Serious The 2020 U.S. Election (Biden wins)

[colours]

post here

look, i respect however you want to view this election. whether you want to see it as a nightmare finally being over, or whether in your case apparently, that the abyss is bottomless and we're destined and fated to fall down it forever anyway, such is how humanity is destined to be.

but for people like me, there is a tiny light. is joe biden a career politician? of course he is, i'm not (and i doubt many of his voters are) naive enough to believe that he can fix things with a snap of a finger. but fuck man, do you know a single thing about the world i and the people like me lived in the past four years? where i was terrified of police because of my skin colour, and the police felt more empowered than ever before to stop people like me for little reason and they get away with their shit because the President of the United States enables them? where his supporters grow ever violent and face no real repercussions because the President is a bully himself that doesn't give a single damn about people like me? i lived in a world where people who share my identity and my orientation are having their rights stripped away gleefully by the GOP? we're not people to them, we never have been.

but it seems you don't realize this or are, with all due respect, ignorant to it. your post reeks of utter hopelessness, regardless of the shred of truth it contains. yes, the word "politician" might as well be synonymous with "lying shill" for all we know, but if these past four years have proven anything, whoever we put into the white house has the ultimate ability to shape people's lives for generations to come. i hope you yourself are aware of this because, unless you've been completely outside the loop, donald fucking trump filled three supreme court vacancies, therefore nearly ensuring that all meaningful progressive progress is going to get heavily scrutinized if not halted for at the very least the next generation or so. but even the odds seem absolutely insurmountable, it's still offensive reading this post and getting the vibe that we should just stop bothering to fight, stop bothering to live, stop bothering to make it day to day because politicians, at the end of the day, will be politicians, so what's the point of literally anything anymore?

for me, this election result was a sigh of relief, because although there is a very long road ahead, at least i don't have to fear traveling down that road so much, anymore. where we can start working on a world where we can hopefully make some sort of progress on climate change, some sort of progress on lgbtq+ rights, some sort of progress as far as racial justice goes, some sort of progress as far as the economy goes, some sort of progress as far as healthcare goes. you may call me a bit rosey eyed, but i'd rather have a tiny bit of optimism what the future may hold than wallow in pessimism and cynicism.

i apologise if this post was a bit charged, but this election was very personal for me. i consider myself fortunate that i live in a relatively blue city and as such have not encountered the situations that others similar to me do. you may think this is inconsequential and insignificant, and you're free to continue thinking that, but for people like me, this was a difference, albeit a small one, and that's what matters.

 

[MarinaSpeaks]

For me, as someone who almost lost close family members due to the virus. That has been my top priority going into this election, and Trump's pandemic response has been completely inexcusable to me. As for other policies, I think Biden beats Trump on just about everything? From social justice causes, to environment, health care, criminal justice reform, education, immigration, and yes even economy, I think Biden's the better choice and I could easily explain why for each of these categories. So even though Biden wasn't my first choice, and I am fully aware that he doesn't have the best record, this is a pretty big win for me. But to those who feel the same, remember that this fight is FAR from over with covid cases at record highs and a very likely GOP controlled senate. D:

This is one step in the right direction though and I'm definitely pretty happy even with little baby steps forward! :0

Also I would also recommend some of you to read Biden's pandemic response plan. It's actually super detailed! https://joebiden.com/covid-plan/

 

[Kanzler]

look, i respect however you want to view this election. whether you want to see it as a nightmare finally being over, or whether in your case apparently, that the abyss is bottomless and we're destined and fated to fall down it forever anyway, such is how humanity is destined to be.

but for people like me, there is a tiny light. is joe biden a career politician? of course he is, i'm not (and i doubt many of his voters are) naive enough to believe that he can fix things with a snap of a finger. but fuck man, do you know a single thing about the world i and the people like me lived in the past four years? where i was terrified of police because of my skin colour, and the police felt more empowered than ever before to stop people like me for little reason and they get away with their shit because the President of the United States enables them? where his supporters grow ever violent and face no real repercussions because the President is a bully himself that doesn't give a single damn about people like me? i lived in a world where people who share my identity and my orientation are having their rights stripped away gleefully by the GOP? we're not people to them, we never have been.

but it seems you don't realize this or are, with all due respect, ignorant to it. your post reeks of utter hopelessness, regardless of the shred of truth it contains. yes, the word "politician" might as well be synonymous with "lying shill" for all we know, but if these past four years have proven anything, whoever we put into the white house has the ultimate ability to shape people's lives for generations to come. i hope you yourself are aware of this because, unless you've been completely outside the loop, donald fucking trump filled three supreme court vacancies, therefore nearly ensuring that all meaningful progressive progress is going to get heavily scrutinized if not halted for at the very least the next generation or so. but even the odds seem absolutely insurmountable, it's still offensive reading this post and getting the vibe that we should just stop bothering to fight, stop bothering to live, stop bothering to make it day to day because politicians, at the end of the day, will be politicians, so what's the point of literally anything anymore?

for me, this election result was a sigh of relief, because although there is a very long road ahead, at least i don't have to fear traveling down that road so much, anymore. where we can start working on a world where we can hopefully make some sort of progress on climate change, some sort of progress on lgbtq+ rights, some sort of progress as far as racial justice goes, some sort of progress as far as the economy goes, some sort of progress as far as healthcare goes. you may call me a bit rosey eyed, but i'd rather have a tiny bit of optimism what the future may hold than wallow in pessimism and cynicism.

i apologise if this post was a bit charged, but this election was very personal for me. i consider myself fortunate that i live in a relatively blue city and as such have not encountered the situations that others similar to me do. you may think this is inconsequential and insignificant, and you're free to continue thinking that, but for people like me, this was a difference, albeit a small one, and that's what matters.

It's going to be hard to predict whatever will come out of this Presidency and both parties in the next four years, but I think the bar for Biden's expectations will be sufficiently low. Enough people will deem his presidency a success if he manages COVID better and consequently sees America through an economic recovery. And these sort of narrow expectations might be more, well, expected than not if the Democrats don't win the two Georgia Senate races and start this thing off without Senate control. To speak nothing of the GOP which has replaced some moderate Democrat House Representatives with Trumpists although the House majority is still preserved. I think enough of the conservative media organs and enough voters and politicans have hitched themselves on to Trump's bandwagon so I would expect his presence to linger. These are things that are probably further out of our control than we would like.

Anyway, pray that Democrats go two for two on January 5 2021 because we won't be talking about progress if they don't. To say nothing of success in state politics, where a lot of the powers to enforce or strip those rights you refer to are charged, where Republican forces continue to entrench themselves. But it's nice that Biden has won. There are just other pieces of the puzzle that aren't guaranteed to fall into place if we want to call this term a success in 2024.

As for what Nah said, I think you're reading too much between the lines. I think the natural conclusion to "establishment forces getting in the way of progress", which I think was her point, is for the forces of progress to take advantage and not let establishment inertia to continue to rule the day, not give up, no point in fighting, etc etc. I think speaking to the obstacles in the way of progress doesn't diminish the ideal of progress, it just highlights the very real uncertainty or fragility of progress.

To address her point further, progressives rarely get the credit they deserve at the highest level. Maybe not until we see a President Ocasio-Cortez.

 

[Corrin]

Well, I just know it'll take more than 4 years to fix the damage Trump has done. The fact that a usual conservative state such as Georgia has a democrat lead should be proof enough that most people are tired of him. The amount of votes he still got though...
Also Biden doesn't have the best record himself, so I can see why people are wary.

Also, I'm worried about the fallout. We just know Trump and his alt right followers will go wild. Stay safe everyone!

 

[colours]

As for what Nah said, I think you're reading too much between the lines. I think the natural conclusion to "establishment forces getting in the way of progress", which I think was her point, is for the forces of progress to take advantage and not let establishment inertia to continue to rule the day, not give up, no point in fighting, etc etc. I think speaking to the obstacles in the way of progress doesn't diminish the ideal of progress, it just highlights the very real uncertainty or fragility of progress.

To address her point further, progressives rarely get the credit they deserve at the highest level. Maybe not until we see a President Ocasio-Cortez.

perhaps we're interpreting it differently, because i read it as "woe is all of us, both parties are awful, no point in doing anything, history will inevitably repeat itself", which seems to diminish the hard work people have done so far to get to this point (not to mention diminish what people have gone through these past four years), hence my response. but i digress there, and i want to address your other points:

- you are right that this is not over. truth be told, i'm not terribly optimistic for democrats to hold the majority in the senate, and i'm not quite sure what this means for biden's presidency. i'd normally say he can just executive order his way and slap mconnnell in the face with it, but alas, we lost the supreme court so i'm not even sure that's an avenue worth persuing.

- as far as people's expectations of biden... i gotta say that i agree with you there. i suppose the bar is low so to speak, because we're going through quite tumultuous times. covid itself notwithstanding, there's also a great many americans that are unemployed because of the pandemic and that's something that needs to be addressed, as well. and that's to say nothing of the racial tension that has gotten significantly worse under trump. i think the expectation (more or less) is that he can get the ball rolling on getting something done at the absolute minimum. there's a lot to get done, and it'll take more than biden to solve them and even the next (hopefully) democratic president to solve the utter mess that trump created. im just happy we're starting somewhere.

 

[Nah]

To be completely honest, I have given up all hope. Gave it up some time ago.

When I made that post it was just something that I wanted to get off my chest really. Not an attempt to tell people what to do or to "diminish" people's experiences. I didn't type it with the expectation that anyone would agree with it.

If you all do still believe that there is a shred of hope to hold on to, just make sure you don't forever settle for just simply having people with Ds instead of Rs next to their names, push them to do what needs to be done.

 

[Lumina]

Anyone who supports or voted for Trump is a bad person, objectively. Fuck being respectful about it, and fuck "we could still be friends outside politics". I'm not a fan of respecting the beliefs of people who don't respect my right to exist as a person. No, Biden's no saint, he's not gonna Thanos-snap all of the US's problems away, but I'd rather have a week-old roadkill in office than what you've had for the past term. I'm usually open to different opinions, but not when that different opinion is something like "is white supremacy bad?".

 

[VisionofMilotic]

Just a general reminder, you are allowed to support Trump or Biden, or Jo Jorgensen, Kanye West, Howie Hawkins or Mr Magoo for president on the forum. Feel free to disagree and debate why one candidate is bad or good, but this is going to be a respectful discussion. There will be no intimidation of members, or name calling or shaming based on voting choices or political affiliation. We have debate rules in place in this section, and they may need a fresh review.

https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=413251

I don't care how much anyone disapproves of a politician, we're all going to keep our cool. Take your time, take a breathe, come back to discussion later on if you are feeling emotional.

 

[Lumina]

How can you, in good conscience, give a fair and respecting platform for someone like that and people who agree with them?

 

[VisionofMilotic]

How can you, in good conscience, give a fair and respecting platform for someone like that and people who agree with them?

I'm not sure whom you are referring to by "someone like that and people who agree with them." If you are asking why we give a fair and respecting platform to people who support Trump, the answer is because we strive to be a fair and respecting platform for everyone, left, right, center, black, white, Latino, Asian, gay, straight, bi, trans, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, atheist or what not. There is no official political affiliation for the forum, this is why we have debate, because everyone has their own subjective experience. As long as members are in keeping with the general community guidelines and rules for Off-topic then there's no reason not to allow someone a platform.

If somebody here has said something offensive to you then that that is a different discussion, and you can report the comment. We don't give platform to any abusive speech. But we're not going to make generalizations about members because of the way they voted in the election either.

Now, let's all get back to a good, healthy debate.