I'll vent, but in a different manner than others are doing. Really I want to address posts like these:
It's really mystifying to me what the GOP stands for, or why the US electorate saw fit to send 245+ of them in the House.
I don't really understand these results and I can think of a lot of really angry snipes at the Republicans but before I feel comfortable doing that... I still fundamentally don't comprehend what policies, platform, or message they actually have and ran on so successfully.
I cannot comprehend why people would want to vote for such an evil to the roots party.
What a load of crap, to be quite honest. You don't think you understand why people vote this way? Go listen to Republican voters and hear what they think. Maybe their reasons are facile, or they voted off of falsehood. But reasons are reasons, and we have a duty to reach out.
I can think of many reasons why someone would vote Republican this cycle:
-Given we want to cast a pox on all congresspeople anyway, we may as well vote the ones who are at least promising to shake up the system.
-Incidents from ebola to the secret service have shown how messed up the federal administration is, and we need to elect people to keep them in check.
-We still haven't recovered from the recession, and I like people who promise not to raise taxes.
-None of them seem divisive on social issues, and to hell with the law if they want to regulate our lives anyway. Their character matters most.
-Democrats are a bunch of elitists, litigious and uncaring, and they seem to take pride in it.
-Barack Obama does not represent our values.
And so forth. The Democrats can counter these points, but it takes time. What happened was that the hundreds of millions that could have been spent to counter these points were burnt on social issue zealotry, amassing a turnout that never did materialize. And why would they - after four years of gridlock and getting zero promised improvements, why would the Obama coalition reach out again?
Everyone plays identity politics. Don't hide in your Democrat bastions and pretend as if you can't understand identities outside of your own. Of course you do - take the time to learn it.
You can hide in your states, Democrat bastions, and insult the voters further. The presidency's on the line.
