Discussion for article #229136
Republicans are never going to be dealt the crushing, humiliating, epic, smackdown defeat which they deserve and which would be necessary to make the nonresident billionaires find something better to buy than political advertising to ensure their opinions count double.
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Gridlock will continue for the forseeable future, as it’s structurally embedded in the Constitution. The country is divided roughly 50-50 and there isn’t much that will change that. Only the rise of a third party could possibly disrupt things and that is unlikely, though not impossible.
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I like Ed Kilgore a lot, but he’s way off here.
If the GOP takes the senate, the “referendum on Obama” narrative will take hold, and it will stick. It will be repeated by every talking head on every network, cable news station, talk radio program, etc. It will be hammered home endlessly for the next two years every single time the president stands up to give a speech. The GOP will never stop pushing that narrative to excuse their abdication of governance, and rather than ask questions about it, the media (all of the media, including that on the center-left) will roll over like obedient GOP dogs and repeat their masters’ talking points verbatim.
Then there will be the impeachment, don’t forget. And the “2014 was a referendum on Obama” will become “2014 was a green light to impeach,” and so on and so forth, and again, the media will roll over and start repeating that as fact.
And if Democrats sweep the gubernatorial races, we won’t hear a peep. Okay, there will be one article on TPM about it. And then we won’t hear a peep.
I’ve been watching/reading/listening long enough to know how this plays out.
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I see the key turning point to be 2020. The Democrats are in a good position to retake many key Governor’s mansions this year, Florida, Pennsylvania, and possibly even Wisconsin to name a few.
If they can hold onto these offices, and with the advantage of incumbency you would expect they can, in 2018, they will be able to force a more equitable redistricting on a Republican legislature in those states. This along with the slowly advancing demographic tide, will allow them to undo the egregious gerrymandering of 2010.
I think you can make the case that the Conservative movement that was started by Goldwater in 1964, and led to the election of Nixon in 1968, was at its apex in 1980 when Ronald Reagan was elected, may have started its decline with the election of GW Bush in 2000.
I think we are the front end of a more liberal and progressive era that may last 20-30 years, using Obama’s election in 2008 as a starting point.
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Looking for Mandates In All the Wrong Places
I blame the women of America for the strength of the GOTP. They have been dumped on, underpaid, underserved, asked to carry the burden of sequester, violated by state “women’s issues” laws, and groped in public by these sleazy GOTPPERS and STILL they vote Republican. When, oh! WHEN? will they wake up, get off their butts and vote out these creeps?!?!
Here’s a challenge. Get off your butts and support Grimes in KY and win one for the entire world! Talk about a conservative, rich (“I inherited my money!”), old, white guy!!! McConnell is the problem with Washington and the women of KY could cut him down!
hjs62 I like the way you think but I think pessimistic panda has a better handle on this. as long as the 1% and their lackeys control the media and elections because of their $$ and USSC’s Citizens United ruling it will be very difficult to burry the monster.
We got healthcare passed with the idiot Republicans supposedly blocking everything and that alone could be enough, but if anyone cares to check the actual record, Obama’s legacy is really impressive and still growing. Obamacare is the crown jewel but don’t dismiss the laundry list of positives that go along with it just because Republicans dwell on hate and actively work to hurt us. We Democrats are kicking ass in a tough, tough environment and we should all be very proud of that. Republican scheming and shitty journalism can kick rocks. We control 2/3 of the federal government right now and have won 5 out of the last 6 Presidential elections with the terrific prospect of winning at least the next two. Buck up kids, the Republicans are scrapping for our crumbs.
The typical focus on what the conservatives are doing approach of the just about worthless news media always skews things in a more negative light. During the Obama era we have turned America around and that needs to be celebrated and by all means continued.
The liberal mandate by the voters is what the Republicans are blocking. The mandate exists, is growing and the Repubs are getting sleazier because of that. Shitty, rotten politics is keeping pace with the people’s will. That doesn’t mean that we don’t want what we want, it means that there is a disgraceful political party that actually exists to hurt America and is partially succeeding.
The liberal mandate is eternal, the haters just want to claim it.
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In fact the citizen’s united thing is backfiring on the Republicans as is talk/hate radio.
They lost the Presidency right, and have wasted more millions than they’ll admit for an ROI of less than 5% on their investment. Karl Rove knows they suck and are going to lose, he is just working both sides of the street to milk the profits, or hedge his bets if you will, on that certainty.
Who cares if the Republicans actually have a mandate after this election or not? If they control the Senate and the House, Obama is screwed for the remainder of his time in office, and Hillary Clinton or whoever is the Democratic nominee for President in 2016 will face the same challenge that John McCain did in 2008 - needing to overcome the burden of the unpopular outgoing President being from your party.
I don’t think the Democrats lack money, they lack commitment. In many cases they are out raising their Republican counterparts. Liberal Super Pacs funded by liberals like Tom Steyer have risen to challenge the Tea Party and conservative groups, although they maybe somewhat outgunned.
There is a huge pool of untapped potential in voters who are not even registered to vote much less turn out. The Democrats need to register people who are their natural constituency, like the young, like Asians, like Hispanics, like African Americans, like single women, and then turn them out to vote on a consistent basis.
They are on the right track with what they did in 2012 and in the Virginia’s Governor’s race. More of this please.
The monster is burying itself. The GOP has failed. Sure they own the media, they bad mouth Democrats 24/7, despise the Democratic President and hate the majority of Americans. That must be why Romney is President. That must be why Republicans are cake walking into the Senate on the back of states so red they stain your fingers. It will take time to undo the mess the GOP has foisted on this country, but it is already happening. The GOP has done a good job of ginning up their base, but that base is dying off and not being replaced.
That is optimistic if dialectics doesn’t kill us all by then. Us and them, us and them, us and them. It is so tiresome.
What Republicans have to fear is the in-fighting that takes place between traditional Republicans and Tea Party members… That could happen when Boehner seeks re-election as his party’s leader and Speaker of the House. It happened in 2012 and during his term it set the stage for his inability on several occaisions to bring proposed legislature to the floor for a vote because of Tea Party opposition and he could not be assured of a majority GOP vote on legislation.