have figured out a way to get over our team's popularity with the masses with their own swing state skullduggery. So we have to come up with our own strategies to defeat them.

[JohnSJ]

10. Yes.

[NNadir]

5. However, in 1856, I would have been a Republican. Trump's...

...dubious accomplishment is to have relieved James Buchanan, winner of the 1856 election, of the title of worst President in history.

[DFW]

7. Buchanan was certainly no feather in our cap, that's for sure

But we haven't had a Democrat succeed another Democrat in this century or the last, either.

[NNadir]

30. Well, again, the editorial "our" should not apply to me. Buchanan succeeding Pierce, and actually being (slightly)...

...worse than Pierce is not a bit of history that one would hope will not be repeated in US history.

For most of US history, we have been fortunate - except in this case - to have disastrous Presidencies followed by great Presidencies:

Buchanan/Lincoln, Hoover/FDR, Bush II/Obama, Trump/Biden.

Pierce may have been the only citizen of New Hampshire to have been fond of the Confederacy, and among Presidents, only John Tyler demonstrated more enthusiasm for it by actually joining the Confederate government, but Pierce's uncovered correspondence with Jefferson Davis (albeit before the war) clearly delineated where his sympathies lay.

Until Trump, John Tyler was the only openly treasonous President (or former President) of the United States in history.

In the mid 19th century, as opposed to today where the situation is reversed, the Democratic Party was more racist than the Republican Party, a state of affairs that lasted well into the 20th century. No less than Eleanor Roosevelt, who helped to lead the Democratic Party out of its racist past, had to entertain the likes of James Eastland, segregationist, at the White House. (She must have found it nauseating.) Possibly the most racist Presidential campaign in all of US history, even worse than Reagan, Bush I and Trump, was the 1864 McClellan/Lincoln election. The word "miscegenation" was coined by McClellan's supporters for that election.

With the possible exceptions of John Adams, his son John Quincy Adams, and US Grant, all US Presidents into the 19th century entered into the office as racists, with Lincoln being the President who most rapidly evolved in his views, this to the point that in a reception after delivering his famous 2nd Inaugural, one of the greatest - and in many ways most unsparing, given its terrible judgements - speeches in US history, he greeted his friend Fredrick Douglass in public and announced that there was no man he wanted to evaluate his speech more that Douglass. Douglass declared it a "sacred effort," which, of course, it was. This said, Douglass was aware of Lincoln's ambiguity. Make no mistake. As a man of his times, Lincoln entered office as a racist, an antislavery racist, but a racist all the same.

If I want to be proud of being a Democrat - and I am so proud - I'd rather look at our recent nominees and Presidents, and not those of a period of history not worthy of evoking with much affection in my view. In the 19th century, the Democratic Party was racially sordid, as sordid as modern Republicans are today, maybe even worse. In the much needed reevaluation of the historical Ulysses S. Grant, it has been stated that he was the most active fighter for equality and racial justice to whom only Lyndon Johnson can be compared. (I consider Grant the second most important President of the 19th century) It is with Johnson, that our party was finally completely liberated from its racist past, although both FDR and Harry Truman made great strides in that direction.

[Kid Berwyn]

11. An inflection point for the Ages.

Democracy's resurgence. Thanks, Joe!

[DFW]

15. It might be decades before history recognizes the full impact of the Biden presidency

Biden not only stopped us from going full speed over the cliff. He also turned us around and headed 180° in the other direction.

My friends here in Euro-land have not only stopped their cruel "America First" jokes, they have also cut out using the "old and used up" line that the Germans were using on Merkel (and Hillary in 2016, and then in 2020 with Joe Biden). They can joke all they want, but when it comes to the economy and foreign policy, they know perfectly well what the score is. In late 2000, they were all asking me--and only partially joking--"if you Americans are stupid enough to limit Bill Clinton to two terms, can we have him when you are done?"

[Zoomie1986]

31. When my mother was doing a thing with

Medicines sans Frontieres in the old Yugoslavia in the 90s, she heard the same joke from Europeans about giving them Clinton when America was done with him.

She also said that they couldn't wrap their minds around the whole Monica thing. The French, especially, found our obsession with all of that bewildering. 'You elect someone his age as your leader, and you're surprised when he acts that age?' They weren't saying he was a dumb kid, but referencing a kind of behavior even Americans have a slang term for: Mid-life crisis. You know, the guy who hits 45, buys a sports car, fools around with younger women, even divorces a wife to marry someone younger. The pattern is well known, even here.

I think most people forgot that Clinton was only 46 when he was first elected. That's right when a mid-life crisis will kick in, if it's going to happen. And it clearly did.

[barbtries]

12. will be.

it will be.

i'll be working the election and am raising consciousness on a regular basis.

[Butterflylady]

14. Not if we win, when we win....

[DFW]

16. I am not worried about winning the election

I am worried about being able to take the offices we won. 2000 and 2016 (and an attempt in 2020/2021) showed us that it is no longer enough to just win the election. Republicans are like the armed street thug: they may be smart enough to go out and earn the money by themselves, but they are essentially lazy, and prefer to take it from other people who worked to get it, and then stick a gun in their faces. It's easier and takes less time.

[BattleRow]

17. Their MAGA mantra is

Never give those suckers and losers an even break.

[CTyankee]

29. Only if they have accomplices at the state level. Shame on us if we haven't figured out ways around their evil plots.

I'm already neurotic about this issue...

[Hekate]

18. KnR

[question everything]

19. Some claim that voters in general expect to switch the administration after two terms

which could explain 2000 and 2016. 1988 was an exception.

But since Whiny entered politics and social media rule history can no longer offer guidelines.

[whopis01]

21. Coincidentally

It is also the first time since the Civil War that there was a insurrectionist President trying to overthrow the Constitution.

[ColinC]

22. I wouldn't blame our failure to implement democratic processes on Republicans

It is a bit of a constitutional flaw that should have been changed eons ago.

[Initech]

24. We have to do everything to make sure those idiots don't try something.

You know Trump has his tentacles in high places and people with actual positions of power who could do some damage. We have to stop them from stealing this election with everything we got!

[Omnipresent]

26. The 2000 & 2016 General Elections just remind me that we need to get rid of the electoral college...

If we had a Supreme Court that was worth a shit, it would get rid of the Electoral College. The vast majority of voters in both elections were disenfranchised by those outcomes!

[zanana1]

27. I hope we don't have an Electoral College problem this time.