2022 Midterms: Oh god, not again

[scoobdog]

Says the guy who's spent... how many years living in Japan?

[matrixman124]

Just a reminder that the Republicans are fascist as fuck and we really don't want them taking back Congress.

[SwimModSponges]

[matrixman124]

"one of these days we'll get her haha"

[Poofy]

41 minutes ago, matrixman124 said:

"one of these days we'll get her haha"

that bitch carole baskin

[1pooh4u]

Meanwhile in District 11 NY

 

[matrixman124]

2 hours ago, Poofy said:

that bitch carole baskin

That's very accurate since Carole Baskin was completely exonerated when it turned out her husband was alive. Joe Exotic was spreading misinfo because of his grudge against her. So pretty much the same kind of situation.

[SwimModSponges]

https://www.erienewsnow.com/story/47607719/candidate-running-for-state-house-seat-attacked-in-fayette-county-home

[Doom Metal Alchemist]

22 hours ago, Insipid said:

I can easily spout trite sayings too. American democracy is shit. You're only voting for one side that supports corporate welfare while the other side only pretends to be against it and only slightly hampers its progress. The abortion decision happened with Democrats in power, and don't say there's nothing that could have been done about it. There's supposed to be a system of checks and balances, and obviously the Supreme Court now has too much power.

If you're 100% fed up by both Democrats and Republicans, why not find a third party to support? I'm nearing that point myself.

The more that people who have lost all hope in the two major parties start voting third party, third parties can start gaining traction. I don't know where the whole "voting third party is throwing your vote away," came from, but it seems like a self fulfilling prophecy. Everyone believes it just because everyone believes it. If everyone who didn't vote as a manner of protest found a third party to support, as well as people who begrudgingly vote for "the lesser of two evils" weren't actually fully invested in the idea that voting third party is throwing your vote away, I think our government would be in a much better place.

Edited November 2, 2022 by Doom Metal Alchemist

[André Toulon]

Omg, first pelosi and now..... this....guy?

[matrixman124]

Just now, Doom Metal Alchemist said:

If you're 100% fed up by both Democrats and Republicans, why not find a third party to support? I'm nearing that point myself.

A third party vote is a wasted vote unless you have ranked choice voting. Sucks but that's how it is as long as the election process is what it is (broken).

[NewBluntsworth]

1 minute ago, Doom Metal Alchemist said:

If you're 100% fed up by both Democrats and Republicans, why not find a third party to support? I'm nearing that point myself.

Oh hell yeah my man. This is the only way. 

[SwimModSponges]

.

Edited November 2, 2022 by SwimModSponges

[Doom Metal Alchemist]

2 minutes ago, matrixman124 said:

A third party vote is a wasted vote unless you have ranked choice voting. Sucks but that's how it is as long as the election process is what it is (broken).

Read my edit.

[SwimModSponges]

2 minutes ago, André Toulon said:

Omg, first pelosi and now..... this....guy?

Im not sure if you're minimizing this because of the fact that the politician who was attacked was running for state legislature instead of federal, or if im just reading this wrong, but yes.

Another democratic politician was just the target of attempted assassination.

Not good.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/obama-warns-more-people-are-going-get-hurt-if-political-climate-persists-2022-11-02/

[matrixman124]

1 minute ago, Doom Metal Alchemist said:

Read my edit.

3rd party voting isn't even close to competing with the duopoly. I think they would only have a chance if ranked choice voting was established at a national level.

[André Toulon]

1 minute ago, SwimModSponges said:

Im not sure if you're minimizing this because of the fact that the politician who was attacked was running for state legislature instead of federal, or if im just reading this wrong, but yes.

Another democratic politician was just the target of attempted assassination.

Not good.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/obama-warns-more-people-are-going-get-hurt-if-political-climate-persists-2022-11-02/

Nah, I'm marginalizing it because fuck em all as a whole.  I guess I'd be a bit more gleeful if it were a gop member, but not much. 

Contrary to popular belief, I'm not a democrat, though I do indeed see them as the lesser, albeit still evil.

[Doom Metal Alchemist]

4 minutes ago, matrixman124 said:

3rd party voting isn't even close to competing with the duopoly. I think they would only have a chance if ranked choice voting was established at a national level.

Agree to disagree.

But how about this: How is voting third party any more of a wasted vote than not voting at all?

[matrixman124]

4 minutes ago, Doom Metal Alchemist said:

Agree to disagree.

But how about this: How is voting third party any more of a wasted vote than not voting at all?

It's about the same. I suppose a 3rd party vote at least puts you on the record for a different party. Which amounts to a protest vote I guess.

[Insipid]

15 minutes ago, Doom Metal Alchemist said:

If you're 100% fed up by both Democrats and Republicans, why not find a third party to support? I'm nearing that point myself.

The more that people who have lost all hope in the two major parties start voting third party, third parties can start gaining traction. I don't know where the whole "voting third party is throwing your vote away," came from, but it seems like a self fulfilling prophecy. Everyone believes it just because everyone believes it. If everyone who didn't vote as a manner of protest found a third party to support, as well as people who begrudgingly vote for "the lesser of two evils" weren't actually fully invested in the idea that voting third party is throwing your vote away, I think our government would be in a much better place.

I guess as a Pennsylvania citizen, I have a duty to vote for Democrats in such an integral swing state.

Fuck Fetterman and his fake-ass blue-collar persona though. Motherfucker grew up rich from the same area as Taylor Swift, not here. 

[matrixman124]

13 minutes ago, Insipid said:

I guess as a Pennsylvania citizen, I have a duty to vote for Democrats in such an integral swing state.

Fuck Fetterman and his fake-ass blue-collar persona though. Motherfucker grew up rich from the same area as Taylor Swift, not here. 

[SwimModSponges]

44 minutes ago, André Toulon said:

Nah, I'm marginalizing it because fuck em all as a whole.  I guess I'd be a bit more gleeful if it were a gop member, but not much. 

Contrary to popular belief, I'm not a democrat, though I do indeed see them as the lesser, albeit still evil.

Party affiliation does not matter- when a group commits/refuses to condemn/celebrates political violence, democracy as a whole is in peril.

[1pooh4u]

Zeldin an anti choice Republican running for Governor in NY is leading Hochul slightly.  Zeldin claims that he won’t try to reverse any of the abortion protections in the state but he’s fuckin lying and people are believing him.  

[André Toulon]

1 minute ago, SwimModSponges said:

Party affiliation does not matter- when a group commits/refuses to condemn/celebrates political violence, democracy as a whole is in peril.

Maybe your's, mine has never been out of peril so I'm not too moved by these politicians getting wrecked in their glass houses 

[SwimModSponges]

Its everyone's democracy which is at peril.

[1pooh4u]

Maybe the point he’s making is that for Black people their rights and freedoms are always in question and laws are always on the table to make participating in democracy harder for them?  This might be new territory for us but if you been dealing with this shit it’s ok to be fuckin tired and done?  

[naraku360]

On 11/1/2022 at 1:52 AM, PenguinBoss said:

This kind of post makes me think you got bludgeoned with a hammer, too.

I'm surprised he Hasn't BEEN posting IN random Caps and WITH A BUNCH of exclamation MARKS!!!!!!!!!!

Edited November 2, 2022 by naraku360

[André Toulon]

1 hour ago, SwimModSponges said:

Its everyone's democracy which is at peril.

Oh...oh no....not EVERYONE 

[SwimModSponges]

How is that not the point of all this? Its actively getting worse. There are armed groups taking pictures of people's license plates at the polls.

Attempted assassinations of political leaders is a continuing progression of the very oppression people currently face. 

A massive progression. 

People are getting habituated to political murder. 

This will lead to "the day of the rope." Throughout history it always has.

[Raptorpat]

5 hours ago, 1pooh4u said:

Zeldin an anti choice Republican running for Governor in NY is leading Hochul slightly.  Zeldin claims that he won’t try to reverse any of the abortion protections in the state but he’s fuckin lying and people are believing him.  

Where did you see he's ahead? The margins had narrowed but she was still above 50% with like an 8 point lead (though if NYC has super low turnout it's out the window). I think the general consensus is that she'll limp across the finish line and also that she should fire whomever is running her nonexistent campaign.

Edit: I just saw it was Trafalgar. They are a hardcore partisan firm and if their numbers are accurate we're all in trouble.

I don't really think Zeldin could touch abortion directly if he fluked into a win, outside of maybe cutting related agency spending. Roe was codified into statute in 2019 and the legislature is halfway to a constitutional amendment (which doesn't involve the governor). Raising the issue may help Dem turnout, but NY isn't in the same legal position as KS or MI or any of those other razor's edge states - which I think is why the analysts have said abortion has only had a real rallying effect in those states where it is directly existential.

Edited November 2, 2022 by Raptorpat

[Jman]

The local papers are trying to make this seem competitive and Zeldin has been surprisingly good at drumming up support (he lost two prior elections before winning a House seat) but the polls all show Hochul comfortably ahead.

New York hates its current rank and file like that fucknut Eric Adams, but we’ll vote for them over GOP 8 times out of 10 unless the GOP member is a moderate, something increasingly rare with them.

[Raptorpat]

It is sleeper competitive, just like 1994.

Hochul (like Mario Cuomo) is a favored Dem incumbent, but it's very realistic (not necessarily likely, but realistic) that she loses because polls have tightened and it's possible NYC voters don't turn out in the volume they need to due to apathy/disinterest. 

It's the only competitive race in the City and her consultants ran a Rose Garden/HRC campaign, all while she has comparatively minimal name recognition for an incumbent Governor because (a) she was sidelined by her predecessor for two terms and (b) she is from Buffalo and her Lt. Gov is from Schenectady.

1 hour ago, Jman said:

(he lost two prior elections before winning a House seat)

Zeldin also comes from the state house (he was a senator for a number of years before Congress and I believe he was an assemblyman before that) so he's not exactly a neophyte, and the state GOP went all in on him like a year ago.  

I'm not saying she's losing, but it's not a totally foregone conclusion. Combine that with the redistricting saga leaving NY the only state with a significant number of swing seats to be tilted by statewide coattails. 

[matrixman124]

Yeah none of these elections are a foregone conclusion. 

[matrixman124]

TERFi Gabbard amirite?

[PenguinBoss]

"Money/Profit"

C'mon, lady, you ran for president.

Not even touching the transphobic stuff.

[1pooh4u]

3 hours ago, Raptorpat said:

Where did you see he's ahead? The margins had narrowed but she was still above 50% with like an 8 point lead (though if NYC has super low turnout it's out the window). I think the general consensus is that she'll limp across the finish line and also that she should fire whomever is running her nonexistent campaign.

Edit: I just saw it was Trafalgar. They are a hardcore partisan firm and if their numbers are accurate we're all in trouble.

I don't really think Zeldin could touch abortion directly if he fluked into a win, outside of maybe cutting related agency spending. Roe was codified into statute in 2019 and the legislature is halfway to a constitutional amendment (which doesn't involve the governor). Raising the issue may help Dem turnout, but NY isn't in the same legal position as KS or MI or any of those other razor's edge states - which I think is why the analysts have said abortion has only had a real rallying effect in those states where it is directly existential.

https://nypost.com/2022/11/01/lee-zeldin-takes-lead-over-ny-gov-kathy-hochul-in-new-poll/amp/
 

[Raptorpat]

Yeah I saw and edited my post.

NY post endorsed Zeldin and then writes an article citing an outlier Republican poll and an outlier Republican aggregator and only quotes Republicans.

Not saying she can't lose, but if the partisan firms beat out all the independent firms and aggregators, the world is in for a rough two to four years of human cancer.

[DragonSinger]

These midterms were probably one of the few times I wasn't choosing between the lesser of two evils and actually had good candidates. It'll be so much bullshit if neither Warnock nor Abrams can win.

[Master-Debater131]

So Biden gave what could be called his closing argument a bit ago. And if thats the best he has, Democrats really are in deep deep trouble. The top issues in the country routinely are Inflation and the Economy. He didnt talk about that at all. Instead he pushed January 6th and said that democracy itself would end if we vote poorly on Tuesday. He tried to tie the attack on Paul Pelosi to January 6th. That might play well to his base, but thats not what the majority of voters care about this year. To quite James Carville "Its the economy, stupid".

Its pretty clear by this speech that he recognizes the polling and realize that Democrats are looking at getting wiped out on Tuesday. Poll after poll continues to show GOP momentum and outright leads. Biden, and many Democrats, are ignoring the biggest issues in this election to focus on January 6th and Abortion. When the polls close on Tuesday dont be surprised when exit polling clearly shows that the people who voted on the big issues wound up going to the GOP.

[Master-Debater131]

White Suburban Women Swing Toward Backing Republicans for Congress

https://www.wsj.com/articles/white-suburban-women-swing-toward-backing-republicans-for-congress-11667381402?st=vah8l1cbghf7plz&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

White suburban women, a key group of midterm voters, have significantly shifted their support from Democrats to Republicans in the closing days of midterm campaigning because of rising concerns over the economy and inflation, according to the latest Wall Street Journal poll.

The new survey shows that white women living in suburban areas, who make up 20% of the electorate, now favor Republicans for Congress by 15 percentage points, moving 27 percentage points away from Democrats since the Journal’s August poll. It also suggests that the topic of abortion rights has faded in importance after Democrats saw energy on that issue this summer in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade."

 

 

If this is true then we really are in "Red Tsunami" territory. Democrats need to hold this bloc and run up the numbers here to hold a lot of their seats. They won them in 2018 as part of the Trump backlash. Now it looks like this critical voter group is swinging back toward the GOP.

[stilgar]

Yes, white suburban women as some of the most racist pieces of shit in the country. This is known.

[Top Gun]

It's almost like the American electorate are a bunch of drooling morons.

[matrixman124]

13 hours ago, Top Gun said:

It's almost like the American electorate are a bunch of drooling morons.

Incredibly selfish.

[scoobdog]

14 hours ago, Top Gun said:

It's almost like the American electorate are a bunch of drooling morons.

 

27 minutes ago, matrixman124 said:

Incredibly selfish.

Yes, but is more than that.  Plenty of people with liberal ideologies either won't vote or will vote for a conservative candidate for the same reason that our friend in this thread, and that has something to do with the intense psychological pressure that comes with elections.  It's hard not to look around at everything and come to the conclusion you're at a crossroads where you have to decide if it's more realistic to continue fighting for your ideals or adapting to a reality where you're being oppressed.

There's no question that the country will not be in a better place with conservative leadership, even if for the simple fact that they don't represent the majority of Americans.  Some places, like here in California, are insulated from bad Republican ideas, but a lot of others are not.  Eventually, you convince yourself that it's better to make decision that run counter to your interests if it means you can rationalize your behavior in a constructive way.

[1pooh4u]

I like how in Wisconsin Republican candidates for Governor are like “if I win democrats will never win another election again” and the people applaud this.  The state already is so gerrymandered that Dems would have to win by 12 points statewide to reach 50 seats in their state houses

wisconsin hates America and they’re not even alone in this shit. The days of the one with the most votes wins is dead.  
 

republicans know they can’t win fairly it’s a disgrace 

[SwimModSponges]

Wisconsin used to be a beacon of progressivism.

Our state motto is "Forward", and we have a tradition of conservation and ethical land management going back to the 1800s.

Y'all think im exaggerating how crazy shit is up here.

Im not.

There are militias and they will kill people. 

[1pooh4u]

Democracy is dying everywhere it’s not profitable enough to the powers that be.  

[SwimModSponges]

Was it Mussolini who said something about the crazy thing about democracy is that it comes packaged with the very tools to dismantle it?

Convince enough people to vote away their rights, and there you go.

[1pooh4u]

1 minute ago, SwimModSponges said:

Was it Mussolini who said something about the crazy thing about democracy is that it comes packaged with the very tools to dismantle it?

Convince enough people to vote away their rights, and there you go.

We were warned plenty of times I remember the warnings after 9/11 when people were just fine with the Patriot Act. People said “do not do this it compromises too much freedom for false safety” well, no one heeded those warnings and here we are today. Voting rights dismantled states so obviously gerrymandered that entire swaths of people really have no representation and our constitution is treated like a Bible instead of the living document it was designed to be making it no good for no one except the very wealthy. Feels bad. 

[SwimModSponges]

Just wait, in December (I want to say 5th) the supreme court will decide that if the state government disagrees with the voters of the state they can pick their own electors instead.

Essentially making Trump's first coup-plan entirely legal.

I want to say Harper v. Moore, but I could have honestly just pulled those names out of my ass, I don't recall for sure.