Shown are a few of the facts as the Washington Post sees them. Here on Moonhowlings, some of the men have particularly enjoyed chiding me about the war on women, as if a Republican win not only ended the war, but also proved it never existed in the first place.
Let’s not get too carried away with disproving “war on women.” It’s been going on since man was first placed on this earth and will continue to rumble far after I am dead and gone. It’s not an idea that is going to quickly be resolved and it’s not going to be resolved by electing women to office or giving them their own Senate bathroom.
Most of the upheaval has already taken place. Change has happened and most of the really difficult work has been accomplished. It’s that remaining few miles that have to happen before full victory can be declared. Mission accomplished isn’t upon us yet but it’s getting a lot closer. The final few miles will be slowly won. Those miles will be subtle. We won’t say “female priest” or “male nurse.” We won’t notice. We won’t have contraception questioned or declared separate from other drug coverage. There will be changes that I don’t envision. Why? I am too much a part of the system to notice.
The struggle for women to achieve full gender equality will continue and will be evidenced in a gradual shift of power. Victory will infuse itself in our language, our pay scales, our expectations, our division of labor, and our control of our own reproduction. Subtle gender inequality will continue to be a topic on this blog, and without apology.
Moving on, who voted and who didn’t? If you don’t vote, you don’t get to have an opinion, in my world. Young people are really bad about being reliable voters. They seem to need to be exited and worked up for us to really be able to count on them. Most of the time, mid-term elections just aren’t sexy. There is that tendency to want to stay in bed or set the snooze alarm when it comes to getting out the vote. Sometimes happy hour with friends just seems more relevant that racing home to vote.
In Virginia, it appears that around 20% of its residents voted in this past election. It looks like 2 million Virginians voted in a state that has over 8 million residents. Sure, some of those residents are children but, even so….
According to the State of Virginia:
Citizens are more likely to register and vote the higher the:
- office being voted on
- voter’s educational level
- voter’s income
- voter’s age
Registering is easy part. Getting out there and voting is the part that sometimes doesn’t always get done. Odd, in many places in the world, people will risk their lives to cast a vote. In this country, some folks simply take the right to vote for granted. Those people who work in civil service also have more of a tendency to vote. Those who are disenchanted with their government often simply stay home.
Minorities also were noticeably fewer in number this election. 75% of the population is not white, yet that demographic is who voted. In some areas, women were also under-represented at the polls. So if things appear to be moving backwards, who do we blame? Do we blame white men, or do we blame ourselves if we didn’t get out there and exercise our American rights? The answer should be obvious.
The Republicans were able to counter the “war on women” with enough swing voters among the 40% of the population that voted to be successful. Putting all your eggs in that basket, along with voter suppression and trade treaties, was obviously not smart even when it was all mostly accurate.
When will the democrats learn to grow a pair and own their strong points? Why run away from providing health insurance to millions of people, especially in Kentucky where the ACA is wildly successful? Why not tout our great economy in relation to the rest of the world, including Europe, Japan and China? Our low unemployment rate? Why not get into the reason that our economy has been shedding lower-income jobs for the past 30 years? Why not tout the successes reining in the big banks? Why not tout the environmental gains? Protecting minority rights? Elizabeth Warren is having great success with these issues- why not all democrats?
Until the democrats figure out who they are, they face a bleak future…
I agree with you, Middleman. Elena and I had this very same conversation yesterday. They absolutely need to grow a pair.
I wanted to bitch slap the woman who wouldn’t admit she voted for Obama. I am not at all ashamed of the fact that I did.
I certainly don’t believe that anyone else would have done a better job of pulling the country out of the deepest recession/depression in decades than Obama.
Hopefully the Republicans with their new Majority will be looking to stimulate our economy and get a message together. The House has stifled legislation the same as the Senate has – hopefully, this logjam will be removed and allow votes to happen instead of allowing a single Senator to block votes just because he/she wants to.
They now have it all – which means if they want Obama to fail more they can do it or they can allow Obama to succeed – but they own it. McConnell did seem to be looking to work as a team – hopefully he can reign in some Senators to be successful – Boehner, if selected as Speaker, has his work cut out for him.
Yeah, I don’t think policy positions or demographics are fixed. The next election will have a higher turnout with different demographics and the focus group studies will determine how to play likely voters on wedge issues. Sure there are diehard Pepsi and Coke consumers who wouldn’t drink anything else but many of us do not have brand loyalty and will buy whatever soda is currently on sale at the place where we are thirsty.
Not me. I buy sprite zero or nothing. When I was a coke drinker, I drank classic coke. I had to give it up. I treat myself on my birthday and if someone gave me a pepsi instead I would probably not drink it.
@Pat.Herve
O’Connell is going to thwart anything that might look as if Obama
Might be successful. He has said that several times.
@punchak
agreed that McConnell has said that many times – But McConnell can no loner blame Harry Reid – if the Senate and House do not move legislation, it is all on their watch now. A successful Obama will mean a successful McConnell and Boehner,
@middleman
Your second paragraph demonstrates the huge gulf in philosophy between the left and right in this country. Only those who support big government could possibly support the interpretations that you put forth. Consider Obamacare. Despite the narrative of success, it has resulted in huge cost increases for people that do not receive subsidies, reduced choice, and under-employment. The unemployment rate has decreased, but the rate is low mainly due to the massive number of people who have dropped out of the labor force. The labor participation rate remains extremely low.
The economy is indeed showing signs of improvement, mainly due to lower energy costs. Does Obama get credit for that? The Administration has not done anything to encourage oil and gas production. Increased production resulted due to the ingenuity of those industries, despite the heavy regulation and the demonstrated hostility of the government to fossil fuels. The Feds chose to support green energy which has been a complete failure and which contributed nothing to the growth of the economy.
Early on, the Dems did try to make some of the points you mentioned, but nobody bought it.
Kelly, you seem to want to pigeon-hole people as left or right. You don’t seem to believe in middle ground. I don’t think we have a binary political situation I this country but we appear to because of polarizing politcos.
Team Obama kept this country fro going in to depression. It was a fairly quick recovery when you think about it. I also seem to recall a huge oil spill that Obama had to contend with. There is no reason for democrats or anyone else to run.
What did Team Obama do to bring about recovery in your opinion?
How about GM? If those auto industries had gone south the trickle down job loss would have been tremendous. He had people in place who knew what they were doing. Were there some things that didn’t pan out? Sure. There is no blue print for surviving a depression in modern times.
I wish he had had a jobs bill passed. I would have loved to see our infrastructure repaired and rebuilt while employing America.
@Moon-howler
GM? You mean Fiat?
It would seem to me that the People — those concerned enough to exercise their right to vote — just expressed their opinions rather strongly on what this POTUS has put forward and on what he says he will put forward in the future. Biggest electoral swing since Hoover-FDR. Does “No!” no longer mean no?
I am not sure what people were saying. I think a lot just stayed home. Obviously you and I feel differently about leadership and what we want to happen. I get that. But I am still not sure what other people want. I think we are pretty much divided down the middle. Half and half.
The people I am angry at are the Democrats who ran away. bok bok bok. It is isn’t a perfect match, they can’t seem to handle it.
The referendum on Obama was held back in 2012 – and they voted him back in. As much as people want this election to be about Obama, it was not. It was also not a vote for the Republicans. It was a vote against the Dems and Congress. People wanted to get rid of Harry Reid.
W.R.T. the economy – it is getting better – fixing some of the issues that led to the financial and housing crisis. Job gains every month. Stronger dollar. Low interest rates. There is much good news. Could it be better – sure. Could Congress do more to stimulate the economy – Yes. Hopefully they will. What the R’s cannot do is take all the credit for the strengthening economy.
The DOW is at an all time high.
Harry Reid is strange. So are Boehner and Mitch though. Pelosi is just a pain in the ass, effective but a pain none the less.
Together they make Congress suck. Really though, I blame the tea party. Sorry Cargo, I really think that mentality is ruining the country.
Of course the Tea Party needs some blame. It is easy to sit in the minority and throw pot shots at any and all ideas for moving forward. It is hard to be in the majority and actually have to make the legislative decisions that need to be made. Immigrations, tax code, Soc Sec – etc. All areas where we need to make changes.
@Pat.Herve
Obama, himself, said that his policies are what is on the ballot.
He expected the Dems to trounce the GOP.
Oops.
@Moon-howler
How can the Tea Party mentality be ruining the country when the Tea Party has no power? They are a small part of an adversarial party.
The only thing affecting the nation right now are Democrat policies. There are NO GOP policies in effect.
@Pat.Herve
How can the Tea Party be blamed since they are not in power? Yes…it is hard to be in the majority and make hard decisions. You might have noticed that BOTH parties are not making ANY hard decisions…so the TEA PARTY is volunteering to lead.
Let the Tea Party run things. THEN blame them.
Oh PUH-leeze
No Child Left Behind wasn’t signed into law by the Democrats. You know jolly well what the Tea Party has done, starting with primarying anyone who didn’t tow the line according to their way of thinking. How about the pressure to shut down the government last fall? How about the obstruction?
They are a large part of a party that ordinarily isn’t so adversarial.
@Cargosquid
the TEA PARTY is volunteering to lead. – what most of them do, I do not call leadership.