The good news is this may breed complacency from the GOP base in general for the democrats to take advantage of.in 2018.
Timex
6519
This is absurd. No one could see last nights events as a big R win. The fact that they have a runoff does mean that Ossoff’s chances are definitely not ideal, but he did better than expected, and the GOP is going to need to fight to keep that seat… which is a seat which really should be totally safe for them.
Winning in the GA6 isn’t some great victory for the GOP. It’s like Chris Rock said, “You don’t get credit for doing what you’re supposed to do.”
The flips side of this though, is why I was reluctant to feed into the hype machine surrounding this election. Building up an expectation of the Dem’s winning in this historically conservative district is a mistake… because if the GOP wins, which is likely, then they’re able to paint it as some major victory, which is absurd. But if Ossoff wins, it’s gonna be a massive victory regardless of whether it was hyped up beforehand.
There may be some amount of benefit brought in by the hype, but I’m not sure how much. Some amount would be negated by backlash against “holywood elites” supporting this stuff from outside the area.
Spring boarding this quote to post this story that shows (yet again) how Republicans actively harm their constituents (financially) to accommodate corporate backers:
This year, the Tennessee state legislature was finally considering a bill that would have let EPB expand its coverage (without providing it any special tax breaks or grants; EPB is profitable and doesn’t rely on taxpayer money). Rather than pass that bill, Tennessee has just passed the “Broadband Accessibility Act of 2017,” which gives private telecom companies—in this case, probably AT&T and Comcast—$45 million of taxpayer money over the next three years to build internet infrastructure to rural areas.
To be clear: EPB wanted to build out its gigabit fiber network to many of these same communities using money it has on hand or private loans at no cost to taxpayers. It would then charge individual residents for internet service. Instead, Tennessee taxpayers will give $45 million in tax breaks and grants to giant companies just to get basic infrastructure built. They will then get the opportunity to pay these companies more money for worse internet than they would have gotten under EPB’s proposal.
Timex
6523
While this is counterintuitive at first glance, I think we need to consider another aspect of this.
Most of these folks don’t really WANT to be on government assistance, I don’t think. I don’t think they want to be reliant on a food bank.
And in that way, it could potentially make sense to support someone who is threatening to shut down your support structure, if you believe that they are going to actually give you the means to support yourself. If you think that Trump is gonna bring back jobs, then you may not care if the food bank shuts down… because you’ll be able to buy your own food.
To be honest, if such a promise manifested itself as reality, I think most folks would agree it was a better outcome for all. Working for a living is better for everyone than living on the government dole.
But the problem is obvious… Trump has no real plan or mechanism by which those jobs will come back. He’s just cutting out the support structure, and replacing it with crushing poverty. And sadly, these people don’t seem to be able to recognize that until they are actually thrown into the gutter and experience those (obvious) outcomes first hand.
[quote]
“I’d vote for him again 20 more times if I could,” said Hal McWilliams, 59, a self-employed contractor from Portageville. “Build the wall! …Democrats do everything in their power to destroy this country. Hillary Clinton was everything I am against. She was out to destroy the culture that made this country: Hard work, guns, freedom.”[/quote]
[quote]
Told that the food bank was in danger, McWilliams shrugged and said: “I grow most of my own food anyway.”[/quote]
Okay, dude.
[quote=“Timex, post:6523, topic:78530, full:true”]
If you think that Trump is gonna bring back jobs, then you may not care if the food bank shuts down… because you’ll be able to buy your own food.[/quote]
This, exactly.
We’re still so early in the Trump Presidency that all the people in situations like this who voted Trump because he promised to kick out the job-stealing immigrants, drain the swamp, bully corporations into keeping jobs in America and reopening factories and basically Make (White) America Great Again still believe he will keep those promises and that they just need to tow the party line until that happens. In the meantime they see him talking tough about North Korea and Syria, signing executive orders banning Muslims and giving people their guns back, and tweeting about the terrible libtards that would ruin our country and they’re reassured that they made the right choice even as they pick up what could be one of their last care packages from the federally funded support program that keeps them and their kids fed.
They are desperate for a change to their situations, and it didn’t come under Obama and Team Liberal, so it must be going to happen under Trump and Team Conservative. When their situations actually get WORSE in a year or so, I wonder what will happen?
antlers
6528
When will enough of an interval have passed that he can step down for medical reasons without Republicans having to admit they voted for someone with obvious signs of dementia?
I seriously wonder if our Esteemed Leader has read a book in his life. I’m not even joking.
We all know Trump is neither respectable nor a historian.
Well, now we can guess the subject of the next Spicer presser.
Meanwhile, Trump continues to crush Obama bigly:
Just look at Trump’s bar. It’s huge!
Patriots are saying 40 team people on stairs in the Obama pic are seated on the lawn in the Trump pic.
Banzai
6535
Blame Obama, just like Trump will, of course.
Tim_N
6536
[quote=“Banzai, post:6535, topic:78530, full:true”]Blame Obama, just like Trump will, of course.
[/quote]
Another classic strategy is to blame the opposition party in the Senate for not allowing Trumps/Repubs to jam their agenda down completely unfettered. If only we were able to implement 100% of our platform then everything would have been great.
The Republican politicians will surely do so, but the actual people affected…they’re going to understand that they are worse off in 2018 than they were in 2016, and it doesn’t take a whole lot of brain power to realize who is responsible and that not only were promises not kept, but legislation was enacted that directly made these people’s situations worse. I don’t expect the whole lot of them to suddenly turn Democrat, but 2018 and 2020 might prove to be watershed years for Independents in American politics.
