MedEwok wrote:
I reckon in day-to-day life the conflict is not as relevant as the media would have us believe.
The mass media are completely disconnected from reality, not even interested in reality.
The most interesting GA-related media report on the presidential election was the positions expressed to AOPA. Every election AOPA does the same routine, soliciting a statement from the candidates and explaining whatever background they may have in aviation. The candidates teams prepare comprehensive responses discussing their understanding of every aspect of GA, obviously done with the aid of a cookbook but actually pretty impressive in scope and numbers. Somebody spends time writing these things. This time AOPA published it in the monthly magazine exactly as they always do, without comment, but the write up for President Trump had the customary level of detail with lots of facts and figures, while Biden’s section was only something like “no response was received from Vice President Biden’s campaign, after eight weeks”
I am regardless watching for the results of state level propositions with some interest. I’m more interested in property tax than personality. I do hope the Congress remains split so they talk more and do less with the money they’ll get over the next couple of years – I’m very happy not getting all the government I pay for 
Silvaire wrote:
The media are completely disconnected from reality, not even interested in reality.
Well, I guess “Trump and Biden supporters in politically mixed neighbourhood get along nicely, apart from occasional dispute about economic policy” doesn’t make for a good headline which generates lots of clicks and thus income. That is why media organisations from both side of the political divide have a big interest in “stoking the flames”. Sad as that is. But I’m worried that some people who only live in social media echo chambers don’t realize this and take all the hostile rhetoric for real, ultimately leading to violence. That has already happened in the past months!
We don’t know the results of the presidential election yet. However, we already for sure know who lost:
- Data and Analytics! It’s 2020 and almost every prediction of the outcome of the election has still been off by a huge margin!
- Journalism! From a European point of view it is quite unbelievable that even after the election has been decided (read: it is decided we just don’t know the results yet) a significant share of the so called journalists in the major networks still see their role more in campaigning rather than in reporting – on both sides of the house!
- The American people! Whoever will finally turn out as winner, it is very clear that the divide in the population is bigger than ever.
Therefore independent from who will finally turn out as winner – imho it is nothing to celebrate in any case!
Yes, a good summary, Malibuflyer.
But I’m worried that some people who only live in social media echo chambers don’t realize this and take all the hostile rhetoric for real
That is unfortunately a pretty good summary of the “internet society”
It is a phenomenon which isn’t going away anytime soon – because a lot of money is being made on the back of such a “dedicated, committed and attentive” audience.
Whoever will finally turn out as winner, it is very clear that the divide in the population is bigger than ever.
Another way of looking at this is that neither side has managed to dig up anything better than a load of old men, all short of ideas. So what we are seeing is the population of the US trying to choose between two piles of mouldy biscuit crumbs.
Someone with the charisma of JFK, if present today (and let’s forget that actually JFK was not a succesful president, by any measure, on either domestic policy or foreign policy, and is held in such a regard mainly because he got shot quite early on, thus largely maintaining his reputation) would have totally cleaned up.
You see this problem in politics everywhere. There are good people out there but they aren’t interested in running for high office, because it is such a crappy job. In fact right now the smartest ones are not running for any office because CV19 is such an intractable domestic issue that most politicians in jobs today will not survive the fallout and the reckoning and recriminations which will come in 2021.
All elections are victories for the people, except when they are stolen from him (like when a leading contender is destroyed by an orchestrated campaign weeks before the election).
Journalism died when most journalists decided that good journalism = leading an agenda.
The last thing I want is charismatic politician/leaders, and my life would be boring if I lived in a ‘politicians with personality’ led monoculture. There are some interesting ideas that come along, but also lots of people and ideas that I think are brainless and couldn’t care less about, as long as they don’t affect me much. A marketplace of ideas supported by productive business works fine for me.
I think it’s amazing and encouraging how people in the US continue to think for themselves, and not be orchestrated. The sophomoric media doesn’t share my view on that as they would like to be more powerful, and wealthier. I don’t think they’re getting anywhere with that initiative – they are increasingly desperate and obsolete.
In my neighborhood we have the “neighborhood witch” (you know the type) with her left wing election posters and just down the street we have the guy with the “Democrats = Socialism = Slavery” sign in his front garden, hand made for the election, Everybody gets along OK, except my wife and I try to avoid the neighborhood witch for reasons unrelated to her politics, and more to do with her views on dogs being kept on a 6 inch leash.
Peter wrote:
Someone with the charisma of JFK,
I don’t agree that the problem is charisma (or the lack thereof). The problem in my opinion is attitude!
Presidential systems are by definition “winner takes it all” systems – independent of how the election system is crafted – as there’s only one president. That inevitably leads to the sad truth, that in close votes almost half of the population actually loses the vote and is not at all represented in the presidency. (so much to: The entire population is a winner in any democratic election)
Therefore it is a necessary condition for presidential systems to work properly in our times, that whoever wins the election does not have the attitude of only representing their voters, but really representing the entire country – and that also includes the opposition.
Any president that has been elected by a lets say 52/48 results and then shows the attitude “the voter decided for my program and against the program of my opponent” is doomed to fail. Unfortunately in the US both sides of the house show exactly this attitude.
Malibuflyer wrote:
Presidential systems are by definition “winner takes it all” systems – independent of how the election system is crafted – as there’s only one president.
And one House of Representatives, one Senate, one Supreme Court and fifty independently funded state governments.
Who will be the functional POTUS if, as I predict, either Biden or Trump wins? Most, if not all, of the other candidates have already conceded.
