2022 US midterms election watch party/thread

[Brainonska511]

Yup. Republicans cry about inflation and high housing cost. Meanwhile my republican suburb just voted against a zoning change to allow an apartment complex, 70% to 30%. Absolutely perfect location for apartments, right next to highway in a spot that really needs infill. Schools there are losing population and roads are oversized. Still, voted down.

I wish people would stop treating apartments like some sort of boundary building to separate "good" (SFH) from "bad" (highways and busy roads, strip mall commercial, etc). People living in multifamily homes also deserve some opportunity to live away from constant air pollution and noise.

I'm sure there would be less of a need for big, bad apartment buildings if we allowed more duplexes, townhouses, and small multifamily units in typical suburban neighborhoods. But I'm sure most people living in SFHs would throw a fit if instead of a McMansion next door, there was a duplex.

(Don't get me wrong, there are still plenty of places for apartment buildings too, but there is so much between single-family sprawl and apartment building.)

 

[WelshBloke]

I just don't see a good outcome for the GOP.
Trump wins. Trumps pretty toxic to a lot of swing voters. Yeah he's got his fanatics but they would be voting R anyway.
DeSantis wins. Trump is just going to gripe and bitch the entire time and his wing of the party are possibly going to hate DeSantis more than the Democrats because it was DeSantis that took Trumps crown!

I suppose there's an option where DeSantis wins and Trump graciously withdraws and gives his support but is that likely?

 

[Commodus]

As much as it pains me to say this... McConnell nailed it. GOP just had bad candidates. PA Gov, AZ Gov, Masters, and so on. Election denying actually mattered and not in the way they wanted. Not to say some of those didn't slip through the cracks and get elected. But at state level races it was a pretty sounding rebuke.

That's a reasonable assessment (although "bad policy" would ideally be a factor, too). As I've said before, the GOP's seemingly absolute trust in Trump is like leaning on a drunk driver to get you home. It sounded alright in that early moment of desperation, but now the party has admitted its mistake and realizes Trump might crash the car.

There was a WSJ op-ed that did a generally good job of summing up the GOP's problem after the midterms: if Trump is the Republican 2024 nominee, the Democrats win even if their candidate is mediocre. And changing demographics don't exactly help the GOP's chances in 2028 and beyond, even as much as it tries to rig elections.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Time to see how much self reflection is in the party.

I think the party has the capability for self-reflection. Problem is they don't have the balls to stand up to the current narcissistic leader who has none.

 

[IronWing]

I think the party has the capability for self-reflection. Problem is they don't have the balls to stand up to the current narcissistic leader who has none.

Republican self-reflection:
"We weren't conservative enough."
"We need to be true conservatives."
"The voters didn't hear our conservative message."

Same crap since Nixon.

 

[K1052]

Assuming all goes well during the next week or so Biden should discreetly ask Sotomayor and Kagan to retire within the next two years. They'll probably agree.

 

[Zorba]

Yeah it's crazy. People are so contradictory and can never see their own hypocrisy. To be fair this NIMBY'sm for housing is also very common among the left.

Yeah, it's widespread, but it's really rooted in a fear of change, which is generally a conservative trait. But even the most progressive person will still have some conservative traits.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Assuming all goes well during the next week or so Biden should discreetly ask Sotomayor and Kagan to retire within the next two years. They'll probably agree.

What's the strategy behind this? They're relatively young for SCOTUS.

 

[K1052]

What's the strategy behind this? They're relatively young for SCOTUS.

Sotomayor is 68. Kagan is only 62 but I'm sure could be convinced of the merits of strategic retirements at this point.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Sotomayor is 68. Kagan is only 62 but I'm sure could be convinced of the merits of strategic retirements at this point.

oh ok, i thought they were around 10 years younger each. makes a bit more sense strategy wise

 

[Zorba]

I wish people would stop treating apartments like some sort of boundary building to separate "good" (SFH) from "bad" (highways and busy roads, strip mall commercial, etc). People living in multifamily homes also deserve some opportunity to live away from constant air pollution and noise.

I'm sure there would be less of a need for big, bad apartment buildings if we allowed more duplexes, townhouses, and small multifamily units in typical suburban neighborhoods. But I'm sure most people living in SFHs would throw a fit if instead of a McMansion next door, there was a duplex.

(Don't get me wrong, there are still plenty of places for apartment buildings too, but there is so much between single-family sprawl and apartment building.)

Building density where there is already infrastructure for density makes sense. Building it on cheap land with no infrastructure is just more sprawl. The best thing is if you can actually get dense zones you can actually get functional PT and areas of walkability.

My bigger point was the normal attacks of traffic and schools absolutely didn't apply to this location. I'd personally pay a premium to live near the highway.

 

[Brainonska511]

Building density where there is already infrastructure for density makes sense. Building it on cheap land with no infrastructure is just more sprawl. The best thing is if you can actually get dense zones you can actually get functional PT and areas of walkability.

My bigger point was the normal attacks of traffic and schools absolutely didn't apply to this location. I'd personally pay a premium to live near the highway.

Of course. Don't need greenfield development far away from stuff and further drive sprawl. I'm just generally annoyed when a lot of NIMBYs consider apartment buildings as something undesirable, as if someone was putting up a factory next door, so then apartment buildings tend to get sited in relatively undesirable areas.

 

[gothuevos]

With 98% reported, looks like Boebert has pulled ahead by about 400 votes. Not sure how much is outstanding or in what counties.

 

[Zorba]

Of course. Don't need greenfield development far away from stuff and further drive sprawl. I'm just generally annoyed when a lot of NIMBYs consider apartment buildings as something undesirable, as if someone was putting up a factory next door, so then apartment buildings tend to get sited in relatively undesirable areas.

Yeah, I get that. A lot of traditional suburban apartments do end up looking like shit and aren't maintained. I really wish Oklahoma would embrace 5 on 1 construction, could really change people's opinions on apartments, but even in some areas they'd be awesome in the developer just builds standard apartments.

 

[Xcobra]

With 98% reported, looks like Boebert has pulled ahead by about 400 votes. Not sure how much is outstanding or in what counties.

I was about to post this.... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooo!!! 😭

 

[Indus]

I think the party has the capability for self-reflection. Problem is they don't have the balls to stand up to the current narcissistic leader who has none.

Caveat emptor, bitches.

You bought him. We told you not to. We told you everything Trump touches dies. But you didn't listen. Not only that, you told us we suffered from Trump Derangement Syndrome, that we only thought Orange Man Bad, among other bullshit memes. You did it for years. Well, you own all this now.

If he ignores you, runs anyway as an independent and splits the party in two, embarrasses you, shits on your favored candidates, supports more violence against innocents -- too bad. You prostrated yourselves at his feet. You sucked his tiny little schlong. That's on you. No returns allowed.

Sorry not sorry, you dumbfuck assholes.

 

[eelw]

Not even if he doesnt run as independent. Many MAGAtards would write him in wasting their votes

 

[cytg111]

Yea, DeSantis doing well this midterm is looking super good for dems doesnt it? Cause Trump is 100% gonna torpedo that.

 

[manly]

That's a reasonable assessment (although "bad policy" would ideally be a factor, too). As I've said before, the GOP's seemingly absolute trust in Trump is like leaning on a drunk driver to get you home. It sounded alright in that early moment of desperation, but now the party has admitted its mistake and realizes Trump might crash the car.

There was a WSJ op-ed that did a generally good job of summing up the GOP's problem after the midterms: if Trump is the Republican 2024 nominee, the Democrats win even if their candidate is mediocre. And changing demographics don't exactly help the GOP's chances in 2028 and beyond, even as much as it tries to rig elections.

Umm, I wouldn't be this overconfident. Trump would defeat Kamala Harris, almost certainly IMHO. She just turns a lot of people off, including Black men. I don't know if Liz Warren runs again, but Trump has a "fair fight" against her as well. There are still a lot of Muricans who are at least "hesitant" about a female POTUS.

With 98% reported, looks like Boebert has pulled ahead by about 400 votes. Not sure how much is outstanding or in what counties.

I glanced at the counties and what's left is somewhat balanced (it's very hard to say based on limited info). OTOH they also have to give a lot of runway for mail-in votes from active military and that suggests to me that Bobo will survive this close call. Geographically, CO-3 district looks huge! Maybe 40% of the state's land.

Yea, DeSantis doing well this midterm is looking super good for dems doesnt it? Cause Trump is 100% gonna torpedo that.

Be careful what you wish for. It's one thing for Dems to promote Dr. Oz or Herschel Walker in a GOP primary. Ron DeathSantis looks like a star for his party, and whatever he lacks in charisma, he makes up for in apparent stability. He's also comfortable with appealing to MAGA while being a "competent" executive. It might be "interesting" to watch the GOP presidential primary play out, but I'd suspect DeathSantis will look stronger if he emerges out of a tough fight.

 

[vi edit]

An unchallenged DeSantis is the worse case scenario for Dems.

They want Trump hopping in and tripping over his stumpy mushroom.

 

[Amol S.]

What is guaranteed in 2024 is the following. Republicans will win Florida's electoral votes, regardless if DeSantis or Trump runs. It seems like soon Florida will be voting to the right of Texas.

Pennsylvania's gubernatorial race this year, is showing a massive 700k-ish lead for the Democrats. I wonder if Shapiro should consider running in 2024 or 2028. There is good chance that if he does run, he would win Pennsylvania. After all, the police union likes him.

 

[MrSquished]

What we all need to pray for now is Trump's health stays good long enough so he can fuck things up

 

[Zor Prime]

Unless you're regularly mingling in Republican-land I think a good deal of people on the left don't actually understand the dynamic Trump plays with the Republican party. Everybody knows Trump is an asshole. Almost all of his voters are completely aware of this. I would be willing to bet that more than half of the people who vote for Trump don't actually even like him on a personal level. People who vote for Trump do so as a shield against the things they do not like on the left. That's it. Republicans feel threatened by the left and Trump is the savior and it doesn't matter what he does or how he does it so long as he shields them in the end. He can shoot someone in the middle of the street or grab you by the pussy, it doesn't matter, he's still going to get votes because liberals are that much worse. There's no mystery nor secret here, it's honestly that simple. Humans love making things complicated.

As for DeSantis / Trump, if Trump runs they're going to obviously vote for Trump. But Republicans at this point would like to break free of Trump's baggage and DeSantis is a clean slate and by doing shit like shipping immigrants to Martha's Vineyard, to taking on Disney, declaring war against 'wokeism,' so forth and so on, Republicans love this shit. If Trump and DeSantis go head to head DeSantis will win. I personally know of exactly zero Republicans that want Trump over DeSantis, even prior to the win in Florida they already wanted DeSantis. I'm even including Trump supporters I know who have attended Trump rallies.

Here's a fun experiment. If you know a Republican ask if they want Trump or DeSantis. The answer isn't going to be Trump. If DeSantis wins the R primary and runs for the presidency then Democrats might actually see that supposed red wave that was alleged to occur the other day.

 

[Muse]

I'll say it first, I fully endorse Trump as the 2024 Republican nominee for President

Yeah, gotta figure his chances are less than zero. I do, anyway.

 

[Muse]

Wasserman thinks Kelly and CCM both make it. I agree.

GOP enthusiasm for the GA runoff for Walker is probably going to be relatively low if it's not the 50th seat.

Woohoo, possibly 52?