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I, like the rest of the country, feel like nothing good will come of the election. However, I feel this way for a slightly different reason than your average person, and probably closer to the average Mottezian.
I actually don't really care too much who is president. Either one of them would IMO do a good enough job. I mostly care whether the president impacts my everyday life or causes nuclear war. However, though it isn't his fault directly, having Trump in charge would impact my everyday life negatively, mostly because it would fuel another 4 years of incessant leftist whining all around me, from all my friends and family, along with people starting to (erroneously, IMO) see and declare that racism and sexism is everywhere again. It'll start causing fights between me and my wife again. My workplace and all local institutions will start making statements about how they're standing up to Trump and racism. Under Biden, I have truly enjoyed some nice peace and respite from politics.
However, I find this state of affairs to be very irritating. It feels like the left, or at least the leftists in my life, are taking an infantile tactic: we better win or we'll whine and complain for 4 years. I don't respect sore losers, and moreover, I don't like the fact that there is no path forward for the right.
Scott said this back in 2016:
Scott was absolutely correct here in how it played out. But what option does this leave the non leftists with? If the Democrat wins, then the currents move left. We get leftism enshrined into law over the next 4 years, because to the victor go the spoils. If the Republican wins, then the undercurrents move left, and more and more people get radicalized towards the left.
Is there a way for the currents to move right without the undercurrents moving left? Or is Trump just uniquely bad at making that happen? I'm tempted to say that this is just the fact that Trump is a polarizing figure, but at the same time, all the leftists I know scream bloody murder whenever a Republican is in command. They were infantile under George W Bush. And though I wasn't around then, I know many people who are still salty over Reagan and act like he was the worst.
…
If you thought it was bad before, Russell Berman has a piece at The Atlantic with an even worse scenario: "How Democrats Could Disqualify Trump If the Supreme Court Doesn’t":
[Emphasis added]
Just picture what happens if Trump wins in November, but a Democrat Congress refuses to certify in January and gives it to Biden instead — totally not an "insurrection," just "defending Our Democracy". Sure, maybe the lefties around you won't "whine and complain for 4 years"… or maybe they'll be complaining about how "racism and sexism is everywhere again" as demonstrated by Trump winning the vote despite being an illegitimate candidate, and what a perilous state Our Democracy is in that Congress had to resort to such extreme measures after the courts failed to do their job, and so on. While, meanwhile, there's certainly going to be even more unhappiness on the Right.
(Though, really, I'm coming around to preferring an outcome like this. Because if this doesn't get Republican voters to accept that "Our Democracy" is fundamentally rigged against them and that voting is pointless, I don't know what will.)
My first reaction is to say no, there aren't any actual options for non-leftists, we're doomed, all hope is lost, etc., etc. Though, when I express such views online, at best I get people going on at me about how "that's the depression talking" and so on. (And when I push those people for what they consider options, it's mostly of the "vote harder, debate harder, 'own the libs with facts and logic' harder, and somehow overcome all of the left's institutional, cultural, and rhetorical advantages through sheer excellence" sort.) More often, it's lectures about how "despair is a sin" (here, the "solutions" tend to be waiting for Divine Providence to eventually deliver), or even just denunciations as a shill ("are you getting paid for this demoralization op in shekels or yuan?") or a traitor ("getting killed by leftists is the real right-wing victory").
So, in the spirit of trying to be more optimistic — like my therapists keep telling me — I'll limit it to saying there are no options for non-leftists within "the rules of the game" as currently constituted (and so thoroughly rigged against us). As for options "outside the game," well, I don't think I can discuss those here without eating a ban. Thus, I'll vaguely gesture toward Sun-Tzu's comments about not fighting where your enemy is strong and you are weak, but where you are strong and the enemy is weak.
They do not have the votes to do this. Sure, some democrats will vote against certifying the election, possibly even most, but there will be enough defectors that democrats would need a very large majority to do it.
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