How satisfied are you with the results of the election?

[BigRedBuster]

Why the focus on the President?

 

The Supreme Court is not selected via any sort of popular election. But it's meant to be that way -- is there a good reason for this?

no, the supreme court (nor any judge) should be elected by popular vote. that is a terrible idea. then there would be no checks. the supreme court is to protect the minorities' rights.

 

Bs .....the sc is there to protect the constitution. The constitution is there to protect all American.

[strigori]

Why the focus on the President?

 

The Supreme Court is not selected via any sort of popular election. But it's meant to be that way -- is there a good reason for this?

no, the supreme court (nor any judge) should be elected by popular vote. that is a terrible idea. then there would be no checks. the supreme court is to protect the minorities' rights.

 

Bs .....the sc is there to protect the constitution. The constitution is there to protect all American.

And the whole carefully set up checks and balances between the three branches is designed to keep the majority for running roughshod over the minority. And it is usually the Executive or Legislative branches that try to ignore minority rights, relying on the courts to strike down laws that violate the constitution, which is written to protect the rights of all, not just whomever is 51% at a given moment.

[sd'sker]

Why the focus on the President?

 

The Supreme Court is not selected via any sort of popular election. But it's meant to be that way -- is there a good reason for this?

no, the supreme court (nor any judge) should be elected by popular vote. that is a terrible idea. then there would be no checks. the supreme court is to protect the minorities' rights.

 

Bs .....the sc is there to protect the constitution. The constitution is there to protect all American.

i am not sure you understand my use of 'minorities' in minorities' rights. otherwise, your point does not make much sense. strigori provided a pretty good explanation. minority rights are the rights guaranteed by the constitution that you can not vote on or legislate. that is why it is garbage that people have to vote for marriage equality.

[Mars]

I'm glad Romney didn't get elected. This way Rand Paul can run for President in 2016. By then the economy will have crashed again and more people will be open to libertarian ideas.

 

One of the good things about an Obama re-election is that he can push for the legalization of gay marriage. I'd like to see him end the drug war as well.

[zoogs]

A collection of fairly interesting if not diverse takes on the election from n+1's 'election preview':

 

http://nplusonemag.com/election-preview

[Junior]

Unfortunately, this result won't push the Republicans to the center. I've already heard many suggesting that the reason they lost is that Romney wasn't conservative enough to excite the party's base. Rather than push the party to the center to bring in moderates and independents, they want to become more polarizing and conservative than ever.

[strigori]

The GOP is going to have a very ugly civil war. The sane thinking side vs the lunatic Tea Party zealots. Thus far the Zealots have won. Which might work just fine on smaller local levels, but national races, and even many state races (unless you live in the midwest or south, then short of promoting rape and murder....and Kansas that probably wouldn't even matter) they can't win.

[VectorVictor]

The GOP is going to have a very ugly civil war. The sane thinking side vs the lunatic Tea Party zealots. Thus far the Zealots have won. Which might work just fine on smaller local levels, but national races, and even many state races (unless you live in the midwest or south, then short of promoting rape and murder....and Kansas that probably wouldn't even matter) they can't win.

 

Agreed. We may see a viable third party come out of this, with the Teabaggers taking the Republican party off the ideological deep end, and the remaining moderate Republicans that are willing to reach out on issues like gay rights, immigration, and taxes may start their own party. What may also help this happen is that some of the more conservative (Bluedog) Democrats aren't happy either, and could be better suited in a more centrist party.

 

As it stands now, the Teabaggers are doing an excellent job of alienating minority and young voters from the Republican voting base. It's helping states like Texas slowly but surely turn blue again, as south Texas counties and the major metropolitan areas all voted Democrat this time around. All it would take is a moderate democrat that could get some backing from the national party (read: Obama, Bill Clinton stumping, money and TV time), and it would happen.

[BigRedBuster]

The GOP is going to have a very ugly civil war. The sane thinking side vs the lunatic Tea Party zealots. Thus far the Zealots have won. Which might work just fine on smaller local levels, but national races, and even many state races (unless you live in the midwest or south, then short of promoting rape and murder....and Kansas that probably wouldn't even matter) they can't win.

The GOP is going to have a very ugly civil war. The sane thinking side vs the lunatic Tea Party zealots. Thus far the Zealots have won. Which might work just fine on smaller local levels, but national races, and even many state races (unless you live in the midwest or south, then short of promoting rape and murder....and Kansas that probably wouldn't even matter) they can't win.

 

 

You are partially correct.

 

There is going to be a big war in the party. However, neither part of the party has "won". Just because one part has been more vocal doesn't mean they have won.

[BigRedBuster]

This is going to sound like I'm arguing with my own post.

 

The Republicans need to do what the Dems have done and been very successful at doing.

 

A number of years ago the Dems realized they are not going to be successful catering to the extreme. They realized that the liberal extreme will vote Dem no matter what. So, they stopped talking about them and talked to the people in the middle. I believe there has been a concerted effort within the Dem party to keep the extreme quiet.

 

The Republicans on the other hand act like they have to constantly keep the extreme conservative happy and talk only to them. That leaves the middle with nobody they are proud to call "theirs".

 

This election was decided by 2.3% of the vote. If the Republicans every figure this out, they can be very powerful.

[Whistlebritches]

How does the more moderate Republican win their primary? We've seen in several races where the Tea Partier gets through and then gets beat up pretty badly once they have to face a more moderate Democrat. Obviously not true in all situations but that's how it played out a number of times last week.

 

All the Tea Party guys that sit across the aisle from me are convinced they lost because Mitt wasn't nearly conservative enough. A lot of young and minority voters aren't even going to consider voting R until they move into this century with their social policies.

[Undone]

By the way, those of you who are anywhere from, say, 35-20 should be frothing at the mouth. You know we're completely f'd, right? All that money that comes out of our paychecks for programs like social security, all those kinds of things? That will be GONE when we come of age. You all know that, right? And neither party can help us. They both dug our f'ing graves.

 

They're all bleeding us dry. I don't care which primary color they don. (So...very unsatisfied is how I feel, in answer to the poll. And not because Obama won.)

 

I identify with these sentiments. This is why I supported Ron Paul, and even wrote him in last Tuesday.

 

Both parties are overly concerned with buying votes via the welfare state at this point. It really does seem to be heading over a cliff, fiscally speaking. It would take an incredibly large amount of grassroots politicians truly involved with being fiscally responsible to stem the tide.

 

So I felt that the results over the next four years would be largely the same, regardless of the Obama/Romney outcome.

[Undone]

This election was decided by 2.3% of the vote. If the Republicans every figure this out, they can be very powerful.

 

Just stop and think for a moment the impact that will have on actually reversing our fiscal situation: both parties continuing to meet in the middle, agreeing that government bloat and waste is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

 

If you identify as extremely conservative, then hoping that your party changes course to being moderately conservative in order to win is nonsense.

[zoogs]

Some more pre-election commentary that I'm posting post-election. Haha. This actually gets quite good, towards the end And I think it ultimately captures a lot of our feelings about the race, and the respective candidates, pretty well. After the eagle entrance.

[BigRedBuster]

This election was decided by 2.3% of the vote. If the Republicans every figure this out, they can be very powerful.

 

Just stop and think for a moment the impact that will have on actually reversing our fiscal situation: both parties continuing to meet in the middle, agreeing that government bloat and waste is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

 

If you identify as extremely conservative, then hoping that your party changes course to being moderately conservative in order to win is nonsense.

This election was decided by 2.3% of the vote. If the Republicans every figure this out, they can be very powerful.

 

Just stop and think for a moment the impact that will have on actually reversing our fiscal situation: both parties continuing to meet in the middle, agreeing that government bloat and waste is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

 

If you identify as extremely conservative, then hoping that your party changes course to being moderately conservative in order to win is nonsense.

 

 

Then get used to losing elections like this. Would you rather have someone like Obama in office or someone at least somewhat conservative.

 

Obama is in office when many very liberal groups were very upset with him during his first term. But, they at least get a little bit of what they want.