This'll be a short one, I'm working on a longer personal passion-project to post in the next few days, but this one's on my mind tonight so...yeah.
While I maintain that the midterm elections were not the all-powerful beatdown/landslide for Republicans that some in the media would have you believe, even I won't deny that, well, Republicans won. They widened their margin in the House, and took majority in the Senate (but not enough to break filibuster, let's not get carried away).
And I think anyone who frequents this website has a pretty good idea of what I'm about to say about WHY the results were what they were.
The squiggly hides the truth...
The reason is simple: The Democrats lost because they were a bunch of terrified, cowering wusses. There's another word around the internet for it, but I'll keep this one family friendly...
Can anyone look back at the campaign and tell me what exactly the Democrats stood for? I honestly can't, which is truly terrifying because I usually say that about Republicans. Republicans hate government spending, unless its trillions on parking-lotted tanks and a 27th Aircraft Carrier (or whatever number we're on). Republicans think all life is sacred unless you've committed a crime arbitrarily labelled "bad enough" to earn the death penalty. I could list about twenty more of these but you get the point.
The point is, the Democrats ran sprinting and screaming from anything that might be confused as a "position".
Healthcare? What's that?
Economy? Its getting better?! Who knew?!
Of all the progress that's been made in the last 6 years, in spite of monumental opposition obstructionism, not one Democrat seemed willing to stand up and claim them. The worst of all may have been Alison Grimes, the one who might have saved us another term of McConnell.
Here's a tip Democrats: for better or worse, the people who vote in midterms are the bases. This has usually gone hand in hand with Republican gains since the Right is usually better at drumming up enough misplaced anger to drive their base to the polls. But Democrats have made great midterm gains in the past, 2006 for instance.
So, if you're running in a midterm, as a Democrat, chances are your supporters don't want to see an ad of you explaining the proper way to hold a gun. And while the privacy of the voting booth is certainly something I can agree with, you had better find a better way to answer that question that doesn't sound like you're disowning the figurehead of your party.
It seems as though the "common knowledge" is that the US is a right leaning country, and that if you're going to do anything even remotely "leftist", you have to hide it in order to win.
I can't help but wonder though, if Tuesday night proved that wrong. President Obama stood before congress and reminded us of the gusto of 2008, not only in himself, but in the state and direction of the country. He reminded us all of exactly what was accomplished and, really, who was responsible for it (and who was and will be responsible for derailing it, if given the chance).
He didn't run and hide, he owned every one of the positive things that have happened. Republican's wanted to stick the ACA on him by calling it Obamacare, he stood up and stuck it to himself like a badge of pride.
It was the kind of energy we need. Whoever earns the nomination in 2016 would do well to remember it, and all Democrats, progressives, liberals, etc. would as well.
Aaaand...rant complete.
P.S. Whoever calls Joni Ernst a "rising star" must be nuts. She sounded like the Republican-Talking-Point-a-Tron 3000 stuck in Ultra-Saccharine mode. Ba-dum-tish. Crickets I'll show myself out...