Official midterm elections thread

[Bakustra]

On the other hand, consider that the Republicans now have to work with the Democrats or face crucifixion in the 2012 elections.

That's assumes the Republicans are still capable of that sort of reasoning. Two electoral defeats only taught them that they lost because they weren't "conservative" enough. They started out 2009 with the express mission to wreck the Obama presidency. Now, enough of these teabagger freaks managed to win office to ensure that there will be no cooperation with Democrats on anything. Not only will the Republicans not consider the possibility of defeat in 2012, they will act as if they've got 2012 in the bag already.

Can you really see Boehner compromising with Democrats on anything? And Darrell Issa's just itching to use the subpoena powers he's about to get as the new Chairman of the House Governmental Oversight Committee to endlessly investigate the White House. Compromise? It's going to be war.

Wow, I didn't know that large swathes of the political structure in the US were essentially brain-dead. Are they fascists too?

That's the common narrative among liberals, but on the other hand, over the past two years they were the minority party and could throw out whatever rhetoric they liked to motivate the base. I'm pretty sure that many of them are aware that they lost in '06 and '08 because of Bush. But they focused more on deficits and the economy over the last two years, since they know that those are areas where they are traditionally strong and areas that people are very concerned about. They know, though, that their "tide" is more of a gentle wave. They couldn't even match 1994! I bet that the majority of Republican leaders are very worried about 2012.

Boehner will have to compromise. Congress is split, and in order to get anything done, people will have to compromise (hur, hur surrendercrats) regardless of what he said to rally supporters. The Republicans will get crucified two ways in 2012 if they spend the next few years doing nothing. If they don't do much, the Tea Party will challenge them in the primaries. Even if they survive that, then they'll still be the do-nothing party going into the general election, and the likelihood that the economy will pick up is pretty good. That would also be attributed to Obama, most likely. Suffice it to say, even if you refuse to admit "intelligent" as being an allowable categorization of Republicans, will you still allow "low animal cunning" or other backhanded statements? Frankly, the Republican establishment have been in politics too long to really screw this up.

[Darksider]

hopefully we can pick up 10 more house seats -- Fox right now has 20 left for grabs. This would give us 244 - 191 in da House.

Yes. Let's hope the people who are fucking up the country the fastest gain more political power.

Not that the democrats don't also fuck up the country, but they do it through spinelessness and general inaction rather than active malice like the repubs.

My state has gone solid Republican for the first time in recent memory, and i'm a little depressed about it.

[Broomstick]

Boehner will have to compromise.

No, he won't. Really. Boehner doesn't have to compromise or play nice.

Congress is split, and in order to get anything done, people will have to compromise (hur, hur surrendercrats) regardless of what he said to rally supporters.

You're assuming they WANT to get something done... some just want to hold onto power, some just want to promote their own party, and some are just selfish and using politics to enrich themselves.

The Republicans will get crucified two ways in 2012 if they spend the next few years doing nothing.

You mean.... like how they got "crucified" in these current elections?

You neglecting the contingent that just wants to better their "team" and fuck everyone else, and another slice who are freaked out over the notion of a black man in the White House to the point they want to make their fears self-fulfilling prophecies.

I will be shocked if much of anything constructive gets done in the next two years. While I am in favor of a useless Congress during boom times, as it keeps them from fucking shit up, right now is not a boom. During a bust we actually need an effective government - which we don't have.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Boehner will have to compromise. Congress is split, and in order to get anything done, people will have to compromise (hur, hur surrendercrats) regardless of what he said to rally supporters. The Republicans will get crucified two ways in 2012 if they spend the next few years doing nothing.

That's just the thing. They won't spend the next two years doing nothing. The House will spend the next two years trying to push a GOP/teabagger agenda, generate gridlock in the Senate, and force Obama to spend the next two years vetoing it. Sure government will get things done, but they won't be very nice things. For example, cap and trade will die a horrible death. Rich white assholes will have the Bush tax cuts made permanent. Small portions of the healthcare reform will probably be revisited. Sure, the GOP probably won't go completely overboard with the "My way or the highway approach," but bear in mind that a lot of governors' chairs, and quite a few state legislative seats, are now in Republican hands . . . with the once-a-decade re-drawing of Congressional districts coming up. Part of the overall GOP strategy is going to involve a lot of gerrymandering to put themselves in the best position in 2012.

[ray245]

It's disappointing to see that there is no influential third party US senate and the Congress. If a third party exist, at the least there will be no real deadlock in US politics.

[CaptainChewbacca]

It's disappointing to see that there is no influential third party US senate and the Congress. If a third party exist, at the least there will be no real deadlock in US politics.

The US Government discourages the existence of third parties. As soon as any new group starts making headway with the masses either a leading party will co-opt their platform or they will supplant one of the sitting two. The last time we DID have a third party was the Dixie-crats, who existed because neither republicans or democrats would support segregation.

[TimothyC]

Wow everyone here is just so damn bitter this morning. I understand it (the bitterness), but I'd like to remind you of a little quote from 2008:

It helps in Ohio [but] we have Democrats in charge of the machines.[APPLAUSE] But , look, I come from Chicago.

Not anymore Mr. President, not anymore.

[Simon_Jester]

Wow everyone here is just so damn bitter this morning. I understand it (the bitterness), but I'd like to remind you of a little quote from 2008:

It helps in Ohio [but] we have Democrats in charge of the machines.[APPLAUSE] But , look, I come from Chicago.

Not anymore Mr. President, not anymore.

hopefully we can pick up 10 more house seats -- Fox right now has 20 left for grabs. This would give us 244 - 191 in da House.

I just wanna say this, guys. Not saying you agree or disagree or anything, I just wanna get it out there:

This Republican congress, whatever you say about it, won't give you the hypersonic bombers you dream of.

Wow, I didn't know that large swathes of the political structure in the US were essentially brain-dead. Are they fascists too?

That's the common narrative among liberals, but on the other hand, over the past two years they were the minority party and could throw out whatever rhetoric they liked to motivate the base. I'm pretty sure that many of them are aware that they lost in '06 and '08 because of Bush. But they focused more on deficits and the economy over the last two years, since they know that those are areas where they are traditionally strong and areas that people are very concerned about. They know, though, that their "tide" is more of a gentle wave. They couldn't even match 1994! I bet that the majority of Republican leaders are very worried about 2012.

Boehner will have to compromise. Congress is split, and in order to get anything done, people will have to compromise (hur, hur surrendercrats) regardless of what he said to rally supporters. The Republicans will get crucified two ways in 2012 if they spend the next few years doing nothing.

They may honestly think they can win just by building up even more Tea Party momentum... and at this point, I really don't know that they're wrong. In that case, they can just propose things they know damn well the Dems won't agree to (cut taxes in half, repeal the 2009 health care bill, whatever), and just yell about how they're being blocked from fixing America by the damn liberals.

Or they may try, just because they're pursuing what was a winning strategy. Or they may be forced to try by the influx of more strongly ideological diehards who came in on the Tea Party's coattails.

It's not out of the question that the House Republicans will decide to be obstructionist in hopes that a failure to get anything done in the government will make the Dems look worse than it makes them look.

[Ryan Thunder]

Wow everyone here is just so damn bitter this morning. I understand it (the bitterness), but I'd like to remind you of a little quote from 2008:

It helps in Ohio [but] we have Democrats in charge of the machines.[APPLAUSE] But , look, I come from Chicago.

Not anymore Mr. President, not anymore.

You fucking imbecile. You deserve every last fucking problem you just brought down on yourself.

Jesus Christ, you and your countrymen just voted back in the party that fucking destroyed you and now you're smug? What the fuck?

[Shroom Man 777]

I too am smug. I believe America is once more on the road to greatness, and they have done right by voting back the party that made America great in the previous eight years, so they can make it even greater today. The good things that bless America today are the legacies of that glourious near-decade, and soon the party that made America mighty will be in place to finish what they started at the dawn of the 21st century. Am I right, Tim?

[Phantasee]

You are right, Al.

Hey, who remembers the story if the king who had a phrase carved on his roof or whatever? "And this too shall pass" is good advice in the good times and the bad.

[Simon_Jester]

You fucking imbecile. You deserve every last fucking problem you just brought down on yourself.

Jesus Christ, you and your countrymen just voted back in the party that fucking destroyed you and now you're smug? What the fuck?

Hey. You drank the Kool-Aid too. I saw you, man, I was there...

[Thanas]

As I try to swallow back the vomit rising as I listen to Boehner's speech (God he's actually fucking crying) I simultaneously can't help thinking the Democrats earned every bit of this beat down. Thanks for two years of a complete and utter failure of leadership and vision and thanks for two years of Tea Party insanity that will hold your agenda hostage for the next two years and likely render Obama into a black Jimmy Crater. Bravo assholes. Bravo.

Indeed. The Democrats have nobody to blame but themselves for this defeat. If they had been able to push through their reforms, nobody would now be crying about "failure to have bipartisanship laws", everybody would now be speaking about decisive leadership. Turns out when you compromise everything away you turn out to look like a weak, inefficient leader.

[Ryan Thunder]

Hey. You drank the Kool-Aid too. I saw you, man, I was there...

Hey, now. That was a long time ago. I was young and... stupider.

[MKSheppard]

What's going to be interesting in the next 5-10 years is California's economic position. Reduce carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 - that's going to be quite fun for two reasons:

1.) California's electrical generating industry will become even more out of state -- the LA Dept of Water and Power actually runs a coal plant in Utah. Also, apparently a recent California law forbids utilities from entering into long-term contracts with conventional coal-fired power producers. Intermountain’s existing contracts with southern California cities are set to expire in 2027.

The state being *even* more dependent on other states for it's electrical power will have some nice amusing consequences by then.

2.) It's basically going to act as a system that will export jobs out of California into the surrounding states....if that section of the law is actually enforced.

In all reality, it will become a massively corrupt system of kickbacks and bribes to the right people in power for carbon offsets and suchlike to cook the books so we can all close our eyes and pretend that our carbon footprint is almost equal to 1990.

[RedImperator]

It's not out of the question that the House Republicans will decide to be obstructionist in hopes that a failure to get anything done in the government will make the Dems look worse than it makes them look.

They tried that in 1995 and got Clinton re-elected for their trouble.

[aerius]

Republitards don't care. Neither do most Americans it appears. After 8 years of astounding incompetency topped off by the worst financial crisis since the depression, the public punishes the other side for not fixing it in 2 years. Amazing.

The public punished them for not even making an attempt at fixing anything, and in fact continuing many of those braindead policies or even adding onto them. Do I need to remind everyone of how the BP oil spill was handled? The sheer incompetency there made Bush's Katrina response look golden.

[Stravo]

What makes me scratch my head here is the lack of anger and frustration at Democrats. They controlled the House, Senate AND the White House yet people here are raging at "Republitards" and the stupid American voting public. I don't know about you but if my management is utterly useless I try to replace it, shake things up. The issue of course is that our Land of the Free only has two options. You can only replace useless with corrupt. But to be angry at the guys who outplayed, out thought and out manuevered the party in power and not be angry at your own team for being a bunch of jackasses makes no sense to me.

What else was the average American supposed to do? Stay the course and reward shitty leadership with more years in office?

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

As I try to swallow back the vomit rising as I listen to Boehner's speech (God he's actually fucking crying) I simultaneously can't help thinking the Democrats earned every bit of this beat down. Thanks for two years of a complete and utter failure of leadership and vision and thanks for two years of Tea Party insanity that will hold your agenda hostage for the next two years and likely render Obama into a black Jimmy Crater. Bravo assholes. Bravo.

Indeed. The Democrats have nobody to blame but themselves for this defeat. If they had been able to push through their reforms, nobody would now be crying about "failure to have bipartisanship laws", everybody would now be speaking about decisive leadership. Turns out when you compromise everything away you turn out to look like a weak, inefficient leader.

Indeed. Most of the people who turned out to support Obama in 2008 stayed home this year. If the Democratic leadership hadn't been so damned spineless. If Obama had taken the hard-line stance and actually gotten something done, instead of letting the GOP set the tone and pace of the debate, the people who supported him in 2008 (young progressives and liberals) would've been motivated enough to go vote. They would've countered the groundswell of old, blue-collar, conservative Tea Party support. But, no, he let the GOP set the tone and pace of just about every piece of legislation on his agenda. So much so that Democrats were absolutely loathe to mention things like health care reform on their campaigns. They had little to throw back against "ZOMG Obamacare! ZOMG Wall Street Bailouts!"

Now the Republicans will be back in control of the House, and House leadership will be decisive. It will be almost uniformly bad for people who aren't RWAs, and it will be bad for Obama, who will now have no choice but to compromise, lest he be painted as "obstructionist and partisan," by a resurgent GOP. Only that will continue to alienate progressive and liberal interests, who may either defect from Obama in the 2012 primaries, or sit out the general election. Though this prediction is pessimistic in the extreme.

[Ryan Thunder]

What makes me scratch my head here is the lack of anger and frustration at Democrats. They controlled the House, Senate AND the White House yet people here are raging at "Republitards" and the stupid American voting public. I don't know about you but if my management is utterly useless I try to replace it, shake things up. The issue of course is that our Land of the Free only has two options. You can only replace useless with corrupt. But to be angry at the guys who outplayed, out thought and out manuevered the party in power and not be angry at your own team for being a bunch of jackasses makes no sense to me.

What else was the average American supposed to do? Stay the course and reward shitty leadership with more years in office?

Well "useless" would be preferable to "actively harmful".

[Stravo]

There are two things that can hurt the Republicans in 2012 presidential race. One is beyond their control, if the economy recovers and by recovery I mean a "real" one not the jobless recovery that is apparently starting to take shape then Obama will have that millstone around his neck removed. He can run on issues where I think he has Republicans beat (of course the issue of his utterly shit leadership is still on the table)

Two is if the Tea Party movement either breaks away from the Republicans and pull a Ross Perot on them siphoning off huge amounts of votes and weakening their overall appeal or if they simply hijack the party and get Sarah Palin to be the standard bearer in 2012. Palin has her appeal in the deep red states but on a national level she will crash and burn.

[Broomstick]

Indeed. Most of the people who turned out to support Obama in 2008 stayed home this year. If the Democratic leadership hadn't been so damned spineless. If Obama had taken the hard-line stance and actually gotten something done, instead of letting the GOP set the tone and pace of the debate, the people who supported him in 2008 (young progressives and liberals) would've been motivated enough to go vote.

I am TIRED of hearing that shit - "young progressives and liberals" weren't motivated to vote and it's all Obama's fault? - what a load of fucking horseshit! Those same sniveling brats whine that no one listens to them, that they're ignored, taken for granted, the world shits on them... well, what the fuck do they expect? If you don't care enough about your circumstances to get up off your ass and VOTE, if you can't be bothered to do at least that much WHY the fuck should the people in power care about you? Think about it.

If the "progressives" and the "young" and the "liberal" and the "XXX" want something they have to do at least the minimum. You can't sit back on your ass, claim you were not sufficiently motivated, and blame someone else. Fucking self-motivate you spineless pussies - if you want it YOU have to get up and get it. Whine-whine-whine - the Democrats didn't get enough done and Obama is not the messiah - I'm going to sit home and pout! Wah-wah-wah - the republicans and the tea party won, woe is me! You know WHY they won? They fucking got up off their asses and VOTED!. That's IT. Those are the two reasons we see these results: the right went out and voted and the left stayed home and pouted.

Now, if YOU, personally, voted go ahead and piss and moan but if you didn't vote shut the fuck up and do better next time.

[MKSheppard]

If the Democratic leadership hadn't been so damned spineless. If Obama had taken the hard-line stance and actually gotten something done, instead of letting the GOP set the tone and pace of the debate, the people who supported him in 2008 (young progressives and liberals) would've been motivated enough to go vote.

The big problem is that the Democrats essentially wasted a very large portion of irreplaceable time and energy on the health care debate -- when they all along had the majorities needed to pass the HC bill. The reason they kept trying to find bipartisanship was to prevent the HC Bill from becoming an albatross around their necks if it was passed by a substantially party-line vote.

The problem was that the Republicans weren't particularly interested in biting; re the HC Bill; so it ended up being passed by pretty much the same votes which were available at the beginning of the process.

It's interesting to note that in this election cycle, very very few democrats ran using the HC Bill as an achievement in their campaign ads.

Just think what they could have achieved if they hadn't been mesmerized by the idea of the Great Democratic Dream (TM) of Universal Health Care.

[Akhlut]

Well "useless" would be preferable to "actively harmful".

I fucking hate that rheotoric and it fills me with bile every goddamn time I hear/read it. You know what other options you have? Third fucking parties. "But they can't win!" Of course not, if you don't vote for them. Maybe Obama and the rest of the Democratic leadership would realize that their sniveling, jerkass, spineless ways are useless if no one voted for them and maybe we'd get someone who is neither actively harmful nor useless.

[General Zod]

Well "useless" would be preferable to "actively harmful".

I fucking hate that rheotoric and it fills me with bile every goddamn time I hear/read it. You know what other options you have? Third fucking parties. "But they can't win!" Of course not, if you don't vote for them. Maybe Obama and the rest of the Democratic leadership would realize that their sniveling, jerkass, spineless ways are useless if no one voted for them and maybe we'd get someone who is neither actively harmful nor useless.

It would be nice if the available third party options were either not one trick ponies or not actively repulsive and essentially Republican lite.