Ohh, right. Sorry! I forgot, what is important is what people think, not what is actually true. God, I always do that!
Because it’s funny, you know, when Mitt Romney asked that question of the entire electorate, a majority of people responded “yes”.
I don’t follow you, here.
Four years ago, America – and, in particular, yours truly – voted to make Obama our President. Two years ago, America – and, in particular, yours truly – said, whoa, hey, we’ve got to obstruct that guy; let’s vote a Republican majority into the House, along with plenty enough Senate Republicans for filibusters.
Two years later – well, shucks, we could’ve chosen to put a Republican back in the White House, but we said, no, we’re good. We could’ve returned the House of Representatives to the Democrats, but we said, no, we’re good. We could’ve given Republicans a majority in the Senate – or returned 'em to a can’t-muster-a-filibuster minority – but we said, no, we’re good.
So why the heck would Republicans in the House and Senate sign whatever Obama puts in front of them? They just got the same thumbs-up he did! To the exact extent that I want more of the same from Obama, I want more of the same from the obstructionist GOP – and, as far as I can tell, America voted the way I did: splitting its ticket to maintain status-quo gridlock.
I’m proud to say I voted against him. I avoided his name on the touch screen like I would avoid an inappropriate piece of shit.
Fortunately for America, 52% of the rest of voting Virginians did too.
Varous ramblings:
I am very happy to find that my fellow citizens are not as selfish and stupid as I had feared.
I am going to work very hard at conducting myself in a manner I wish the Republicans would have acted had Romney won.
I really hope Republican obstructionism is placed front and center in the discussion.
I hope I would have been just as offended by similar action by the Dems, had Romney won.
And I really hope the trend over the last 4 years is not taken as the model for the future.
I also don’t understand blaming Obama for the looming “cliff” - some Republicans seeking a target for blame ought to look in the mirror.
I think it is in some ways confusing to refer to “the economy” as doing well or not.
Certain policies may be very good for business, without necessarily improving the standard of living of large portions of the population.
I think it would be REALLY great, if people re-examined their hopes and dreams, and if “the American way of life” became defined as something other than amassing as much wealth and as many cheap consumer goods as possible.
But I’m just dreaming here.
I see the ever increasing income//wealth disparity, and the increasing concentration of ever greater proportions of wealth in ever fewer hands, to be the greatest problem facing America right now.
On so many fronts - election of women and gays, pot legalization, rejection of intolerant ignorant candidates who misunderstand biology, rape and choice - I see aspects of a more tolerant, inclusive, and mutually respectful future.
And that makes me very happy.
The “true believers” on the far right on social and economic issues are never going to be convinced to abandon their beliefs.
The rational rest of us cannot allow them to drag us down as we pursue reasonable compromises and solutions.
I REALLY hope Obama hits the ground running RIGHT NOW - not to pursue what I would consider a radically liberal agenda, but instead, to enact substantive, longlasting, and much needed change.
Continue moving towards implementing already enacted healthcare and financial reform - and spotlight Republican obstructionism shuld it ofccur.
And in the next 2 years work towards some meaningful, longlasting reforms.
Economically - move towards meaningful tax reform, while making much needed adjustments to entitlements and spending.
And work towards enacting a comprehensive immigration policy - something we have long lacked.
As an outsider, that has to be one of the dumbest things I have ever heard.
Do you genuinely believe that a nation of people actively want total gridlock in their government? That in obstructing everything your president does they are acting on the will of the people?
Thats a deluded position.
I don’t think it was a vote for gridlock so much as it was the fact that most congressional districts are rigged to keep the incumbent in place.
I think OMG is being unusually gracious right now. He could be whining about voter fraud or making extremist political statements but instead he’s been a pretty good sport. I would like to see a spirit of bipartisanship over the next four years, and I want that more than I want any one particular policy in effect. Surely I can’t be alone in this.
That’s a very strange perspective.
Romney’s big problem – which became the Republicans’ big problem – was his personal mediocrity and insipidity. This was really brought home during his flat, passionless, dutiful, bland, perfunctory concession speech. If you’re not going to run a campaign of ideas, you’d better have some personal force to bring to the table. Romney just didn’t.
And this brings up a larger point for the Republicans, which was their lack of compelling candidates for the job. Romney got there by default, after all the crazies fell by the wayside. And unfortunately for the Republicans, there’s a influential school of thought that says that what’s needed is *more *craziness, rather than less.
Am I the only one who hates Tom Brokaw’s granny glasses? I couldn’t stop laughing at them every time I switched to NBC (I don’t normally watch network news, has he had those for a while?).
“Outside influence”? Like what, a war?
Oddly enough, though, I don’t think it’s as rare as you’d hope it would be. I’ve heard more than a few people - intelligent people, some of them, including my own father - say that they prefer a gridlock-heavy situation, and that they’ll vote to try to create one. My dad, a pretty staunch Republican, is thrilled this morning because he figures with Obama in the White House and Republican obstructionism still entrenched, things will be just about exactly as he likes them.
It’s still early. There are stages of grief. It just may take him longer for him to get to the denial stage.
Yep. I know a lot of people who look at it the same way. They are doing ok in life, and just want the government (whoever is in power) to just leave them the fuck alone. They aren’t dogmatic for either side, they just want to live their lives in peace and to hell with everybody else.
Dick Morris is admitting he was wrong about the Romney landslide. His reasoning? Sandy. “It made all the difference.”
Maybe I’m wrong but I thought TOWP’s point was that one cannot necessarily assume a “mandate” based on the fickle voting habits of the general public; otherwise one does come to the conclusion that what we want is gridlock.
I’ve find the red / blue map so depressing. Not because O won. This map looks too much like 2000,2004, and 2008.
What bothers me is the clear division in this country. Basically the East and West coasts elect the President. Once in awhile someone like Bush comes along and grabs a few key battleground states and wins. But the fracture in the country remains.
I hope Obama does reach out to both parties. We got big problems to solve. The ugly partisanship has got to end. Somehow this country has to find a way to make the two party system work again.
I think it’s interesting that neither OMG or Adaher voted in this poll. They had to have seen it as it was floating around the top of this forum for the last two days.
I called it “Obama by the margin he showed over the last year” - because I don’t and never have believed the final-weeks “neck and neck” nonsense.
We have work to do. Maybe now we can get to it with a lot less pointless drivel and interference.
Maybe we’ll even see a permanent downgrading of the Fox News set and a fall from power of the ideologically extreme right.
(Hey, after this election, we can dream, ri… uh, correct?)
I’m in this camp. If I could vote for “no new laws” instead of a Senator or Congressman I would. Gridlock is preferable to them actually doing things, since most of what they do hurts me and doesn’t help me.
So I’m hoping the Republican majority in the House obstructs and blocks everything for the next four years. Obama won. That’s the reality. It probably means a change in balance of the SCOTUS. It means he gets to continue running the executive branch and the military. But he can’t pass much if the House doesn’t let him.