Well, except with other Democrats.
But there are so many of us up here that we just all walked around smiling and nodding to strangers.
Well, until about 12 hours later when the hurricane hit.
Besides, we're a kinder, gentler electorate and didn't want to pain the disappointed Republicans up here.
All six of them.
But enough is enough. I've now read article after article about how Karl Rove was surprised, how Linda McMahon was surprised, how even Mitt Romney was surprised.
Don't they read Nate Silver??
No, it seems the GOP had their proverbial heads in the sand this year.
Or glued to Fox News.
And still do. Because everything I read tries to guess at why they lost--urban vote? minorities? young people? gays? Were they too conservative? Or not conservative enough? But they had all that red space on the map! How come they still lost by 126 electoral college and approximately 2 million popular votes? Apparently, Romney told his backers this week that Obama won because he bought the vote of special interest groups like gays and young people and minorities with his stances on same-sex marriage, college debt, and the Dream Act.
Can 10% of the population be a niche special interest group?
Are white, conservative, Christians a single special interest group? And wasn't the GOP trying to buy their votes? With all of Sheldon Adelson's money?
See, the thing is, the fact that the GOP doesn't understand how and why they lost is exactly how the Democrats won. The Republicans are out of touch. And apparently, based on all the reactions, more so than we Democrats could have possibly dreamt.
For some wonderful reflections on this, see (I'm sure there are more, but these are my recent faves):
- Maureen Dowd on for whom Romney is President
- Christian Right failure to sway voters
- The best titled article on the election, "Cry Babies and Sore Losers."
- On Rove out of touch
We have reecently had an election for a new post Police and Crime Commissioner. Onlt a very small amount of money was spent on canvassing by any of the usual political parties and next to nothing by real independents.
ReplyDeleteThe turnout was abysmal only 15/18% but roughly a third of the places were won by independents.
Tells us all something about buying votes.