I’ve been voting in presidential elections for a half century. In all of that time I have only voted for the person elected to the presidency twice, most recently in 2008.
My losing streak continues.
I’ve been voting in presidential elections for a half century. In all of that time I have only voted for the person elected to the presidency twice, most recently in 2008.
My losing streak continues.
I used to be a winner, but my record since becoming a regular reader of the Glittering Eye ain’t so good. I used to be a contender; I used to be someone, instead of loser, which is what I am.
And thanks to you too Gary Johnson. What was I smoking?
The curse continues. And it’s contagious!
I did not vote, but that is nothing new. I would have voted for Hillary Clinton to “turn up the heat”. I do not think the anti-establishment vote is quite ready.
Congratulations Trumpsters. It took ten years to get here, but you finally made it.
This will be the year that the black voters began their journey to overthrow the Democrat elites.
You know, I genuinely hope you’re right but I think that moment has already past. Hispanics represent a slice of the pie larger than the slice represented by blacks, they’re starting to turn out to vote in numbers, and those numbers will only grow larger.
The question now is how many of those voters have been driven irrevocably to the Democrats. Some of them, surely. I think the assumption that Hispanics, generally, or even Chicanos won’t be Democratic voters as faithful as blacks have been.
Hispanics are generally unmotivated voters. Blacks can probably continue to Eriksson more clout – if their leaders will do so. Doing so probably means upsetting the apple cart.
Like Michael (and, I think, TastyBits) I think the apple cart has already been upset. Republicans actually picked up state legislatures last night. The die has effectively been cast on redistricting in 2020.
The question is how will the DNC and RNC respond? Early indications are that they’ll respond like petulant children but let’s hope we’re pleasantly surprised.
I mean blacks will have to upset the apple cart of their relations to the Democratic party.
And I wouldn’t assume anything about redistricting. This time in 2008 it looked like Dems were set up for huge gains in their favor by 2012. We know how that worked out.
Note that I don’t mean blacks have to or should vote Republican. But being an automatic Democratic voters isn’t serving their interests.
The undercurrents have been primed for a black voter revolt, but with a black President, it has been muted. There are two groups of black people and voters. The middle and upper income are more affiliated and attuned to their white counterparts. They would be white except for racism.
(As long as they stay out of the poor and low income areas, racism experienced by middle and upper income black people is not the same as those at the bottom. It is more likely to not be felt at the bottom because it is so pervasive and because it is just one more shitty condition amongst a lot of shitty conditions.)
The poor and low income black people would still be separate, but most likely, this would be deliberate similar to other poor and low income racial or ethnic groups banding together.
That long winded prologue is because the poor and low income black people have been rumbling for the past three to four years. It has not been much, but every now and then, somebody will go public about a grievance against President Obama. This is significant because it should not happen. (I do not mean people who make money in the media or politics.)
Recently, I saw a speech by Minister Farrakhan where he said among other things:
Something is afoot. If he is ready to speak out about the first black president, I doubt that he has anything good to say about the white elites or their black counterparts. A lot of white people do not like him, and therefore, they dismiss him. I would suggest that he is just one crack in the foundation.
I didn’t do too well either. In one comment I at least had the caveat right:
Well, there were polling issues, it remains to be seen if it was incompetence.
This, however, I seem to have gotten completely wrong:
I obviously assumed he would lose. Also, I never really considered the bigger implications of a Clinton defeat on the Democrats. Their influence was massive in the party, but what now?
And think of all those foreign interests and countries that donated to the Clinton foundation – I kind of smile a bit knowing their donations will have zero influence on US foreign policy from here on out. I suspect that foreign donations to the foundation will drop precipitously. I doubt the Clintons will be able to charge as much for speeches. Somehow I think they’ll manage.
As for Trump I’m hopeful and terrified at the same time. As I’ve mentioned before, I vote primarily based on foreign policy because usually domestic policy is gridlock so all the wonky, detailed policy proposals are meaningless. Congress, even a compliant Congress, will always make changes. Trump if he acts like a Republican and not the carpetbagger he is, might have a compliant Congress, so domestic policy matters more.
On foreign policy, I’m very glad that the neocon and R2P factions appear to be out in the wilderness, having gone all-in for Hillary. I’m encouraged by the hope of a more transactional approach to foreign policy than the mess we’ve had since the end of the Cold War, but Trump’s complete inexperience and his tendency to “be his own expert” is a huge risk for him to f%ck-up big time and foreign policy f%ck-ups tend to have high costs.
“And think of all those foreign interests and countries that donated to the Clinton foundation – I kind of smile a bit knowing their donations will have zero influence on US foreign policy from here on out. I suspect that foreign donations to the foundation will drop precipitously. I doubt the Clintons will be able to charge as much for speeches.”
And here I thought it was the soaring oratory they were paying for………