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PoliGAF 2017 |OT6| Made this thread during Harvey because the ratings would be higher

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Senators Whitehouse and McCain release a statement after the oral arguments in the gerrymandering case as well:

DLPG_XWUIAEmZli.jpg:large

The eGOP really should get on board with this. If their power is diminished due to the fringes in the their party, then the power they gain with those fringes is overrated. Might as well protect yourself from that crazy purist who's trying to primary you and also protect yourself from Dems possibly enacting gerrymandering of their own in 2020.
 
The MSNBC interview with Congressman Marc Anthony just shows how strong the gun lobby is. The congressman was clueless about many gun fact specifics but still refuses to support even a discussion about regulation.

I dont think its just the gun lobbying, this is an issue that helps them control their base, it helps them push their voters further away from science , further away from statistics, and further away from center.
 

Blader

Member
Again, though, this is my issue with relying on affluent NoVA Dems who would prefer someone more conservative than Perriello. And I wouldn't really care if Northam wasn't fucking up so much. I mean, hopefully he still wins! That would be very nice. But since Gillespie also appeals to these types of voters, I'm nervous.

But if Gillespie already appeals to those types of voters, then wouldn't they have gone for him in the primary? I guess I don't understand the concern about centrist/conservative NoVA Dems potentially voting for Gillespie now after backing Northam in the primary.
 
But if Gillespie already appeals to those types of voters, then wouldn't they have gone for him in the primary? I guess I don't understand the concern about centrist/conservative NoVA Dems potentially voting for Gillespie now after backing Northam in the primary.

909,625 people voted in the VA 2017 primary. 2,240,314 people voted in the VA 2013 election.

Reading your posts is like being in a universe where the election has already happened and they both lost.

It's impressive how both Northam and Gillespie are simultaneously running two terrible campaigns.
 

Zolo

Member
Senators Whitehouse and McCain release a statement after the oral arguments in the gerrymandering case as well:

DLPG_XWUIAEmZli.jpg:large

I like McCain's argument here. It backs up what he's already said about partisan politics as well as giving a motive for why Republicans themselves may want to not have it, so that they can avoid getting primaried as easily.
 
The eGOP really should get on board with this. If their power is diminished due to the fringes in the their party, then the power they gain with those fringes is overrated. Might as well protect yourself from that crazy purist who's trying to primary you and also protect yourself from Dems possibly enacting gerrymandering of their own in 2020.

Gerrymandering is the only thing keeping the GOP relevant in many places. They're not going to get rid of that power.
 

Holmes

Member
Saying you'll work with Trump is a good thing in most areas. I think the amount of places that turns people off is sort of slim. I don't know if Virginia is one of those places.

I mean, can almost guarantee Heidi's appearance with Trump and him calling her a great woman will help her a lot.
Oh wig
 

kirblar

Member
But if Gillespie already appeals to those types of voters, then wouldn't they have gone for him in the primary? I guess I don't understand the concern about centrist/conservative NoVA Dems potentially voting for Gillespie now after backing Northam in the primary.
I think a lot of this has to do with who the VA GOP picked as their nominee and how the primaries played out. The fracture there is really bad and is like a funhouse mirror version of the issues we're seeing play out w/ the Dems.

If it were Stewart who had won, you'd need to run a harder-line campaign because he's a mini-Trump. You wouldn't be able to dance around it, you'd need to make it very explicit and more confrontational.

But Gillespie isn't Stewart. He's going to have a harder time energizing those Trump-type voters. And so I don't think trying to make this a direct referendum works with him as the opponent, especially since he's probably going to be trying to peel off those traditional "swing" voters instead of trying the rural uprising Trump strategy.
 
Gerrymandering is the only thing keeping the GOP relevant in many places. They're not going to get rid of that power.

Right but like I said ... the power they gain by allowing partisan gerrymandering also allows the fringe element to survive and in some case thrive. It's impacted their legislative ability. So much so it's almost like they're don't control everything. That in and of itself is making them look bad and be more susceptible to being primaried.

So from my point of view: They can keep the status quo, but in doing so will cripple their legislative efforts reducing the need for power, and will be making themselves more susceptible to being primaried by the extremes both because of gerrymandering and because they can't get shit done.

or

They lose a cycle or two of power in the house. They lose over all control that never amounted to much but, the fringe elements slowly die off, the party can moderate and appeal to immigrants again and through bipartisan efforts can make gains the old way a la Bush years and prior.

Don't get me wrong. I don't expect them to see it this way. They're the party that created the Obamacare mess they're dealing with. Forward thinkers they are not.
 

Teggy

Member
He also handed out flashlights and said they didn’t need them anymore, despite 95% of the island being without power.
 

Ogodei

Member
Right but like I said ... the power they gain by allowing partisan gerrymandering also allows the fringe element to survive and in some case thrive. It's impacted their legislative ability. So much so it's almost like they're don't control everything. That in and of itself is making them look bad and be more susceptible to being primaried.

So from my point of view: They can keep the status quo, but in doing so will cripple their legislative efforts reducing the need for power, and will be making themselves more susceptible to being primaried by the extremes both because of gerrymandering and because they can't get shit done.

or

They lose a cycle or two of power in the house. They lose over all control that never amounted to much but, the fringe elements slowly die off, the party can moderate and appeal to immigrants again and through bipartisan efforts can make gains the old way a la Bush years and prior.

Don't get me wrong. I don't expect them to see it this way. They're the party that created the Obamacare mess they're dealing with. Forward thinkers they are not.

They're not that far-sighted. Party elders who are nearing the end of their careers and don't have much (or any) influence anymore, like McCain, Kasich, and Schwarzenegger can talk about it, but guys like Paul Ryan need it.

Setting aside the fact that while the post Tea Party Congress has been ineffectual, the gerrymandered state legislatures have been very effective.
 

sc0la

Unconfirmed Member
Imagine if obama had took a jump shot with relief supplies.

Edit: Trump is the embodiment of all the fake made up shit the right told you a black president would be.
 
Again, though, this is my issue with relying on affluent NoVA Dems who would prefer someone more conservative than Perriello. And I wouldn't really care if Northam wasn't fucking up so much. I mean, hopefully he still wins! That would be very nice. But since Gillespie also appeals to these types of voters, I'm nervous.
Do you have data that supports that it is NOVA Dems skewing things to be more centrist? I've lived in NOVA most of my life and I've always been under the impression that it is the more liberal leaning areas in the state and that it's growing population is what turned VA blue.
 
The GOP would be stupid to weaken gerrymandering. It's the basis for much of their power and it's not worth losing all of that to shed some extremists that will still have a ton of sway anyway.
 

chadskin

Member
Oops
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher met with the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya during a 2016 trip to Moscow, a previously undisclosed tête-à-tête that sheds additional light on the extent to which Moscow-based political operatives sought to influence American officials in the run-up to last year’s presidential election.

In an interview with a pro-Russian Crimean news service, Veselnitskaya said she met with Rohrabacher — a California Republican and arguably the most prominent advocate in Congress for closer relations between Washington and Moscow — in April 2016 to discuss issues surrounding the Magnitsky Act, the punitive American sanctions measure responding to Russian human rights abuses that she has lobbied against.

“We just asked to listen to us, just to listen to the alternative version,” Veselnitskaya said in the interview, seated in a futuristic-looking wingback chair set against a light purple background. She attacked the sanctions measure’s proponents and told Rohrabacher that American lawmakers had been duped.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/10/03...ked-lawyer-at-center-of-russia-investigation/
 
Hey guys, guess which Russian puppet met with Natalia Veselnitskaya two months before Jr's meeting?

http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/10/03...ked-lawyer-at-center-of-russia-investigation/

Seriously, try to contain your shock but its...*wait for it* Dana Rohrabacher.

In an interview with a pro-Russian Crimean news service, Veselnitskaya said she met with Rohrabacher — a California Republican and arguably the most prominent advocate in Congress for closer relations between Washington and Moscow — in April 2016 to discuss issues surrounding the Magnitsky Act, the punitive American sanctions measure responding to Russian human rights abuses that she has lobbied against.

“We just asked to listen to us, just to listen to the alternative version,” Veselnitskaya said in the interview, seated in a futuristic-looking wingback chair set against a light purple background. She attacked the sanctions measure’s proponents and told Rohrabacher that American lawmakers had been duped.

“‘Do not let yourself be used by scammers,’” she recalled saying.
 
The GOP would be stupid to weaken gerrymandering. It's the basis for much of their power and it's not worth losing all of that to shed some extremists that will still have a ton of sway anyway.
Under fair maps they probably still would have held the House from 2014 until now, with only a Democratic majority lasting from 2012 to 2014.

Once again, the GOP could win by playing fairly but they decide to cheat anyway, like always. Hopefully this has the same kind of blowback that their antics with ACA repeal did.

Hm... wonder if Murphy is beatable in PA-18.
 

Ogodei

Member
Rohrbacher's one of the three who *needs* to go to jail before all of this is over, along with Flynn and Manafort. Bigger fish can have more tenuous connections, but those three need to be in jail or there's just no helping this country.
 
Ok so correct me if I'm wrong about this but does anyone remember an article about how NPR was going easier on Trump overall? I wanted to show it to my wife who seemed flabbergasted at first but now is somewhat starting to see it when she listens.
 

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
Rohrbacher's one of the three who *needs* to go to jail before all of this is over, along with Flynn and Manafort. Bigger fish can have more tenuous connections, but those three need to be in jail or there's just no helping this country.

Tom Cotton clearly has some involvement as well based on his rabid defense during the Comey hearings.
 

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
I wonder if the attorney's advice was "we'll just move everything so they can't subpoena it."

Wouldn't this implicate the Trump Organization in all investigations?
 

Holmes

Member
Again, North Dakota was Trump's second best state.
So? People in every state eat up that bipartisanship shit.

Not that I give a crap and you're allowed to dislike Northam but don't act like just because the state voted Democratic that saying "I'll work with the President but keep him accountable" it's a bad strategy. Otherwise you'll have a lot of candidates to complain about next year!
 
So? People in every state eat up that bipartisanship shit.

Not that I give a crap and you're allowed to dislike Northam but don't act like just because the state voted Democratic that saying "I'll work with the President but keep him accountable" it's a bad strategy. Otherwise you'll have a lot of candidates to complain about next year!
It's a terrible strategy and no they don't. The Democratic base doesn't want politicians who work with Trump. The difference is that with Heidi is that her crossover voters are much higher than the Dems who don't want to see her vote with the GOP. This is Virginia!

I don't really want to argue this anymore, but it's a colossal fuck up and absolutely not what the Dem base wants at this point from their elected leaders. Don't give them reasons to stay home.
 

Pyrokai

Member
Just caught up on all the gerrymandering SCOTUS stuff.

I'm cautiously optimistic, but it's so important Kennedy rules the right way.

And just like with the marriage equality case, I'm a little disappointed in John Roberts. I would expect him to be smart enough to realize which way he should rule....but he likely seems to rule for it. Alito, Thomas, and Gorsuch are just stooges, but I've always viewed Roberts as someone with at least a functioning brain.

Oh well. Roberts, don't retire. Ginsburg....Breyer.....don't die. Not at least until after 2020, please.
 
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