US electorate: split down the middle

[ksen]

Recent elections have been extremely close affairs.

In a nation of over 300 million people I find it hard to believe that politically we are divided just about 50/50. That just seems like so unlikely a scenario yet here we are.

How did this come about?

 

[wufwugy]

 

[NobleSavage]

From my political science classes I remember that mid term elections normally go against the party of the President.

 

[boneyard bill]

Recent elections have been extremely close affairs.

In a nation of over 300 million people I find it hard to believe that politically we are divided just about 50/50. That just seems like so unlikely a scenario yet here we are.

How did this come about?

Blame George W. Bush. After the break-up of the old Roosevelt North-South coalition, Republicans waged a long, slow fight for parity with the Dems. They won the South over after LBJ for presidential elections, but trailed for another generation Southern legislators, and they're the ones who drew the Congressional boundaries. But they finally broke through in 1994 after Clinton pushed gun-control legislation through the House. Gun control did for the Southern Republicans what civil rights legislation couldn't do. By 2000, with the election of George W. Bush, they controlled by houses of Congress and the presidency and appeared to be on their way to becoming the majority party. Then came the Iraq War and Bush's lie about weapons of mass destruction. Bush squeaked through in '04, (largely, I believe, because Kerry supported the war). But in '06 they lost Congress (on Democrat promises to end the war, which they didn't fulfill) and in '08 they lost the presidency (on Obama's promise of a quick withdrawal which he also didn't fulfill). Obamacare looks like it is going to be what gun control was for Clinton. So Republicans will get a second chance.

The public doesn't like Democrats on domestic policy, and they don't like Republicans on foreign policy (not even majority of Republicans do). The problem for the Democrats is that they've copied Republicans on foreign policy and their domestic policy stinks. The problem for Republicans is that their foreign policy stinks, and they've copied the Democrats on their domestic policy.

 

[braces_for_impact]

I dunno. I dislike a lot about the Democrats, yet despite agreeing with some ideas of the right, I could never call myself a Republican under the current leadership and state of the party. Honestly, considering the current crop of stupidity for the last decade or so, I don't know how anyone can be a Republican and not be completely embarrassed about their choice. I really don't even know how these people got to the top of the party in the first place. It certainly isn't talent, intelligence, or even charisma.

 

[boneyard bill]

I dunno. I dislike a lot about the Democrats, yet despite agreeing with some ideas of the right, I could never call myself a Republican under the current leadership and state of the party. Honestly, considering the current crop of stupidity for the last decade or so, I don't know how anyone can be a Republican and not be completely embarrassed about their choice. I really don't even know how these people got to the top of the party in the first place. It certainly isn't talent, intelligence, or even charisma.

I largely agree with your characterization of Republicans, but I don't see where the Democrats are different. In fact, Obama appears to me to be in over his head more than any president in my memory. And for all their faults, I think Mitch McConnell and John Boehner are intellectual giants compared to Pelosi and Reid.

But it is wrong to say that they aren't talented. They are talented at what politicians do which is to reconcile competing interests. Unfortunately, there are times when politicians need to rise above wheeling and dealing and make some enlightened, if unpopular, decisions. This is one of those times, but I do not see where anyone in the leadership of either party is prepared to do that.

 

[Zeluvia]

I am with wufwugy on this one. The problem isn't the people, or the parties, its the fucking system. That is a great video, and so are some of his others.

We are doing democracy wrong.

It's maths.