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IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT


Destiny Skywalker
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Probably "over" in the sense that they are doing a better job of locking their crazies in the closet, and have worked to keep the nasty primary stuff to a minimum. The "establishment" isn't stupid; they know that every Christine O'Donnell who manages to sneak through a primary is not only guaranteed to implode in a general election, but to hurt their brand-name on a national level.

 

Not that there is anything unusual about this. Virtually all political parties have their looneybirds, and go through periods of squawking (when they are really passionate/idealistic) and discipline (when they just really, really wanna win).

This. I'm surprised to see that the worm is turning this soon, though. I thought it would take a curb stomp victory for Hillary in 2016 to get the G.O.P back to the drawing board for real. In fact, it might already be happening.

 

I think it's going to be the democrat's turn to visit crazy town for a while.

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Do you think the tea party craze is over? God, I hope so.

Not over but clearly on the downswing. It's hard for anyone to keep a level of vitriol sustained for very long before becoming distracted by something else. We saw the same thing with the pathological Bush hate on the left- reached a peak somewhere around 2004, and then slowly petered out as Bush receded into lame duck mode and the Left had a new distraction to turn to (Obama). By now, even other liberals roll their eyes when someone brings out the Bush hate.

 

That being said, obviously the demographic that made up the Tea Party still exists. If Clinton is elected, I assume that demographic will form the members of a new movement, whether it's called the Tea Party or something else. If Clinton is not elected, then we've probably seen the last of the Tea Party (although we'll see a resurgence of the same type of voter that made up the anti-Bush folks- their hate will be directed towards someone else this time though).

 

 

While I'm on it, a few notes on this midterm. First, I'd be careful not to read into this too much. Lots of GOP celebrating, and in many cases it is warranted. But the electorate is very different for midterms than presidential elections- in this case, it was much whiter and older, which of course, is a significant disadvantage for the Democrats. The electorate in 2016 will look a lot different, although from the midterms the Dems got a good picture of what happens when the level of minority, youth, and female turnout dips down. An interesting question is whether Clinton will be the type of candidate that can bring out the minority vote. A lot of people, based on the 2012 results, sorta take for granted that the GOP has an issue with minorities (and they do), but people also tend to forget that Romney was basically the worst possible candidate to appeal to minorities (although, I guess I should say, it could've been even worse- see the 2012 primary field). The GOP historically has been OK with minorities- Bush was in the 40s %-wise with Hispanics and Reagan won a pretty strong majority of Asians. A lot of people tend to view the parties as these archetypes that they don't budge from, and forget that races often are about specific candidates with individual characteristics. So if the GOP can return back to the minority percentages they had before 2008 or so, and especially if minority turnout is lower, then obviously elections come out a completely different way.

 

Now all that said, I was particularly pleased to see many moderate Republicans have success, such as Baker in Massachusetts, Rauner in IL, Hogan in Maryland, Gardner in CO, and so on. You go to these guys campaign sites and you don't see a focus on social issues or abortion or whatever.. (in some cases, like Baker in MA, he's outright pro choice).. instead the focus is on issues like unemployment, taxes, government corruption/spending and so forth- issues that the GOP usually does very well on and have particular appeal to independent voters that don't give a sh-t about social issues. What I'm hoping is that Republican voters take note of this and realize that a moderate GOP candidate is what will be a winner for 2016- drawing out a long, painful primary process where candidates are forced to move to the right does not help. Rather, a moderate GOP candidate is someone that is probably close to your median voter nation-wide and has a lot of natural appeal to an average American voter. I'm hoping the lesson sinks in. Otherwise, it's basically Clinton for sure in 2016.

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Now all that said, I was particularly pleased to see many moderate Republicans have success, such as Baker in Massachusetts, Rauner in IL, Hogan in Maryland, Gardner in CO, and so on. You go to these guys campaign sites and you don't see a focus on social issues or abortion or whatever.. (in some cases, like Baker in MA, he's outright pro choice).. instead the focus is on issues like unemployment, taxes, government corruption/spending and so forth- issues that the GOP usually does very well on and have particular appeal to independent voters that don't give a sh-t about social issues. What I'm hoping is that Republican voters take note of this and realize that a moderate GOP candidate is what will be a winner for 2016- drawing out a long, painful primary process where candidates are forced to move to the right does not help. Rather, a moderate GOP candidate is someone that is probably close to your median voter nation-wide and has a lot of natural appeal to an average American voter. I'm hoping the lesson sinks in. Otherwise, it's basically Clinton for sure in 2016.

This is where it's going to be decided for the next long while. Were I an American, I'd actually join the Republican party and advocate for its moderate element, such as it is. It will be an uphill battle, mind you. The hard core conservatives are pretty entrenched.

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Republicans getting back this power was inevitable. Obama went to all these small towns when things were peachy and then he stopped. What did you think was gonna happen?

 

Obama tried the trick of saying how bad a condition things were in at the beginning of his term. That way he keeps getting approval from having a good attitude. But in a way things are worse off now. In retrospect I think he made a big deal about medicare at the beginning. Isis and Russia are a much bigger deal today. He was overly optimistic, not thinking something like China becoming #1 could happen. But you know what? Now I'm starting to think he was expecting it.

 

When all's said and done, a low approval rating at the end of a president's term is completely normal.

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