US gubmint shutdown + default + subprime sequel?

[Papewaio]

If there is a large group 14% who are voting lockstep, that is more then enough to make a huge impact when elections are often won by less then a couple of percent.

Much like the impact teeny bopper purchases have on which music is considered most popular because they vote as a hivemind.

An organised actively voting block of voters will first be able to chose their candidate and then get him into office... much easier if the number of voters is a low percentage.

Personally if you have the right to vote in an election and don't do so, you forgo the right to bitch and moan about the state of your town/city/state/country. If the candidates all suck, then vote out the incumbent at the minimum.

[Lemur]

Hah, that's my prime directive at the ballot box -- unless there's a compelling reason to do otherwise, vote against the incumbent. Of course, these WI ballots often don't tell you who the incumbent is. So as much as I may want to vote out the current county water commissioner, I wind up having to go with the more interesting last name. I AM THE DEATH OF DEMOCRACY!

[PanzerJaeger]

If there is a large group 14% who are voting lockstep, that is more then enough to make a huge impact when elections are often won by less then a couple of percent.

Keep in mind the vast majority of Tea Party voters were solid Republican votes before the movement began and their electoral success largely had to do with a shift in independent voters away from the Democrats. Their intensity does have a major impact on primaries, though, and can even be detrimental as was seen in a number of senate elections during the 2010 cycle.

That's what I was talking about earlier in relation to the regional support for the Tea Party. They ran candidates all over the country and enjoyed varied levels of support that were not particularly regionally correlated, but those candidates had a higher chance of winning in the South because more districts in the South are predisposed to pull the lever for (R) regardless of the name in front of it.

[Strike For The South]

PJ is basically right but I would like to point out Goldwater conservativism only cuaght on in the south becuase it was suicide to be George Wallace on a national stage

The shift from "Segragation now, Segragation Tommorow, Segeragation forever" to "Keep government off my medicare" is a well documented one here in dixie and its one outsiders dont trully understand

To see how the dont understand, let's see how many times Im called ignorant in the succeeding posts