Comments

1
Until we get serious about demanding the voting machine problem be adequately addressed (see below), the word "won" should always appear in quotation marks.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2…

If we're not even trying to take the most basic steps to be sure election results can be trusted anymore, then democracy really is over.
2
America is full of people who hate Republicans, but they don't vote because they only pay attention to media that always predict that Republicans are doomed anyway, so why bother?
3
>piss away 50 million dollars all for a senate seat in Bumfuck, Georgia
>still fucking lose

VIVA LA RESISTANCE!
4
Along the lines of @2 there was a telling Leonhardt editorial in today's NYT, which starts out:
"If liberals voted at the same rate as conservatives, Hillary Clinton would be president. Even with Donald Trump’s working-class appeal, Clinton could have swept Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

If liberals voted at the same rate as conservatives, Democrats would control the Senate. Clinton or Barack Obama could then have filled the recent Supreme Court vacancy, and that justice would hold the tiebreaking vote on campaign finance, labor unions and other issues.

If liberals voted at the same rate as conservatives, the country would be doing more to address the two defining issues of our time — climate change and stagnant middle-class living standards. Instead, Trump is making both worse." ...
5
@4 If only there were a liberal candidate in either of these two races.
6
Overcame a deluge of liberal money? Huh? Oh, the conservatives only sent in their nickels. WTF?!
8
DNC Election Strategy:
- throw money left and right
- enlist the help of the Celebrity Industrial Complex
- virtue signal
- FUCK DRUMPF!
- FUCK WHITE PEOPLE!
- THE RUSSIANS!
- lose election
- lash out at voters
- repeat

Time for a new approach methinks.
9
@4 Yeah the problem is that conservatives are mostly old white cranks and old white cranks reliably show up at the polls, if for no other reason than most of them are retired so they have plenty of time on their hands. Of course there's also the problem that both sides of the political spectrum seem to increasingly see presidential and even Congressional races as akin to campaigns for prom king. They need to be inspired, they need a personality, a salesman. Issues? Boring!
10
@5 - Well you supported Trump getting elected, so.
11
@3
Lol. You act like the Bumfuckians actually came out ahead with this "win".
News flash: they didn't.
12
@3: Metropolitan suburban Atlanta is not really Bumfuck.
13
The only people who actually win in situations like this are the commissioned salespeople at the tv stations.
14
It's got to be Jill Stein or the Russians. Why else would people not support a corporate centrist Democrat?
15
a republican won in a republican district in a republican state in a republican region. shocking.
16
@15 - THANK YOU. This whole buildup as to Ossoff actually having a chance to win was a giant con. A good way to build up a data base of new names and donors. Among which would be found me.
17
@16: 47% demonstrated a significant chance to win.
18
Almost seems like the democrat party is not interested in putting forth actual policies that are proven to be universally popular that republicans are against in order to drive people to the polls.
19
Clearly the Russians hacked this special election too. Har har.
20
Is anyone commenting here a billionaire or a corporate entity? If not, you don't matter (nor does your "vote" or "donation"). I'm not. I know I don't matter. None of us have had any power over any of this shit for centuries. Why are we fighting each other instead of fighting the ones who control everything?
22
Apparently Fixie Frizzelle, the rest of the office, and Charles need to take a field trip anywhere outside of the hill, excepting Olympia and Bellingham. Time to stop swallowing the Democratic Socialist bullshit and get real about politics.
23
@10 And you did your part as well, so...
24
Until the Democrats get back to running elections on issues and not Trump or identity politics they will keep losing elections.

Special elections since Trump has become President the party is now 0-4.
25
@5, @14 are right. The liberals don't turn out in the same numbers, because the Democrats aren't very liberal. The republicans give their base something to get excited about. That something is awful - hate, resentment, fear - but it gets the blood pumping. Dems not named Bernie - what do they got? We're for campaign reform...but we'll still take big money for now. We're for opportunity...but we'll still vote for school choice and "accountability." We're for Wall Street reform...but we'll still take speaker fees from Goldamn Sachs. They come off pathetic and cautious. Until they take some risks, yeah, people aren't going to get excited about them. It is sad.
26
"Why are we fighting each other instead of fighting the ones who control everything?"

Bingo! Because those in power use our worst traits (tribalism, racism, fear of poverty fear of inferiority) to keep us all sniping at each other, and we gladly go along.

And, of course, the Republican's dirty tricks, and our inability to call them out effectively, don't help.
27
Democrats fail to embrace what the voters are wooed by: THE POPULARITY CONTEST! People vote with their dicks like they are in high school picking a prom king and queen. Dems talk policy and these voters hear water dripping. Wing nuts wave their arms hysterically, lie, bluster and behave like children with soiled diapers. In a popularity contest the drama queen wins. Stop trying to give the rubes substance and use the tried and true: shiny beads, BIG LIES, bread and circuses.
28
@26
Dems have to cut the identity politics stuff…
All Dem politicians should be condemning the students at Evergreen, for example....like by implication, Bernie just did
29
Media sensationalism ends anticlimactically, more at 6.
30
It's some comfort that at least the RepubliKKKans' horrendous policies will harm their own cruel, stupid voters the most.
31
Geebuz fuck people the news here isn't that Ossoff lost, but that Handel only won what has been for nearly 40 years a solidly Republican seat (formerly held by Newt Gingrich & Tom Price to put things into context) by such a small margin. If you look back at previous races going back to 2002 GOP candidates won by very comfortable margins, and often ran unopposed. Handel was barely able to squeak by after spending tens of millions of dollars on what should have been for them a very safe seat.
32
@31: Exactly. A close win is a huge cultural shift in these districts. There are a lot of fair complaints above about Democrats, but the takeaway here is that things are shifting and the Republicans and Trump are the reason.
33
@31 - Except that Hillary Clinton lost by a tighter margin in this district in 2016 than Ossoff did last night.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia%27…

Ossoff lost and once again, the people from the DNC and their pundit friends, (the folks who get a majority of the D's money as consultants) won't engage in any self reflection about loss. They'll blame stupid voters, the Russians, Bernie Bros, etc... etc... . All hail the status quo!
34
Republican wins in district gerrymandered by republicans. Shocking.
35
But muh Republicans-hate-women narrative!
36
How in the fuck, honestly, did this (D)-bag not win in the age of Trump? Oh shit, no fucking wonder: http://i.magaimg.net/img/t2u.png
37
@33:

Which just supports @32's point, namely, that this is another indicator the GA 6th is seeing a strong shift to the Left. To add further context, compare the 2016 presidential election results with the two previous cycles where Romny (2012) and McConnell (2008) both won there by - again - very comfortable margins. The fact that IL DOUCHE couldn't even garner a majority of votes in the district (even while Price once again retained his seat with solid 23 point margin), and then add in this new data and it seems pretty clear this district is gong to be up for grabs in the 2018 cycle.
38
@18

Why do you hate the English language? Use correct grammar, or go back to where you came from.
39
@38: Don't be mean, pseudo English-teacher. Retorts like that are far more annoying than a comment that just needed comma and "which" instead of "that".

One expresses an opinion, the other just insults people and litters the internet.
40
When is America going to wake up and get it? MONEY HAS DESTROYED OUR SO-CALLED WHAT WAS ALREADY A FARCE OF A DEMOCRACY. $56 Million was spent on this ONE ELECTION. That is outrageous. Until money is FORCED OUT OF THE EQUATION AND ONE VOTE = EVERY VOTE COUNTS, there will be no changes. THREE MILLION MORE PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY VOTED FOR HILLARY CLINTON THAN DONALD TRUMP. The GOP, gerrymandering, DARK MONEY, voter suppression, and interference by RUSSIA (and who knows how many hacked into voting machines) affected the presidential election. Blaming liberals is a false flag. Our country is wholly corrupt, full on white supremacist patriarchy, and turning into a turd world country because of unfettered capitalism. We have a government that has CHOSEN, PURPOSEFULLY AND WITH MALICIOUS INTENT to serve their own need and wants and to throw the ENTIRE COUNTRY UNDER A BUS in order to get what they want. And it's not going to change anytime soon and honestly, it will be a freaking miracle if this country and the world survives the current administration and the GOP > traitors ALL.
41
@31 There was no Democrat that showed up in 2016. Sure, there was a name on the ballot, Rodney Stooksbury, but that candidate never appeared. He was also the only Democrat to run in the primary. But, according to Open Secrets, Stooksbury spent $0 in the election (compared to Tom Price spending $2m). He didn't have a website, give an interview, advertise, or even have a photo. Yet, Rodney Stooksbury took 38.3% of the vote simply for having his name on the ballot. Put in any Democrat with a photo and a website and they'll probably have a 10% increase in their votes.

Of course, it had to be a centrist shill of a candidate that the Democrats sank all of their money into. His website was a bunch of vague promises without details - better health care but not single payer, a "living wage" but not $15/hr, raising business taxes but not on "small businesses" - and its no wonder people were less enthused about him than about HRC. At least she had a known record of where she stood.

But, keep running fiscal centrists, because it's only centrists who can win in Republican districts like GA-5. Except Jon Ossoff, because reasons.
42
@40 Gerrymandering had nothing to do with Hillary's loss. Do you know what Gerrymandering even is?
43
@41:

And yet he still performed as well as pretty much any Democrat who's run for the seat since the early 2000's. It's also worth noting the seat has been considered such a strong GOP "hold" that the Democratic Party didn't even field candidates against Price in 2004 and 2010. Again, this all just proves the point that the demographics in this district are shifting more strongly to the Left. Sure, a no-name, no-money candidate got 38% of the vote 2 years ago, and yesterday a very well-monied candidate came within 3 points of taking a seat securely held by the GOP for four solid decades. We'll see how things go in 2018, but again, from all appearances this seat should now be considered in-play in the next cycle.
44
@43 All seats should be considered in-play.
45
@39

Nice try, but i was referring to their use of "democrat party", which as we know, is not only incorrect English, but an alt-wrong-style dog whistle.

I have lots of patience for typos (especially in a format that doesn't allow for editing: how about it SLOG???), but almost none for bullshit ideologically-informed lockstep grammatical constructions.

(Extra points for humor and imagination, though, but I'm betting both of those are beyond this person).

I am also assuming that they were born in this country, thus my directive to go back where they came from was meant as Irony, Satire, and/or Sarcasm.
46
@44:

And yet, many have been held by one party or the other literally for decades. In fact, House seats rarely flip outside of an open election: since 1964 93% of races have been won by the incumbent. In the current (115th) Congress 36% (158 total) of seats have been held by the same representative for 10 years or mor… with a slight edge (58%) going to Democrats; John Conyors (D-MI13) being the current record-holder having been in office contuously for more than 50 years.
47
Gerrymandering played an issue. For instance, in Georgia, black folk are 51% of the population; however, only 5 of Georgia's 14 congressional districts are majority black. In 'Optimally Compact Equal Population" districting, black folk would have a majority in 7 of the 14 districts . . . as they should.

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