The US Mid-Term Election Thread

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

I voted in my old elementary school. The damned thing doesn't even look like the same building as before.

[Foxfyre]

I did the abenstie thing. LOL hope it got there.

[Tyyr]

Voted for Darth Vader for Florida governor.

[Sonic Glitch]

Voted for Darth Vader for Florida governor.

Dick Cheney?

Well, I now live in a Red state...

[Tyyr]

Anyone but the people that were the options we had.

[Mikey]

Well, the jackwagons devolved pineys people in my district voted in for Representative John Runyan. Bad enough he's a tax-evading adherent of the philosophy of "judge others, just not me;" but he's a former Philadelphia Eagle.

[Reliant121]

Unfortunately instead of voting, I had to lead a particular party in our school votes. And of course, to add ironic insult to it all, I lead the conservatives.

[Tyyr]

Even though they will, Republicans shouldn't mistake what happened yesterday for a referendum on Obama and healthcare. What happened yesterday was the GOP was riled up and the democrats were depressed. The democrats spent two years in control of the house, the senate, and the White House and did jack-shit with it. They pissed away the last two years being bullied by a minority they could have safely ignored. All the while the side that outnumbered the other 3 to 2 tried to act like they were the minority party being beat up by the big bad Republicans. Their own party didn't buy it. They were promised change and got more of the same, they got control of the executive and legislative branches and their leaders did nothing with it. Democrats had nothing to be excited about and little reason to give a fuck. The assclowns who accomplished nothing were begging for their base to vote and their base predictably asked, "Why, you did nothing with it the last two years?" This is more a triumph of democrat apathy than republican resurgence. Yes, the republicans are gaining a lot of ground and they're getting vocal and fired up but the absolute landslide of last night is not because the country is taking a hard swing to the right but because the left took a hard swing to, "Who gives a fuck?"

The Tea party didn't fare better for a simple reason, people aren't stupid. The ultra-conservative side of the conservative party isn't likely to attract a lot of liberal voters. If a Tea party candidate was up against a GOP candidate and a dem the only way the Tea partier could win was to take every single vote from the GOP candidate. That wasn't likely to happen. So when people were in the voting booths looking at their ballots they had a choice. You can vote Tea party and send the GOP a message but let a democrat win, or you vote republican and hope they got the message from having a third party in the race.

I strongly suspect that this was the height of the Tea party as a separate movement. I think over the next two years you'll see the republicans slide to the right to try and embrace the Tea party enough to get those voters back firmly in the GOP camp. You'll probably see Tea party rallies and candidates for another election cycle or two but without a lot of major victories yesterday I don't see how they'll maintain their momentum.

The real question is now what will the parties do with it? The Republicans take a lot of ground if instead of being obstructionist anti-Obama pricks they look for solutions to problems instead of chanting, "No." The democrats are going to have to stop being absolute pussies or they'll find the next election much like this one.

[SolkaTruesilver]

I strongly suspect that this was the height of the Tea party as a separate movement. I think over the next two years you'll see the republicans slide to the right to try and embrace the Tea party enough to get those voters back firmly in the GOP camp. You'll probably see Tea party rallies and candidates for another election cycle or two but without a lot of major victories yesterday I don't see how they'll maintain their momentum.

The real question is now what will the parties do with it? The Republicans take a lot of ground if instead of being obstructionist anti-Obama pricks they look for solutions to problems instead of chanting, "No." The democrats are going to have to stop being absolute pussies or they'll find the next election much like this one.

Palin for President!

[Tyyr]

The bitch of it is that if the McCain campaign had the collective political intelligence of a high school student body president campaign they'd have prepped her and gotten her ready enough that she'd have been seen as a serious politician rather than a side show. Instead they just picked the first republican vagina they came across and threw her to the wolves after just telling her to say, "Maverick" a lot.

[BigJKU316]

Frankly I think the best bet for the GOP next cycle is to throw a balanced budget amendment out there first, pass it through the house and make the Dems in the Senate reject it or Obama veto the thing. I would also attack the various union based exemptions on the healthcare plan and make the Democrats go on the record for them.

I don't think it matters much what either side trys to do. Not much is going to get done over the next two years, which is fine by me. It will be all about positioning for 2012.

[SolkaTruesilver]

I don't think it matters much what either side trys to do. Not much is going to get done over the next two years, which is fine by me. It will be all about positioning for 2012.

Except if we hit the endgame of a double-down recession. In that case, things will have to be done again, or whatever patchwork done in the past 2 years will simply blow up in our face.

[BigJKU316]

I don't think it matters much what either side trys to do. Not much is going to get done over the next two years, which is fine by me. It will be all about positioning for 2012.

Except if we hit the endgame of a double-down recession. In that case, things will have to be done again, or whatever patchwork done in the past 2 years will simply blow up in our face.

Toothpicks under an elephant really. Property values have to fall and come in line with income and job opportunities. There will be another dip because property values on the US coast still need to drop another 25-40%. Nothing the government can do can change this, you can only slow it down at huge expense to taxpayers. Best to just let it happen and be done with it.

[SolkaTruesilver]

I don't think it matters much what either side trys to do. Not much is going to get done over the next two years, which is fine by me. It will be all about positioning for 2012.

Except if we hit the endgame of a double-down recession. In that case, things will have to be done again, or whatever patchwork done in the past 2 years will simply blow up in our face.

Toothpicks under an elephant really. Property values have to fall and come in line with income and job opportunities. There will be another dip because property values on the US coast still need to drop another 25-40%. Nothing the government can do can change this, you can only slow it down at huge expense to taxpayers. Best to just let it happen and be done with it.

What if the Republican have a stroke of reason and start cutting the fat of many government programs, like they did with Clinton after 94?

Nah... wait. I'm just a stupid idealist.

[Mikey]

Even though they will, Republicans shouldn't mistake what happened yesterday for a referendum on Obama and healthcare.

Stephen Colbert did a great tongue-in-cheek spot yesterday, "demonstrating" how it was a referendum on Obama by showing that in one Florida district, Obama got 0% of the vote.

Yes, the republicans are gaining a lot of ground and they're getting vocal and fired up but the absolute landslide of last night is not because the country is taking a hard swing to the right but because the left took a hard swing to, "Who gives a f**k?"

You got it. I truly believe that the ground gained by the right yesterday was more of a concession to the idea of "let's try anything, it's got to be better than nothing," rather than any grassroots swing toward the GOP itself. This is borne out by the across-the-board non-compliance of the traditional Dem bulwark of minority voters/inner-city districts.

I think over the next two years you'll see the republicans slide to the right to try and embrace the Tea party enough to get those voters back firmly in the GOP camp.

IDK about Mr. Scott's campaign, but the Senate and Congressional races in the Northeast already employed that idea. Many GOP campaigns involved some concession to Tea Party rhetoric - if not to attract votes from the moderate left, then to at least secure the Republicans that might have gone astray.