The ability to tickle the darkest recesses of the white American’s lizard brain

Kos of Daily Kos explored two aspects of this month’s election:

1) Impeached sore loser Donald Trump got 10 million more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016. Given some losses among suburban college-educated white women and other never-Trumpers, that means that over 10 million new people took a look at Trump’s last four years and thought, “Yeah, that’s the guy that’s getting me out to cast my first vote.” 2) The polls once again undercounted Republican support, like in 2016. Yet in 2018 and 2019, the polls were fine. So what gives?

Kos has a theory about the Hidden Deplorable. That’s quite different from the “shy Trump voter” who lied about their preferred candidates to pollsters. They’re not “shy.” But they didn’t turn out when the nasty guy wasn’t on the ballot, not even when the nasty guy begged. That allowed Democrats to be elected governor of Kentucky and Louisiana. Kos describes these people as not Republican, not even conservative. They live in an area with dim job prospects. Corporations abandoned them for cheap overseas labor. Government is not improving their lives. Cities seem like walled gardens – unaffordable, yet where the jobs are. They’ve been left behind. They have an attitude of F--- everybody. Then the nasty guy showed up in 2016 speaking their language – that their lives suck because all that gov’t money is going to “illegals” and “thugs” in the cities.

He puts uppity Black and brown people and women in their place. He offers them hope that, if he can’t improve their lives, that at least he’ll hurt all those others.

One person lamented of the nasty guy, “I thought he was going to do good things. He’s not hurting the people he needs to be hurting.” Wrote Kos:

Their lives suck, but Trump was supposed to be bringing everyone else down to their level. … And then he did. He put brown kids in cages. He sent federal troops against the Black Lives Matter “mobs.” He nominated judges hostile to a woman’s right to have agency over her body. And above else? He destroyed. He tore s--- down. Norms, traditions, entire agencies.

And in 2020 he didn’t even offer hope of economic revival. “Instead, he was the personification of their rage made real, in the Oval Office itself.” What does that mean for the Senate runoff elections in Georgia? The nasty guy won’t be on the ballot. Because he isn’t there will these people not vote? Kos won’t hazard a prediction.

Hillary Clinton didn’t lose because she was a terrible candidate, she lost because she faced a political prodigy, someone whose ability to tickle the darkest recesses of the white American’s lizard brain is unparalleled.

As for why they don’t show up on the polls, it’s not that they lie to pollsters. More likely they refuse to participate. Mark Sumner of Kos reported the latest from Scott Atlas, the current head of the nasty guy’s coronavirus task force. He seems intent on making sure the virus spreads more widely. Atlas suggested families should hold big, festive Thanksgiving meals, because “for many people this is their last Thanksgiving.” Is that a prediction or a threat? Yeah, in this time of rocketing cases it’s a way to get more people infected. Sumner wrote:

Don’t think of it as a holiday. Think of it as a culling of the weak. And pass the cranberries, please.

Patrick Murray, in Alberta, Canada, tweeted a graph of the dramatic rise in COVID-19 cases after the Canadian Thanksgiving about five weeks ago. Ed Yong of The Atlantic tweeted:

Here's a thing I want everyone to understand. There is a roughly 12-day lag between rising cases and rising hospitalizations. So the 1.5 million (!!!) confirmed cases from the last 2 weeks have not yet factored into stories about packed emergency rooms.

Sumner has been writing about the virus since at least January, before it came ashore here. Though he’s not a doctor, he understands well what the virus has been doing, what it means, and how we can protect ourselves. He strongly recommends not traveling for Thanksgiving. There is a vaccine on the way. But it’s not here yet. Thanksgiving for me this year will be really quiet. And lonely. Beth Malicki, anchor and managing editor for KCRG TV in Cedar Rapids and Dubuque, Iowa, tweeted:

I get a LOT of tips about "hospital X is full... why aren't you reporting that?" It's not for lack of trying. I reach out to the hospitals and their PR people, very nicely, refuse to give details about how many beds there are, how many are occupied, etc. Now we know why. There's literally a document called a "Regional Hospital Survey." It's a snapshot of hospital capacity, with DETAILS I WANT. Hospitals update it DAILY and send it to the county public health department. The state also has access to this document. But the public can't see it. So what are we doing @KCRG? We're reaching out to as many hospitals as we can, frequently, asking the questions we could get from this single document. We are annoying as heck- so be it. Occasionally they share info at a presser. But remember, Linn Co hasn't held one since Oct.

Joe Biden is doing a great deal to be ready to be president on January 20. He’s planning around what the nasty guy administration isn’t giving him. Even so, as Sumner reported, Biden is getting annoyed. He’s now talking about what he needs from the nasty guy, what he isn’t getting, and why it is vitally important. Good that Biden is doing it this way. Joan McCarter of Kos reported the latest action in the nasty guy’s court cases trying to reverse the election. The tally is now 1-24. The nasty guy is getting annoyed with his lawyers. Yeah, about the losses, but also because they’re not getting themselves on various TV programs to talk about their baseless claims. So he’s putting Rudy Giuliani in charge. He’ll focus more on getting on TV while telling his boss there’s still a chance.

So rather than trying to win in court with valid cases, the plan now seems to be riling up the base by blanketing right-wing media with allies. If they can't win in the courts, they'll try to win by intimidation, like the campaign led by Sen. Lindsey Graham to pressure Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to throw out legal ballots. Raffensperger reports not just pressure from Graham, but death threats against him and his wife. In other words, Trump's reverting to form, going to what's been working for him so far: enraging his army of deplorables. The good news is that it's not a winning strategy to get to the Supreme Court, or to get the court on his side. The bad news is that it's very dangerous for the country.

Leah McElrath quoted a couple tweets. The first is from Ben Jacobs:

Trump's Nevada electors, including the chair of the Nevada Republican Party, are suing to either have Trump declared the winner of Nevada or to have the presidential election in the state annulled entirely.

The second is from Annie Grayer of CNN.

Wayne County, Michigan, which includes Detroit and is the largest county in the state, did not certify its election results by the deadline tonight bc it is locked in a 2-2 vote. Now the State Board of Canvassers has to step in. Each board is made up of 2 Dems and 2 GOP.

I live in Wayne County. Davide Neiwert of Kos reported on the FBI statistics on bias motivated crimes in 2019. They up by about 3% from 2018 levels that are already elevated since the nasty guy’s election. It’s the deadliest year on record for hate crimes. But there is another disturbing aspect. Reporting these crimes to the FBI is voluntary. And the participation rate in reporting is down. Only about 14%, 2,000 out of 15,000, law enforcement agencies reported hate crimes. Instead of the reported numbers of 6,000 to 8,000, experts estimate the actual number of hate crimes is more likely 50,000. One reason for the lack of reporting is that police, already conservative, are also becoming partisan. They show open hostility to groups such as Black Lives Matter. Also, in about ¾ of the states police academies do not have to train how to identify and investigate hate crimes. Most police agencies don’t provide such training to their officers. Charles Koch, who, with his brother, used their oil billions to create a huge and powerfully influential conservative network, wants a do-over. He told the Wall Street Journal his partisanship was a mistake. PvtJarHead of the Kos community is not impressed. It must be he’s trying to sell his new book and this shtick is a make him more palatable to TV shows where he can spout his usual dogma.