No war but the class war. If voters had perceived that Democratic politicians were improving their

[scarletwoman]

circumstances, they would have enthusiastically showed up to keep the Dems in power.

However, what the voters perceived was that their circumstances were NOT improving.

If you believe Einstein's definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result -- it's perfectly understandable that voters turned away from Democrats this time around.

They did the only thing that sanity dictates -- doing something different within the ridiculous constraints of our two party duopoly.

And now they'll find out that they'll still be fucked.

We are all trapped in a duality that serves none of us.

sw

[FiveGoodMen]

1. Agreed!

[Bonobo]

2. SW, as usual you are so damned correct. + 1

But there are other issues, such as the real wars.

But yes, the class war... and no one really believes either of the parties is on their side.

[scarletwoman]

8. As I said in another post...

The working class is desperately flailing around looking for someone - anyone - to be on their side, and they will keep switching their votes in the desperate hope that this time the roulette wheel will pay off.

If betting on the Dems had actually paid off for the working class, we wouldn't have had the results we had Tuesday night.

THAT is the simple truth.

sw

[Cal Carpenter]

22. I assume by 'real wars'

you mean what's happening in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those can easily be attributed to the class war. They benefit no one but the rich - not the Iraqi or Afghani people, not the vast majority US taxpayers, not the troops. Most other 'issues' are either a result of the class war or a distraction from it to divide and conquer the people.

It all comes down to the economy - the rich vs the poor..those may be relative terms now but things ain't looking too good for anyone but the top few percent these days...

[alsame]

3. I agree. The 'message' of this election is NOT that people

want the two parties to work together. It's that they want someone, anyone, to fix all the problems we're facing, individually and as a country.

People are scared and impatient. They didn't feel things getting better in the last 2 years, so they elected a new bunch. It wasn't smart or rational to give any power back to the GOP, but that was their only other choice after being disappointed by the Dems.

It has nothing to do with a desire for bi-partisanship. That's just spin.

[scarletwoman]

13. Exactly. The message of the election is simply that the voters want *someone* to fix things.

And when nothing fundamentally changes for the better, there's nowhere to turn except to the other side of the duality.

[leftstreet]

4. K&R

:applause:

[peacebird]

5. brilliantly stated!!!

[The Magistrate]

6. Hear Hear, Ma'am!

[scarletwoman]

17. Thank you, dear friend.

These are hard times to be old enough to remember those days when it seemed like the future was bright...

[BeFree]

7. Big money buys

a lot of perception.

All we had from us was "don't give them the keys back".

And they ran against Obama and Pelosi.

[scarletwoman]

10. Big money can't ultimately cancel out reality.

The reality is, people know they are being fucked. They may not know by whom, they may not understand all the political arcana, but they DO know that their lives suck and there's no relief in sight.

What big money does is misdirect the blame. However, the only reason that works is due to the REALITY of people's lives not getting any better.

[BeFree]

16. Yeah lives do suck

Had a neighbor that went out and bought many bullets after Obama was elected, and now he's about to file bankruptcy. His life sucks and he blames Obama.

The numbers show a pretty even field of voters, except that far fewer voted than in 2008 - heard 29M less (checking up on that.)

I get it that folks like to find someone else to blame for their troubles (perception).
So when the big money manages that perception to their benefit, this vote is what we get.

All we can tell them is that it could have been worse. And it may get worse, because we just don't lie very well.

[scarletwoman]

20. It will be interesting to see, when two years from now people's lives still suck,

what their perceptions will be. I don't believe for one minute that Republican policies can do anything but make things worse -- the only question is, will things get worse enough to shake people out of their "tax cuts, free market" big money-induced trance.

sw

[Selatius]

21. You're going to need 30% unemployment before people wake up from that trance.

It took the corporations 30+ years to put the American people back to sleep once FDR was done with what the American people wanted him to do. Once the people voted for Reagan, the corporations won the war, for now.

[scarletwoman]

26. I'm not so sure. I'm about to turn 61, I've *never* seen so much anger in the electorate during my

lifetime.

I don't think all that anger is going to simply melt away if things don't get better.

The Koch brothers, Dick Armey, and the GOP were highly successful at manipulating and misdirecting that anger at the wrong targets. However, if there are no perceptable positive results over the next two years, I think there will be plenty of people still feeling pissed off.

People should be pissed off about the raw deal we've been getting all these years. That anger is a positive sign, it means that people aren't willing to keep meekly accepting getting fucked over -- it means they are starting to wake up, they just haven't figured out yet who their real enemies are.

sw

[BeFree]

32. Getting older

The older folks are wont to vote more than others.

And if they have comfy lives - pensions, SS, etc. they are wont to vote to keep the hordes from ever sinking their teeth into their wealth, and the pukes prey on that want.

So what we've to do is to show them that their safety is dependent on the safety and future of all, and that ain't easy. Lets face it, the natural curve is toward hoarding. Only thru taxes is hoarding controlled. So we continuously have to fight to keep enough taxes raised. I even have fights over taxes with myself!! Lol

Now, how that tax money is actually spent is another avenue the big money and pukes own.

[Naturyl]

9. Correct. (n/t)

[Odin2005]

11. The ruling party always gets creamed when the economy goes under.

[Naturyl]

14. Actually, it doesn't

The ruling party never gets creamed, because there's only one ruling party and it always wins.

Yes, there are differences between Democrats and Republicans. And yes, those differences DO matter. But we shouldn't let that fool us into believing that it's all not serving the same team in the end. Whether we happen to win or lose on the issues that matter to US, big money always wins on the only issue that is important to THEM - and that's making themselves richer.

[Odin2005]

19. The elites are not a monolithic group, different elites have different often conflicting, interests.

[Greyhound]

28. But none of those interests are beneficial to us, so it doesn't matter. n/t

[myrna minx]

12. SW thank you for your excellent thoughts.

As always, you get right to the heat of the matter. :hi:

[scarletwoman]

18. Aw shucks, thank you mm.

:loveya:

[nashville_brook]

15. spot on.

[tomp]

23. one party, two branches.

the sooner we all get that, the sooner we can move forward.

[Scuba]

24. There's 70 million voter three inches to the left...

..end the wars, raise the minimum wage, Medicare for All.

[socialist_n_TN]

25. Yep. The voters ARE flailing around........

searching for salvation. And they want it QUICK. As I said in another post the other day, we HAD a chance to change the Reagan godhood meme with the election of '08. After 30 years of getting trickled on and 8 years of Bush's incompetence, people were willing to listen and try ANYTHNG to make their lives better. Hell, I think a true (large S) Socialist would have been given a try or at least their policies would have been looked at favorably. They didn't get it and now they've reacted.

What's sad is that they didn't even get a FIGHT for anything different. They just got talk of "compromise" from the start and that compromise didn't get anything accomplished economically very quickly. So now they're ready to turn the country over to people who's ideal state is Somolia.

[scarletwoman]

29. It's really heartbreaking. The mood of the country after the 2008 election would have responded

favorably to big, bold moves toward a sane populist message, followed by actions to clearly underline that message -- like reining in Wall Street and the Big Banks immediately, a WPA-like program for putting the unemployed to work earning a paycheck immediately, and offering a buy-in to Medicare to anyone who wanted it.

We're witnessing the wreakage left by the utterly squandered opportunity to actually move the country in a new direction. It was a time for big and bold, and instead we got feeble nibbles around the edges designed to preserve the status quo and the power of the financial elites.

People are absolutely right to be majorly pissed off.

sw

[socialist_n_TN]

30. Yes, EXACTLY! As I stated in that other post..........

Instead of trying to "compromise" from the word go, we should have ACTIVELY lobbyied for a 21st Century WPA and CCC. More money to government infrastructure jobs and less to tax cuts. A Medicare for All or (as Demwing called it in another thread) Americare. That way when the inevitable compromise actually came, we would have had the high ground of actually ASKED for things that actually have WORKED historically. Instead we asked for what we could have compromised for and lost that high ground.

[Greyhound]

27. Bingo.

Too late to Rec.
:kick:

[TBF]

31. K&R nt