I didn't always agree with Feingold but he is a big loss to the conscience of the Senate. He is especially going to be missed on the Judiciary committee where his straightforward questioning was a welcome relief from the posturing of practically every other Senator. I have my doubts though whether Harry Reid will continue to be the majority leader. He's clearly a polarizing figure and unpopular figure and it wouldn't surprise me if there was a challenge to him.
Oberstar ran a terrible and bitter campaign. I don't live in his district but saw plenty of his commercials. If I did live in his district I probably wouldn't have voted for him either.
Harry Reid is a polarizing and unpopular figure outside of the Senate. The Senate is still an old-boys' club (with a few female old boys thrown in for good measure), and they'll leave the leadership basically as is.
Dems got smacked in the mouth for not standing their ground and communicating their message well.... ANY message. I can only hope that now that the republicans aren't butthurt about being the big losers, that they'll actually try to do something for the American people instead of just themselves, or that the Dems will have learned a valuable lesson from all this. Or both. What I know is that politics for the past two years has been a disgusting and embarrassing display on many levels. Nothing new, except the extent of it. Perhaps we the people will take more notice of how things are being handled for us now that we've seen this debacle.
Couldn't disagree more, Mark. In my experience (moved to the Hill Country a few years ago) the people up here are incredibly involved in their community, with volunteering & charitable work, with social/public organizations, etc.... Everyone tends to know everyone (to an extent) and is more than willing to help out a friend/neighbor at the drop of a hat. It actually struck me as one of the biggest differences between life in the city and life out here.
racism is an element to the politics going on currently, whether you choose to recognize it or not is a different matter. It's not a coincidence that the target of much of the tea party is directed at laws and programs that help blacks, latinos, or muslims. To say that racism doesn't play at least some role is naive. Naturally it doesn't mean the politicians are racist, but they certainly take advantage of people's ignorance and prejudices. That happens on both sides, but to call out Obama on it is laughable when you don't consider the other side which is many many times worst. And if you are going to talk about civil discourse, I'd suggest you start with yourself. Why don't you stop demonizing the left and the president. Maybe then your words would mean something.
it gives them a sense of independence, thus being more conservative. they have their own little community and don't need federal government help is their mentality.
Affirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, sex or national origin". Not occupation.
I have my doubts about that. Tony Sutton the MN Republican chair who has just presided over seeing Republicans recapture the state house and Senate and the defeat of long time US House incumbent Jim Oberstar instead of being calm and gracious is apoplectic about the gov. election that is going to a recount. His sentiments are being echoed by many other Republicans. I doubt that the Republican party as is can operate without feeling outraged.
True that might be the case but there are some other ambitious Dems out there who might want to take a shot at a weakened Reid.
I didn't mean to imply that you're an alcoholic! Really, the loss of that initiative, while a disappointment, ranks real low on the scale of political disasters unfolding now.
At least around here, a large percentage of them are life-long democrats, going back to the WPA, rural electrification, LBJ, etc.... It has very little to do with thoughts on the federal government. They're independent yet community-minded because for a long time, they had to be; you *had* to rely on your friends, family & neighbors if there was a problem *that you couldn't handle yourself*; and that mindset has carried over current times. It's a very Texan thing, but I would imagine that most rural communities elsewhere were/are the same. Both sides of my family are from up here, so I've seen it my whole life; hard to describe or explain if you haven't been around it. I get what you're saying, I was disagreeing with Mark's characterization of rural people as not having a sense of "community" or "cooperative spirit".
IMO the weed initiative was never important in and of inself. It was put on the ballot to lure the youth vote and disaffected Dems back to the polls, which obviously did not hurt Jerry Brown or Barbara Boxer.
I expect this too - and it's really sad. People want progress. The Dems didn't go after Bush for lying to the country about WMD's and putting us in a war that cost us 3 trillion dollars and contributed to the economic collapse. But they are going to go after Obama for stupid piss ass stuff instead of trying to create jobs and cut the deficit. Lovely.
I said "by and large" Buck. I have a house in upstate New York and live in the city, so I can see both sides of the coin. I'm not saying that rural people don't have a sense of "community" or "cooperative spirit", just saying I see more of it in the city.
