This bulletin board is still open to responses by registered users, so feel free to chime in.

What I will share here are a few brief posts from various social media discussions.
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1. Harris made a good effort with the brief time she had to launch a campaign. She is a really gifted and likable person and we've not seen the last of her.

2. Biden's decision to relax border security when he became President came back to haunt him.

3. It would have been far better if Biden had bowed out of the race in 2023 to allow time for a Democratic primary season to discern who the best person would be to oppose Trump and the white nationalist movement of his followers. A progressive, bi-racial woman wasn't the best choice, though under the circumstances of Biden's late withdrawal, it was probably the only choice.

- Facebook: 11-6-24
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Trump didn't get as many votes in 2024 as he got in 2020, and Harris got 11 million fewer than Biden did. So those who'd supported Biden didn't show up for Harris, and we need to find out why.

My sense is that this election was largely a referendum on Biden, who had become very unpopular for a number of reasons. Harris was unable to disentangle herself from him and his policies and Trump was able to define her as a Bidenite. If Biden had bowed out sooner, the Democrats could have had a proper primary and prepared better to face Trump, perhaps even selecting a different candidate.

The other issue is Republicans' selection of Trump to be their leader. The Party of law and order seemingly disregarded Trump's legal and moral issues, also ignoring his age and obvious diminishment. For me, that is the most concerning part of this past election, including the tens of millions of voters who also apparently don't think Trump's corrupt ways are a problem.

I wonder if Americans really care about our democracy? That's the burning question I'm left with.

- America, 11-8-24
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I've been active on social media trying to dialogue with both sides about Trump and Democrats since 2015. There are huge divergencies concerning values and priorities, but not without considerable common ground, including a love for American democracy. Republicans don't want autocracy, but most don't view Trump as a "dictator-wannabe," to quote Gen. Milley. Why? The media resources they tune into have minimized Trump's autocratic tendencies, including his post-2020 election shenanigans. Chris Christie tried to sound the alarm during the R primary season, but was booed and ridiculed by the audience and his poll numbers dropped. Other candidates took note, and Trump never appeared on the stage with them to debate, so he could never be confronted about it. Additionally, Biden's DOJ waited too long to bring charges against Trump for J6 and removing documents, so he was never held accountable for his coup attempt. Right-wing media went along with the whole "weaponization of the justice system" talking point Trump kept repeating, and Trump supporters (like those left of center) tend to tune into their own preferred news sources. The country needed those trials to unmask Trump, and Biden needed to bow out earlier to allow for a proper primary.

- America: 11-9-24
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The problem we are saddled with ongoing is that so many people are unable to discern truth from falsehood.

- E.g., I've had conversations with MAGA voters who admitted that they'd have never supported Trump if he really did lie about election fraud in 2020 and really did have a role in what happened on January 6. But when presented with hard evidence, they dismissed it, saying it hadn't been proven, or "innocent 'til proven guilty," or something like that.
So what do we do about that? How do we disentangle from bias, misinformation, disinformation, gaslighting, etc.? That's the biggest challenge going forward.

For now, at least, we should all be relieved that immigrants will no longer be coming after our pets!

- Facebook, 11-11-24

Having followed it a bit, I got the impression that the moral character of the candidates was uppermost in some people's minds, but not in all people's minds.

The deciding factor was whether voters wanted a "rock the boat" presidency or a "don't rock the boat" presidency.

Wealthy celebrities are happy with their lives and favored a "don't rock the boat" president.

But enough people are dissatisfied with their lives that they voted for a president who promised to shake things up.

Thanks, Derek.

I wouldn't characterize Trump as a "don't rock the boat" candidate as unpredictability and disruption are part of his brand. The wealthy certainly didn't want someone who was promising to increase their taxes (Harris), and I'm thinking there was bias against a multi-racial woman as well.

Trump was really the only option for conservative voters, who don't necessarily buy into Trump/MAGA cult dynamics, but who also oppose a liberal political agenda.

No, I mean Trump was the "rock the boat" candidate. People who were dissatisfied with the state of affairs were all in favor of shaking things up, so voted for Trump.

Ah, ok. I'd misunderstood.

Too bad there weren't more people who thought that way.