Older, male, white voters are having a lot of trouble understanding the election results. They and everyone they knew just assumed that the country would never re-elect a tax-and-spend liberal. Fox News told them this was impossible. Now reality is beginning to kick in--things have changed and are not likely to go back to the way they used to be. They are also flummoxed by the voters accepting same-sex marriage and legalization of marijuana in some states. Many of them see the country as Mitt Romney does, with makers and takers and the takers are taking over.
This is a fundamentally different situation than in the past. Then, a loss was just a loss--maybe the other side had a better candidate or ran a better campaign. Even after George McGovern and Michael Dukakis' massive defeats, Democrats didn't think this was the end of the America that they had always known. It was simply a lost election and they could try again in 4 years. The difference now is probably that way back then, everyone watched one of the three television networks and read the same newspapers. Now it is possible to live entirely in a bubble of your own choosing and simply have no idea of what is really going on in the country.
Someone who watches only Fox News and listens to talk radio and reads redstate.com on the Internet is going to be completely detached from reality, so an election result like this comes completely out of the blue for them. For Democrats, this is not true. Someone who watches only MSNBC, reads the New York Times and follows Websites like Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo, and Daily Kos, knew that it would be a fairly close election but that Obama and the Democrats had a small, but consistent, lead. The electoral vote predictors at all those places as well as here were pretty close to the final result. The new reality is that when you hide in a virtual cave of your own making, emerging out into the sunshine can be frightening.
When people look back on this election, they will note that this was the moment that the bubble burst. If you get your information from Drudge, Fox, other right wing sources and spend time frequenting places like Kevin Baker's site, The Smallest Minority, you likely think that Americans are stupid for voting for the president and the Democrats. Of course, this is not true. It's not really a question of intelligence. As I have said all along, it's a question of willful ignorance brought on by insulation. This election showed that they can't do that anymore. People saw that what they were saying wasn't real and what they were advocating was truly awful. Can you blame them with garbage like this?
Barack Obama has repeatedly circumvented the laws, including the Constitution of the United States, in ways and on a scale that pushes this nation in the direction of arbitrary one-man rule.
Now that Obama will be in a position to appoint Supreme Court justices who can rubber stamp his evasions of the law and usurpations of power, this country may be unrecognizable in a few years as the America that once led the world in freedom, as well as in many other things.
This "transforming" project extends far beyond fundamental internal institutions, or even the polarization and corruption of the people themselves, with goodies handed out in exchange for their surrendering their birthright of freedom.
Have you noticed how many of our enemies in other countries have been rooting for Obama? You or your children may yet have reason to recall that as a bitter memory of a warning sign ignored on election day in 2012.
What on earth is he talking about? A country that may be unrecognizable? What enemies are rooting for him? Good grief...
Their shock (and sadly with it, their behavior) is about to get worse. The economy is improving and things are getting better, despite the dire predictions of all of America becoming like Detroit. What will they do then? People will stop paying attention to them in droves and they will go back to being a small group of people playing make believe around the 21st century equivalent of a short wave radio: the internet.
11 comments:
Part of the problem is headlines and articles like this: "Conservatives outnumber liberals."
The article reports that 35% of Americans identify themselves as conservative, while only 21% are liberal. Republicans therefore think they drastically outnumber Democrats and can't possibly lose.
But the truth is, 65% of Americans are not conservative. Since conservatives in the Republican Party have driven their party so hard to the right, denying basic science, global warming, equal rights for gays, reasonable access to abortion, and even coming out against birth control, Republicans have alienated larges swaths of moderate America.
The Democratic Party is the tolerant, moderate big-tent party, made up of a coalition of mildly conservative, moderate and mildly liberal political orientations (real liberals join the Green Party). The Democratic Party is generally more interested in making government work well for people, rather than pushing some ideological screed that's really just camouflage for the Koch brothers getting huge tax breaks. Because of that, more Americans consistently identify themselves as Democrats, a fact which Republicans know is true, but dismiss as unimportant because they typically don't turn out to vote as much. This was why Karl Rove lost it on election night: he couldn't believe numerically superior Democrats actually voted in the numbers they did.
The other part of the problem is that Republicans have latched onto "conservative" as a brand (and they constantly use that term), which they label themselves with, insisting that it has a very narrow meaning that dictates you agree with them on every issue from taxes, to abortion, to gun control.
But many people, including myself, are inherently conservative in the real sense of the word, not the market-speak of the Republican radicals. Conservatives, in that real sense of the word, work to conserve or preserve things as they are. That means someone who identifies themselves as conservative could quite easily want to preserve Social Security, Medicare, access to abortion, clean air, clean water, energy, the rights of individuals against the overweening power of multinational corporations and monopolies, our right to do what we want in our private lives, and so on.
Self-styled Republican "conservatives" who want to destroy the things we've spent the last 100 years building are the real radicals.
Really M, for someone living in a glass house you shouldn't be throwing stones.
And speaking of deep stupid...
he couldn't believe numerically superior Democrats actually voted in the numbers they did
Had Romney pulled the same number of votes as McCain, Obama would be planning his farewell tour. Minus 10 million votes from '08 you dumbass. That is your resounding victory? Talk about living in a fucking bubble!
And look at yourself M - still hating on Repubs with a passion. Must be because they held the House. But you can't move on and discuss Stiglitz's next chapter, can you?
Had Romney pulled the same number of votes as McCain
Election 2008
John McCain vote total: 59,948,240
Election 2012
Mitt Romney vote total: 59,827,479
It doesn't get much more even than that. Now, the president had around 6 million less votes this year as opposed to 2008 yet he still won.
The problem is that the Right is maxed out. Bush won with only 50 million in 2000 and did manage to get above 60 million in 2004. Even Reagan's pasting of Mondale was only 54 million. The party is going to have to change if they want more votes.
My understanding was that Romney pulled 3M less Republican votes (i.e. that dead demographic you talk about didn't turn out for a Massachusetts Moderate - what a shock). The Repubs managed to nominate their version of Dukakis and you think that means something big about Dems and liberals. Do you have any idea how racist/sexist it is to talk about the Democratic coalition as mindless tribe members that only vote based on their gender/ethnic identity?
Let me ask you something - what is the fucking point of this post? You think that I or anyone else not liberal is going to have an epiphany and convert? You don't appear to be attempting to persuade anyone (other than you and the left that you still have an enduring majority - despite the House results). The Dems won the House in 2006 for two reasons: 1) general fatigue with the party in power, and 2) Emmanuel rounded up a bunch of moderate-to-conservative Dems (the ones that the left ended up wanting to purge for not going head-long into the wild-ass liberal agenda).
what is the fucking point of this post?
preceded by
My understanding was that Romney pulled 3M less Republican votes
after I gave you the actual facts on the numbers.
Do you understand the point of the post now?
M, you gave me total votes, not votes from the Republican base. I don't doubt that Romney had some appeal to moderate independents - probably more than McCain. You do realize that your point was about the demographics of the Republican Party - particularly the most dedicated elements therein.
Or, to put it another way - Romney lost, but the Republicans held the House. If everything was lined up for the great Democratic Majority - what happened there?
And dumbass - if you are going to tweak my nose, at least do so over how poorly Gary Johnson fared. That is who I voted for. Nor am I shocked that Obama won - I said before the election that I thought it could go either way. You keep trying to make me (along with everyone that ISN'T part of your fucking tribe) into some Republican partisan that is the mirror image of your mindless support for the Dems. That is incredibly stupid and annoying.
Well, it looks like the Dems gained 8 seats in the House so we are at 234-201. Not bad, considering all the gerrymandering the GOP did in the various states.
Oh, and I forgot to mention earlier...I'll be getting back to Stiglitz soon.
Ah yes, gerrymandering is the big left talking point today, isn't it. I've heard the same from my leftish friends on FB.
Let me clear something up for you - the fucking Pelosi wing of the Democratic Party is never going to be a majority in this country. Take that from someone who knows a minority party when he sees one. However, you should observe California closely for the next few years as the Dems are in 100% control of the state govt: all statewide offices and super majorities in both legislative bodies. So if the Dem vision works, California will be a bellweather; if the state goes to hell - it won't be because of Republicans. Somehow though I imagine that you will find some excuse, some way to blame Republicans for ruining the beautiful dream.
Barack Obama has repeatedly circumvented the laws, including the Constitution of the United States, in ways and on a scale that pushes this nation in the direction of arbitrary one-man rule.
Ah, I didn't pay sufficient attention that you were quoting Sowell.
So, what exactly do you call the use of drones against people, including American citizens, without due process of law? What do you call that?!? That is only one example.
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