Pre-election excitement?
So, it’s come down to this: one more day till the election.
Are you excited, nervous, cocky, or blase? Or perhaps some combination? Here’s a thread to discuss it all.
I briefly listened to some of the cable stations this morning and it seems it’s nothing but election, election, election and polls, polls, polls. As a politics wonk, I must say I find it fascinating, although a decade ago it would have been something of a yawn to me. Mid-term elections? Whoever paid attention to those? Not this baby.
Here’s just a small roundup of pieces I find of special interest:
All of a sudden, this poll shows Miller of Alaska ahead. I have no idea whether this means anything or not.
Nate Silver has a lot to say. And for those who are detail-oriented, he crunches the numbers here.
At Politico, Alexander Burns wonders what the final score will be. As does just about everyone, although Democratic pollster Dave Beattie has tried to be philosophical: “”˜It sucks…I’m resigned to the fact that it sucks.”
It bears repeating, though: don’t assume anything. Get out there and vote!!
Rush, playing a military general, signs off saying, “Ladies and Gentlemen, our offensive starts at dawn.”
I’m excited. It’s the first wave. Tomorrow will be big. Things will get bigger, not smaller, as the next two years go on.
I am starting work late tomorrow morning (I’ll get in at 7:30 instead of 6 AM) just so I can be absolutely sure I vote and vote early. I am going to be on the very first wave of the assault to take back America. It will be one of the best things I’ve done in the civic sense all my life.
Viva la revolucion!
Nervous.
Though I’m in CA. I’ve seen NO evidence of progressives/liberals/Democrats/moderates
learningevolving.Hey ! I’m joking !
But seriously – There isn’t anybody I know who was an Obama voter here saying I made a mistake or I think Obama’s gone to far – or making any recognition of the leftist Congress making poor choices for America.
One thing to remember about Califonians…
People in California were LESS effected by 9/11 from my point of view than people on the east coast.
I was at my girlfrien’s sister’s house last night and people there boo’d when George W. Bush came on the field to make the first pitch at the Ranger/Giants game and one guy I respected (firefighter and paramedic) yelled out three times, “you’re the terrorist“.
I fought to make no change in facial expression. That’s all I did.
A disagreement on policies is – hatred.
I disagree with liberals because I believe their policies spreads more misery but most liberals have rose colored glasses on and are “well intentioned”
Liberals believe conservatives are evil.
Conservatives believe most liberals are well intentioned but the results of their policies creates more problems.
What to do???
What I’m trying to add to the discussion is that Barbara Boxer might win because people in California do not have national security on their radar like they do on the east coast.
It ROCKS!!!…I’m resigned to the fact that it ROCKS!!!
Couldnt care less…
Once compromised, you cant use the system to return the system, the trick is to not compromise it even just to try it a little.
given the BS with Reid, to a huge degree, and how they are saying the tea party is blocking voters, etc..
all they are going to do is fix the vote, and then say, go ahead, claim its not valid and see where that gets you
meanwhile, we still dont really have a selection
maybe this and what it implies may point out to what degree the particular side goes to in how it does things and what would make it stop and think (nothing)
Why Has Communism Failed?
http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/blog/2010/10/30/why-has-communism-failed/
maybe the people who early on thought i was being a bit upset over not real ghosts, or didnt realize the depth that things went…
read this and see what us experienced people are afraid of…
I remember how my grandmother taught me how to bank food… how to keep it ok even though there was no refrigerator and it was summer…
how to build… make… do….
so when it goes, you can live good as everyone will protect the only person who can fix things for them.
i will just follow my families warnings and not get my hopes up on the election since that is the way to end up so sad you cant function (if things go upended)
if one never hopes, one can never be disappointed
with all the Wobblies and others doing what they have done, and the people completely ignorant of the flame they are dancing around and the devil they have as a partner…
well, i would rather vote and not watch, not hope, and just accept it…
[and if you dont know who the Wobblies are, and the other groups with them and the terror they caused, maybe its jus another history scrubbed… ]
“Corrupt bastards.” See, Artfldgr, here in Merica, we call em like we see em.
Taint nobody gonna make this here un United States of America Cummunist. Over my dead body.
Rise up and fight. Put some wine in those wimpy muscles and if it is death, then let it be an honorable one.
I think liberals are pondering that Saul Alinski’s Rules for Radicals maybe should have had a disclaimer at the end.
Warning: The tactics herein once implemented will only serve to make you an immoral commie asshole at the mercy of a righteous people if attempted in The United States.
Sorry Artfldgr but you are incorrect about a few things.
Most notably the idea that we have no “selection” or choice. The choices of candidates are din fact distinct. In Florida, Rubio is distinctly NOT Crist or Meek. Palin and Cristie are distinctly NOT Obama and Biden. If you don’t see that then lets agree to disagree. But I would hold my dour sentiment for a few years yet. There is a long way to go.
Oh and distinctly different from the early days of communism, we as a populace of 300 million are probably a well armed match to the 1.5 million man military. A military that would probably stand with the populace to oppose what was considered to be an unlawful order to quell it’s populace.
I am tired of the constant bombardment with printed back-n-forth jabs I receive daily in my mailbox. SO much money wasted!
Listened to debates on TV, it was very entertaining 9especially the Governor candidates, from a brothel’ madam to Worker’s Family guy to a guy from Rent it Too Damn High party (yes, all true).
Can’t wait when it’s over. Don’t expect much – I spent all my excitement and enthusiasm on 2004 election, and was disappointed in Bush afterward. So I’ll vote Repub and Libertarian whenever available, and see what comes of it.
Btw, a question for you guys. I already asked it someplace else, so just for confirmation:
if I don’t like a candidate for for some position (say, a Judge – he’s endorsed by all, Dems and Repubs, and there is no info on his views anywhere) – can I skip that line on a ballot? Wouldn’t that disqualify my ballot in final count?
The problem we face is the close balance between the people in the wagon and those pulling the wagon. I’m convinced that about 40% of Americans want European socialism and a weak military. We’ve got to get a handle on this drift soon, or it will be too late. The margin for error is not great and the progressives never quit or take no for an answer. Their view is that history and change are unidirectional.
Tatyana,
No, you would not be disqualified for leaving one or more candidates or offices blank (that is, without a choice).
For what it’s worth, just your name makes me well-disposed toward you, as the physician who saved my life is named “Tatyana.”
😉
Jamie Irons
“”if one never hopes, one can never be disappointed””
Artfldgr
Sounds like the strategy every bum lying in a gutter subscribes to. Relieved that he didn’t allow life to dissappoint him.
I am hopeful but alas not optimistic. Actually when I say that aloud it sounds contradictory. Maybe it is.
Here in California I know people who are voting for Brown because they think Whitman did not offer a concrete enough economic plan and plan on voting for Boxer because Fiorina is associated with Sarah Palin. For goodness sake!
I heard one self described conservative in Ohio say they plan on voting for the Democrat for Governor because the Republican is against smoking in public.
It is surprising how many people do not understand that any vote for anyone but the local Republican is a vote for Pelosi/Reid/Obama.
When I throw in “conservative ideological purity” I would not be amazed to see the Democrats in the cat bird set yet again by default. I imagine they are counting on it.
I hope I am wrong but time will tell.
For what it may be worth, I think you have to have been pretty hard-hearted to boo the two ex-Presidents Bush on the Rangers’ field last night.
I was perhaps especially moved because, seeing Bush pitch, I was immediately reminded of when I first saw him at Yale Station when I was a freshman 45 years ago (Yikes!)…
Jamie Irons
Steve Ducharme
I have often wondered if push came to shove who the military would shoot….
Tommorrow is but one step of many.
Thanks, Jamie Irons, on both counts.
Artfldgr,
You said, “i will just follow my families warnings and not get my hopes up on the election since that is the way to end up so sad you cant function (if things go upended)”
Dear dear Aftfldgr: I have to apologize for slamming a sensitive mind. We Americans have no uncles who survived 7 years of hard labor nor the other realities you describe.
Nonetheless, we are in a war that was brought to us because the enemy can not win an “honest” war. This war is for our will and minds.
You also said, “Once compromised, you cant use the system to return the system, the trick is to not compromise it even just to try it a little.”
Every human is a system. And every human becomes compromised. Shall every one of us give up because we have become compromised.?
It is the will to live truthfully that is immortal. We take of it while we are here and to the amount that we do we are called good or bad. To give up the taking is to die.
I really don’t believe you believe what you say.
Artfliger,
“Couldn’t care less”…followed by another lengthy, cryptic and unreadable tome that contradicts the “couldn’t care less” bit (which is thereby shown to be total BS).
Grow a set dude.
No one, and I mean no one anywhere on any side needs someone who could care less.
I’m excited about this election. I’m optimistic that it can at least stop what Obama/Pelosi/Reid have wrought.
I guess I’m a true computer dork. I have an Excel spreadsheet ready to go to keep up with the results as they are announced, ordered by poll closing time.
For you other dorks, here’s a great web page for following the results:
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/the-ultimate-hour-by-hour-district-by-district-election-guide/
Short term mildly hopeful that we’ll have a good day tomorrow. Long term pessimistic that we’ll have the staying power to watch, nag, haunt Congress to make it do its duty. Pessimistic too that even if Congress remembers who sent them and why, that the country will take the castor oil.
We aren’t going to know the winner of the tightest and most important races until February.
We won’t know who controls Congress until the lawyers are done with this.
The dems in congress will not allow repubs in close races to be seated.
With no party in control of congress, the Bush Tax Cuts will not be extended. Jan 1 the greatest tax increase in American history will occur.
Baklava and Michael – I’m in California too and I see what you see. This state is insane.
JERRY BROWN?!?!
And, of all people, BARBARA BOXER?!?!? I can understand liberals loving a Senator like Feinstein or Chuck Schumer, in the way we conservatives will love Toomey and Rubio. But Barbara Boxer is the equivalent of… well, actually she has no equivalent.
I can’t think of a more witless person ever occupying a Senate seat.
California is finished. Get out while you can.
(Yes, that means that, unfortunately, I’m pretty sure Whitman and Fiorina lose).
Oh, and on a more positive note. My home state of Florida is the opposite of California. Whenever I go back and talk to people, there is unremitting fury at what is going on in Washington.
Grayson is going down (Deo gratias).
Allen West should win – and anyone here who doesn’t know about him, go check out some of his speeches on youtube. He’s something special.
And Rubio will crush Crist. I didn’t think it was possible for me to dislike a politician with more intensity than I dislike Boxer. But at least Boxer IS something. Charlie Crist is an existential void – a stain on the Republic wherever he is. His campaign has been one of the most despicable things I’ve ever beheld.
Good riddance, Charlie. Don’t let the doorknob hit you…
I’m really hoping Fiorina wins, I so much want to send Boxer packing.
Part of me thinks we might as just well have Brown. CA is in for a hard ride and I want all the “right people” t tae the blame. A RINO just means a slower ride. But I did vote for Meg.
Gray, those are great points except I’ll doubt there will be more than one or two races that won’t be determined until February. I’ll be gobsmacked if there aren’t enough clearly won races that the house won’t be Republican. And let the Bush tax cuts expire. Just refuse to pay all your taxes. Send in the amount you would have paid.
Hey Don – that’s a good point. California really is in that place where Wile E Coyote is, when he runs off the cliff and keeps running, not realizing yet that he’s treading air over a freefall.
Thanks for the perspective. It’s one way to find something bright when Brown wins.
Given the most optimistic outcome tomorrow, how much can we expect from this new crop of politicians?
We’ve been on this slow slide to socialism for the last sixty years, can we hope for anything more than just slowing the rate of slide?
Will the old bulls in the party leadership try to subvert these new people in doing the same old things in a slightly different way?
Can the American people maintain this level of commitment and intensity and provide some support to these new people in coming election cycles?
Finally, and I believe most importantly, will the American people realize that the cuts in benefits and programs that can make a real difference almost certainly include things that you and I also enjoy?
Steve DucharmeMost notably the idea that we have no “selection” or choice.
First, I never said that…
Steve Ducharme The choices of candidates are in fact distinct. In Florida, Rubio is distinctly NOT Crist or Meek.
Rubio is Republican, and they are a difference with no distinction any more
Crist is a republican, and the same problem…
And Meek was caught making schemes to bump Rubio with Clinton
The way the system is you need one of the two parties to endorse you…
Your damned if you do, damned if you don’t…
Steve Ducharme Palin and Cristie are distinctly NOT Obama and Biden
Palin is a progressive…. And Cristie is one lone man with a very pissed off old power base around him that will foul him till he is out.
Oh and distinctly different from the early days of communism, we as a populace of 300 million are probably a well armed match to the 1.5 million man military. A military that would probably stand with the populace to oppose what was considered to be an unlawful order to quell it’s populace.
Great… when they DON’T shoot, we lose… Do you understand that?
The Czar regime was over when the military would not fire on the people…
That is, if the military don’t fire, there is no more United States…
Because the people who will be rioting and smashing things will not be the tea party
I know my history very well….
and I have been through this discussion about a dozen times, in a layered form
and each layer gets peeled back, we are now closer to it than we were when hux, and others told us that nothing like what is going on is going on and to be reasonable.
go ahead… ask occam, ask betsy, as neo, ask anyone who has been here for a long time
Have I been wrong, or too right… have I wavered?
Has anything I said was coming, not come?
In the prior one of this, they all said no… and I said, read history. If there is a food crisis, and we go on food tickets… You realize that when the military is in X location, their family is in whose hands at another location?
Its another case of… it cant happen here… why? Just because… we are special, even though we got rid of American exceptionalism, dumbed down our people, removed their love of country, broken up their families, and they are way too unfit to serve.
You realize that unlike my grand dad, and my generation, the kids that came after me, can barely tie their freaking shoes? They cant fix a car, they cant build… they wont work… they are unfit and overweight…
And in case you didn’t realize… the Chinese can conscript 30 million for their army and not even dent their population thanks to their one child laws… in fact they have 30 million extra men of military age that they have to handle…
History would tell you that what you’re saying and what you believe has no basis other than you feel it… and we are not special, we let everyone in from those same countries where they would rather live in misery, than let us live happy together.
I’m mildly hopeful – but then I am living in Texas, home of never-say-die and remember-the-Alamo. I am going to meet at a burger place tomorrow evening, with another Tea Partier, the retired AF officer who first got me involved in the local Tea Party by saying, ‘hey, you’ve had broadcast experience – can you come on down and write our press releases for us?’ We’re going to watch the results for a couple of hours. We have a couple of good solid Tea Party-vetted candidates running against a pair of career Democrat squishes. Quico Canseco and Clayton Trotter … our fingers are crossed, as their incumbent opponents are practically embedded in office.
But a sweep by GOP candidates who will live up to Tea Party principles would be a marvelous thing: over at Open Salon the house lefty-proggs are all practically in mourning tonight.
But it won’t be over Wednesday morning – I reckon the tallying in some districts will go on in the courts for months. And then, of course, we’ll have to stay on top of the new people to make sure they live up to the principles they got elected on…
Steve H “”if one never hopes, one can never be disappointed””
Artfldgr
Sounds like the strategy every bum lying in a gutter subscribes to. Relieved that he didn’t allow life to dissappoint him.
no Steve, i was relaying a way in which the people who everyone thinks were duped and were not, survived their mental prisons…
and its also the basis of Buddhism… so i am glad the Buddhists know they are bums lying in a gutter…
the point you missed was not to be emotionally involved with a election in which the best choice you have is a guess…
i said this was going to happen… go back and read me and see what i said about how the laws had implementation delays…
and when they crash protection team and others let go and no longer prop things up… and over the next two years we get devaluation, hyperinflation, a food crisis, a energy crisis, a credit crisis, job crisis, and a bond crisis all at once..
do you think the genius reactionary electorate will not just reverse course?
besides, its also what i learned now that my last effort of 20 years is lost, i have no more work in the pipeline, cant recover it, and the idiot that lost it is like, no big deal… but now wants it as his retirement that he planed on before he voted for change, is denuded, the research grant money is way down (1/5) and the field changed while he didnt… so he wonders why he wants buggy whips forever.
Conservatives have partly won already by putting up a better set of Republicans. If that means an occasional O’Donnell who is supposed to “hurt us so badly,” then I think we have seen we can absorb it and still win.
Tomorrow we seal off this round. On to 2012 – first, we clean out some more Republicans – and let’s really keep an eye out for corruption and those who were once good but have gone native – then take another 6-10 Senate seats. Really, it’s going to take that. We’re only stopping the bleeding this time.
Depressing news out of Massachusetts that all 3 ballot initiatives are going to be defeated. For those of you not familiar with those, 2 of them involve taxes: One of them is reduction of Sales Tax from 6.25% (increased by 25% last year from 5%) to 3%. And another one was the elimination of Sales tax on liquor (they added it last year, prior to that only the very high excise tax was in place). The vote NO campaign claims that the vital services – such as education/fire/police would be cut.
What is interesting is that this group used the same line in defeating the Income tax elimination question 2 years ago.
How DUMB are Massachusetts votes?
Kaba – those are the questions, indeed.
On the bright side, if the Tea Parties have made anything clear, it is that it is possible for people who are not resigned to “socialism creep” to make a real difference. This is no time to get eeyore-ish (and I say this as something of a pessimist myself).
But one thing to keep in mind is that until 2012, Obama is still President. In order to do what you and me and I presume most others commenting here think needs to be done, we will not only need to win the Presidency in 2012, but get at least 58-60 Senate seats. And not only that, but we must also get a no-frills conservative elected President.
That is doable. But until then, we shouldn’t expect too much from Congress. The most important thing for them to do is stop new legislation, prudently defund whatever parts of Obamacare they can, strike fear into the hearts of the EPA bureaucrats, and not get into a dramatic showdown with the President.
Like Don said with respect to a Brown win in California, there is a part of me that is quite worried about the prospect of taking back the Senate. On balance, I think it’s still desirable, but if Republicans manage to pick up 10, then it will be “President vs. Congress,” and when the economy still sucks in 2012, the Democrats will have a rhetorical piece of magic to cast upon the electorate.
Since a narrow Republican majority in the Senate will not be able to much more than a narrow Republican minority would, I wouldn’t shed too many tears over gaining “only” 8 seats (which is my sense of what’s coming – though Washington is looking good suddenly, so maybe 9).
People also don’t realize yet how much of a bomb-thrower Chuck Schumer can be (granting that he becomes majority leader after Tuesday). He is gaffe-prone, and like Reid, he is a leftist’s leftist. He’s sanctimonious, and he LOVES the limelight. So, having him around to treat as a political pinata will also be nice for 2012.
Bottom line, though – we need to make sure our expectations for the next two years are aligned with reality. I agree that certain policies would be unacceptable – compromising on new stimulus, for instance, or beginning to discard talk of repealing Obamacare. These would be bad signs, but I think the GOP knows this. If they go that route, it’s all over. A third party will form, and who knows what comes next.
Curtis, I really don’t believe you believe what you say.
Curtis… its not every system and such… but the system failed us last election, remember? The worst details that were easy to see, were not reported and the electorate did not get it… and they put in a big time communist…
Now we don’t have much problem saying it, but when he was being elected, I was jumped on by people trying to be reasonable.
I think what you guys aren’t used to is honesty and a difference between an emotional commitment which blinds you and regard.
Nonetheless, we are in a war that was brought to us because the enemy can not win an “honest” war. This war is for our will and minds.
Yeah. So? The victims of the war don’t even realize that they are in a war, and they love the enemy… feminism is communist, do you see us removing it? If we don’t, then the cancer will grow back, as that’s their ‘popular front’. Nothing hidden, the leaders say so, and only their confused followers who don’t understand the choices they make don’t know…
I know this war better than you do. You just woke up to it. my family has been fighting it for generations… I have pointed to important documents of understanding, hidden histories that people don’t pay attention to. Names you never heard, and don’t look up.
But I know Sergey knows a lot of it… and Occam double checked me on the Latvian rifle men… ask Tatyana…
This is a political game that the Americans are not used to playing and a game where if you get too involved the set backs crush you. and they then let the other side take advantage of it.
I know this game, I know that its fought on the battle field of emotions, not logic.
On the metaphysical plane, not the physical.
And
Mike Mc Grow a set dude.
No one, and I mean no one anywhere on any side needs someone who could care less.
I have a bigger brass set than yours.. Who was the ONLY person that didn’t cave when everyone ganged up on him that he was wrong as to the progressives and where this is going?
Who opened his mouth when he knows that if this fight is lost, they will hunt him down for opening up his mouth?
And did I say I didn’t care less about everything and the outcome, or did I honestly answer neo’s post question about getting excited.
I used to play competition pool at a top level…
beat the house expert at Amsterdam many times… used to play for spare money
I never got excited
When I play to win, I don’t get excited…
You may fawn and ride the emotional roller coaster, but I don’t. you can launch your hopes and your feelings to find out that either way they cost you. if you all win, your hopes will be too high, and so lose effectiveness… and if you all lose, your sustaining hope will cave…
There are a thousand battles in a war, should I get emotionally wrapped up with one?
You all say yes…
And most of you all have taken almost two years to be emotionally whipped enough to say communism… and not feel you’re a tin hatter…
Don, carly fiorina is a bad as boxer if not worse
Artfldgr, BTW the “corrupt bastard” quote was an allusion to Sarah Palin’s wonderful challenge on Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” when she called the media corrupt bastards.
And you’re right about fighting emotionally. But wasn’t it Hegel who said “nothing great is accomplished without passion.” Now maybe he was referring to a different kind of passion, but for me passion means emotion–the type Josey Wales spoke of when he said, “now when it gets to look like ya ain’t gonna make it, then you get mad, I mean real mean dog mad.”
kolani,
We Americans have grown tremendously fat and lazy I’m afraid. We expect too much and the government has always been more than willing to meet our latest demand if we’ll just sacrifice this one little corner of our personal freedom.
I am trying to resolve myself to the long struggle. I am hoping to celebrate Wednesday and then get back to the work required to elect more conservatives in 2012. Furthermore I know that I will need to make the effort to stay in touch with those we’ve elected and demand that they keep their promises.
Finally, as one who is close to Social Security retirement age I’m going to need to contact my representatives and demand that the age for retirement be increased. And as one who receives Civil Service retirement currently I’ll also need to demand that those generous benefits I receive be reduced.
It is important that people recognize that Christine O’Donnell ran when no one else would and she took out a RINO in the primary. That should have a salutary effect on Senate RINO’s as they cast each vote.
Similarly, House Democrats from conservative districts who survive a close call this election will be careful how they vote and who they support.
Right on Mr. Frank. And people who think she is extreme are the real extremists. Good example of an extremist: Our new US Supreme Court associate, Elana Kagan and her three numnutted friends. Getting rid of activist judges is another big need.
I’ve been trying to make up my mind about who to vote for, but it’s so confusing! All of these politicians make claims and counter-claims, a voter doesn’t know what to believe. So I just figure I will count the names listed on the yard signs in my area and use that to make my decision. The one with the most signs wins.
Yes, I am definitely going to cast my vote for Coldwell Banker!
Kaba – all points that are well-taken. Believe me, I am inclined to the same sort of prognosis. Last year I co-wrote a paper for APSA basically arguing that Joseph Schumpeter, Mancur Olson, and James Burnham were right about the inevitable suicide of the West.
I just happen to think that if there is anywhere in the West where it is possible to get people to acquiesce in cutting policies that benefit them, it is in America. We shouldn’t underestimate the self-interest of even Tea Partiers, that’s for sure; but with more sustained attention and hopefully good rhetoric by prudent men such as Paul Ryan and Chris Christie, we may be able to ride a wave of blistering intensity that could put us in a position to make the necessary tough choices.
I don’t think we’re really disagreeing too much on the diagnosis: “Condition: critical.” I only add that it’s advisable to go with James Fitzjames Stephens’ words:
“I do not see why as we go with stream we need sing hallelujah to the river god.”
The first step is to stop singing hallelujah to the progressive stream. That step is still being taken. The next step is to turn the stream around. That may never happen, but our beginning the first step gives me a ray of hope.
Neocon from the bluest state Says:
How DUMB are Massachusetts votes?
If Massachusetts shared a border with an undeveloped nation, IMO our politicians and leftists would have reduced us to a worse condition than California’s.
kolnai,
That’s EXACTLY what many smart people have done. Leave the state.
Millionaires, Doctors, engineers, business owners…
144 Businesses have LEFT the state in this calendar year and that doesn’t even count entities like Intel and Toyota who have closed up plants in CA and expanded in other states….
People here vote for more misery in the guise of “helping” the down trodden.
Baklava – exactly. And California’s problem is that sooner or later our “betters” fleece the productive class too much, and we’re left with only the downtrodden.
This is just what every analyst who looked with a long view at the prospects of democratic capitalism predicted would happen, from Schumpeter and Burnham on the right to Olson and Myrdal on the left. Our Founders were well aware of the problem as well, which Madison called “majority faction.” The nation seems to be getting hip to the problem of majority faction – an alliance of bureaucrats, politicians, public sector unions, and minority interest groups – but as you noted and I seconded, this new awareness is bizarrely eluding the California electorate.
Or perhaps not so bizarrely. It may be the case that California has reached the point of no return – that is to say, that there already exists a majority faction in the state. I’ve lived here for three and a half years, and it sure feels that way to me, though I can’t back up my observation with data. Yet data or no data, it’s pretty obvious that California is at the very least on the tipping point of majority faction. If and when Jerry Brown assumes his throne in Sacramento, the tipping point will in all likelihood become a vague dot in the rearview mirror of the state’s speed-demon of doom.
Pascal Bruckner wrote a great book a few decades ago called “The Tears of the White Man,” and the subtitle was “Compassion as Contempt.” California is a case-in-point.
On the plus side, maybe California declaring insolvency between now and 2012 will give an extra “umph” to the necessary Republican follow-through in 2012. I doubt it will happen, but stranger things have.
One more for Baklava – your story about the scene from last night when the Bushes came out to open the World Series game rings all too true.
But you are spot on in you assessment. Liberals have a real problem granting the humanity of their opponents, and that scares the hell out of me.
I am hoping that the models used for the polling are way off based on how upset the electorate is. I just cant believe how many races are within the margin of error.
So, I am hopeful that there will be quite a few surprises as opposed to the “expert” opinions.
I am most afraid of the races that are close as those will be ripe for legal shenanigans and sudden discovery of absentee ballots ala Minnesota. Fingers crossed
Nervous and excited here in Nevada. Harry and his union pals have spent the past few weeks dreaming up more ways to cheat. I’m just hoping that the margin is big enough that it doesn’t matter.
So with the lame duck congress will we get the “fodd safety act”? A bill which, in one version I read, basically gives the feds control over all farms. The EPA this year decided that if your house was built before 78 , contractors had to treat it as hazardous-with some exceptions- why has there not been more outcry over that? It seems to be flying below the radar so far. And they forced libraries to throw out childrens books because of supposed lead problems- better to make room for “modern” indoctrination books for kids.And there has not been an outcry yet. So the farm controls may very well also pass without much fanfare. The food supply will ultimately fall into less hands.
“food safety act”
John, I am hoping with a House Republican majority some of the ridiculous EPA rulings can be scaled back or at least be exposed with the light of day on the destructiveness to jobs, the economy and national security.
They (EPA) basically have been implementing cap and trade on their own with these types of rule making, killing new power plants and gasoline refineries comes to mind as well as regulating dust from farming etc.
Here is the 30-minute Christine O’Donnell ad that gained some notoriety for not being aired by a local TV station in Delaware over the past couple of days. I understand it is being aired now. It’s pretty good stuff.
Christine O’Donnell’s 30-Minute TV Special “We the People of the First State”
That is still the race I’m most interested in. It’s disgusting the way she got the full Palin treatment from the media and the elites of both parties, with all manner of lies, slander, and sleaze thrown her way. Plus, since her opponent is an admitted Marxist, it really is a no-brainer. Go, Christine!
Darrell,
Maybe. That food safety Act basically just tightens the federal noose around farms a little tighter- something that has been going on for decades-its not full control, but it will force many part timers and retired from other jobs farmers out.
Rickl, She is one of the surprises I am hoping for.
Jon, See
http://www.news9.com/global/story.asp?s=12899662
and
http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/20602
Out of control……
I rarely comment here but I read just about everything (yes, call me a lurker).
With kind regards to kolnai who writes,
“But Barbara Boxer is the equivalent of… well, actually she has no equivalent.
I can’t think of a more witless person ever occupying a Senate seat. ”
Two words: Patty Murray
oiy !
Ann Coulter wrote about Patty.
Kolnia – quite a jewel you are !
I hope and pray for tomorrows success for Carly Fiornia and Meg Whitman…
I’m very nervous.
Darrell,
When I said ‘maybe’ I was speaking of Congress doing something about it- not whether or not the EPA is out of control-i know they are.
Welcome Susan in Seattle. I too live in the People’s Republic of Puget Sound. Cannot.Wait. To see Patty retire! Go Dino!!!
Ah, J.J. formerly Jimmy J., it is so nice to know you are “out there” in this remarkably blue region!
I have been waiting for the day that Patty will pack her tennis shoes and leave the Senate. As baklava says above, however, I, too, am nervous.
Let’s hope there are no “missing” ballots to count and recount until Patty is declared the winner. “Go Dino” indeed!
Jon, roger, seeking to bolster and amplify your post, it is a hot button issue with me. Not differing with you at all.
One of the things I think we need to be vigilant for in the future, Obama will surely try to bypass congress through the agencies and his czars, these are but a few examples of something that will probably increase in the future
Darrell,
yes agreed.
Susan in Seatlle – I stand corrected!
Baklava – the feeling’s mutual. And I’ll be hoping and praying with you, nervously. Hopefully I have fingernails left after the night is over.
Down with the most witless members of the Senate – Barbara Boxer…
and Patty Murray!
Add barney Frank to the list please 🙂
Susan Seattle and JJ,
I’m in this blue utopia too, and Patty Murray needs to go! I vote against her every six years. But with King Co vote counting to contend with, I hope the margin of victory is greater than the extra votes they find in the cupboards.
When all this discontent, and energy, leaves no clear outcome, with challenges, recounts, rallies and lawsuits, then what?
“What then is to be done?”
I think this will end with guns.
Darell – check! Although he’s in the House, I would savor his defeat with a relish I usually reserve for seeing miracles, such as hell freezing over and pigs flying. As I’ve never seen hell freeze over or pigs fly, seeing Frank get his richly deserved comeuppance would be my first experience of the miraculous (Scott Brown was close, but to be comparable to a Frank defeat he would have had to beat Ted Kennedy himself).
Lets see if we have a good list of who would be the most savoring scalps to claim in Congress tomorrow:
My top 15 nominees are:
Barbara Boxer (CA),
Patty Murray (WA),
Russ Feingold (WI),
Alan Grayson (FL),
John Dingell (MI),
Ron Klein (FL),
Barney Frank (MA),
Linda Sanchez (CA),
Bob Etheridge (NC),
Keith Ellison (MI),
Maurice Hinchey (NY),
Jim Oberstar (MN),
Lisa Murkowski (properly spelled, “Leana Machinsky””;” AK),
Betsy Markey (CO),
and, of course,
Harry Reid (NV).
Those dreams are not all likely to come true. I don’t hold out much hope for Ellison going down, which is quite painful, because, shall we say, I’m something less than enamored of the man.
I also didn’t include sweet dreams like Mikulski going down in Maryland, because, sad to say, it aint gonna happen (but Alaska voters, the candidate’s name is spelled “M-I-K-U-L-S-K-I” – hey, I’m here to help.)
May everyone see their own little miracles tomorrow.
kolnai: the feeling’s mutual. And I’ll be hoping and praying with you, nervously. Hopefully I have fingernails left after the night is over.
It won’t be over tomorrow night. It won’t be over this week. It will be months.
Gray – aw, dang it. Good bye fingernails. And hair, please stay on my scalp.
kolnai, impressive list, let it be so…..
Happy election day everyone. Now go vote and take a friend with you.
May God bless our great republic!
kolnai,
Da wife and myself did our part this morning at about 6:45AM to help collect the scalp of Bob Etheridge (NC)!!!
My 6 year old daughter sat in my lap and “helped” me as I voted…lol.
Even at that early hour we had to stand in line maybe 5 minutes. By the time we left about 15 minutes later, the line was already extending almost to the door. Traffic was VERY heavy this morning as people were heading into the polling places.
Hate to even think about how long it would take to vote if we waited until this afternoon/evening!
While I’m hoping we bump Etheridge back into the private sector, I’m really interested in how Christine O’Donnell does.
Winning would be great, but even if she comes close she will have tied up resources of the national democrat party that prevented them from using those resources elsewhere.
A close election result would send further shivers down the spines (if they have them!) of the national democrat leadership as they look into the future towards the 2012 elections!
They HAVE to be thinking to themselves, that if O’Donnell could come that close in a mid-term election, what’s going to happen in all of these races across the country when they have PeeBo at the head of a wildly unpopular national ticket in 2012?
Good morning, all!
Just to lighten the spirits before we go out and vote, I thought I would share something I made originally for my brother, who happens to be up in Halifax, Canada right now, and my good friend, who’s teaching on a Navy vessel in the waters near Japan. It’s one of those cheesy animated text-to-video thingamajigs.
Before I give the link, I should say two things. First, it’s meant to be a joke – you can view it as a humorous attempt at Republican propaganda to argue leftists into voting conservative, or you can view it in other ways. I kind of had to rush it in places, because believe it or not, these things take a really long time to get right (sometimes you have to misspell words phonetically to get them pronounced right, and so on), but overall my brother and my friend thought it was hilarious. They might be biased, but you be the judge.
Second, I resorted to potty-humor in a few places, so I would say it gets a PG-13 rating. There is no cursing or anything like that, and I wouldn’t post it here if I thought it was inappropriate. I would guess, at any rate, that the good proprietor of this site might vet it, and if she judges it to be over-the-top, I’ll not complain.
That being said, we should just remind ourselves that as serious as this day is, we ought to make room for some laughter. In proper doses, it keeps us tough and provides a healthy amount of perspective.
Here you go:
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/7537545/
(you may have to type it in for it to work; for some reason I can’t get it to link by highlighting and right-clicking – give it a try, anyway).
Now let’s win!
Scottie wrote:
“Even at that early hour we had to stand in line maybe 5 minutes. By the time we left about 15 minutes later, the line was already extending almost to the door. Traffic was VERY heavy this morning as people were heading into the polling places.”
I voted this a.m. here in Connecticut, and in my small, rural farm town, the turnout I would estimate was about 3x what is was two years ago at the same time fo day. It was striking how large the turnout was. What to make of that? This is a very blue state. Did all the Dems suddenly decide to vote en mass? Or did all the Repubs and Indies decide to vent? McMahon over Blumenthal????
BTW, McMahon just started running an ad where she says she will be only two terms, no salary and no benefits as a senator. Powerful ad; she should have run it a week ago.
Jeez, Baklava (Nov. 1 @326pm), you’re still immersing yourself in clouds of schmucks out there? Make it a two-way street; take your girlfriend to a different venue. Maybe a sports bar, a meat-cutters’ ball, anything.
This is a small thing but while I was walking across the parking lot at my polling place (in a very blue state) this morning a man was handing out a leaflet and asking for support for a particular Republican candidate. Another man walked up and shoved him, albeit mildly, to the side. It was enough to send a clear message to any onlooker about how this man felt. From that point on I made it a goal to stand behind him in line and to be in a voting booth beside him. I confess, it felt real good to mutter out loud in his hearing range things like ‘now we have a chance to bring real change’ and ‘be sure and vote for so and so Republican.’ Of course, I would have much preferred to just beat the hell out of him.
So far at NRO they’ve received ground reports from a few people who voted early:
1) There’s a pretty good prediction that California turnout will be lower than usual, based on the unusual amount of mail-in ballots.
2) A voter in Arlington, MA said at 7:15 AM the polling place was basically empty. A very good sign in “little Cambridge.”
3) Kathryn Jean Lopez and Jay Cost are now predicting that Dennis Kucinich is going to lose (I still can believe this, but…)
4) A voter in Brentwood, CA (very liberal town) said he noticed visibly the enthusiasm gap between the conservative voters and the others. He didn’t say how packed the polling place was, but I’m in California and today is an ugly day – cold and bad traffic.
5) A voter for Patrick Murray in Virginia noticed larger lines than in 2008 and overheard voters responding negatively to Rick Moran literature. The volunteer seemed frustrated. This voter also noted a friend who said he voted Republican for the first time in his life.
So far that’s it. It’s early yet, but the right people seem very upbeat.
dissectleft.blogspot.com – letter to blog posted by editor
And you’re right about fighting emotionally. But wasn’t it Hegel who said “nothing great is accomplished without passion.” Now maybe he was referring to a different kind of passion, but for me passion means emotion—the type Josey Wales spoke of when he said, “now when it gets to look like ya ain’t gonna make it, then you get mad, I mean real mean dog mad.”
however, it is one thing to be passionate about and end and a goal, and another thing to be whipped back and forth along the road to get there.
sorry if you think this isnt all that good, but as far as clearly seeing whats going on from way before any actions would make it obvious if not denied, i will keep going with dispassionate analysis, dispassionate synoptics on tactics and strategy…
come victory i will dance…
not before, not along the way
and if i remember correctly, that missive on passion is about is required of the masses under thrall of a leader…
that it takes passion, morale, the hope of victory, and all that rot to motivate people who will ultimately do the work and pay the price…
a passionate general would lead them to their doom, passionately, and full of flourish as they drive off the cliff
“One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested.”
– E. M. Forster
same concept… if i need a tool, i need a dedicated tool that one change its mind… and passion allows a leader to vest in another who will not sway…
Personally, i prefer the quotes of better men who had less designs on other men..
people like ben Franklyn
“If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.”
Judgement, not passion should prevail.
Epicharmus
No one who knows my writing would say i was “dispassionate” about freedom, self choice, self determination, the ability to live a life unburdened by having to fight every schemer and dreamer.
The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
From their experience or from the recorded experience of others (history), men learn only what their passions and their metaphysical prejudices allow them to learn.
Aldous Huxley
Give me that man That is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him In my heart’s core, ay, in my heart of heart, As I do thee.
William Shakespeare
Passions are likened best to floods and streams, The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb.
Sir Walter Raleigh
We welcome passion, for the mind is briefly let off duty. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic’s Notebook
It is with our passions as it is with fire and water; they are good servants, but bad masters. ~Roger L’Estrange, Aesop’s Fables, 1692
“I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something unfair about its use. It is hitting below the intellect.” Oscar Wilde (really about wit)
“Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it. Do not count on them. Leave them alone.” Ayn Rand
“The man who listens to Reason is lost: Reason enslaves all whose minds are not strong enough to master her” G B SHAW (communist, closet despot, inventor of the gas chamber. Fabian socialist founder)
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” G B SHAW (communist, closet despot, inventor of the gas chamber, Fabian socialist founder)
as i said, i am VERY well read by modern standards… (which isnt very hard to surpass).
prior to the modern post modern, and other negative philosophies after the french revolution, reason AND passion in balacne was the order…
reason without passion, and emotion, is sociopathic, machine like, anti life
passion without reason, is a flame without direction, as likely to hurt the person wielding it as the people around them. it pretends instinct, and abandons survival… it is all feeling and so nothing is ok…
the sistine chapel, was the product of both passion AND reason… as is the cathedrals of notre dam, the american revolution!!!! the constitition, bill of rights, and the ideas of personal individual freedom…
havent you noticed that everyones passionate without reasons… so they let very ill people go abotu doing lots of harm, when in the past we “pushed them off the ice”
“Dubito ergo cogito; cogito ergo sum.
I don’t feel cocky or nervous or excited, and who could feel blase? I feel like praying, and I’m not the praying type. Even if all my wishes come true tonight and in the next few days, I am not going to feel like celebrating because it is nowhere near over. It’s huge… cultural, societal… depressing, enraging, challenging. OK, I actually will buy a bottle of champagne if Barney Frank loses. And my own congressional district is close and I care a lot about that one, so it could be two bottles.
This is a very important battle in a long war for the soul of Western civilization, the war which ravages for more than two and half centures. Probably, it will continue for another half of century, but capitulation is not an option.
This is a very important battle in a long war for the soul of Western civilization, the war which ravages for more than two and half centuries.
Most songs are about believing
here a 10 year old sings a song about NOT believing
Latvians and Estonians and others who are close, who lived through it, and know it when they see it by ANY name, excuse or term, they put things about it in their music. Hints… things that the knowing will understand, and others will not even hear.
THE WAR IS NOT OVER
Latvian / Russian Oksana Lepska (10 years old)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_iTkQAoy8k
Lyrics