Indecision 2014

[Roly Poly Oly-Garch]

Here's what my old home state managed to do:

Arkansas got nothing on Colorado Springs:

Voters have cast their ballots and in perhaps the most stunning race in the nation, Colorado has elected Tea Party Republican Pastor Gordon Klingenschmitt to represent them in the State House. And this wasn't even a close race. "Dr. Chaps," as he likes to be called, who, as ordained Pentecostal Minister runs the Pray In Jesus Name Project, won with a reported 70 percent of the vote.

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He claims he exorcised a woman who had been raped of the "foul spirit of lesbianism," and even says he has performed an exorcism on President Obama.

He's also on the record saying transgendered kids just need a good spanking to set them right.

Should be noted that this district isn't some podunk little county out on the Kansas border. It's a district that bites into Colorado Springs--a metropolitan area smack in the middle of the Front Range with a population of over 400k, a major university, the US Olympic Training Center, and lots and lots of industry (of the military sort). It's also a hub of mega-churches and sophisticated wing-nuttery that would make Appalachia blush.

Colorado isn't really a purple state. Not really. It's a blue state with a thick spewing red gash cut into it.

[LMNO]

NOW we see the dangers of legalized pot.  Voters get high, and think it would be funny to elect the nutjob.

[Doktor Howl]

NOW we see the dangers of legalized pot.  Voters get high, and think it would be funny to elect the nutjob.

I Injected 2 bongs and voted for Tobin.   

[Cain]

It was all derailing.  That's about his level of debate: throw out inaccurate non-sequitors and ignore the subject at hand.

I noticed he was trying very hard not to get pinned down to any particular position.  That was why I responded with OpenSecrets - hard facts always beat down ineffective waffling.

[Roly Poly Oly-Garch]

NOW we see the dangers of legalized pot.  Voters get high, and think it would be funny to elect the nutjob.

I Injected 2 bongs and voted for Tobin.   

[LMNO]

It was all derailing.  That's about his level of debate: throw out inaccurate non-sequitors and ignore the subject at hand.

I noticed he was trying very hard not to get pinned down to any particular position.  That was why I responded with OpenSecrets - hard facts always beat down ineffective waffling.

I do so enjoy watching you work.

[Suu]

Husband: Fucking hell. I get shipped to some random territory in the middle of the ocean and couldn't get my absentee ballot in on time, and the next thing I know, you let the goddamn country go red. YOU HAD ONE JOB, SUU. ONE.

Me: I did my fucking job, Scott Brown isn't our senator.

Husband: On the bright side,  all the money they'll be pulling from your education they're going to throw at the military. I better be getting a goddamn raise.

Me: You know it doesn't work like that, they'll just repaint the water tower. They spent all those months on the scaffolding to change it from NAVY to US NAVY. Because people don't know what country they're in anymore.

Husband: THE UNITED STATES OF BABY JESUS.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Husband: Fucking hell. I get shipped to some random territory in the middle of the ocean and couldn't get my absentee ballot in on time, and the next thing I know, you let the goddamn country go red. YOU HAD ONE JOB, SUU. ONE.

Me: I did my fucking job, Scott Brown isn't our senator.

Husband: On the bright side,  all the money they'll be pulling from your education they're going to throw at the military. I better be getting a goddamn raise.

Me: You know it doesn't work like that, they'll just repaint the water tower. They spent all those months on the scaffolding to change it from NAVY to US NAVY. Because people don't know what country they're in anymore.

Husband: THE UNITED STATES OF BABY JESUS.

How duh we know them ain't the Soviet Navy?

[Suu]

To be fair, the the words of the water tower face Maine, not New Hampshire. That should really say enough.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

To be fair, the the words of the water tower face Maine, not New Hampshire. That should really say enough.

When did Mainiacs become literate?

[LMNO]

So, in thinking about the "the electorate voted for conservative candidates, but liberal ballot questions" contradiction, it seems to me the fundamental error is in thinking that Obama is somehow the problem, so anyone associated with him (democrats) are also the problem.

And to me, this error is so great, and so full of obvious contradictions and consequences that my head starts to go all crackly.  And the contradictions are out in plain sight.  A commentator said, "the electorate was unhappy that Obama wasn't getting anything done" and in the same breath says that "Mitch McConnel stonewalled Obama at every turn."

The most depressing thing about elections isn't who got elected, it's seeing the rational people use when they vote.

[Doktor Howl]

So, in thinking about the "the electorate voted for conservative candidates, but liberal ballot questions" contradiction, it seems to me the fundamental error is in thinking that Obama is somehow the problem, so anyone associated with him (democrats) are also the problem.

And to me, this error is so great, and so full of obvious contradictions and consequences that my head starts to go all crackly.  And the contradictions are out in plain sight.  A commentator said, "the electorate was unhappy that Obama wasn't getting anything done" and in the same breath says that "Mitch McConnel stonewalled Obama at every turn."

The most depressing thing about elections isn't who got elected, it's seeing the rational people use when they vote.

Well, all I know is I now have at least 24 months to be a gadfly.

[Cain]

I can solve that contradiction: Obama is not a liberal president and the Democrats are not a liberal party, therefore liberals did not for them.

I bet if we compared the 2008 Presidential election turnout demographics and the 2014 Senate elections, we'd see a drop in younger voters in particular, and in Democratic votes generally, not an increase in Republican votes.

People have finally wised up after 6 years of bullshit.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I would like to point out a thinking error that I think many people are making. It is the error of assuming that the same individuals voted on both candidates and on measures on the same ballot. That is not what these outcomes would tend to indicate. These outcomes seem to reflect that liberals turned out to vote on measures, being perhaps disillusioned by politicians but still having political concerns and wanting to exercise what political muscle they still feel they have on issues they care about, while conservatives turned out to vote for candidates, being perhaps confused by the ballot measures but confident that if they just get the right people in office things will get fixed.

[Eater of Clowns]

I could see a great lot of good being done on local levels by increased reliance on ballot questions. Just in the decade or so I've been voting I've seen the number of questions go up dramatically.