It just occurred to me that the abnormally long lines and wait times I saw today may be caused by the social distancing policy. The lines were not compact, several feet between each person in the queue. Long lag between when the front of the line moves and when the back of the line moves. Maybe that explains it.
That's how it was for me earlier today, actually around the same time you mentioned. I got there to vote in person myself and initially was surprised by what appeared to be a very long line, but a lot of it was spaced out like you said (the lady behind me consistently left like 10 feet between us at all times but not everyone was that extreme) and it turned out the line actually moved pretty fast. IDK about any of the others there and didn't talk to anyone else in line but I sure as hell was not part of some "blue wave."
It was hinted by some local source literally an hour or so before his appearance. I have someone there so I can report impressions later about the event, but it wasn't really possible to guess. Where we guessed it might be—a place similar to "The Villages"—was not actually where it ended up taking place. The whole thing was then locked off, reportedly, making it actually impossible to even go there and protest or whatever (in the same way people did, say, when Biden went to Gettysburg).
The event is taking place in Pembroke Pines, which isn't like some small town. Saying "Drive around Pembroke Pines until you find it" is like saying "drive around Eugene, Oregon" or "drive around Providence, Rhode Island." But it didn't matter in the end, because somebody leaked it to a single local source who then sort of reported it.
The reporting on the event beforehand, by the way, was atrocious. It was like every single local article was copy and pasted from a singular circulating memo. The media gets the memo, but the voters are left out in the cold. What a fucking joke of a campaign.
So just to add to this, this is where it took place:
It's really out of the way. I didn't even know this place existed. All along the area around it are residential neighbourhoods without parking availability.
Here's what the place actually looks like from a street view:
You see those gates? They were entirely blocked off with police. The only places to park in the area were inside, which means there was actually no place to park a car and get out to protest/support slow Joe.
There were a half dozen people outside. Four were Biden supporters, two were Trump people. Remember, this is in Broward county—a huge vote sink for Florida democrats. But everything was arranged in such a way that it made it impossible for anyone to show up from either side of the political spectrum. It was like a state secret. I'm convinced they're looking specifically for places where it is difficult for anyone to attend, because they know too many Trump people will show up. I've said it before, but this is absurd. The media is the enemy of the people for allowing the democrats to get away with crap like this.
I'll somewhat disagree here. I think there's parts of the 2016 Trump coalition that didn't quite get what they wanted: the 12% of Bernie voters who went for Trump, the people who wanted Hillary locked up, the ones who were super serious about getting a wall built, and the ones who thought he would drain the swamp by now. I can see some of them being demoralized.
On top of that, I can see some of the "scandals" from his 1st term shaving some margins off his numbers. Being anti-immigration in 2016 was still somewhat respectable; the same position now is OMG KIDS IN CAGES. A lot of his Cabinet and agency picks were bad. Covid has been a mess, and the Big Guy in charge always catches blame for big messes, no matter whose fault it really is. And there's a traditional Republican faction who wants the Army rolling into Portland and Minneapolis to restore order. The one Law & Order move he made caught him flack from Christians who weren't happy about the borrowed Bible photo op.
If you want explicit examples, Ann Coulter was an early supporter but got disillusioned on his immigration policies. Kanye West liked his style and worked on justice reform (which Coulter also hated), then stopped supporting Trump after he "hid" in a bunker during the early riots. You can call these two flakes or controlled opposition, but they personify disapproval and disappointment that non-celebrities also feel.
(No, I don't need the explanations for why those aren't real screw-ups from Trump. I already know them. They don't matter. Some people will believe the explanations and some won't; this is about losing votes on the margins, not about losing an Internet argument.)
The same people who had an emotional reaction against Hillary or for Trump in 2016, are also susceptible to an emotional reaction to any of the things above. I have personally had to talk down Trump supporters who got upset over the "kids in cages thing", they only saw the pictures on the news without the context of the Obama era policies. But I am only one autist; not everyone who reacted that way has a non-lefty politics nerd nearby to explain what's going on.
Baris/Barnes have covered this in the last week, noting the Trump 2020 coalition is somewhat different than the 2016 version. He's an incumbent with a track record now, but he's also the last bulwark against the lunatic Left. He's doing things in government that haven't seemed possible in decades, like re-balancing trade, rejuvenating industry, and getting actual peace deals. Every scandal that loses him some votes can potentially be balanced out by picking up previously skeptical people (like me).
Yes, his actual base, the ones who love his boomer ass and wear MAGA hats while it's a literal risk to their life, haven't abandoned him. They still love him, and they're holding boat parades and car rallies like we've never seen before. I don't know if anything he's done in the last 4 years added to their number, we might just be seeing the same 2016 crowds who aren't allowed to do big rallies so they're spreading out in more visible forms. In any case, they do not represent the entirety of his 2016 coalition; only the most enthusiastic bloc.
When you subtract the disappointed 2016 voters from the 2020 converts, is that enough to win an election? Don't know yet, it's too crazy to tell right now. But those disappointed voters are out there.
Going by his primary numbers, more people were motivated to vote for him in an uncontested primary election than 4 years ago when he was a unknown shitposting troll and everyone else sucked including Ted Cruz and JEB. California's numbers was super surprising given that he has a 1 percent chance of winning this state.
The good thing is that his base is there, if the base gets fucked then he had no chance. It feels like Obama in 2012 where he did lose people but had the loyal nigger vote to get him over the finish line against Mitt Romney.
I get texts for polling and refuse to answer because I know that the answer will be permanently stored somewhere and most likely sold off as well. Even if I thought Biden/Harris was the only thing that could save my life, I wouldn't be so openly supportive of them when it comes to polls.
While I don't think most people go along with that line of reasoning, I know trump supporters irl who simply don't trust anything that is invocative of big tech or mainstream media. Text polls are "big tech" to them.
I got one a couple of days ago from Hiden's campaign. It was from the Democrat party branch of a state where I haven't lived in over three years. Really makes me wonder just what sort of horribly outdated information ol' Sleepy has desperately resorted to.
Going by his primary numbers, more people were motivated to vote for him in an uncontested primary election than 4 years ago when he was a unknown shitposting troll and everyone else sucked including Ted Cruz and JEB. California's numbers was super surprising given that he has a 1 percent chance of winning this state.
They haven't stopped, Thernobitch, they're not as energetic as they were at first but people are still out there starting shit. Whether that indicates that the Dems have reined in whoever they were capable of reining in at all and written off the rest of the nutbars as someone else's problem, or whether the riotards are just getting fatigued, I can't say for sure, but things are not yet calmed the fuck down completely. I'd also wager the media is doing its best to ignore anything that they can possibly get away with ignoring.
I kept Trump's wins from 2016, plus added Minnesota (hypothetically due to citizens being pissed off by Burn Loot Murder), and for shits and giggles Nevada and Washington. Nevada because it's being rated as only leans dem and has been a focus for the Trump campaign, plus Trump has apparently been making gains with Hispanics. And Washington based on the possibility that it may elect a Republican governor in response the mayhem over the summer, and based on incumbent Jay Inslee's deranged performance during the recent debates there, where he proclaimed that riots weren't a problem in Seattle and proclaiming a large portion of the state's voters to be "Trumpians." Kind of call back to Hillary's "basket of deplorables."
I left New Hampshire in the blue due to the fact that the state has consistently been a tease for Republicans, always leaning but ultimately going Democrat. Likewise with New Mexico. In the past 20 years, both of these states have only gone Republican once, and neither in the same election.
I get it doesn't change much, it's more for the symbolism, but honestly Minnesota deserves its fate if it doesn't flip red next month.
Their governor and mayor have delivered total economic ruin to their capital city. Hundreds of millions in debt, effectively a Detroit with worse weather. The only hope they have is to get bailed out by the federal government, and Trump has no incentive to do so. No incentive at all, unless they vote him in and he gets to use MN like a case study in how America First works. If they stay blue? Well then he may as well favour Pittsburgh or, hell maybe Kenosha instead!
Minneapolis' totally self-inflicted decline would be felt for hundreds of miles. It'll suck for most of the state (who are already voting for Trump if 2016 is any indication) but if the city slickers still haven't got the message after their town getting torched, it's a neon sign to the normal people to move their things across Lake Superior or to one of the Dakotas.
Speaking of Kenosha, Kyle's charges got dropped. How's the Biden campaign supposed to respond after producing a video calling Rittenhouse a white supremacist and a domestic terrorist? Is there any use doubling down? The damage has already been done whether they delete the video or not.
So just to add to this, this is where it took place:
View attachment 1660111
It's really out of the way. I didn't even know this place existed. All along the area around it are residential neighbourhoods without parking availability.
Here's what the place actually looks like from a street view:
View attachment 1660113 View attachment 1660115
You see those gates? They were entirely blocked off with police. The only places to park in the area were inside, which means there was actually no place to park a car and get out to protest/support slow Joe.
There were a half dozen people outside. Four were Biden supporters, two were Trump people. Remember, this is in Broward county—a huge vote sink for Florida democrats. But everything was arranged in such a way that it made it impossible for anyone to show up from either side of the political spectrum. It was like a state secret. I'm convinced they're looking specifically for places where it is difficult for anyone to attend, because they know too many Trump people will show up. I've said it before, but this is absurd. The media is the enemy of the people for allowing the democrats to get away with crap like this.
Speaking of Kenosha, Kyle's charges got dropped. How's the Biden campaign supposed to respond after producing a video calling Rittenhouse a white supremacist and a domestic terrorist? Is there any use doubling down? The damage has already been done whether they delete the video or not.
Still, I find it interesting that the one charge that was most likely to stick and would hold up in a non-kangaroo court has been dropped. Makes me think the murder charges will probably be dropped but given the severity of the charges (IIRC, the weapons charge was a misdemeanor) and the political nature of the crime, there is a good chance that the bureaucratic system will take longer to get those charges dropped or it's possible they're waiting for the election to be over with before they fully exonerate him.
Dropping all charges against Kenosha Kyle right now would cause another massive flareup in rioting but if the charges are dropped right after the election, the story's more likely to become background noise against the backdrop of the election and its aftermath
And here is 2008 where Obama broke and currently holds the record for the highest popular vote in the general. However he was up against Hillary. Obama actually cucked Hillary in the popular vote and had over 17,500K total though. I'm sure if Trump was fighting in all 50 primaries in 2020, he would have broken it at the rate he was going which is over 17,000K from a little over 30 primaries.
Republican primaries had a total of 20, 613, 585 votes.
Democratic primaries had a total of 37, 170, 231 votes.
I remember in 2016, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Indiana Senate seats were expected to go blue, but they didn't. New Hampshire was also barely won by the Democrats.
I'm hoping for a repeat of that this election. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.
I get it doesn't change much, it's more for the symbolism, but honestly Minnesota deserves its fate if it doesn't flip red next month.
Their governor and mayor have delivered total economic ruin to their capital city. Hundreds of millions in debt, effectively a Detroit with worse weather. The only hope they have is to get bailed out by the federal government, and Trump has no incentive to do so. No incentive at all, unless they vote him in and he gets to use MN like a case study in how America First works. If they stay blue? Well then he may as well favour Pittsburgh or, hell maybe Kenosha instead!
Minneapolis' totally self-inflicted decline would be felt for hundreds of miles. It'll suck for most of the state (who are already voting for Trump if 2016 is any indication) but if the city slickers still haven't got the message after their town getting torched, it's a neon sign to the normal people to move their things across Lake Superior or to one of the Dakotas.
My prediction for Minnesota is Trump wins the suburbs and much of the normie city vote, along with the expected rural vote. He will not take Hennepin and Ramsey, but many from the just wanna grill crowd have woken up over the summer. The Governor’s Twitter is overrun by people upset about his continued WuFlu restrictions. Mayor Soyboy and the City Council’s are fascinating case studies in attempting to court moderates and radical leftists. They have normies screaming at them about the riots and violent crime rates and the commies screaming at them about not abolishing the police fast enough. My sense is that a decent amount of the moderate normies will break for Trump or refrain from voting altogether. The commies seem to be holding their noses and voting for Biden due to TDS so far. Considering Trump only lost by ~10,000 votes in 2016, he does not need much movement in his favor or disenfranchised Dems to make the difference and flip the state red. Personally, I abstained in 2016 but am enthusiastically on the Trump Train after the riots.
I remember in 2016, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Indiana Senate seats were expected to go blue, but they didn't. New Hampshire was also barely won by the Democrats.
I'm hoping for a repeat of that this election. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.
Trump's best strategy is not to do what Hillary did in 2016 and try to sacrifice white working class voters for cuckolds in the suburbs.
I believe he is doing the right thing, which is to defend what he gained in 2016 and brute force a win through raw turnout. Having now looked at total popular vote totals for the primaries, if the GOP had held primaries for every single state, Trump would have gotten over 20 million votes at the rate he was going. Also would have given a better perspective to the democrats over what juggernaut they are truly up against and the I don't believe the Democrats truly realize that he is the Obama of the GOP.
Basically defend all his states and try to flip Minnesota and New Hampshire and aim for a high ass turnout of over 70 milllion at least. 75 million to be safe and 80 million to be overkill against the Democrats.
