General politics

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

I spent the weekend at a CLE event sponsored by the U of MN law school. The keynote speaker was Lee Gelernt, the ACLU attorney who lead the litigation in the family separation case. It was heartbreaking. They had talked to the American Pediatrics Association as well as child physiologists who all explained that the trauma of separation would have lasting impact on these kids. The impact would be long-lasting feelings of vulnerability; thinking that they were worthless and not loved by their parents; isolation and depression. He mentioned how much the govt fought back against the ACLU - at one point saying if the ACLU wanted to find the kids, they should look for them themselves and leave the govt out of it. The judge was not happy with that argument.

 

If the Dems manage to ever get back into power, and it looks like they'll at least have the House, I would expect that they'll use their position to do a lot of investigations into the family separation to find out who ordered what, who opposed it, etc. Hopefully, someone will be held accountable for this hell they created. 

As you'd probably expect, I've done quite a bit of reading, talking to professionals, and attended classes on this exact subject because it so directly and frequently applies to foster children (ie. almost all of them).

 

Not only does it last a lifetime, it often sends the kid down a bad path from which they may never recover. Even when these emotions settle (in other words, slide back under the surface so as not to seem present all the time), behaviors begin to manifest as a result: oppositional defiance, violence, ADHD, blah blah blah. The list of problems that come from this kind of situation are as long as my ****ing arm and they're all AWFUL.

 

It's so painfully unnecessary and cruel. Every damned bit of it. And as someone who basically gave up six months (and counting) of my life to cope with it, it makes me so ****ing angry I can't see straight.

[TheLeviathan]

Trump is trying to turn the migrant caravan into a safety issue to woo women. The Dems would be wise to counter with the reality of how Republicans handled the last major immigration issue.

 

I’d welcome making the vote a referendum on that.

[gunnarthor]

 

Trump is trying to turn the migrant caravan into a safety issue to woo women. The Dems would be wise to counter with the reality of how Republicans handled the last major immigration issue.

I’d welcome making the vote a referendum on that.

I'm actually stunned that the Dems didn't use family separation as an issue. We have that awful audio of the little girl crying for her mom while immigration officers laugh. The nation was incensed and it caused Trump to back down. Make a commercial that starts with that girls screaming/crying and ask if this is our values. Have another commercial where a mom hears her son talking like Trump - use any of his quotes and ask "Are these our values?"

 

It looks like Rep King was hit with something sort of like that with his vile white nationalism history. We should've been doing that everywhere. 

[Badsmerf]

King might actually lose. I feel like a bad person, because every sign I see of his causes me to think less of the people supporting him. Funny, many people supporting Republican candidates don't have King signs. There are a lot of J.D. Sholten signs, and a lot of people in Facebook advocating to replace Steve King. Problem is his message isn't that far out of scope for this area.

[Mr. Brooks]

I can't even comprehend how fervourously Walter Cronkite would be rolling in his grave:

 

"Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro joined President Trump on stage at his final campaign rally of the midterms, singing the president's praises and urging attendees to vote Republican."

[gunnarthor]

 

I can't even comprehend how fervourously Walter Cronkite would be rolling in his grave:

"Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro joined President Trump on stage at his final campaign rally of the midterms, singing the president's praises and urging attendees to vote Republican."

It took me a moment to realize why and then it was like, "oh yeah, they're "journalists"". 

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

I feel like a bad person, because every sign I see of his causes me to think less of the people supporting him.

Why? He is objectively an awful person using any metric that isn't partisan, racist, sexist, etc.

 

Which is why I'm not afraid to directly go after anyone who voted for Trump.

 

If you want to be a Republican, that's your decision. I don't agree with it, but I respect it. But the moment you eschew your supposed values to back an objectively awful human being, you've become fair game in my eyes.

 

I can vociferously debate a Republican and walk away without animosity. I can't do the same to people who back the likes of King and Trump.

[gunnarthor]

 

 

 

I can vociferously debate a Republican and walk away without animosity. I can't do the same to people who back the likes of King and Trump.

And their answer is always "but Clinton cheated too" or "Dems are worse because socialism/emails/abortion/etc" 

[ashbury]

And their answer is always "but Clinton cheated too" or "Dems are worse because socialism/emails/abortion/etc" 

The people who genuinely equivocate "but on the other hand" in every instance, are going to be in for a disappointing experience when they finally wake up and decide that one thing is not as bad as another after all but that it's too late to reverse the corruption.

 

It might already be, based on my Small Sample Size of vote suppression evidence in Arizona today.

[stringer bell]

Just wait until the two Republican Secretaries of State (Kansas and Georgia) win their elections by <1%.

[ashbury]

Just wait until the two Republican Secretaries of State (Kansas and Georgia) win their elections by <1%.

If electoral fraud, it would be incompetent electoral fraud, to cut it that close.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Just wait until the two Republican Secretaries of State (Kansas and Georgia) win their elections by <1%.

If the vote returns start looking ominous for them, I don't know what would stop them from manipulating the results. Sounds cynical but I really don't know why they wouldn't rig it for themselves.

[Badsmerf]

At least you guys don't have to be represented by Jason Lewis anymore. Dude is built from the phlegm of Rush Limbaugh.

[biggentleben]

 

I've spent the past six months watching a five year old meltdown in confusion, anger, and fear, shouting/crying exactly these kinds of things.

 

The amount of anger that video stirred in me is... substantial.

 

My every day. My wife and I were in tears watching that segment. **** anyone who thinks that **** is okay. Sorry not sorry for my language.

[stringer bell]

 

At least you guys don't have to be represented by Jason Lewis anymore. Dude is built from the phlegm of Rush Limbaugh.

Yeah, Lewis is my Congressman and I'm glad he's gone. 

 

Minnesota rejected Trumpist Republicanism as I had hoped the entire country would. They won all the Constitutional offices, reclaimed the state legislature and realigned their Congresscritters. IMHO, on the national level,  the better candidate won all but the 1st district for Congress. Stauber fits the 8th pretty well. Hagedorn might be a single term rep, and in the 2022 cycle, Minnesota will almost certainly lose one Congressional seat. 

 

The coming years look to be pretty fascinating. I think it will take dramatic events to level the playing field. Republicans have a huge structural advantage in the Senate, and with so many states so predisposed to elect Republicans, finding the way to 50 votes in the Senate for Democrats any time in the next decade is iffy at best. Fairer lines in Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan, along with the changes in Pennsylvania should keep Democrats alive for House control in that same time frame.

 

The Republican platform doesn't reflect the views of the majority in this country, but yet they have gamed the system (and gotten lucky) so that winning elections isn't fair--Democrats won the Congressional vote by about the same margin as Republicans did in 2010, Republicans netted over 60 seats, Democrats in the mid-30s. More people voted for a Democrat for Senator in 2018, but Republicans will increase their lead by three or four. seats.

 

I expect the economy will be a much bigger topic in two years. I would expect the growth to cool and health care to still be on the front burner. Trump would be the favorite right now to win another term, but there are pitfalls.

[biggentleben]

Also, WTH South Dakota?! A chance to finally have one of the most useless politicians in the state's history out of any office, and instead she's put into the freaking governor's chair, in large part by Facebook.

 

And they wonder why young people cannot get out of the state fast enough....

[Mike Sixel]

https://www.craigcalcaterra.com/blog/thoughts-on-the-midterm-elections

 

good stuff in here......craig's a great writer.

[stringer bell]

 

https://www.craigcalcaterra.com/blog/thoughts-on-the-midterm-elections

 

good stuff in here......craig's a great writer.

Good article and it does highlight how much of a mountain there is to climb. To get an agenda passed, you have to win elections. The House is a beach head.

[Mike Sixel]

I'd pursue the populist "northern path" if I was the next democratic nominee....

 

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-2018-map-looked-a-lot-like-2012-and-that-got-me-thinking-about-2020/

[TheLeviathan]

 

I'd pursue the populist "northern path" if I was the next democratic nominee....

 

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-2018-map-looked-a-lot-like-2012-and-that-got-me-thinking-about-2020/

 

Agreed.  It's the path I've talked about.  You won't win more electoral votes going further left as your basic strategy.  You'll win on issues that win in the rural Midwest.  Flip Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania and all the southern hicks in the country won't matter.  And it's VERY doable.  Hell, it took total incompetence to lose those three states by a combined 4%.

 

The picture isn't that bleak on the Presidential front.  The bleak area has always been at hte state and local level and this election provided some real hope there.  I'm encouraged.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

 

Agreed.  It's the path I've talked about.  You won't win more electoral votes going further left as your basic strategy.  You'll win on issues that win in the rural Midwest.  Flip Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania and all the southern hicks in the country won't matter.  And it's VERY doable.  Hell, it took total incompetence to lose those three states by a combined 4%.

 

The picture isn't that bleak on the Presidential front.  The bleak area has always been at hte state and local level and this election provided some real hope there.  I'm encouraged.

Maybe, maybe not, but the article didn't say anything about policy or issues, or which way to "move" on issues. 

 

[TheLeviathan]

 

Maybe, maybe not, but the article didn't say anything about policy or issues, or which way to "move" on issues. 

 

True, I should be clearer....it's not how right or left the Democrats run.  Sometimes you hear things like "Well, if they only further embraced left-wing ideas!"

 

That's not the kind of thinking necessary.  You may end up with some further left ideas in order to propose policies and issues that will win the upper midwest.  That may mean moving left, it may mean moving center.  It's about the issue and the messaging, not about the poles of the political spectrum.

[Mike Sixel]

Medicare, medicaid, and health care in general......those should always be a big part of the message, imo. 

 

They should be reminding people every few months that the GOP wants to cut those programs, and use messaging throughout the next two years to keep that thought firmly in people's minds. Not just during campaign season, and not through boring policy speeches.

[TheLeviathan]

I agree Mike.  And add in Immigration cruelty.  Those would be 1 and 2 on my list right now.

 

I think there are economic issues to tackle also, but with the economy doing this well it's probably not a winning message.

[Squirrel]

True, I should be clearer....it's not how right or left the Democrats run.  Sometimes you hear things like "Well, if they only further embraced left-wing ideas!"

 

That's not the kind of thinking necessary.  You may end up with some further left ideas in order to propose policies and issues that will win the upper midwest.  That may mean moving left, it may mean moving center.  It's about the issue and the messaging, not about the poles of the political spectrum.

I haven’t read the article but am just responding to some of the posts. It seems like the strategy to win a presidential election becomes a strategy of geography before anything else. And then a strategy of issues once you have the geography figured out. This is why I’m for changing how the EC works.

[TheLeviathan]

 

I haven’t read the article but am just responding to some of the posts. It seems like the strategy to win a presidential election becomes a strategy of geography before anything else. And then a strategy of issues once you have the geography figured out. This is why I’m for changing how the EC works.

 

I'd suggest that your calculus is always based on geography in politics.

[Squirrel]

Many of you likely don’t watch Rachel Madow, but I do every so often. I find it to be ... intelligent, clever, thought provoking political entertainment. Last night she interviewed Lauren Underwood who flipped a seat in Illinois from a 4-termer Republican. A Democrat held that seat for a term prior, and before that, it was the seat held by Dennis Hastert. If you’ve lived in Illinois, you know that name, and probably why a Democrat won that seat after him. But being a ‘typical red’ district it went back. Anyway, she was very interesting. A nurse, never held political office, 32 yrs old, African American ... not only did she flip this district 51-49%, but she won the primary ... against 6 other opponents ... with 57% of the vote. When asked how she did this, she said their plan was to just go everywhere and talk to everyone. Her campaign was very grass roots and very personal. And Levi, you’ll like this one ... she said she went out to farms and fields and talked to farmers and people in very small rural areas, where people told her that they hadn’t been visited by any politician on either side for years. This is why it was such an upset ... her campaign was so off anyone’s radar and thought that Hultgren was a shoe in for re-election.

[ashbury]

The friend I mentioned who ran for state assembly in my old district in Nevada ran a very hard grass-roots campaign. Although she lost 57-43%, this was in a very Red area (Democrats didn't even bother running a candidate last time), so her hard work probably gained her more than the numbers suggest. All Politics Is Local. (At least at the local level. )

[Vanimal46]

The next wave of politicians need to campaign through Grass Roots efforts. I don't want our leaders to cater to the interest of corporations, just because they donated millions of dollars to them.

[Mike Sixel]

Having worked in politics......most of the politicians do more grass roots work than I think most of you realize.....until they've been there multiple terms, then it is less important. Grass roots work takes a TON of time, time away from your other job (if you are a MN legislator, for example), or your other work in office.