The General 'Murican Politics Thread

[8ther]

What are the results of the races in SC and Georgia?

[Johnny Boy]

Fucking Florida. It just disappoints every time.

[Treacher]

Right now it's Dems 196 vs Reps 180

[Tani Coyote]

6 minutes ago, Jiren (Metro) said:

What are the results of the races in SC and Georgia?

Red, red, and more red.

Only place in the South to return us a blue statewide race was West Virginia, Virginia and Kansas (!).

[8ther]

4 minutes ago, Treacher said:

Right now it's Dems 196 vs Reps 180

I pray this lead holds

[8ther]

Any updates on the House?

[Treacher]

Received word that unless 5 of the results flip in the Republicans' favor, and the remaining 8 candidates are all Reps, the Dems have the house.

[KHCast]

Seems like a pretty much sound win. It would be some historical level of bullshit for it to end up in Republicans favor at this point 

[Tani Coyote]

https://www.cnn.com/election/2018/results/senate

Nevada results are finally coming in; the polls closed over 3 hours ago, but so many people showed up to vote that they are only now finishing.

Progressive Democrat De Leon is close to Dianne Feinstein in California; ironically, he is drawing a lot of his support from the redder districts. They hate the established Democrat so much they'll support a further left underdog. The race is 53-47 towards Feinstein with under 1/3 of the vote counted.

[8ther]

I know i've asked this before but, what can a Democrat controlled house accomplish?

[Tani Coyote]

23 minutes ago, Jiren (Metro) said:

I know i've asked this before but, what can a Democrat controlled house accomplish?

Besides the biggest objective of blocking the more extreme parts of the GOP's agenda, it can launch numerous investigations which might reveal embarrassing things about Trump and his allies.

In addition, the proposed rules change in the House, if it passes, will allow bipartisan Senate legislation to easily pass the House, meaning we could actually get some meaningful reform on immigration and healthcare.

[Treacher]

3 minutes ago, Jiren (Metro) said:

I know i've asked this before but, what can a Democrat controlled house accomplish?

Nothing too wild without a democratic senate backing them up. Trump can still pull off executive orders and supreme court judges, although with things like the border wall  will be stuck in gridlock, which gives him a handy excuse on not fulfilling any promises.

[Tani Coyote]

Dems are up to 220 seats. They've taken the House.

The GOP has seized Missouri, North Dakota, Florida, and Indiana in the Senate. However, they lost Nevada. Arizona is still too close to call.

California remains a relatively tight race, 54-46 towards Feinstein with 44% of ballots counted.

At the state level, the Democrats have taken Governorships in Nevada, New Mexico, Kansas, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan, for a total of 6. Were the Presidential election held today, Trump would have lost, as the Democrats conquered the three Great Lakes states that gave him the Presidency. The Republicans still control several northeastern Governorships, but a lot of them are RINOs.

As for state legislatures: the Democrats have taken control of New Hampshire's, New York's, Minnesota's, Maine's, and Colorado's.

Democrats are now in a serious position of power in states that total 94 electoral votes. They need to pass the NPVIC in states totaling 98 electoral votes to make it nationwide. If they could get Virginia in 2019's race? They would be able to hit that threshold.

The 2020 race has a serious chance of being decided by popular vote.

[SSF1991]

I am so damn happy to see that the House flipped blue. This fascist GOP will no longer have a complete stranglehold on the government, and Trump no longer has a free reign to do whatever the hell he wants.

Mueller is safe. Social Security is safe. Obamacare should be safe. Medicare/Medicaid is safe. No idea about Net Neutrality, though...

[Patticus]

8 hours ago, Conquering Storm’s Servant said:

A gender-neutral term for those of Latin ethnicity. The latin languages tend to differentiate things as masculine or feminine—the reason why Latin(o) refers to men while Latin(a) refers to women. Latin(x) doesn’t distinguish either one specifically.

It has nuances, but I figured I clear that up.

Thanks for the clarification. I'd honestly never heard it before, but I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable using the terms Latino/Latina. This gives me an out, so awesome.

Scott Walker has lost his reelection bid in Wisconsin. Tony Evers will be the state's next governor. I hope he can do something about that abysmal Foxconn deal Walker saddled the state with.

[SenEDDtor Missile]

I’m cautiously optimistic, but I can’t help but have a bad feeling in my gut that the Thuglican Mafia are gonna try to pull something to make this irrelevant or delegitimize it. Keep on your toes; were not out of this haunted wood yet.

[Patticus]

It's for a Senate seat, but still, tense as balls.

Also:

Damn right.

What of Joe Arpaio? Please tell me that racist old rat didn't win.

[Mad Convoy]

1 hour ago, Patticus said:

What of Joe Arpaio? Please tell me that racist old rat didn't win.

He didn't. He made an uncharacteristically subdued tweet congratulating Josh Hawley for winning the senator's seat.

I also found an editorial that goes into more detail about it, if you're interested.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/29/opinion/sheriff-joe-arpaio-congress.html

Knowing what a horrible person Arpaio is, him losing with his head temporarily hung low is really, really satisfying. I say temporarily hung low because apparently he's right back at it with his usual antics now. But this loss has killed the political momentum he had, making it very very unlikely that this man will ever gain political power again. To which I say, good.

[Dragoon]

9 hours ago, Johnny Boy said:

Fucking Florida. It just disappoints every time.

We have a shitload of Boomers and rednecks. I held out hope for Andrew Gillum, but the fucking panhandle screwed us over, just like they did in 2016.

I'm seriously considering moving now. Probably to somewhere in Connecticut, Rhode Island or Massachusetts.

[Meta77]

Far from a wave many were saying. Though interested to see what happens next. If anything I still see not much budging cause of both offices checks and balances

[Tani Coyote]

Arizona Senate race is still too close to call. The Green Party may have actually stolen the race from the Democrats.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/11/07/michigan-house-representatives-senate-control-results-winners/1825497002/

Michigan's state house will remain in GOP hands, but the GOP majority has shifted from 9 to 4. However, the current GOP speaker will be retiring soon as he did not run for re-election; he was the one blocking popular vote legislation from going through.

Some predictions for how this election will frame the next two years:

-If Michigan passes the NPVIC, expect other states to take it up. It is very possible 2020 could be decided by popular vote instead of the Electoral College. Florida's restoration of voting rights to 1.5 million people will quite possibly convince the national GOP to slowly begin backing the national popular vote.

-Trump's likely move to the center could pave the way for his reelection as voters in swing states re-elect him but also give him a Democratic Congress to keep him in check.

-Nevada's likely passage of a public option for healthcare means other states might try to do the same.

-The legalization of marijuana and expansion of Medicaid in several states is likely to reshape national debate on both. 5 GOP Senators will be in an uncomfortable position when it comes to repealing Obamacare, and the legalization of marijuana is likely to influence the votes of 5 more.

[Tornado]

I don't have much problem with this election cycle. House reverted to Dem control, which is the main thing I wanted to get more of the tea party birther idiots out of there.

[KHCast]

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/07/trump-democratic-oversight-970927?cid=apn

Trump is already starting to threaten the democrats if they try and “leak” confidential information 

[SSF1991]

15 hours ago, SSF1991 said:

Mueller is safe.

Well, after today's events, this part of my post didn't age well.

[8ther]

27 minutes ago, SSF1991 said:

Well, after today's events, this part of my post didn't age well.

What happened?