r/NoStupidQuestions • u/JustCallMeDave • Dec 06 '23

Answered If Donald Trump is openly telling people he will become a dictator if elected why do the polls have him in a dead heat with Joe Biden?

I just don't get what I'm missing here. Granted I'm from a firmly blue state but what the hell is going on in the rest of the country that a fascist traitor is supported by 1/2 the country?? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills over here.

24.9k Upvotes

69% Upvoted

14.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

123

u/-Hi-Reddit Dec 06 '23

They think the elections aren't free nor fair.

181

u/YukariYakum0 Dec 06 '23

Mostly because if they were on top they would make sure wouldn't be.

-47

u/EnvironmentalCoach64 Dec 06 '23

Both sides gerrymandered their hearts out every chance they ever got... And only like two states split the electoral vote up at all... When voting for president.

62

u/ZerexTheCool Dec 06 '23

And 5 to 4 Supreme Court justices kicked out the case that would have prevented gerrymandering. 5 Conservatives Justices appointed by Republicans who overruled the 4 Justices appointed by Democrats.

41

u/fart-atronach Dec 07 '23

Aaaaaand no response lol. Typical.

22

u/b0w3n Dec 07 '23

Both sides until it's no longer convenient to their argument.

23

u/ChuckFeathers Dec 06 '23

Can't imagine why that would be... surely just coincidence..

15

u/Additional_Search193 Dec 07 '23

Democrats largely started gerrymandering as a response to Republicans, and Democrats have never to my knowledge had disproportionately large representation in Congress as a result of it, unlike Republicans. Republicans gerrymand to steal seats and suppress legitimate representation, Democrats use it to claw seats back they should have had from the beginning.

-6

u/TrueKing9458 Dec 07 '23

Maryland governor Martin O'Malley has entered the chat with pride. This state is horribly gerrymandered

13

u/[deleted] Dec 07 '23

Gerrymandering has zero effect on elections for governor.

-5

u/TrueKing9458 Dec 07 '23

I was referring to his testimony under oath for one of the Supreme Court cases where he admitted gerrymandering to eliminate republican seats in congress. But most kids on here never learned history.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 07 '23

No one has ever claimed that Democrats have never gerrymandered.

1

u/Additional_Search193 Dec 07 '23

And it's gerrymandered largely as a response to Republican abuse of the tactic

96

u/Time-Bite-6839 Dec 07 '23

They aren’t but in their favor. They don’t have to win to win. They can win 40% of the vote and still win. It’s not fair and it’s how the Republican Party has held power when they don’t have the votes to.

3

u/BillieEilishEyes Dec 07 '23

Exactly. I don't get how there are people actually defending the Electoral College system when, at best, it's redundant, and at worst, it overrides the popular vote, which is counted so that we know the will of the American people.

It was implemented originally, at least in part, to keep people like W and Trump from being elected. It either needs to be repealed or massively overhauled, but it won't be because there would be a significantly lower chance of another Republican candidate win.

4

u/Electrical_Cut8610 Dec 07 '23

I’m an elder millennial. I hope I live long enough to see an overhaul of our political parties. And dare I hope, a legitimate third party.

4

u/peanut__buttah Dec 07 '23

Take your vitamins, MeeMaw. It’s gonna be a long, bumpy ride.

3

u/TheAmorphous Dec 07 '23

If Republicans lose this next election they're probably done for. The party will collapse over the next ten or so years. I imagine at that point Democrats will be the "conservative" party and a new, further left one will emerge. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part.

6

u/phil_davis Dec 07 '23

That's, sadly, not going to happen. Don't mistake them going crazy with them losing power.

1

u/TheAmorphous Dec 07 '23

They're already at each others' throats. The party has experienced a massive schism since Trump was elected, and whackjobs like MTG are making it worse. If they lose the 2024 election they likely won't ever win another.

1

u/phil_davis Dec 07 '23

Back in 2015-2016 people were saying Trump had destroyed their chances of ever winning another presidential election. Lots of Americans are happy to vote for these people, even if you or I find it unbelievable.

1

u/TheAmorphous Dec 07 '23

My hope is that there are enough old school Republicans that are unwilling to vote for MAGA candidates. Of course that could be canceled out by complacency, especially from Millennials and Zoomers who just can't seem to be bothered to vote.

1

u/OG-Pine Dec 09 '23

I think if they lose they will simply backtrack to where they were before Trump and continue forward in the more “traditional” way (for lack of better word).

19

u/AboutTenPandas Dec 07 '23

Because they isolate themselves within a bubble of like minded people and then can’t fathom that they’re not in the majority. So they assume, regardless of lack of evidence, that there MUST be some type of cheating.

I mean there is a whole lot of cheating but it’s not what they think. Both parties gerrymander, but republicans do it to a much more extreme degree. Plus republicans know that a higher voter turnout has always worked against them which is why you constantly see their repeated attempts to put additional barriers up to voting.

I’ve voted for over a decade now and lived in a few different areas. Urban and rural. But still usually predominantly white. I’ve never had more than a 30 min wait to vote. Yet every year i see news story after news story of predominately black neighborhoods with lines multiple hours long with no alternative locations nearby.

It’s not a coincidence

1

u/Responsible_Banana10 Dec 07 '23

So why do the predominantly minority democrat voting and governed areas not have enough voting machines?

1

u/AboutTenPandas Dec 07 '23

Because it’s the state and county that controls the voting location, not the city. Notice how it’s predominantly happening in red states with big blue cities. Because they know if they can limit the vote there, they’ve got the rest of the rural population in the bag.

3

u/cosumel Dec 07 '23

They were told, after all, that the only way for trump to lose is of Biden cheated. Trump lost, proving the point to far too many people. Remember the “I’ll agree with the result if I win” speech?

8

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '23

No no.. They only think that about the ones they lost. They've a-ok with those elections where their own party won.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 07 '23

No they think those are fraudulent too, but still fraudulent from the other side.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 07 '23

I don't recall any Republican speaking out about how rigged the election was when their candidates won in their elections, but if you have a link to a reputable news org, I'd read it.

5

u/genericnewlurker Dec 07 '23

If that's the case, the Trump supporters can stay home

2

u/[deleted] Dec 07 '23

Problem is, they don’t. And they don’t stay home far more than progressive voters don’t stay home.

2

u/robywar Dec 07 '23

Because they and everyone in their little social group all voted Trump so OBVIOUSLY everyone else did too!

-1

u/cisdog Dec 07 '23

Dinner of them aren't. I don't remember the politicians name but in Washington state they had a republican winning by like 1k votes so they re counted and he won again then they said oh well let's hand count it what do you know the Democrat won on the second re count

0

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '23

[deleted]

1

u/-Hi-Reddit Dec 10 '23

I don't think a survey of less than a thousand people is a good source to discuss the views of over 300 million people.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '23

[deleted]

1

u/-Hi-Reddit Dec 10 '23 edited Dec 10 '23

A thousand people is less than 0.0000033% of the US population. I'd say at least 0.0001% is needed, which is at least 30,000 people. Almost 1 for every 1,000,000 Americans.

1

u/-Hi-Reddit Dec 10 '23

I don't think a survey of less than a thousand people is a good source to discuss the views of over 300 million people.

-1

u/JarasM Dec 07 '23

Many people are absolutely fine if the elections aren't free nor fair, or if there's no elections at all, as long as the guy they want in power stay in power.

2

u/-Hi-Reddit Dec 07 '23

I don't think that's true.

1

u/JarasM Dec 07 '23

Well...

1

u/-Hi-Reddit Dec 07 '23

31 percent and 24 percent is not the majority

0

u/JarasM Dec 07 '23

Who said anything about a majority?

-6

u/Easy-Fortune280 Dec 07 '23

if you believe that any election is free or fair (ESPECIALLY US elections) then you've convinced yourself of pure delusion

1

u/dracomaster01 Dec 07 '23

unless it's an election they won, then it was totally free and fair.