2024 U.S. presidential election

Ah, shit, here we go again.

“”A general Dissolution of Principles & Manners will more surely overthrow the Liberties of America than the whole Force of the Common Enemy. While the People are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their Virtue they will be ready to surrender their Liberties to the first external or internal Invader... [T]he Necessity of supporting the Education of our Country must be strongly impressd...

—American Founding Father Samuel Adams, 12 February 1779.

God, guns, and freedom U.S. Politics

Starting arguments over Thanksgiving dinner

Bush Derangement Syndrome Blue Dog Democrats Values Voter Summit Paul LePage Newt Gingrich A. Philip Randolph Tom Cotton

Persons of interest

Scooter Libby James Buchanan Patrick Henry George Romney Henry Cabot Lodge Fred Karger v - t - e

The 2024 United States presidential election was held on November 5, 2024, and served as a generation-defining choice for Americans between potentially changing the country for the better through a former prosecutor, or having four more years of a convicted felon with dementia. They chose poorly.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump seemed to be locked in a tough stalemate, but Trump came out as the decisive victor, ensuring the nation will be right back to where it ended up in 2020, if not worse this time. With an extraordinarily conservative Supreme Court, Trump openly threatening far more overt displays of authoritarianism than he did before, and the looming threat of Project 2025 on the horizon, the consequences that this second term will have on democracy and future generations of Americans will be catastrophic if not irreversible, even in the best-case scenario that the damage from this term is mitigated as much as possible^{[citation NOT needed]}.

That said, it wasn't a total wipe. The Senate and House actually has been deadlocked by a razor-thin majority, Project 2025 and Trump both remain staunchly unpopular with most Americans, and due to the Twenty-second Amendment making this Trump's last term on top of his heavily-ailing health, it is highly unlikely that Trump will have a third term to further ruin this country with (not that this will stop his cult from trying regardless). There were some additional positive signs of progress as well; Sarah McBride has become the first transgender person to win a seat at Congress, with other historic wins for LGBTQ+ candidates following it closely.

Of course, these facts amount to mere silver linings amid a disastrous defeat for the Democratic Party, whose options to combat the upcoming authoritarian legislature will be limited until at least the 2026 midterm elections.

Key issues

Democracy

“”Democracy is on the ballot. Your freedom is on the ballot.

—Joe Biden

The fallout from the events of January 6 hangs like a cloud over the campaign trail. Republicans have taken an increasingly Christian nationalist tone from the vocal hard right members. And then there's Project 2025, nuff said.

Economy

The Post-COVID world saw record high inflation after months of shutting down, causing millions of Americans to grow frustrated with the state of the economy, and was a leading campaign issue that led to Republicans barely taking over the House in the 2022 midterm elections. While rates of inflation have peaked in the summer of 2022, the prices of some goods have remained stubbornly high.

Abortion

If there was anything that kept Democrats some resemblance of control in Congress and gubernatorials, it would be when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the summer of 2022.

Background Noise

Gaza

The October 7^th 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas and the subsequent genocidal onslaught by Israel on Palestine, specifically the Gaza Strip, has pretty much irreversibly destroyed Joe Biden's reputation amongst young voters as well as ruining the already tattered reputation of the United States especially after the previous geopolitical fuck-up, the 2003 Iraq War, pretty much cemented notion of the US being an imperial monster to the world amongst young people. This is because the US has not only been nearly-uncritically supportive of Israel, but has delivered upwards of billions of dollars of military aid allowing Israel to enact genocide on the people of Gaza despite numerous attempts from international organizations, activist groups, politicians and even other countries to persuade them otherwise. The US government even went as far as to threaten the ICC with sanctions due to them seeking arrest warrants for members of the Israeli government including Benjamin Netanyahu.. Both Donald Trump and former candidate Joe Biden, have both pledged to support Israel with Trump even telling Israel to "finish the job". Meanwhile Kamala Harris did not make many substantive public statements detailing a change in policy from Joe Biden, but did reportedly signal an openness to discussing a weapons embargo and vowed that she would not "be silent" about suffering in Gaza. This has led many to describe the election as a "lesser of two evils" though some people decry both candidates as being the same solely based on this one issue despite very obvious evidence that they are different in so, so many other areas.

Sanity

Trump has shown noticeable cognitive decline since he first ran for president. The mainstream media has largely chosen to ignore this. According to Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, the mainstream media rationale for this is:

“”It works like this: Trump sounds nuts, but he can’t be nuts, because he’s the presumptive nominee for president of a major party, and no major party would nominate someone who is nuts. Therefore, it is our responsibility to sand down his rhetoric, to identify any kernel of meaning, to make light of his bizarro statements, to rationalize.

Will Bunch of The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote:

“”[The] false claim by Trump that Harris is generating fake big crowds with AI was a true Captain Queeg moment, maybe the most bat-guano crazy thing I’ve seen in 40 years of covering presidential elections.

Ukraine

Donald Trump advocates for not only military aid to Ukraine being revoked, but to "negotiate peace between the two". What he's actually saying is for the US to leave Ukraine as a sitting duck whilst Russia installs a puppet government. Ironically, a loud minority of leftists who criticize US support for Israel's genocidal war on Gaza (which Trump supports, as mentioned above), also support Trump's appeasement of Russia, with some even calling Trump a "peacemaker" and advocating voting for him entirely on this basis.

Candidates

Democrats

• Vice President Kamala Harris of California, following Biden's withdrawal on July 21, 2024. ("You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?")

Withdrawn

• President Joe Biden of Delaware
• Convicted felon Joe Exotic of Oklahoma
• Antivaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — later changed to run as an independent before endorsing Trump
• Congressman Dean Phillips of Minnesota (endorsed Biden)
• Venture capitalist Jason Palmer of Maryland (endorsed Biden)
• Political commentator Cenk Uygur of California
• Spiritual writer and perennial candidate Marianne Williamson of California (suspended, un-suspended, re-suspended, then re-un-suspended her campaign — because perennialism)

Republicans

• Former President Donald Trump of Florida

Withdrawn

• Nondenominational pastor Ryan Binkley of Texas (endorsed Trump)
• Governor Doug Burgum of North Dakota (endorsed Trump)
• Former Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey
• Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida (endorsed Trump)
• Talk radio host Larry Elder of California (endorsed Trump)
• Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley of South Carolina
• Former Congressman Will Hurd of Texas
• Former Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas
• Bishop E. W. Jackson of Virginia (endorsed Trump)
• Businessman Perry Johnson of Michigan
• Former Vice President Mike Pence of Indiana
• Investor Vivek Ramaswamy of Ohio (endorsed Trump)
• Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina (endorsed Trump)
• Miami Mayor Francis Suarez of Florida

Independent/Third Party

• Activist Claudia De la Cruz of New York (Party for Socialism and Liberation)
• Traditionalist Catholic podcaster Taylor Marshall of Texas
• Activist Chase Oliver of Georgia (Libertarian Party)
• Physician Jill Stein of Massachusetts (Green Party)
• Local politician Peter Sonski of Connecticut (Solidarity Party)
• Performance artist Vermin Supreme of Massachusetts (Pirate Party)
• Anti-abortion activist Randall Terry of West Virginia (Constitution Party)
• Philosopher Cornel West of California

Withdrawn

• Attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of California (American Independent Party, Reform Party) (endorsed Trump)

See also

• 2020 U.S. presidential election
• 2016 U.S. presidential election

References

United States 2024 presidential election articles on RationalWiki

Topics: Abortion - Inflation - Israel/Palestine - Project 2025 - Supreme Court - Ukraine - Undocumented immigration
Parties: Democratic Party - Green Party of the United States - Libertarian Party - Republican Party
Candidates: Biden (D) - Burgum (R) - Christie (R) - DeSantis (R) - Elder (R) - Haley (R) - Harris (D) - Kennedy Jr. (Independent) - Pence (R) - Ramaswamy (R) - Stein (Green) - Trump (R) - West (Independent) - Williamson (D) • Running mates: Walz (D) - Vance (R)
Winner: Donald Trump