The Politics Thread

[ThePrinceOfSunspear]

That wasa complete bloodbath last night and I'm absolutely in shock and disappointment. I mean I didn't even get a Walker loss of Scott Brown loss.

MARYLAND of all places elects some random republican as governor (O'Malley can kiss his presidential ambitions good bye).

Beyond devastated that my favorite Senator...Kay Hagan loss to that jerk in NC.

[DRW50]

Scott Brown did lose, thankfully. That's about it though...

[Max]

Given that the GOP did so much better than anyone predicted, Brown's narrow defeat was still incredibly embarrassing.

Yet, as the only Republican incumbent (of which I am aware) to be defeated, Tom Corbett must feel like the biggest loser. However, in a sign of just how badly the polls understated GOP support, Corbett lost by "only" ten points (when I believe that he was behind by as much as twice that amount at certain points in the campaign). Also, Corbett may be the only governor of Pennsylvania to ever lose re-election.

Prince, the result in the MD governor's race ranks right up there with Eric Cantor's primary defeat when it comes to being the biggest upset of the year. But as for O'Malley, he never even had a minute chance of winning the presidency to begin with.

Edited November 5, 2014 by Max

[DRW50]

There'd been some talk of the MD race tightening, although it's still somewhat of a surprise. Some are saying it's because Brown botched the Obamacare exchange in MD.

The biggest upset is probably Steven Horsford, even though people had been speculating on it for a few days because of weak early voter turnout in Clark County. I think the district may have even been drawn for Horsford, which is even more embarrassing. Beyond him there are a few other races that I'm not sure were getting attention, like Pete Gallego.

Corbett is the first to lose since PA let their governors serve more than one term.

The only other GOP incumbents to lose were Steve Southerland and, barring a reversal, Lee Terry. Lee Terry has been hanging on by a thread for about 8 years now - I'm not sure why he suddenly broke loose this year, but he did. Southerland lost to Bob Graham's daughter, who is probably a star in FL Dem circles after their terrible night.

http://www.jrn.com/kmtv/news/Election-day-recap-281576641.html

http://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/local/state/2014/11/04/thirty-percent-of-congressional-district-voters-have-cast-ballots/18452597/

Edited November 5, 2014 by DRW50

[DRW50]

I agree that O'Malley never had a shot anyway. He has no charisma. He has nice arms...that's about all I remember.

[xtr]

I'm from NC, did my early voting Saturday, and I am very disappointed that Kay Hagan lost to Thom Tillis. I had figured it would end up being close ,but had hoped that she would pull out the win. Now that she has lost I am very concerned and worried about the future of NC. This state is already struggling a lot financially, and has issues in many areas, I think that the election of Thom Tillis to the Senate could make things far worse for the state. There are many important things and areas, that he has cut funding in (like education, including passing policies that have hurt teachers and college students) Plus he's made pretty harsh comments/has harsh views against the poor, and more vulnerable groups of people.

There is a very long list of important issues he's pushed for policies against, that have had big impact on the people of NC. I think that him being elected to the Senate could end up being pretty detrimental for the state of NC. I know that a lot of people are angry at the Democrats and the leadership of this country and wanted a change, but I wonder how many of them really have thought things through before they cast their vote. It definitely feels like some people just went on a knee jerk reaction. I feel like states like NC, who are already bad off in several ways, are going to suffer even more now, especially economically. I think that some people haven't thought about how bad things could end up getting in at least some of these states, like NC.

Edited November 5, 2014 by xtr

[xtr]

double post.

Edited November 5, 2014 by xtr

[marceline]

The sad truth is that most people don't pay the level of attention to politics that we do. Honestly I'm fine with people who vote Republican and, especially, people who don't vote ending up with a country of forced birth, permanent war, undrinkable water and flat wages. The problem is that the rest of us get that too and we don't deserve it. I'm an engaged active participant in my democracy and I deserve better than this.

But Jon Stewart called it right a long time ago: Democrats are pussies. They keep trying to beat the GOP at its own game. Until the Democratic Party gets itself together we'll stay on this death march to the the end of the American era. In fact, that might be inevitable anyway. All great societies eventually end and this may just be how we go out. A couple of years ago I adjusted my retirement because I finally realized that I'm going to have to retire in another country. Assuming of course my retirement accounts doesn't get wiped out in the next inevitable stock market crash which should happen pretty soon. (I predict this October.)

Edited November 5, 2014 by marceline

[JaneAusten]

Well frankly I have no idea why the democrats were running away from Obama. Now I am not a fan these days but he's not really all bad and look what's happened under him.

1. Our deficit has been cut in half. Does anyone remember how that fiscal conservate George Bush inherited a surplus and ran up record deficits(funny how democrats are the spendthrifts when Reagan and Bush have both run up huge deficits). For all the bitching about the stimulus program and how this country could not pay for it, Rand Paul is the only fricking Republican talking about how he have no business increasing defense spending as we did under Bush in this economic climate. And exactly how now did that stimulus program hurt us?

2. Have any of the genius's who talk about how bad things are looked at the unemployment rate recently?

3. I have had more people I know praise the Affordable Care act than not but these people I guess don't vote. How about talk about the majority of the people like my neighbor who couldn't afford the 700/month she would have to pay who now has a plan that she can pay for.

4. Did we go into a depression by the way? I know the people who really hurt the most under the recession were not the wealthy people who saw tax cuts and corporations who did nothing with the cash surplus they built up, but the stimulus package did help get some people working who had not seen a paycheck for years. And for the record programs like the WPA didn't turn the economy around during the depression. What it did was give people incentive and hope. But that is lost on this generation of selfishness and greed.

I can't say why this midterm really hit me. I see Scott Walker in Wisconsin get re-elected against a good moderate democratic candidate and Wisconsin had the lowest job growth in the country.

I also heard last night a republican strategist here in Illinois now talking about that perhaps Obama will now have to compromise and get an immigration bill passed. Really? For all the bitching about this, I guess people forgot the senate compromised and passed one that the president committed to signing and guess what. The Republican congress would not even bring it up to vote.

As for Illinois, we elected a republican governor but here our best governors in the last 40 years have been republican. But the new governor won't be able to get a thing done in a state that is controlled by the Illinois speaker of the house who is a democrat who was an obstacle to the current democratic governor accomplishing anything.

But frankly in two more years when congress gets nothing done we will be back here with likely another turn around.

It saddens me how little Americans are invested in voting or even give a crap about other people. People want more government cuts, can we cut down on defense spending?

And I can't believe that idiot from Florida got re-elected after a disastrous term.

I am a teacher in Illinois who's retirement fund is broke. Illinois is in a quandary and no one wants to fix it. I already know when I retire my money will be gone.

We are headed towards 1929 again. I don't really understand how republicans don't see it. I really wish now that they would have let the financial institutions fail now so that people who think government is bad could really get a taste of how irresponsible banking institutions and corporations can be when run by selfish greedy people.

Edited November 5, 2014 by JaneAusten

[JaneAusten]

Oh by the way one piece of good news. In states that had minimum wage increases on the ballot including Illinois, it seems most voted for the increase. I think South Dakota, Nebraska, and Arkansas were three of those states also. So perhaps the support across the states will help the president increase support at the federal level. The ballot initiative in Illinois is non binding, so it was used to identify voter preferences not to actually increase it but perhaps it will sent the message people actually support this.

And it looks like medical marijuana use passed in most states where it was being voted on, even Alaska.

[DRW50]

I think it wasn't even medical, but recreational, which is something that I wouldn't have thought possible a few years back. It passed in Washington DC, Oregon, and Alaska. Florida failed because of the 60% rule.

California also voted for defelonizing marijuana possession (unless you've already been convicted of a serious crime).

It's ironic that as the states move toward supporting common sense issues, legislators and Congress are more and more openly against them and more and more openly plutocratic, to the point of bragging about outsourcing jobs.

I tend to wonder how long it will be before the Supreme Court shuts these minimum wage ballot measures down.

[Juliajms]

I can't say for sure, but I have a few ideas from listening to people around me.

1) I think the ACA is complicated and people were told they could keep their policies. Doesn't look like that was true in many cases. It's easy to attack a policy that people don't fully understand.

2) Some people resent that Obama plans to take executive action on immigration. It's easy to demonize millions of poor Mexicans. Personally, I think it's silly to feel more threatened by immigrants than say, the Koch brothers and their ilk, but that's me.

3) Some people blame Obama for Isis. Again it's a pretty complicated situation. Do people really have the time and will to figure out how Isis came to power, after a long day at work and taking care of themselves and their family? Getting to the truth of these matters isn't just a matter of turning on CNN or any other news channel because you still have to trust the analysis of the talking heads. There's always a whole lot more going on than what's on the surface.

Plus I think when things are going wrong people get President fatigue for lack of a better word. Even though I lean left, I'm ready for 2016 myself.

[DRW50]

Congrats to Alma Adams, whose special election means there are 100 women in Congress for the first time ever.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/11/05/there_are_100_women_in_congress_for_the_first_time_ever.html

[marceline]

This has been one of my my problems with the left for a long time. We save people from the negative consequences of their votes in the name of compassion and "we're all in this together" pixie dust then the people we help spit in our faces. Dems don't have the balls to shoot the hostage then act surprised when the hostage ends up dead anyway and they get blamed. How many times did Obama wasted precious time and resources trying to middle ground with people who told him on day one that their only priority was making him a failure?

Edited November 5, 2014 by marceline

[JaneAusten]

I can understand the ACA and many still being disenchanted and I don't fully endorse it only because it really doesn't address the real issues related to heath care costs, but perhaps over time and as it gets refined people will see the benefit and I really hope it ultimately leads to a single payer approach over time.

I think my point was that I keep hearing how this really wasn't a referendum against Obama that it was that people just voting for the opposition not really concerning themselves with issues. But I guess the democrats while even not pointing to Obama had positive things to talk about.

I'll concur about ISIS but I also think so many people really don't even care about that or it's turned into being used as a scare tactic by republicans. It's exactly what they did with Ebola