I could give you some music this morning, but here’s what you really need.
A grief counselor.
He’s here to listen. Unburden yourself.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
53 Comments
Recent Posts
- Day 14: Louisiana Senator Approvingly Compares Trump to Stalin
- Day 13: Elon Musk Flexes His Muscles
- Day 12: While Elon Musk Takes Over, We Podcast With Driftglass and Blue Gal
- Day 11: Harm of Fascist Regime’s Foreign Aid Freeze Comes Into View
- Day 10: The Fascist Regime Blames a Plane Crash on Nonwhite People
Folks about to find our just how much of the crazy Harry Reid kept at bay.
And how much we really need Obama to be the guy who killed bin Laden and not the guy who looked for a Grand Bargain.
Aw hell, I knew it was over when people I knew started having emotional breakdowns about ISIS. And then the Ebola scare hit….
When the country is falling into blubbering irrationality, it’s a Republican wave.
Huzzah for us.
I’m in Ohio. My sister is in Florida.
There ain’t enough grief counselors on the planet to fix us.
Is it a coincidence that you chose an image of a sobbing woman who generally looks very much like HRC, Booman?
Just askin’…I think it’s a nice touch, myself. However, if that resemblance did not occur to you…well, then. Sometimes a cigar isn’t a cigar, if y’know what I mean.
Later…
AG
The GOP came out of 2012 and said, “We’re not changing anything.” And then – with the typical midterm dynamic and a favorable map – they crushed it.
Democrats will come out of 2014 and probably “move to the center” because that worked so well for Pryor, Grimes, etc.
We seriously suck at politics.
I hope people know why Rauner won. Because Quinn shit all over his own party’s voters!!! Also, Chicago can’t administer elections for shit(another Democratic Party controlled area!).
Whatever. I can’t get too bummed out about some spineless millionaire senators losing.
Scott Brown lost, that’s a plus.
The only result I’m really pissed about is fucking Rick Scott in Florida. God Damnit.
Other than that, I don’t have a lot of confidence in our nation’s problems being solved through the electoral process so, whatever. Our nation needs like a cultural revolution, a dramatic shift in values. At this point, a few more democratic senators doesn’t make a hell of a lot of difference. Just turn off the cable news. Don’t watch it. It rots your brain.
I will agree that not watching the news is a helpful activity.
Can I just…
How the FUCK does Brownback win re-election? I know…Kansas. But how do you completely fuck up a state and get handed another term? I can see Republicans winning in Texas, because Texas functions the way Republican theory says it should: High growth, high inequality, fuck the poor, we got ours.
But Kansas has seen the complete fruition of Reaganomics and the complete collapse of its finances.
Fucking tribalism…
The same way Rick Snyder, Scott Walker, Rick Scott do. Only Corbett failed to win a second term. And now you can add Illinois to the list.
And then there’s the failure to vet thoroughly in Ohio.
The whole idea of primaries was to be able to vet the candidates publicly. Post-Citizens United even that can be compromised. Any ideas how to conduct that public vetting so that challengers can gain name recognition?
Well, Brownback is going to own those tax cuts and all the government layoffs, lack of employment, and increased child poverty. Four more years of b.s.
Can all the Obama defenders now admit that he really sucks as a national leader?
Oh, he gives terrific speeches, but he never gets his message across to the masses. What do Democrats stand for? What is “Obamacare”? What is in the House-passed GOP budget that everyone under 55 should be frightened of? All of us here could answer that – 90% of Americans can not.
And please don’t go all Lily Ledbetter on me. I’m not saying he’s not progressive – I’m talking about Obama as leader. Which he’s not.
It ain’t about Obama.
Who gives a fuck? Like any message got through the ISIS/Ebola screen.
I don’t usually go full Louis Farrakhan but it’s kinda difficult for a Black man to lead the Klan, regardless of his leadership level.
I’ll blame one thing on Obama re: this election disaster. DWS as DNC head. The rest goes on Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi(for Steve Israel as DCCC head) and the DGA.
Tim Kaine brought us Creigh Deeds, the first “run away from Obama” Democratic candidate and the 2010 debacle. With a huge assist from Rahm’s machine.
It seems that failure is rewarded with promotion.
Thankfully all those Dems distanced themselves from Obama….. otherwise they would have lost by more
The Obama campaign communications shop tends to do well; the White House communications staff from day one has been miserable. And still is. And the White House press corps is openly contemptuous.
What’s his message? In 2007-2008 it was vague enough that it left the door open to him not being within the DLC/neoliberal cabal and enough Democratic primary voters knew that Hillary was of/by/for that cabal and therefore, rejected her.
As he began naming his first cabinet, the truth of what he stood for began to become clear. But his supporters were as blind to that truth as the “Bushies” were. Economically he reprise Hoovernomics. And still the believers couldn’t see and labeled those that could see “Obama haters” or GOP trolls or DFHs. If I’d wanted Romneycare, it would have been easier and cheaper to elect Romney. But DFHs were told that we were letting the perfect get in the way of the good.
Obama’s speeches were initially good (although not the soaring and exceptional rhetoric that his fans proclaimed they were; just better than an ordinary Democratic politician’s which is a low bar.) Then came his Nobel Prize acceptance speech which dispelled any illusion that the man has any vision for a better world. Since then they have been derivative and jam packed with obvious falsehoods and lies. At a purely visceral level, it’s as difficult and painful for me to listen to him as it was to listen to GWB. “Not as bad as GWB” isn’t much of an aspirational legacy and with time will be less of one as the memory of GWB has already faded. Unlike the memory of Hoover that lasted for decades.
He’s got the TPP treaty sewn up with this election, I think.
And the crimes, past and on-going, of the CIA and NSA shall remain classified. Not sure what they’ll do about the PPACA — likely cut out the half-assed decent stuff and leave all the bad stuff in place. But that Social Security Grand Bargain that Obama wants so much will be ever so much easier to get through Congress. Oh, and more wars and military spending; so, McCain and Graham can trumpet that they are Presidential co-equals.
If I’m completely honest with myself, I probably don’t know much better what remains on Obama’s wishlist than I knew in 1997 what was on Clinton’s. Only that whatever it is, it’s not anything I’d support because it will be harmful.
Can we at least never hear of Martha Coakley again?
Is she a GOP mole?
Amen. Charisma matters. Ability to communicate matters. Campaign competence matters.
Already sick to death of the R talking point this morning of ‘now govt can break gridlock and get something done’.
Yet the big question will be, how will the R’s sell the nuts and bolts of their actual governing role? Can McConnell tape shut Cruz’s mouth? dull Ernst’s castrating knife? or even stabilize and unify his own party’s elements? He couldn’t control Cruz last year so my bet is on Cruz this next year.
The GOP govern? What will they do first? Africa travel ban? Repeal Obamacare? Abortion? Right to Work America? Tar sands pipeline? All of which Obama will veto. Let us not forget they will probably shut down the government. Oh, and that Grand Bargain….under the threat of impeachment for immigration exec order, why would Obama reward? The next 2 years will be nothing but political theater.
I’m enjoying Al Franken’s massive victory quite a bit, thank you. And Rick Nolan defeated the trust fund fancy hair guy. You can all continue to cry into your soup.
Udall did better than Bennet according to exit polls, including winning white women by a larger margin. Old people just turned out in higher proportions than even 2010. Give him the 2010 electorate and he won.
Just wanted that out there so the “women’s issues” don’t get thrown under the bus.
Right, the problem was that this was his ONLY issue.
The problem with the old fart voters is that they are set for life. The GOP is trying to end the medicare guarantee for those 55 and younger and to make health insurance for everyone not on medicare both extremely expensive and difficult-to–impossible to attain without a decent job. Old farts and military retirees (as young as age 40) just keep reliably voting Republican knowing that their Medicare and gold-plated TriCare are theirs forever so they can just vote a big FU to the blahs.
Jim Garrison said in 1967 that fascism will come to America in the name of national security. It has. Now you know what it looks like.
Hickenlooper hung on in Colorado – so at least we get to keep the Medicare expansion for 4 more years and we won’t have any scenes of Colorado National Guard trying to seize federal lands. No, I’m not making this up, the GOP candidate actually proposed that during the campaign yet the media ignored it.
Alas, the rest of Colorado is going GOP. We can expect the SoS to keep trying to wipe Democrats off of the voter rolls and the Treasurer to keep trying to rig the tax system in favor of the GOP. The legislature is no doubt going to pass all the Wisconsin/Michigan type of ALEC legislation and Hickenlooper to veto them.
The personhood (read: ban abortion) amendment was creamed by 2-to-1. Even in far-right Colorado Springs it fell to a narrow margin. Which is weird. Colorado Springs is so fanatically Republican that most local elections go uncontested and those which do have a Democrat rarely get more than 40% for the Democrat, usually a lot less. This suggests that there are a LOT of faithful GOP voters who don’t buy into the pro-life hype. Yet they keep voting GOP ….
The GMO labeling amendment also was creamed 2-to-1. Progressive issues except Gay Rights basically have no money behind them in the US so are never heard.
A blatant casino power grab amendment that was dressed in “money for the schools” clothes was also wiped out. This shows that even a super well-funded campaign will lose badly if the word-of-mouth is effective.
Locally, El Paso County (Colorado Springs) voters soundly defeated a stormwater infrastructure funding measure by the usual GOP-over-Dem ratio. Again, GOP voters want nice things but don’t think they should have to pay for them. However, a parks-trails measure did pass, surprisingly, but mostly because it was not a new tax – the purpose was to keep the right-wing commissioners from raiding the funds already set aside for the purpose.
very good to hear
The five stages of grief for dead donkey are:
These are not necessarily sequential; you can show up in these states in any order. You can show up in multiple states at once, like anger-bargaining-depression-acceptance (intellectual).
But it is the donkey, not the elephant that is dead.
The DC Beltway society has finally shed itself of us troubling dirty fucking hippie progressive peacenik do-gooders who expect government to function like the US Constitution and all good civics course say that it does. (Not that it should, but that it does.)
It is now officially the United $tate$ of America, starting and ending with money.
Time to start finding the spaces for survival in the hidden interstices of a failing oligarchy and empire.
If you find a large cardboard box, set it aside for me and the spouse please, somewhere where the cops who clean the rubbish off the street won’t see us. Because the safety net is about to be whittled back to nothing. And the few politicians of good faith (there are one or two, right?) will have the horror of witnessing it happening and having no power to stop it.
The donkey took a nap, and the donkey is now dead.
We now know how the Federalists felt in 1816 and the Whigs in 1850.
Not contesting the 2016 election could destroy the Republican Party as well and force a realignment.
Imagine what would happen if the entire Congressional Democratic caucuses changed affiliation to be Republicans. That in one stroke ends the Hastert rule in the House. Yes, that’s the same strategy that Gorbachev used to destroy the American Empire. Call last night Gorbachev’s revenge.
See how it works.
But, the donkey is still dead.
I wish you were exaggerating.
Look, over the last 4 years the GOP House actually voted some crazy number of times to end the Medicare guarantee of health insurance for people 55 and under and replace it with a government “coupon” or “voucher” for some amount to be purchased on the open market. The idea that someone 65 or older could get affordable health insurance on an open market is crazy – even if you are in the minority at that age who doesn’t have pre-existing conditions your age says that you are a high risk customer and will have to pay sky-high premiums. Yet, not only did average people refuse to believe this was happening because it was so crazy, the powers that be in Washington saw nothing wrong with it. One of the biggest “fact-checking” web sites actually labeled the attempt to point out what was in the GOP bills the “lie of the year” – in part because the fact-checkers assumed that this provision would get changed before it ever became law.
What will happen is that eventually this will become law – it is part of the long-term GOP plan to end the serfs dependence on government via Social Security and Medicare and the wise elders in Washington see this as a necessary part of the “shared sacrifice” the country needs. 10 years later the first retirees will find that they aren’t covered and it will get little national news coverage and quickly people will just accept this as the new reality – just like all those Walmart workers just accept that they get treated like crap for pennies and need to apply for food stamps to scrape by and if they get a serious illness need to set up a facebook page to ask for donations to pay medical costs – and then go vote GOP because of whatever reason the GOP tells them.
Eventually it ends badly. All Gilded Ages do. Karl Marx’s theories are generally held in contempt these days in part because his proposed solution was deeply flawed and in part because his die-hard adherents are basically impossible to stomach. However, the reason he was a legitimate great theorist is that his analysis of capitalism was dead on, even if his prescription for fixing it was at least as bad as what it was to replace. He saw that capitalist societies go through cycles. At the start of the cycle, after some catastrophic event that reset everything, there are lots of needs and lots to do and the economy is strong and everyone benefits. People become used to 20% year-over-year profit growth and expect it. But when the boom times end the expectations continue. The way the business leaders continue to keep making those profits is through what Marx called in the 19th century “swindling” – but regardless of the name used basically they fix the system. Change the laws, redesign the system, whatever it takes to keep the profits growing exponentially. We see it today with how boards and CEOs of public companies funnel the funds of those companies to themselves – in how government now funnels large amounts of funds to campaign backers, whether via charter schools or military corporations.
Over time, of course, the lower classes get poorer and have less buying power. Over time the actual economy (as opposed to the accounting economy, which generates paper profits via things like “Finance”) stagnates. Eventually it’s like a pyramid scheme and it collapses. The capitalist system can withstand a number of such collapses – as we did in 2008 – with government bailouts of the most powerful, but eventually the whole system collapses completely without recovery. During the process all but a few suffer greatly.
Sadly, Marx in this way predicted the Great Depression and predicted the subsequent rise and now fall of the next capitalist era.
Your over reacting Tarheel. Never forget that this cycle was an uphill fight from the get go.
My whole voting life has been an uphill fight from the get go. I am not overreacting. I have seen the complete dissolution of the state Democratic Party in North Carolina, one that for decades was noted for being progressive and brought good schools to North Carolina. Increased corruption and narrow business orientation and distance from the public.
This cycle was an uphill fight from the get go because of nothing was built on previous cycles’ victories. And because, the people that we fought to elect did not fight once in office.
I think we need to stop fighting to elect corporate lame asses. We need some true believers.
Here’s the deal….
Sometime in the not too distant future hispanics will be the majority of this country.
Sometime before that Minorities will be the majority
Sometime before that the “current Democratic Coalition” will be the majority.
I’d still rather be in our position then theirs. It will be chaotic. But with that chaos comes opportunity. I’d love for Liberals to position themselves to be able to take advantage of that opportunity.
Liberals need to band together and make sure a Liberal is the Democratic nominee in 2016. The missed opportunity would be catastrophic if we don’t.
The African-American Republican running for the Senate in SC received more votes than Graham did. Latino Republicans were re-elected as governors in NV and NM. And how many Catholics are there in the right wing cabal of the Supreme Court?
Minorities and millenials aren’t going to solve anything — enough will join the enemy and use their status within their own groups to advance their careers and serve the elites.
From Vetwife at dKos
Democrats crushed hope in 1972. Democrats crushed “good enough” in 1980. An ethically and morally challenged, narcissist crushed Democratic aspirations in 1993. Dean gave me hope in late 2002 — Democrats crushed him, but he was just tough enough to orchestrate the Democratic takeover of Congress. Then Obama crushed him.
There have always been bad times and bad election results, and people have suffered as a result of those, but eventually the times pass. It’s just sad for those of us today because the progressive movement has been in retreat/retrench mode for 34 years now, the Gay Rights movement being the notable exception. A few victories here and there – ACA being the most notable – but mostly losses and it’s not clear how long those victories will hold. We’ve had a few moments of celebration – 1992 and 2008, to a lesser extent 1986 and 2006 – a a few moments of relief (1996, 2012). But those have been very few. And the promise of 1992 and again of 2008 mostly fell flat, in both cases with record-breaking electoral defeats in the House just 2 years later. Meanwhile, whenever in power the GOP made huge gains reshaping national, state, and local laws and taking over the judiciary while the Democrats have been far less successful doing the same while they were in power.
I’m sure there is a analogy about rooting for an under-performing sports team there somewhere.
We know the root of the problems. 1) The chaotic nature of the Democratic message machine (to the degree that it exists at all) – basically while the GOP backers spend a lot of money crafting messages and strategies the Democratic money is basically spent on consultants and campaigns without any long-term thinking or overarching plan. And the one guy who did have a plan – Howard Dean – was hated by most of the Democratic party elders. 2) The massive money behind the GOP – a self-multiplying power because the GOP changes laws to give those backers even more power.
Unfortunately, this time is probably different than all those past eras of failure because we’re confronted with an environmental challenge that, if not dealt with immediately, will certainly lead to a global mass extinction event with the next 2 or 3 centuries. And equally unfortunately, these election results, and all the contributing causes thereof, only serve to strengthen the theory that humans are incapable as a species to organize to prevent that mass extinction.
Somebody needs to poor a bucket of ice water on this guy.
Here’s what good hope I have about last night:
All things Ferguson.
Protestors marched to the site of the Stenger (democratic?) victory party and crashed it. He won the St Louis Co. Executive Supervisor race. There were several arrests as they screamed so loudly his acceptance speech could barely be heard. Voters who are not compliant. Voters who demand the right to actively oppose after an election.
The defeat of Jeff Roorda for MO State Senate. Roorda is the Business Manager of the St Louis Co Police Union and vehemently against police body and vehicle cameras. Roorda is an up and coming democratic politician in Missouri which means there is no democratic Democratic Party in the New Jim Crow South.
There were more than 10,800 write-in votes against the St Louis County prosecuting attorney Bob McCullouh who ran unopposed. Again there is no democratic Democratic Party in MO.
I want us to be citizens who demand the right to actively oppose “representatives” after an election.
Thank you, I was wondering what happened out there.
-sigh-
the problem we have is the electorate, which is ill-informed, impatient, and doesn’t exactly know what it wants. We also have two parties that are, in their own way, unable (and in many cases, unwilling) to address the problems we face as a nation. I am unhappy, but unsurprised, at the results.
I have particular animosity toward Grimes, who seems to have turned her campaign into a shitty DLC “run away from being a Democrat” campaign. But other than that, I’m not surprised.
They count the votes.
Liberals/ Progressives need to Tea Party the Democratic party. It’s the only way.
I say, where we are able, we should have one foot with the Green Party and one foot with the Dems. We can’t simply rely on a DLC type to convey a Liberal vision for moving the country forward. And a Liberal vision is exactly what this country is going to need to survive and prosper moving forward. That, i believe is why we have turn out problems. We can’t keep relying on voters turning out because we claim the other team is filled with evil bug-fuckers (though they are)
We need to have these voters voting FOR something. Thats the danger of Hillary btw. We’ll still win in 2016, but i swear she’ll Mark Warner us and it will be closer than it needs to be.
There are lessons to be learned from the Tea Party. We don’t need their tri-corn hats, but we sure could use their discipline. These geriatrics literally are able to shove a crap message down the throats of the American people because they don’t waver. They preach the same thing over and over to the point that some of the American people gladly vote for policies that will hurt them in the long and short term.
Imagine if we were on message to that point. Most liberal policies poll extremely well. It’s time to get serious about liberalism. Either our policies are worth fighting for or there not. I think the casual voter can tell many of us aren’t serious about what we claim to believe in. Honestly, if we were, then why would we blindly vote for a party that pretends to be incompetent and pulls its punches?
I would like to see a test of running a full-throated progressive populist democrat in a Congressional District that the Democratic establishment passed on. My first wish list is TX-01 to take down Louis Goehmert by focusing on what he hasn’t done for his district while acting out crazy on the TV.
It would take some careful campaign strategy, but there is likely someone in TX-01 capable of more than an “I’m a moderate” challenge. Someone angry enough with the local powers that be. And who can be cleared in scrupulous vetting. Out of the 660,000 or so citizens of TX-01, is there not one person capable of beating Louis Goehmert as a progressive populist?
I want to see that too. To pull off drafting that person though, we’d need some eyes in the area. I’ve never been.
And how much would it cost to run? If we could get a person who was a millennial, we likely could crowd source their campaign. A tech/gamer type who was a good communicator would be perfect.
At least Carpetbagger Brown lost to Shaheen in New Hampshire.
Yes, a Republican won the governorship in Massachusetts — not a big surprise, given his opponent was Coakley, who could win statewide as a technocratic Attorney General but simply hasn’t the charisma and people skills (not to mention towering height) to be the first woman governor here — but the Dems ran the table on all the other statewide offices, by comfortable margins, and the legislature is massively blue, which will keep ol’ Charlie from doing much damage in the corner office.
Plus, Seth Moulton held John Tierney’s seat in Congress by a comfortable margin, beating an openly gay Republican who’s been a long-term and well-liked, personable state legislator who damn near beat Tierney in 2012.
Also, while the voters, given four initiatives, rejected expanding the bottle bill and repealed a law raising the gas tax, they did approve a measure expanding paid sick leave for employees previously not covered by it.
This doesn’t help you all stuck out there outside my safely blue enclave, but it could’ve been worse here, too.
Oh, and a columnist for the Boston Globe indulges in some tongue-in-cheek praising of Massachusetts Republicans: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2014/11/04/dear-america-our-republicans-are-better-th
an-yours-love-massachusetts/QT7O7N9BxAYNDiN7iqaezN/story.html
If only I knew that Kentucky Connect was really Obamacare not just a website.