Posted on 12/09/2014 11:20:50 AM PST by Starman417
Do you ever wonder sometimes why Americans vote? How many times have you heard people say “I don’t vote because my vote doesn’t really matter, those politicians are going to do what they want regardless of how I vote.” In some cases that’s true. Obamacare was a perfect example. In January 2010 Scott Brown won his campaign for the Senate in deep blue Massachusetts by promising to be the 41st vote against Obamacare. The Democrats didn’t care, and despite the fact that 60% of the American people were opposed to Obamacare, they sidestepped Brown and used “reconciliation” to shove the law down the throats of the American people. As a result, that November the GOP retook the House in a landslide election, but by that point the damage had ever been done. If there was ever an example of politicians doing exactly what they wanted in the face of constituent opposition, Obamacare was it.
So why did citizens reward Democrats in 2012 and send Barack Obama back to work? Because presidential elections are personality driven contests (as opposed to issue driven contests) far more than are midterms, with the presidential candidates generating an unparalleled level of attention. Voters in midterm elections are generally more engaged and more aware of the issues than many who vote in presidential elections. Not sure? How many videos did you see in 2008 where voters could barely name the vice presidential candidates, nevermind the issues or candidates lower down the ticket. That reality repeated itself in 2012 with the cult of Barack Obama. Add to that the fact that Mittens Romney ran a campaign so uninspiring that millions of conservatives didn’t even bother to show up and it’s easy to understand how the country got another 4 years of The One.
Just two years later however, 2014 proved to be 2010 on steroids as the GOP picked up 9 seats in the Senate. Why? Not only had Obamacare proven to be exactly the disaster Republicans had predicted, but more timely was the fact that Barack Obama was basically promising amnesty to 4 million illegal immigrants. For the GOP, the numbers were clear: fully 70% of GOP voters were against Obama’s amnesty and at the end of the day those voters delivered a victory.
But alas, that doesn’t seem to matter. Like the Democrats in 2010 voting for something 60% of the Americans didn’t want, in 2014 the Republican leadership plans to ignore the wishes of 70% of their constituents by surrendering on immigration.
Surrender? That is essentially what the leadership has done as it promises there will be no government shutdown. The purse strings are one of the few checks the legislative branch has on the executive. As such, the primary way Congress can impact what the administration does is by deciding what to fund and what not to fund. In this context, a shutdown would occur when Congress passes a bill to fund the entire government except for those DHS functions involved in the president’s amnesty and then the president vetoes it. No dice say Boehner and McConnell. They are scared that the GOP would be blamed for any shutdown and get hammered in 2016. That’s an illusion, as most of the government would still function, and, frankly, most Americans wouldn’t even notice a shutdown were it not for the bleating of the administration’s media minions. In last year’s shutdown, once it was over a full 78% of Americans reported that they weren’t inconvenienced by the shutdown at all and another 11% felt only minor inconveniences. And a year later the GOP went on to flatten the Democrats in the midterms!
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
I truly believe that the GOP is far closer to extinction than they imagine.
They’d be much better off if Bonehead and McDorkel were pushing daisies.
Sorry, but dat’s the twuth.
At least they are better than your party...the democrats.
Need I go on?
So, they have been given the majority, and it looks like they will use there new found power to advance the liberal agenda. But, we won...
Oh, look, here they come now!
That's your false choice.
/johnny
“At least they are better than your party...the democrats.”
Not my party whatsoever, but there appears to be not much difference between the dim bulb crats and our Repulsicans.
I still maintain the GOP is just above stalling speed, preparing for the death spin.
Hope I’m wrong, but given our sorry *ssed “leadership”, I don’t think so.
The majority of Americans voted for Obama TWICE. Our issue is not with the weak kneed GOP reps, our issue is with those voters who swallowed Obama’s lies. Until we do our job of educating our neighbors we cannot hold our reps to a higher standard than what the majority want.
If conservatives will put more effort into creating a professional run 3rd party, instead of the constant stream of bitchy articles about the GOP, then they wont get votes.
Until then, we will fight the easier to beat GOP than the Dems that are guaranteed to not care what you think.
Some of us prefer to fight. Not sit around thinking we are not in this.
Yup. We were threatened by the GOP party hacks and the affrighted Conservatives here at FR that we ‘had to win’ in order to stop what Obama was doing, and if we did not pull the lever for McConnell/Boehner et al., Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid thanked us.
Turns out that those of us who REFUSED to vote for the Ruling Class GOP stooges, were once again correct - because the people Pelosi and Reid are thanking today are the very people the hacks were shaming everyone into voting for.
Look, we suffered a coup. The GOP knows where the power is going to lie in the new order and they will do everything they can to share in it.
We are past the point of elections having any influence on those in power. Most Americans will continue to delude themselves into thinking that it does, because to face the truth is to confront a horrible reality that few are willing to admit.
Because our only options when facing the truth, is to submit - or resist.
Not many willing to resist and risk reprisal.
So the opposition party she get nothing despite their large majorities? I’ve never seen it work that way in the past.
Without the president we are still the minority when it comes to laws being passed.
Let me try that again...
So the opposition party should get nothing despite their large majorities? I’ve never seen it work that way in the past.
That is the thing right there.
TIME TO GO!!
Can, will, the new Congress elect a new Speaker of the House?
Pile on me all you want.
That is a cop out. More excuses. The current GOP House could kill funding of Obamacare and Amnesty. This month, not in January.
Excuses don't feed the bulldog.
/johnny
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