Assesing the American election, some preliminary observation

[Nastarana]

Please respond with your own thoughts, disagreements, observations, reactions and so forth.

1. The Angry Reactionary (mostly) Male faction got its' a** handed to it. And about time, too.

2. Competence matters. Mr. Obama demonstrated once again that he knows how to get things done, and how to find the people who can do what he needs done. Without expensive excesses like flower delivery. Competent people don't need that sort of ego bribes, most are grateful to--at last!--have an employer who uses them in whatever capacity they are good at.

3. No more Mideast wars. None. Bibi can take a hike. Bashar Assad remains in power. Long may he rule, until the day when HIS OWN CITIZENS, by which I mean, Syrians who live in Syria, not a pack of indulged expatriates, decide to remove him.

4. No more overgrown adolescents who don't understand how to behave in public. Romney might have had a shot with a better compaign, but I think his disastrous trip overseas sank the boat for good. I can't be the only American voter who is fed up with presidents and other high officials who embarrass us when they go overseas. Memo to the Rupublican corporate elite: send your next stooge to finishing school to learn deportment and then assign him or her a protocol officer.

5. Then there were the rape comments from the likes of Santorum, Akin et al. Romney and the Repugs Could Not afford to repudiate those comments because part of the subliminal message to male voters was You get to be important again, and You deserve to not be disdained by uppity women any longer, and We will cut their social programs to the bone, so that women won't be able to do without you. Male pundits scratched their heads over the rape comments; meanwhile we women knew exactly what they meant.

6. The Republicans are still fighting yesterday's wars, as are self-styled progressives, but that is a discussion for another day. Attack on Iran! Isreal is all grown up now. Let Bibi fight his own wars, he has enough cash and materiel from us to wipe out any conceivable opponent. Trade war with China? No wonder Hispanics voted for Obama. Trade war with China means Walmart closes, means all the cheap stuff your cousin sells at flea markets disappears, means middle class white folks can no longer live beyond their means which means the jobs in domestic service go away, means the inexpensive fancy clothes which your kids wear to school to convince school officials they are respectable non-welfare babies are no longer available.

7. Obama doesn't owe the Clintons a blessed thing. Not a thing. Bill stepped up to the plate to help Obama, when he should be enjoying his retirement as an honored elder statesman, to save his wife's career after she once again revealed her fundamental incompetence and invincible arogance during the proxy war against Syria. That woman is toxic. Bill should have dumped her and marrried Monica. Had Romney won, Mme Hillary would not ever ever have had a shot at the presidency again.

To conclude, I think American voters are at last beginning to wake up. The lies we have been told for years, and which so many of us gladly believed, turned out to be...lies.

[Nastarana]

I should also mention that Romney's refusal to release tax returns alienated many. Anyone who has ever been asked to supply six refernces, and a complete curriculum vitae from birth to yesterday, not to mention credit report, for a part time job answering the phone is not going to sympathise with a rich guy who wont let us see his tax returns. I think Romeny was counting on the automatic deference Americans used to have for wealthy folks, who were seen as extraordinarily productive and worthy individuals.

[Marcus]

. .1. The A[RM] got its' a** handed to it. . .
2. . . that sort of ego bribes, . .
3. . . Bibi can take a hike. . .
4. . . overgrown adolescents . . your next stooge to . .
5. . . the Repugs . .
6. . . self-styled progressives, . .
7. . . invincible arrogance . . .
. . I think . .

Try rephrasing whatever it is you're trying to say.

pew.jpg (12.13 KiB) Viewed 1384 times

[Nastarana]

The condensed version:
American voters are beginning to wake up. We don't want more Mideast wars, and we no longer automatically believe that rich folks are worthy people. There may now be room for a third party compoased of an alliance between non-racist conservatives and non-internationalist liberals. One can hope.

[Marcus]

The condensed version:
American voters are beginning to wake up. We don't want more Mideast wars, and we no longer automatically believe that rich folks are worthy people. There may now be room for a third party compoased of an alliance between non-racist conservatives and non-internationalist liberals. One can hope.

Much better . . well said . .

[Azrael]

The condensed version:
American voters are beginning to wake up. We don't want more Mideast wars, and we no longer automatically believe that rich folks are worthy people. There may now be room for a third party compoased of an alliance between non-racist conservatives and non-internationalist liberals. One can hope.

Much better . . well said . .

Yes, well said and good points. However, our first-past-the-post electoral system makes voting for a third party impractical.

[Torchwood]

The condensed version:
American voters are beginning to wake up. We don't want more Mideast wars, and we no longer automatically believe that rich folks are worthy people. There may now be room for a third party compoased of an alliance between non-racist conservatives and non-internationalist liberals. One can hope.

Much better . . well said . .

Yes, well said and good points. However, our first-past-the-post electoral system makes voting for a third party impractical.

which means, if it wants to survive, that such a party should be called the Republican party.

[Juggernaut Nihilism]

I don't think any of that is correct. Nobody swung to the Democrats. Obama got 9 million fewer votes than he got in 2008. They picked up a few Senate seats from dirtbag Republicans. The Democrats mobilized better, simple as that. This election wasn't about policy. If it was, people might have noticed that Obama has acted exactly like GW Bush would have if he had been given a third term, something that honest Democrats, like Tinker, have pointed out and abandoned Obama for.

[Ibrahim]

The ways in which a Republican campaign (even with Romney at the helm) could win are now obvious.

1. Can the dog-whistle, demographics no longer favor this tactic. The 80's were a long time a go.

2. Tell your hick candidates not to talk about rape, vaginas, or women in general. Silence is golden.

3. Don't write off %47 of the population as shiftless looters.

4. Stick to rhetoric about tax cuts and deficit control, without illogically pairing it with growth in other spending and tax cuts.

5. Give up on gaybashing and abortion. Those ships have sailed.

6. Latino candidates. Plenty of conservative Latinos out there, this is a demographic that is out there waiting to be won over (see #1).

[Juggernaut Nihilism]

The ways in which a Republican campaign (even with Romney at the helm) could win are now obvious.

1. Can the dog-whistle, demographics no longer favor this tactic. The 80's were a long time a go.

2. Tell your hick candidates not to talk about rape, vaginas, or women in general. Silence is golden.

3. Don't write off %47 of the population as shiftless looters.

4. Stick to rhetoric about tax cuts and deficit control, without illogically pairing it with growth in other spending and tax cuts.

5. Give up on gaybashing and abortion. Those ships have sailed.

6. Latino candidates. Plenty of conservative Latinos out there, this is a demographic that is out there waiting to be won over (see #1).

That's... reasonable. Goddammit, I hate when Ibrahim is reasonable.

[Taboo]

The ways in which a Republican campaign (even with Romney at the helm) could win are now obvious.

1. Can the dog-whistle, demographics no longer favor this tactic. The 80's were a long time a go.

2. Tell your hick candidates not to talk about rape, vaginas, or women in general. Silence is golden.

3. Don't write off %47 of the population as shiftless looters.

4. Stick to rhetoric about tax cuts and deficit control, without illogically pairing it with growth in other spending and tax cuts.

5. Give up on gaybashing and abortion. Those ships have sailed.

6. Latino candidates. Plenty of conservative Latinos out there, this is a demographic that is out there waiting to be won over (see #1).

Yup.

[Jnalum Persicum]

.


Cuban-Americans stun Republicans - Traditionally right-leaning group goes for Democrats

More Cuban-Americans, once a reliable conservative bulwark in Florida, voted for Barack Obama in Tuesday’s election than Mitt Romney, underscoring the breadth of the demographic wave that engulfed the Republican party.

[..]

Exit polls in Florida by Fox News and the Pew Research Centre both recorded Mr Obama beating Mr Romney with Cuban-Americans by 49 per cent to 47 per cent.

[..]

“This marks a dramatic realignment of politics in that state,” said Jim Messina, the Obama campaign manager.

.

[Simple Minded]

The condensed version:
American voters are beginning to wake up. We don't want more Mideast wars, and we no longer automatically believe that rich folks are worthy people. There may now be room for a third party compoased of an alliance between non-racist conservatives and non-internationalist liberals. One can hope.

Very nice start Nastrana. To broaden the coalition, lets also include the non-racist liberals and the non-internationalist conservatives. The coming zeitgeist will be fertile grounds for the seeds of isolationism.

I also think the American voters are finally starting to wake up. Just barely starting..... Another 5-10 years and it will be in full swing. For far too long the motto of the generation in power has been "from future generations according to their ability, to us, according to our fickle whims and desires."

Generation We is going to do a lot of pruning simply because they will have little choice and few alliances to laws passed decades before their birth. I wish them well and hope they act boldly.

Low national turn out was amazing to us in central VA. There were 20 times more people than normal at my poling place. Many people called in to local radio stations to say turnout was greater than anything they have seen in 20, 30, or 40 years. My friends father has been voting in VA his whole life. He said he has never seen a turn out like this one in over 65 years.

Interesting times are coming, and only the foolish and self-absorbed will surprised.

[Simple Minded]

The ways in which a Republican campaign (even with Romney at the helm) could win are now obvious.

1. Can the dog-whistle, demographics no longer favor this tactic. The 80's were a long time a go.

2. Tell your hick candidates not to talk about rape, vaginas, or women in general. Silence is golden.

3. Don't write off %47 of the population as shiftless looters.

4. Stick to rhetoric about tax cuts and deficit control, without illogically pairing it with growth in other spending and tax cuts.

5. Give up on gaybashing and abortion. Those ships have sailed.

6. Latino candidates. Plenty of conservative Latinos out there, this is a demographic that is out there waiting to be won over (see #1).

That's... reasonable. Goddammit, I hate when Ibrahim is reasonable.

Ibrahim being reasonable is as refreshing as it is rare..... I always suspected he had it deep within him somewhere.

[YMix]

The GOP needs a new South-urban strategy, that much is obvious. But who will pander to Goldwaterite worshipers of "low taxes-big military", crazy Evangelists and racist ex-Bourbons? Which demographic will be the Koch brothers' new mouthpiece calling for tax cuts to the rich? Will Reagan's administration and legacy prove to be a mere speedbump on the road to a different kind of society in the USA?

[Hans Bulvai]

John Nichols: Overwhelming Obama Victory Not Just a Mandate for the President, but for Progressives

http://www.democracynow.org/2012/11/8/j ... ictory_not

AMY GOODMAN: To talk more about President Obama’s re-election, we are joined in Madison, Wisconsin, by John Nichols, political writer for The Nation magazine. His latest piece, "For Obama, a Bigger Win Than for Kennedy, Nixon, Carter or Bush."

Take it from there, John.

JOHN NICHOLS: Well, I think that’s the thing that people have to wrap their head around. And I’m not just talking about Karl Rove running around in the studio at Fox trying to figure out why all of his hundreds of millions of dollars went awry. I’m talking about progressives, and indeed President Obama himself. So much of this election was framed on the notion that if President Obama was re-elected, he would sort of have to claw his way to victory, and it would be a very narrow thing, up all night with it—probably when we spoke on a Thursday morning after the election, we’d still be uncertain of the results. That’s not the case. When all the votes are counted, President Obama will have won a popular vote margin of more than three million, probably quite a bit more than three million. And when Florida is finished—it’s a mess down there, but when it’s finally counted, probably to his column he will have roughly 332 electoral—it looks like 332 electoral votes.

Those victories—more than three million popular vote, 332 electoral votes—are bigger than what John Kennedy came in with, bigger than what Richard Nixon came in with, bigger than what Jimmy Carter came in with, and bigger than what George Bush had in 2000 or what George Bush had in 2004. And I’ll remind folks that after that 2004 election, George Bush stood before the American people and said he put his platform out there, the people had embraced it, and he had political capital to spend. I think it’s very, very vital that President Obama understand that he has not scraped his way to victory here. He has got a win, and he ought to take that populist language, that progressive language of the close of his campaign, and make it much more central to his politics.

Unfortunately, this president has far too much of a tendency to compromise, and so that’s why the second part of the equation is progressives need to take this in. Progressives need to understand that they should pressure this president to respond to what can genuinely be referred to as a mandate to make sure that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are protected, to do humane and genuine immigration reform, as Juan has so well discussed, to do tax reforms that really do shift the burden to the wealthy. All of these things can be central to a program, but it can’t work if the president, and even the president’s supporters, think that he just narrowly won an election.

[Mr. Perfect]

Very nice start Nastrana. To broaden the coalition, lets also include the non-racist liberals and the non-internationalist conservatives. The coming zeitgeist will be fertile grounds for the seeds of isolationism.

I also think the American voters are finally starting to wake up. Just barely starting..... Another 5-10 years and it will be in full swing. For far too long the motto of the generation in power has been "from future generations according to their ability, to us, according to our fickle whims and desires."

Err, America just doubled and tripled down on the concept.

In 5-10 years we'll be defaulting.

Low national turn out was amazing to us in central VA. There were 20 times more people than normal at my poling place. Many people called in to local radio stations to say turnout was greater than anything they have seen in 20, 30, or 40 years. My friends father has been voting in VA his whole life. He said he has never seen a turn out like this one in over 65 years.

This is amazing, VA total vote was down from 2008, just a little more than 2004.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

The condensed version:
American voters are beginning to wake up. We don't want more Mideast wars, and we no longer automatically believe that rich folks are worthy people. There may now be room for a third party compoased of an alliance between non-racist conservatives and non-internationalist liberals. One can hope.

I'm pretty sure American voters have always leaned towards isolationism- hence the government having to define every conflict as an the most epic battle of good and evil yet.

I don't know what "rich folk as worthy people" means. America, to me, has always seemed to have the same love-hate relationship with the wealthy since the Industrial Revolution started. We've been making movies about it for years and years:



There is no such thing as an non-internationalist liberal in today's world. And I don't see how you can base a whole party around that. A non-internationalist liberal will be, and is, a racist- you see the whole history of racism and romantic liberalism already played out in the 19th century....and you've already made clear you want to kick out the racists...what I'm reading is that you want a fantasy party where no one is really like themselves and they are all happy and healthy as they rise up against the big bad guys for the good of the Moon or something...who knows, it's your fantasy....

I'm not sure if American voters are beginning to wake up; but I'm pretty sure you gotta stop dreaming here if you want to see which way the winds are blowing.

[Mr. Perfect]

I'm watching posts like the OP and others in the last two days that riddled with holes and flaws, and at the moment I do not have the energy to dig in, except I think the left is thinking there is something new under the sun, whilst we fly straight into the heart of it.

[Mr. Perfect]

I don't know what "rich folk as worthy people" means. America, to me, has always seemed to have the same love-hate relationship with the wealthy since the Industrial Revolution started. We've been making movies about it for years and years:

And ironically all the anti-rich movies are made by very rich people.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

I don't know what "rich folk as worthy people" means. America, to me, has always seemed to have the same love-hate relationship with the wealthy since the Industrial Revolution started. We've been making movies about it for years and years:

And ironically all the anti-rich movies are made by very rich people.

Well, most of them aren't really anti-rich, they are merely anti-inheritance. These type of films (I'd say best done in comedies) always has the self-made millionaire that is supposed to be on your side 'cause he's more like you (Rodney Dangerfield in Caddyshack) or a guy who has lost touch with himself as he worked his way up but then teams up with the little folk to show up the real evil rich guys (Dan Akyrod in Trading Places, who learns the errors of his ways after spending a few days with a hooker and a clever negro.)

Another personal favorite of mine is Brewster's Millions. Not a great movie, but Richard Pryor and John Candy are so much fun in it.

It's that love/hate relationship with rich folks- we love entrepreneurs but God forbid any of the money goes to their offspring, unless you are a Kennedy or a superhero like Iron Man or Batman.

[monster_gardener]

.


Cuban-Americans stun Republicans - Traditionally right-leaning group goes for Democrats

More Cuban-Americans, once a reliable conservative bulwark in Florida, voted for Barack Obama in Tuesday’s election than Mitt Romney, underscoring the breadth of the demographic wave that engulfed the Republican party.

[..]

Exit polls in Florida by Fox News and the Pew Research Centre both recorded Mr Obama beating Mr Romney with Cuban-Americans by 49 per cent to 47 per cent.

[..]

“This marks a dramatic realignment of politics in that state,” said Jim Messina, the Obama campaign manager.

.

Thank You Very Much for your post, Azari.

IMVHO one problem with Romney's campaign was that quite frankly Romney had such a history & history of flip flopping that he probably felt he had to re-assure conservatives by Picking Ryan which may have helped him in the Pectoral College but not in the Electoral college....

Probably should have picked Rubio....... Probably would have carried Florida for sure and shaved some Hispano votes from Obama elsewhere........

[Mr. Perfect]

He should have picked Condoleeza Rice.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

Condoleeza Rice should have run.

She is a self-made millionaire-type, an intellectual, a moderate like Mitt, who came from the segregated South and "overcame" everything as a black woman. And she's probably gay too. Gay about the international policies both parties love; and gay enough to be able to wheel and deal in DC.

Obama wouldn't have stood a chance.

[noddy]

hah, biden vs rice for the next one