The New American Politics thread

[FlameOn]

I really don't understand the voters in the US... Polls done before the midterm elections showed American voters were hugely in favor of higher minimum wage, legalized medicinal marijuana, better education and healthcare and yet they voted in the party that will do the exact opposite.

At this point I expect another long long two years of political showboating with the GOP trying even harder to repeal the ACA and what not.

[FlameOn]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Oh yeah, but most Americans complained about the "do nothing Congress" and blah blah blah, and now they voted for the option that will get even less accomplished. Americans consistently vote against their own interests, and then complain about it later on. It's almost like they choose their voting preference based on who they can complain about later.

I can't understand for the life of me why Congress, with a 14% approval rating, keeps on getting most of the incumbents re-elected. It's bat-sh*t crazy if you ask me.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Originally Posted by FlameOn

I can't understand for the life of me why Congress, with a 14% approval rating, keeps on getting most of the incumbents re-elected. It's bat-sh*t crazy if you ask me.

Because it's maybe the single most misleading stat ever. 14% approval is all Americans view of the whole congress. When you break it down further to the actual approval of congresspeople from their own constituents, the real approval rating for congress is much closer to 65%, and they generally return 90% of incumbents.

Basically, no one believes "their congressperson" is the problem, it's "everyone else's congresspeople" who are terrible. Gerrymandering also has a lot to do with it as well.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Because it's maybe the single most misleading stat ever. 14% approval is all Americans view of the whole congress. When you break it down further to the actual approval of congresspeople from their own constituents, the real approval rating for congress is much closer to 65%, and they generally return 90% of incumbents.

Basically, no one believes "their congressperson" is the problem, it's "everyone else's congresspeople" who are terrible. Gerrymandering also has a lot to do with it as well.

It's always someone elses problem.

It's a by-product of a disconnected, unequal society.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Oh yeah, but most Americans complained about the "do nothing Congress" and blah blah blah, and now they voted for the option that will get even less accomplished. Americans consistently vote against their own interests, and then complain about it later on. It's almost like they choose their voting preference based on who they can complain about later.

It's because they're not voting for issues, they're voting for their sports team.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by FlameOn

I really don't understand the voters in the US... Polls done before the midterm elections showed American voters were hugely in favor of higher minimum wage, legalized medicinal marijuana, better education and healthcare and yet they voted in the party that will do the exact opposite.

At this point I expect another long long two years of political showboating with the GOP trying even harder to repeal the ACA and what not.

I found this interesting.

Republicans won big in the 2014 elections. They captured the Senate and gained seats in the House. But they didn’t do it by running to the right. They did it, to a surprising extent, by embracing ideas and standards that came from the left. I’m not talking about gay marriage, on which Republicans have caved, or birth control, on which they’ve made over-the-counter access a national talking point. I’m talking about the core of the liberal agenda: economic equality.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_a...is_moving.html

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Nah, Obama will veto it just because he can. In fact I imagine almost everything they pass will be vetoed. Americans just voted to get even less done than they were before. Impressive to say the least.

I doubt he vetoes it. Not with the American people clearly giving legislative power to the GOP who will push it through.

I think it goes through pretty fast.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by Azure

I found this interesting.



http://www.slate.com/articles/news_a...is_moving.html

Say one thing to get elected, do another once in office. Hasn't that been the Republican mantra for quite awhile now?

[Flamenspiel]

^^ That's pretty standard for politics in general, its certainly not exclusive to one party or country.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

Say one thing to get elected, do another once in office. Hasn't that been the Republican mantra for quite awhile now?

Seems like a problem with politicians in general.

Not saying that they will or will not do that, but they didn't get elected based on traditional 'GOP' principles.

And it is GOP, not right wing. The political spectrum has been muddled by the political parties of today.

[FlameOn]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Because it's maybe the single most misleading stat ever. 14% approval is all Americans view of the whole congress. When you break it down further to the actual approval of congresspeople from their own constituents, the real approval rating for congress is much closer to 65%, and they generally return 90% of incumbents.

Basically, no one believes "their congressperson" is the problem, it's "everyone else's congresspeople" who are terrible. Gerrymandering also has a lot to do with it as well.

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

It's always someone elses problem.

It's a by-product of a disconnected, unequal society.

Part of this has to do with sheer ignorance too. In Kentucky for example the majority disagreed with Obamacare yet agreed with the ACA in pre-election polls When all of the newly elected GOP campaigned on repealing Obamacare, the constituents in those states have basically shot themselves in the foot without knowing it.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/...ling-obamacare

[DuffMan]

At least some states voted properly on some items.

Washington votes for background checks for gun transfers and purchases. Bill 594

A few States decriminalize weed.

Some states vote no to the crazy anti-abortionists, that life does not begin at conception.

Good to see some good decisions were made.

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by FlameOn

Part of this has to do with sheer ignorance too. In Kentucky for example the majority disagreed with Obamacare yet agreed with the ACA in pre-election polls When all of the newly elected GOP campaigned on repealing Obamacare, the constituents in those states have basically shot themselves in the foot without knowing it.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/...ling-obamacare

Obama will just veto any bill repealing the ACA so it's safe for the time being. These GOP senators are just whistling in the wind, trying to sound tough while wasting time and effort. As usual nothing is going to get done with the GOP in control.

[Flash Walken]

We know that about 10 million more people have insurance coverage this year as a result of the Affordable Care Act. But until now it has been difficult to say much about who was getting that coverage — where they live, their age, their income and other such details.

Now a large set of data — from Enroll America, the group trying to sign up people for the program, and from the data firm Civis Analytics — is allowing a much clearer picture. The data shows that the law has done something rather unusual in the American economy this century: It has pushed back against inequality, essentially redistributing income — in the form of health insurance or insurance subsidies — to many of the groups that have fared poorly over the last few decades.

The biggest winners from the law include people between the ages of 18 and 34; blacks; Hispanics; and people who live in rural areas. The areas with the largest increases in the health insurance rate, for example, include rural Arkansas and Nevada; southern Texas; large swaths of New Mexico, Kentucky and West Virginia; and much of inland California and Oregon.

Each of these trends is going in the opposite direction of larger economic patterns. Young people have fared substantially worse in the job market than older people in recent years. Blacks and Hispanics have fared worse than whites and Asians. Rural areas have fallen further behind larger metropolitan areas.


...

That state boundaries are so prominent in the map attests to the power of state policy in shaping health insurance conditions. The most important factor in predicting whether an American who had no insurance in 2013 signed up this year was whether the state that person lives in expanded its Medicaid program in 2014. (Just consider the contrast between Kentucky, which expanded Medicaid, and Tennessee, which did not.)

In 2012, the Supreme Court gave states the right to opt out of the expansion. In all, 26 states and the District of Columbia expanded Medicaid programs this year, and at least one more state — Pennsylvania — will expand next year. Predominantly, the states that expanded had Democratic political leadership, while those that declined were governed by Republicans, but there were exceptions in both directions.

...


Despite many Republican voters’ disdain for the Affordable Care Act, parts of the country that lean the most heavily Republican (according to 2012 presidential election results) showed significantly more insurance gains than places where voters lean strongly Democratic. That partly reflects underlying rates of insurance. In liberal places, like Massachusetts and Hawaii, previous state policies had made insurance coverage much more widespread, leaving less room for improvement. But the correlation also reflects trends in wealth and poverty. Many of the poorest and most rural states in the country tend to favor Republican politicians. Of course, the fact that Republican areas showed disproportionate insurance gains does not mean that only Republicans signed up; there are many Democrats living in even the most strongly Republican regions of the country.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...abt=0002&abg=0

[Itse]

I other words Obamacare is communism designed to destroy the righteous Real Americans.

[cal_guy]

Originally Posted by Vulcan

Obama will just veto any bill repealing the ACA so it's safe for the time being. These GOP senators are just whistling in the wind, trying to sound tough while wasting time and effort. As usual nothing is going to get done with the GOP in control.

Any repeal bill will probably get filibustered in the Senate.

[chemgear]

http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement...want_your_soul

Colorado just elected a former Navy pastor who tried to exorcise President Obama of demons and believes gay people are soul stealers. And that's just for starters.

Representative-elect Klingenschmitt says that while a Navy pastor (he "left" the military under dubious circumstances) he "exorcised" the "sin" of homosexuality from many gay and lesbian service members.

He claims he exorcised a woman who had been raped of the "foul spirit of lesbianism," and even says he has performed an exorcism on President Obama.

Klingenschmitt says gay people "want your soul."

"They won't be satisfied with your money. They don't really want the t-shirts. They want your soul. They want you to disobey God so that you go to Hell with them. It's not enough that they go to Hell for disobeying God, they want you to disobey God so that we all go to Hell. That's the Devil's goal in the end."

He says that gay people are "cooperating with the Devil," and that "there is something unhuman inside of them," and insists same-sex marriage is child abuse.

"What is the most cruel thing you can do to a child? After physical or sexual abuse, the most cruel thing you can do to a child is take away their mother. That's how homosexual 'marriage' causes child abuse, by taking away the child's mother (or father) and telling the child 'your need for a mother is less than our right for homosexual pleasure.'"

In 2012, Klingenschmitt said President Obama was working on creating “homosexual bonus pay” for LGBT service members in same-sex relationships, and gay people were “stealing” kids and wanted to “recruit children into homosexuality.”

Over the summer, Dr. Chaps sent supporters an email claiming gay Democratic U.S. Congressman Jared Polis will "join ISIS in beheading Christians, but not just in Syria, right here in America." He was forced to respond to attacks from his own party, so he stated “some Democrats do not have a sense of humor” and don't understand "hyperbole."

And last year, Klingenschmitt claimed that neither two men nor “three women and a dog” are going to “mate” and have a child — and that’s why gays have to “recruit the children of heterosexuals,” to “propagate the gay species.”

[bigtmac19]

I saw this today, thought it was pretty great actually.

http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/ca...oit-free-press

"The most viral letter in recent memory to the Detroit Free Press — and on American politics, too — was written by a Canadian."

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by bigtmac19

I saw this today, thought it was pretty great actually.

http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/ca...oit-free-press

"The most viral letter in recent memory to the Detroit Free Press — and on American politics, too — was written by a Canadian."

Here's the letter as I think it's too important to not see it. It took a Canadian to tell the truth that Obama's fellow Democrats don't have the balls to say and stand up for. That's why they lost the election.

Richard Brunt’s letter, published Nov. 7 in the Detroit Free Press:
You Americans have no idea just how good you have it with Obama
Many of us Canadians are confused by the U.S. midterm elections.
Consider, right now in America, corporate profits are at record highs, the country’s adding 200,000 jobs per month, unemployment is below 6%, U.S. gross national product growth is the best of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries.
The dollar is at its strongest levels in years, the stock market is near record highs, gasoline prices are falling, there’s no inflation, interest rates are the lowest in 30 years, U.S. oil imports are declining, U.S. oil production is rapidly increasing, the deficit is rapidly declining, and the wealthy are still making astonishing amounts of money.
America is leading the world once again and respected internationally — in sharp contrast to the Bush years. Obama brought soldiers home from Iraq and killed Osama bin Laden.
So, Americans vote for the party that got you into the mess that Obama just dug you out of? This defies reason.
When you are done with Obama, could you send him our way?
Richard Brunt
Victoria, British Columbia

[DuffMan]

Breaking News
Obama's Executive Action Will Protect 5 Million Undocumented Immigrants.

Republicans freak out.