Here's what Tuesday's election results reflect.

[bulloney]

I'm probably preaching to the choir, but it can't be emphasized enough.

People voted for CHANGE in 2008. Instead, they got slightly-diluted Republican status quo. There was no real HCR: Big Pharma and the insurance industry will continue to rape us. Wall Street still makes out like bandits with their multi-million dollar bonuses and speculative investing as it drives this country over the cliff. We're still mired in two wars in Asia and are hearing drumbeats to start up even more wars. This is taking money from things that can be funded at home like infrastructure development and upgrades.

When voters didn't see change and the results that would follow, they resorted to change for change's sake, even if it meant re-empowering the party whose policies got us into the mess in the first place.

Until the little guy is represented in Washington by people who can tell big business and big money where to go, we will continue to see this cycle of RW-lite followed by a cycle of RW ideology on steroids. Things have to start at the foundation, starting with getting the money out of politics by overturning the Citizens United decision and other reforms. People have to critique their elected representatives and not just give them a pass because their name precedes a D or an R.

And we may just have to raise some holy hell at Washington, Wall Street and elsewhere.

[seabeyond]

1. they also received the largest amount of progressive issues passed. but do, ignore that. nt

[Name removed]

3. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Great minds think alike

"We all voted for change we can believe in. If we don't get it, we'll get some more change in 2010"
- Howard Dean, August 2009

[jaxx]

9. And now there won't be any.....except going backwards.

[TBF]

17. There wasn't any to start with. Well, I guess grand attempts

at bailing out wall street and breaking unions is "change" for democrats. But it's not change that's gonna get ya reelected.

[jaxx]

23. There has been plenty done and it's been good.

Who got that TARP passed? Amnesia is a real cop out.

[TBF]

25. Bashing unions and privatization are only good for the wealthy. nt

[jaxx]

27. I never saw union bashing.

I saw unions supporting the President.

[TBF]

29. What exactly do you think is happening with the teachers unions

and privatization of schools?

[jaxx]

37. The teachers union is still there.

Which repuke is it who wants to totally stop funding the dept of education? If wanting better results for students is supposedly wrong....just wait till the red house gets started.

[TBF]

41. They won't be when Arne Duncan is done chartering

everything and replacing experienced teachers with cheap untrained college grads.

Of course the repubs will do as bad or worse - that is not the point. The point is that you expect better from democrats. At least we used to. I expect nothing from the DLC.

[jaxx]

42. Yes, we've all heard this before.

And look where it went.

[TBF]

46. That doesn't even make sense. Yes, we see where the DLC

ideas have gone. Y'all failed.

[jaxx]

47. Think what you like.

Just remember to keep it in Drive.

[TBF]

48. For all the good it did -

I did take the time to go and vote straight ticket dem. But I'm in Texas. :shrug:

[jaxx]

49. The losses could have been bigger, we still have the senate.

We're not quitters.

[Ruby the Liberal]

4. Yep. Americans don't do nuance very well.

A bill that doesn't kick in until 2014 isn't going to say 'change'.

Wall Street taking bigger bonuses in 2010 than they did in 2007 tells people that reform failed.

At work, I keep hearing that the Obamas are going to be spending $200 million a day on their India/Asia trip due to the security plans and size of their posse. Not sure where that number came from, but they all seem to believe it.

[blue sky at night]

5. and I have to ask everyone here, not just this dear poster....

where in the hell is the political will to overturn Citizens United going to come from? I agree it has to be done, but I think banning handguns would be easier.

[Yeshuah Ben Joseph]

16. Don't ban the guns until after Shittizens United is overturned

Because if its no longer possible to have credible elections, you may need them soon. :(

[blue sky at night]

44. the only reason I mention guns is the idea that they could be banned...

is about as likely as the republicans are going to help us out by overturning the Citizens ruling...NEVER! NEVER EVER.

[treestar]

6. Twist it all you want. Republicans are people further to the right.

This is the single dumbest idea ever. They voted for less change than they got, obviously.

Face it, the voters are farther to the right than we would like. It is an uphill battle. Stop trying to indulge in "it's easy if the Democrats we elect could just be 'tougher'" or whatever. Face reality. Liberals are not a majority and they don't work as hard as teabaggers and give up easily.

[seabeyond]

8. voters are financially hurting and are disperate for change. and they dont like black

running the country. those are the two BIG problems i see.

repugs did not have the financing to campaign until large corp donation took over for them. another issue.

[Catherina]

30. Black has nothing to do with it for most people. Ask yourself where

all of Obama's supporters who bought into that phony hope and change went instead.

[Mojorabbit]

51. MSNBC website saying

people thought too much was being done. I find that hard to believe. I remember when it was a media meme for a while and I personally think the media was the origin of this idea.

[dennis4868]

7. It reflects an uninformed public....

to many voters went into the voting booths thinking their taxes were raised, Ggovernment got bigger, the deficit went up this past year, all of the unemployment problems were CAUSED by Obama, the stimulus did not create a job, the government is running health care and there are death panels, Obama is a muslim, racist, marxist, and communist. This is all the public has been hearing the past 2-3 years. After hearing something over and over you start to believe it especially when the person who is being lied about is pretty much silent and not defending himself. THIS IS WHAT CAUSED THE DEMS LOSING POWER IN THE HOUSE! NOT ANYTHING ELSE.

[seabeyond]

10. +1. very well said. thank you. people cant even identify the problem,

but want a solution. that is the FAIL.

[Gin]

11. IMO...they weren't thinking...they were regurgitating what FOX

told them..

[dennis4868]

13. Yep...

that was my point....In this morning NY Times the headline was that the house takeover was a "rebuke on Obama." NO IT WAS NOT.....It was a rebuke on the facts!

[BeFree]

12. That's it, dennis

And, I suspect, all that caused a lot of people to stay home and not vote.
Except for the pissed off, they voted.

[dennis4868]

14. Yep....

I think alot of people stayed home because they believed the crap they were reading and seeing on cable news and were mad (based on non-facts). Those that voted because they were pissed of, voted against the dems for the same reason (the lies of the repubs and those in the media that do their dirty work).

[BeFree]

36. Yep

And really, the nastiness succeeded. I know several people who were afraid to show their faces. Hell, I even had second thoughts. Fear has won this race.

But remember, they promised us a job, less taxes, and more freedom.

I say we make them deliver. No amount of high priced advertising is going to solve the problems, so now the republicans are going to have to do something new, they are going to have to get jobs for everyone and cut taxes and turn the economy around.

Come next year I see myself standing at the door of my repukes office with a sign saying: "Where is the job you promised me?"

[dennis4868]

40. Unfortunately....

they will simply blame Obama for all the problems...they will say that Obama has the senate and the veto pen.

[laundry_queen]

15. B-i-n-g-o. nt

[uponit7771]

19. AMEN!! It was dems responsibility to get out a simple consistent message and they didn't

[JamesA1102]

24. Very true

and I blame most of that on the MSM which doesn't present facts anymore.

[Catherina]

31. It reflects an angry public. Quit kidding yourself. n/t

[Romulox]

33. Basic reality: Obama made Wall Street "whole" first thing. Main Street is *still* waiting. nt

[TBF]

35. Exactly right - people don't have jobs. Their houses are

being foreclosed on. It's the economy and they feel Obama did nothing to help them.

[HereSince1628]

38. People were not only uninformed they were afraid.

It's no illusion that financial security is important for most voters. Fear is a very strong motivator of conservative behavior. People are afraid, and not surprisingly they voted their fear.

The economy is bad for everyone but it is desperately bad for scores of millions of newly lower class. Almost everyone has someone in their sphere who has lost their job, their health insurance, their home and or their retirement savings. Fear about financial security was pervasive.

But what were the American people ignorant of? I'd say the basics of Keynesian economics, and the superior value of a mixed-economy to cowboy capitalism. The tide of war against mixed-economics turned against Keynesian principles in the 1980's. People have lost all sense of Keynesian economics capacity to fight depressive spirals.

They are woefully uninformed about the weaknesses of kitchen table economics that the tea-partners, and their conservative allies in both parties are about apply to a national scale.

[LibDemAlways]

43. The reason they are uninformed is that they rely on a

rightwing propaganda machine for their "news." And I don't mean only FOX. CBS, NBC, ABC, and CNN, as well as the print media, are all culpable of spreading malicious lies that the public buys into.

Unfortunately Olbermann and Maddow are preaching to the choir.

Getting the truth out through the corporate media is a challenge, but you are right. Obama doesn't use his bully pulpit effectively. He is the President. If he wants to address the American people, the media will show up. He could go a long way toward educating people about the Repuke agenda if he chose to. Instead, he's been too willing to play footsie - and it's gotten him personally nowhere and the country, with an R controlled Congress, will now be in even deeper shit.

[JamesA1102]

18. So that must by why Feingold and Grayson won in landslides

while all the bluedogs lost.

But opps, they didn't!

[TBF]

20. People voted against Obama on this one - don't kid yourself.

This administration promised change and did not deliver. That's what these results show. Pissed off folks went in and voted straight ticket "R" as protest.

[JamesA1102]

21. So that must be why Ried lost too.

But, opps he didn't.

Stop kidding yourself as to why people vote "R" as a protest. It is not because the President wasn't liberal enough.

[TBF]

26. I didn't say the President needed to be more liberal -

but he did need to get America back to work. He didn't do it.

[erodriguez]

50. The only reason why Reid won is because of the lack of quality of his opponent.

And it was a really tough fight for him.

If the republicans put up someone less kooky and more mainstream, he'd be gone.

[TexasObserver]

22. Indeed. They voted for Hope & Change and got Despair & Same.

So, they jumped ship and ran to the other side. They're the idiots who make up the "independent" vote, and they consistently run from extreme to extreme, knowing little of what they do.

[TBF]

34. +1 nt

[glitch]

28. $$$$$$$$$ This is a victory for filthy corporate lucre

and propaganda and a thoroughly corrupted election system.

There is only one way to fight their money and that is with our people. For whatever reason, that was not done this election cycle, until the very last minute and then with some half-measures.

The people have been abandoned and they know it. The only ones addressing this are con artists promoting a "populist" front group backed by the most corrupt FAR right wing billionaires.

Expect more of the same until we become aware of and fix the massive flaws in our system. If we can.

[Catherina]

32. Rec'd n/t

[mstinamotorcity]

39. Please!!!!!

This is nothing but Big Corp,Big Oil.Big Pharma,Big Insurance,Karl Rove,Koch Industries,Dick Army,Heritage Foundation,Glen Beck,Rush Limpdick,Fox non-news,and all other Corporate whores who have made this false America. Oh when they see the light, I'm staying indoors!!!!!!!

[cottonseed]

45. Actually, they voted for change in 2006 too.

It was wanted before Obama was even on the radar...