Embittered election postmortem (please let's just have this one thread to vent)

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

Mods: Like the title says, please let me/us just have this one thread to vent and make moan in. But feel free to move it if it would be better or less obtrusive someplace else.

Fellow Democrats/liberals/leftists: Let's try to keep the more extreme negativity confined to this thread and ones like it for now. We'll have plenty of time to complain all over US General once this pack of imbeciles takes office in January. And we should.

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A great cry and the making of great dole is heard across America tonight. It is heard because Herbivore America lies bleeding.

This is worse than expected, worse than imagined, worse even in many respects than 2010. A party whose platform and personalities are rankly and utterly morally indefensible even in the abstract has been rewarded for years of spitefulness and small cruelties with a Senate majority, increased House majority, and the triumphant reelections of some of the most odious governors in recent American history. The American equivalent of what Michael Frayn called “Carnivore Britain” has surged triumphantly to victory, and with it a sociocultural ideology that is an affront to man and socioeconomic ideology that is an affront to God.

In state after state soul-sickeningly immoral governance has been rewarded and more humane alternatives have been spurned. From Florida’s Orlokian felon Rick Scott to Maine’s vulgar thug Paul LePage, from Kansas’s slavering Savonarola fanatic Sam Brownback to Wisconsin’s insensate C.S. Lewis villain Scott Walker, Republican governors have made good. They carry with them the stench of hypocrisy, the stench of selfishness, the stench of man’s inhumanity to man. The only issues on which the ideology that their party represents could conceivably (conceivably! Certainly not with any degree of certitude) be argued to have theoretically good points—abortion and certain technical aspects of monetary policy—they carry to ridiculous extremes that end up reflecting through a perverse prism the inhumanity of the rest of their otherwise altogether almost objectively vile positions.

I have a genuinely difficult time understanding how this happened. Certain aspects of it I can comprehend. Mark Udall was stupid enough and Bruce Braley snobbish enough that they probably deserved to be defeated, and to paraphrase a profoundly stupid and snobbish man, they lost their elections to the opponents that they had, not the opponents that one might want or wish them to have had. Mary Landrieu’s political survival and Alison Lundergan Grimes’s political flourishing were stymied by aspects of the cultures of their states that, while depressing, were not surprising. Asa Hutchinson ran a flawless campaign, and Charlie Baker faced a spiritually anemic and widely disliked human being. But Bruce Rauner, Governor of Illinois? Thom Tillis, architect of the plunder of North Carolina, now Senator from that state? Ed Gillespie nearly making the Beltway’s seemingly insane prophecies about him reality, failing only by one of the night’s narrowest of margins? The only explanation is that my country has, for this election at least, taken on spiritual and cultural characteristics that I neither recognize nor like and worn them as closely and as disgustingly as Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs.

I am serious about this. In an even somewhat functioning democracy, the results of an election are an expression of the values, interests, and priorities of the community, and the values, interests, and priorities of community after community across the United States as expressed in this election are morally alien to me and, in all honesty, ought to be to anybody of good taste and judgment, to anybody governed by sound reason and true religion. They are neither Christian nor charitable nor even humane. They are delusional, being founded upon falsifications. They are callous, being motivated by selfishness and by self-possession. They are cruel, being filled with joy in the suffering of those perceived as less deserving.

About these things such posters as HockeyDude, with whom I disagree on a whole host of issues, are entirely right, and I would like to reach out to them and to other like-minded forum leftists with this proposition:

Don’t care any more. At least, not in quite the same way.

Don’t try to advance our ideas, at this point. Maybe at some point in the future we’ll be able to. For now, let’s just be political hesychasts. Let’s just deny and attack what ought to be attacked and denied wherever we find it, and believe me, we will find ample opportunity over the next two or four or six or however many years some of these grotesques of homo politicus remain in positions of power.

I also agree with Harry that this election, like others in the past with ideologically similar outcomes, has some pretty horrendous things to say about the conceptual nature of American masculinity.

Whatever.

Junk election. Junk country. May God have mercy on us.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

This country is woefully ignorant and morally depraved.  Great post.

[Sol]

This election also makes it clear that Americans would rather kill off people unable to afford health insurance than actually being forced to get it themselves.

Obligatory voting should be made law of the land, preferably with life imprisonment in solitary confinement for non-voters.

[Boston Bread]

There are a large section of Americans who are utterly delusional. Agenda 21, birthers, climate deniers, etc. There is no counter to that in turnout. The most vulnerable sections of society, the poor, youth and minorities, are also the most disenfranchised and traditional GOTV efforts don't engage them. The most powerful demographics are also the ones most opposed to us and with the complicity of the Supreme Court they have free reign to dictate the narrative. Because of this voters no longer understand their choices. Now in the statehouses and congress they will implement policy which contradicts the will of the silent majority without hesitation while democrats continue to cower.

Democrats need to rebrand themselves as an agent of change instead of establishment elites again. We need a new brand of populism from the left to get a wider swath of society engaged. Our voters need to be given a reason to participate. How, I don't know. But we have two years to go about this.

[Ebowed]

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.

We know what the policies are when they get elected, I am just wondering how these policies were marketed to the voting public.  That is all.

[RedSLC]

The culture warriors, champions of the new jim crow, and the plutocrats have won. I've never been more ashamed to be an American.

The far right has seized control for good, and we have no chance of ever defeating them.

These are the end times, so to speak. There's no point to voting in any of these elections anymore. The bad guys will never be punished, and the good guys will always lose.

I have no hope for America anymore.

[IceSpear]

The culture warriors, champions of the new jim crow, and the plutocrats have won. I've never been more ashamed to be an American.

The far right has seized control for good, and we have no chance of ever defeating them.

These are the end times, so to speak. There's no point to voting in any of these elections anymore. The bad guys will never be punished, and the good guys will always lose.

I have no hope for America anymore.

Oh please. The Republicans were doing that same "it's all over for us..." spiel in 2012, and the Democrats in 2010, and the Republicans in 2008...

[Storebought]

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.

[publicunofficial]

Republicans won 75% of the white vote tonight. That pretty much sums it up.

[Storebought]

Republicans won 75% of the white vote tonight. That pretty much sums it up.

So, my Mississippi-thesis is not that far off.

[Sol]

The evil ones have it set as their mission to take control of the country for the elite. They want to destroy democracy and screw over every single poor, non-white, queer person. The GOP is a fascist dirtbag party. I hope Cory Gardner and Mitch McConnell will enjoy rotting in hell.
 
I cannot comprehend why people would want to vote for such an evil to the roots party.

Also, White people are evil.

[RedSLC]

The culture warriors, champions of the new jim crow, and the plutocrats have won. I've never been more ashamed to be an American.

The far right has seized control for good, and we have no chance of ever defeating them.

These are the end times, so to speak. There's no point to voting in any of these elections anymore. The bad guys will never be punished, and the good guys will always lose.

I have no hope for America anymore.

Oh please. The Republicans were doing that same "it's all over for us..." spiel in 2012, and the Democrats in 2010, and the Republicans in 2008...

As long as the GOP is able to pull this off, the American left will never be triumphant. As long as these people can be elected at least some of the time, they will continue to cut back on civil liberties, economic equality, and voting rights. Until a genuine opposition can be formed, they cannot be stopped, cannot be convinced otherwise, and cannot be exposed.

[User157088589849]

Republicans won 75% of the white vote tonight. That pretty much sums it up.

Teachers have failed to educate the citizens of many states. Ignorance, bigotry and hate do not belong in the 21st century considering the vast resources available to get facts.

It is totally unacceptable for a human being in the modern world not to comprehend and accept evolution as a fact.

DO NOT GIVE UP ON THE FOLKS IN OREGON WHOSE MINDS ARE FREE AND OPEN. TURN YOUR BACK ON THE FOLKS IN ARKANSAS LET THEM LIVE IN FEAR OF THE STRAW MAN.

[Boston Bread]

According to CNN republicans won 60% of the white vote in the house. But they made up 75% of the electorate and with weaker support among minorities this is basically 2012 with a 2004 electorate (which would have Romney winning).
Even whites would be more democratic with better turnout. But yes Republicans want the whole country's voting patterns to become like Mississippi.

[bore]

My reaction.

[Foucaulf]

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.

[BaconBacon96]

Okay here goes.

I'm despondent. Shocked. Confused. I understand, I think everyone understood, this was gonna be a good night for the Republicans. That's not something I would prefer but a few Republican gains aren't gonna do too much harm.

But not like this. I don't even know how to explain this. What has just happened? I really, really do not know. This isn't any normal midterm. This isn't a wave, this is a tsunami. No, really. 8, possibly 9 Senate seats have fallen. Several house seats and the Governorships of Illinois and Maryland have fallen to complete unknowns. These aren't states that are meant to vote Republican. Mark Warner, the potential VP for Hillary, has only been reelected by the skin of his teeth in a race in which he was up by 20 freaking points.

Perhaps what's more incomprehensible is how the GOP did so well.  They campaigned against the partisanship and the gridlock they caused. Just over a year ago they were being called out for it but now they're celebrating an unbelievable victory because of it. It's worked. The divisiveness has prevailed and it really stuns me. I had no idea America could be as ignorant as this. In what will undoubtedly be called a vote against the system, they have voted en masse for one half of that system. The two party system has just received a massive boost that it doesn't deserve.

Are Americans really this conservative? Obamacare has been working, the economy is on the rise and this is the result that we get. I am genuinely scared for the United States right now. Genuine reform for all sorts of issues, immigration, tax, the debt are off the table now. The Republicans will now use they're new found power to continue to push the extreme agenda that many thought, including myself, was killing them.  It is not an exaggeration to call their platform far-right and it seems to have worked very, very well. Compromise doesn't work, extreme partisanship does. They may very well attempt to impeach Obama. I would not be surprised if they try.

And then their's 2016. Hillary was meant to help us win back some of the White Southern Democrats who have voted GOP in recent times. This election has shown that the White Southern Democrat is dead. Grimes, Tennant, Pryor, Hagan have all be rejected by states that at one point would've voted them in without question. Now it appears these states might be lost for the Dems. And what about Kansas. Both Brownback and Roberts were very unpopular, doomed to failure and yet somehow pulled off an almost concerning victory, probably simply because they were listed as Republicans. Hillary can easily win by holding Obama's states but is that what we want? A permanently divided and polarized country? I don't want that. I would have said that most Americans would agree with me. Now I'm not so sure.

This is a terrible result. America will only suffer from this growing dysfunction in it's government. Personally I'm not angry, just sad. Sad that things have gone so wrong so easily.

[Franzl]

What an ass kicking.

At the same time, I'm happy I wasn't really emotionally attached to anything this year. It's disappointing, but it's the stupid two party system that's ultimately responsible.

[Tender Branson]

Good morning !

Damn, that was one BIG, FUCKING DISASTER.

Much worse than I ever thought ... Pryor Blanched, Baily castrated and Udall aborted. And Mark Warner ...

[Boston Bread]

Based on exit polls, I note that if only women voted democrats would have won CO, IA, AK, NC, GA outright and thus kept the senate. Latinos were at 64% and blacks 89% for democrats. So the coalition is still there with a little nibbling at the margins, but in the end turnout and poor showings among independents did them in. War on women obviously didn't help with unfriendly voters, but economic campaigns like Pryor's did not do conclusively better in any way. I would say that social issues can't be used against republicans in general with the way messaging is currently done. It worked for republicans because it stirred up fear, but it has no similar effect for democrats, perhaps because social liberals are less fearful and less committed to their positions.

[BM]

I almost wish Warner lost too. Lazy coasting piece of sh**t. You can't let your guard down when you're dealing with mad men, which is what the party that won tonight is. It's war and every battle counts.

I've never felt so hateful and disappointed in my life.

[Oakvale]

I agree, but I will express my reaction when waking up and checking the results this morning more succinctly.

[© tweed]

In an even somewhat functioning democracy, the results of an election are an expression of the values, interests, and priorities of the community, and the values, interests, and priorities of community after community across the United States as expressed in this election are morally alien to me

you are overstating the degree to which the USA functions as a small-d democracy, even in a narrow sense.  elections are carefully-scripted, mulibilliondollar affairs run by the public relations/advertising industry.  the candidates hardly, if ever, speak about policy beyond the barest platitudes, and even the position papers you can dig up in some corner of their website are a) ambiguous and sparse on details and b) poorly correlated to what the candidate will actually do with power one elected.

the ballot propositions show this gulf between politics and policy.  multiple states, even the 'red states', voted resoundingly to raise the minimum wage (while voting for candidates that probably support the repeal of the min. wage).  voters routinely support rolling back the prison-industrial complex by legalizing weed and limiting the ability of DAs to charge nonviolent offenders with felonies with petty crimes.

this is not a new development.  Chomsky noted all the way back in 1984 that voters re-elected Reagan in a landslide while exit polls showed that they hoped his domestic agenda would be defeated.  the relationship between electoral politics and policy has been dwindling for a long times, and is now approaching zero.


now, if your argument is that the American soul is corrupt beyond the possibility of redemption, no argument there -- it always has been.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Good morning !

Damn, that was one BIG, FUCKING DISASTER.

Much worse than I ever thought ... Pryor Blanched, Baily castrated and Udall aborted. And Mark Warner ...

Warner got warned.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Vacumist election, as I felt the same way in 2004. But we still won in NH and Va our prez battlegrounds. Appeals Crt Nominees for judgeship are held up in cmtee anyways, due to blue slip policy. Trade, resume Iraq airstrikes will be on table. But, this hasnt transformed the senate for 16 as NH, IL WI and Pa will be pickups as well as winning them for prez.

Quinn had no business running, he should have been primaried.