Do the mid-term elections matter on a national level (this year)?

"Earth is an insane asylum, to which the other planets deport their lunatics." ~

Voltaire

https://www.azquotes.com/quotes/topics/insane-asylum.html

America is where the incurable finish up

ozman345

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Well, yes, the typologies of conservative racist classifications are in fact racist.

There are two different types in play, there. Keyes was always a sort of what people refer to by a controversial familial term rooted in American literature. I don't know if you remember, before he was the veep candidate, when Biden went and opened his mouth about Obama and said something racist. Alan Keyes was a clean-cut, well-dressed Black man who spoke clearly, and often slowly so the white folks could understand, as he told white supremacists what they wanted to hear. Ben Carson qualifies in that range as well, but also ranges in particular negative stereotypes about Black men, and then there was the part of the story when he got caught lying about his story.¹

By comparison, Michael Steele did his job even by my standard, and they dumped him for it. Then they broke the Party and proved they could succeed despite that, holding the House and eventually winning Trump's election. But there was this time, on MSNBC, and if you've ever seen, say, white youth pastors trying to convince the young people that Jesus was cool and it's hip to be Christian, and even if they're not predators it's just creepy and embarrassing, then, yeah, that's the thing; Steele did this bit about hats, and it was horrifying. Someday, I would like to ask him what was running through his mind in that moment of pandering abasement, but I also think that even if I could justify the question according to the point that he was, after all, Party chair, there is still virtually no polite way of asking, at least inasmuch as it feels like running him through him and asking how it feels. It's probably best to leave that one alone. Halfway between historical contempt and a sitcom joke is no decent range for proper inquiry. But that performance was extraordinary.
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Notes:

¹ It seems worth mentioning that questions about blackness and experience in a memoir assuaging whiteness are the callout that led to the Harper's letter about cancel culture↗.​

 

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I initially thought the mid-terms would be close and that still may be the case but I wouldn't be surprised after a bit more reading, if the Republican wins are much greater than I thought.

I say that more because of local issues such as crime, homelessness, drug use and the economy and how Covid shutdowns were handled. Covid was a wildcard and no one would have probably been able to get that exactly right but nevertheless Democrats aren't generally viewed as having done a good job where local issues are concerned.

In Seattle, for much of my time here, there was little crime, little homelessness, drug use wasn't a major problem and it was just a nice place to live. The city council was pretty liberal but not in an obtrusive way.

In the last few years, crime, drug use and homeless encampments everywhere has really taken over. The defund the police movement hit Seattle as well. Now there is enough crime in downtown Seattle that many small business are leaving because it's just too dangerous, their businesses get targeted repeatedly and even the criminals know that the police response will be slow or non-existent. When the crime is a misdemeanor, they also know that they will get released only to be able to do it over and over.

The residential neighborhoods are now changing with zoning regulations that don't favor existing single family neighborhoods. You can convert houses to multi-family units, changing the character of neighborhoods and no to little regard is paid to available parking among other issues (or value damage to existing homes). It's one thing to make such changes to zoning for new developments and quite another to do so for existing neighborhoods.

Over the last 5 years or so the Democrats haven't really been up to the task of running the city. I see in Oregon that a Republican may be elected governor. It will be awhile before that happens here but the last mayor was pretty much elected on his campaign promises to deal with cleaning up all the homeless encampments. They are trying to undo some of the damage of the defund the police movement but that is slow going and it's very hard to even attract more police to want to work here after all that.

I'm reading that similar issues apply all over the country where people are known for voting split ticket depending on the individual. Now more are voting straight tickets.

For those voting for Trump or similar nutjobs, I still don't understand that but I do understand the trend where it's just voting for the candidate that didn't promote the nonsense that has gotten us to this point regarding local issues.

Hopefully, the end result will be to move both parties toward the center and to not reward either party for their extreme wings. Only time will tell...

 

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There is no center.

No party is moving anywhere but toward extinction. More and more Republican candidates are openly declaring that they will invalidate any future elections wherein their party doesn't win. The next move is surrounding the Capitol with armed thugs... uh... wait... that's already happened.... Anyone smell smoke?

 

It looks now like the Democrats have control of the Senate. I'd like to see the Republicans control the House technically (by a seat or two) but no more than that. I'd like to have a split government so that to get anything done (if anything gets done) would require some compromise.

I'm concerned that Biden, left to his own devices, would try to reduce the long-term capital gains tax advantage.

I'd also like to see the more pro-Trump politicians be the ones who get defeated. That has happened for the most part. Now hopefully Keri Lake with be defeated in the Ariz. governors race.

 

My prediction is that republicans will control the house by a few seats, and as soon as new members are sworn in, they will begin impeachment proceedings. They will have to impeach Biden at least three times to "prove" he is worse than Trump.

I see that as a good thing overall. With them spending all their time on that, they will have less time to muck things up elsewhere.

 

It's possible, but not likely I suppose, that Kevin McCarthy won't be elected Speaker and therefore maybe the anticipated clown show won't proceed but your scenario is more likely I agree. By the way, I'm not saying that the Republicans won't have a majority. They may just decide not to elect McCarthy as Speaker.