About Those Midterms

[Tenniru]

So, the midterm elections in the USA are a mere two weeks from now; November 7th. Most pollsters say the Republicans are set to lose the House of Representatives and will barely hang on to the Senate (with a one or two-man majority if any at all, not counting independent Leiberman). For the House, the White House's own people are saying the Republicans are out 14 seats, conservative polls say 16-18, and others say between 20 and 30. They only need 15 to take a majority.

Looking at the polls, I think Arizona and Virginia will stay Republican, Tennesee and Missouri will decide who gets the Senate, and every other seat (except Connecticut, which is still Leiberman, but independent) will go Democrat.

I'm rooting for the Democrats. Who are you prepared to vote for? Who do you think will win?

[Epon]

"Rooting for the democrats" seems silly to me, because quite frankly, does that mean you don't care what all their stances are? Most have different ideas and beliefs. Or are you just saying you don't want a right-winged House?

[Tenniru]

I'm only rooting for the Democrats this year because they're they seem to stand on my side of the issues. If the Republicans ever did, I'd support them.

Very sadly, though, the Democratic momentum and the reason I (and growing amounts of the country) plan to vote/support the Democratic party is just because they're not as bad as the Republicans (and, most prominently, Dubya). That's not how an election should be run; I'd prefer to support a party that's good, not "not as bad".

I've been reading a lot of conservative blogs lately (bipartisanship ahoy!), and they're either using the same logic against the same people or horrified about the fact that other conservatives are doing so. (The logic: the Republicans are failing and conservatives should stay home to teach the GOP a lesson. The conservatives who are voting are using the "not as bad" logic against Democrats, and they don't seem to be a huge majority.)

The funny thing is the right-wing blogs call Democratic candidates and voters "left-wing utopians". The joke; I consider myself moderately liberal, but were I to give my plan for the future of government to John Kerry, he'd call me a crazy socialist and hit the "TRAPDOOR" button on his desk. I'd vote for a crazy fringe independent but my vote would change nothing; I'd prefer not-worst-and-possible over better-and-doomed.

[CrazyMrLēo]

The way I understand it, left-wing Americans want the Democrats to take control of the House and Senate because it would effectively neutralize the executive branch (aka Bush)

But I'm no U.S. Politics expert, so feel free to correct me.

[CrazyMrLēo]

tenniru said:

That's not how an election should be run; I'd prefer to support a party that's good, not "not as bad".

This can pretty much never happen in a two-party system, and isn't even guaranteed in a three-or-more-party system. Witness the defeat of the Liberals up here in Canada last year, for example.

[Matsrik]

I think that following one party indefinitely is a terrible idea. To be honest, I don't like either party, and bipartisanism is tearing the nation apart. I consider myself in independent, so I'll just vote for whoever I think is the better candidate.

Now I just have to swim through all these lies to find out who it is.

[J]

I haven't been paying attention to politics enough for me to care.

[Andrusi]

I thought this thread was going to be about tests

[SoNick Belmont]

I've skimmed this thread multiple times and yet I still keep thinking the same thing every time I see it.

[Sofox]

You know I never really got American politics.
I mean, freedom of choice, freedom of expression, but when it comes to politics, you only get to chose between two parties and then go with everything they say?

[CrazyMrLēo]

Well, when you think about it, every system with parties is going to have that kind of problems. It's not like five or eight parties can get the whole range of human political thought either.

[Seph]

Well, SoFox, the theory is that when we elect these guys, we send them threatening letters from the voters, so that if they want to get in again, they'll side with us and do what we want. Unfortunately, it rarely works out like that.

[Robert]

sofox said:

You know I never really got American politics.
I mean, freedom of choice, freedom of expression, but when it comes to politics, you only get to chose between two parties and then go with everything they say?

This is a flaw in the system based on biased people with closed minds as well as lethargic types who don't take active role in their government. In theory, there could be any number of parties with any number of views. And even after someone was instated, in theory if the majority of citizens didn't like some particular whatever, they could demand their government work with them and make it right.

But the reality is, no one cares about a party that's not "Democrat" or "Republican." Any third party is automatically given minimum press and is never invited to televised debates. And it seems whenever a third party starts to pull their own tricks to get attention, someone threatens their family to shut them up. And, in general, even with the "main" parties, if someone with lots of cash is pulling the strings in the background, they'll threaten their family too. It's pretty classic -- to be in politics with any importance, you always have a family. The wife, kids, etc. Otherwise you don't seem "normal" or a proper social role model. But do something that might challenge the money holders and you'll get an anonymous phone call in the night that you better watch out or wifey might have an accident.

And then even after someone's "elected", the majority of people sit around and complain (like me) but do nothing to fix the things they're complaining about. And, let's be fair, modern life pretty much prevents us from having time to really protest anymore. We have to work at least 10 hours a day, 6 days a week.

Anyway, I'm an example of why the government's not really democratic and more does whatever it wants.

[Tenniru]

UPDATE:

The House of Representatives is very clearly going to go Democrat; according to the very accurate RealClearPolitics averages, inside the GOP seats up for grabs there are 12 Likely Democratic and 14 tossups. Of those 14, the Democrats only need three. The Bush Administration and Republican control of the country is over (Democrats can block anything the Republicans do), although the Demcorats aren't in control.

The Senate looks like a 4-seat Democrat gain. Virginia and Missouri can go either way but are leaning Democrat; one victory means a tie in the Senate and Dick Cheney having no days off, and winning both is a majority.

I'm going to celebrate early. I've never done this before and I'm very bad at celebration in general, so I'm open to suggestions.

[Evan]

You know, I try very hard to care about politics. I'm pretty much surrounded by political thoughts, between being on the internets and that the only show I enjoy watching nowadays is South Park, but being a dumb little 14-year-old with republican parents whose only friends are incredibly hardcore democrat-types, it's annoying to side, especially when you are too young and dumb to think for yourself.

It's even more annoying to give a shit about it. I WANT ROSS PEROT TO RUN AGAIN.

America has always been trigger-happy, so I'm not going to even say a peep about the WAAARRRRRR. But let's look at who's involved with what! Or at least, what I can grasp of everything!

Republicans. They hate the idea of anything with new concepts in them! They're all "ha ha we're Republicans" and crap all the time, too. Bush seems to mean well but his intentions are far-off and misguided, and generally Republicans are considered more corrupt. But on the plus side, elephants kick more ass than donkeys. And people vote for them because of less taxes or some shit like that, and that means more than anything to America. MONEY.

Democrats. Always going off and fighting crusades for the homeless and all this other crap that wastes money and ultimately goes nowhere, and everyone wants them to win because they're all "grr Republicans" but of course when Democrats get in the office you know everyone will be "grr Democrats" and just want Republicans back in a pointless circle of life.

AND THE BIASEDNESS. Everyone on TV wants Republicans in there and they're all assholes. Everyone I see on the internet blandly quotes crap from the Daily Show (which as funny as it is is quite obviously biased! As much as I think that Stewart and Colbert are amusing, in a position where they are they really can't stick to sides.) and everyone is all "haaaa haaaaaaaa GOD I HATE BUSH AREN'T I SUCH A LITTLE CONFORMIST TO MY INTERNET PEERS guys see I'm cool too HA HA politics".

It's just not worth it, see? And someone will come along replying and being all "OH HERE IS A HOLE IN SOME STATEMENT YOU EVAN" and I just don't care. Screw politics. It's not worth it. I want to go to some island and isolate myself from all that crap. IT CAN BE LIKE MOTHER 3.

[NeroKid]

vote for me

[Seph]

evang said:

and everyone is all "haaaa haaaaaaaa GOD I HATE BUSH AREN'T I SUCH A LITTLE CONFORMIST TO MY INTERNET PEERS guys see I'm cool too HA HA politics".

Some of us were Democrat loooong before we got involved with the Internet. Like those of us who follow what our parents believed =P

[ϟ¶∀☡ⓩ]

I dunno about you guys, but I wanna see balloons drop.





durrhurrhurr

[Night the SR]

I have no clue who to vote for. I've been too busy with everything that I don't even know whose for what or what they're against, since the only "news" I hear is bashing the other canditate.

I'm just gonna vote in the presidential one.

[Kulock]

I voted! I actually researched it much better than I normally do, but I was still at somewhat of a loss for some of the local positions (not all of them, though). I do generally vote Democrat, but it's not like you're even voting Conservative/Liberal anymore, it's more like you're voting slight leans in the directions. And many of them just seem to carry a party line without caring or being in a position to affect some issues.

Watched the Daily Show/Colbert Report combined show too... not as funny as I'd hoped for the most part, and wow, whoever they had handling the graphics botched a few of them. (The Senator Byrd one smiled too early, the Colbert Report eagle, et cetera.) I've seen other live shows where it went smoothly. John also said "shit" and cut out shortly after (bleeped it too late?) and Colbert said "God-damned", which the Family Guy creators said they could never do in one of their commentaries. (But that could just be because of Fox.)