is still the President of the United States of America.
Plus, he has VETO power AND the use of Executive Orders.
Scott Brown, ex-Massachusetts Senator, who lost his senate seat to Elizabeth Warren in 2012, moved out of Massachusetts "for personal reasons" so he could lose another senate race to another Democrat, incumbent New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen.
Looks like ex-Senator McDreamy will have to think about returning to what he's really good at: posing as a nude Cosmo centerfold.
Through voter suppression and other underhanded tactics, plus help from the SCOTUS in allowing dark money to buy our elections, most Republican incumbents kept their seats. This was expected, but it's probably one of the last times the GOP will get away with their voter suppression tactics, since demographics will overcome their ability to undermine elections in the coming years.
Big lesson from today is that Republicans win big when seniors dominate the electorate. I’m sure that’s a winning long-term strategy
— @markos
Meanwhile, the Republicans win through disenfranchising millions of Americans. That's the only way they can win.
 |
| But hey! I'm still the POTUS! |
From Infidel753:
These are the people who elected all those Republicans. They sound like the regulars over at Lisa's Porn Blog. These are the people who elected the gang that now controls Congress and most of the states.
Welcome to the GOP's America!
51 comments:
Let's see. Veto power. Just a dumb question from a non partisan but... if the LOTUS (big grin) vetoes legislation passed by the representatives of the people how is that any different than the legislative obstruction we've heard so much about? Other than the legislative obstruction was by the representatives of the people.
Tao said it best on his comment @ my site. Something about the two party system failing. He's right, it is. Except for the dyed in the wool partisans.
Still trying to get my head around this post. Pay back is a bitch message perhaps?
Be prepared for the "get over it" comments. Deja Vu?
I told you so. Halloween and Election Day switched places. Yesterday was Halloween, and if you wondering what happened and why, let us recall this article, Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult, written by Mike Lofgren over three years ago:
“Should Republicans succeed in obstructing the Senate from doing its job, it would further lower Congress's generic favorability rating among the American people. By sabotaging the reputation of an institution of government, the party that is programmatically against government would come out the relative winner.
A deeply cynical tactic, to be sure, but a psychologically insightful one that plays on the weaknesses both of the voting public and the news media. There are tens of millions of low-information voters who hardly know which party controls which branch of government, let alone which party is pursuing a particular legislative tactic. These voters' confusion over who did what allows them to form the conclusion that "they are all crooks," and that "government is no good," further leading them to think, "a plague on both your houses" and "the parties are like two kids in a school yard." This ill-informed public cynicism, in its turn, further intensifies the long-term decline in public trust in government that has been taking place since the early 1960s - a distrust that has been stoked by Republican rhetoric at every turn …
This constant drizzle of "there the two parties go again!" stories out of the news bureaus, combined with the hazy confusion of low-information voters, means that the long-term Republican strategy of undermining confidence in our democratic institutions has reaped electoral dividends.”
Milquetoast Democrats allowed themselves to be snookered … AGAIN … by running from core principles, abandoning their leadership, and alienating their base.
Invertebrates have more spine than Democrats.
The results of the election were brought to you by a large pissed off middle class.
At least now neither side can run and hide.
Without reid as a gate keeper, obama will have to take a stand on issues submitted by republicans instead of hiding behind slimy. He may have to do something he is not comfortable with, compromise.
The republicans will have to show they are not totally whacked out and get something done to assist the country not just the party.
Looks like the time for accountability is near and we will see how it turns out, after all we are the most affected.
both obama and biden have excellent teeth.
For two more whole years Shaw. 2016 will be even more interesting than the 2014 midterms. Two years for the GOP to get America pissed off even further, the nations does the perpetual flop, things change but yet stay the same, and America becomes Captains Florida.
Ah, tis good to be older. Fewer years of the perpetual BS.
Shaw... what a night... not since Harry Truman has a sitting Dem president seen his party lose this many seats across two mid term elections.
Yes, Barack Obama is still president, but in Congress, we have not seen a GOP edge this big in over 80 years.
The voters chose the GOP across the board. Congress, the Senate, Statehouses and state legislatures.
They won, pure and simple.
Now the hard work of governing will begin. How will the GOP get the 60 votes to invoke cloture in the Senate?
Will congress send clean bills to the President?
Will the Dems, taking a page from the GOP playbook, obstruct at every turn?
We can complain all we want about what the GOP has done and their efforts to limit the vote.
But one reason we lost, and the GOP had nothing to do with this is a seeming fundamental inability, or unwillingness to help his party win the politics of governing.
At every turn, starting with his inability to be prepared for the Jeremiah Wright moment in the 2008 campaign to him saying last week that his policies are on the ballot, his politics have been terrible.
The presidency is inherently political. Obama tried not to be, and it has cost him, the Dems, and thrown his legacy and agenda away.
For me, the responsibility for the results of last night lay squarely at the feet of President Obama. A president has a responsibility to be the leader of his party.
He has not done that and last night is just the latest example.
Yes, he is still president... but do you think the party is excited or depressed about that?
Me thinks it's the latter...
Hopefully two years will be enough time to show everyone what a GOP US looks like.
As goes Kansas & Wisconsin, so goes the US. Welcome to third
world neofeudalism.
So what do they want, Shaw?
What is the far right's image of America?
The media has them worked up into such a frenzy that they blame Obama for everything from Ebola to the Mideast problems.
I swear it's as if all they want to do is be angry. They have been whipped up to a froth so hard that the only desire is to be angry at whatever Fox puts in front of them. They are so delirious that they can't even stop to take a deep breath and be rational.
But in my neck of the woods a casino is the answer. I keep thinking of a line of Charles Bukowski's describing a day at the track, "How do you tell the dreamer there's a 15% take on the dream?"
Indeed, without any control of the media, how do you?
I disagree, Dave. The fault is with the people who listen to media and think they're telling the truth about anything.
Yes, not since Harry Truman, and Harry Truman has an excellent place in American history as an excellent president. While he was president? Not so much. he was extremely unpopular.
If you think this is all Obama's and the Democrats' fault, you haven't been paying attention to what the Koch Brothers, et.al. have been doing to this country.
IMO, President Obama HAS led the nation. The problem is that this country is still in love with a fantasy of what it is not.
This election will fade in time, and in time the Democrats will come back in power. It's all cyclical.
Dave is right Shaw. The only way the dems are going to come back in strength is to recognize what Dave is saying.
A West Virginia University freshman who did most of her campaigning out of her dorm room became the youngest state lawmaker in the nation Tuesday.
Republican Saira Blair, a fiscally conservative 18-year-old, will represent a small district in West Virginia’s eastern panhandle, about 1½ hours outside Washington, D.C., after defeating her Democratic opponent 63% to 30%, according to the Associated Press. A third candidate got 7% of the vote.
Looks like conservatism is still alive and well in the younger set.
Thank goodness for President Obama
if the LOTUS (big grin) vetoes legislation passed by the representatives of the people how is that any different than the legislative obstruction we've heard so much about?
Those "representatives" are the product of low-turnout elections marked by gerrymandering and vote suppression via the revived Jim Crow laws which Republican state governments have put in place wherever they could. Obama won the two highest-turnout Presidential elections in US history. He has far more claim to be a representative of the people.
Through voter suppression and other underhanded tactics, plus help from the SCOTUS in allowing dark money to buy our elections, most Republican incumbents kept their seats. This was expected, but it's probably one of the last times the GOP will get away with their voter suppression tactics, since demographics will overcome their ability to undermine elections in the coming years.
The Republicans need to think really, really hard about where they're going with this. Yes, in theory they could keep imposing ever more stringent limitations on voting to offset the growing numbers of groups they know won't vote for them, but the logical end-point of that process would be something like South Africa in the old days. I can't believe anyone (except the small hard core of real racists) wants that.
I of course hope you're right. Ducky, you certainly are... There is indeed intense anger out there...
Infidel753, you nailed it. It will be interesting to find out the percentage of voters who turned out to vote in this midterm.
Obama could have done more to promote his policies and successes, but the population was listening and watching an out-of-control media scaring them about an "epidemic" that hasn't happened here.
Let's face it, Dems got their asses kicked. Voter suppression and big money might play a part but voter apathy is the real culprit. Repubs were more motivated to vote.
Turnout nation wide was somewhere around 38%. Pathetic. Despite 64 staight months of job growth, UE from 10% to 5.9%, the deficit cut to 1/3 of what it was when Obama took office, 10M more Americans with health ins., the R base is convinced Obama is destroying the country. R's used an incredibly cynical strategy, but it worked.
All those Dems who ran from Obama and the record got what they deserved. Allison L. Grimes couldn't admit she voted for Obama. WTF. Inconsequential compared to Mitch wanting to destroy Kynect, but she might as well have written 'weasel' on her forehead.
Telling your base the they're losing their country and if Ebola doesn't kill you, ISIS will is a powerful motivator. Telling your base you aren't really behind your party's policies gets you Tuesday night.
"The fault is with the people who listen to media and think they're telling the truth about anything."
Think back to 2008 when the message was hope and change. We did get the change but still waiting for the hope part.
I am fairly certain of two things that will happen. The administration will continue to blame everyone else for anything that goes wrong and the republicans will f--- up a great opportunity to do great things.
Meaningful tax reform to help everyone not just just the rich, fair tax would be best but there are to many tax lawyers opposing it.
Work to citizenship for immigrants not just amnesty
Allow health insurance companies to compete across state lines
Eliminate all non-profit deductions including charities and churches
That would be a stsrt
As a % of VAP 2008 and 2012 were not the highest turnout ever. This data can be Googled.
By today's standards the approx. 58% is impressive nontheless. I guess the approx. 42% of VAP just don't care.
I am not in agreement with Dave or RN. The Dems didn't do a good enough job turning out the base, and the reason for that was because the Democratic candidates (for the most part) ran away from Obama's record of success (which Shaw has blogged about here and here).
Aside from that, I attribute the Republican "wins" to apathy, suppression, dark money, and massive election fraud (see Crosscheck).
Hi, Shaw, I saw this; I'm going to try to add a link here. It might explain a few things. :)
https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/529772540277710848/photo/1
As I read and the reality sets in, the breadth of Tuesdays results can be seen.
At every lever of government across the US, conservatives, who just a few years ago we thought vanquished, have taken control.
State Houses? Yes. State legislatures? Yes. The House? Yes, in a historical way. The Senate? Yes.
If this is cyclical, I'm not sure I've ever seen a cycle like it. The GOP is better positioned than at any time in my entire life.
Please someone, tell me, if the next two years show continued improvement in the economy, which is where it is trending, how logically people will not give credit to GOP policies and leadership?
How we got here is irrelevant. The GOP did what they needed to do to get here and win. And win they did.
Even if the Dems find a way to win the presidential election in 2016, the GOP will be busy solidifying statewide gains that translate into future wins.
It is a very sobering time.
If the country were trending conservative, how does one explain Obama's overwhelming re-election (post-Obamacare), the continuing acceptance by Americans on marriage equality, and now the marijuana issue, all of those are liberal causes. The GOP had ample time to come up with something on immigration. They didn't. John Boner refused to even let it come up for a vote.
The GOP got a win for sure this year. But the American electorate is mercurial, as we have seen over the last 8 years. I wouldn't count too many more chickens, for either the Dems or the Repubs.
Craig is right. The country is NOT what the conservative media have SHOUTED about for the last 6 years. We recovered from a disaster brought on by a GOP administration, and we did it relatively quicker than did other countries--WITHOUT A BIT OF HELP FROM THE GOP.
But when on party has a powerful propaganda machine FAUX NOOZ as well as hate radio, telling the people they're all gonna die all the time, how do you think the scardy cats ar going to vote?
We, at P.E., have see the quality of the people who vote for the GOP: white supremacists, anti-women (not ONE GOPer voted for equal pay for women), anti science, anti-environment, and let's not forget the pornographers and low-lifes who are The Porn Queen's best buddies. That's mostly who voted on Tuesday. I said "mostly," not all.
Kana, I saw that earlier today. This election was decided by older white people. And the U.S. is not trending that way.
@skud --- Allow health insurance companies to compete across state lines
-----
Why?
All that will do is allow an insurer to incorporate in a state with the most lax regulation and raise premiums while denying more claims.
Please explain to the class why you think that is a benefit.
@skud --Eliminate all non-profit deductions including charities and churches
----
?
Craig, what's the story with Franken.
A walkover on a night when every other Dem was either squeaking through or getting slammed?
Can he develop a national voice?
One thing to keep in mind is that liberal ballot initiatives were much more successful than liberal candidates.
States that tried to initiate fetal personhood laws all had them go down.
The electorate is much less conservative than the election results would have you believe.
We, at P.E., have see the quality of the people who vote for the GOP: white supremacists, anti-women (not ONE GOPer voted for equal pay for women), anti science, anti-environment, and let's not forget the pornographers and low-lifes who are The Porn Queen's best buddies. That's mostly who voted on Tuesday. I said "mostly," not all.
I'm not convinced that the bolded is true.
Fact is Americans are clearly disgruntled, unhappy with both the current congress and the sitting president, concerned about our fiscal excesses and at the same time worried about their future financial stability, concerned with our never ending global military reach and unneeded intervention in other nation's affairs, and I could go on and on if I had time. But really, what would be the point?
I'm glad Dervish disagrees with Dave as that certainly adds more strength and credibility to his points.
Shaw... you guys continue to give me hope...
Senior officials in his administration called Netanyahu a coward and a chickenshit. Either he can't control his officials or he endorsed their actions.
His frosty relations with the Clintons also show poor judgement. The man needs to show a little humility now and then.
"His frosty relations with the Clintons also show poor judgement. The man needs to show a little humility now and then."
yeah...that's the ticket...the black guy needs to show a little humility now and then...Jesus Christ!
Matthew Yglesias:
"The presidential and non-presidential electorates look too different for either political party to optimize for both of them. Democrats have built a coalition that’s optimized for presidential years, while the GOP has one that’s optimized for off-years. And so we’re set for a lot of big swings back and forth every two years."
Voting for someone worse does not create change for the better.
I believe health insurance companies can currently sell in multiple states. All they have to do is meet the state requirements. What's wrong with that?
Craig, what's the story with Franken.
Ducky, VOTER FRAUD!
Al ran against an investment banker, Mike McFadden. McFadden's ads consisted mostly of "Franken voted with Obama 97%" and the ACA is a train wreck. Al stayed mostly positive, touting his work on education, clean energy, support for ACA (MN ranks right behind MA in people covered, 95%), raising the min. wage, veterans, sexual abuse of women in the military, net neutrality and constituent service.
It was funny. In their last debate the mod. asked McFadden his position on net neutrality and it was obvious Mike didn't know what the hell it is.
Franken didn't exactly embrace Obama but he didn't try to distance himself either. He ran on progressive policies and won by 10 points. Our Dem. gov. Dayton won too. Sadly, the state House flipped back to R. Senate stays D.
Can he develop a national voice?
We'll see. He kept his head down in first term. I think he had to show he's a serious guy, being a comedian and all. He's definitely a Liz Warren Democrat.
Jerry Critter said...
Voting for someone worse does not create change for the better.
First one has to understand the definitions of "better" and "worse", then proceed from there.
Of course, as in most things there exists differences in how people perceive what is "better" or "worse" for them, usually based on how something affects their interests.
Attempting to imposes ones particular view on another is a form of Fascism, regardless from whence it originates (think ideology and government).
Jerry Critter said...
I believe health insurance companies can currently sell in multiple states. All they have to do is meet the state requirements. What's wrong with that?
Nothing. but as long as there is a cornucopia of state insurance regs insurance companies will stay away from states that have restrictions companies don't like.
RN said: "how is that any different than the legislative obstruction we've heard so much about?"
It's obstruction if the other party does it, and principled opposition if you party does it. That's how it always seems, doesn't it?
Jerry said: "...believe health insurance companies can currently sell in multiple states. All they have to do is meet the state requirements. What's wrong with that?"
State requirements which often exist just to block competition. Also, many states have sweetheart deals with the BCBC corporations which other providers don't have, insuring ... yes insuring... something closer to a monopoly.
Duck
Why across state lines, because competition lowers prices. JC why have to meet every states requirements to sell in that state. Because they have to pay fees, taxes, and that drives up costs.
Eliminate non-profit deductions. By allowing any organization to be tax exempt and for donations to be deductible we are forced to support institutions we don't believe in.
Ever hear of the division of church and state.
Atheists are supporting churches with the tax dollars. If you believe in a institution or a cause then give them money but not because it is deductible.
Franken isn't the only one. Oregon's Jeff Merkley also was re-elected by a wide margin.
It's all about turnout. Nationally, turnout in this election was 38% (at most -- I've seen even lower estimates). When most people don't vote, Republicans win. Here in Oregon, turnout was 69% and Democrats did well across the board. If that 69% had been replicated across the country, we'd be looking at a national Democratic landslide now instead of this minority-rule freak show.
Skid - "Because they have to pay fees, taxes, and that drives up cost "
...for everyone. In other words, a level playing field. What's wrong with that?
And so it begins.
RN - "... as long as there is a cornucopia of state insurance regs insurance companies will stay away from states that have restrictions companies don't like."
Different state regulations is not a big problem. As far as I know, all states have multiple insurance companies selling health insurance which means they have competition based on the same ground rules. Seems to me that is the way it should be.
. If that 69% had been replicated across the country, we'd be looking at a national Democratic landslide now instead of this minority-rule freak show.
We'll get a chance to observe the accuracy of that statement in 2016.
However I doubt turnout will be 69+ percent. It will likely float in the mid to upper 5oi% of VAP.
Lets see, Barack Obama won in 2008 by a landslide and put a bunch of democrats in office due to his coattails.
So, in 2014 those same democrats ran from him. As a Progressive its really hard to get excited for a candidate that is ashamed to acknowledge she voted for Barack Obama (Alison Lundergan Grimes).
We have a very successful healthcare exchange in Kentucky, but the democrats (our governor) refuses to admit that it is due to Obamacare.
Nancy Pelosi pushes hard for idea of a Republican "war on women" why can't the democrats run on a "War on the middle class/working class"
Probably because their biggest donors are Wall Street firms.
Remember when Barack Obama told Joe the Plumber that he was going to tax those who make $250,000 or more a year at a higher rate?
That got the base excited and to the polls.
Thanks to Mitt Romney and his "47 percent" comment Barack Obama was re-elected to a second term.
Its time for the democrats to put the old tired playbook to rest and come up with something new.
It takes emotion to get people to the polls, and the Republicans have anger, and the democrats have nothing.
Conservative states vote to raise minimum wage and against personhood amendments and yet the democrats can't win....
Somebody is missing the boat some place.
I am not sure it is to the Republicans advantage any longer to gut the ACA. Lots of people like many of its provisions. It could be just what the Democrats need in 2016.
ACA will not be gutted. Changed perhaps but gutted. ACA is not as popular as some like to believe but it has had a positive impact on many. Republicans gut it at their peril.
Tao is correct. Not sure the old class warfare fought by the early progressives will work these days. You guys need to package it differently.
There are fiscal conservatives who hold their noses and vote republican but have more libertarian social views. Find a way to move move them. Like Tao said tapping into emotion works. Or perhaps the better word is fear.
Bottom line, system is broken and the sheep are too busy or distracted to notice.
RN: I'm glad Dervish disagrees with Dave as that certainly adds more strength and credibility to his [Dervish's] points.
Thank you. Although I'd say it adds more strength and credibility to my points that I'm disagreeing with RN.
As awesome as her achievements are, Ms. Blair is now faced with governing her district from which 4994 votes of 48,649 eligible voters cast their votes, or 10 percent of her district’s constituents.
Low voter turnout causes rule by minority, political contention, and extremism.
The blame goes to we the people.
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