Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

The Texas Legislature almost met again.

Anyone with some good thread ideas?

Re: 21 months to close a thread
 

Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.

Now Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers.
 

"We already have a Sebby here, brah."

Re: Now Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers.
 

You take that back.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

What's to discuss? Yes.

Or, maybe not satan, just a rich white guy* who is sure that it's the natural state of things for everything to favor people like him.

* don't give me that Latino bullshit. He's no more Latino than romney.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Quoting Ty: "Most Americans want consensus and bipartisan agreement. Conservatives do not."

And he knows that I showed him what standard Dem voters said in Michigan, and he knows how he looks at the world. He is absurd.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

the smartest thing i heard yesterday (and it was something I said here in maybe 2006 or so) was Robin Quivers who noted that both parties seem to forget that the public didn't just vote for them, the public just voted against the other guys. then they govern like the country just moved to them, then the public votes against them.

Re: 21 months to close a thread
 

A lot of times, people confuse Faustus and Mephistopheles. Faustus may have sold his soul, but he can still have regrets, he can still understand the errors of his ways, he can still see that he has traded Paradise for mere baubles, for a vision of a succubus as Helen and a few lauds and laurels in the temporal world. It is important not to mistake the Faustus' of the world, for whom there may still be some hope of repentance and redemption, from the raw, unyielding evil of Mephisto, but it happens all the time.

This is not one of those times.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

The Steinbrenner Electorate. In two years, they'll throw out a whole bunch more.

Only difference between them and George being, George eventually found winners. All Joe Sixpack voter will ever have is a form of lottery ticket... the illusory hope, as he pulls the lever like a one armed bandit at the casino, a miracle may be at hand.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Ty:

"Many conservatives feel that they are losing their country to cosmopolitans and blacks and Hispanics. And they are. Demographically and culturally, they are losing. And they know it. No bridging that gap."

True, but that doesn't explain last night. This vote was all about the economy. Almost every poll confirmed this fact.

The Democratic Senate has been in power during a time of Main Street economic malaise. So Main Street threw them out. If the GOP fucks it up over the next 24 months, which they will because the economic problems we face are beyond political control, they'll lose seats.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Bullshit. Last night was all about what happens when you shrink the electorate by taking away less engaged voters - who skew younger, poorer and more diverse - and have a vote among a more concentrated group of older, whiter, richer voters.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Interesting. Do you have a cite on those polls?

The economy is actually doing reasonably well. Unemployment is below 6%, the stock market is hot, business profits are at unusually high levels. Massachusetts is doing phenomenally well on both an absolute and a relative basis, yet it elected a Republican governor. My read is that dissatisfaction is there but less focused on any one item or issue. A sort of incessant grumbling rather than a focused rage.

The economy is always a major driver, but my read is that it was not relatively critical, and if anything played less of a role than usual.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Also more male voters. The shifts between male and female voters were fascinating, some states had very heavy male turnout, others had stronger female turnout.

And also less lunatic candidates. The Republican establishment's huge expenditures early in the cycle to beat tea party candidates paid off. That was a big change from the last time. Reagan's rule of not criticizing a fellow Republican is dead; unless it's starting to live in the Democratic party.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Re: 21 months to close a thread
 

B'xactly.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

It wasn't all about the economy, and it wasn't all about voter suppression, although both were huge factors.

It was also largely about Obama's failure to either deliver on his promises or stand tall and fight for his principles.

The man who was mentored by people who fought against the Chicago PD's Red Squads sought to spy on his own citizens and then lied about it.

His Justice Department was very, very quiet on voter suppression.

He took union money, and made a few nice remarks, but he never really stood up and said he was a union man.

He promised health care reform and offered a watered down compromise that didn't make anyone happy. The only really solid reform to come out of Obamacare was doing away with preexisting condition limitations.

And he made it clear he was not a blind friend of Israel, wagging his tail whenever Netanyahu patted his head. But he didn't stand up when the Arab democracy movements needed international support.

In short, he's a classic Chicago politician: Promise them everything, then cut a deal just to say you put something in place. If he had taken the lead from the beginning, and made it a solid choice between good and evil, I believe we would be in a much different place.

But he didn't.

Now Main Street's whitewashed windows and vacant stores.
 

I respectfully disagree. Wage stagflation/deflation means that, for many Americans, the economy is *not* improving. My working class cousins aren't invested in the stock market and they don't see any of the "unusually high" business profits coming their way. You cannot discount their frustration - and you also cannot disagree with them when they say that the president hasn't done enough.

Of course, a Republican Senate isn't likely to help them either, but that's a different issue.

Re: Now Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers.
 

Wonk, you know I love you like the older cousin who turned me on to George Carlin's "Class Clown" - I would never say that *to* you. It was merely a suggestion for thread title (loosely based on Hank's comment to TM).

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

I am more positive about Obama than you are, but I completely agree that he didn't give Democrats a reason to get out and vote. So they didn't.

eta: He built this awesome machine for getting himself elected, but has been uninterested or unable to harness it to any other end.

Re: Now Main Street's whitewashed windows and vacant stores.
 

Good point. This may even be a particular issue in some of the red states where elections occurred. I don't think it's what drove the Republican pick up of a congressional seat in NH or the pickup of the Mass. governor's race. I really would like to see the data and what was keyed in on as far as the economy.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

My aunt lost her race for state senate :-(

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

I'm sorry. I have no doubt she would have done a great job.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

I've been taking comfort in a) 2004 was more heartbreaking for me and b) 2004 was followed by 2006. Republicans are a great opposition party. They're pretty godawful when they're in power.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

I understand people's criticism of Obama, for the most part. But I don't know how many of the points you outlined above are stated as if you just arrived to this country yesterday from some weird place in which you do not know anything about what is and isn't possible.

I wanted him to be way left of where he ended up being, but I remember that he didn't run on a way left platform. I wanted him to pass significant health care reform, but realized that that shit was not fucking possible. I wanted him to tell Netanyahoooo to sit down and shut the fuck up every once in awhile, etc., etc. etc. But I am not insane. And if he went too far left on anything, the voting public, which is made up of children, would have thrown a fit and he would have lost even the Democrats who wanted to get shit done.

I don't agree with everything the man has done, but to act like yesterday was about specific issues with people and not this sort of general malaise that will hang over this country due to a recovering economy (yeah, more jobs, but all shitty, low-paying jobs), a non-Ebola crisis (at least in the US), trouble with ISIS that hasn't affected anyone even indirectly (who doesn't serve), and various school and other mass shootings, etc., is just plain bullshit.

I'm with Maher. Democrats should start ignoring polls and selling the good shit they've done. The polls will move in your direction because people are stupid and are programmed to repeat what they've seen over and over again. Stop running away from your actual accomplisments.

TM

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

2

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

You had me right up until you said you're with Maher. I'm as far away from that racist shitbag as I can be. One of the things we Dems have to do is deflate his sorry overblown ego.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

I say he's one of the first up against the wall when the revolution comes, but that can wait until then.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

To clarify, I'm with him on that point (and others, but that's not relevant right now).

No question his ego is severely overblown. But how is he a racist? Is it because he shits on Islam constantly?

TM

Insanity
 

This is the country in which we live: http://www.local10.com/news/police-c...eless/29510268

TM

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Yes. He shits on everyone Islamic or Arabic with a gleeful ignorance about both Islam and MENA and an eagerness to paint everyone as a caricature. I know it gets him ratings to be a bloviating ignorant shitbag.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Let me start by saying that he lost me over Gitmo and the NSA's "let's spy on everybody, just in case" program. After his failure to deliver on those two points, he would have had to get just about everything else he talked about accomplished for me to be at all pro-Obama. Instead, he has been one of the more "Imperial" presidents in a generation.

On healthcare, he should have been taking it to the people. If he had made his plan more publicly available and understandable, he would have sold more people. He would have lost, ultimately, but people would know what was at stake and you wouldn't have people like Hank focusing on the fact that their ox got gored.

If Obama had been more forthcoming, more public, then more people would be more pissed off at the Republican obstruction that has been going on for the last 6 years and yesterday would have gone differently. Instead, he held himself above the fray, and people felt like they were being condescended to (because, well, they were).

He ran as a man for the people. He's governed as one who finds the people to be an annoyance at best. I'm a smart guy. When my President starts acting like he needn't explain his program because I wouldn't understand it, it pisses me off.

Don't get me wrong, I still voted almost exclusively for Democrats. But I did it because I think the Republicans are a real danger to America, not because I had faith in the Democrats' program.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

I hate to double-down on a post, but I just re-read what you said and what I said and realized that, other than his contempt for civil liberties, we are basically saying the same thing. The Democrats didn't sell their work, so people didn't have a clear idea of why nothing was working. The Republicans did a better job of filling that vacuum.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

since you are dense enough to think this is accurate....

there is no point talking to you about anything.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

A big, resounding, 2.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Hank, you seriously aren't saying that you haven't posted about this over and over, are you? I didn't say it was all you were about, but it has been a consistent theme. The balance of what you have had to say is that it was difficult to figure the program out. But whatever...

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

As far as I know, he hasn't invaded* any countries, so that's going a little far.

* yeah, bombs and drones everywhere, I know, gut empires typically involve taking over territory.

The Democrats have a program? Huh.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

I was referring more to his attitude that he is not accountable to the American people. But, yeah, bombs and drones. That's sort of intrusive of other sovereign states' territory.



My point exactly.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Enh. I don't hear him shit on Arabs generally. He does go hard at Islam, but he goes hard at every religion. He tends to single Islam out because out of all the religions, that's the one used most by lunatics as a justification to murder non-believers (of their very specific set of skewed beliefs). It's true that he seems to pain the entire religion with the broad brush of extremism. But I think what he gets stuck on are these polls (I won't pretend to know anything about the numbers behind them) where a large number of all kinds of muslims seem to be in favor of things like "Death to those who joke about Mohammed" or "Non-believers should be killed."

His ego is truly out of control. But I love when he shits on the many Republicans who are spewing absolute garbage. And since he spends so much time on that, I'll continue to watch his show. It's very cathartic.

TM

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

I said it was great to cover people but fucked up that it was done in a way the seriously downgrades coverage for the middle class. That is not my ox.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

I don't know what that means. When it's on Fox or from some right winger, they mean using executive orders to do things that Congress refuses to do.

What do you mean by it? What has he done that suggests he does not feel accountable to the American people?