The Final US Election Thread

**JAG** · 11-05-2008, 03:56

Originally Posted by seireikhaan

Jag- I trust you've seen the map of Reagan vs Mondale? That was the very definition of a massacre. This already has proved to be far from that big of a win.

That was his re-election, but ya I get your point - his victory over Carter was similarily emphatic.

But still, I think there is a movement, which underpins this like that Reagan victory. I think it would be unwise for the GOP to think otherwise, or to think they simply were not Conservative enough or that the people will simply just come back to them. I say again, 06 the GOP got a beating and AGAIN tonight they are gettign a beating even WORSE. That never happens. But it is.

**Koga No Goshi** · 11-05-2008, 04:01

Originally Posted by JAG

That was his re-election, but ya I get your point - his victory over Carter was similarily emphatic.

But still, I think there is a movement, which underpins this like that Reagan victory. I think it would be unwise for the GOP to think otherwise, or to think they simply were not Conservative enough or that the people will simply just come back to them. I say again, 06 the GOP got a beating and AGAIN tonight they are gettign a beating even WORSE. That never happens. But it is.

We've had this exact discussion in several thread titles now over the last few weeks but I think there's still a hefty level of denial in the air. On both the macro and individual level there still seems to be a preoccupation with attacking what's wrong with the Democratic party instead of asking what could be wrong with the Republican party to be causing this total collapse of support for their platforms.

**Evil_Maniac From Mars** · 11-05-2008, 04:02

Louisiana and Kansas called for McCain by CNN. Iowa called for Obama.

**JAG** · 11-05-2008, 04:07

Cr - I think that article is compeltely right in terms of how Reagan did what he did - but much more than that he came at a time when people wanted de-regulation and lower taxes. Now the fundamentals of the political state are compeltely different - more - better - regulation and a degree of fairer, more taxes - the answer. Palin made Hilary voters turn TO Obama - the moderate, conservative leaning Dems got pushed away by Palin. Independents got pushed AWAY by Palin. That kind of Republican will not wash anymore with, that is what the GOP have to deal with.

**Lemur** · 11-05-2008, 04:05

Once again, I can't help but feel a bit sorry for McCain. He got ****** by Bush in 2000, and ****** by him again in 2008.

In truth, though, 2000 was McCain's year. If he had won the primary he would have won the general, and we would have had a much better President for the last eight years. But this was not his year.

Condolences to those who strongly supported McCain, and I humbly request that any and all calls for impeachment wait until the new President has served at least a week in office.

**Koga No Goshi** · 11-05-2008, 04:09

Originally Posted by Lemur

Condolences to those who strongly supported McCain, and I humbly request that any and all calls for impeachment wait until the new President has served at least a week in office.

I would feel sorrier for McCain if he hadn't hitched his wagon to the same people who character assasinated him. His re-embrace of almost all the scary fringes and the of the Republican base and the Bush ideological hardline further alienated him from the many Dems who used to like him quite a bit, myself included.

Cr - I think that article is compeltely right in terms of how Reagan did what he did - but much more than that he came at a time when people wanted de-regulation and lower taxes. Now the fundamentals of the political state are compeltely different - more - better - regulation and a degree of fairer, more taxes - the answer. Palin made Hilary voters turn TO Obama - the moderate, conservative leaning Dems got pushed away by Palin. Independents got pushed AWAY by Palin. That kind of Republican will not wash anymore with, that is what the GOP have to deal with.

I agree with this completely. The problem with the Republican party is a very simple one. They've played around too much with the bait of ideology and have become too dependant upon it in order to win or excite their base. Republican platform over the last 12 years or more has been repeatedly trying to shove the square peg into the round hole, over and over, thinking that the square peg is what made Reagan great or Republicans respected. It wasn't the square peg (be it deregulation, tax cuts, corporate pandering, a contempt for social services, a demonizing of the poorer 40-90% of Americans as just lazy and unworthy of compassion or assistance, a contempt for the international community) as much as having a square peg when the hole was square.

Campaigns have become a sad repetition over and over of "Square peg! Square peg!" with no one stopping to ask themselves if the holes of our time are square.