The election: I believe this will be the number one thing Americans will vote for this November.

[shockey80]

Normalcy. The American people are exhausted and are becoming more so everyday. They are going to vote for change, normalcy. Woman and African Americans are going to vote in large numbers this election against Trump.

Yes, Trumps hardcore base will vote for him even if they are dying by the virus, however thousands of Trump voters are not hardcore. Some of them voted for Obama. Many people in 2016 hated Clinton, including Democrats and she lost the election because democrats stayed home in key states. That's not going to happen this time.

I agree with many people here, Trump and the Republicans are going to cheat every way they can. That is a major problem. That is something that cannot be allowed to happen.

The state I will be watching closely leading up to the election is Florida. Trump beat Clinton by a small margin in 2016. If Biden wins Florida, in my opinion that will be game over for Trump.

[Bayard]

1. Agreed

We are sick of being stressed out constantly, and that was before the plague even hit.

I predict even Putin can't cheat us out of a Biden landslide.

[Phoenix61]

2. I believe normalcy was one of the reasons

Carter won. He was just such a nice, down to earth, kind of person. The country was tired of all the drama. I think we will be in much the same place come November. I think progressive ideals will be pursued but not in a hair on fire kind of way.

[if..fish..had..wings]

3. Really?

Crowds at the airport will stop the Muslim ban.
Didn't.

The women's march will stop the misogyny.
Didn't

Protests will stop the kids in cages.
Didn't

Mueller will put him away.
Didn't

Impeachment and removal.
Didn't

Ennui will beat him in the election.
Won't

The rot at the heart of the American polity is much deeper. The right wants to flip off the arrogant liberals who have humiliated them for decades and will destroy the country in order to do so. They do not care that Trump lies and cheats. He's "owning" the libs.

The right politicians simply no longer care to hide their hatred of Democracy and of the liberal ideas of allowing women and blacks to vote. They want to limit voting so that they can continue to dismantle democracy so that they can continue to enrich themselves and their friends.

"They" want to own the libtards and they are succeeding because we are clueless on how to deal with almost half the country that really wants to destroy the country. They believe that if you return blacks to slavery, strip women of the vote, build walls at the borders and stop having any interactions with the outside world, retreating to a caveman existence, that they will be better off than they are now.

We do not know what to do. They will not listen to reason. They will not acknowledge their own inconsistency. They seem to be brainless or just evil or both. Do we get guns and fight them? Do we vote them out of office?

Do not be mistaken about how serious they are at keeping the country at the level Trump has taken it. When they say they will get their guns and fight if Trump loses, they mean it.

Do not forget, they actually believe that the virus is a hoax. Trump actually said that the Dems blaming him was a "hoax" not that the virus itself was, but both sides misunderstood. His people think this is all a deep state conspiracy. The entire fucking planet is conspiring to get them.

This is paranoia very deeply seated, and Trump is their savior, the only one who can keep them from being programmed or drugged or whatever the hell they think is being done to them. They will vote for him and possibly fight for him even if there are millions of dead bodies lying around.

The left's belief that reasonable behavior will win in the end is sad. We are fighting against a guy who could say that he has spoken to the aliens and they are going to help him kill all the liberals as soon as he is reelected and his people would cheer the news! And we think we can simply rely on people being too tired of his exhausting behavior they will vote for normalcy.

God Emperor Trump is saving them from a fate worse than death. The stakes for them are so much higher than they are for us. We have a corrupt gangster in the White House. They have a cosmic battle between Good and Evil that will determine the fate of humanity. We have an idiotic, misogynistic TV star living some sort of narcissistic fantasy. They have the very existence of the world to fight for.

I would not count on peoples exhaustion driving the election outcome as they are not exhausted, they are empowered and invigorated. We are exhausted and running out of ideas. We did not believe that Trump would win in the first place. Why do we now believe that Trump will not win this November?

[The Magistrate]

4. Well Said, Ma'am, Well Said Indeed

"When conservatives find their views will not prevail in elections, they will not give up their views. They will give up on Democracy."

[Stuart G]

5. ..I totally disagree. Conservatives can believe what they want.

...Elections that are very close, can be messed with. Cheating can go on, and votes can be altered...

..This election will not be close. 65% or more will vote against Trump. Why? He is an obvious incompetent fool, and Trump has killed people. Everyone knows that.
His lies will be out there for all to see. We have them right here at Democratic Underground, and everyone will have them. People get pissed at politicians, and they are voted out. Not by a little, but by a whole lot. That is my opinion. The proof will be seen in November.

[Sunriser13]

8. I hope you're right...

... and I hope the election isn't truly screwed by fear of Covid.

It is a danger to so many of us - and Republicans sure don't want nationwide vote-by-mail; even I'm not completely sure that tampering on a large scale could be prevented.

[Sunriser13]

6. Whew! Scary for sure.

Very well thought out, and scary as hell.

Oh, and by the way - Welcome to DU!

[smirkymonkey]

7. I think you are underestimating how many people in this country truly HATE

Donald Trump and will do anything to get rid of him. Sure, he has an unshakable base, but they are still less than 40% of registered voters, if not less than that. Most people despise him, and that number is growing daily.

[VOX]

11. Agreed. But the tricky part is the perennial swing states.

The usual suspects are: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Like many elections before, those are the states that decide how things will go, since all other states are pretty much locked into their Redness and Blueness. 2000 and 2016 saw the Democratic tickets receive more popular votes, but came up short in the outmoded EC, due to swing states tipping Red.

Whichever candidate carries most of those swing states, therein lies victory.

[VOX]

9. You get it, loud and clear. You should post more often.

You possess an insightful and thoroughly advanced comprehension of the Trumpists’ delusional mindset.

They’re as isolated and insular as any extremist cult members. Measurable, observable, objective reality means nothing to them; same with science, modern medicine, exponential calculations, health insurance risk pools, climate change, etc. They have surrendered their will entirely, and have abandoned any critical thinking skills they may have had at one time (and I’m being generous).

Below is a verbatim post to a friend’s Facebook page. I kept a copy as a diagnostic example of a white male Trump supporter. There are no surprises:

You are educated enough to know why I like [Donald Trump] and in general, the republican party; he stands for what I believe in. No different than why you like Beto or old man Bernie. I want guns, I want diesel trucks, I want capitalism, I want people in society that want to work hard, I don't want to support bottom feeders and bums, I want border security, I want ID's checked at the voting booth, I want less regulation, Christianity is important to me, I want lower taxes, I don't want to pay for planned parenthood. This is of but a very small list. We don't have to agree, that's what great about America but in the end the problem is not Trump.

IF there’s is a somewhat fair, somewhat free election later this year, there is hope that enough electoral-vote-rich swing states will be burned out on Trump, and thus vote Democratic. My optimism is guarded, though; I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump and his handlers work the current rolling meltdown in their favor by postponing or canceling the election. They’re already “buying votes” with “government handouts” at $1200 a pop (the irony!). Every day Trump gets a 2-hour dog-and-pony show— essentially a lengthy campaign ad, while Democrats are off somewhere in isolation with the rest of us.

[Blue_true]

10. I agree that Florida is going to be a bellwether.

And that result will be known by 9pm. If Trump is leading in the actual vote at that point by several hundred thousand votes, he may hang on and win Florida. If Biden is ahead at 9pm, even by a small amount, he wins Florida easily. Trump absolutely needs Florida, Biden doesn't.