The Future, as it must, has defeated The Past.
Obama winning is important. His presidency being both historic AND successful is important to the narrative of history. But, more immediately, American voters have – whether by intent or incident – protected the Supreme Court from anti-choice, anti-science nominees for another four years and maybe longer… NOTHING was more important than that.
However, other things of profound importance were either decided or are in the process of being decided tonight. Among them:
Puerto Rico has voted, for the first time, “YES” on a non-binding referendum stating that they wish to become the 51st full member-state of The United States of America. Both Obama and Romney were on record as saying that they support and would sign off on the change, but if this really does get to the U.S. Congress expect a massive fight from Republicans – the zealously anti-Hispanic Tea Party wing of the GOP will not support a predominantly-Latino Spanish-speaking territory becoming an American State. In a very real way, this could be the biggest thing that happened tonight.
Marijuana has been legalized or semi-legalized in at least three more states than before by solid margins. This is the beginning of the end for Marijuana prohibition.
When the next session begins, more Women will sit in the U.S. Senate than ever before.
One of those aforementioned women, Tammy Baldwin (Democrat, Wisconsin) is also the first openly-gay woman to be elected in U.S. Senate history.
Four states had gay marriage legalization ballot initiatives on their ballots. Previously, such initiatives have either lost or won AGAINST marriage-equality 30 times with no victories. Tonight, all four were affirmed. The tide is changing.
Here in Massachusetts, archetypal preening alpha-male bully Scott Brown was trounced by Progressive firebrand Elizabeth Warren – kiss my actual working-class Boston guy ASS, Scotty.
The down side to all of this is that there will be no “wakeup call” to the Republican Party. The spin tomorrow morning will be that Romney lost because he was too moderate, not a “real” Christian and not a “real” conservative; and the push will be on to run a true believer next time. They will only become more intractable, more fundamentalist and more committed.
But, still, little by little we are improving. With each battle won over the forces of “tradition,” anachronism and superstition; persons of open-mind get one step closer to building the Superior America that we both need and – to be frank – deserve for the 21st Century.
MOVIEBOB CENTRAL 
@Matt
“Both parties are at fault, like it or not, and both need to get with reality. but, the party in power ALWAYS, take the brunt of the blame, historicly speaking. If the dems and obama fail in the next four years, regardless of if the REPS do anything or not, they will still take the blame, and the reps will likely sweep congress and the White house.”
If the GOP can guarantee that the Dems take the blame for anything bad that happens, that's one hell of an incentive for a hyperpartisan Republican to obstruct any legislation aimed at economic recovery and then reap the rewards later. We've already seen that even historically low approval ratings won't get the GOP kicked out of the House, so Boehner and company have no reason to allow any deal to happen that would save the economy from going off the fiscal cliff. From your perspective as a Republican (voter), is there anything that makes you think they won't do just that?
“Entitments, HAVE TO GO DOWN!”
Agreed. In particular, I support raising the Social Security and Medicare recipient age by at least five years. Unfortunately, as millions of seniors have planned their retirements with the current system in mind, it would either take many years before we could see any returns from such a move (by grandfathering them in and slowly pushing the age up by maybe one year of age for every two or three years that pass), or else we'd be cutting a lot of them off, at a time when medical costs continue to skyrocket across the board. This should have been dealt with ten years ago, back when the GOP had the White House and Congress for four straight years. It would have been a lot less painful than it would be now with a divided Congress and partisan gamesmanship worse than ever.
Social Security and Medicare costs are far greater than unemployment insurance, BTW, and growing more expensive at a far greater rate. And if you cut unemployment payments BEFORE the economy recovers, you're gonna be making life a lot more unpleasant for anyone not living in a gated community. Unemployment funding is something that should be saved for after the two biggies are dealt with.
Defense spending is another one that should be among the first cut. It's one of the biggest, and there's no good reason why it should be so high. Romney's pledge to jack that up far higher was one of the most irresponsible things I recall him uttering. What do you expect Congressional Republicans will do if Obama calls for deep cuts?
“Lastly, we need to Seperate the social Ideals of the left from the Economic realities of the right, and address them one at a time”
Sounds like you want to vote Libertarian. Is there anything in their platform you strongly disagree with?
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Well andrew, to be honest, I don't expect the Reps to do anyhting but be hard line hitters and I don't like it myself, but I know it's what they will do. THe reps are angry, bitter, and resent the situatoin, and will fight tooth and nail to get there way or stymie the dems. It's up to Obama to find a way to unify them.
You and I agree on Social and medicare, and on Unemployment, its one of those things that sometimes breaks me from republican norms in that I support it's use, though I have concerns about it's current implementation.
If obama calls for deep cuts, i think he's overreaching, but I think he can make some cuts, and be careful about what he targets for cuts, I think he can do a good job of reducing Defense, without hurting our militaries abilities.
As far as voting Libertarian, to be honest, the most I understand about there supposed ideals is what I learn from bioshock, and lets be honoest, NOT the best way to judge political philosphy.
I probably sound like them cause Im a practical man, not a greedy or ambitious man. I think thats why I have such strange views or a republican/ conservitive. Economicaly, Im pretty in line with them, though I have some areas I diverge from them on. Socially, the best I can muster in terms of the so called Right wing Outrage is , as Yahtzee put it, “Couldn't be ARsed to CARE”.
Seriously, Lets deal with the Economic problem first, then, then, we get into the social battles.
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@anon
Some libertarians support a safety net:
http://www.coopersmallergovernment.com/general-philosophy
http://marketliberal.org/GovtRole.html
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However angry some people might be about the results of this election, they can't beat this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLoqti0lzAw
For everyone else, this is pure entertainment.
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“If the GOP can guarantee that the Dems take the blame for anything bad that happens, that's one hell of an incentive for a hyperpartisan Republican to obstruct any legislation aimed at economic recovery and then reap the rewards later“
I'd go as far as saying that this is the assumption which explains the behavior of the GOP during the last four years.
They assumed that people would be either
A) Too stupid to notice the obvious sabotage of the economy
B) Submissive enough too capitale and resign themselves to republican rule.
***
“We've already seen that even historically low approval ratings won't get the GOP kicked out of the House“
That's because they cheated
Seriously: 70 to 75% of the elected representative in states which voted more for Democrats than for Republicans?
*
Not a week ago, some right-wingers were saying “You'll see what you'll see: If Obama wins the Electoral College after losing the vote, there will be a revolution!”. In fact, during the election night, Trump started to fill tweeter with calls for a violent uprising (at least until one of his lawyer told him that this kind of the stuff is precisely what earned Anwar Awlaki a visit from killer drones.)
Go we ear the same sort of fiery outrage at the GOP losing the popular vote and keeping the House? Helloooooooooooooooooooo?
***
“Defense spending is another one that should be among the first cut. It's one of the biggest, and there's no good reason why it should be so high“
There are plenty of military bases and military-industrial complex's factories in republican leaning districts. Corporate welfare for these companies translates into (socially-useless) jobs which in turns translates into republican votes.
And this is not new: when Clinton decided that, since the cold war was over, some military bases would have to go, he provoked an early freak-out from politicians elected in army-dependant districts.
***
“Lastly, we need to Seperate the social Ideals of the left from the Economic realities of the right, and address them one at a time“
If there is one thing that the last four years demonstrated, it's that reality and math have a liberal bias. The only reason the US economy did not collapse was because Obama refused to allow the GOP to force austerity.
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@Nixou
At that last part, I refer to Cyrus' first comment above in response to me.
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@Matt
“Well andrew, to be honest, I don't expect the Reps to do anyhting but be hard line hitters and I don't like it myself, but I know it's what they will do. THe reps are angry, bitter, and resent the situatoin, and will fight tooth and nail to get there way or stymie the dems. It's up to Obama to find a way to unify them.”
If this is how you feel, how could you possibly support the Republican party? Did you only vote for Romney because you thought the only way you'd see compromise is if the GOP controlled everything, and the Dems would be bullied into not obstructing them? Did you vote for a Republican Congressman?
If Obama doesn't manage to convince House Republicans to support his reforms, do you think he SHOULD be blamed for that? It takes two to agree. If the minority party refuses to accept anything short of everything they want, that doesn't make the majority party responsible for the lack of compromise. The GOP doesn't get to be the majority party if they lose the elections, but their behavior suggests they see only two scenarios: total Republican control, or no governance whatsoever. That is not the mark of a party that has any business existing in a democracy. That is the mark of a one-party system.
Given how reasonably you've argued here, I don't see how you could possibly support such people.
“As far as voting Libertarian, to be honest, the most I understand about there supposed ideals is what I learn from bioshock, and lets be honoest, NOT the best way to judge political philosphy.”
You can be a Libertarian and not be a Randian. Even if the Libertarian party somehow took the White House, they wouldn't turn the country into an anarcho-capitalist collective, they'd have to compromise same as any other party. But they would have the mandate to set the agenda, and the other parties would have to be content to moderate the ruling party's agenda. Government spending and taxation would both be pared down considerable, but you wouldn't see society collapse while the 1% go off to live on some floating island in the sky.
You DO sound to me like a Libertarian. I convinced my best friend to switch his vote from Romney to Gary Johnson. I don't support a Libertarian country, but I wouldn't mind seeing a Libertarian in the White House. I'd vote that way if I felt they had a reasonable shot at shaking up the two-party system.
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Nixou:
>I'd go as far as saying that this is the assumption which explains the behavior of the GOP during the last four years.
>They assumed that people would be either
>A) Too stupid to notice the obvious sabotage of the economy
It's politically impossible to do anything other than sabotage the economy.
>If there is one thing that the last four years demonstrated, it's that reality and math have a liberal bias. The only reason the US economy did not collapse was because Obama refused to allow the GOP to force austerity.
What austerity was the GOP peddling?
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@Cyrus
While there's nothing I can find for what either of them say on the matter for either, I want to clarify about our discussion about science, according to Allison Singer, former executive vice president of communications and awareness for Autism Speaks who left because of the opinion of the higher ups in the group about vaccine research, In general, I disagree with a policy that says, 'Despite what this study shows, more studies should be done.” At some point, you have to say, 'This question has been asked and answered and it's time to move on.' We need to be able to say, 'Yes, we are now satisfied that the earth is round.'”
I'll still refer Nixou to your post because it still holds, by and large, to the social sciences.
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@Zeno
What's the Portland Massacre?
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@Nixou
“That's because they cheated
Seriously: 70 to 75% of the elected representative in states which voted more for Democrats than for Republicans?”
God bless Gerrymandering. It's not corruption; it's free speech. Just like everything else we're doing to ruin the system.
http://pjmedia.com/zombie/2010/11/11/the-top-ten-most-gerrymandered-congressional-districts-in-the-united-states/
Do these look like reasonable Congressional districts to you?
For those overseas or otherwise not in-the-know: THIS is why Congress is messed up. Congressmen are allowed to advocate re-drawing their district's borders so that demographically-favorable neighborhoods remain with them, and unfavorable ones are removed. This allows Congressmen to keep their seats and for each party to guarantee a certain number of seats in each state, no matter what they do while in office.
And they keep doing it. It's getting worse.
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did u see Rush Limabugh's crying on his stupid radio show?
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@Jake:
http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=portland+massacre
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@Zeno
I did and can't find it, douche.
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@Jake:
That's odd, I used an intermediary that's supposed to make sure my search history isn't taken into account and this was the first result I got:
http://reason.com/archives/2006/07/07/the-portland-plank-massacre-of
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“What austerity was the GOP peddling?“
T'was the “Cut the taxes then balance the budget by slashing everything that does not benefit exclusively to our voters” part of their platform, otherwise known as the Ryan Plan.
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@Zeno
I apologize for calling you a douche, I thought you were mocking me for being lazy.
Other than that, is the article the event you were referring to, or was it a real massacre?
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@ Andrew
Well, like I said, I voted for rommney, I never said, I voted Straight party line. though truthfully my votes fall that way, but not cause I follow republicans blindly, but because often, they have the platforms and policies I support personaly. At the end of the day, I vote 4 subjects 90 perfect of the time.
1st amendment.
2nd Amenmdment.
Economy
Internet and Technological Freedom.
Those are my big subjects.
And while some times the reps really piss me off on the 4th item, on all other three, i tend to agree with them, even when I have concerns about the gridlock in congress.
I wont put the dems in full charge when I belive there polices would bring ruin to those things i hold most dear polticialy.
On your second statment, let me remind you, i never said that I feel obama SHOULD be blamed if the Reps stonewall him. I simply pointed out, tha as president, it's his JOB to get things working.
If he Fails, the blame will fall on him, regardless. Even if he really doesn't deserve it, you know thats true.
I don't like his policies, and I don't trust his leadership, but I don't blame him exclusively for the issues the country faces.
But he will be the one held accuontable, along with the dems, when 2016 rolls around
I think both sides need to drop the posturing, drop the idealogy, and deal with Reality.
I also think, neither side, will till they both get a sizable Beating or two in elections. Which is why 2016 will be the sea change so to speak. When the Dems gets pasted after having had such support or so long, as I think they will, alot of people on the left will be thinking it's time to change stance. Just as I think, right now, the right is considering the same, but not willing to admit it yet to avoid angering the base. They will wait, till that time rolls around, then start an campaign to change there image.
Course, if by that time CNN, MSNBC, and other magjor Networks have gone the Way of current tv, or have changed the bias enough to save themselves and take a bite outta foxs market, that might help as well. Just a thought.
Now, As for Libertarian, maybe, who knows, I don't, i vote Issues and policy, not idealogy, least in most cases.
Still, iv'e rather enjoyed our chats, it's nice to speak to someone on the subject without it getting uglier and uglier as time goes on you know.
But I'll tell you this, the election I would love to see, the one thing I want to happen, is I want to See Bloomberg taken out of office.
Seriously, I think he's INSANE for number of reasons, but in particular, his 2nd amendment stance infuriates me.
But I best stop there,cause thats a subject I do get heated about, along with first amendments issues.
So, Lemme know what you think, catch you later.
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Nixou:
>T'was the “Cut the taxes then balance the budget by slashing everything that does not benefit exclusively to our voters” part of their platform, otherwise known as the Ryan Plan.
Except the Ryan Plan doesn't even do that. Under that regime, in no year is spending less than the year before, and the budget doesn't get balanced until 2039! And that's only because he assumes that GDP growth averages 4%, inflation stays under 2%, that the yield on the the 10-year Treasury stays below 4%, and that unemployment gets to 2.8% by the end of the decade.
It's fucking fantasyland. Did you know that using the same metrics that we used back in 1980 inflation is currently at 10% and unemployment is over 22.5%? Do you think it's any coincidence that every time they revise the statistics they make the economy look better than it did previously?
In the late 90s the Fed switched from using an arithmetic mean to a geometric mean to calculate the CPI. How stupid do they think we are? In chapter two, CHAPTER TWO, of Calculus by Spivak the reader is asked to prove that a geometric mean is always less than or equal to an arithmetic mean!
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Jake:
>Other than that, is the article the event you were referring to,
Si senor.
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No one won this election. Just like no one could have won the last. This country is broken and divided. The electoral system once again proved to be a total joke.
This government is a joke, a bunch of rich liars fighting each other for votes. Obama spins his little lies and every Dem clamors about how progressive and amazing he is.
Romney sits spouting the same bullshit as his opponent and the Republicans do the exact same thing.
You know what I've heard 30+ times since the election? “I'm glad we elected Obama, I'd rather have a *Good* man than a *business* man.”
No one talking about how you chose burning over drowning. This country is doomed. Not because of the silver tongued politicians who buy their seats with fancy ads and expensive wordsmiths.
But because we're all fucking idiots. Every last one of us. Too shortsighted to see the real problems that plague us. A possible conflict in the middle east, the dwindling resources, the sad state of world-wide cooperation, and ever present environmental problems.
Of course we're all crying about legalizing weed. Bitching about how I don't get treated the same as a white guy when I go to McDonald's or apply for welfare. Crying that our government needs more minorities and gays in seats of power.
Instead of looking ahead more and more of the country look to now. Who cares about creating more jobs in clean energy? Who gives a rats ass about trying to get the next generation interested in math and science.
At least I can go light up. Maybe they'll let me use my EBT card to buy a pack of marijuana cigarettes.
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Here in MN, we ALMOST got rid of that horrible witch Bachmann. It got so close. That, and we DID get rid of that idiot Cravaack.
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“anti-choice”
Bob, go fuck yourself.
There's a conversation to be had on abortion. But NO conversation will be had when you reprehensibly strawman the other side's platform.
“but if this really does get to the U.S. Congress expect a massive fight from Republicans – the zealously anti-Hispanic Tea Party wing of the GOP will not support a predominantly-Latino Spanish-speaking territory becoming an American State. In a very real way, this could be the biggest thing that happened tonight”
Christ in hell! Bob, go fuck yourself.
I'm not sure if this qualifies me for the 'bullying' you talked about earlier, but if it is, then so be it, because it's something that needs to be said. GO FUCK YOURSELF
Rick Santorum–who was a major Tea Party candidate–said that PR becoming the 51st state would be just fine as long as they all learn English (as in, English becomes standard school curriculum). Because everyone being able to understand each other is key in unity.
I mean for FUCK'S sake, Mr. Chipman, you're a proponent of minimizing state power and emphasizing federal power, why wouldn't you be in favor of Puerto Rico learning English? What do you think they're not smart enough to learn another language? What are you anti-hispanic or something Mister Race-card-playing Assface?
I love you video games/movie/culture commentary so, SO much, so I don't see why you have to be so… mislead on politics.
I mean it's not that you have no idea what the issues are; sometimes you are right on the mark.
It just seems like your sole problem is that you have no clue what conservatives (or anyone you disagree with) actually thinks or says. You believe all the tired, bullshit lies said about them.
You can either actually listen to the opposition, or not talk about them. One or the other.
If you'd like to actually know what people on the right are saying, you can tune into Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, or the less famous and more 'intellectual, philosophical' shows like Mark Levin.
Or much more easily, you could watch Youtube channels like How the World Works
http://www.youtube.com/user/HowTheWorldWorks?feature=g-user-u
Or Bill Whittle
http://www.youtube.com/user/billwhittlechannel?feature=results_main
I shouldn't even read the rest of your thoughtless post here. But I guess I'm just about to.
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“This country is broken and divided. The electoral system once again proved to be a total joke.”
Actually, the electoral system has done exactly what it was designed to do: Reflect the will of the people
In the late 1800's and early 1900's, the American people overwhelmingly thought “fuck rich people”, and as a result, we got a government that fucked the rich. We got presidents like Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson that saw the Constitution as a mere guideline and not as law.
In the 1930's, the American people thought “I want free shit”, and so Democrats were put into power to implement The New Deal and other new programs, to give people shit.
In the 1990's, the American people thought “I really don't care what my leader does with his penis”, and so Bill Clinton became president; reflecting that sentiment.
HOWEVER, at the same time, the American people also thought “this free shit looks more like high taxes; I want less government cheese in my toenails”, thus, a fiscally conservative Republican Congress was put into power, which reformed Welfare, cut taxes and healed away the deficit.
See what happened there? The American people wanted X, Y and Z, and so we had a Democrat president but a Republican Congress to reflect those wishes.
The Founding fathers were smart as hell, and the electoral system they made works fantastically to this day.
But of course, like you said, right now the country is divided. Half the people want more free shit, and the other half want cuts to the government. Half the people want green energy, the other half want the most productive energy. Half the people want more regulations on the free market, the other half want less.
Because of this down-the-middle split in public opinion, we have been given a gridlocked Congress and a stuck Federal government. The fact that Washington won't be able to get much done is not the fault of Washington; it's not the fault of the electoral system; it's the fault of the American people. It's we who can't compromise and get along; it is we who are stalemating America.
And to be honest, I'll take this gridlock any day over driving right down into the fiscal cliff. The debt implosion that brain-dead emotion-tards like Bob Chipman don't care about. I HOPE we don't compromise with the Democrats; any thing they want to do will just add to the problem. Dr. Seuss can shove his trivialization of the reality between good and bad decisions up his ass.
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Too bad if President Obama DID get kidnapped by ninjas, there's no dudes left in this country bad enough to rescue him. Everyone would just get on tumblr and blame white privilege and Christianity.
Oh well. Lets go for a burger! HA HA HA
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