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[ivysaur12]

At what point in the process of running to the right do you actually become a Republican?

She's so much better than the alternative by virtue of not being Bill Cassidy, though.

 

[Poodlestrike]

She's so much better than the alternative by virtue of not being Bill Cassidy, though.

I suppose. I'm just flashing back to 08, when the DINOs basically sunk half the party initiatives.

 

[Rhomega Beta]

If that's the case then wouldn't Manbearpig be a real thing in the show? Like it sounds so crazy but Al Gore was right and it really does exist and it's really a threat?

For the record, Manbearpig did finally show up in Imaginationland, with Al Gore coming in to say "I told you so!"

 

[ivysaur12]

I suppose. I'm just flashing back to 08, when the DINOs basically sunk half the party initiatives.

Unfortunately, I don't know if you can create a Democratic coalition of 60 Senators who need could have the political cover to vote for true progressive legislation. Maybe if CT had a real Democrat and there were two Democratic Senators in Maine and Judd Gregg wasn't there, but that still wouldn't have been enough bodies.

I'll take a Mary Landreu over a Bill Cassidy any day, because Landrieu is the best chance there is for a Democrat to get elected in Louisiana and that's significantly more alluring than the alternative.

EDIT: Mathing, you would need to have Democrats in the 23 "reliable" D states in presidential elections, plus Senators in Florida and Ohio. That brings you to 50. Then, you'd need a few Senators in lean-Red states like North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, Montana, North Dakota. At best, you'll have about 55 there. You'd then need to dig deeper and bring back conservative Dems in West Virginia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Indiana… and then you'd need to get them to vote for progressive legislation and have them be able to package it as populism, something the Democrats have been unable to do thus far.

 

[dabig2]

At what point in the process of running to the right do you actually become a Republican?

I remember she and Ben Nelson were the only 2 Dems to be to the right of several Republicans several years back.

 

[kehs]

If you can't buy your president, you can 3d print your own president.

 

[ivysaur12]

I remember she and Ben Nelson were the only 2 Dems to be to the right of several Republicans several years back.

Outside of Susan Collins and Mark Kirk, I can't think of a Republican that they're to the right of one some issues now.

 

[jamesinclair]

At what point in the process of running to the right do you actually become a Republican?

Obama made it to the right of Bush and people still think he's a democrat.

Cuomo would beat Reagan at a tea party primary and nobody has stripped him of his d

 

[Wilsongt]

http://news.yahoo.com/homeland-chief-faces-gop-critics-immigration-080811982--politics.html

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-led House may vote this week to undo President Barack Obama's executive actions on immigration, House Speaker John Boehner told lawmakers Tuesday as he sought to give outraged conservatives an outlet to vent over Obama's move without shutting down the government.


The move would be mostly symbolic, since Obama would certainly veto such legislation and the Democratic-led Senate likely wouldn't go along with it. But GOP leaders hope it will assuage Republicans furious about Obama's two-week-old actions to shield some 4 million immigrants in this country illegally from deportation, and grant them work permits.

"We're looking at a number of options in terms of how to address this. This is a serious breach of our Constitution," Boehner told reporters. "It's a serious threat to our system of government, and frankly we have limited options and limited ability to deal with it directly."

Publicly, the speaker told reporters that Republicans were considering several options and no decision had been made, but aides and lawmakers said that he indicated during a closed-door meeting with the rank and file earlier that the vote on legislation to block Obama was the leading option. It would be on a bill by Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., aimed at blocking Obama from unilaterally allowing categories of unlawful immigrants to live and work here.

Party leaders then hope to move on next week to voting on must-pass spending legislation to keep the government running. In the wake of their midterm election victories last month to win full control of Congress, Republican leaders are eager to show they can govern responsibly without risking government shutdowns. But Obama's administrative moves on immigration and the resulting GOP fury has created complications.

Boehner floated the two-step approach as Congress reconvened after a week-long Thanksgiving recess. But there were immediate signs of opposition from immigration hard-liners who have scuttled past efforts by Boehner to address the issue.

Symbolic, but I guess this is the new "Every day is Obamacare veto day".

 

[NeoXChaos]

Unfortunately, I don't know if you can create a Democratic coalition of 60 Senators who need could have the political cover to vote for true progressive legislation. Maybe if CT had a real Democrat and there were two Democratic Senators in Maine and Judd Gregg wasn't there, but that still wouldn't have been enough bodies.

I'll take a Mary Landreu over a Bill Cassidy any day, because Landrieu is the best chance there is for a Democrat to get elected in Louisiana and that's significantly more alluring than the alternative.

EDIT: Mathing, you would need to have Democrats in the 23 "reliable" D states in presidential elections, plus Senators in Florida and Ohio. That brings you to 50. Then, you'd need a few Senators in lean-Red states like North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, Montana, North Dakota. At best, you'll have about 55 there. You'd then need to dig deeper and bring back conservative Dems in West Virginia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Indiana… and then you'd need to get them to vote for progressive legislation and have them be able to package it as populism, something the Democrats have been unable to do thus far.

but a lot of those reliable D states have R's there like kirk, toomey, ayotte, collins etc. swing/lean R in mid-term but D in presidential.

How many reliably R states have D's? not many now, down to 5. The senate will now be fought on purple/blue ground for the next few cycles.

 

[ivysaur12]

but a lot of those reliable D states have R's there like kirk, toomey, ayotte, collins etc. swing/lean R in mid-term but D in presidential.

How many reliably R states have D's? not many now, down to 5. The senate will now be fought on purple/blue ground for the next few cycles.

I was talking in a hypothetical abstract of what the Senate would look like if it were 50/50 down the line based on the 2012 presidential election results. To get to a place where progressive legislation could be passed in earnest, it'd be almost impossible.

 

[thepotatoman]

http://news.yahoo.com/homeland-chief-faces-gop-critics-immigration-080811982--politics.html



Symbolic, but I guess this is the new "Every day is Obamacare veto day".

"We're looking at a number of options in terms of how to address this. This is a serious breach of our Constitution," Boehner told reporters. "It's a serious threat to our system of government, and frankly we have limited options and limited ability to deal with it directly."

Come on Beohner. You know your hands aren't tied. If he really breached the constitution you could impeach him right now. You just know you can't because everyone knows he hasn't really breached the Constitution.

If you can't buy your president, you can 3d print your own president.

I can't help but watch that like it's a promotional video for the next NBA Jam.

 

[A Human Becoming]

Does anyone know good books and articles about tax loopholes in the US? Corporate most importantly.

 

[jamesinclair]

These stories always warm my heart

Bachmann, the head of the House tea party caucus who is retiring from Congress in weeks, implored the audience to help her fight the "amnesty." She urged them to "melt the phone lines" to congressional lawmakers. And she declared she would be leading a protest on Capitol Hill. "I'm calling on your viewers to come to DC on Wednesday, December 3, at high noon on the west steps of the Capitol," she proclaimed. "We need to have a rally, and we need to go visit our senators and visit our congressman, because nothing frightens a congressman like the whites of his constituents' eyes. ... We need the viewers to come and help us."

The next day, the Tea Party Patriots, one of the largest remaining tea party groups, sent out an urgent survey to its members. The email, signed by co-founder Jenny Beth Martin, said the group—which has worked closely with Bachmann in the past to organize other rallies at the Capitol—was trying to determine whether such a rally would be a good use of its resources. The email asked these "patriots" to indicate whether they would respond to Bachmann and come to Washington to protest the president's actions on immigration. Apparently, the answer was no. The Tea Party Patriots did not sign up for this ride.

With the tea party not heeding Bachmann's call, her "high noon" rally was downgraded to....a press conference. So on Wednesday, Bachmann appeared on the Capitol steps—joined by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa)—and spoke to a passel of cameras and about 40 protesters.

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/12/michele-bachmann-rally-tea-party-amnesty

 

[Wilsongt]

Is this the new "And some of my best friends are black" or "I even have gay friends?"

Domenico Montanaro ✔ @DomenicoPBS
Follow

Louie Gohmert: "I'm kind to foreigners. You haven't seen it, but at 2 in the morning I've given food to little children."
12:34 PM - 3 Dec 2014

 

[Oblivion]

U.S. Rep.-elect Glenn Grothman says the government is bribing single parents to stay unemployed and unmarried.

That wording even seemed to catch interviewer Mike Gousha off guard on the Sunday broadcast of the statewide TV news program "UpFront with Mike Gousha."

In his run for Congress, the Republican state senator from Campbellsport said welfare reform would be his top priority in Washington, and in the interview broadcast Sunday, he said educating the public is a first step.

"So your viewers are aware, a single parent with a couple kids can easily get $35,000 a year in total benefits between the health care and the earned income credit and the FoodShare and the low-income housing and what have you," Grothman said. "And that's after taxes. How many people make $35,000 a year after taxes? Most people don't.

http://host.madison.com/news/local/...8b5-11e4-8a54-c375f6358e8d.html#ixzz3Ks078EY0

 

[speculawyer]

Does anyone know good books and articles about tax loopholes in the US? Corporate most importantly.

Check out the books by David Cay Johnston. He covers that area well.

 

[speculawyer]

http://news.yahoo.com/homeland-chief-faces-gop-critics-immigration-080811982--politics.html



Symbolic, but I guess this is the new "Every day is Obamacare veto day".

"This is a serious breach of our Constitution,"

Then file for impeachment.

 

[NeoXChaos]

There were only three Democrats that held out and we could have had those three,” he added. "We had “[Sen.] Mark Pryor [D-Ark.] so we could have had Lincoln. We could have had all three of them if the president would have been just willing to do some political things but he wouldn’t do it."

Harkin and other liberals are now faced with the bitter irony that the centrists tried to placate five years ago by crafting a labyrinthine market-based reform are now all out of the Senate.

“So as a result we’ve got this complicated thing out there called the Affordable Care Act,” he said.

Oh the irony indeed.

Over half the people who voted for the bill are now gone.

 

[Aaron Strife]

Well gee Tom Harkin it was nice of you to retire and lose your seat, now I bet Democrats will pass bunches of liberal bills.

 

[NeoXChaos]

Well gee Tom Harkin it was nice of you to retire and lose your seat, now I bet Democrats will pass bunches of liberal bills.

well yeah. all the people except for Lieberman's and the 5 romney seats went Republican anyway pending Landrieu's defeat on Saturday. Democrats should have went off the walls passing bills those first two years regardless of the political implications. Now we know in hindsight those "saving members from tough votes" Reid tried doing was a failure. It did not matter in the end in this political toxic environment. It pains me that berkley ran and not AG Masto in nevada.

SIGH

 

[Teggy]

Reading the responses to the grand jury result today on conservative sites is pretty interesting. It's about 75% people agreeing that there should have been an indictment even though (in their opinion) there shouldn't have been one in MO and 25% just hanging on to their guns that the cops were right regardless. Most common defense is something along the lines of "if the cops tell you to do something just do it" or "you shouldn't have been doing something illegal in the first place". My favorites however were the ones saying Garner's death was the fault of the Democrats, since they created the cigarette taxes.

 

[PhoenixDark]

Reading the responses to the grand jury result today on conservative sites is pretty interesting. It's about 75% people agreeing that there should have been an indictment even though (in their opinion) there shouldn't have been one in MO and 25% just hanging on to their guns that the cops were right regardless. Most common defense is something along the lines of "if the cops tell you to do something just do it" or "you shouldn't have been doing something illegal in the first place". My favorites however were the ones saying Garner's death was the fault of the Democrats, since they created the cigarette taxes.

This case seems a lot more unifying than Michael Brown, which boiled down to "punch a cop=get what you deserve" to many (white) people.

 

[JesseEwiak]

well yeah. all the people except for Lieberman's and the 5 romney seats went Republican anyway pending Landrieu's defeat on Saturday. Democrats should have went off the walls passing bills those first two years regardless of the political implications. Now we know in hindsight those "saving members from tough votes" Reid tried doing was a failure. It did not matter in the end in this political toxic environment. It pains me that berkley ran and not AG Masto in nevada.

SIGH

I'm sorry, there's no world where you get 51 votes for a more liberal bill than the one that passed. Considering Lieberman killed Medicare buy-in for people over 55, where do you get 51 votes for the public option?

Yeah, Harkin is dumb, but the myth that we would've had single payer if Obama was on the bully pulpit more is pure trash.

 

[ivysaur12]

I'm sorry, there's no world where you get 51 votes for a more liberal bill than the one that passed. Considering Lieberman killed Medicare buy-in for people over 55, where do you get 51 votes for the public option?

Yeah, Harkin is dumb, but the myth that we would've had single payer if Obama was on the bully pulpit more is pure trash.

There was no math for the public option that also satisfied red state Dems who are necessary towards building a majority coalition, like it not. The messaging was bungled from the start, too.

 

[Diablos]

For fuck's sake -- if Hillary goes with Mark Penn it will prove that she literally learned NOTHING from losing in 2008. NOTHING.

They should just get Organizing for America on board.

I'm sorry, there's no world where you get 51 votes for a more liberal bill than the one that passed. Considering Lieberman killed Medicare buy-in for people over 55, where do you get 51 votes for the public option?

Yeah, Harkin is dumb, but the myth that we would've had single payer if Obama was on the bully pulpit more is pure trash.

Also, look at what Roberts did to the Medicaid expansion... who knows what the SCOTUS would have done to the public option or full blown single payer.

 

[Aaron Strife]

well yeah. all the people except for Lieberman's and the 5 romney seats went Republican anyway pending Landrieu's defeat on Saturday. Democrats should have went off the walls passing bills those first two years regardless of the political implications. Now we know in hindsight those "saving members from tough votes" Reid tried doing was a failure. It did not matter in the end in this political toxic environment. It pains me that berkley ran and not AG Masto in nevada.

SIGH

Republicans get into office and pass Union busting laws, anti-abortion laws, voter ID laws left and right and they never get punished for it.

I'm not saying Democrats should turn the U.S. into Sweden overnight but the next time they hold both houses of Congress they need to get shit done without fear of losin conservative Democratic senators, considering they lost anyway in 2010 and 2014. With such a small caucus of red state senators now (all up in 2018) hopefully there's less to worry about, but I can see those five trying to hold back a Clinton administration in the hopes that voters won't be too mad at them.

 

[NeoXChaos]

Republicans get into office and pass Union busting laws, anti-abortion laws, voter ID laws left and right and they never get punished for it.

I'm not saying Democrats should turn the U.S. into Sweden overnight but the next time they hold both houses of Congress they need to get shit done without fear of losin conservative Democratic senators, considering they lost anyway in 2010 and 2014. With such a small caucus of red state senators now (all up in 2018) hopefully there's less to worry about, but I can see those five trying to hold back a Clinton administration in the hopes that voters won't be too mad at them.

IF there are any left at that point in time. Its a shame they couldn't enjoy a free ride like Collins who is the only reliably blue state R left. (Kirk will probably be out in 2 years).

Ayotte, Johnson, Toomey etc represent states that swing back and forth despite voting Democratic 5 or 6 out of the last 6 Pres but lean R in midterm.

No matter who has 51....the D's will need R support without a 60 super majority. maybe in another 30 years.

 

[thepotatoman]

Reading the responses to the grand jury result today on conservative sites is pretty interesting. It's about 75% people agreeing that there should have been an indictment even though (in their opinion) there shouldn't have been one in MO and 25% just hanging on to their guns that the cops were right regardless. Most common defense is something along the lines of "if the cops tell you to do something just do it" or "you shouldn't have been doing something illegal in the first place". My favorites however were the ones saying Garner's death was the fault of the Democrats, since they created the cigarette taxes.

Give it a couple of days, and fox news will get them all saying those things, or the "it wasn't really a chokehold" crap, or "sure that was bad, but what if the punishment made cops afraid of doing anything to protect themselves for fear of those nasty liberals rioting all over the place", or whatever other dumb talking point.

I'd hope they'd at least jump on the Rand Paul bandwagon and blame the cigarette tax, since at least that's not blaming the black guy, but I doubt we'd be so lucky.

 

[PhoenixDark]

There was no math for the public option that also satisfied red state Dems who are necessary towards building a majority coalition, like it not. The messaging was bungled from the start, too.

There was never going to be a public option with a corporatist in the WH, that's just reality. Red state democrats played a major role but Obama never forcefully supported it, and took it off the table to get insurance companies on board.

Democrats couldn't even lower the Medicare eligibility age by 5 years. Everything cannot be blamed on Obama when Lieberman and many others were involved.

 

[Wilsongt]

You know you've done fucked up when not even people on Fox News cam defend the NYPD grand jury bullshit.

 

[ivysaur12]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/katenocera/leadership-tries-to-calm-angry-democrats-with-post-2014-stra

Sobering.

But the prevailing concern was that Democrats failed to develop a cohesive message that broke through to the electorate — and it is time for an overhaul. Sources said hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent polling last year’s “Jumpstart the Middle Class” messaging platform. Members want to know: What will be different this time?

“We lost 70 seats in the last four years and just kind of returned to business as usual,” said one Democratic member. “We reelected leadership because there wasn’t a sense that it was the leadership’s fault.”

“But where’s the plan? Where’s the assessment of what we need to do to win? There’s been no re-evaluation to reckon that we’ve been hammered several elections in a row,” the member added.

Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly said it was “unsatisfying” there hadn’t been a caucus meeting yet to evaluate the losses.

“We collectively as a caucus need to spend some time in depth analytically looking at the results, what went wrong, and how we can take collective action to win the next cycle,” he said. “That’s the mission.”

 

[Averon]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/katenocera/leadership-tries-to-calm-angry-democrats-with-post-2014-stra

Sobering.

Depressing, but unsurprising. The current Dem leadership would rather blame Obama and ACA than to consider that their tactics are awful.

Look and them having Obama delay the immigration EO as a prime example. Delaying the EO did nothing to help congressional Dems. In fact, the EO is extremely popular with Hispanics. The Dems could have used that popularity to help people like Crist and Udall. Both lost in narrows margins that could have been filled with Hispanic voters.

Congressional Dems are awful at national politics, and the leadership seems to be twiddling their thumbs doing nothing to fix it.

The Dems learned nothing from Obama or Dean.

 

[Aaron Strife]

They need to sell their achievements better. Republicans didn't abandon Walker, Scott, Snyder, LePage when their approval ratings were shit, they trumpeted them as the states' saviors.

The president will face harsher scrutiny than some governors of course, but the unemployment rate keeps ticking down, ACA lowered premiums in some areas, the deficit is at normal levels (for those who care) yet you hear nary a peep. Stop scaring voters over what would happen if Republicans took over and start showing that you can get things done.

 

[HylianTom]

They need to sell their achievements better. Republicans didn't abandon Walker, Scott, Snyder, LePage when their approval ratings were shit, they trumpeted them as the states' saviors.

The president will face harsher scrutiny than some governors of course, but the unemployment rate keeps ticking down, ACA lowered premiums in some areas, the deficit is at normal levels (for those who care) yet you hear nary a peep. Stop scaring voters over what would happen if Republicans took over and start showing that you can get things done.

I didn't agree with Bill Clinton on some major things, but damn if he didn't brag about anything positive going on while he was in office. Anyone paying attention in the 90s can remember his "22 million new jobs!"-type speeches, where he laundry-listed every possible good stat that happened under his watch. He beat you over the head with it, but it worked, and it helped the party branding.

Each time he had a State of the Union address, you could watch his approval ratings jump remarkably in the following weeks, and then CNN (along with the rest of the media) would trumpet those rising ratings, which only perpetuated positive feelings about the era.. and frustrated Republicans to no end.

 

[PhoenixDark]

The problem is that democrats don't really have any achievements to run on without pushback. The economy is still bad, many dem strongholds (ie inner cities) still have high unemployment, etc. Even healthcare is a toss up depending on where you live and how much money you make. So what you get is democrats running on stuff Obama ran on in 2008 - ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, infrastructure jobs, etc...no progress on those fronts.

Democrats wasted their super majority. I understand certain things could not be done with blue democrats in tow, but they could have addressed a variety of base issues that have mainstream appeal. They don't even run on the weak "Wall Street" reform of Dodd-Frank. Meanwhile we're seeing capital flow back into junk mortgages BTW, and when we crash and bail out a bank again (in 5-10 years) I look forward to the spin from this administration.

 

[Wilsongt]

The problem is that democrats don't really have any achievements to run on without pushback. The economy is still bad, many dem strongholds (ie inner cities) still have high unemployment, etc. Even healthcare is a toss up depending on where you live and how much money you make. So what you get is democrats running on stuff Obama ran on in 2008 - ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, infrastructure jobs, etc...no progress on those fronts.

Democrats wasted their super majority. I understand certain things could not be done with blue democrats in tow, but they could have addressed a variety of base issues that have mainstream appeal. They don't even run on the weak "Wall Street" reform of Dodd-Frank. Meanwhile we're seeing capital flow back into junk mortgages BTW, and when we crash and bail out a bank again (in 5-10 years) I look forward to the spin from this administration.

Is it time to break out Rupaul laughing again?

 

[cooljeanius]

So I don't know if anyone here was paying attention, but the political intrigue got pretty heightened yesterday at the NH State House... The guy who was the previous NH Speaker of the House the last time the Republicans were in charge, Bill O'Brien, lost his bid to become speaker again on the 3rd ballot to some other Republican, Shawn Jasper, who only put his name in on the 2nd ballot. O'Brien tried to make the ballots public to keep this from happening, but that failed. Too many people were embarrassed by his previous speakership to let him have another go at it. I don't know much about this Jasper guy, but whoever he is, he can't be much worse than O'Brien, so for that, I'm breathing a sigh of relief...

Links:
http://www.concordmonitor.com/home/...jasper-edges-out-bill-obrien-to-be-next-house
http://nhpr.org/post/multiple-votes-procedural-fights-result-nh-house-speaker-upset
http://www.wmur.com/politics/in-upset-jasper-elected-speaker-of-nh-house/30044540?absolute=true

 

[Oblivion]

I think Matt and Trey just hate everyone.

I wouldn't call their (apparent) political views very enlightened.

Matt and Trey are your typical smug, "both sides do it!" libertarians.

 

[ivysaur12]

Nate Cohn's tone is sort of gross, but this is what I was talking about earlier:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/05/upshot/demise-of-the-southern-democrat-is-now-nearly-compete.html?hpw&rref=upshot&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0

After President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, he reportedly told a fellow Democrat that the party had lost the South for a long time to come. It took more than a generation for old Southern loyalties to the Democrats to fade, but that vision is on the verge of being realized this weekend.

If Mary Landrieu, a Democratic senator from Louisiana, loses re-election in Saturday’s runoff election, as expected, the Republicans will have vanquished the last vestige of Democratic strength in the once solidly Democratic Deep South. In a region stretching from the high plains of Texas to the Atlantic coast of the Carolinas, Republicans would control not only every Senate seat, but every governor’s mansion and every state legislative body.

Democrats held or controlled nearly every one of them when Mr. Johnson signed that bill in 1964. And they still held a majority as recently as a decade ago. Ms. Landrieu’s defeat would essentially mark an end to the era of the Southern Democrats: the conservative, Southern, white officials, supported by white Southerners, whose conflicted views helped define American politics for half a century.

The demise of the Southern Democrat is not coincidental. It reflects a complete cycle of generational replacement in the post-Jim Crow era. Old loyalties to the Democratic Party have died along with the generation of white Southerners who came of age during the era of the Solid South, before Brown v. Board of Education, before the Civil Rights Act.

Yet it also reflects the very specific conditions of 2014. Today’s national Democratic Party is as unpopular in the South today as it has ever been, in no small part because the party has embraced a secular agenda that is not popular in the region.

“It’s a completely different party than it was 20 or 30 years ago,” said Merle Black, a professor of political science at Emory University. “When the Democratic Party and its candidates become more liberal on culture and religion, that’s not a party that’s advocating what these whites value or think.”

But white support for Republicans in the South might rival, or in some places even exceed, white support for Democrats during the Solid South. In the November election, Ms. Landrieu received only 18 percent of the white vote, according to the exit polls, a figure nearly identical to the 19 percent of the vote that Republicans averaged in the state’s presidential elections from 1880 through 1948. The exit polls showed that Mr. Obama won 14 percent of white voters in Louisiana in 2008.

The demise of the Southern Democrats now puts the party at a distinct structural disadvantage in Congress, particularly in the House. The young, nonwhite and urban voters who have allowed Democrats to win in presidential elections are inefficiently concentrated in dense urban areas, where they are naturally drawn into overwhelmingly Democratic districts by congressional mapmakers. They are also concentrated in populous states, like California and New York, which get the same number of senators as Alabama or Mississippi.

 

[daedalius]

Gas at $2.47?

We NEED the keystone pipeline, obviously. Thanks Obama.

 

[Rhomega Beta]

Gas at $2.47?

We NEED the keystone pipeline, obviously. Thanks Obama.

Just wait until it starts going up again...

 

[daedalius]

Just wait until it starts going up again...

You just wait! You'll see!

 

[NeoXChaos]

Nate Cohn's tone is sort of gross, but this is what I was talking about earlier:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/05/upshot/demise-of-the-southern-democrat-is-now-nearly-compete.html?hpw&rref=upshot&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0

Well it took 50 years but its here.

VA and Florida reflect a new south.
VA took 48 years to go D but it did change.
I still will argue NC is still a purple state though.

Republicans wont have the south forever like the Democrats. AL, MS LA etc could become the new VA someday.

 

[ivysaur12]

North Carolina is a purple state and Florida and Virginia will continue to trend blue. Georgia could eventually get there, too. But it'll be a different type of candidate.

 

[Oblivion]

Well it took 50 years but its here.

VA and Florida reflect a new south.
VA took 48 years to go D but it did change.
I still will argue NC is still a purple state though.

Republicans wont have the south forever like the Democrats. AL, MS LA etc could become the new VA someday.

Of course, by then the Dems will lose California or Massachusetts to balance things out.

 

[ivysaur12]

Of course, by then the Dems will lose California or Massachusetts to balance things out.

If anything, CA is getting bluer. I don't think you'll ever see a Republican elected to a statewide election there like you see in Massachusetts from time to time. (I realize you were making a joke, I'm just a party pooper for no discernible reason)

 

[Aaron Strife]

Gas at $2.47?

We NEED the keystone pipeline, obviously. Thanks Obama.

i hope if the keystone pipeline is ever approved gas prices go up immediately and everyone blames it on keystone

 

[ErasureAcer]

Wonder what Newt Gingrich has to say about the gas prices falling to where he wanted them. Guess we didn't need you after all Newt.

 

[HyperionX]

North Carolina is a purple state and Florida and Virginia will continue to trend blue. Georgia could eventually get there, too. But it'll be a different type of candidate.

The eastern seaboard is switching as a single group. Even SC, which is economically very closely tied to Georgia and NC. I foresee every state on that coast, from Maine to Florida, going blue someday.