I've run into too many people on the street who supported Donald and continue to support Donald for any accusations of massive cheating to resonate. I'm sure there were shenanigans, there always are and always have been, but the credible polling wasn't far from the official results.

JL

The Democrats weren’t wrong to get behind Joe Biden at the start of the campaign. He beat Trump very soundly in 2020 and successfully got us through the pandemic in better shape than anyone else in the world. It wasn’t until his health issues became too great to remain hidden that Biden chose to end his re-election bid. Trump had made Biden’s age and his being too old to be president the main talking point for the Republicans’ game plan; that all got turned back on Trump the second Kamala’s campaign began!

Yes, there were things that the Democrats could have done better in the campaign, but there was nothing done that should have cost them the election! THAT is the problem. I’m with MtnCaddy in believing that they have done the autopsy, but I think that we aren’t hearing about it because the results don’t answer the questions being asked. Trump killed off about a million of his base thanks to his mishandling of COVID-19. Trump led an insurrection on January 6 to overturn the results of the election so he could remain in power. Trump refused to turn over government documents that concerned national security on multiple occasions, leading to the FBI having to raid his property to recover them. Trump should not have been allowed to use his claim to be running for president again to avoid being held accountable for his crimes! During the election, Trump said he did not need any more voters to vote for him to win the election…but we never learned why he believed that. He also claimed that he wouldn’t need voters to vote in the future for him to continue winning elections for Republicans. Those are not his everyday word salad ramblings; they are very specific and serious claims that must be investigated. Have Republicans finally figured out how to steal the elections successfully?

Democrats got so tired of defending our election process from the idiotic claims of voter fraud that the Republicans would launch one after another that we finally drew a line and declared, “ENOUGH!!!” We had repeatedly shown that our elections were safe and should be trusted, so we stopped accepting any more claims of stealing elections as a possibility. We have chosen to stick our heads in the sand and dismiss any suggestion of voter fraud as a fallacy. The Republicans got us to silence any suggestion that they might have committed election crimes before we could even start to investigate such a crime. THAT is about the only way to explain how Trump won the popular vote for the Republicans this past election. Where, specifically, did all of Elon’s money go when he gave it to Trump’s campaign?

Tom Lehrer was one brilliant artist! It’s a shame that he pulled back from doing his music because he could not stomach the counterculture of the 60’s and 70’s. We sure could have used his expert way of highlighting the stupidity of some political beliefs in the 80’s, 90’s, and all of the 2000’s! I had hope Bo Burnham might take up the charge, but I don’t see that happening.

RIP

while i agree with your assessment of kamala's chances in 2028, i partly disagree with your conclusion regarding the sort of candidate who IS likely to succeed, at least in a general election. doesn't anyone wonder how Trump is still so close to 50% after all his glaring errors? we use the term "authenticity" as if it were an affectation, but i believe what it really means is that someone does literally everything in their power to try to achieve their supporters' goals, no matter how dumb or impractical they might seem.

we've had so many decades of presidents who use the norms of the constitutional order as an excuse to compromise justice for the working classes, a whole lot of citizens just want someone who will defy limitations and break things. wanna know when i first realized Kamala was probably not going to win? the second i heard the term "opportunity economy." to anyone who doubts the system, that roughly translates as, "work harder, earn less." i thought she really was trying to do good, but that was as tone deaf as it gets. I'm not a huge fan of AOC, but she wore "tax the rich" on her gala dress in big letters. that is the type of message people will respond to.

JL

So Chris, are you saying that Kamala doesn’t have at least a couple of good advisors in her camp that haven’t started just such an autopsy like, the day after the election?

Of course, such a level of incompetence is not rare in politics throughout history. It’s just that I doubt that no one in the Party has not thought to do this.

And that brings me to your curious assertion that "we seem to be in an age where voters are drawn to outsized personalities more than actual platforms and political agendas."

Um, what? What fantasy era of U.S. history is known for its voters voting for the presidential platform and not the man himself? Sure, the two parties have a political identity that are attached to the candidate: liberal or conservative, in short, though those terms have varied wildly in meaning over the centuries. But the president is our democratic king, and people are drawn to and loyal to and/or repelled by the king's personality and reputation, not his edicts and policy apparatus.