Vote(d) 2012 ... can't mediate the Ho Ho's

[awaken_D_M_golem]

My local races sucked.

The national races sucked, and were predictable.


The other thing that sucks, is with the advanced primaries
in Iowa, New Hampshire, and similar,
there's gonna be political yap adds going all Christmas break.

Let's see if I can talk my relatives out of having the TV on 24/7.
(not bloody likely)

Hey, at least Tunisia got to vote for real.
"Moderate" Islamist coalition with two Secular Modernist parties.
 ???

[bhu]

It was a clusterfuck here.  The governor kept touting a senate bill to restrict unions, and then rammed it through after elections, so its repeal was on the ballot.  The pro side fucked up be re-editing an anti issue 2 commercial from a grandma praising firefighters to make it look like she supported the bill.  A new commercial was put out with her explaining things, and they just tanked in the  polls,  The repeal got 2/3rds of the vote.  He campaigned on tea party themes of restricting government, and said state employees made 40% more than "the rest of us".  That was partly true.  Directly after election it was revealed the republican senators (who also ran as anti big government) and the governors entire staff got raises of 20-40%.

[RobbyPants]

They were saying on NPR today how this past week there were examples of each side overreaching and getting shot down hard. There might be more of a moderate sentiment this next election. Whether or not that means anything, who knows.

[Sinfire Titan]

They were saying on NPR today how this past week there were examples of each side overreaching and getting shot down hard. There might be more of a moderate sentiment this next election. Whether or not that means anything, who knows.

There are moderate sentiments abound during pre-presidential elections, in order to make some members of each party seem more sane than the others. People don't like voting for radical changes unless something serious happens.

[Mooncrow]

They were saying on NPR today how this past week there were examples of each side overreaching and getting shot down hard. There might be more of a moderate sentiment this next election. Whether or not that means anything, who knows.

There are moderate sentiments abound during pre-presidential elections, in order to make some members of each party seem more sane than the others. People don't like voting for radical changes unless something serious happens.

It tends to be cyclical, we go through periods where voters strongly align with their parties, and then they drift to the middle.  According to the studies, we were in the middle of a massive re-alignment, which is why the more "extremists*" have been getting a lot more attention than usual.  (*extremist meaning just a note of their relative position on the right/left spectrum, not as a value judgement of that position)  But, it wouldn't be the first time that they predicted wrong, or that the parties overshot the mark in their message

[X-Codes]

You know, I'm getting sick of the idea of the existence of a left/right spectrum.  If I told a Democrat what I wanted gov't to do, he'd call me a conservative.  If I told a Republican, he'd call me an Fascist un-American Socialist (TM).  I look at the elected representatives, and I just see douchebags.  I just can't believe anyone that anyone at any level of gov't state or higher really actually cares what the hell gov't does so long as their owners get a crapton of money out of it.

[Mooncrow]

You know, I'm getting sick of the idea of the existence of a left/right spectrum.  If I told a Democrat what I wanted gov't to do, he'd call me a conservative.  If I told a Republican, he'd call me an Fascist un-American Socialist (TM).  I look at the elected representatives, and I just see douchebags.  I just can't believe anyone that anyone at any level of gov't state or higher really actually cares what the hell gov't does so long as their owners get a crapton of money out of it.

That pretty much sums it up.  They play the "issues matter" game for the masses and then follow their pocketbook. 

[RobbyPants]

You know, I'm getting sick of the idea of the existence of a left/right spectrum.

I think most people find it easier to think of things one-dimensionally like this. Take the whole role-player/optimizer false dichotomy from the old WotC boards that spawned the Stormwind Fallacy. Few people really toe the party line on every issue.

[X-Codes]

That pretty much sums it up.  They play the "issues matter" game for the masses and then follow their pocketbook.

They're not even playing the "issues matter" game, they're directing the entire attention of the senate and the house towards fabricated crises because they can't think of actual solutions to actual problems that their owners will sign off on.

[Libertad]

You know, I'm getting sick of the idea of the existence of a left/right spectrum.

I think most people find it easier to think of things one-dimensionally like this. Take the whole role-player/optimizer false dichotomy from the old WotC boards that spawned the Stormwind Fallacy. Few people really toe the party line on every issue.

And let's not get into the fact that Left-Right spectrum in European politics varies greatly from its Left-Right equivalent in the United States.  The assumption of a universal definition has led to many misunderstandings on online political forums (or at least the ones I frequent).

[awaken_D_M_golem]

Yeah.
What about being a "conservative" back say around 100 years ago, and if the issues mattered ??


Progressive Republican (ha!)
Isolationist.
The go-go capitalism Gilded era was dying, and it was Wall Street itself doing it.
No safety net at all (like Social Security and Medicare grampa).
Gummint massively involved in the start of the Panama Canal.
wtf is Birth Control ?
Fundamentalism as a movement was just starting, separating from Modernists.

Shellac Records were ripping off the poor Sheet Music sellers   
Arizona wasn't a state, so grampa couldn't winter there.
Women couldn't vote ... you know how much that messed things up, right ?!

[DonQuixote]

It's been two and a half years since I became eligible for voter registration.  Since then, I haven't seen a single good reason to bother doing so.  It's just assholes on both sides.

[veekie]

Vote to dilute their majority then?

[bhu]

Vote to dilute their majority then?

That would require what the local rednecks chucklingly refer to as 'rooftop voting'.

[veekie]

I mean, vote for whoever's likely to lose. A strong majority makes them think they have a strong mandate to do more of whatever ridiculous crap they're doing.

[bhu]

I should run for election as a joke someday

"Vote for me and I shall make it not only legal for aliens to buttfuck trailer park inhabitants with electrical equipment, I shall impose a tax on all residents who cannot provide filmed physical evidence of said buttfucking.  Soon our meth lab problem will be over."

[X-Codes]

I should run for election as a joke someday

"Vote for me and I shall make it not only legal for aliens to buttfuck trailer park inhabitants with electrical equipment, I shall impose a tax on all residents who cannot provide filmed physical evidence of said buttfucking.  Soon our meth lab problem will be over."

Sounds like something a cat would do if elected to office. 

[RobbyPants]

I should run for election as a joke someday

"Vote for me and I shall make it not only legal for aliens to buttfuck trailer park inhabitants with electrical equipment, I shall impose a tax on all residents who cannot provide filmed physical evidence of said buttfucking.  Soon our meth lab problem will be over."

If you do, let me know. I want to watch the debates!

[Basket Burner]

If you do, let me know. I want to watch the debates!

"What makes you think you are suitable to be a candidate?"

Meow.

[bhu]

I should run for election as a joke someday

"Vote for me and I shall make it not only legal for aliens to buttfuck trailer park inhabitants with electrical equipment, I shall impose a tax on all residents who cannot provide filmed physical evidence of said buttfucking.  Soon our meth lab problem will be over."

If you do, let me know. I want to watch the debates!

"What do you think of the other candidates?"

"One's a child molester, one's been pumping toxic waste into the local water, one has fucked every woman he met except his wife, and the tea party candidate somehow believes halving the police force will somehow make crime better.  They're a pack of emotionally stunted, physically under endowed sociopathic fuckpigs.   You'd be better off electing the homeless guy on Main who keeps getting arrested for masturbating onto parked cars.  If elected I promise to make shooting the other former candidates a perfectly legal act."