Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder McConnell and Boehner are already telling the Tea Party to sit down, shut up and know your role. They do not want gridlock nor do they want to use the debt ceiling as leverage for more cuts. McConnell has already said there will not be a government shutdown on his watch. <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/GOP-Congress-tea-party-infighting/2014/11/06/id/605744/">http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfro.../605744/</a>
Originally Posted By TeaPartyWave <<McConnell and Boehner are already telling the Tea Party to sit down, shut up and know your role>> Actually, the Tea Party told you and your ilk to shut up, sit down, and get the hell out of the way. Please see the latest election results. Enjoy your minority status as leftist outcasts.
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder "Actually, the Tea Party told you and your ilk to shut up, sit down, and get the hell out of the way. Please see the latest election results. Enjoy your minority status as leftist outcasts." Surely even an idiot like you can realize you're useless around here, correct? All the shit you throw around here nobody takes seriously and by and large they ignore. So when you're finally done trying to compensate for your obvious inadequacies in front of a bunch of people who don't even know you, keep in mind it was all wasted time.
Originally Posted By tiggertoo <<But there's also the cognitive dissonance that many Republican voters have.>> This is certainly true for a large percent. But many Republican voters have an inherent handicap---a two party system. The spectrum of ideas and opinions is limitless. Yet, we expect to see these views dichotomized into a partisan system? That’s the real idiocy that I see. So what may seem to be cognitive dissonance may in fact be a voter who doesn’t easily fit into either party’s ideological configuration, but doing his or her best to push the agenda in a preferred direction. Nevertheless, they are essentially force to choose between two candidates that do not really represent them. Political psychology is an extremely difficult field, and contrary to what we hear in the media, partisan elections only serve to muddy the water rather than clear it as it pertains to understanding people’s policy preferences. It gives some strategized idea what people think. But as to their actually policy preferences, it says relatively little.
Originally Posted By tiggertoo <<There is another thing you are not considering, and it is very important to Conservatives. Control at the State Level vs Control at the Federal Level.>> True, but that generally isn’t the argument made by base Republicans. They argue that the market should define what wages should be, not government (federal, state, or local). However, most people, even most Republicans are smarter than that, even in scarlet red states like Nebraska.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<So what may seem to be cognitive dissonance may in fact be a voter who doesn’t easily fit into either party’s ideological configuration, but doing his or her best to push the agenda in a preferred direction. Nevertheless, they are essentially force to choose between two candidates that do not really represent them.>> Absolutely. I can't speak for across the country, but down here in the "Bible Belt" first and foremost in party preference is conservatism on social issues. They more or less accept whatever other baggage comes with it. A strong anti-abortion stance drives everything else.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 "This is certainly true for a large percent. But many Republican voters have an inherent handicap---a two party system" Yes, that can be a factor too sometimes.
Originally Posted By Tikiduck One thing you see a lot of from the Republican voters is a passion bordering on fanaticism, as opposed to the Democrat's relative apathy. It is obvious that their fear tactics have mobilized a hell of a lot more people to go vote. I don't know about the rest of you, but that near miss with Palin got my butt to the polls, and has kept me there every since.
Originally Posted By Fauxmandy Fact is, the Tea Party just gave you stupid libs a serious ass kicking. Enjoy being losers for the next twenty years. (i'm so ashamed of that time in college when I let that guy tea bag me. It felt good, but it was so confusing) Maybe if you Godless losers hadn't ruined the country, you'd be back on top! Their is literally no one who would do a worse job! (why does she yell at me all the time? she knew I was really short when she married me) It's no wonder Americans hate Obamacare. Way to ruin health care in this country. (those kids were so mean to me in school I can only feel better by bullying people as a coward online)
Originally Posted By TP2000 >>"The Republicans actually picked up fewer house seats than the average for the opposition party in a president's 6th year (taking the average going back to WWII), and picked up just one more senate seat than the average. It was a good night for them, no question, but a little perspective is in order."<< I think that's because the Repubs are now at a 100 year majority. They haven't held this many congressional seats since the 1920's. This is a huge bulwark of extra seats they've now built themselves. But they are running up against the wall of realistic numbers for them. There will always be the big cities and leftist communities (Berkeley, Malibu, Telluride, Madison, big college towns in the NE, or declining areas in the Rust Belt like Detroit, Rhode Island, Delaware, etc.) that vote for the Dem on the ticket in big numbers. That won't change. Building a 100 year majority for the Repubs is quite an accomplishment. They built on the success they had in 2010, and padded a monumentally historic majority for themselves.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***They haven't held this many congressional seats since the 1920's*** And we all know well the incredible decade of prosperity and happiness that followed. <---grabs bucket of popcorn I'm glad I have no vested interest in what goes on over there anymore...it's so much nicer to just sit back and watch the idiots vote against their own best interests AGAIN and pay the inevitable price...
Originally Posted By Dabob2 "This is certainly true for a large percent. But many Republican voters have an inherent handicap---a two party system" Damn, Mr. X beat me to it. There's also, of course, the worst gerrymandering we've seen in 100 years. To the point where Democratic candidates for the house can get more than 1 million votes more than Republican candidates for the house overall in 2012, and still pick up far fewer seats. It's perhaps at its most stark in Pennsylvania, where in 2012 the Democrats won more votes for the house overall, yet the Republicans hold 13 House seats there to just five for the Democrats. That's not fair, of course, but it's, well, what we're stuck with for now.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 Sorry, the quote at the top of mine just now was supposed to be the same quote that Mr. X started with.
Originally Posted By ecdc Very solid jobs report out today. Under George W. Bush, we lost hundreds of thousands of jobs. Under Obama we've gained 10 million. Like Mike Grunwald asked, I can't figure out what's driving the job growth? "What do you think created 10.5M new jobs? Job-killing health reform, job-killing financial reform, or job-killing carbon regs?"
Originally Posted By ecdc Unemployment ticks down to 5.8%. I forget...what was it when Bush left office? (I didn't forget; Republican policies devastated this country, including my own friends and family who lost jobs.)
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Never has a better president been so disliked. Why? Although doing something to assure everyone had access to health insurance was the right thing to do, it was political suicide. We saw that on Tuesday. Clinton was a shrewd enough politician to back off.
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>Absolutely. I can't speak for across the country, but down here in the "Bible Belt" first and foremost in party preference is conservatism on social issues. They more or less accept whatever other baggage comes with it. A strong anti-abortion stance drives everything else.<< Yet the GOP NEVER delivers on abortion. When Bush had a chance to appoint TradCons to the Supreme Court, he instead appointed Corporatists, who granted personhood to corporations while continuing to deny it to the unborn. They take the pro-life vote for granted and have no intention of ending abortion.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Why actually do anything about it when having it out there as an issue buys them so much?
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Why actually do anything about it when having it out there as an issue buys them so much?
Originally Posted By ecdc >>it was political suicide. We saw that on Tuesday.<< We didn't see that on Tuesday at all. We saw Americans with the attention span of Dug in Up voting over misinformed fears of ISIS, Ebola, Russia, and everything else. We see white Americans angry over Ferguson, and they are the largest voting bloc in the midterms. It's been an all around depressing, crappy Summer. The news media hasn't helped. Honestly, I'm not one to just blame the media all the time, but their Ebola coverage...holy crap. When people are frightened or they perceive things going badly, it's always the President that gets the blame. Always. Who's going to blame Boehner? The 22% of Americans who can identify him? I see no evidence people voted against Obamacare. They had that chance in 2012 and Obama trounced Romney. I think you are making the mistake of thinking most voters are as informed or as interested as you are.
