All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Probably better that way than having 'moderate' Republicans acting as a 5th column after sleazing their way into the Democratic Party.

Agreed. I was so over having people like Meghan McCain on tv trying to dictate Democratic policy because it turned people like her off. Like no we don’t need to change what the party direction is to acquiesce people who never believed in our ideals. Trump was their screw up. Don’t cry foul and try to drag the Dems right so you have a safe space to hide.

[KOSLOX]

Her payback is going to be payed off with interest too, registering almost a million new voters and being on the ground with a massive new voting block. It may be a narrow win today, but if she's not the governor after the next election I'll be shocked.

I'm really interested in how her career progresses. In the short term I'd like to see her chair the DNC.

[BeastieRunner]

Beastie's Cartoons of the Week

[GindyPosts]

If the Democrats do manage to secure 50 seats + VP tiebreaker, they need to just treat that as an unconditional mandate, nuke the filibuster, and go about passing their entire agenda without any regard for what the Republicans have to say about it.

The filibuster needs to die off anyway. It's not this heroic last-ditch stall tactic in as much as it is a long-winded pissing contest used to drain the spirit of everyone in the room. If Mitch McConnell and the rest can hem and haw about giving Americans much needed relief aid during a pandemic while moving like their asses are on fire when a Supreme Court vacancy becomes available, the Democrats should get stuff done and make it the law of the land.

[babyblob]

The GOP kept the Senate (unless Democrats really over perform in Georgia runoffs), gained seats in the House and lost no state legislatures. Plus they're favored in off-year elections and the midterms. And while the presidential election showed an expanded map for Democrats, it showed the Trump 16 states and Nevada are still in play. There isn't much need to panic.

I dont know why Republicans see this as a win for the GOp. yes they gain a few seats in the House but not enough to make a difference while their lead in the Senate has shrunk. Trump lost to what he and the GOP were calling a very weak Biden. He is going to lose the Popular this year by more then he did in 2016. And this EC close call? not going to happen. When Biden takes Nevada, PA, and Georgia he will win by a score of 306 to I think 232 if Trump takes NC. That is not that close at all. (My math may be off by a couple votes) TThat is if everything hold the way it is now.

As for 2022 even long time GOP talking heads and some on Fox are worried about it. But it is a long way off so I wont say yet.

So yes The GOP is in trouble.

Edit to fix my EC vote count after doing some looking.

[KOSLOX]

I dont know why Republicans see this as a win for the GOp. yes they gain a few seats in the House but not enough to make a difference while their lead in the Senate has shrunk. Trump lost to what he and the GOP were calling a very weak Biden. He is going to lose the Popular this year by more then he did in 2016. And this EC close call? not going to happen. When Biden takes Nevada, PA, and Georgia he will win by a score of 307 to I think 227 if Trump takes NC. That is not that close at all. (My math may be off by a couple votes) That is with Biden having 264 now and Trump have 212 now as many news stations are reporting.

As for 2022 even long time GOP talking heads and some on Fox are worried about it. But it is a long way off so I wont say yet.

So yes The GOP is in trouble.

Man, I love reading your posts because I got to watch someone reevaluate and change their position in real time. I've also noticed you participating in the Minority issues thread.

Sorry for making a whole thing of it, but it's really refreshing to see.

[Joker]

Democrats are going to have to hammer home the importance of the mid terms, though.

[babyblob]

And I hear the GOP saying well Trump did better in the popular vote this time around. Yes but a lot of those are Trump hardcores. How many of them are going to come out and vote for other GOp memebers in 2022 if the GOP tries to distance away from Trump. And how many are going to vote in 2024 when Trump is pretty much a joke in the history books?

[babyblob]

Man, I love reading your posts because I got to watch someone reevaluate and change their position in real time. I've also noticed you participating in the Minority issues thread.

Sorry for making a whole thing of it, but it's really refreshing to see.

Thank you It is really good to see people change their views. And It has been really good journey for me while I have been change mine. I am not as stressed and I am a lot more open to a lot of things. I always stayed away from the Minority issues thread because I am not a Minority and never thought I would have anything valid to say. but I have made a few posts for questions I have had and they have been answered.

I guess I should thank Trump and Mitch because without their awful **** this year I never would have changed.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Moderate Republicans played a vital role against Trump and the GOP in this election, this is why Biden is matching Trump head to head in conservative states like Arizona and Georgia. Trump not being destroyed completely is not proof Biden failed with this tactic.

No it’s not. GA was more that you got blacks in the Atlanta area that were disenfranchised better access to voting. You didn’t get more Deep South Republicans. In the rust belt all Biden did was win back a sliver of more Obama voters. Without PA, WI, MI, and GA, then Arizona which is the outlier wouldn’t have mattered. Philly and Atlanta turnout were actually the key deciders here along with working class Obama voters that defected 4 years ago. And even in Arizona if you dive into the meat and potatoes it was basically that Biden cut into Maricopa county which had a strong Latino population that leans Dem that came out in greater force and Maricopa had been shifting left for awhile. So when that doesn’t fit the narrative that Republicans saved them.

Biden won off winning back Obama voters in the Midwest that went Trump, larger turnout in Philly and Atlanta (and in Atlanta it was due to re-enfranchising black voters in GA. Then the greater turnout this go around drew out more latino’s who were left leaning in a key county that had been shifting in AZ. Those blocks made the difference.

The reason the election was close and the reason we lost ground in the house and might not win the Senate is because Trump did BETTER with Republicans than 2016.

Republicans actually backed Trump hard as hell in this election. Biden did not win because of moderate Republicans. If anything this election proved that they are all in on him and didn’t care about a single thing he did in the last 4 years.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

One thing I will say is the Lincoln Project was a complete failure. Trump did better in Republican turnout and the Congressional Republicans over performed.

So the myth of the moderate Republican who will see reason is still a unicorn that nobody has ever actually seen

The 2016 Republican voter base turnout was what everyone assumed was the full voting base. If that was the case, then Biden would have taken TX and FL. But that was the Red Mirage. The Republican base didn't turn out fully in 2016 (nor did the Dems in 2016). They turned out in 2020. They did it because Mitch turned the Scotus 6-3, and they knew that had to keep the Dems from packing the courts. Mitch also blocked the Stimulus so Pelosi and the House Dems don't have a big win before the election.

You want someone to blame for Dem underperformance...well blame it on RBG. Her death was the October Surprise (well September) that screwed up the Dems plans for a cleanout. Had she retired during the Blue Trifecta, and a young blue Scotus had her seat...none of this would have happened. There would have been a stimulus, so the House had the win, the Republican voters wouldn't have had something to grab with their tentacles.

We talk about the ghosts of John Lewis and John McCain...but RBG, we await your haunting.

I'm really interested in how her career progresses. In the short term I'd like to see her chair the DNC.

Biden and Harris should go to Abrams and offer her a portfolio of positions and tell her, "take your time, and have your pick". She can write her ticket as far as I am concerned.

[JCAll]

One thing I will say is the Lincoln Project was a complete failure. Trump did better in Republican turnout and the Congressional Republicans over performed.

So the myth of the moderate Republican who will see reason is still a unicorn that nobody has ever actually seen

I'm still interested in how this plays out. We knew they were rejoining the GOP after the election, but any chance they had of reining in the crazy to put themselves back at the top of the party is shot. I suspect they go full Q by 2022.

[GindyPosts]

One thing I will say is the Lincoln Project was a complete failure. Trump did better in Republican turnout and the Congressional Republicans over performed.

So the myth of the moderate Republican who will see reason is still a unicorn that nobody has ever actually seen

Or...

We could see it as Republicans, in general, not wanting to vote for "the enemy", regardless of how terrible their representative is. The Democratic Party is, for all intent and purposes, a moderate party, but it prominently features liberal and progressive members, yet excludes folks with extreme left-wing views (such as true Communists or "eat the rich" ideologues) from often getting involved in any discourse out of fears of alienation. Republicans, however, want to get as many voters as possible, so they want as many people on the political right as they can get, even as you wander deeper into conservatism and into reactionist rhetoric (which is where Trumpism lies). Or, to be blunt; Democrats want their radicals to stay in coffee shops, while Republicans want their radicals in office.

The fact that the Democratic Party opted for arguably the most traditional, moderate candidate from the field this year in spite of a relatively sizeable part of the base insisting the party go progressive or even socialist while most Republicans stuck behind a reactionist president despite his general lack of popularity nationally proved that Republicans will support Republicans at the end of the day.

And I think Biden, despite all of his failings during the campaign and what he has done in the past to make folks leery of choosing him, overcoming such obstinance should still be commended.

[KOSLOX]

The 2016 Republican voter base turnout was what everyone assumed was the full voting base. If that was the case, then Biden would have taken TX and FL. But that was the Red Mirage. The Republican base didn't turn out fully in 2016 (nor did the Dems in 2016). They turned out in 2020. They did it because Mitch turned the Scotus 6-3, and they knew that had to keep the Dems from packing the courts. Mitch also blocked the Stimulus so Pelosi and the House Dems don't have a big win before the election.

You want someone to blame for Dem underperformance...well blame it on RBG. Her death was the October Surprise (well September) that screwed up the Dems plans for a cleanout.



Biden and Harris should go to Kamala and offer her a portfolio of positions and tell her, "take your time, and have your pick". She can write her ticket as far as I am concerned.

Oh for sure. I just think she has a better idea of where the democratic party should head and I want to give her the ability to help steer the ship.

I think if she's in an official position in the Biden administration it could limit her ability to make a larger grass roots impact.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Democrats are going to have to hammer home the importance of the mid terms, though.

Democrats really need to treat the runoffs in Georgia like it’s a Presidential election and have Biden, Obama and everyone down there