Coming through loud and clear

Remember when the Romney campaign said they weren’t using “dog whistles”?  Remember how they said they cared about all of America?  Well, it turns not to be true–surprise!  Apparently, it was the white middle and upper class voters that mattered more according to Romney’s chief strategist, Stuart Stevens.

On Nov. 6, Romney carried the majority of every economic group except those with less than $50,000 a year in household income. That means he carried the majority of middle-class voters.
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There was a time not so long ago when the problems of the Democratic Party revolved around being too liberal and too dependent on minorities. Obama turned those problems into advantages and rode that strategy to victory.
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Republican ideals — Mitt Romney — carried the day. On Nov. 6, that wasn’t enough to win. But it was enough to make us proud and to build on for the future.

Shorter Stevens, the white people who matter voted for our ideas so we won a moral victory and will keep building on that for future elections. What a rational, pragmatic person should say in this situation would be, “Wow, we lost women, all of the minorities ¹, too many in the middle class ², and the fastest growing part of the population which accounted for 53% of the population. Maybe we’re doing something wrong!” No, instead the GOP is signaling that the 47% that voted for them, particularly those white folks, was good enough for them. So they’ll hunker down using the same failed strategies to motivate white voters that were so concisely detailed by Lee Atwater ³ and reinforced by jerks like Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh ⁴. Kind of makes you wonder, who was really engaged in class warfare?

From a practical campaign point of view I say keep on keeping on. Once whites begin to lose their majority status (which is happening as we speak) the GOP won’t win another major election until they change their ways. From a moral viewpoint, Stevens’ opinion and anyone that supports it in the GOP is insulting and wrong. From a long-term view maybe we will be better off as a country if the GOP dies this slow death. Maybe a new party that truly champions conservative ideas without using hate, and religious intolerance, and one that lacks a frothing at the mouth desperation can finally come into being. Then we could actually discuss the issues instead of the wedges.  I’m allowed to dream once in a while, right?

Notes:
1. For example, Asian Americans who used to heavily favor Republican candidates made a dramatic shift to support President Obama.  Why?  The evidence seems to suggest that they, like me and many other whites who voted for Obama, didn’t vote solely on their own best interests.  That they voted based on a principle belief in the American Dream and to them the President best represented that American Dream….a point I have made on this blog, many, many times.  To me, President Obama is the quintessential example of  the American Dream and I heavily identify with it, as do many hard working, successful Asian Americans.

2. BTW, I’m white, middle class and Romney didn’t win my vote and there were tons more like me…why? Because we don’t believe that we are the only face of this country. We don’t think our interests are more important than other citizens’ interests….we love our country, every diverse part of it. We are capable of empathy, selflessness, and long-term thinking. By voting for Obama we could not only look out for our own interests but the interests of many others. With Romney there was a choice between “us” and “them”. I reject that kind of narrow thinking and I’m glad the majority of America did too.  

3.  Known as the “Southern Strategy” it now appeals to white folks in places like Wyoming, Kansas and Indiana.  It’s no coincidence that as white’s lose their majority status in this country that more and more white ears can now hear this kind of appeal.  Nothing opens the eyes and ears than the loss of privilege and it’s part of why extremists in the GOP appear to be increasingly desperate (and clinging to desperate hopes like secession).  

4. Bill O’Reilly and all the other GOP operatives masquerading as journalists, pundits and blowhards who said the President won because he was “giving away” stuff…you’re wrong. For example, in 2014 when insurance companies can no longer reject me for pre-existing conditions I will have to pay about $18,000 a year out of pocket for that health insurance, which does not include co-pays, prescription costs, extra lab fees, etc. Does that sound free to you? And this will apply to everyone else in the same boat. Even if we had a Single Payer health care system it wouldn’t be free because we ALL pay taxes in one form or another. So eff off with your lies about “free gifts” and Obama as Santa bullshit.

Democracy Causes Conniptions

Some “Free Marketeers” are very upset that President Obama won re-election. So upset that they are taking out their anger on their own employees, most of whom don’t even receive liveable wages. For some reason, these very wealthy people are unwilling to take any money out of their millions in profits [or out of wastage (see free pizza's from Papa John's below), or out of unnecessary advertising, or out of unnecessary trips, or from new operating efficiencies, etc] and invest it in their own workers.

See what these idiots refuse to see is that having healthier workers means that you have more productive workers and that always improves the bottom line. But you have to be patient because it’s a long term benefit and therein lies the rub. Long term planning and long term profits aren’t what most modern day entrepreneurs are all about. It’s the quick turnover profit that fills their dreams. Because of that thinking, some businessmen have decided to poop on the little guys to help heal their hurt feefees. Here’s a list….All of these guys win the 2012 Biggest Self-Centered Short-Term Thinking Douche Award _TM:

**Owner of Papa John’s, can give away a million free pizzas but won’t cover the cost of health insurance for his employees. He’s blaming Obamacare and saying he will reduce employees to less than 30 hours. If he didn’t want to take the cost of health care out of the free pizzas, he could simply charge more for his pizzas–5 cents added to each pizza would cover it. 5 cents, yup, that’s it. His pizza sucks anyway and I rarely order from them.  And after this, I’ll never order from his company again, never.  How do you like that Free Market?

**Owner of Murray Energy, the guy who forced his miners to lose a day of work and pay to expand the crowd at a rally for Romney and serve as publicity tools. He’s actually laying people off. He blames the President for the decline of the coal industry and refuses to recognize that 1) coal is a finite source of energy, 2) there is no such thing as clean coal but the President actually supported it’s use anyway so he’s tried to help the industry and 3) the natural gas industry is primarily responsible for the decline of coal, not this President or any other  President. He likes the Free Market so long as it isn’t free to make his dumb ass obsolescent.

**Time-share magnate (many properties here in AZ, look at that picture of the idjit and his skanky wife) threatened to shut down his businesses but no word on whether he actually followed through. I’m sure it scared the shite out of his employees though.  So nice to frighten the little people who have no control over how the country votes.  Again, a boycott of this jerk’s businesses is probably in order.

**A FL franchise owner (has several, Dairy Queens, Denny’s, Hurricane Bar & Grill) who announced he’s putting a 5% surcharge on every bill and then told the public, either pay the surcharge and tip normally OR reduce the tip you give to your server by 5%. Yes, pay your servers less–you know the ones that are often given the federal minimum wage–$2.13 an hour. Sure take 5% more out of that. Brilliant idea. I would suggest to this guy that he never, ever eat at one of his own restaurants again because servers are known to get back at people by messing with their food.  And if anyone ever deserved a loogie in their food, it’s this guy.

They’re still counting votes

Yep, you read that right.  In Cochise County, the contest between Congressman Ron Barber (D) and Martha McSally (R) rages on.  It was very close the other day, separated only be a few hundred votes when the election officials started counting provisional ballots from a Latino precinct and a continuing count of the early ballots.  Cochise wasn’t alone in being late on counting the early ballots.  Maricopa county, as of today, has 390,000 ballots uncounted.  I’d be willing to bet that mine is among them.  Isn’t it great to know that your vote doesn’t mean a damn thing!

Anyway, in Cochise as soon as they came upon ballots from a Latino Precinct the Republican candidate thought “enough is enough”, let’s stop the counting.  Today they agreed to allow the provisional ballots to be set aside and be available for any future challenge.  And so the counting continues.  Before the court hearing Barber was leading by about 500 votes and now that has increased to over 800 votes.   The GOP better figure out how to reach out to Latinos or their days of winning elections are over.

 

http://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2012/11/13/cd2-update-barber-leads-mcsally-by-829-votes

http://www.willcoxrangenews.com/opinion/editorials/article_a59e3052-2e77-11e2-8464-0019bb2963f4.html

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/11/barber_mcsally_latino_precinct_ballots.php?ref=fpblg

The seeds of war…..

You may have heard that people are so distraught over the President winning re-election that they are circulating petitions in 20 different states to secede (now I’m seeing reports of 30 states).  Texas has actually approached a “threshold”, which means someone will have to officially respond.

Here’s what I would like to see happen:  let them go.  Seriously, let them go.  Here are some the benefits for the rest of the U.S. if they do leave the Union.

1.  No fighting, a lot less bloodshed

2.  We will no longer pay for those Red States that actually take in more money that they pay out.  That’s right, the majority of the states on the list are a HUGE financial burden to the rest of us.  South Carolina, for every dollar paid in taxes, actually gets $1.92 back.  What’s that, almost 100% profit?  Alabama gets $2.03 back.  Mississippi gets $2.47 and West Virginia gets $2.57–250% profit.

What we could do with millions of dollars wasted on these states!  They’ve got quite the racket going, don’t they?  If they don’t want it, the rest of us want it back.  Every state that leeches off loyal, tax paying Americans can go so long as their governor sits down, writes a check out for the millions, nay billions, they’ve taken from the rest of us AND once the check clears the bank.

2.  We no longer have to provide any armed forces for them….no weapons, equipment, food, etc for their National Guard units.  Indeed most of that doesn’t belong to the state but to the Federal Government.  How about you give all that stuff back, hmmmm?

3.  We gain a buffer zone.  If they are a border state, particularly with Mexico, we no longer have to worry about over the border incursions by drug cartels.  Take Texas for instance.  The thousands of border patrol agents, ATF agents, DEA agents that help to control what would be a complete free-for-all without them could drop back to north of Texas.  Of course, Texas would have to create their own border patrol with their flush state budget.  And if Texas didn’t provide that border security, it would be first and foremost a no-man’s land, that the remaining U.S. would use as a physical buffer zone.  I’m sure the citizens of TX want to live in a no-man’s land.  I mean, look at how great the Palestinians are doing!

4.  Less to worry about.  In addition to joint protection stuff we would get back, there’s a ton of other things we’d no longer have to provide that these states would have to pay for.  Again, lets use TX as an example.  In 2011 they had a shortfall (deficit) and they had to slash services drastically (plus leave some stuff off the books and finagle a little).  They increased taxes across the board and lo and behold they might end up with a nice surplus in 2012.  But just set that aside folks because you will need it to pay for your new national defense force, your border presence with Mexico (good luck with that, BTW).  You’ll need that surplus to build and care for all of your highways–the Federal Government used to do that.  Any national parks get taken back?  Yep, you’ll pay for that too.  Medicaid and Medicare?  No matching funds, so you’ll need to cover that 100% or a whole lot of old people and  the parent’s of sick children are going to go bezerk, quite literally.  Oh, don’t forget a diplomatic corps, a spy agency, and embassies around the world.  School lunches and all the free food that the states receive to feed America’s children when their parents can’t.  Also, a stock exchange system, regulations for such things, a currency system…I could go on all day long.  Do you think that surplus would cover all that?  Do you really?

5.  And end to the whining.  We wouldn’t have to listen to them bitch any more.  They didn’t like paying high taxes to the Federal Government and they were always whining about it.  Now they’ll have whine about TX to TX.   I’m wonder what makes them think they’ll enjoy paying high taxes to the new nation any more than the old one?  Maybe they  won’t.  Maybe the counties can secede from the state.  This new version of “trickle down” economics should work really fine for you.  Loyal Americans will watch your disintegration with mixture of pity and disgust (and fear for any relatives who are stuck within your borders).

6.  Increase in tax base for the loyal states.  Speaking of, millions of refugees, half of your population essentially, wanting to remain loyal to the U.S. will leave your state.  It would account for a good portion of the tax base that you would need so desperately to pay for all the stuff mentioned in above. You can’t force them to stay.  All you states claiming to love liberty so much, surely you wouldn’t force them to stay? Who would end up being the jackbooted thugs in this scenario, I wonder?

7.  Cement the power of the Democratic Party.  Of the 20 states (now I’m seeing it’s actually 30), 14 voted for R0mney and most of those traditionally vote Republican.  Their electoral votes sum 153.  Furthermore all the Liberals and Moderates that exodus en masse from these states will go to the remaining states, some of whom used to vote Republican but won’t in future because they’ll be absorbing the millions of refugees who are not likely to vote Republican.  Basically the loss of these states will ensure that a Democrat would be elected to the White House every four years for the foreseeable future.  It would also drastically affect the composition of Congress.  Then maybe, just maybe the Dems will pursue a truly liberal agenda, because I got news for you folks, President Obama is a centrist in many, many ways.  He is not even remotely “soshulist”.

All that above was snark, now here’s some serious thoughts.  

How many thinking secession is an option?  There are some Blue States on that list, about 6 of them (again the list is changing as I type this).  I suspect in those cases they wouldn’t really secede.  And in truth, I don’t think the other 14 will either.  Any yahoo can create a petition and 49% of the Country is seething mad that the “Empty Suit” or the Ni-Clang or the Muslim Manchurian candidate (pick your reason, it doesn’t really matter) won another election so they’re just venting.  But what really worries me is the actual number who are signing the petitions.  Between LA and TX they have over 50,000 signatures.   How many will sign those petitions?  A hundred thousand, two hundred thousand?  How many agree but are too afraid to sign a petition?

We need each other.  What about the response from those who that the proposal to secede is, in itself, a treasonous act?  Loyal Americans have posted petitions to have anyone who signed those petitions to be stripped of their citizenship and exiled.  Some liberals might even want their state to secede because they are so very tired of supporting everyone else and being told that they aren’t patriotic, that they are stupid, cool aid drinkers, that they don’t contribute anything, etc, basically getting shit by the other side when these labels are demonstrably untrue.  I.e., most of the 17 states that support the other 33 tend to vote Democratic. Take CA as an example.  It is a huge economy bigger than many small countries but takes a loss of $0.19 for every federal tax dollar they pay out….We need them, more than they need us.  Still want to call them lazy hippies?  We’d all better pray that CA doesn’t secede, seriously.

We like and feel obligated to being a part of the U.S.  See what these Secessionist don’t understand that the vast majority of Americans like us being the United States.  Many of them will have taken oaths to defend our country from all enemies foreign or domestic (did you notice the domestic part?) and they consider that oath binding unto death (I’ve sworn this oath at least twice in my life and I meant it).    These Secessionist are awakening a sleeping and irritable giant that is getting tired of the far right (which seems to have taken over the Republican party)  whining about how they’re going to take their ball and go home because they lost.  Most of the time, when a Republican wins, you don’t see Liberals trying to secede.  You see them get mobilized and try to elect someone else next time around.  But they’re waking up now in a very different way and they’re getting angry.

That’s the problem though isn’t?  It always starts like this and if fanned, creates an unbridgeable chasm that eventually tears a nation apart OR results in the suppression of one of the sides by the other.  If these conservatives truly want liberty, make the system we have better.  Get rid of Lobbyists and the influence of the banks and the large corporations, improve the efficacy of voting for every citizen (not just the ones that look like Beaver Cleaver), get rid of the Patriot Act, do some real campaign finance reform…so many things that would make our system more fair, more transparent, more balanced, more agile.  Then the issues will be what’s important not either side’s hurt feefees or racism (which like it or not, does play a role for many secessionists just as it did 152 years ago) or insults (like 47% of us being moochers) or any of the BS.  We need to be more grown up about this.  This is not a game and this secession symbolism, because that’s all it really is, does actually hurt us a nation.  It’s plants yet another seed of hate and misunderstanding that could grow into another deadly plant that kills over half a million of us.

Do us a favor, take a valium

Really? Seriously?

Police said Daniel Solomon told them his wife became angry over his “lack of voter participation” in last Tuesday’s presidential election and believed her family would face hardship as a result of Obama winning another term.

Future Darwin Award Winner? Good Lord I hope they don’t have children!

I bet that she signed one of the many secession petitions floating around too. Let’s just hope they stop her from watching the news in jail. She swallowed the GOP bait–hook, line and sinker.