2014 Election Day Thread

[Xajii]

I'm torn on the takeaway from this election, but my gut tells me that this is a consequence of Democrats campaigning too defensively and hoping that they could convince people that things were more optimistic than the average person perceives them to be. Things like delaying immigration action in the hopes of keeping conservatives from getting riled up may have backfired, and now Obama is trapped between going back on his promise to take executive action after the election or poisoning the relationship with the new Congress before they even get a chance to do anything.

I don't think this is really a vote of confidence in Republicans at all. I just think people are tired of politicians not giving them straight answers and they took it out on Obama this year. If the newly elected Congress doesn't back up its talk of fighting for the average person (and I have no reason to believe they will), you're not going to see their approval ratings climb out of the single digits and it will come back to bite them within a few election cycles.

the takeaway is that this happens every 8 years at this time and it should not come as a surprise

[Dantrag]

It was a great night for the tea party in general though.

I meant in the primaries and didn't mean incumbents.

Quicklet is right though. If republicans refuse to govern and get shit done, it'll turn back in 2016/2018.

[Correction]

It'll depend on whether or not the Tea Party drags the party back to the lunatic fringe in 2016, which it well could. If the GOP maintains the centrist strategy that just won them congress they'll stand a chance against Hillary/whoever runs for Dems in two years and keep congress till 2020.

[archibaldcrane]

They have a terrible structural disadvantage in the Senate in 2016. Combine that with Hillary running basically unopposed in her party and the turnout for her and I highly doubt this Senate majority will make it to year 3.

[Dimmauk]

The Republican Congress has a 89% disapproval rating and America decided we need more of those guys in the Senate? WTF

[Wulfgang]

DC passed Initiative 71 (legalization) by a massive margin. As I posted in the MJ thread, DC is a bit different than CO's model. We legalized possession up to two ounces, but there is no recreational infrastructure or taxation model in place and there are no immediate plans to create either. Also, since DC has the odd status as a federal district, congress has to approve the initiative. We'll see what happens. On one hand, voters passed medical marijuana in 1998, but Congress delayed it forever by forbidding DC to use taxpayer funds to implement the measure. On the other, when DC moved to decriminalize marijuana and make it a $25 fine, Congress let it pass with no issue.

[The Blackrose]

Walker is facerolling Mary Burke so far in Wisconsin, fuck my life.

It's been called. Walker is so awful, how the fuck does that happen?

RE: Tyche - It's because the WI Democratic Party has been a good ol' boy pissing match between Madison and Milwaukee for years now. Problem is that they forget that there's a whole rest of the state, and that rest of the state is still irked over some of the crap Doyle pulled when he was in office. It's why Milwaukee/Madison area has looked blue, while the rest of the state has looked red on a state/local level for about 6 years now.

The biggest surprise this morning was LaFollette keeping Secretary of State. For a while, it looks like he was going to be losing his position. Seems the only things that went right this election was that and the referendum to prevent state congress from diverting transportation funds into other budget items (which happened during 2003-2011, where $1.6b was used to cover schools and other programs). Outside of recently renovated areas like the Marquette interchange, WI infrastructure has been an absolute mess.

[Aksannyi]

I've actually read things from people who think that legalizing medicinal marijuana somehow means that there will never be the opportunity to legalize recreational marijuana, and that's why they voted no on Prop 2.

Fucking idiots.

[archibaldcrane]

Desperately clinging to guns and religion.
Edit: re: rural Wisconsin

[Aksannyi]

Not even that.

Then of course there's the ones on Facebook acting like it's the end of the world if people want to get high. Fucking let them! People are allowed to smoke cigarettes. Why the fuck do people care so much what other people do with their lives? Stop restricting people's freedom to live their fucking lives.

[Cantih]

Looks like no more super-majority in the CA legislature. Now we see if gridlock commences.

[Egon]

Posting just so people can see the happy Karl Rove face.

The public is not happy with Obama, the GoP ran an anti-Obama campaign and they won. The sad part for me is that we still don't have have any good GoP leaders. Mitch is the top GoP in DC and that makes me sad. We can all poke fun at Sarah Palin but at least she was a leader most republicans could get behind. We have zero leadership, and we will loose everything 2016 unless we find someone who can step it up.

[Salodin]

Wtf are you doing celebrating then? Just cause your party pulled some big wins you want to celebrate even though you admit you have no good leaders? =/

[Dantrag]

Democrats fell into republican's trap by letting them run the narrative. Same shit happened with Bush. Same shit will happen again until a party figures out how to not be on he defensive every 4-8 years. Fucking use your strengths and rule the narrative, don't succumb to having to separate yourself from the fucking leader of your party.

[Egon]

I didn't realize I was celebrating? Even so, a win is still a win; just means there is now A LOT of work to do for 2016.

[The Blackrose]

Desperately clinging to guns and religion.
Edit: re: rural Wisconsin

Now reconcile that with how Wisconsin went to Obama twice and continues to have near even representation in the House. The Senate situation has been FUBAR ever since Johnson/Feingold in 2010, but otherwise Wisconsin has swung blue nationally.

There's an issue at the state/local level of the WI Democratic party that needs to be corrected. That could be said in a number of states, actually.

We can all poke fun at Sarah Palin but at least she was a leader most republicans could get behind.

There's at least 3 jokes here with that setup.

[Waraji]

Problem with that Dan, is that Fear sells faster than Facts. Fact: universal healthcare is good. Fear: Obamer wants to send your elderly to death panel.

[Jaffar]

Obamacare is far from universal healthcare...

[Dantrag]

Problem with that Dan, is that Fear sells faster than Facts. Fact: universal healthcare is good. Fear: Obamer wants to send your elderly to death panel.

I know generally people take this route. But the people that matter the most(independents), I don't think fear really works on them. We all know that MOST people that identify as either Red or Blue will be red or blue come hell or high water. Give ads that list facts instead of arbitrary shit. Not a single ad in my area(Raleigh) said a damn thing about unemployment, jobs or any other bull shit that actually matters to people. Hell, my home value has jumped around 12% in the past 3 years. The market is pretty damn hot in my area right now and jobs are actually pretty plentiful. I was laid off and got 3 or 4 job offers in the span of a month. Now some of those were underemployment but the one I have now is actually a pretty decent bump.

That and no mention of the stock market or gas prices. Talk about those 3 things and FORCE that to be the narrative of this election and you win. Shit has gotten better despite what people think. SHOW it to them.

[Correction]

The Republican Congress has a 89% disapproval rating and America decided we need more of those guys in the Senate? WTF

NPR covered this kind of. GOP strategists are banking on a message of 'we know you hate republicans, but you hate Obama more, so let's get his big government regulation out at the federal and local levels.' It works wonders in mining/agricultural communities.