US Politics, November 2019: These people are truly sick.

"There have been more than a few irregularities. They have been substantiated," Gov Bevin says, explaining his decision to not concede the #KyGov election. "We want the process to be followed." ^JC

— Bluegrass Politics (@BGPolitics) November 6, 2019

Wait til he finds out concession has no legal significance

did roy moore ever concede?

No!

dope re virginia state senate

dunno if anyone else on ilx is in tucson or even arizona but we got some cool news tonight:

https://tucson.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/regina-romero-becomes-first-latina-to-serve-as-tucson-s/article_66dddb7a-0042-11ea-bb64-1fdf625b36b4.html

This don't mean shit but:

I spent the day the Senate, talking with Republicans. They are all paying close attention to the KY gubernatorial race. They are not just watching the returns, but President Trump's political capital as they make decisions about how to handle impeachment and their own future.

— Robert Costa (@costareports) November 6, 2019

"whoa!!! I just realized the President is a giant fuckin' dumbass!!"

so happy that Andy Beshear won

also great that Virginia is now a solidly blue state

i almost feel embarrassed for her

No one energizes our base like @realDonaldTrump.

In Kentucky, the governor was down 17 points.

President Trump helped lift the entire ticket, winning 5 of 6 statewide races so far!

— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) November 6, 2019

Reading Dan S's comments from last night made me really happy :) Congrats to everyone who won.

oh hey what great news to wake up to

good morning!!

I’m watching CNN right now and they’re currently posting that there has been a large shift away from Trump among white women without a college degree.

My mom, who is nearing 75, spent most of her adult life (as far as I can tell) registered as an independent who mostly voted Democrat but I'm sure occasionally (or for all I know more frequently) voted Republican. She's in southeastern Pennsylvania, outside Philly, which has been a hotbed of shifting demographics and redrawn districts. Post Trump she said fuck it and not only registered as a democrat for the first time but got more politically involved. And lo and behold, she can't be the only one, since things there, where I grew up, are clearly on the upswing:

Locally, Democrats will hold all five seats on the Delaware County Council, a Republican stronghold since the Civil War, and also assumed a majority on the legislative body in Chester County. https://t.co/b3zwcvv5gt via @phillyinquirer

— Adam Goldman (@adamgoldmanNYT) November 6, 2019

“That should concern every one of you that has a home a family or a business in Delaware County," (Delaware County GOP chair) McGarrigle said. "Because, you know what? You shouldn’t feel safe anymore.”

Stacy Maillie felt safe voting for Democrats. A nurse and a registered Republican, she voted Democratic after a 12-hour shift in the emergency room.

“I’m not happy with our current state of the Republican Party," Maillie said after voting at Springfield Township High School. "I think it’s too divisive and i think that the Democratic Party is more tolerant and inclusive. I just find that the current Republican Party has become more extreme.”

The flip side:

CNN New Day featured on Wednesday a panel of women identified as Pennsylvania swing voters, moderated by anchor Alisyn Camerota — and two had a jaw-dropping answer when asked what President Donald Trump could do to lose their vote.

The segment had fascinating insights into the minds of voters in a state that is considered critical for whoever will win the 2020 presidential election. But ended on a curious and chilling moment revealing the stunning support for Trump.

The last question in the segment was put to Crystal, who despite being a “swing voter” was the most ardently pro-Trump. Camerota asked “Crystal, is there anything he could do that would make you not vote for him?”

Crystal replied “No.”

Camerota then cited an infamous hypothetical scenario once proposed by Trump during the 2016 election, asking “If he shot someone on 5th avenue, would you vote for him?”

Another (unidentified) panelist interjected: “You’d have to know why he shot him.” Crystal agreed, saying, “Yeah, why did he shoot him?”

This segment not only reveals rampantly chauvinistic support for President Trump, but also a cautionary note to pedestrians on Fifth Avenue upon the president’s next visit to New York City.

(lol "swing voter")

i mean these stories are just updates of ppl with "my country, right or wrong!" bumper stickers, right?

It seems a little more ... pathological. I do want to hear some specific Trump behavior redlines for once, just to get these lunatics on the record.

Behavior redlines = him dying basically.

The GOP would probably say his death was fake news

Taking a step back from KY and looking at all the elections last night, GOP should be most concerned about what happened in local elections in Chester, Delaware and Bucks County, PA last night. That is genuinely alarming if you know the voting history.

— Josh Holmes (@HolmesJosh) November 6, 2019

The redline is probably 'would it be okay for Trump to shoot YOU on 5th Ave.?'

Crystal, who despite being a “swing voter” was the most ardently pro-Trump

There is a long and dismal history of mainstream news outlets credulously interviewing "swing voters" and "undecideds" who turn out to be the chairs of their county Republican party or whatever, so I mean, tell me a little more about "Crystal" before I make too much of this.

A friend of mine won her election to the school board in a county in suburban VA DC area last night. Her opponent, the incumbent, recently "made the case" that both sides of the Holocaust should be taught in schools.

!

Needless to say, a lot of smaller local elections got overlooked against the big ticket races, but the trend of suburbs going blue or bluer seems not to be limited to PA. Heard similar stories about little elections in Minnesota, Iowa ...

There's a very real possibility of Trump getting impeached and losing the popular vote by an even bigger margin next year but still winning the office, which would be ... weird.

xp: I mean, that's not necessarily wrong; there's the side that said "what will make our country great is murdering an ethnicity" and the side that said "murdering an ethnicity is wrong and you must be stopped" and, after the first side was stopped, they looked at the aftermath and said "you know what, you were right; murdering an ethnicity is bad"

I assume that wasn't the opponent's take, though

Yeah, the only legit both sides would "this side was victimized on a historic scale, and the other side was villainous on a historic scale."

was looking at some of the KY gov polls and it turns out...maybe Trump is actually kinda right? Bevin was incredibly unpopular, there were very few polls showing him with any sort of lead at all.

Trump is way, way out in front as most popular republican, that's not controversial

But according to Nate Silver there was really only one poll with a double digit lead for Beshear, and that wasn't from a very good pollster. Bevin really seems like an even worse politician than Trump, but it seems difficult to find evidence that Trump really helped there. Even if he is kinda popular in the state.

xp I think her opponent's case was: we need to teach the Nazi side and the Jewish side, and let the students decide which is better, inside of just saying that Nazis are bad.

my friend got just over 50% of the vote.

The KY argument being made was that if the GOP asshole won, that was good for Trump/bad news for impeachment, so it's disingenuous to say that if the GOP guy loses it *isn't* bad news for Trump, however disliked the GOP guy may have been. Trump exemplifies the "he's an asshole, but he's my asshole" mentality, so if even that wrongheaded approach isn't enough to help a guy he explicitly supported in a race he/they explicitly linked to impeachment/national politics, it's not good news for Trump or the GOP, however well they did elsewhere.

yeah I think at the end of the day the whole "impeachment is actually helping Republicans so Dems should back off" thing seems to be demonstrably not true

ultimately Trump supporters already believe he's the most persecuted president in history, so actually slightly turning the screws on him ain't gonna do much

xp I think her opponent's case was: we need to teach the Nazi side and the Jewish side, and let the students decide which is better, inside of just saying that Nazis are bad.

my friend got just over 50% of the vote.

― L'assie (Euler), Wednesday, November 6, 2019 8:31 AM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

It's just a wonder to realize how many people are working overtime to ensure that Godwin's Law will someday be updated to include Americans as an unambiguously-pejorative point of reference.

There was that one principal recently who was fired for refusing to acknowledge the Holocaust happened because "some parents might not believe that it did"

Needless to say, a lot of smaller local elections got overlooked against the big ticket races, but the trend of suburbs going blue or bluer seems not to be limited to PA. Heard similar stories about little elections in Minnesota, Iowa ...

There was a good NYT feature about this a couple of weeks ago, which says this is definitely a thing but also differentiates between inner-ring and outer-ring suburbs: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/25/us/democrats-republicans-suburbs.html

lol, so literally moving the goalposts out?

out to sea

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/national/wp/2019/11/06/judge-voids-trump-administrations-conscience-rule-letting-health-care-providers-refuse-to-give-care-for-religious-moral-reasons/?arc404=true

good

i'll take this onslaught of good news for the foreseeable future thanks

pessimist in me thinks we're due for more retaliatory prison camps by friday

Trump def probably flailing around for some headline-changing stunt at the moment

I'm sure that as he watches Fox and Friends, they'll reliably feed him his next tangent.

John Roberts and His Furious Five are gonna be workhorses by the time the Trump Years end in 2021 or 2025.

I bet they are so excited about so handling so many cases from an out-of-control executive

not sure if this got mentioned up above but a friend pointed out that Virginia could now ratify the ERA (realizing that some deadline passed but I'm sure something could be done about that).

I bet they are so excited about so handling so many cases from an out-of-control executive

It is completely in line with their historically consistent conservative stances about limiting government power and reserving the rights of states and individuals to... aw fuck it just kidding, it'll be a shitbath

xp and yeah if ERA gets ratified there will be much rejoicing