I don't think it's a mystery at all that the Trump defeat didn't extend down ballot.

[LAS14]

Last edited Mon Nov 9, 2020, 03:54 PM - Edit history (1)

Republicans deserted Trump because he is a horrible person. Almost no one else in the world is as horrible. So it's not strange that they'd desert Trump but not their other GOP reps.


Edit: But I do think down ballot races are our only chance for the future. Check out my idea for how DUers can help.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100214494783

[Big Blue Marble]

1. Most of them are also horrible and need to defeated.

We need to keep fighting until all Trump sycophants are gone too.

[LizBeth]

2. As much as we do not like it and wanted them to cast a full Democratic ballot, that isn't realty.

why would they? The like Republicans as dirty and nasty as we think they are.

[uponit7771]

3. That would be cool if we didn't have earth splitting horrible polling saying the opposite. No outher

... developed country puts up with polling that has been so wrong for so long leaning a majority of the time to the republican party.

What ever polling company that go it as wrong as polling in the US got it would've not been invited back next time.

[BainsBane]

6. It was all, or virtually all,

of the polling companies. There are clearly some serious methodological problems.

[uponit7771]

16. +1, and it wasn't just that they were wrong they were outside of the MOEs to by a wide margin ...

... and for instance with Graham dems sunk millions of dollars into a race that wasn't even close by a mile.

There's something wrong and we need to know what

[wiggs]

7. Right. A factor could be that a lot of straight dem ballots were thrown out or that

a lot of dem voters were suppressed to begin with. That leaves gop voters who couldn't vote for Trump but still voted gop down ballot. that makes sense to me.

We know Russia has messed around in voter rolls in 2016, but didn't see the evidence till later. But they decided not 2020?

As many as 27% of Florida mail in ballots were 'late' and not accepted?

[uponit7771]

17. Right, at minimum the pollsters owe America an explanation ... a truthful one.

[LAS14]

9. I don't know about the polling in other countries, but I think the polling discrepancy...

... here is because a huge chunk of the GOP have turned so anti institutions that they won't support polling companies any more than they support the MSM. They either don't answer their phones in disproportionate numbers, or they lie. They say they're "undecided" (witness Susan Collins in Maine), or they say they're voting Democratic. Just to thumb their noses at the pollsters and the whole structure of our society.

[uponit7771]

18. I do know enough about polling in other countries that they're not this off for this long tilting

... towards one party in their countries.

In other countries those polling firms wouldn't be allowed back and now on both sides of the aisle no one is going to pay attention enough to the polls in the US to mean anything in the next coming elections including the current senate race.

There's no way I'm putting stock in those polls even if we're ahead by 50%

[BainsBane]

4. There may also have been Dems

who voted for Biden but left the rest of the ballot blank.

[LAS14]

10. True. Not a small number, I'd guess. nt

[Buckeye_Democrat]

5. The vote totals in my county hints...

... that some Biden/Harris voters didn't even bother to vote in the other races.

[LAS14]

11. Right. Easy to believe. nt

[H2O Man]

8. Recommended.

It is good, in a sense, that Trump has to deal with the fact that while republicans did well in congressional (House & Senate) races, and for some state houses, the American people rejected him.

I do think there are people who are about as bad as Trump -- nazis, the kkk, proud boys, etc. But he has been the most toxic person in the federal government.

[Happy Hoosier]

12. Also a heard a lot of first time voters who broker for Biden....

Voted only top of ticket. That's an issue.

[Caliman73]

13. The human capacity for self delusion is very strong. It is a survival mechanism.

Trump is a horrible person who had horrible policies that were done intentionally to cause pain and suffering.

Here is the thing, Almost every single Republican politician was either quiet (tacit consent) or were vocal defenders of the policies. You saw several Republican leaders talking about how they did not agree with Trump's tone, or language; but they supported his policies and defended some of his most disgusting attacks and lies.

It is not strange at all. Like I said, we, all of us humans, have the ability to lie to ourselves in order to continue thinking that what we choose, what we support, is morally okay. Liberals, in my opinion, are better at confronting this human trait though still susceptible. Conservatives tend to have more dissonance and therefore their coping mechanisms (denial, projection, etc...) are much stronger.

This is why there are people who were still able to support a party who completely supported a horrible person with horrible policies who did horrible things to people.

[Marius25]

14. All the Republicans who got re-elected enabled Trump

non-stop and let him be so horrible and destroy the country.

It just proves that Republican voters, even the ones that hate Trump, or still awful people because they keep voting for other awful people.

[LAS14]

19. Right. But Republican voters wouldn't see it that way. nt

[GoCubsGo]

15. Massive amounts of gerrymandering had a lot to do with it, as well.

[treestar]

20. People like their own Representatives

it's others states' that send the bad ones. Some probably even just use name recognition. A lot of voters are not informed and we have a hard time understanding that. But they show up to vote as a civic duty. They have no idea what, say, McTurtle is doing because they don't follow the news. But they know his name.