The Lief Reservoir of Simple Truths and Smart One-Liners

[America Needs R'hllor]

Better question - why is Atlas so obsessed with a state that went R+44 in the last presidential election?

Because it needs to flip at all costs. It's worth it.

Seriously. WHY? Give one good reason West Virginia is worth so much more than other states and is not some weird obsession. Just one good reason.

[YE]

Better question - why is Atlas so obsessed with a state that went R+44 in the last presidential election?

Because it needs to flip at all costs. It's worth it.

Seriously. WHY? Give one good reason West Virginia is worth so much more than other states and is not some weird obsession. Just one good reason.

Because a class based political divide with people voting their economic self-interest  would lead to a less polarizing political climate than the polarizing urban/rural divide we have now.

[America Needs R'hllor]

Better question - why is Atlas so obsessed with a state that went R+44 in the last presidential election?

Because it needs to flip at all costs. It's worth it.

Seriously. WHY? Give one good reason West Virginia is worth so much more than other states and is not some weird obsession. Just one good reason.

Because a class based political divide with people voting their economic self-interest would lead to a less polarizing political climate than the polarizing urban/rural divide we have now.

This is a fantasy because both Democrats and Republicans think their policies benefit most of the population. Republicans don't actually believe they're only for rich suburbanites. If you think so highly of West Virginia voters (and ftr, I don't agree with some posters' rhetoric against them), let them decide what's their own economic self-interest. If they think it's the Republican policies, it's their choice. You also cannot force them to ignore polarizing issues like gay rights, abortion and race.

Besides- if there's anything we know for sure about the economical self-interest of West Virginian voters, it's that it includes ignoring climate change and polluting the air with more and more and more coal. This is both inefficient for a modern economy and extremely damaging, and the vast majority of Demcoratic voters oppose it. Would you have the Democratic leadership abandon 95% of their voters for this fantasy?

C'mon, you two are smart. Don't fall for some weird obsession that has no roots in reality.

[Since I'm the mad scientist proclaimed by myself]

There is an egg in Congress right now.

[IceSpear]

Many times, especially on Atlas, a candidate is seen as god-tier until they lose, after which they are immediately labeled as a joke. GA-06 is the most obvious example of this ("Ossoff for president!" "Oh wait, he was actually always a terrible candidate"), but Trump's campaign went from being a "dumpster fire" to "genius" after he won the 2016 election. Mark Kirk was seen as a strong incumbent who would be very difficult to dislodge, while Ron Johnson was a joker who was DOA... until the results came in, and suddenly Johnson was a strong candidate who ran a great campaign, while Kirk was a complete joker who was always going to lose.

[Politician]

Hawley is still favored because McCaskill will vote no on Kavanaugh.

Voting no on Kavanaugh helps McCaskill, by energizing the liberal base.

But she will turn off more conservatives.

You are easily the most insufferable poster on Atlas.

[Beet]

Man this would be a nightmare scenario for jfern.

[IceSpear]

Ipsos tells us about as much as throwing around some goat entrails and having the augurs watch how the birds fly after invoking the name of Jupiter

[IceSpear]

The pointlessness if it all. Election victories are nothing but circumstance, demographics, and social identities. There is no grand narrative or meaning behind it at all except to political nerds. Essentially, 90% of Americans vote by deferring to their demographic, identity, and national enviorment while the 10% who are very politically involved lurk in the background hoping a favorable event will occur that gives them the majorities to jam a bunch of stuff through.

[Atlas Force]

Short answer--Why bother (see Hillgoose above)

Long answer--Coal power plants are going to keep closing, WV mines are going to keep declining and shut down as the coal gives out, even the met coal mines (a major one will close this week for "geologic reasons").  Fat Nixon can lie to them all day, it doesn't change reality.

Their population pyramid is totally fubar'd.  They have fewer people than they did in 1980.
They have fewer people than they did in 1950.  They have 262,000 people between the ages of 55-64 and 212,000 between the ages 10-19.  They had 30,000 births in 1980 and 18,500 last year.  They are not a magnet for and are in fact hostile to the idea of immigration.   They are a lock to have fewer people in 2050 than they do now.  They don't have a Senator who can drag stuff into the state like they once did.  They live in geographically difficult terrain where infrastructure is difficult to build and maintain.  There is no compelling reason economically to build and maintain such infrastructure.

Save for the Eastern Panhandle and Morgantown (and even Morgantown is iffy) there is no reason to expect anything different from West Virginia.  Why bother.

What

How the hell is this absurd and ignorant? Every word of that post is true, and it's backed up by facts and figures.

Politician refuses to believe that WV is full of bitter people who hate it when black people also get welfare money (that they feel should only go to “hardworkin’ folk”—aka white people) and especially hate it when black people kneel.

He is the kind of person IceSpear is talking about when mocking the socialist avatars for wanting to trade West Virginia for Colorado and Virginia.

As someone who 1) isn’t that socially liberal and 2) despises Trump for mostly far right economic policy and supports Democrats since they’re slightly less of corporate sellouts than the GOP and do not think it is wise to (even if there’s truth to it in varying degrees across the country) sh**t on rural areas and is probably considered by some (although PNM seems to like me) in the same group as one of those socialist avatars who want to trade VA for WV, that post was too substantive to belong here.

[Politician]

I'm not sure how any rational person could say this is anything but a tossup. We literally just got a CNN poll last week with Bredesen +5, and a Marist before that at Bredesen +2. And Vox Populi.

If I'm remembering correctly, Fox News is the only high quality pollster to have Blackburn up.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Priest rapes hundreds of children, move to another church for a whole new set of victims

Minister likes FB post, GET YE OUT THE DOOR SINNER!

[IceSpear]

The problem with American democracy is the voters

[Former Dean Phillips Supporters for Haley (I guess???!?) 👁️]

TX-Sen is such an overrated race.

[Politician]

It's one thing to assert that Heitkamp is DOA. It's another thing to assert that Democrats are somehow dooming themselves by opposing Kavanaugh and somehow it's leading to their downfall, of which you have no real proof.  You frankly look like a troll.

[Dr. MB]

The thinnest kid at fat camp

[IceSpear]

2010 was close because an Indian woman named Nimrata Randhawa was on the ballot.

[IceSpear]

These stupid ass voters should have thought of the ramifications for their immature decisions beforehand if they are enraged by it. I’m talking about non-voters, third-party voters and gullible Trump voters who claim they never thought he would do these things he said he would do. Maybe they’ll learn to take voting more seriously next time instead of voting R simply because of black people kneeling and Confederate traitor statues.

[Atlas Force]

People were "mean" to you because you were incredibly naive in your support for Kavanaugh.

And an internet forum is not the best example to summarize why a nation is the way it is.

[Technocracy Timmy]

Great. They probably want left-wing policies for themselves and people who are them, but when it comes to these services and policies for black people and immigrants they get turned off. West Virginia WWC types are racist. Like... you can argue about it all you want but that's just the reality.

[Since I'm the mad scientist proclaimed by myself]

It's almost like Bush is not and never has been a good person with good intentions.

[Former Dean Phillips Supporters for Haley (I guess???!?) 👁️]

It's kind of funny how stealing SCOTUS seats from the opposition party and court packing are treated as fundamentally different concepts by conservatives / Republicans. It's like saying it's OK to stab someone to death but shooting them is unacceptable.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

That moment when Atlas doesn't get self-validation for its disgusting and bitter form of politicking.

yep

Nope.

Republicans get away with everything. Calling for Democrats to grow a spine and stop with all of this kumbaya nonsense always makes people react in a negative way.

"How dare you Democrats try and fight back? Why can't you guys stay docile and weak?"

thinking the only two options are doormat or screaming Nazi is a big part of the problem.

[Politician]

Lmao! Okay Icy, why are you so on edge today?

This reply is strange. I don't see what's funny about it or why you think I'm "on edge." I was just responding to your comment about my batting average with objective facts. Projection I guess?

Okay, let me explain:

I make a gentle jibe about your past predictions. You respond by dumping a list of your correct predictions (some of which haven't even come to pass yet!) as evidence that I'm wrong. That's pretty damn weird, my friend.

Look, my point is you're a smug prick. You have absolutely no humility nor do you seem to understand the concept of reflecting on your past mistakes. The last time you ever expressed any humility was back when Doug Jones won in Alabama, and that was after MONTHS of relentless arrogance and bragging that you would be vindicated in the end. You then wrote an apology...then you didn't change your behavior at all.

I don't know exactly what caused you to become some unhinged lunatic, but it's evidently infected your entire mindset. People respond to loss and defeat in different ways, and I can understand why the events of 2016 would make you take pause when it comes to partisan cheerleading. But this doesn't absolve you of responsibility and it certainly doesn't give you a free pass to be an ego driven maniac.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

I think the only reason Bagel is defending conversion therapy is that he's been attempting it for the past 2 years or so, and it's not working.