Yes, because after all if the Beer Hall Putsch taught us anything, it’s that we should simply let the leaders of insurrections go without any accountability for their actions. My god...
Further down in the thread Yascha falls into the same trap as lots of “free thinkers” and “public intellectuals” in thinking that if they’re being #owned by the Liberal Mob online then they must be right, but really this is usually just a huge tell that someone is obtuse
Last thought, then going back offline: The argument that “we” (democracy? people?) “survived” Trump is both debatable and hardly the point, since the damage he has done literally led to an insurrection. (It’s also a poor choice of words, given covid-19.)
I don't see Congress is at all addressing what happened today. Trumpism, Republican power ideology, and our electoral institutions brought us to this point, and there doesn't seem to be any reckoning with that (I'm mainly talking about from the GOP side).
Sure, Romney, Graham, and some others have objected to the anti-certification nefariousness, but that's not going to stop what's really threatening American democracy right now.
Saying "enough is enough" in no way repairs years of perpetuating conspiracy theories about fraud and otherwise destabilizing democracy. Republican lawmakers need to reckon with what they've created (violent, anti-democratic mobs) or it's all for naught.
It's early in GA, but the NYT needles are pretty good. Plus: AP Votecast has Trump's approval in GA down since Nov; polls were good in the general; and the $2k checks and Trump call could be big factors. I'm happy if I'm a Dem, but Atlanta results could tip the scales.
It is worth noting that the average shift since November in counties that are 100% reporting (per the NYT) is about two percentage points toward Democrats. I'm not expecting Ossoff/Warnock to win by _that_ much, but directionally this is often a good indicator.
Not only is the statistical analysis that Paxton relies on incomprehensibly misspecified, but the author actually explains *why* it's wrong (later votes came from cities, competitive battleground metros are less latino) IN THE CONCLUSION OF HIS STATEMENTS
Our latest YouGov/The Economist poll has a host of troubling findings about public confidence in the election.
Most shocking is that 86% of Trump voters say that Biden "did not legitimately win the election." 73% say that we'll "never know the real outcome of this election."
We also see the usual patterns in attitudes about mail-in voting and fraud. 88% of Trump voters say they believe that "illegal immigrants voted fraudulently in 2016 and tried again in 2020," for ex, and 90% believed that "mail ballots are being manipulated to favor Joe Biden."
Republicans are also exhibiting some... concerning... attitudes about the franchise, with 46% saying that "some people are not smart enough to vote" (27% among Dems) and 43% saying that people should have to pass a test before voting (15% for Dems).
It is weird that so many people who rely on public polling for their jobs are instantly willing to trash the industry with damaging statements like these, instead of trying to calmly and transparently explain what went wrong and work toward better polls in the future.
Like, if part of the answer to "why aren't people taking surveys?" is "because people in the media trash them and say they are biased and aren't good for anything," then it's weird that people who know better would actively participate in the industry's demise