The straight answer is that I do not know why there was no blue wave. I didn't expect one, but I suspect it was down to polling organisations not getting through to Trump supporters and missing the latent level of support he had, to the effectiveness of the 'socialist' attacks on Biden/Harris (if only!) especially with red blue collar white men and Cuban Latinos in Florida, to the Democrat electoral demobilisation caused by Covid, and to a lack of enthusiasm for Biden. He was the 'not Trump' candidate - which is a negative not a positive pitch.
The underlying anger in the USA, UK, eastern Europe and other places that leads so many people to follow right wing populist demagogues is a feature of our times. I have no time for Gluey or Organ or the other conspiracy theorist nutters many of them using the Weimar Republic SA/Nazi playbook), but there is a real and deep alienation that has led to Trump, Orban, Brexit etc across swathes of north and south America and Europe. It has a lot in common with the nationalism of Putin and the ethno/religious extremism of Netanyahu. It hasn't gone away. If Biden and Harris think they can just rewind the clock to a more 'normalised' state that existed before Trump they don't understand what is going on. At the same time a massive movement of grass roots anti-racist organisations have emerged in the USA - inspired in part by Bernie Sanders - for whom socialism is not a dirty word and who have a series of policy objectives they want the new president to tackle - against systemic racism, around climate change, a new green deal etc. Many of those issues will be difficult for Biden whatever he says now.
Trump defeated is a massive victory - but I am not going to get carried away by any illusions about Biden. He will not change too much from earlier versions, even if he has adopted a slightly more radical programme for this election. The euphoria is mainly about symbolism and tone - major policy advances will be a real bonus.
I have been trawling a lot of blogs and news sites in recent days. The Guardian has come up with some of the most interesting stuff (including a June piece on what defunding the police really means - not how it is usually presented):
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...t-does-it-mean
Ocasio-Cortez on the weakness of the Democrat party machine that contributed to blue wave failure:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...mocratic-party
And Gabriel Byrne (in a review article/interview about his autobiography) as a detached observer on the election and the disconnect between liberal politics and the underlying rage:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/202...-going-to-hell
Where are the Trump gang? Has it come yet? How has the CTH called Pensylvania? Are they all under their rocks?
Originally Posted by jon1959
Isn't that the crux of the issue though? The phrase wasn't "Reform the Police" or "Revamp the Police" but defund them. I would think that lots of people would look at George Floyd's last moments and think that US policing is a distortion of what they want.I have been trawling a lot of blogs and news sites in recent days. The Guardian has come up with some of the most interesting stuff (including a June piece on what defunding the police really means - not how it is usually presented):
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