I'm cautiously optimistic that something might get done now that there is the vaguest sense of consolidation of parties in either house. Congress is in a position to at least look like they are doing something constructive, which may be better than the gridlock hell that has been occurring. I hope. I haven't been keeping any track of politics lately.
Also, I am in the vaguest sense a Republican. Not a strong one, but a Republican nonetheless. Here's hoping for actual progress and constructive dialogue between the two parties!
Mm, this quote from misko has the ring of truth.
[quotemisko27 link=topic=122640.msg5784982#msg5784982 date=1415165596]
Powder Miner has hit the nail on the head for why this election author=result annoys me (and I am not sitting in the middle. I have TRANSCENDED IT. I'm in the third dimension, skipping the second axis entirely to go to the third. It is beyond mere comprehension; my middle appearance is merely like the passing of a 3d object through a 1d line. (Who do I sound like now?)). This election result does not enable republican policies. It doesn't really enable anything. It's just differently flavored gridlock. They captured the senate guys. Not the "Tyranny by majority" House, The "60 votes or bust" Senate. They have budgets, they have investigative committees, but this is not give the the ability to *do* anything. They'll struggle to even send veto-bait to Obama's desk. Voters simply voted against most powerful person they had to blame (Obama), and thus even though the GOP is constantly rated lower the the democrats in favorability, (Obama's approval rating are low. They are still a full 30% higher then Congress, and 20% higher the the republican's in general) they still win out because of pure geography
Honestly this is probably good for democrats in 2016, which is an infinitely friendlier map than this one (2010 Tea Party wave goes home to angry blue states, along with a presidential election, which traditionally dramatically increases democratic turnout. It's basically the exact opposite of this map). With republicans in control it's now Obama vs. Congress, and Congress is still hated so much more then anything Obama could do. It's not out of partisanship I'm not happy.
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Either it'll be continued gridlock, (republicans started a deadly trend with their perma-filibuster), or it'll just be veto-bait made explicitly to try & make the president & the dems look bad. Preferably both for the republicans, so as to prompt the democrats to do more perma-filibustering & offload the GOP's 'party of nope' label & improve their chances in 2016.
In short, campaigning for 2016 has begun.
Nothing will get done because the president has veto and the republicans don't hold a super-majority.
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Topic: Bay12 Election Night Watch Party (Read 832540 times)