The Many Faces of US Politics...

[screenexile]

We'll be having a look at those dodgy tax returns now Donald thank you!!!

[seafoid]

Cruz held on and Gillum beaten in Some of the big name races.
Country divided along racial wealth and education levels

Gillum was very close though

What is really interesting is to almost total purge of non Trumpists from the GOP. Flake, corker retired for example.
They are basically saying fukc you to the moderates who they need in the presidential elections to get over the line.
And they didn't campaign on the economy
Hard to see Trump winning in 2020

[Denn Forever]

Times they are a'changing.  The election has also seen two Muslim women, two Native American women, one of whom is gay, elected

[Rossfan]

Will the election results give rise to more outrages by white male anglo saxon protestant gun nuts?

[AZOffaly]

Will the election results give rise to more outrages by white male anglo saxon protestant gun nuts?

I don't think the election results were that comprehensive were they? I was watching CNN as the results were coming in and the consensus was that this was a good night for the Dems in the House of Reps, but a bad night in the Senate. GOP won a bigger majority in the Senate. They also won most of the Governor elections I think?

It's good to have a counter balance in Congress, but I don't think this constitutes a 'Blue Wave'

[seafoid]

Just like there was never a Catholic Prime Minister or First Minister of NI or a Palestinian prime minister of Israel there has never been a Native American US State Governor. Settlers are the same everywhere.

[gallsman]

The f**king California 48th going blue.

[seafoid]

Just like there was never a Catholic Prime Minister or First Minister of NI or a Palestinian prime minister of Israel there has never been a Native American US State Governor. Settlers are the same everywhere.

[seafoid]

Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota and South Dakota each have one House Seat because of very low population. About 1% of House votes.
They have 8 Senate seats in total. 4%
And in a polarised system they guarantee GOP influence beyond its vote percentage.
As does gerrymandering.

[sid waddell]

Cruz held on and Gillum beaten in Some of the big name races.
Country divided along racial wealth and education levels

Gillum was very close though

What is really interesting is to almost total purge of non Trumpists from the GOP. Flake, corker retired for example.
They are basically saying fukc you to the moderates who they need in the presidential elections to get over the line.
And they didn't campaign on the economy
Hard to see Trump winning in 2020

I think it's more likely the Democrats will win the White House in 2020. But the problem for them is that it's hard to see how they can take back the senate in the near future because the Republicans have an inbuilt advantage for the simple reason that there are more red-leaning states than blue-leaning states and the make up of the senate is increasingly aligning with how states vote in presidential elections, with very few exceptions.

If the current patterns continue, future Democratic presidents won't have the senate on their side, whereas any future Republican presidents will.

That means that a Democratic president will find it very difficult to get any future Supreme Court justices confirmed and pretty much impossible to implement much needed healthcare reform, given that the Republicans are only interested in obstructionism of a Democratic president.

It'll take some states permanently flipping from red to blue to change things. Texas, Georgia and Arizona could flip blue in the future, but that's still a good way away yet.

Gridlock awaits and it's difficult to see how that'll be negated.

The behaviour of the Republican party over the last decade in particular (in reality you could go back much further than that) has exposed a massive flaw in the US political system. When one party are effectively political terrorists and have an inbuilt advantage in one branch of the federal government, nothing can get done, and the people suffer.

[RedHand88]

The Senate system is in place to stop one party focusing on urban centres. Democrats have largely ignored the rural states and now pay the price.

[sid waddell]

The Senate system is in place to stop one party focusing on urban centres. Democrats have largely ignored the rural states and now pay the price.

Bullshit. The Republican agenda works most against those in rural states but they win those because they decided to make politics about race and culture and fear and hatred and appeal to the very worst in humanity, rather than make it about actual real issues, where they are totally bankrupt.

People in these states routinely vote against their own interests. Look at Iowa, where the economy completely depends on Mexican labour, yet you have white supremacist sc**bag Steve King shouting to deport the very labour on which that state depends. Rinse and repeat elsewhere. They are political sewer dwellers.

It's the people in these very states that would most benefit from your standard Democratic agenda of a national health service, labour laws etc.

A large proportion of the US has simply lost its mind and has openly embraced fascism, and it's hijacking the majority who have not.

Look at Illinois 3 - an actual Nazi and Holocaust denier got 26% of the vote. That kind of outright hatred has completely infested the mainstream of the Republican party.

The rest of the world looks on with horror because American fascism is very real and it's very dangerous for the world.

[whitey]

Kavanaugh carry on just cost the Democrats about 5 senate seats.....delighted at last nights result

Keep her lit

[Gabriel_Hurl]

Kavanaugh carry on just cost the Democrats about 5 senate seats.....delighted at last nights result

Keep her lit

https://twitter.com/dril/status/134787490526658561?lang=en

[easytiger95]

Some perspective here - Tea Party Revolution in 2010 saw Republicans win the midterms by 6.7 percent - net gain of 68 House Seats. They then, in conjunction with governors and state legislators used redistricting rules to gerrymander the electoral map.

The result is that though the Dems this year have outperformed 2010 (7% rather than 6.7) they seem set for a seat gain of max 30 or so.

They were also facing an incredibly difficult Senate Map - which 538 had consistently called as only a 1 in 7  chance of the Dems taking it back.

Dems put a lot of faith in their "rock star" candidates - too much. Abrams was trying to become the first black woman to govern Georgia, Gillum's primary win was a big shock and the only reason that the polls were so close was that De Santis was such a racist clutz, and Beto was consistently rated as only a 1 in 5 chance to beat Cruz. Yet the expectation around all three was unrealistic and no one should be throwing themselves out the window because they lost (and Abrams is still in it - if she makes it to a run off, then the Georgia Supreme Court will have to reinstate those voters they said had been suppressed but it was too close to the election for that decision to be implemented - could be even closer in December).

Reasons for Dems to be cheerful -

They have the House and subpoena power - let the games begin!

They have flipped 7 governorships so far - they can begin to unravel the Republican gerrymander, with a clear majority of Americans in Democratic run states

They have picked up State House and Senate seats all over the country - which again will be crucial to stop vote suppression but will also be important in putting in infrastructure for 2020

Trump won white women in 2016 - he lost them by a lot last night - without them, it becomes very difficult to plot a path to reelection. It will be made even more difficult by states like Michigan and Wisconsin going Democratic as they did last night.

Very strong, very solid performance and the Dems can look forward to putting in the reforms that will see them getting greater returns for the same type of turnout in future elections.