The New American Politics thread

[Displaced Flames fan]

Originally Posted by Vulcan

I'd vote just to keep Cruz out. I think he's dangerous as he isn't as stupid as the earlier tea baggers.

Yep. I won't vote for any tea part candidates. Ever.

[Displaced Flames fan]

Originally Posted by Parallex

Nobody bandying Schweitzer about? Even in your neck of the woods? One would think that Jeb Bush would be in there too (even if for no reason other then brand name value)?

There has been some talk of Schweitzer thinking about it, but there's not a lot of buzz.

I'd rather see Jon Tester run, but I'm not sure he's interested.

[DuffMan]

I want to see a Palin/Bachman ticket.

[Tinordi]

Don't go to Kansas Ellen Page:

http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/...ned-in-kansas/

The bill that just overwhelmingly passed the Kansas House of Representatives is quite something. You can read it in its entirety here. It is premised on the notion that the most pressing injustice in Kansas right now is the persecution some religious people are allegedly experiencing at the hands of homosexuals. As Rush Limbaugh recently noted, “They’re under assault. You say, ‘Heterosexuality may be 95, 98 percent of the population.’ They’re under assault by the 2 to 5 percent that are homosexual.” As its sponsor, Charles Macheers, explained:

Discrimination is horrible. It’s hurtful … It has no place in civilized society, and that’s precisely why we’re moving this bill. There have been times throughout history where people have been persecuted for their religious beliefs because they were unpopular. This bill provides a shield of protection for that.

The remedy for such a terrible threat is, however, state support for more discrimination. The law empowers any individual or business to refuse to interact with, do business with, or in any way come into contact with anyone who may have some connection to a gay civil union, or civil marriage or … well any “similar arrangement” (room-mates?). It gives the full backing of the law to any restaurant or bar-owner who puts up a sign that says “No Gays Served”. It empowers employees of the state government to refuse to interact with gay citizens as a group. Its scope is vast: it allows anyone to refuse to provide “services, accommodations, advantages, facilities, goods, or privileges; counseling, adoption, foster care and other social services; or provide employment or employment benefits” to anyone suspected of being complicit in celebrating or enabling the commitment of any kind of a gay couple.

[Flabbibulin]

Clay Aiken is running for congress in North Carolina?? Even if he wins the primary, who knows if he has a shot in the general against the Republican incumbent.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...olina-primary/

[nik-]

I don't think he would have a chance at winning, but trolling the Republicans for gay bashing comments would be epic.

[Flash Walken]

WASHINGTON — In one of the most stunning primary election upsets in congressional history, the House majority leader, Eric Cantor, Republican of Virginia, was soundly defeated on Tuesday by a Tea Party-backed economics professor who had hammered him for being insufficiently conservative.

Mr. Cantor’s defeat delivered a major jolt to the Republican Party — he had widely been considered the top candidate to succeed Speaker John A. Boehner one day — and it has the potential both to change the debate in Washington on immigration and to reshape the midterm elections, which had been favoring his party.

...

Mr. Cantor’s defeat — the most unexpected of a congressional leader in recent memory — will reverberate in the capital and could have major implications for an immigration overhaul.

Mr. Cantor, who is in his seventh term, had sought to rebut Mr. Brat’s charges on immigration, using some of his $5.4 million to send fliers and air television ads in which he claimed to oppose an “amnesty” policy. But with significant help from conservative talk radio figures such as Laura Ingraham, Mr. Brat was able to galvanize opposition to Mr. Cantor in one of Virginia’s most conservative congressional districts.

Mr. Cantor’s loss recalled the defeat of former Speaker Thomas S. Foley, a Democrat who lost to a little-known Republican, George Nethercutt, in the 1994 general elections that delivered control of Congress to the Republicans. It is extremely rare for a member of the congressional leadership to lose a primary.

Mr. Cantor had won primary elections in his district around Richmond, Va. — which stretches more than 100 miles from the Tidewater region nearly to the Washington suburbs — with as much as 79 percent of the vote, and he won his race for a sixth term with 58 percent. He was not seen as vulnerable in this cycle.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/11/us...?smid=re-share

[PIMking]

good that the old guard is getting shuffled out, bad that it's the tea party idiots taking his spot.

[Flash Walken]

Who is David Brat?

The college economics professor is suddenly the tea party’s newest star after toppling House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) in a primary Tuesday. Mr. Brat’s victory is the biggest House primary upset in generations – and wasn’t predicted by anyone, including Mr. Brat.

“God acted through people on my behalf,” Mr. Brat told Fox News during an interview Tuesday night. “It’s an unbelievable miracle.”

...

An economics professor at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va., Mr. Brat appeared more interested in campaigning to make a point than in winning. The Washington Post reported last month that he no-showed meetings with key conservative activists in the capital. His excuse: He had final exams to grade.
Mr. Brat will face Democrat Jack Trammell, who is a professor and the director of disability support services at Randolph-Macon College, the same school where Mr. Brat teaches.

Mr. Cantor can’t run as a third-party candidate. Virginia law forbids candidates who lose primary elections from appearing on the general election ballot. It is not immediately clear if he will mount a write-in campaign , as did Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska) after losing a 2010 GOP Senate primary.

There are clues to Mr. Brat’s ideology in his academic CV. His current book project is titled “Ethics as Leading Economic Indicator? What went Wrong? Notes on the Judeo-Christian Tradition and Human Reason.”

His other published works include the titles “God and Advanced Mammon – Can Theological Types Handle Usury and Capitalism?” and “An Analysis of the Moral Foundations in Ayn Rand.”

http://m.us.wsj.com/articles/BL-WB-46414

[Caged Great]

Well, that's good. Anti immigration zealot beats one of the few people trying to save the Republicans from themselves.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Caged Great

Well, that's good. Anti immigration zealot beats one of the few people trying to save the Republicans from themselves.

It's why they'll continue to get trounced in the Presidential elections more and more as time goes by, and why they completely deserve it.

[nfotiu]

Kind of interesting as I live in this district. There was talk this might be a little close but nobody thought it would actually happen. I have no idea if he can winin a general election. Primaries are a weird animal. Cantor was not doing anything to help this country run better so I can't say I'm sad he lost. I think this has a goodchanceof officially making the tea party their own party which is probably a good thing.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by nfotiu

Kind of interesting as I live in this district. There was talk this might be a little close but nobody thought it would actually happen. I have no idea if he can winin a general election. Primaries are a weird animal. Cantor was not doing anything to help this country run better so I can't say I'm sad he lost. I think this has a goodchanceof officially making the tea party their own party which is probably a good thing.

Yeah, primaries and midterms are like the protest votes. This party has no chance for presidential elections as it keeps tilting farther away from the populace. The Republican party is to right leaning voters what the NRA is to gun owners in that they're becoming more extreme for anyone other than their hardliners.

People will still vote Republican out of habit for a while, but eventually it will be too far and they'll be decimated.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Would be interesting to see where the money goes if an actual Tea Party came to fruition. You know they would probably be anti-regulation, but can they actually win an election and get control?

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Would be interesting to see where the money goes if an actual Tea Party came to fruition. You know they would probably be anti-regulation, but can they actually win an election and get control?

Are they even getting the big corporate money anymore? I was under the impression a lot of the rich folks funding them backed off after they went full ###### with the debt ceiling crap and their willingness to default on debt.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Would be interesting to see where the money goes if an actual Tea Party came to fruition. You know they would probably be anti-regulation, but can they actually win an election and get control?

Too much infighting, this has played itself out in American politics before.

The tea party isn't a movement or a collective, it's just a political tool designed to syphon votes and intimidate.

[Senator Clay Davis]

I don't really think an actual Tea Party could work, I just wonder if they would get support as they would be about as pro business as it would get (being totally anti-government). It does make you wonder why the people who hate government so much want to be it so much.

[nik-]

I bet the Democrats would love an actual Tea Party as a third party. They'd destroy elections.

[Lanny_McDonald]

Originally Posted by nik-

Are they even getting the big corporate money anymore? I was under the impression a lot of the rich folks funding them backed off after they went full ###### with the debt ceiling crap and their willingness to default on debt.

Americans for Prosperity are still right behind the Tea Party and that is funded directly by the Koch brothers. Big money still supports the Tea Party because the Tea Party is the John Birch wing of the conservative movement, and the John Birch movement has always been supported by the hardline capitalists who want to rid the world of the socialist threat and the welfare state. That is unless that welfare state is more focused on corporate welfare, then that's a whole new ball of wax.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by New Era

Americans for Prosperity are still right behind the Tea Party and that is funded directly by the Koch brothers. Big money still supports the Tea Party because the Tea Party is the John Birch wing of the conservative movement, and the John Birch movement has always been supported by the hardline capitalists who want to rid the world of the socialist threat and the welfare state. That is unless that welfare state is more focused on corporate welfare, then that's a whole new ball of wax.

AFP runs anti-Obamacare and anti-Democrat ads, but in terms of actual money to Tea Party candidates, is there recent evidence?