Due to the time difference, I didn’t find out the results of the midterm elections until this morning. I knew the Democrats would get their asses handed to them on a silver platter. I just didn’t know how badly the Republicans would spank them.
So when I woke up this morning my first thought was “It’s my daddy’s birthday!” My second thought was “Did he get a split Legislature for his birthday gift or are the Republicans in the driver’s seat for the House and the Senate?” After checking my iGoogle, which is just a sh*t ton of news sites (yes, I’m that big of a nerd), I found some interesting results. My people rejected Christine "The First Amendment establishes the Separation of Church and State? Really?" O’Donnell (yes!) and elected Rand “Issues with the Civil Rights Act” Paul (WTF Tennessee!?). And the Republicans, as predicted, took the House and obtained a sizable gain in the Senate.
Now I’m turning towards the next two years, the next round of midterms and of course the next presidential election. The Republicans got what they wanted: more political power. But now it’s balls to the wall time (Republican) ladies and gents. Imma need y’all to bring it.
No more bitching about how the Democrats are destroying our country. Now you’ve got at least as much power as the Democrats, if not more, since the Republicans can keep things nicely tied up for as long as they like...and then blame Obama for being ineffective. This is where the “Obama is f*cked” part comes in. If they wanted to, the Republicans can bring business to a halt and stop any worthwhile legislation from getting through.
The optimist in me hopes they won’t. The optimist in me hopes neither side will let partisan politics get in the way of governing my country. The optimist in me hopes the Right actually puts up viable alternatives instead of standing around with their thumbs up their ass calling Obama a fascist Nazi commie socialist. Basically, the optimist in me hopes it won’t be a repeat of the last two years. But given the poisonous political environment since Obama’s election, the cynic in me just smacked the optimist in me while laughing hysterically.
But who knows? Perhaps the Democrats and the Republicans will actually learn to compromise. Perhaps both sides will put aside their difference and work together to do what’s best for America. And perhaps unicorns are real. I suppose anything is possible.
Cross-posted from http://
The optimist in me hopes neither side will let partisan politics get in the way of governing my country.
ReplyDeleteBwaahaaa. You been in Yurp too long, sweetie. Today from Michelle Malkin: "Take Your Olive Branch and Shove It, Democrats." (I won't link to it ... anyone that interested can Google it.) So much for civility & "bipartisanship."
I actually don't feel as negative as you do. It came down to the Republican base was motivated, the Democratic base was not. Demographics were typical for a midterm, which don't break in Dems' favor. Via a link at Digby, comparing '08 to '10:
"Voters under 30 dropped from 18% of the electorate to 11%; African-Americans from 13% to 10%, and Hispanics from 9% to 8%. Meanwhile, voters over 65, the one age category carried by John McCain, increased from 16% of the electorate to 23%."
In short, old white people showed up to vote, young people and African Americans did not. Hispanics were about the same, but still a small number. These are all areas where Dems can work to organize.
Blue Dogs were crushed -- crushed. The challenge for progressives is to make the Dem establishment understand that running to the right does NOT help them, it hurts them.
We did some housecleaning. Now we have a good foundation on which to rebuild. I'm actually encouraged.
Challenge 1: send Harry Reid packing. He should not be Senate Majority Leader, he doesn't have the spine to get anything done with a smaller number.
...and 12% less gays voted for democrats this election.
ReplyDeleteThe reality is that since 1995 the Republicans have controlled our government and if you take the time to study reality you realize that is a fact. Had it not been for the financial meltdown in October, which up to that time McCain was leading Obama, the democrats would not have found themselves in the situation they did for the last two years. That is reality and a fact.
Rahm Emmanuel spent years attracting and building up the blue dog democrats and they all got their asses kicked and the liberal/progressives did pretty good in the house.
The reality is outside of pockets of blue the democrats, the liberals, have no relevency.
2008 was a flux plain and simple. Now you are going to lose at least 30 democratic seats in the house due to redistricting at a minimum....thus the last two years were a once in a lifetime opportunity for the democrats.
So, the democrats are nothing more than a minority party. Unions only matter to give candidates a busload of supporters and other than that the common guy doesn't matter.
Even if the economy goes through the roof the democrats may hold the presidency in 2012 but they will lose the senate. Remember from 1994 the republicans controlled the house and the senate and those were great economic years...
Yeah the "fucking retards" really showed Rahm, didn't they?
ReplyDeleteLeslie is right: There is a big job ahead. You guys coming or not?
ReplyDeleteI am starting my own Redneck Progressive Party...
ReplyDeleteTo hell with compromise and bipartisanship...its time for liberals to kick ass...
No wimps like Harry Reid or Ben Nelson allowed...
I'm coming, Nance. "It ain't over 'til it's over."
ReplyDeleteMy apologies for being away from the barfosphere. Election results made me rather sick to my stomach and, instead for reaching for a post election antacid, I decided to try a List of Vowels: AOIE – American Octopus In Europe, which, I believe, is the perfect complement to an American Black Chick In Europe. Needless to say, I put the condo up for sale. Now, where was I ….
ReplyDeleteOh yes, Octopus and the Shipwreck. It is always a special treat for a curious cephalopod when a storm tossed vessel sinks to the bottom of the sea and finds its way to my domain. Yesterday’s election is the most recent shipwreck for an intrepid octopus to snoop and explore. This sunken shipwreck, I am told, has fallen victim to the perfect storm, and it will keep this meddlesome cephalopod busy for a very long time.
American voters, it seems, have no appreciation whatsoever for cause-and-effect; but they do have a damn peculiar sense of ritual sacrifice. In mythical times, one blamed a dragon or a sphinx for the blight on the land. Slaying the beast meant lifting the curse to renew the land. These days, slaying the King means giving the land back to the sphinx to renew the curse.
While I fault American voters for their amazing cupidity, I also blame Democrats for their amazing stupidity. Democrats always lose the message wars because Republicans have a 4 to 1 advantage in think tanks that plot long-term election strategies. The Republicans also have a voracious appetite for billionaire donor kebabs and will sell their own children to satisfy any craving.
TAO, in that case (starting your Redneck Progressive Party, an idea that's long overdue) you may consider (and like) this piece, by Robert Bybee, discussing how progressives and Tea Party members can find a common ground and possibly work together. At least on some issues and for a while, perhaps.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I would join the RPP. I guess you can take a girl out of socialism, but you can't take socialism out of a girl. Nor should you try.
ABCiE,
ReplyDeleteI suspect that the Republicans still have absolutely no interest in governing -- they know that nothing they most want to do is going to make it to the President's desk. The GOP House will most likely continue to posture right on through to 2012, in hopes of denying Obama a second term. In my view, so long as the economy picks, up, that strategy will backfire badly. Their real agenda, I believe, has long been to turn back the clock in any and every way they can -- preferably to a time before the New Deal, and to do that in earnest, they would need more than one chamber of Congress.
Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteTo rednecks we are all family and as a family is all about socialism then rednecks are for socialism.
You will enjoy this new party!
Dino, my guess is that if the economy picks up, the Republicans will take credit for it and make it their no.1 accomplishment in the 2012 election.
ReplyDeleteIf it doesn't, the Democrats will be to blame, of course, since they obstructed the most excellent ideas of their Republican colleagues. It'll be yet another argument for turning the Senate Republican and electing one of them to the White House.
...you may consider (and like) this piece, by Robert Bybee, discussing how progressives and Tea Party members can find a common ground and possibly work together.
ReplyDeleteYeah I had that delusion last winter ... for about five seconds! Then I got knocked to my senses when a bunch of them came to Nashville for the first "Tea Party Convention" at the Opryland Hotel. I saw with my own eyes what these people are all about.
Suffice it to say, we have NOTHING in common. Not now. Not ever.
Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteThat could be how it plays out. But I'm guessing that if President Obama does well, his popularity will come in handy for smaller Dem-Fry in 2012, too.
SoBe,
I surely agree -- every time I see those gleefully infantile, leering partisans whooping it up at a rally and waving their racist, anti-gubbamint signage, I realize that rational adults have NOTHING in common with them. I suspect that their real agenda is to use their democratic rights to take down democracy and replace it with a form of government authoritarian enough to satisfy them. Democracy is always vulnerable to such people, and I for one am not interested in hiding my contempt for them and the horse they rode in on.