2014 US Election Open Thread

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Joe_5859 said:
Does anyone know of a site that shows all of the various issues that were on state ballots and what those results were? I know there were various things like the pro-life issue in Tennessee, but it would be nice to see what happened all across the country.
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The personhood amendment in Colorado lost-for the third time.
 
jediliz said:
a 3rd party being in the race for the 2nd district in my state cost the republican incumbent the race. He lost by a few thousand votes…ones that were cast for the LIBERTARIAN! We lost a pro life vote in the house.

And that is why voting 3rd party is a bad idea (especially in 2016…it will be a bad idea, especially if Billary runs)
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That is duopoly agit propaganda.

The Dems and GOP have very little actual difference in policies and they deliberately polarize the electorate on issues that could have and should have been resolved generations ago.

If I vote third party it does not mean I would have voted for the GOP. I have voted for both parties in the past, so my vote is not presumptive GOP nor is a third party vote wasted.

We need a third party; one based on the Christian culture of this nation and preserving its just and democratic dominance of our political system.
 
estesbob said:
Observations on last night:
  1. The war on women is dead
  2. Hillary Clinton was seriously damaged. No one she campaigned for won. Her and Bill spent an inordinate amount of time in Arkansas and the Democrats lost their senate seat and the governorship
  3. The power of the Tea party is seriously diminished. The GOP won by fielding main stream candidates. No Christine O’Donnell’s or Todd Akins this time around. Jack Buck in Colorado was pressured to stay out of the Senate race allowing Gardner to win.
  4. Family ties didn’t help. Mark Udall, Michelle Nunn, Mary Landrieu and Jimmy Carters Grandson all had bad nights.
  5. Obama will have to get his veto pen out. There has been an inordinate number of bills bottled up in the Senate as Reid didn’t want to bring them to a vote for fear of hurting Democrats re-election prospects. Look for a flurry of bills hitting the Presidents desk this January and February
  6. Scott Walker and John Kasich just became serious contenders for the GOP nomination
  7. The Houston Rockets won their 5th straight game. Looks like they will be a contender this year!
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Agree with all that except point 3. When the RNC withdraws funding from candidates due to them being Tea Party, it does not prove the weakness of the Tea Party, but the weakness derived from lack of national party funding.
 
Jeanne_S said:
I agree with much if what you stated.The GOP regaining the Senate is more against the Dems than it is pro GOP.We the voters really are between a rock and a hard place,as you said we go back and forth between supporting the two parties,when in reality,neither of them
are anything to get excited about,I would like to see term limits on the Senate,that would be a good start .
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Total agreement.

We need a new third party like a USA version of UKIP.

Me thinks we will eventually get it and it will seriously displace the two national parties.
 
RGCheek said:
Agree with all that except point 3. When the RNC withdraws funding from candidates due to them being Tea Party, it does not prove the weakness of the Tea Party, but the weakness derived from lack of national party funding.
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There was a lot of money in this election…I don’t get your comment about lack of funding. Much of the funding from wealthy donors, from what I have read, was contingent on Republicans running electable candidates (thus the change in Colorado as a key example)
 
RGCheek said:
That is duopoly agit propaganda.

The Dems and GOP have very little actual difference in policies and they deliberately polarize the electorate on issues that could have and should have been resolved generations ago.

If I vote third party it does not mean I would have voted for the GOP. I have voted for both parties in the past, so my vote is not presumptive GOP nor is a third party vote wasted.

We need a third party; one based on the Christian culture of this nation and preserving its just and democratic dominance of our political system.
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3rd parties have no realistic chance of winning anytime soon. Better to pick the lesser of two evils and get somethings you want, as opposed to voting for a 3rd party candidate and having the greater of two evils win, and getting much less of what you want.
 
LeafByNiggle said:
Every election is the “most important election ever”, and every election is “not the right time to vote for a 3rd party”. This is just the thinking the enshrines the two major parties. The reason to vote for a 3rd party, even when it probably will not win in this election is to show support that generates public awareness and willingness to vote for a 3rd party candidate in some future election, which will no doubt also be cast as “the most important election ever”.
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I think this is right, to an extent. I have voted third party in the past, more out of protest for the two-party sham ofd a system we currently have. However, I save those protest votes for elections where the winner is basically pre-determined so my vote won’t really effect the outcome. For example, in the last presidental election, I voted for Gary Johnson, not necessarily because I love Gary Johnson, but because Obama winning my state was 100% assured so my vote of protest would not be wasted. If the race was close, I would have voted for Romney. I am fully in agreement with those who argue there isn’t much difference between Democrats and Republicans and that it is all a sham to keep the same people in power. I also agree that voting for the lesser of two evils is not ideal. But we have to start somewhere.

I am a true Constitutionalist and believe the founding fathers of the U.S. truly set up the best possible form of government. But unfortunately, it has been hijacked by special interest groups, lobbyists, money, and greed. I don’t know if there is any going back. There will never be a third party in our current system. You can’t even get a third party in debates because Republicans and Democrats have colluded to make up the rules. Because of this, I think we need to move to a system where all parties gain representation proportionately according to percentage of the vote. I live in a state completely ruled by one party (governor, both senators, and all five representatives), but no one wins elections by more than 60%. so you have 40% of the population with absolutely NO representation. This is a system doomed for failure.
 
shockerfan said:
There was a lot of money in this election…I don’t get your comment about lack of funding. Much of the funding from wealthy donors, from what I have read, was contingent on Republicans running electable candidates (thus the change in Colorado as a key example)
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In 2012 several Tea Party GOP candidates had their funding yanked from the RNC.

To say that the success of the current crop of GOP lobbying partners won due to them being better candidates is presumptive and ignoring the difference in funding.
 
madtom said:
I think this is right, to an extent. I have voted third party in the past, more out of protest for the two-party sham ofd a system we currently have. However, I save those protest votes for elections where the winner is basically pre-determined so my vote won’t really effect the outcome. For example, in the last presidental election, I voted for Gary Johnson, not necessarily because I love Gary Johnson, but because Obama winning my state was 100% assured so my vote of protest would not be wasted. If the race was close, I would have voted for Romney. I am fully in agreement with those who argue there isn’t much difference between Democrats and Republicans and that it is all a sham to keep the same people in power. I also agree that voting for the lesser of two evils is not ideal. But we have to start somewhere.

I am a true Constitutionalist and believe the founding fathers of the U.S. truly set up the best possible form of government. But unfortunately, it has been hijacked by special interest groups, lobbyists, money, and greed. I don’t know if there is any going back. There will never be a third party in our current system. You can’t even get a third party in debates because Republicans and Democrats have colluded to make up the rules. Because of this, I think we need to move to a system where all parties gain representation proportionately according to percentage of the vote. I live in a state completely ruled by one party (governor, both senators, and all five representatives), but no one wins elections by more than 60%. so you have 40% of the population with absolutely NO representation. This is a system doomed for failure.
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👍👍👍👍👍
 
shockerfan said:
3rd parties have no realistic chance of winning anytime soon. Better to pick the lesser of two evils and get somethings you want, as opposed to voting for a 3rd party candidate and having the greater of two evils win, and getting much less of what you want.
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When you vote for the lesser of two evils you continue to get evil heading the government.

At some point we have to break the duopoly of the two ‘evil’ parties and elect good people that have the best interest of the American people at heart and not to do insider trading, take corporate gifts, or see politics as their career.

Career politics is poison for any nation of free people.
 
LeafByNiggle said:
Every election is the “most important election ever”, and every election is “not the right time to vote for a 3rd party”. This is just the thinking the enshrines the two major parties. The reason to vote for a 3rd party, even when it probably will not win in this election is to show support that generates public awareness and willingness to vote for a 3rd party candidate in some future election, which will no doubt also be cast as “the most important election ever”.
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I agree, and that is why I split my vote between the Democrats and the Green Party. No way was I going to vote for Andrew Cuomo, who is not good for higher education and other issues, as well as having his eye on the Presidency in 2016, even though his victory was almost assured.
 
RGCheek said:
Agree with all that except point 3. When the RNC withdraws funding from candidates due to them being Tea Party, it does not prove the weakness of the Tea Party, but the weakness derived from lack of national party funding.
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They withdrew funding because they knew they were going to lose. The National Party could not have done better than they did this election.
 
estesbob said:
Observations on last night:
  1. The war on women is dead
  2. Hillary Clinton was seriously damaged. No one she campaigned for won. Her and Bill spent an inordinate amount of time in Arkansas and the Democrats lost their senate seat and the governorship
  3. The power of the Tea party is seriously diminished. The GOP won by fielding main stream candidates. No Christine O’Donnell’s or Todd Akins this time around. Jack Buck in Colorado was pressured to stay out of the Senate race allowing Gardner to win.
  4. Family ties didn’t help. Mark Udall, Michelle Nunn, Mary Landrieu and Jimmy Carters Grandson all had bad nights.
  5. Obama will have to get his veto pen out. There has been an inordinate number of bills bottled up in the Senate as Reid didn’t want to bring them to a vote for fear of hurting Democrats re-election prospects. Look for a flurry of bills hitting the Presidents desk this January and February
  6. Scott Walker and John Kasich just became serious contenders for the GOP nomination
  7. The Houston Rockets won their 5th straight game. Looks like they will be a contender this year!
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Per number 8, my personal situation is people need to pay for their crimes, period. That’s off topic to say but so is number 8.
 
LeafByNiggle said:
Every election is the “most important election ever”, and every election is “not the right time to vote for a 3rd party”. This is just the thinking the enshrines the two major parties. The reason to vote for a 3rd party, even when it probably will not win in this election is to show support that generates public awareness and willingness to vote for a 3rd party candidate in some future election, which will no doubt also be cast as “the most important election ever”.
Click to expand...
Our current system is a DUOPOLY.

The Democrats and Republicans are not rivals, but partners who horse-trade office and have the same corporate bosses.
 
estesbob said:
Observations on last night:
  1. The war on women is dead
  2. Hillary Clinton was seriously damaged. No one she campaigned for won. Her and Bill spent an inordinate amount of time in Arkansas and the Democrats lost their senate seat and the governorship
  3. The power of the Tea party is seriously diminished. The GOP won by fielding main stream candidates. No Christine O’Donnell’s or Todd Akins this time around. Jack Buck in Colorado was pressured to stay out of the Senate race allowing Gardner to win.
  4. Family ties didn’t help. Mark Udall, Michelle Nunn, Mary Landrieu and Jimmy Carters Grandson all had bad nights.
  5. Obama will have to get his veto pen out. There has been an inordinate number of bills bottled up in the Senate as Reid didn’t want to bring them to a vote for fear of hurting Democrats re-election prospects. Look for a flurry of bills hitting the Presidents desk this January and February
  6. Scott Walker and John Kasich just became serious contenders for the GOP nomination
  7. The Houston Rockets won their 5th straight game. Looks like they will be a contender this year!
Click to expand...
All good observations, #8 being the most astute of all!
 
RGCheek said:
When you vote for the lesser of two evils you continue to get evil heading the government.

At some point we have to break the duopoly of the two ‘evil’ parties and elect good people that have the best interest of the American people at heart and not to do insider trading, take corporate gifts, or see politics as their career.

Career politics is poison for any nation of free people.
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So you can point to the success of voting 3rd party (excluding independents who are really either Democrats or Republicans, but call themselves “independent” for political reasons)? Senators? Congressmen? Governors? Presidents?

Not saying it can’t change in the distant future, but for now, voting 3rd party is equivalent to staying home and not voting at all. Like it or not, its reality.
 
estesbob said:
They withdrew funding because they knew they were going to lose.
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Prove that isn’t simply self-fullfilling prophecy.
estesbob said:
The National Party could not have done better than they did this election.
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Sure they could have by NOT getting BLOWN OUT in 2006 to start with due to betraying their own base and attacking civil freedoms and rights like they did with the Patriot Act and doing nothing to stop asset forfeiture laws.
 
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