Democracy Docket: Dissecting the Election and the Role of the Media

Politics and Social Issues
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This seems worth sharing.
Why?
Because it’s better than rolling over and playing dead.
There are still a lot of people who’d rather be constructive, . . .

Dissecting the Election and the Role of the Media

Nov 15, 2024
On Nov. 5, President-elect Donald Trump swept the Electoral College and the popular vote. Marc Elias and Molly Jong-Fast discuss what happened, what they got wrong, the media’s role in the election and what happens now.

INTRODUCTION

Just 150 billionaire families alone spent almost $1.4 billion on the 2024 election cycle by the end of August, according to a new study by Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) that shows the attempted big-money takeover of American democracy is accelerating.

That eye-popping figure already exceeds the amount contributed by nearly 700 individual billionaires in the entire 2020 campaign, with over two months of traditionally expansive spending left to go before Election Day 2024 that will undoubtedly push the total even higher.

And billionaire clans have plenty more to contribute. Because they are so incredibly rich—the collective net worth of these top political spenders is estimated to be roughly $2.3 trillion —political spending even at this elevated level is no strain on their finances. On average these billionaire families have each made $9.2 million in political contributions, just 0.06% of their total wealth. For the median American family, 0.06% of their net worth is roughly $120, a relatively modest contribution. Another way of looking at it is that this tiny group of billionaires has the political spending power of 11.5 million ordinary families.

This latest ATF study, part of a multi-year series on the political influence of billionaires …

https://www.axios.com/2024/10/31/billionaires-election-spending-trump-musk-bezos

Billionaire DNA is coursing through the U.S. election system like never before, smashing campaign finance records and ushering in a new age of influence.

Why it matters: In an election that both sides see as existential, the moral guardrails for political spending are vanishing. Today’s billionaires are shredding populist taboos, driving news cycles and increasingly shaping the terms of American democracy.

The big picture: 150 billionaire families have spent a total of $1.9 billion in support of presidential and congressional candidates this cycle, according to a report by Americans for Tax Fairness released one week before the election.

  • That’s $700 million (or 58%) more than the $1.2 billion spent by more than 600 individual billionaires during the 2020 election, according to the group’s analysis.
  • A Financial Times analysis also published this week found that billionaires had contributed at least $695 million, or 18%, of the total funds raised by the presidential candidates and allied groups.
  • At least $568 million of that has gone to former President Trump’s campaign and allied groups, compared to about $127 million to support Vice President Harris. …

Aug 19, 2024 Business Insider explains

Millions have already been raised for the 2024 presidential race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. But where does that money come from? Here’s how the ultra-rich can sway an election.
00:00 - Introduction
00:18 - US Elections Drive Billions Of Dollars
00:47 - Candidates Who Raise More Money Seem More Likely To Win
01:19 - How Campaign Money Is Spent, From Advertising To Hosting Rallies
01:45 - What Influenced Joe Biden To Drop Out of the Race
02:24 - Democrats Vs. Republican Fundraising Efforts In The 2024 Election
03:19 - How Money Is Donated, From Individual Contributions To PACs And Super PACs
04:11 - Trump’s Felony Conviction Drove A Surge In Donations
04:56 - Billionaires’ Influence, From George Soros And Abigail Disney To Elon Musk
06:13 - How Money Influences Policies
06:35 - Americans Want Money Out Of Politics
06:50 - Credits

One thing leads to another.

As for We The People, I realized decades ago that we were lost, as I noticed ever increasing legalizing “gaming” nation wide, and then expanding gambling options.
The New American Dream, the most profit, for the least effort.

But when you put little effort into what you achieve, it means nothing to you, and one thing leads to another.

Then worst is, when they get their riches, all they do is pee it away with ridiculous excesses, in a vain search of the ‘real me’ the happy me - and thus they’ve evolved into little more than Vampires, desperate for one fix after another.

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Not to mention the increasing adulation of the cheats, criminals, Breaking Bad and such. It was not a healthy harbinger.
Yet, weirdly as much as I’ve been scared of this road we were going down for many decades now, (and it was my fears, not others’ assurances, that have unfolded in the real world, time after time) so I’ve had plenty of time to prepare myself intellectually, emotionally and spiritually through a few dozen periodic cuts, it’s still an unspeakable horror to be watching these late stages unfolding and most the citizens of our nation don’t seem to think anything is amiss.

Very bizarre.

But at least I have the absolutely factual proof positive answer to, How those good decent liberal hard working German people, could turn into such monsters seemingly over night.

Beware MAGA American, once the dam gets breached, all bets are off.

Earth doesn’t have the time, or resources, for this exercise in human insanity anymore. It will bite all of us!

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Who are these two? They watch shows on the internet and talk about shows on the internet. So they conclude that Liberals should get on the internet. The internet is not that predictable. You don’t just “get on it” and then people watch it. Trump can get his face on so many screens because he’s basically retired and other people run his company for him. He doesn’t do anything except put his name on things. Actual qualified people can’t take that kind of time, so if they do something like Rogan, but not much else, it will be obvious that they are doing it cynically.

She says she didn’t polls. If she studied how they work, she might. Apparently she doesn’t, but she comments on them.
https://www.richardcarrier.info/archives/31400

She says there was no cheating, ignoring gerrymandering that has been going on since forever. I know he won the popular vote, but if had not won by the EC last time, he would be a joke and would not have even run this time.

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Democrats are very happy with billionaires funding their campaigns

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And if your mother had a moustache she would be your uncle.
Pointless information

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I was explaining how gerrymandering resulted in Trump continuing to have power. Show me that you are comprehending the entire post, or I will have to assume you are a bot

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Thats a revelation is it? That the system produces such a person and pushes him forward to lead the capitalist class is beyond your scope

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Marc Elias

As the founder of Democracy Docket and Partner at Elias Law Group, Marc Elias is a nationally recognized authority in voting rights, redistricting and law. In 2020, Marc led the historic legal effort to protect voting rights, winning over 60 lawsuits against the GOP’s efforts to suppress the vote. As Republicans continue to mount aggressive challenges to voting, Marc continues to fight back in court and on Twitter. Fighting for democracy by his side is Marc’s Portuguese Water Dog named Bode.
Marc Elias | Elias Law Group LLP

Elias served as general counsel for the Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign and John Kerry 2004 presidential campaign. In 2020 and 2021, on behalf of the Biden campaignand the Democratic National Committee, Elias oversaw the state-by-state response to lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign contesting the 2020 presidential election results. Of the 64 cases, he won all but one minor case, which was later overturned in his favor.[4][5][6] Elias was hired by the Kamala Harris 2024 presidential campaign to focus on potential recounts and post-election litigation.[7]

He’s bulldog

During a December 2021 episode of his “War Room” podcast, former Trump strategic advisor Steve Bannonsaid, “One thing about Marc Elias, he’s pure evil, but, man, that brother is smart, tough. He’s crazy, but he’s a fighter, and I admire fighters.”[32]

Something Democrats desperately needed a few more of. This was about saving our national government we’ve always known and loved. It wasn’t the government doing idiotic deeds, it was the human we put into positions of power - but we never examined that too closely. Early to make taxes (paying your dues) and government some enemy in itself. Idiotic, clueless, brain-dead behavior (offensive as that may sound!) Now we’ve given it away. let the billionaire lie and propagandize themselves into the greedy self-serving hearts of Americans.

Molly Jong-Fast I am not familiar with, it was the discussion I was pointing at.

Not sure what all that is about.
Are you dismissing it as a waste of time?

Isn’t the internet and these shows about finding a community of engaged citizens, so that these ideas can grow. Okay so that noble vision is utter daydreaming in this world of hundreds of millions of media addicted individuals? Who are being lead on a merry balloon ride.

A healthy democracy demands and informed and engaged public.

Democracy demands hard work and good faith on all sides.

It was never great, but look at what Gingrich’s all or nothing attitude gained up. Elections dominated by strategic lies, I mean trump made his political bone by lying about Obama’s birth certificate, and who objected, the steal all built on lies, no matter how much of that "big lie’ was a lie.

Human was given a lessons in the 1960-70s, science and Earth observation was progressing enough to show that humanity was having a discernible influence upon Earth systems. That influence was weighted toward the destructive . . .

It was time to start recognizing and protecting Earth system, but that meant thinking about doing more, with less …

We had a choice . . .

(Maddy scratching, gotta run, to be continued whenever)

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Democrat party is a walking corpse.

Let’s review for all the Democrats out there. In 2016 you managed to find the only candidate in the country that could lose to Trump. In 2024 there were two candidates that could lose to Trump and you swapped out one for the other. Absolutely brilliant; keep it up.

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Yes, and I showed my work, so you know I watched the whole thing. Fortunately, I got the laundry done in that time. They did not “engage” me. They did not “grow” ideas. They did not “inform”. I already know the “big lie” was a lie, they didn’t add to that. I took a class in my first college semester that included global warming, so, I know that lesson. What college didn’t teach is how to reach the people who didn’t take that physics class but instead took business courses and learned how to make that number at the bottom of the page bigger.

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Let be honest, any democrat candidate would have a very difficult work.

Why ?

  • because of the ratings of Biden, which was very low, rightly or wrongly. american are unhappy about inflation, about the way the Ukrainian and Palestine files are managed.
  • because of the ideological backlash against everything seen as liberal. The democrat support groups which are seen as destabilizing the society, negate the traditional and religious values, and many people are afraid of losing status and bearings. The climate change is a fact, but is very anxiety-provoking for many people who prefer reject it.
  • because the democrats have lost the votes of the working class
  • because the ultra right has succeeded to impose his vision of the society; the problems don’t come from capitalism but from the migrants and the federal state;
  • because of the systematic lies and propaganda.

Now my idea is not that Trump won the election, but that the Democrats have lost their electorate.

Some numbers:

In 2016, Trump got 62 984 828 votes and Clinton got 65 853 514 votes
In 2020, Trump got 74 223 975 votes and Biden got 81 283 501 votes
In 2024, Trump got 74 708 357 votes and Harris got 70 979 779 votes

conclusion : the democrats must find an alternate tale which could win back to them the working class, why not the class struggle, adapted to the american mind ?

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Thanks Morgan. It’s a misnomer to say the majority of Americans want Trump, or that his direction is what “we” want.

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What were our philosophers doing all that time?
You can start a new thread on that query.

I can think of one place to start, DNC actually speaking with the American people, plus helping Democrats get to know each other and network and grow ideas and talking points.

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It a misnomer to say that the Democrats wanted to win the election!!!

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They do know each other. There are the progressives and then there are the corporate democrats who hold the reigns of power and must destroy the progressive movement within the Democratic party through the DNC

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Doubt is Their Product

You oughta try learning a little history

Here’s a good started to better understand what your billionaires have done, and how you’re simply a useful fool of smoke screen.

Here’s is a good part of the story of how we’ve wound up at this truly monstrous inflection point in human’s final chapter. Would love the next year to prove me wrong.

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The billionaires fund your Democrat Party

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Russian interference. That is the why and that isn’t conspiracy theory, it’s been proven.

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That’s what people who support the Orange Menace want to believe, but truth is, he’s in bed with Putin.

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Its not about wanting to believe. The election landslide result speaks for itself