Have to write a note to get it off the chest.
Looking at the breakdown made me realize two things:
- I've been living in a Progressive/Liberal bubble community too long to really be able to guess at national results:
I was shocked at the lack of American spirit in the Tea Party-Republican winners tonight. Rand Paul winning when he doesn't understand the value of public education investment, a cornerstone of American success; Ron Johnson who took down Progressive hero Russ Feingold is a guy who said:
<span> </span> “I’m a pretty traditional guy. I believe in a culture of life, and I believe marriage is between one man and one woman.” – Ron Johnson Ron is pro-life, pro- family, and believes that freedom of religion doesn’t mean freedom from religion.. <--- (Ron Johnson's actual website)</p>
I was sorta appalled about the fact that, of 200k+ people voting for a congressperson in an Ohio district, 80k+ voted for a guy who likes to dress up as a Nazi for fun and has no actual substance to his ideas, as demonstrated in his lack of debating skills.
Then again over a million New Yorkers (in a race of 3.5-ish million voters or so...yeah turnout sucks for mid-terms) found it in their heart to give Palidino a chance to be governor. This is a guy who is mad as hell and isn't going to make sense...err...take it anymore, but he will publicly threaten press members in the 21st century. Ken Buck in CO, (thankfully still undecided in his senate race) follows closely behind in the ass-hat category as he has, what I would consider, an incredibly out of touch attitude in a cold, free-market-trumps-middle-class, you weren't raped-it-was-just-buyers'-remorse, kinda way.
One of my ex-home states, Nevada, came within 40k-ish votes of electing an incredibly ill-prepared person for senate to replace one of the most truly diplomatic and moderate Democrat US Senators in the history of the Senate (and yes, those are supposed to be good qualities). Harry drives me crazy on the regular because, of course, I wish he would fight harder for a more bold and progressive path, but when I see a vote get divided into 361k vs. 320k votes between a candidate like Angle and Reid, that just drops my jaw. Sharon Angle is really not who you want deciding major policy issues, (unless you want privatized VAs, dismantling of social security, an odd mix of cwazy-rabbit style social conservative positions, and more)! Great job at GOTV for NV BTW.
My mouth was even agape at Democratic voters here in CA where we again deny that we have a massive money maker that we can use to boost revenue, job growth, and green jobs (industrial hemp), not to mention the boost in tourism that would have came from legalizing the mary jane (oh, and de-funding unregulated black markets is never a bad thing either). Then again we didn't even decide that our amazing, beautiful, and revenue generating state parks were even worth spending money on. Somehow, and still inexplicably to me, this happened while we achieved our major state party goals regarding Gov, Senate, Lit Gov, etc. We did take a kicking on House races though, like everywhere else in the country.
The belts get tighter, the wages continue to stagnate, and frustration builds.
- I love living in a Progressive/Liberal bubble community:
<span> </span>The House Blue Dog caucus lost in large numbers. Plenty of obvious lessons to be learned there, not the least among them that bold and focused leadership actually does get rewarded while kowtowing to corporate interests does not.
<span> </span>As I type, our local candidates and issues are all winning within our county (even prop 19, ha!). The only unfortunate spot is Tim Allison's campaign. Its really a shame since he would be the kind of candidate who would actually represent his constituents, but he suffered from the anti-Dem wave in a very purple district (at best).
No one seems fooled by the corporatist propaganda who I generally speak to in SB, with a few exceptions.
Final Thoughts:
<span><span> </span>S</span>o is this it? The beginning of the end of American intellectualism, progressivism, and can we even build our way out of a cardboard box anymore? Is science and reasonable analysis totally cast aside? Has propaganda completely won out over the actual facts? Can we really solve our problems or are we totally polarized to the point of paralysis?
The truth is that we just got more polarized as a nation. Blue states and districts pretty much stayed blue (not compared to 2008 but more compared to the recently traditional breakdown of blue v. red) and red states got more red shedding Blue Dog Dems quicker than progressives.
Republicans get two years to do something other than shutting down the government (hurting the least able among us), launching useless investigations (that amount to nothing more than cost and wasted national attention), and giant giveaways to the top 2% of earners in this country which will sink us into about 600-700 billion dollars in debt (for people who actually don't need the help, but thanks for asking!).
<span> </span>I just upped my estimate of the plot to the movie "Idiocracy" coming true from 10% to 30%.
Cheers!
PS: Great times at Lois'/Das'/SB Dems party!