The Party that supposedly hates big government trounced the party that seems to actually like governing.
So now we have the party that purports to hate big government promising to govern and to do a whole lot of stuff that they were blocked from doing.
We have the party that supposedly wants to to keep government out of you daily lives, except if you are a woman, LGBT or person of color, voted in across the country.
All this done with about 36.6% of the voters actually turning out, meaning that approximately 20% voted for the Republicans.
Another way to think about it is that 63.4% of voters do not give a shit which party is in power, some of whom were actually disenfranchised.
Now one could argue that the $3 billion or so spent on electioneering was to actually dissuade people to bother voting, or to make it seem that the struggle was so partisan and negative that the result did not matter.
The way I look at it is that the two party system has about 36.6% real support.
Presidential years are so much more fun hence more vote [57.5% turnout in 2012], but the mid-terms indicate who actually can be bothered on a purely party political basis.
So the common wisdom goes; that if we can turn out all our voters we can win. This would seem to top out at around 29 to 30% of voters being required for victory in a Presidential year and 19 to 20% in a mid-term.
Another way to look at it is that the two main parties don't give a fuck about most Americans. That tends to be my conclusion. Since both seem to ignore completely what Americans actually believe in. How can I tell?
Congressional job approval rating 14%
Presidential job approval rating 42%
The common wisdom was that it was the Presidents disapproval rating that lost the election for the Democratic Party. Don't mind the 14% look at the 47% what a failure. Actually, it is the 36.6% that is the telling figure.
Screaming about Benghazi, big government, socialism, impeachment gets around 18-20% to vote, running away from your own President gets you around 16 to18% to vote. Then you get an approval rating of 14% between you.
I don't suppose this tells you anything meaningful?
I don't suppose this gives you a clue what needs doing?
Just so long as the sponsors are happy everything is A-OK.
I know it is by design and in 2016 the circus will be in full swing and maybe even 60% will bother. Clowns once again will manage a better than 50% turnout WOOT!
I would say the next Party that actually starts listening to the American people has the better chance of winning even if it upsets a few of the sponsors.
Why was Elizabeth Warren so popular?
If you can run on that stuff perhaps a political party will obtain a real mandate to govern; rather than a self proclaimed one.
About 71% approve of raising the minimum wage.
About 67% are dissatisfied with income and wealth distribution about 7% think it's all good
65% considers climate change to be a "very serious" or "somewhat serious" problem.
54% believe the amount of tax they pay is fair whilst 52% also believing it is too high
Even after all the propaganda 53% of Americans still believe in Union rights.
90% of respondents said they’d support a law that imposes tough new campaign finance laws
Guns; 92% of the public favors background checks and 7% disapproves.
Support for the principle of gender equality has grown steadily over the last three decades and now comes from an overwhelming majority.
54% support LGBT rights to marry and over 80% say that sexual orientation would not effect their vote for a candidate
Gives you something to think about?
No?
Perhaps if you concentrated and promoted what matters to the majority of Americans your approval rating might not be at 14% and perhaps more people would actually bother to vote.
Just a thought.
Ow, this keyboard is hard.