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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 14, 2023

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The GOP didn't underperform in 2018 or 2020. They underperformed in 2022 when Trump wasn't on the ballot because of poor voter turn-out. Given historical trends for midterm losses in the first term, the Trump lead GOP in 2018 did the best in the last 50 years.

The only way they're going to win back the voters who have abandoned them is to convince them that this party is a different one than the one they voted against in 2020

Is this where we pretend that Trump didn't get the 2nd most votes in the history of the country, improving on his previous total by 11,000,000 votes?

failing to address the obvious election fraud is precisely the reason why they performed so poorly in the 2020 senate runoffs in GA and in many 2022 races, not because of ongoing fraud (although that definitely did happen), but because they don't motivate their voters to show up

the person who motivates their voters to show up is Donald Trump; trying to claim the GOP's strategy for the last 2 years is "election denail/jan 6 nonsense" is simply wrong given they've done nothing at all in response to either of those and, in fact, helped opposition party attack their own on those exact issues

the countryclub suburban GOP voters of the 1990s aren't coming back no matter how much you trash trump and promise you're totally not like him because those voters are dead or strongly Democrat

edit: Just like another conversation we had here, Trump didn't lose the "Republican Stronghold" which voted for Obama by 8 points in 2012 and even more for Obama in 2008. Trump is not the reason for GOP failure, especially in Pennsylvania (a state which hadn't gone to a GOP presidential candidate since 1988). Doubling down on denouncing Trump and whipping yourself isn't going to win you back the "Republican Stronghold" which voted for Obama by 8 points.

My MIL fits in the country club GOP voter of yesteryear. But it turns out she didn’t vote out of political conviction; she voted because she liked the status of being “rich.” Now when rich people vote democratic, she votes democratic.

Is this where we pretend that Trump didn't get the 2nd most votes in the history of the country, improving on his previous total by 11,000,000 votes?

Trump is remarkably good at motivating Republican voters. I would argue that the only thing he is better at is motivating Democrat voters, thus no longer being president.

I mean, the circumstances of being an incumbent widely perceived as mismanaging a generational crisis surely played some role in his ability to motivate democrats.

He motivated "Democrat" voters so much, they sometimes voted multiple times in different states! Truly historic rates of voter participation, but only in counties controlled by certain people using certain procedures. Neighboring counties not controlled by those people using those procedures didn't see that magical turn-out.

There are lots of reasons Donald Trump isn't president; you could likely put most of these under a "motivates Democrats" banner, but some specifics would be the illegal and unconstitutional ways in which elections were conducted in explicit contravention to election laws across dozens of states. The GOP, the courts, and the law were wholly useless in addressing this issue.

When I worked in politics, you could pretty much tell if the GOP or Democrats would win an election by basic turn-out numbers. DJT changed that dynamic where it's the opposite now. In the motivation game, Trump may motivate a minority of people into hysterics, but in sheer numbers Trump motivates his voters more than the opposite.

If they could cheat under Trump, they certainly can under Biden. So either way, if Trump runs, he loses, whether it's fair and square or a tipping of the scales.

The 2020 election was closer than the 2016 election. Illegal changes made to election law and procedures by executive fiat justified by "the pandemic" no longer exist in most places with courts already ruling against those changes. The pandemic is not around to justify vast mobilization of state power and cowardice on the part of courts. The State operating at peak power prohibiting in-person interaction and mobilization (unless race riots ofc) and forcing people into manipulated online spaces isn't around anymore, either.

The state cashed in a whole lot of single-use plays in order to get Trump, and even with all of that and more, the election came down to tens of thousands of votes in a few states. It came down to a judge in any of 5 states allowing a filed election contest to be heard or even a slight peek at those definitely legitimate ballot signatures.

Could Trump run and lose? Sure, and it will take another vast and more ridiculous fraud campaign. The reason Trump is being indicted isn't because the regime is sure he's going to run and lose, it's because they know he could win and he's dangerous to that regime.

Another Trump run and subsequent obvious fraud by the regime has its own benefits. And in comparison to what? Without Trump, the GOP will lose anyway. And even if that's not true, I don't see how a Trump-less GOP victory would benefit rightwing politics in any way.

The 2020 election was closer than the 2016 election.

Measured how?

It came down to a judge in any of 5 states allowing a filed election contest to be heard or even a slight peek at those definitely legitimate ballot signatures.

Ah, I see. Since literally every attempt on /r/TheMotte and here to provide a shred of solid evidence of fraud has been thoroughly debunked every single time, we've come back around to "just repeat things a bunch and they'll become true."

Could Trump run and lose? Sure, and it will take another vast and more ridiculous fraud campaign.

Or, you know, Trump not being that popular. Which, if you look at the 2016 results, was actually always the case--Clinton was just an unusually bad candidate (combined 2 party vote share of only 94% in 2016).

measured by the difference in the counted votes needed to win the election

Since literally every attempt on /r/TheMotte and here to provide a shred of solid evidence of fraud has been thoroughly debunked every single time

literally, huh? Well then!

Could Trump run and lose? Sure, and it will take another vast and more ridiculous fraud campaign.

So is it your view that Trump simply having less support in the crucial states by election time is simply an inconceivable outcome?

one, no, which is why I acknowledge trump could lose

two, trump could have less support than now in crucial states and still win the presidency; trump could have less support than 2020 and still win the presidency

we're talking about states trump lost by ~10,000 votes when courts in those states have since ruled edit: 100,000+ in that election votes illegal election procedures and directives used in the 2020 election were illegal and the votes cast, counted, or cured, due to these illegal changes were well beyond the vote totals difference in the previous election (cases in both WI and PA)

Your original comment didn't acknowledge Trump could lose fairly though - 'it will take another vast and more ridiculous campaign' is what you said. What I'm driving at is whether you think just Trump losing is itself prima facie evidence for fraud.

when courts in those states have since ruled 100,000+ in that election votes illegal

Which rulings were these?

Having been systematically excluded from powerful institutions, widespread loss of trust in those institutions is a positive, not a negative. You know that trust in America's political system is going to be lower two years from now than it is today.

He motivated "Democrat" voters so much, they sometimes voted multiple times in different states!

This is a specific claim I haven't seen yet. Could you link the evidence?

trump's filed election contest in GA or one of the Look Ahead America Reports diving into permanent change of address flags

note that I am not claiming the people actually voted in multiple states, but that their voter registration was used in a state from which they permanently moved out of, and then they proceeded to vote in the state they moved to

Appreciate the link, thank you.

Is this where we pretend that Trump didn't get the 2nd most votes in the history of the country, improving on his previous total by 11,000,000 votes?

The number one for most votes in the history of the country was his opponent Joe Biden. The population of the US keeps growing; it is larger than it was in 2016, 2012, 2008, 2004, and so on. So more recent presidential elections have higher vote totals breaking previous vote total records.

population growth in legal US voters would only account for a tiny fraction of the ~25,000,000 extra "votes" in the 2020 election

also, it is simply not true that later elections have more total votes over the last 20 or so years, 2008 having more total votes than 2012 and 2016 being an example

the only explanation which can account for such a vast difference is voter turnout and "voter" turnout is not uniform across the country; in fact, voter turnout is roughly the same in most parts with only select counties with certain people in charge using certain procedures and ignoring election laws which has the unheard of "voter"-turn out