The Lief Reservoir of Simple Truths and Smart One-Liners

[IceSpear]

How many of these are there I saw the scholastic poll why do we need this?

Still more useful and relevant than anything you've posted.

[IceSpear]

Never liked him much, and being a racist makes you an automatic HP

Dude, find a new hobby...  I just don't want to be in your political party, you need to accept it and stop being obsessed with getting me to join you in the Democratic Party!

Was this directed at me or Santander?

[IceSpear]

A million more things and self inflicted wounds that were already down the memory hole by election day. Whether or not the Comey letter was her fault is immaterial to the discussion anyway. The point is, if it didn't happen or happened earlier, she would've won.

If people forgot the Access Hollywood tape and the dozen accusers by election night then America needs to be a dictatorship because the American people would be more stupid than a goldfish.

[IceSpear]

Apparently there's low enthusiasm for Gillespie in rural/SWVA.

Obviously Gillespie needs them to turn out in high numbers on election day.

The “wearing a coal miners hat” money quote does more to underline our identity-obsessed politics than anything else I’ve seen in a while

Resentful whites are the true purveyors of identity politics, not Democrats. It's all projection.

[IceSpear]

Um, politicians always refer to themselves as "future" this or the "next" *insert political office* of *insert state/city/county/country*, but when Hillary's staffer does it it was arrogance and being tone deaf?

You all would criticize her for the way she wiped her ass if you could.

Americans would rather have millions of people incinerated in a nuclear blast and millions more succumb to radiation poisoning than have a president with a vagina. Somehow I don’t think the problem is HRC.

[IceSpear]

Dude in the Senate alone right now there's a former conservaDem State Treasurer from Louisiana, a former conservaDem Congressman from Alabama who switched parties after the '94 thrashing, a homophobic judge who used to be a Dem about to be elected to another seat in Alabama, and most the Republican statewide officials in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana used to be Democrats. Stop pretending like there wasn't a massive switch of allegiance. These are literally the same conservatives, just different parties.

[IceSpear]

So they're willing to sell out their country for partisanship, even when that selling out pertains to illegal behavior. How is that different than what Robert Hansen did, or a government agent who passes secrets to Russia for money?

Because they're "real Americans." True patriotism is defined as whatever they believe, support, or oppose.

[IceSpear]

No matter who wins can we all agree Democrats need to stop with this Classy mature above all better than anyone else intellectual campaign style because that part of the reason Clinton lost.

She won Virginia comfortably.

Yep, instead, they need to start running sewer tactics, accusing their political opponents of ridiculous positions, such as being child abuser sympathizers. /S

Im just tired of Democrats standing for nothing we know Gillespie wants to keep the statue up but what is Northam for exactly.

Righhht. Because Clinton stood for nothing, just like Northam... No, that's not the problem. The problem is that Democrats aren't appealing to the most hateful vices of American culture. People want to be in conflict with other people, and they want to be told that they are better/have the upper hand. This isn't about policies anymore, if it ever was recently.

[IceSpear]

If Roy Moore is elected than democracy is a failed experiment. It will have resulted in the lowest pond scum of humanity getting elected to the highest governing body in the country.

[IceSpear]

But its absurd and offensive to indicate there are actually people who aren't planning on voting for Moore now are swayable to,vote FOR him BECAUSE of this.

Actually, that's not what we're saying. At least, that's not what I'm saying, and I have been one of the people saying this. We leave out the detailed reasoning just because trolling is a lot more effective and entertaining when there is enough ambiguity that it could be interpreted in the worst possible way.

Of course, it is ridiculous to think that Alabamians would actively endorse Moore's alleged predatory behavior and be swayed to vote for him because of his actions. However, what people like me, PNM and IceSpear have been saying is that it cannot be overstated how invested the average Republican voter is in "their guy" and how they will simply refuse to believe any allegations against Moore. In some cases, their vision and judgment may be so clouded by tribalism that they will even try to rationalize Moore's illegal alleged actions by comparing with Democrat scandals or saying it happened too long ago to matter. They are not necessarily amoral people, but tribalism can lead to amoral behavior from otherwise basically moral people. They cannot simply dismiss Moore as a bad candidate without admitting deep faults of their own that go beyond merely backing the wrong horse.

Regarding it increasing his chances of winning, it's not unreasonable to theorize that some relatively apolitical voters (it is a special election, after all) may not have been particularly excited by Moore before, but now that they see the "fake news media" and establishment furiously attacking him from both sides, they will actually turn out to vote for him.

[IceSpear]

People thought that Hillary couldn't possibly do worse with white men than Obama did. They were wrong.

This actually isn't true though. People thought she couldn't do worse among whites overall, with gains among white women matching if not exceeding losses among white men. And this turned out to be true. According to the exit polls, she lost whites by 21 points while Obama lost them by 22.

[IceSpear]

I think people really underestimate just how little policy can matter in some elections. Not to say it's completely meaningless, but America's electorate is not filled with people who sit down, carefully analyze their choices and make choices independent of partisan considerations. Absolutely not. It's more like, "I've chosen my team, and I'm going to say I'm open to all candidates but that's bs."

[IceSpear]

Speaking as a grad student, there are way too many grad students in this country. That said, ensuring only the rich can become a grad student is not the way to go.

The right-wing has always been about ensuring the protection and preservation of privilege, even at the expense of merit. America's entire educational system, but especially its higher education system, is systematically structured to favor persons with privileged backgrounds. The government's attempts at leveling this field will be seriously harmed by these Republican policies and I don't think that's unintentional.

[IceSpear]

Dude... he's mentally sick. Very sick.

Well 90% of Republicans probably agree with him, so it can't be just mental sickness/retardation, unless that's the case for the 90% as well.

Stupidity is contagious.

[IceSpear]

I mean, Republicans need to find SOMETHING to get their voters to the polls. They can't run on issues, so they run on things elected officials have no control over like black people kneeling and jury decisions.

[IceSpear]

I doubt a guy who claimed that Hillary and Obama are both literal Demons and said Bernie supporters should have their jaws broken would do particularly well in a Democratic primary.

He'd probably win West Virginia and put up decent showings in Arkansas, Kentucky, and Oklahoma.

I've always found it hilarious that around 15-20% of self-identified Democrats in KY and OK will not vote Democratic even in local races where the candidate is pro-gun, pro-life, anti-gay, ect. I understand millions of southern conservatives are still registered as Democrats, but why identify as one if you would never consider voting for the party in any circumstance whatsoever?

Because they're too lazy and/or stupid to switch parties. Luckily, progress is being made there. As the lovely RINO Tom has recently informed me, Oklahoma now FINALLY has more Republicans than Democrats. Hopefully soon they'll all go the way of Kim Davis.

This is actually true. They're Reagan Democrats who briefly came back to support Clinton in the 90s and a few Dem Governors, but then went straight Republican once Obama was elected. They're old as Hell and mean, too lol I worked on a couple of Dem campaigns here in the state during the Obama years and when calling registered Dems, we'd often call these old people who voted Republican but were too lazy and stubborn to change their registration and they'd curse us out and complain about a Muslim in the White House.

#vindication

[IceSpear]

First instinct said yes, but I think really no. When in history has Alabama ever done the right thing? It is and has been the most racist, reactionary, bigoted, conservative state in the nation. I refuse to put my trust in people like that. I'm hesitant to say anything further.

[IceSpear]

We can stop the fetishization of Appalachia in general.

[IceSpear]

He is the pure id of the Republican base. An angry old white man who sits at home all day watching Fox and shouting at the TV.

[IceSpear]

Maybe not in this particular thread but this idea exists and has been floated by those who think whispering about black and brown issues will soothe the minds of triggered whites who have abandoned the Democratic Party in droves over the past decade. Quite a few of them are not coming back no matter how much you throw the actual Democratic base under the bus for their approval.

[IceSpear]

Yeah, as long as Trump continues to trash blacks, Mexicans, and women, the deplorables will continue to blindly support him.

[IceSpear]

I assume there's a big difference between the 13+ million plus who voted for Bernie, and the small hardcore base on reddit that loves Tulsi Gabbard.

[IceSpear]

Things like "white pride" or "straight pride" remind of the arguments conservatives make for the Confederate flag. I wouldn't have as much of a problem with it if people were actually putting it on their car or flying it in their yard for "southern history" but in 99.999999999% of cases it's just their way of saying they hate blacks without actually saying it.

[IceSpear]

You’re not supposed to post orgasm-inducing images on atlas.

This site needs to be purged of gross, weird teenagers

Atlas needs to be full of hot, well-adjusted teenagers.

He doesn't want the well-adjusted part, actually.

[IceSpear]

I honestly laughed out loud. Thank you White America for electing this!

stop blaming white people or a white lash, it's how you lose even more voters.

The truth hurts.

Whatever it is hurts our chances, utter incompetence.

I'm sure that someone posting something that you don't like on uselectionatlas.org/FORUM is fatal for the chances of Democrats in upcoming elections