In 2012, class warfare broke out in American politics. And from the president to key Senate races, the middle class won.When the 2012 campaign began, the lousy economy made President Obama vulnerable. Republicans were favored to take back the Senate, given retirements in conservative states. Republican billionaires — the Koch brothers, Adelson and others — put up big money in the effort to have it all. Instead the president swept to victory, and Democrats gained seats in the Senate and the House.Many factors contributed. Republicans learned once more the shortcomings of a stale, male, pale, Southern-based party in a nation of diversity. The GOP “legitimate rape” caucus helped give away two Senate seats. But too little attention has been paid to the new emerging reality. This was the first class warfare election of the new Gilded Age — and the middle class won big.Continue Reading… … Read More
5 signs the right is losing it
Last week on election night, we saw the right-wing media and its audience have a collective meltdown after their fantasy world was shattered and Barack Obama won a second term. It was a big win for people who believe in numbers, and a loss for folks who prefer to have Karl Rove lie to them.We had seen signs of stress within the party and its adherents leading to to the election, and since then we’ve seen everyone from members of the GOP elite to right-wing foot soldiers go through the first four Kübler-Ross stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, and depression. (Whether they’ll get to acceptance remains to be seen.)Below are several examples of how conservatives at all levels have gone off the deep end in the days leading up to and following the election.Continue Reading… … Read More
10 right-wing election myths debunked by reality
One of the more stunning developments following President Obama’s re-election has been the number of ardent Republicans who have confessed that they believed the anti-Democratic propaganda from Fox News—and got so much wrong as a result.The voting rights part of this fact-averse bubble had many dimensions: from who is and isn’t registered to vote, to when and where people wanted to vote, to what a voter must do at the polls to get a ballot, to how voter lists are updated—and who can be trusted to oversee the process.What follows are 10 lies the Right pedaled during the 2012 campaign. Some GOP partisans, like this Nevada group, are already trying to resurrect some of these fake issues. You can be sure you’ll see more as states and Congress look at 2012’s biggest problems, such as people having to wait hours and hours to vote.Continue Reading… … Read More
Will Boehner put the screws to the Tea Party?
“If there’s a mandate in yesterday’s results,” said House Speaker John Boehner on Wednesday, “it’s a mandate to find a way for us to work together.” Republicans, he said, were willing to accept “new revenue under the right conditions,” to get a bipartisan agreement over the budget.We’ve heard this before. The Speaker came close to agreeing to an increase in tax revenues in his talks with the President in the summer of 2011, but relented when Tea Partiers in the House made a ruckus.But Tea Partiers may be more amenable to an agreement now that the electorate has signaled it doesn’t especially like what the Tea Party has been up to.Consider Indiana, where the Tea Party had pushed out veteran GOP Senator Richard Lugar in favor of Richard (rape is “something God intended”) Mourdock. Mourdouk was soundly defeated Tuesday by Rep. Joe Donnelly.In Missouri, the Tea Party was responsible for Todd (some rapes are “legitimate”) Akin winning the Republican Senate nomination – which gave Sen. Claire McCaskill a landslide victory.And in Montana, Tea Party nominee Denny Rehberg was no match for Senator Jon Tester.Continue Reading… … Read More
17 best excuses for Romney’s defeat
GOT SEVENTEEN EXCUSES for losing, but being a mendacious, flip-flopping, misogynistic, morally-bankrupt super-millionaire who made a fortune outsourcing American jobs, isn’t one of them.What happened to the Mittmentum? It’s Mitt-diculous! Did Hurricane Sandy blow Benghazi out of the water? Was it the economy? Was it a case of Bin Laden-is-dead-and-Chevy-is-alive? Was it Hell Hath No Fury Like A Woman Who Doesn’t Want the Government in her Vagina?Here are just a few of the excuses why, according to the GOP, Lord Mittens will not be the next president of the United States:1. Someone forgot to block off the wheelchair ramps in Ohio.2. It’s not Mitt Romney’s fault that racism just isn’t as fashionable as it used to be. What’s next? Petticoats? Butter churns? Blood-letting?3. No one could have anticipated that single mothers (the ones whose children Mitt blames for all the gun violence in this country) owned shoes with such good arch support they could wait in line for nine hours to vote.Continue Reading… … Read More
