The General American Politics Thread

[Patticus]

The pressures and stresses of leading a country ages you far beyond your years. It's a bit sad, really.

Edit: Schmoyoho!

[turbojet]

Gerrymandering at it's finest folks.

[Patticus]

The GOP did a shit ton of gerrymandering after the last set of midterms. I trust this is a result of that?

[turbojet]

The GOP did a shit ton of gerrymandering after the last set of midterms. I trust this is a result of that?

Yes and no. Rick Scott tried to propose a map that would redistribute the electorate in even more the Republicans favor. Florida's Supreme Court turned it down because it violated anti-gerrymandering laws. If you really pay attention to the map, you'll notice that alot of the red counties have significantly smaller populations than the blue counties. This has everything to do with how Congress is chosen from the state.

You can clearly see how Republicans are being chosen despite having relatively small districts.

[Patticus]

Why do states allow redistricting anyway?

[Tornado]

Because if either party tried to make a big push to stop it, they wouldn't be allowed to do it themselves when the opportunity arose.

Edited November 10, 2012 by Tornado

[Patticus]

Because if either party tried to make a big push to stop it, they wouldn't be allowed to do it themselves when the opportunity arose.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Obama takes Florida.

Obama won 50% of the vote, Vs Romney who got 49.1%

[Patticus]

Obama takes Florida.

Obama won 50% of the vote, Vs Romney who got 49.1%

It's very close, more so than I expected it to be, but it's still not so close as to necessitate a recount - not that anybody will be calling for one anyway.

[Nepenthe]

On the subject of gerrymandering, I always thought a solution towards that and towards improving the Electoral College as a whole would simply be to divvy up electoral votes depending upon the percentage of people who voted for whom regardless of district, so if Obama had won, say, 30% of Georgia and Romney the rest of it, Obama would get 5 points and Romney the other 11. Making sure states aren't winner-take-all anymore, gerrymandering specific districts wouldn't matter.

Also, I like this analysis on the Election night results and figured peeps here would like it too, (ultimately I like Maddow in general, so if you hate her, well-p stay away):

[-Robin-]

That kind of distribution already exists in North Dakota and Maine. It's the other 48 states do not have to abide by that idea because of 10th Amendment rights.

[...]

http://www.examiner.com/article/texas-republicans-threaten-to-secede-from-u-s-after-obama-s-victory

I seriously don't know what to say on this.

[Tornado]

There's one person in Texas with a government job low on the totem pole who is an idiot?

Speaks wonders for journalistic integrity that that can be skewed to "All Texas Republicans want to secede."

Edited November 11, 2012 by Tornado

[SenEDDtor Missile]

2nd Civil War?

[Patticus]

Looks like someone's a little butthurt from the electoral beating his party just received. B'awwwwww....

Texas won't be seceding any time soon. There have been many different harebrained schemes concocted at one point or another, and almost of them have (or have had) more credibility than does this particular little threat.

[Autosaver]

R-MONEY

[SenEDDtor Missile]

R-MONEY

[Autosaver]

MOONNEEEYY

[turbojet]

I knew that I wasn't the only person thinking it.

[Johnny Boy]

Gerrymandering at it's finest folks.

[tenchibr]

Something's telling me that the people of the sunshine state are gonna make damn sure to vote Rick Scott out office come the next election for Governer.

I felt a lot of resentment the day he got elected. I knew right there that somehow, he'd do something to piss me off.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2012/04/23/how-governor-rick-scott-is-sabotaging-floridas-universities/

So yeah, I am too lazy to find an article that describes his destruction on the education side of government, but that summarizes it. By the way, that article is from last April.

And then he realizes, "Oh shit, I need to get re-elected! I better make those imbeciles happy, so let's do some more education garbage":

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/10/2995945/gov-rick-scott-embarks-on-education.html

Then I found this video, which brings up a point that I agree - The governor would not need a "listening" tour if he was listening in the first place:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PWFKHRZEaw

Allright, rant's over, and I need a froyo.

[-Robin-]

Looks like someone's a little butthurt from the electoral beating his party just received. B'awwwwww....

But think of the kids!

It's like watching FOX, Rove, Beck, and Trump post-election, just more adorable and more capable of generating sympathy from others.

[Candescence]

At dinner, I was talking to my dad about the butthurt Republicans on Twitter, and when I mentioned to him about this chick from Colorado who said she was going to move to Australia because "the Australian president is a Christian and he stays firm on issues" (nevermind that we have a prime minster, not a president, and she's both female and an atheist, something that would probably give republicans a heart attack) my dad tells me there's been a viral email going around during the election campaign urging conservatives to move to Australia if Obama wins, claiming a whole bunch of horseshit that you could easily figure out was flat out wrong with a quick google search (such as Australia having a male, incredibly religious Christian president, among other shit such as said 'president' being tough on minorities and immigrants).

Apparently, if the email did exist, whoever was writing it was pretending that a male Pauline Hanson was the 'president' of Australia. Can anyone say if the email did actually exist?

For those who don't know who Pauline Hanson is, she was the former leader of the long-dead One Nation party, which basically stood for intolerance, ignorance, and fish and chips. The party received massive publicity in the late '90s, until it became apparently that all involved had no idea what they were doing, and Pauline herself said that "there are too many Asians in Australia" (the extremist wing of the GOP would LOVE her, long story short). One Nation now exists largely in the memories of those who despised them, and those who supported them are hopefully trying to forget the whole thing. Pauline herself tried to start another party with only her as the sole member during the 2007 Queensland election and lost, decided to move to Britain until she came back, tried to run for a seat in the New South Wales senate, and lost again.

[Stacy]

At dinner, I was talking to my dad about the butthurt Republicans on Twitter, and when I mentioned to him about this chick from Colorado who said she was going to move to Australia because "the Australian president is a Christian and he stays firm on issues" (nevermind that we have a prime minster, not a president, and she's both female and an atheist, something that would probably give republicans a heart attack) my dad tells me there's been a viral email going around during the election campaign urging conservatives to move to Australia if Obama wins, claiming a whole bunch of horseshit that you could easily figure out was flat out wrong with a quick google search (such as Australia having a male, incredibly religious Christian president, among other shit such as said 'president' being tough on minorities and immigrants).

Apparently, if the email did exist, whoever was writing it was pretending that a male Pauline Hanson was the 'president' of Australia. Can anyone say if the email did actually exist?

For those who don't know who Pauline Hanson is, she was the former leader of the long-dead One Nation party, which basically stood for intolerance, ignorance, and fish and chips. The party received massive publicity in the late '90s, until it became apparently that all involved had no idea what they were doing, and Pauline herself said that "there are too many Asians in Australia" (the extremist wing of the GOP would LOVE her, long story short). One Nation now exists largely in the memories of those who despised them, and those who supported them are hopefully trying to forget the whole thing. Pauline herself tried to start another party with only her as the sole member during the 2007 Queensland election and lost, decided to move to Britain until she came back, tried to run for a seat in the New South Wales senate, and lost again.

So this Pauline is basically a Nick Griffin with Tits?

These arse hurt Republicans are so navie, get over it. Romney lost Obama won stopping acting like it was a illegal Military coup.

I admit if Romney won I would be pissed but at least I can make fun of him.

[...]

http://gawker.com/5959719/we-the-people-petitions-filed-in-nineteen-states-seeking-permission-to-secede-from-the-union

Well, this is new.