Likes: 
Faceplams: Hell yeah. Fuck you Moore, Rednecks and Trump.
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Hell yeah. Fuck you Moore, Rednecks and Trump.
Bite me
We’ve been watching MSNBC all day, this is SO AWESOME
I’m afraid to call it a victory yet but this sure is a nail-biter
Active Member
Holy shit. Legit did not think Jones would actually win. FUCK YES.
FUCK YOUUUU ROY. BYE FELICIA.
Member
Wow.... I was thinking of the worst. Thank God the pedophile didn't win.
Alt-Left Leaning Cunt
https://twitter.com/Redistrict/statu...ic%3D20081.375
Alabama has made endless attempts to disenfranchise black voters, and they show up in crazy high numbers for a special election. Eventually POC are going to get tired of fixing all of these monumental fuckups.
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It makes me happy because I know trump isn’t happy.
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Trump must be having one of his meltdown tantrums right about now, lol
Last edited by Mantra; 12-12-2017 at 11:01 PM.
Member
That would be fun to watch.Originally Posted by Mantra
Bite me
Best
Night
In
A
Long
Time
Thank you to minority and young voters who showed up and exercised their right as Americans.
And God bless Doug Jones.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.c2b40a12d7c9
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Yeah, given how grim everything has been lately, it feels pretty great to win something. We really needed this.
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Yeah, although I wouldn't want to be one of his staff people right now. He's an emotional bully who takes out his anger on everyone around him. They're probably all ducking for cover, trying to find some excuse to get away.
Member
True. I heard Roy Moore refuses to concede.
Banned
agreed, but technically he's not a pedophile. pedophiles are into children. Hebephilia is sexual interest in 11-14. Ephebophilia is sexual interest in 15-19.
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I'm psyched Moore lost, but I wonder: would a regular non-pedo Republican (like Luther Strange) have won this without a problem? I think so.
In any case, I really hope Dems can build on this enthusiasm and momentum to win bigly in 2018, even flipping red states such as Texas to blue (and getting ridding of Ted Cruz).
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Everyone is happy that Moore lost (I am as well). But it's still amazing to me with everything that he's said and done, he still BARELY lost.
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Something that came up in a discussion with friends recently was how we're glad to live in this region of the world (Europe/Germany) and how there's no other place we'd rather live in (exept for maybe Canada). Not because we're overtly patriotic, but in terms of safety, democracy, politics, freedom, etc.
Which hit me as interesting, since US-American culture since after WWII had - and still has - a big impact on our country. I mean, many used to view the US as this sort of blueprint of western democracy, where you go to pursue happiness and you can make it if you're willing to put in hard work and stuff. But something changed this view on the US. Because, from the outside - for us - it pretty much looks like your society is divided and has kind of lost its common ground on a lot of issues... like pro choice or anti, gun regulation, white people vs. minorities, rich vs. poor, death penalty, etc. And you guys are seemingly fighting over them with such a vigor. Add Trump to this (or the fact that your political system allowed him to take office) and you have a Twitter feed (where I follow some US journalists, movie critics, artists amongst others) where there is a lot of anger and discussion and hysteria and whatnot.
So, what I wanted to ask/discuss is this: How are you guys IN the US actually experiencing this? Is this at all a true diagnosis? Or is that just an arrogant European perspective? I'd really like to know since this is pretty much the only place where I'm in contact with people from the US.
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No, this is absolutely true. Moore almost won the election yesterday for one reason: he's staunchly anti-abortion. Had the pro-birth movement come out in larger numbers, Moore would have won the election in a landslide victory. Thankfully, they were all too apathetic and lazy to do so, and the people with a real fire in their hearts - primarily, people of color as clearly seen in the graph above - came out to cast their ballots.
As for the country in general: yes, we are a nation divided. People vote Democratic for this reason: abortions should be legal, guns suck, everyone should have health care. People vote Republican for this reason: foreigners will kill all of us while the Dems steal your guns, everyone who has an abortion is a murderer, and God hates fags.
Most of my friends are liberal, but most of my family and colleagues are staunchly conservative. Recently, one of them spent a solid 20 minutes telling me everything he didn't like about Trump, but that he still has no regrets voting for him instead of Clinton. When I asked why he didn't support Clinton instead, he couldn't come up with an answer. People vote along party lines without thinking twice. We are not a united nation of people who research their potential elected officials and vote based on the facts. We are a nation of Us vs. Them. The voter turnout in the general election was roughly 65,000,000 to 62,000,000 - not a staggering difference when all is said and done. And yes, the one who received three million fewer votes is the one who "won". We are absolutely a nation divided.
Banned
Technically, Roy Moore is not a pedo. Pedos are sexually attracted to pre-pubescent children.
Throbbing Member
I've never voted for a Republican and I find this a slightly ridiculous assessment.
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This, by the way, is why it's completely fucking wrong when people try to argue that the take-away from the 2016 presidential election is that we need move further away from "identity politics."
Throbbing Member
I'm as glad as the next American with decency that Moore wasn't elected, but how do you figure this? Isn't this chart a bit misleading? Meaning, I'd like to know how many black voters in Alabama are already registered Democrats and will vote Dem no matter what and how many white voters in Alabama are already registered Republicans and voted across party lines.
Stubby Member
Black voters came out in record numbers in a state with some of the worst voter ID laws and gerrymandering to ensure power didn't go to a man who opined the days of slavery being a better time in America whilst claming that all of our current problems are the result of the amendments made to the Constitution (particularly those that were made in an attempt to give women and POC more equal rights). That is a direct result of identity politics.
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Republicans do identity politics like everyone else - they do it for white straight Christian mostly male rich people - just they don't admit it, they hide behind "dog-whistles" (law and order, small government, immigration, etc).
In addition to black voters coming out strong, I think what also swung this election is that there more write-ins than Jones' lead: maybe a good amount of these were Republicans who could not bring themselves to vote for Moore:
https://www.nytimes.com/elections/re...ore-doug-jones
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati...icle-1.3695416
https://www.sbnation.com/college-foo...ion-nick-saban
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Yeah, this is basically all correct.
But this cultural divide is not a recent development. You could argue that it's gotten fiercer and more amplified with social media and whatnot, but still, it's a very old thing. Depending on how you want to look at it, you could argue that it goes all the way back to the civil war. But for the sake of keeping the historical scale somewhat manageable, I would argue that the dynamics of our modern political landscape really came into formation with Nixon and have been intensifying ever since then. People always refer to "the Reagan revolution," but I don't think that's right. It doesn't go back far enough. Nixon was when everything truly moved away from the political culture of Roosevelt and Eisenhower. People forget that Nixon began his career as a fairly moderate/liberal Republican who fought for civil rights, but he lost to Kennedy, and when he ran again in 1968, he did so as a right wing "law and order" candidate who was going to save the "silent majority" of the country from the chaos of the late 60s. It's not that he invented anything, per se. He just capitalized on something that was in the process of crystallizing in our culture. He harnessed the brewing resentment that some Americans felt over the 60s hippie counterculture, the antiwar protests, the race riots, the overall liberal frenzy of the late sixties. He was the stable guy who was gonna get the country back to normal. And I think there are a lot of parallels between his election and Trump's election. I think the cultural dynamics that were established in his presidency have been playing out ever since then.
I also think it's worth pointing out that the United States is an absurdly large country, and I would argue that this all but guarantees that we're going to be doomed to perpetual culture wars. I mean look at this shit...
If all of Europe was combined into one unified country with a single federal government that was supposed to "represent" all the people of this enormous nation, you guys would probably be dealing with the same shit that we are. Last fall I visited a friend in Missouri for a few days, and all down her street was nothing but Trump signs. I talked with some of her neighbors one night, and they all feel like: "This. This is America. This is reality." Because it's all they know, it's all they're surrounded by. I think to them it seemed truly unfathomable that anyone could actually like Hillary Clinton. But then I come home to my ultra-liberal neighborhood in Minneapolis, and I'm surrounded by a bunch of college kids and hardcore lefties, and they're all like "I don't understand, who the fuck ARE these Trump voters?!?!" To them, Trump voters might as well be aliens from another planet.
So both of these groups of people are considered "Americans" and they both are "represented" by the same government, the same flag, the same laws, and yet they each find each other to be utterly incomprehensible. And that's because they are literally separated by hundreds of miles and they have no interaction with each other. So I don't think it's entirely possible to talk about "American culture" as if it's one unified thing. I suppose every country has their internal conflicts and cultural factions, but the sheer scale and intensity of what we have in America is so extreme that a lot of us basically have nothing in common whatsoever. We're like some old married couple who fucking hates each other and sleeps in different rooms and only communicates by trading insults through third parties.
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Basically everything that @Aladdinsanity said.
Republicans benefit from a lack of diversity. The less voting we see from women, non-whites, young people, the more Republicans stand to gain. If Dems want to gain more power, they need to work harder to inspire those demographics.
Throbbing Member
Identity politics is wrong plain and simple, it doesn't matter if it is partisan politics, or gender and race politics. Anyway, I'm glad Alabama did the right thing here. I'm also glad this election produced this amazing tweet from Trump
Translation: The reason I originally endorsed the guy who lost the election (and his numbers went up mightily), is that I said the guy who lost the election will loose the election. I was right!The reason I originally endorsed Luther Strange (and his numbers went up mightily), is that I said Roy Moore will not be able to win the General Election. I was right! Roy worked hard but the deck was stacked against him!
Yes Donald, you were right, here's a cookie. His first tweet about the election outcome was quite civil. To the point I don't really believe it was written by him.
Throbbing Member
I'm quite glad that the repressive voting accessibility was pushed back against in the election, as I'm well aware of the insidious things the GOP does to block votes which will likely go blue (Dems gerrymander as well but not at the same magnitude).
I'd also like to compare with how many black voters did vote in the last senate race and how many then voted blue, versus the same comparisons for the last election with respect to white voters. I'm glad Moore lost. I'm glad black voters were able to vote, especially in a state notorious for blocking their votes through policy. I'm just wary of the lionization of certain voting groups because of the fact that they'll vote blue when what the Democratic party should be doing is appealing to all groups through better image, candidates, accountability, etc. One wonders if your random, 'average' white family actually agrees with what the GOP is doing or if your random, 'average' black family actually agrees with the platform of the DNC.
Last edited by joplinpicasso; 12-13-2017 at 12:31 PM.
Active Member
So you're saying we're just one awesome rail system away from being like Europe? Sign me up.Yeah, this is basically all correct.
But this cultural divide is not a recent development. You could argue that it's gotten fiercer and more amplified with social media and whatnot, but still, it's a very old thing. Depending on how you want to look at it, you could argue that it goes all the way back to the civil war. But for the sake of keeping the historical scale somewhat manageable, I would argue that the dynamics of our modern political landscape really came into formation with Nixon and have been intensifying ever since then. People always refer to "the Reagan revolution," but I don't think that's right. It doesn't go back far enough. Nixon was when everything truly moved away from the political culture of Roosevelt and Eisenhower. People forget that Nixon began his career as a fairly moderate/liberal Republican who fought for civil rights, but he lost to Kennedy, and when he ran again in 1968, he did so as a right wing "law and order" candidate who was going to save the "silent majority" of the country from the chaos of the late 60s. It's not that he invented anything, per se. He just capitalized on something that was in the process of crystallizing in our culture. He harnessed the brewing resentment that some Americans felt over the 60s hippie counterculture, the antiwar protests, the race riots, the overall liberal frenzy of the late sixties. He was the stable guy who was gonna get the country back to normal. And I think there are a lot of parallels between his election and Trump's election. I think the cultural dynamics that were established in his presidency have been playing out ever since then.
I also think it's worth pointing out that the United States is an absurdly large country, and I would argue that this all but guarantees that we're going to be doomed to perpetual culture wars. I mean look at this shit...
If all of Europe was combined into one unified country with a single federal government that was supposed to "represent" all the people of this enormous nation, you guys would probably be dealing with the same shit that we are. Last fall I visited a friend in Missouri for a few days, and all down her street was nothing but Trump signs. I talked with some of her neighbors one night, and they all feel like: "This. This is America. This is reality." Because it's all they know, it's all they're surrounded by. I think to them it seemed truly unfathomable that anyone could actually like Hillary Clinton. But then I come home to my ultra-liberal neighborhood in Minneapolis, and I'm surrounded by a bunch of college kids and hardcore lefties, and they're all like "I don't understand, who the fuck ARE these Trump voters?!?!" To them, Trump voters might as well be aliens from another planet.
So both of these groups of people are considered "Americans" and they both are "represented" by the same government, the same flag, the same laws, and yet they each find each other to be utterly incomprehensible. And that's because they are literally separated by hundreds of miles and they have no interaction with each other. So I don't think it's entirely possible to talk about "American culture" as if it's one unified thing. I suppose every country has their internal conflicts and cultural factions, but the sheer scale and intensity of what we have in America is so extreme that a lot of us basically have nothing in common whatsoever. We're like some old married couple who fucking hates each other and sleeps in different rooms and only communicates by trading insults through third parties.
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