Not the billionaires, Russia, and China.

for the election losses of the above candidates. Other factors caused those losses too, but Fox has severely damaged the Democratic Party. And they are not done yet. To make things worse, the internet has become Fox on steroids.

and some neighbors telling me that he was "not a patriot". Kerry saw the big picture regarding the VietNam war, he fought in it, and he fought to end it. GWB was nowhere to be found or getting high. But they made him out to be the patriot, and I talked to people who believed it.

were the lowest thing I'd ever seen in the realm of politics.

Nor will I ever forget idiots ranting about Hillary being a "terrorist."

Sickening.

and not at all about policy. Same with Kamala Harris. They can't see a woman as an authority figure. So they can't even hear what she's saying and they don't see how that bias hurts all women.

In fact, maybe that is part of the goal, to keep women barefoot & pregnant by disparaging well educated public figures.

We aren't losing like the 70s (other than Carter's one term) and 80s.

It is still about demographics and white voters having voted majority Republican since civil rights.

Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society.

all have self driving solar powered flying cars by now. Republicans always set us back.

Never forget that several hundred thousand legally cast ballots form the largest and most heavily democratic voting counties in Florida sit uncounted in the Florida archives. As someone who spent 15 of my 24 years working on dem election campaigns in Florida, it's beyond all reasonable doubt that Al Gore got the most votes in Florida in addition to nationally. It was the corrupt repug Rehnquist 5 who appointed Bush against the will of the people. The pro Bush media still refuses to tell this important story.

With rural internet services. He was a fierce advocate who recognized the importance.

Based on the “I invented the internet” LIE that he never said. The playbook is obvious; the GOP makes up lies and rumours about their opposition and the media faithfully repeats them as fact. Look at just the other day; after the horror in NO tsf goes on his media platform and blames open borders, immigrants, Biden; whatever comes into his sick mind, and within hours his followers are all over Fox, CNN, whatever spreading these lies even as the truth comes out in complete contradiction to this narrative. X and “Truth” Social are the new Drudge report, and the media is still doing what it did back in the 90’s.

I despair for your country; what chance does the truth and decency have in this sea of lies and corruption?

My own life, as some who is intentionally oppressed by the system, would be massively improved. My guess is millions of our lives would have been completely different in a profoundly positive way.

Current case in point: If Dems had won 2024, I would have likely received:
1) Student loan relief = $60,000 (Pell grant recipient, 12 years of payments made, and predatory interest forcing the total due to go higher not lower every day).
2) Medicare at age 60 (under the proposed Democratic expansion), so health insurance coverage and avoidance of medical debt will be unpreventable now given I have a medically necessary surgery coming up.
3) and my wife would be able to keep her job, likely to get erased when Trash takes office and destroys the govt. Mtg and bill payments versus homelessness.

The first two items alone would have amounted to a well over $100,000.00 financial turnaround for me. Just these two changes! The third, if she is allowed to keep her job, would make the amount above double or triple. So real world consequences. This isn't even calculating the potential positive outcomes from all the other lost presidencies listed above, had they won!

What would I have done with the new financial freedom from just the first two items above?
1) Adopted an older child
2) Started a business I have always wanted to start so I could have income
3) Replaced a 40 year old hydronic boiler
4) Replace a 17 year old car with over 250,000 miles on it

I am telling ya', if Trash does any major thing for everyday Americans (working class, low income retired, and those not employed through not fault of their own, etc) that makes a marked financial difference in all of our lives, the Dems will never see the light of day again. Luckily for us Dems, the American Fascist party won't do one thing to help the 99%.

More than a handful of centrist/moderate/conservative Democratic House and/or Senate members opposed even the much lower 10K/20K USD forgiveness that Biden tried to do (and was struck down by SCOTUS).

Many here on DU were vehemently against even those lower amounts, let alone 60K USD.

I highly doubt 60K USD per person across the board debt cancellation would pass even a Democratic controlled House and Senate.

Were you referring to the 20 to 25 years (depending on loan types) forgiveness after those thresholds are met via IDR?

And the Supreme Court had not overstepped their bounds we would probably be living in a different world today. No doubt without the orange psycho in charge.

The Brooks Brothers riot paved the way for Trump's January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. capitol.

during the Florida dispute. He offered to stop the lawsuits his campaign had filed under Florida election law if Bush would agree to count all of the uncounted Florida votes. It was Bush who refused to do so because he knew he would lose if all of the uncounted votes were counted. Bus was well aware that the uncounted votes were located in the largest and most heavily democratic voting counties in Florida. Bush was a total coward who could not accept the will of the people. Then he ran to his father's repug cronies on the repug controlled SCOTUS who stopped the legal Florida vote count in order to install Bush and kill American democracy. Let's also not forget the all out war that the pro Bush/rpro repug media waged against Al Gore either while they portrayed Bush as do no wrong BTW, 15 of my 24 years spent working on dem election campaigns were spent in Florida. It's women and the environment who are now paying the highest price. for what Bush and the repug controlled SCOTUS did in Florida in 2000.

What he should’ve done, was demanded a full recount immediately and not offered anything. Lawsuits should’ve been started against whatever W tried to do as well. He got very bad legal advice..

15 of my 24 years spent working on dem election campaigns were spent in Florida. I actually worked under the election laws that were on the books in 2000. Florida election law in 2000 did not allow for a statewide count of the votes in statewide elections. This was changed from what happened in 1876 where the votes were counted in Tallahassee and the repug controlled state canvassing board then threw out enough votes of democrats to change the outcome of the 1876 Presidential election and steal that election. It was after the repug theft of the 1876 Presidential election that Florida election law was changed to give the counties the authority to count the votes and all candidates running statewide were given the right to challenge the vote counts in any counties where they disputed the vote totals. The actually Gore campaign followed Florida election law to the letter by filing the legal challenges in the counties where there were the most uncounted votes. The counties where the vote challenges were filed turned out to be the largest and most heavily democratic voting counties in Florida. Al Gore's offer to agree to a statewide count of the uncounted votes in exchange for dropping the lawsuits was an effort to expose bushthief's real goal of not counting all of the votes. Bushthief, got the repug Rehnquist 5 to do his dirty work for him.

I will have to revisit it again, and get back to you on this. I’ll take your word for it. My brother is sure that there should’ve been a state wide full recount at the time and it wasn’t done, because Gore had terrible lawyers.

I'm curious to know if your brother has any experience working on election campaigns in Florida before the 2000 election? The reason I ask is because II actually spent 15 years working on election campaigns in Florida under the election laws that were on the books in Florida in 2000 and I know those election laws well do to my personal experience of working on Florida election campaigns. I also used to know a couple of the Gore 2000 campaign's local Florida attorneys and I can tell you that they had decades of Florida election campaign and Florida election law experience. . In 2000, the 67 Florida counties handled the counting of the ballots. This change was made after the 1876 Presidential election that the repugs stole in Florida. In 1876, all ballots were sent to Tallahassee and then counted in Tallahassee. It was the repug controlled state canvassing board that threw out enough votes of democrats hat changed the outcome of that election in Florida as well as then nationally. in favor of repug Rutherford Hayes The reform put in place after the 1876 election was to have the counties count the ballots where the votes had actually been cast and to prevent the vote throwing out that had happened in Tallahassee in 1876 It wasn't enough in 2000 thanks to the corrupt Jeb Bush/Katherine Harris anti-democracy cabal. There was no statewide count in Florida election law ion the books in 2000 because of the election law reforms put in place after 1876. Candidate's running statewide were given the right to challenge the vote totals in the counties where the votes had been cast and counted that they disagreed with. This is exactly what the Gore campaign did because not all of the votes had been counted. The Bush campaign had the same right to file vote challenges with the counties but they chose not to because they knew that most of the uncounted votes were located in the largest and most heavily democratic counties in Florida. The Bush campaign was desperate to prevent those uncounted votes from being counted because they knew Bush would loose if all of the uncounted ballots were counted. After the Florida Supreme Court ruled to count the uncounted ballots as Florida election law clearly required, Bush went running to his father's cronies on the repug controlled SCOTUS and they did his dirty work for him and stopped the legal Florida vote count and installed Bush. These are the actual facts and the actual election law about the 2000 Presidential election in Florida.

I have a zillion things to do and I am not in good health. I will have him read this and see what he thinks. Thank you for your input. 😀

working on election campaigns when I lived in Florida. I'm sorry that your health is not good. I hope it gets better very soon. Again, does your brother have any personal experience of working on election campaigns in Florida like I do? You've never answered this question so that's why I'm asking it again.

No, he has not worked in election campaigns, does that mean he has no right to comment or to have an opinion iyo? You don't seem interested in what he thinks so I won't continue with this or waste more time on it. Ultimately the sc usurped their power and they were allowed to which is a large reason why we are here today. Take care. 😁

Thanks for answering my question. It was actually very obvious to me from your original post that your brother has no experience working on election campaigns in Florida and has no knowledge of Florida election law as it was in 2000. Your brother's claim that there should have been a statewide count of the uncounted votes and that it was the fault of Al Gore's lawyers that there wasn't a statewide vote count is entirely false. Again, your brother has no knowledge of the fact that actual Florida election law in 2000 did not allow for a statewide count of the uncounted votes. It was the 67 Florida counties who had the authority to count the votes in 2000. All candidates running statewide in 2000 had the right to challenge the vote counts in the counties where they disagreed with the vote totals. This is what the Gore campaign did. The Bush campaign had the same right to file vote count challenges with the counties but they chose not to because they knew that most of the uncounted votes were located in the largest and most heavily democratic voting counties. I challenged your original post because of the totally false claim made by your brother. My goal is to prevent the continued spreading of misinformation about the Bush campaign's theft of the 2000 election that wrongly blames Al Gore for what the Bush campaign did and that's also not based on Florida election law as it was in 2000. It's not possible for someone who has never lived in Florida and worked on election campaigns there to know more than someone with 15 years of experience living in Florida, working on Florida election campaigns and knowing Florida election law.

As I said, I’m not really interested in continuing this discussion right now I have a gazillion things going on in my life. You’re not interested in my brother’s opinion so why continue this?

Your brother doesn't know what Florida election law in 2000 was. His claim that Florida election law in 2000 allowed for a statewide count of the uncounted votes is a false claim about Florida election law. I know what Florida election law was in 2000 because I worked under that Florida election law for 15 years. Your brother has no such experience and is spreading misinformation about Florida election law in 2000. That's why I'm challenging your posts. This issue isn't about opinion, it's about actual facts again, Florida election law did not allow for a statewide count of the uncounted votes. In 2000, Florida election law gave the responsibility for counting the votes to Florida's 67 counties. This is an actual fact that your brother doesn't understand because he's never lived in Florida and worked on election campaigns there like I have so he has no idea what Florida election law was in 2000. Again, this is a fact not an opinion..

If given the choice, I'd take Dole, McCain, or Romney over W Bush or Trump any day.

I meant to sat the ones that took office.

It so would be a different, (highly probable) better USA & world!
😔

There's an alternate parallel timeline where Gore, Hillary and Kamala did win...

Perhaps tempted to stay, but I'd probably miss my family, and friends too much!

I actually wrote for myself a science fiction story about 3 friends (based on me and a couple friends) who go to visit DC. They unknowingly cross over into a parallel Earth where RFK became President then later on Julian Bond, Ann Richards, and ? who else.
I think this was during W's admin.

Clinton wasn't President but he was World Secretary for the USA.

This has always been my theory for the 2000 election. Should not have been close.

It's why it's so rare in US history.

The pro Bush media waged an all out war against Al Gore because they viewed the internet as a threat to their power base combined with Nader making it possible with his big no differences lie and repug financial help making it possible for Bush to get close enough in Florida. Then the Jeb/Harris cabal illegally removing more than 50,000 legally registered mostly African American democrats from Florida's voting rolls in 1999 and 2000 combined with refusing to follow Florida election law and count the uncounted votes as the law required in addition to numerous other violations of Florida election law is what really happened. 15 of my 24 years spent working on dem election campaigns were spent in Florida.

YES.

I will never get over the 2000 election. What a criminal and cruel result.

It's easy for me to look back on all those elections. I can see how we lost them. We shouldn't have. We simply punted when we should have gone for the conversion.

And we keep right on doing that, thinking each time that we can sacrifice the "good" if we can't get the "perfect." I don't know if we'll ever learn.

It was the pro repug media who made no bones that they were supporting Bush and did so by trashing Al Gore at every turn while they lionized Bush. Let's also not forget closet repug Nader and the corrupt reug controlled Rehnquist 5.