2022 Midterms

[cubby]

I want to say that this shows that Republicans truly have no core values and only seek power, using religion as a vessel to acquire that power ... but I do realize that they've been conditioned to only trust Fox News and if you ever watch even a tiny bit of that you quickly understand that these folk are operating in a completely different, conspiracy-riddled, reality than everyone else. They were banging on about Hunter Biden again tonight because that's the current revelation to these people, that somehow there's something there that blows open the evil and malfeasance of every non-Republican in the country, even though everyone else recognizes it for the nothingburger it is.

So, as much as I want to blame them for being shitty people, I have to recognize that they are in a cult and it's damned hard to realize that you're in a cult and pull yourself out of it. They've been told they are the only good guys left and the rest of the world is evil and out to get them (this is also the case for the population of North Korea) so much that they believe it MUST be true, otherwise they're just suckers and they can't believe that.

Regardless of the reasons, we still must blame them for willfully choosing to be shitty people. Their choices are their own, and cultish behavior or not (and your analogy is spot on), they are the people harming others, with their hatred, ignorance, and stupidity aimed at issues they are too lazy to understand for themselves.

It is 100% their fault, and they must be blamed for it.

Of course that will never happen.

[PickleballAce]

It looks like MTG will retain her crown as dumbest person in Congress.

[Fugus]

It looks like MTG will retain her crown as dumbest person in Congress.

I think McCarthy might snatch that crown from her by the end in his bid for keeping and holding speaker as he will be bowing to her regularly and kissing her ring for the votes.

[Cthulhu 2020]

1.4 points is pretty fucking not slim imo. I know we dodge/prevented the Red Wave and by some miracle kept the senate, but I don't see this getting any better.

The biggest thing I'm worried about is the newly forming Nazi wing under Ye. And while I don't think it will be relevant for several election cycles, the mere fact that Kanye has enraptured so many teenagers and young adults with conspiracies about how the Holocaust didn't happen, or that it wasn't as big of a deal that people make it out to be, has me thinking that Republican anti-education measures have been working, it just took awhile for us to see them.

There's a new young voting bloc that thinks that Hitler killing millions was just "made up by the libs" to shut down the right wing. We've gotten so far from the Holocaust, with every survivor now dead, that there is a non insignificant amount of people that deny basic facts of our History.

My grandfather, a scientist in WW2, would be rolling in his grave to know that there's so many holocaust deniers. Say what you will about boomers, zoomers denying history is worse. And let's just hope the discourse hasn't been affected that much.

I have to wonder just how divided our political discourse will be in 20 years once these people are old enough to hold office. But yeah, 1.4 points is far closer than I'd like for a walking bag of contradictions to almost beat out a reverend. Walker is everything they claim to hate, he just spews the right brand of conspiracy and propaganda for them.

[jonnysensible]

the positive is that the republican electorate will pick lunatics with no concern for 'elect-ability' and generally lose easy races because of it. I mean look at Oz, masters etc. The problem is that they will pick crazies and some will get in and they will defo pick trump again.

[arandomuser]

Rs stood no chance since gas stations stopped colluding to hurt biden after the election
you guys notice right beffore the election gas spiked, then AS SOON as its over gas becomes like a 1 year low? billionaires like elon musk colluding with other fascist billionaires like petier thiel who want to overtrhow the govt.
biden really is a modern day FDR he had to deal with all this BS but prevailed anyways , people care more about their 3.5% unemployment than the fact someone has a legal right to let their kid see a drag show.

[CastletonSnob]

I'm glad Warnock won, but I'm not going to praise Georgia for doing the bare minimum by electing the obvious better choice. This election shouldn't have even gone to a runoff.

[RampageBW1]

I'm glad Warnock won, but I'm not going to praise Georgia for doing the bare minimum by electing the obvious better choice. This election shouldn't have even gone to a runoff.

Now now, isn't Georgia one of those states where the republicans passed laws that made it harder for people to vote "fraudulently"? Maybe we should take a look at those "votes" for Warnock more closely, they may have been cast "fraudulently"! (/sarcasm if you can't tell yet)

[Grapemask]

1.4 points is pretty fucking not slim imo. I know we dodge/prevented the Red Wave and by some miracle kept the senate, but I don't see this getting any better.

Yeah I'm just amazed by how shitty Republican voters are in this state. I was expecting a wider margin for Warnock, but they really did show up big to still try to get Walker in there.

I'm in a very red, Christian county - there are more churches than there are people. (Sidenote, that's barely a joke; there's a church at the end of my street, and there's a much larger church at the end of the next street if you go right, and a smaller church at the end if you go left. There aren't that many people here. What's the revenue model to pay for all these damn churches?) And when we went to vote early, the line was out the door with dedicated, brought-their-bible-with-them Christians giddy to vote against the reverend. It's wild to me that there is absolutely no turnover there. Especially if you consider that for most Christians, abortion is the predominant issue that brings them to the red side of the table; but Walker's history is pretty clear that he is a huge fan of abortion. So why is it that nearly 90% of Christians are voting against the literal preacher of Christianity?

Now now, isn't Georgia one of those states where the republicans passed laws that made it harder for people to vote "fraudulently"? Maybe we should take a look at those "votes" for Warnock more closely, they may have been cast "fraudulently"! (/sarcasm if you can't tell yet)

No joke, right after 2020, Georgia Republicans tried and thankfully failed to pass a bill requiring two photo IDs to vote absentee. Early voting is also considered absentee, so it was pretty clear targeting of the blue vote that predominantly votes early. I'm the whitest white guy and I'm nearing 40, and even I won't have two photo IDs until next year. Crazy stuff. Thankfully it inconvenienced enough republicans that also vote absentee that it didn't pass, but good lord I'm sick of these fucks.

[cubby]

The biggest thing I'm worried about is the newly forming Nazi wing under Ye. And while I don't think it will be relevant for several election cycles, the mere fact that Kanye has enraptured so many teenagers and young adults with conspiracies about how the Holocaust didn't happen, or that it wasn't as big of a deal that people make it out to be, has me thinking that Republican anti-education measures have been working, it just took awhile for us to see them.

There's a new young voting bloc that thinks that Hitler killing millions was just "made up by the libs" to shut down the right wing. We've gotten so far from the Holocaust, with every survivor now dead, that there is a non insignificant amount of people that deny basic facts of our History.

My grandfather, a scientist in WW2, would be rolling in his grave to know that there's so many holocaust deniers. Say what you will about boomers, zoomers denying history is worse. And let's just hope the discourse hasn't been affected that much.

I have to wonder just how divided our political discourse will be in 20 years once these people are old enough to hold office. But yeah, 1.4 points is far closer than I'd like for a walking bag of contradictions to almost beat out a reverend. Walker is everything they claim to hate, he just spews the right brand of conspiracy and propaganda for them.

I'm worried about it too. It's not only looming, it's here already, as you pointed out, under Ye. I can't see this situation in the United States getting anything but worse.

The idea that people will stick to a false position rather than admit error will be prevalent in the GQP's slow-rolling destruction of the United States. We won't see something exactly like Gilead, but it will be a dumber, slower, less insidious version of a religious-right's utopia.

- - - Updated - - -

No joke, right after 2020, Georgia Republicans tried and thankfully failed to pass a bill requiring two photo IDs to vote absentee. Early voting is also considered absentee, so it was pretty clear targeting of the blue vote that predominantly votes early. I'm the whitest white guy and I'm nearing 40, and even I won't have two photo IDs until next year. Crazy stuff. Thankfully it inconvenienced enough republicans that also vote absentee that it didn't pass, but good lord I'm sick of these fucks.

The GQP will continue to push for more insidious "Voter Protection Disenfranchisement" laws year after year, and now that they control the SCOTUS (with a literal Handmaid on the bench), those laws will be continually upheld.

While the Georgia two-ID law wasn't passed this time around, they will keep trying.

[Breccia]

So with the topic of this thread coming to a close...finally...we have all the evidence we need.

Two questions:
1) What did Herschel Walker tell us about the GOP?

Why was Herschel Walker even picked in the first place? I get that he has some general benefits to the Republican Party -- he's black, for example, and yes I think that played into it. He's a former NFLer and that sells well to, erm, a certain demographic of people who happen to like violence. Oh, he also did a bunch of MMA shit which helped. And he opened a chicken company, apparently. He had no elected office and was living in Dallas. Why him? Because Trump saw him on Celebrity Apprentice and Walker apparently like the taste of Trump's dick. So Trump picked Walker. This is hardly my opinion alone, hell Laura Ingraham mentioned it a few hours ago. So, yep, Trump nominated a pro-choice Dallas carpetbagger and everyone went with it.

And it added to Trump's loss ratio.

2) What did tehdang tell us about Trump?

Only recently did our poster tehdang, after being conversationally surrounded and beaten, admit that he would not vote for Trump. First of all, let me applaud his finally answering a direct question. I can no longer refer to him as a Trump supporter. I can, and will, refer to him as a former Trump supporter.

But he is hardly alone. I've personally posted a half dozen or so articles about an increasing number of GOP members who are backing slowly away from the Fat Orange Fuck, some even saying out loud it's time for him go to. Most are more subtle and hedging their bets, because they're giant coward pussies.

But why now?

tehdang took two days to admit he wasn't going to vote for Trump, but only one day to admit what Trump said was insane. Well, this time. He'd been repeatedly harassed before about all the other shit Trump did and barely flinched. If that one day/two day split sounds familiar, it should. Trump took one day to speak up about Nazis, but two days to condemn them. The famous "very fine people on both sides" came a day earlier.

Why did Trump change his mind? He was called out for it. He was called out for not saying anything at all, didn't want bad PR so he said something something but it was fucking stupid, then was called out for that even more.

It's not that Trump doesn't want white supremacists, like Kanye West or Fuentes, on his side. But he doesn't want the bad press that comes with siding with the KKK or Nazis.

Trump is perfect for conservatives, who are willing to stick with someone demonstrably unqualified, ineffective, and corrupt, even when they say and do crazy and criminal things. As long as they get results. Little for Trump moved in the last two days because (a) Walker was going to lose anyhow and (b) the people willing to condemn him for terminating the Constitution had already done so for other things.

No really, I want to see y'all in on this. Name one person who said "I was with Trump up until he said terminate the Constitution, but that crossed the line". I don't think you'll find anyone. Certainly nobody in the House or Senate. The needle had moved when the red wave was a trickle, and that was weeks ago.

When did tehdang finally admit he wasn't voting for Trump anymore? Not after backing known abortion-provider Herschel Walker, despite tehdang calling out Democrats as unacceptably pro-choice. (I guess it's okay when it's just the one or two baby murders?) And it wasn't with the rest of us when Trump was a corrupt mafia businessman who didn't pay employees or taxes for decades, asked for the death penalty for five proven innocent black men, and cheated on all of his wives. It wasn't when Trump said terminate the Constitution, even when he said that was insane. And it wasn't after the Jan 6th murderous insurrection, or the multiple criminal investigations. It was within hours of the GA race being called.

No, I don't think that's a coincidence. He was being mercilessly attacked by multiple people here, including myself, for days.

Trump has always valued what he called "loyalty" which was really obedience to him, even over the Constitution it seems. The thing is, the GOP was exactly the party that took to this foul, twisted version of the term. You're seeing it unfold, and have been for the last month. Trump isn't getting results, therefore, everything he did for them, the tax cut for the rich, installing all those judges, letting COVID kill their friends and...maybe not that last one, but you get the point. Not an issue anymore. What has Trump done for them lately? Lose.

Don't believe me? Here's Ingraham again.

We felt this coming. To me, it never felt like the Senate Republicans wanted this guy in office. He was a Trump pick, they didn’t like that … but there wasn’t the intensity on the part of the Republicans as there was on the part of Democrats. We have the same people in place in leadership. The same people in place, apparently, at the RNC, perhaps that’s not changing. We just keep doing the same thing over and over again. I’m pissed tonight, frankly. I’m mad.

See that? Ingraham seemed to coincidentally forget that Walker was a shitty candidate, and instead blamed the RNC for not backing a shitty candidate more. I don't see her calling out Walker as pro-choice. What I do see is "I don't value the RNC because the RNC did not get results". In other words, the exact Trump mentality.

Let's walk away from this glad things went better than expected, but learning the lessons and applying them. Trump is still a dominant force in the GOP, but he's also a loser. The people supporting him now are still supporting a violent narcisist sociopath criminal, but also a loser. The people who used to support him before but don't now are still in support of all his criminal, violent, destructive, ineffective, racist, sexist, and treasonous activities (well, maybe not that last one, depends when they jumped ship) but have grown tired of losing, not that behavior. In 2024 and the runup to it, every step must be taken to tie every single Republican with the deplorable human being that is Donald Trump and how much of a loser he is -- even those Republicans who are trying to flee from it, not because he's a vile human being, but because losing made them look bad.

Trump already started the runup to 2024 -- yes he did so because he thinks he needs to avoid jail time, but he still started it. The race is on. There are the deplorables who still stand for horrible human being Trump, and the deplorables who used to stand for it until Trump started losing. While I both encourage and welcome any actions that will cause these two teams to turn on each other and tear each other to pieces -- figuratively that is -- never let either of them forget how much they proved themselves to be truly deplorable human beings by siding with Trump at all, and how much losing they did even while Trump said all he does is win.

This isn't the end of the game. This is only halftime. Let's come out of the locker room swinging.

[Milchshake]

Clearly, politics threads are about building your brand online and dunking on replyguys. Subscribe to my substack to find out more ... /s

@Flarelaine please close thread. Midterms are over. Fascists takeover slightly averted. We need a full eight months to heal before the 2024 threads come in.

[Shadowferal]

Five races to watch in 2023

Just for giggles...snort

[Edge-]

https://thehill.com/homenews/3765412...-to-stop-that/

“Our voters need to vote early,” McDaniel told Fox News. “I have said this over and over again. There were many in 2020 saying, ‘Don’t vote by mail, don’t vote early.’ And we have to stop that and understand that if Democrats are getting ballots in for a month, we can’t expect to get it all done in one day.”

“The discussion was about Democrats having a month to bank votes while Republicans expect to get it done in one day,” RNC spokesperson Nathan Brand told NBC News. “We were not talking about the former president, who has encouraged his base to vote early and has himself voted by mail.”

Suddenly, Republicans realize early voting is actually important and a good thing. I can't wait for them to memory hole this like they did the 2012 post-mortem.

[Breccia]

Clearly, politics threads are about building your brand online and dunking on replyguys.

It does seem to be the Republican policy to run on PR stunts like screaming "election fraud" and owning the libs, yes. We all saw what Kari Lake did in her 2022 Midterms election attempt.

Not even 24 hours after Katie Hobbs’ election as governor became official, the Republican Party is calling on Attorney General Mark Brnovich to investigate her supposedly nefarious dealings.

Cue state GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward:

“Two days ago a bombshell was dropped that Arizona Secretary of State, Katie Hobbs, pressured Twitter to remove posts while she was running to become Governor of Arizona,” Ward wrote.

The party is asking Brnovich to “immediately investigate” Hobbs for “directing a private company (Twitter) to suppress free speech.”

I'll spare you reading the rest, since I'm getting the impression you might /say something about the ads on Yahoo: the "bombshell" was that Hobbs' office and a nonprofit flagged two tweets that were spreading misinformation. The tweets were German, and posted in Jan 2021, and the entire account is now deleted.

Knowing this, the Arizona GOP and yes Tucker Carlson are calling this an illegal act of a tyrant. Why yes, Trump's social media does still kick off people critical of Trump, thanks for asking.

This is not a policy, this is not a law she's proposing or, well, even evidence of a crime, despite what Lake and her GOP members are saying. This is just about spreading a message, a false message, but a message nonetheless.

- - - Updated - - -

“Our voters need to vote early,” McDaniel told Fox News. “I have said this over and over again. There were many in 2020 saying, ‘Don’t vote by mail, don’t vote early.’ And we have to stop that and understand that if Democrats are getting ballots in for a month, we can’t expect to get it all done in one day.”

Hey Edge- who was it that was calling early and/or mailed votes illegal and voter fraud?

And also, how do you feel about leading questions?

[Flarelaine]

@Flarelaine please close thread. Midterms are over. Fascists takeover slightly averted. We need a full eight months to heal before the 2024 threads come in.

I agree with the sentiment but I prefer to allow a few more days. The Georgia result is barely official, there may be posters who had not had their chance to comment on it.

That said, @Shadowferal, you may want to take your link and start a new thread for the 2023 races.

[Seiklis]

Five races to watch in 2023

Just for giggles...snort

That first one is odd...Daniel Cameron is McConnell's handpicked successor so I'm surprised he'd be getting involved in the governor's race when Mitch is prolly done in '26

I mean it's a safe seat either way I guess but Governors leaving the office before even a single term is never a good look

[fwc577]

Mitch is prolly done in '26

You know how I know god isn't real? I pray to him every day that Mitch McConnell's tyrannical occupation of a Senate seat ends much sooner.

[Fugus]

You know how I know god isn't real? I pray to him every day that Mitch McConnell's tyrannical occupation of a Senate seat ends much sooner.

You know evil doesn’t die that easy.

I mean look at Trump, thinks exercise is bad for you, loves fast food, sleeps around and the man is about 70 years old with no STDs or heart attacks anything when people far more responsible are no longer with us for those exact reasons.

If he does exist, he has some explaining to do.

[fwc577]

You know evil doesn’t die that easy.

I mean look at Trump, thinks exercise is bad for you, loves fast food, sleeps around and the man is about 70 years old with no STDs or heart attacks anything when people far more responsible are no longer with us for those exact reasons.

If he does exist, he has some explaining to do.

Woah woah woah buddy, I didn't say anyone should die. Stop putting words in my post.