Republicans Have Taken the House!

[Dirty Penguin]

So, what will happen next?

Huston we have a problem.....

The writing is on the wall but most won't know how screwed we are until the republican agenda is in full swing.

IMO....

 

[Darz]

News flash: Our ******* wus of a president has sworn to work with the Republicans.

By the way, am I being too harsh on him?

No you're not. He's demonstrated that he is a typical democrat. A moderate fooling everyone that he's liberal, all the while suckling the same corporate tit as Republicans. Now I fear he will lean further to the right in order to appeal to the deluded masses.

 

[Requia]

The sad thing is, its a self defeating strategy. Independents are not moderates, they don't go and vote for compromisers, they vote for people who seem like they might get things done, right now the GOP and Tea Party are doing a very good job selling the message that they'll cut spending and taxes, and the democrats are doing a very bad job selling the idea that they'll do anything except continue Bush era policies.

 

[GabrielWithoutWings]

News flash: Our ******* wus of a president has sworn to work with the Republicans.

By the way, am I being too harsh on him?

No. He's ****ed me off so bad that I regret voting for him. I wish Hillary had gotten the nomination and won. At least she has balls.

Obama's problem is that he's too nice to his opponents and ****es all over the people that voted him in.

I want a crazy progressive socialist president.

 

[gnomon]

I have great difficulty understanding the American political system.

Virtually in all other western systems, when the government loses its majority, the winning side takes over. In those cases it is the Lower house result that decides the issue.

Where there is an elected President like France, he has to choose a new prime minister who can command a majority, who in turn leads the parliament. This can cause a few weeks disruption.

The American System results in the President and his administration being emasculated, and a powerless government continuing for the next few years. Even when a new president is elected it takes a few months for them to take over.

The president and administration are elected for only four years, at least two of those years are taken up with campaigning where effective government is replaced by popularity stakes.
If they lose the mid term elections, at least an extra year is taken up in Limbo.

When you compare this to the UK system, after the Prime minister calls a new election. The whole process takes six weeks before a new Government is in place. In less than one hour the old Prime minister and ministers resign are replaced by the new one. At no time is the country with out effective Government.

Our government never stops working.

Considering that the American public never raised a fuss when Congress found that rather than going through the annoying process of the Constitution to pass laws they merely had to create agencies which could enact rules and regulations without representation than it assured that the government never stops. As our deficit shows, the fact that the government does not have the money to run all these agencies doesn't stop anything.

As far as the talk regarding the Tea Party most of it is meaningless. Either the fantasy level support people have for them or the rabid level of disdain. It's all too easy to go through the mainstream party members and pluck out either a thoroughly corrupt or completely dimwitted politician. So another group of similar people have shown up. Who cares?

Can one be too harsh on Obama?

Depends. If the focus is on issues such as health care, his person religious views or birth certificate than the criticisms are insane.

When it comes to his appointed administration one cannot be too harsh. It's a fairly crappy administration. To put it mildly.

 

[Reverend Rick]

People need ot realize that having the majority doesn't mean squat int he grand scheme of things, you have to get off your *** and vote because the other side --even though they may be in the minority-- are louder, more aggressive and more in your face with the way the do things....and with the mentality of a lot of my fellow Americans (treating politics like a sporting event), that will trump any majority, truth or presentation of facts that you may have in your back pocket.

Sorry T, Liberals have never had the majority. The same holds true for Conservatives although we outnumber you all 2 to 1.

40% of Americans are Moderate. They voted with you all because they where disgusted with Bush two years ago, and they voted with Conservatives this time because they where disgusted with Obama.

 

[Reverend Rick]

This makes me mad. Not because I don't agree with, you in fact I very much do, but because Obama had his chance with the supermajority and blew it.

It just goes to show you that the Democratic party cannot get the business of the day completed even when they have the tools to do the job. It is akin to herding cats IMHO.

I don't blame people for staying home. What is the point? Insanity is when you do the same thing over and over expecting a different outcome.

The Democrats have been giving Liberals lip service and promising to help the little guy for decades. How has that worked out?

Just go out and vote one more time, it will be different this time, I promise!

 

[Magic Man]

Can one be too harsh on Obama?

Of course. You can see examples of it every day. Obama hasn't been one of our best presidents, but when you actually look at what he's done, he hasn't been that bad. Yes, he's failed on some campaign promises, but every president does. He has actually accomplished a good bit of what he said he would.

 

[Engyo]

It just goes to show you that the Democratic party cannot get the business of the day completed even when they have the tools to do the job. It is akin to herding cats IMHO.

It's going to be fun to see how the Repubs coordinate their Old Guard, their mainstream folks, and the new Tea Party caucus together. I wonder if this group will herd better?

 

[Amill]

The republican party keeps talking about getting rid of the health care reform bill, but what exactly do they plan on doing to reform health care? Did they do anything for health care after blocking reform in the 90s? Same old same old

It just goes to show you that the Democratic party cannot get the business of the day completed even when they have the tools to do the job. It is akin to herding cats IMHO.

While I agree with you I still can't stop thinking that a herd of cats is more appropriate than a pack of dogs, I'd rather have politicians that are honest about their views and don't just support whatever their party is "supposed" to support. If the Republicans also functioned like a herd of cats then things would more than likely get done. The problem arises because so many other politicians do function as a pack of dogs instead of individuals.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

The republican party keeps talking about getting rid of the health care reform bill, but what exactly do they plan on doing to reform health care? Did they do anything for health care after blocking reform in the 90s? Same old same old

What really gets under my skin is their rhetoric about limited government and fiscal responsibility. That's something that Republicans haven't lived by in a long, long time.

And there was no talk of Obama ending the war in Iraq.

 

[Engyo]

The republican party keeps talking about getting rid of the health care reform bill, but what exactly do they plan on doing to reform health care? Did they do anything for health care after blocking reform in the 90s? Same old same old

opcorn:I'm poppin the popcorn, watching to see whether they can push some of the same reforms through on another bill if they manage to can this one. I bet you that all the players (insurance, pharma, the hospital companies, doctors groups) will manage to kill anything they try to reinstate.

 

[LuisDantas]

Of course. You can see examples of it every day. Obama hasn't been one of our best presidents, but when you actually look at what he's done, he hasn't been that bad. Yes, he's failed on some campaign promises, but every president does. He has actually accomplished a good bit of what he said he would.

What surprises me is how quickly he lost support, and how divided the populace seems to be on how he should behave. On the one hand, radical, borderline nutso movements such as the Tea Party and the supporters of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin are way stronger than I would have suspected in 2008. On the other, Obama is sure disappointing the people who supposedly elected him on matters such as closing Guantanamo, repealing DOMA and DADT, and ending the ********* wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

What surprises me is how quickly he lost support, and how divided the populace seems to be on how he should behave. On the one hand, radical, borderline nutso movements such as the Tea Party and the supporters of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin are way stronger than I would have suspected in 2008. On the other, Obama is sure disappointing the people who supposedly elected him on matters such as closing Guantanamo, repealing DOMA and DADT, and ending the ********* wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I dunno. I don't think that Obama would have lost support if his supporters were better informed about what he was accomplishing.

Here's the insanity:

The Republicans vowed not to help Obama with anything - despite the fact that the overwhemling majority of Americans voted for him. So they refused to give the American people what they wanted, and criticised Obama for not being able to do that.

The Republicans were obstrutionists, after they destroyed everything in the Bush years. They worked against everything Obama wanted to do, and despite this, he was able to accomplish major points on every aspect of his platform.

But Americans were unhappy with that and voted Republican - or refused to vote - as if the Republicans can somehow save the day. The same Republicans - or much worse - that obstructed everything that Americans wanted from Obama.

GET A GRIP

 

[Magic Man]

What surprises me is how quickly he lost support, and how divided the populace seems to be on how he should behave. On the one hand, radical, borderline nutso movements such as the Tea Party and the supporters of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin are way stronger than I would have suspected in 2008. On the other, Obama is sure disappointing the people who supposedly elected him on matters such as closing Guantanamo, repealing DOMA and DADT, and ending the ********* wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And I think this is a big problem. Obviously, I'm disappointed with some aspects of his presidency, like the failure to end DADT or DOMA or the wars. And I'm disappointed that some of his legislation didn't go as far as I'd like, but taken within the context of how our government works, he hasn't done that bad.

I'm not surprised at the reaction from the nutsos like Fox-News viewers. I'm also not surprised by the disappointed reaction from actual liberals. I'm not even surprised that the country has turned on him so much. Conservatives and right-wingers are very good at negative campaigns. They do a very good job of winning opposition to things they don't like. We can see this with things like "the death tax", "Obamacare" the "unfairness of higher taxes on the rich", and many others. So, it's not surprising that they've managed to turn even people you'd expect to like Obama against him.

I understand how it works. I remember things like "the war on Christmas" from when I was a kid. I remember hearing people talk about how you couldn't even say "Merry Christmas" anymore, and how things were getting out of control. I bought into it because I was young, and it made sense. Years later, when I put some rational thought into it, I realized what a bunch of BS it was. There are other examples, too. The problem is that many people don't put enough thought into those things, and they just buy into the nonsense they're sold be conservatives. To the point that even people who should still be at least somewhat supportive of Obama get a negative image of him, simply because of how good conservatives are at twisting things around.

 

[Gunfingers]

I wouldn't know where to see the data to confirm this, so i'm open to the possibility that it's completely wrong, but i have a theory.

People will blame everything on the current group in power, and as a result the current group will never maintain power for more than a few terms. With the exception of Reagan/Bush holding the white house for 12 years there's been no more than an 8 year span of a single party since Roosevelt and Truman.

More to the point, people will be extremely upset about whatever is happening. Whatever the current state, it sucks, it's worse than before, and it has to be stopped. As a result we always ***** and moan and vote out whoever is in power.

 

[Mister_T]

Sorry T, Liberals have never had the majority. The same holds true for Conservatives although we outnumber you all 2 to 1.

40% of Americans are Moderate. They voted with you all because they where disgusted with Bush two years ago, and they voted with Conservatives this time because they where disgusted with Obama.

I'd like to know where you get your info from, Rick. I don't disagree that Moderates are a huge deciding factor in elections, but Democrats have had the majority for a while now, although that's probably changed recently. And as bad as Democrats have plummeted in recent times, popular opinion of the Republicans has been worse in all the news articles I've read throughout the year. I'll have to see where I if I cana dig some of those up.

The only reason why Republicans are making gains now is because they're getting backing from Tea Party supporters that they've been kissing up to since Obama took office...who have already stated that they're not willing to offer any compromise and will toss any candidate who does out on their butts.

 

[YmirGF]

More to the point, people will be extremely upset about whatever is happening. Whatever the current state, it sucks, it's worse than before, and it has to be stopped. As a result we always ***** and moan and vote out whoever is in power.

I think that part of the reason for this is that unfortunately the majority of people are not especially interested in politics. For them, politics is a huge turn off. In a sense, it is the great "unwashed" middle that is the kingmaker, as neither the right, nor the left has enough power to completely overtake the playing field. As long as the performance of a given group is somewhat acceptable, they are kept in power by this very flexible middle.

In reality, neither the Left, nor the Right, speak for the average person, as most people vary in their attitudes from issue to issue. While I remain wary of the Christian agenda of the Right, I am equally disturbed by the Socialist/Marxist agenda spouted by the Left.

 

[Mercy Not Sacrifice]

opcorn:I'm poppin the popcorn, watching to see whether they can push some of the same reforms through on another bill if they manage to can this one. I bet you that all the players (insurance, pharma, the hospital companies, doctors groups) will manage to kill anything they try to reinstate.

Yes, definitely get the popcorn out, and get ready to watch the Obama-vs-Boener fireworks fly.

If Obama's wise, he'll let Congress propose most of the legislation next term, only standing by to sign or veto as necessary. Once the conservative base starts to see that the GOP, including the Tea Party, makes little if any headway in terms of cutting government spending, then their emotion- and fear-based movement is going to lose a lot of steam, well in time for 2012.

 

[Sunstone]

It's going to be pleasant to see the Republican base go after immigrants, minorities, and the poor now. I loves me a good lynching.