A New America - 2016 General Election

[Maxwell]

A New America - 2016 General Election

The primary season was a bitter fight on the Republican side - tons of candidates from different walks of life. The candidate who came out on top may be among the most divisive and yet interesting - Senator Walter Jones Jr.. Jones is not a life-long Republican, and in fact switched parties before running for Senate. He was a conservative Democrat, and despite switching parties has maintained some of his Democrat ideals. Jones is anti-war, anti-military spending, and wants to do an audit of the Pentagon. Jones is also anti-trade, and was the only GOP candidate to pledge to "tear up the deals". Jones is fiscally conservative and a deficit hawk, but wants to keep certain programs in place like Medicare and Social Security. Still, he proposes a massive tax cut deal to counteract the Feingold Tax Increases, and wants to repeal FEINCARE, which he says will "balloon the deficit". His running mate is none other than ex-primary rival Governor David Dewhurst, a move to shore up traditional conservatives. Dewhurst disagrees with Jones on a variety of issues, but stands with him on the need for "supply side growth, a sane healthcare system, and ending the debt NOW!"

President Feingold is running on the progress he's made dealing with these problems - reducing unemployment from 11% to 7%, pushing forward a comprehensive healthcare package that includes a public option, and lowering the wage gap between men and women. Feingold pledges to fight further - through another round of trade re-negotiations, pushing through a full campaign finance reform package, and reversing the negative trends of income inequality. Feingold's stimulus plan put forward infrastructure spending, schools spending, and tax credits, and Feingold plans a more comprehensive solution for the infrastructure problems we have by hiking the gas tax, and putting more dollars toward grants for state investment in schools. Feingold also has warned the states to do the job of regulating charter schools or "I will". Feingold has faced tons of protests from charter school advocates. He retains Vice President Josh Penny, who has been a limited assist on the campaign trail due to his health issues. Despite that Penny plans to remain on the ticket.

You have 3 days to pick either of these men to be President of the United States.

[Kingpoleon]

Accidental vote for Jones. I meant to vote for Feingold.

[Maxwell]

Accidental vote for Jones. I meant to vote for Feingold.

I'll note this for the record.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Jones easily

[Orthogonian Society Treasurer]

Jonesmentum!

[PPT Spiral]

Jones enthusiastically. We've had TL President Feingold way too many times.

[TDAS04]

Feingold.

[Maxwell]

wow close race folks!

I'll give a run down of the Gubernatorial races once I finish up with cookies..

[Mr. Smith]

Feingold.

[SATW]

Feingold. I could never vote for  Walter Jones.

[Bigby]

Jones!

[Maxwell]

There's one day after this - decided to not do a write-up for the Governors races. This looks like Presidential Race of the Century! (reminder - thanks to Kingpoleon, one vote will be switched from Jones to Feingold. This alters the tally for those who are paying attention)

[JA]

Feingold, no question.

[Maxwell]

this is my free time to do this today so Locked and Map on the Way.

Kingpoleon's vote makes this 24-18. The largest margin I've seen for one of these in quite a while.

[Maxwell]

2016 Presidential Election

A close race. A nail biter. Anyone's game. These were terms not used in the 2016 Presidential election. Well, early on maybe - Jones' sealing of the Republican nomination gave him a 5 point bump and a 5 point lead ahead of President Feingold. But Feingold, not taking his Presidency for granted and noting the streak of bad luck Democrats have had in this New America (TM), rode around the country in great stride, visiting places Democrats did not expect to win. Senator Jones' campaign did not differ from his primary campaign, fighting strongly for harsher trade restrictions, less government, and less immigration. The Fall of Jones was based on a couple of factors - his harsh anti-immigrant stance, his anti-war stance, and his debate performances. His harsh anti-migrant stance brought historic hispanic turnout, in places like Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and even areas further north with significant hispanic population. Jones' anti-war stance, much in line with President Feingold, caused many neo-conservative funders for the Republican party to opt out of this years election, including public officials Ex-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, Ex-Senator Donald Rumsfeld, and Ex-Governor Jeb Bush. Some backed the Utah Independence candidate, Former Congressional Staffer Bob Grove, while others even said Feingold couldn't "possibly" be worse than Jones.

And the debates. Jones came off as tired, agitated, and not especially knowledgable, especially when Feingold challenged Jones on the specifics of his flat tax plan. At each debate, the President indicted the Senator with a lawyers precision. The Vice Presidential debates didn't go much better for the Republicans, David Dewhurst failed to light up the crowd, while underdog Vice President Josh Penny, who spent a large chunk of the campaign trail dealing with illness, gave a roaring defense of the President's economic idealism and performance in the face of a changing world.

Republicans were expected to pick-up the Senate this time around and they failed... miserably. They didn't pick up any net seats, and only made obvious pick-ups (South Carolina, Kentucky). In fact, Democrats gained net pick-ups - They picked up Melissa Hart's seat in an upset in Pennsylvania, pick-up in Georgia over the retiring Johnny Isakson, and a pick-up in Iowa following the retirement of Jim Leach.

President Russ Feingold (D-WI)/Vice President Josh Penny (D-ME) - 54.3%, 416 EV's
Senator Walter Jones Jr. (R-NC)/Governor David Dewhurst (R-TX) - 40.7%, 122 EV's
Others - 5.0%, 0 EV's

I translated the vote (24-18, aka 57.1% to 42.9%) into a vote with a nominal third party element.

[Maxwell]

I did a huge god damn write-up on 2020 and then atlas logged me out so I'll have to write it at like 9 tonight. Some early hints - The Democrat bench is YUUUUUGE and there might be a third party No Labels movement thanks to all of the rather ideologically isolated nominees as of late.