Erhm no. We’ve always been willing to borrow from Europe and vice versa in terms of policy. American universities (to give one example) instituted doctoral programs based off of those of Germany’s in the late 19th Century and ofc a lot of Progressive Era labour regulations were inspired by those of Bismarck’s.
Oh for heaven’s sake. One thing the U.S. has enough of is fucking cheerleaders.
I’d kind of like a president that acts according to what is good for the U.S., not what a bunch of jingoistic, nativist, and know-nothing scoundrels want him to do in order to demonstrate how big our balls are.
Sure, if by “won all the statewide races” you mean “lost the attorney general and secretary of state races”.
http://www.kentucky.com/2015/11/03/4120651_democrat-andy-beshear-wins-close.html?rh=1
http://www.kentucky.com/2015/11/03/4120564/alison-lundergan-grimes-narrowly.html
The Kentucky election for governor seems to have been in an off year consistently at least as far back as the mid 1800s. And voters have been turning out all that time to put a Democrat in the governor’s office in the overwhelming majority of elections.
This was hardly the first such off year governor’s election. What changed?
My understanding is that Bevin is not beloved by establishment Republicans. He does not represent their interests, he owes them no allegiance. (I forgot until just reminded that he is the guy who tried to oust McConnell in the Kentucky Republican Primary.) So the RNC most likely is not popping any champagne corks. They will gloat in triumph over the KY Dems, but glancing nervously over their shoulders every once in a while.
Also on the ticket, for Lieutenant Governor, was the first African American to be elected to statewide office in Kentucky. For a state that kept slavery legal despite staying in the Union, and didn’t vote to ratify the 13th Amendment until 1976, that’s big news. Throw in that she’s a tea Partier and it becomes a stereotype smashing WTF moment.
The election seems to be another data point for three items:
The Democratic party may have a major advantage right now at winning the Presidency but is doing poorly across rural America which translates into a lack of control in Congress and poor performance at a state levels.
The polling industry is not producing great prediction data right now.
Low voter turnout currently favors GOP candidates. (Under 31% in KY yesterday.) Apparently no one was very excited on either side, but unexcited GOP base voters still vote.
One that believes America is the hope of the Earth, doesn’t apologize for America, and stands shoulder to shoulder with Israel.
Someone’s dialed up the Fox News to 11, and snuggled up in their Alex Jones snuggies.
Yeah, except for those races.
Sorry about that.
America is the hope of the Earth, in that the Earth hopes the imbeciles on the right don’t elect a halfwit into the office of president.
Also, Israel can be wrong. And standing with it when it is, isn’t a virtue.
Sounds pretty much like Obama, unless you think that is wrong to ever disagree with Israel about anything.
you don’t publicly treat their leader worse than Chavez, Castro, and other Islamic fundamentalists like Iran’s leaders (yes, every goddamn one of them)
I agree, and Obama hasn’t done so.
Correct. It was very wrong of Bibi to do that to Obama.
Speaking as an American Jew who is a strong supporter of Israel, who would even describe himself as a Zionist: Israel needs the sort friend who does not let a friend drive drunk, who will hide the keys if need be even if it makes her upset. Some (and not a majority of American Jews) want to define friendship as being someone who says “Great idea!” to whatever idiotic fershluginah thing you say and do no matter how farkakte. That’s not being a good friend in my book.
Did I make a wrong turn at Albuquerque? This is the Kentucky governor’s race thread?
Out of all the forums on the SDMB, I think this one beats them all for speedy and efficient thread drift.
The GOP - worse still, the Tea Party wing of the GOP - won rather overwhelmingly in an election that Democrats nearly always won, and the excuse of its being off-year isn’t going to fly. Of course there’s going to be thread drift. Nobody wants to talk about that.
Let’s see if we can herald this as a cheery sign of the approaching demise of the GOP, or a harbinger of success for Sanders.
Regards,
Shodan
Well I am repeating points made elsewhere and repetitively … the GOP, and in particular the Tea Party Wing, dominates rural America and does particularly well in low turnout elections (which are most non-presidential ones). The result right now is an outsized impact at state government levels and in Congress. Decreasing rural populations relative to urban and suburban ones don’t significantly change that dynamic. If the Democratic Party actually want to accomplish anything more than a virtual stalemate as the best case then they need to find ways to make inroads to those demographics in ways that do not negatively impact their own dominance of the urban and increasingly the suburban demographics. Gerrymandering only increases the difficulty at Congressional levels but such are the facts on the ground.
Democrats in KY have a 60-40 registration advantage, even though we’re a solid red state. That’s because we have closed primaries, and in a lot of individual counties the registration advantage is so stark that the Democratic primary for county or city offices is the de facto general election. My own county is 75% Democrats but Bevin won with 62%.
So my theory with the polling is that the otherwise validated models we have for putting a poll together go completely haywire when the average Democrat is just as likely (if not moreso in some places) to vote Republican.
So why did we still have a Democrat in the Governor’s mansion when we haven’t elected a Democrat to any other top statewide office in years? We did elect a Republican in 2003, Ernie Fletcher, and his term was a total disaster. (I’ve always said that the only thing worse than Kentucky Democrats is Kentucky Republicans.) Steve Beshear was able to beat him in 2007, and the memory was still fresh enough in 2011 that Beshear had no trouble picking up a second term. Bevin makes Ernie Fletcher look like Winston Churchill, so I can only hope that the same buyer’s remorse sets in four years from now.
He’ll most likely help you out with that. Looks for his mouth to open.