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U.S. Politics 2017: Yes Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus


Manhole Eunuchsbane

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27 minutes ago, dmc515 said:

Let's take off the Trump-tinted glasses for a moment and remember doing so at a victory rally is only going to be perceived as that constituency  being obstinate asshats by the victor.

If you can't a handle a few hecklers that helped you win want to remind you that they don't like the shitty xenophobic and bigotted position you're now taking in order to be more palatable to the shittier parts of your electorate, why even bother running?  

These guys need to be put on the spot.  If they don't want to be heckled maybe they shouldn't cater to the bigots out there.

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2 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

If you can't a handle a few hecklers that helped you win want to remind you that they don't like the shitty xenophobic and bigotted position you're now taking in order to be more palatable to the shittier parts of your electorate, why even bother running? 

Um, not sure you framed that question correctly.  The incredibly easy answer would be:  because he won.

3 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

If they don't want to be heckled maybe they shouldn't cater to the bigots out there.

I'm really not convinced Northam "catered" to bigots.  Not saying he didn't - been busy and haven't seen it beyond what's been said here.  Anyway, even if he did, this type of shit is exactly what will convince him to continue doing so.

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3 hours ago, Roose Boltons Pet Leech said:

The Virginia gerrymander broken! :cheers:

Maybe there's hope for 2018 if Democrats actually bother fielding candidates, and their supporters can actually be bothered voting.

One measure of success  for political parties is how well they learn from their prior mistakes .  If they learn and respond  to the wishes of the voters,  the voters will support and elect them . If however, they  learn nothing and ignore the voters  and field the same kind of candidates with the same old ideas , that they fielded in the past , their supporters will again sit out the election.  

 

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12 minutes ago, GAROVORKIN said:

One measure of success  for political parties is how well they learn from their prior mistakes .

This is not a tangible measure of party success.

13 minutes ago, GAROVORKIN said:

if however, they  learn nothing  and field  the same kind of candidates with the same ideas , that they fielded in the past , their supporters will again sit out the election.  

According to whom?  And who defines the typology of their candidates, what their ideas are, or the prospective turnout of their supporters?  In other words, please stop talking out of your ass.

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The Virginia results are super exciting (especially for me, a Virginia resident), though their biggest impact may just be that Democrats will be able to force at a fair redistricting in 2020. If they do win the House of Delegates, or at least tie it, maybe they'll get some policy stuff done too. And if they net a single state senate seat in 2019, plus slightly expand their HoD size, they'll be able to do their own gerrymandering instead in 2020.

On the policy front, the biggest wins of the night are the New Jersey governor's race and that state senate special election in Washington state. Both were Democratic wins, and both lead to Democrats taking unified control of the respective state; increasing the number of such Democratic states from 6 to 8. The Maine Medicaid expansion is hopefully also a huge win, but there is still the potential for the state legislature to block it (unlikely though, LePage was also the problem and he can't block this referendum).

I'm still sorting through the other races, but one other really important result was a special election for a state senate seat in Georgia. The Democrat won, and that broke the GOP's supermajority in the chamber (Democrats also won special elections in two extremely red state house seats). Also, Democrats beat a bunch of moderate Republicans in local elections in New York and New Jersey within congressional districts currently held by Republicans, which has got to make those Republicans even more skittish about this tax cut bill.

Very exciting to finally have a good election night again (2013 was pretty good too, but not nearly as good as this).

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@WinterFox

From the last thread:

»An American citizen has been detained over patently tyrannical anti-free speech laws in a state run by a thug. This is well worth sanctions and even armed intervention«

This part I do not understand. Sorry. Let me be clear that I do not support Mugabe (I’ve wished him dead for more or less as long as you have lived - though in a «please die of a heart attack»-way rather than someone actively killing him), nor think his laws are just. However, he is in control of Zimbabwe, and does make their laws. So then:

Firstly, and very importantly, this American citizen has chosen to be a part of the media in a well-known tyrannical one-party state. Good for her, in a way, but living there, she is subject to their laws. So to judge this from American laws makes you an imperialist.

Secondly, I can’t be bothered to check, but I think he’s on your sanctions list already. No-one really likes the dude, and the US have hated him for years.

Thirdly, armed intervention? Think through. This makes you George W. Bush! You comfortable with that? If not, start reasoning before posting. 

You do dislike Republicans, I know, so how you suddenly advocate for their positions here is utterly baffling. Can’t really square that with your general positions.

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Just now, dmc515 said:

This is not a tangible measure of party success.

According to whom?  And who defines the typology of their candidates, what their ideas are, or the prospective turnout of their supporters?  In other words, please stop talking out of your ass.

I see a lot of that these threads. 

The voters elect candidates  if they like what they have to sell, if not,  they don't vote them in.  

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6 hours ago, Paladin of Ice said:

The new District Attorney for Philadelphia is Larry Casner, an attorney who has spent all his career as a defense attorney, suing law enforcement for misconduct, and who represented both Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter. That potential fallout from that is going to be extremely interesting, both within the Sessions Justice Department and among local police, being as police departments from multiple cities have shown that they don't play well with others unless they get their way all the time. (See the spats between NYC police and DeBlasio, or Baltimore police essentially threatening the career of their DA when she decided to prosecute over Freddy Grey's death.)

Larry Krasner was opposed by a number of high-profile Philadelphia Democrats, the FOP notable among them, and that did not surprise me at all. Philadelphia Democrats often look a lot more like Joe Biden than Bernie Sanders, and we in the City of Brotherly Love have tolerated candidates that for way too long. I voted for Krasner in the primary and the general because I've decided that, in a city in which Democrats outnumber Republicans 7 to 1, there is no reason I should be sending Joe Bidens to local office.

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24 minutes ago, kairparavel said:

K...

Quote

It’s worth repeating: There are no “sanctuary cities” in Virginia that limit cooperation with federal immigration officials — the bill Northam voted against in February banned the future establishment of such cities. [...]

The groups that have abandoned Northam for abandoning sanctuary cities are the groups least likely to be persuaded by the idea that a Democrat in Virginia needs to be a moderate to win. But that doesn’t mean that idea is correct. The entire point of this culture war is that it’s national.

Right.  This is why the far left will always be the far left.  You're mad at Northam for "abandoning" something that doesn't even really exist in his state?  More than ever, the Dems need to be a big tent.  If anything, this is a depiction of why.

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Some delicious day-after quotes and news:

Daily Kos:

Quote

I never thought it would happen in my lifetime: Democrats in Delaware County have SWEPT ALL OF THE ROW OFFICES ON THE BALLOT!!!  I cannot stress the importance — and the magnitude — of this victory.  On a night when Democrats are making enormous strides across the country, *this* is one that should be shaking GOP leaders to their core. 

THESE ARE THE *FIRST* COUNTY COUNTY-WIDE OFFICES HELD BY DEMOCRATS IN DELCO SINCE HOME RULE WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1976!!!  DOMINANCE OF REPUBLICAN ONE-PARTY RULE IN THE COUNTY HAS COME TO AN EPIC END!

Redstate.com:

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The polls have closed in Virginia, and what we’re seeing is a bloodletting of the Republican party of a kind unseen in a generation.

Republicans on Twitter:

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Republican Rep. Scott Taylor (Va.) called Tuesday night’s GOP defeat in Virginia’s gubernatorial race a “referendum” on President Trump's administration.

Taylor's remark represent a break with Trump’s tweeted claim that Republican Ed Gillespie lost because the governor hopeful wouldn’t tie himself closely enough to Trump.

-

Quote

After President Trump lashed out at Republican candidate Ed Gillespie just after he lost the Virginia governor's race, former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele fired back at Trump, asking him "did YOU win Virginia?"

 

 

 

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I look forward to the coming NYTimes think pieces about going on safari to locate and understand the forgotten voters of Loudon and Fairfax counties in VA.

Nice turn-up for the Democrats. I hope they don't think they've figured everything out yet.

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I don't know what this means for tax reform, because I could see a) The GOP ramming something through (or try to) just to show they have done something with their supermajority and b ) The GOP being gun-shy on pushing anything that will anger the populace further. Of course, Trump isn't helping much by being hands off, and their proposed bill was above healthcare bill in popularity but still not high enough. 

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I got to admit, I felt the U.S. politics seesaw was broken after 2016. Maybe it was just cracked. I hope the left holds on well enough to keep going up through 2020. The up and down still makes me nauseous, but the only thing worse is it being stuck with ol' Orange up high in the air arms and legs spread out and going "Wheeeeeeee!!!"

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