What scares me about Virginia... (and America)

[Roland99]

is how close it really is. It SHOULD be about 90-3 (and then the Libertarian share)

I mean, seriously, how can nearly half a state support the kind of (literally) batshit-insane politicians like these?


And we had it w/McInsane and the Twit, too


amazing how much ignorance and hatred have become part of "family values voters"

[LiberalEsto]

1. Because about half the state is (literally) batshit-insane

I live next door in Maryland. You couldn't pay me enough to move to Virginia.

[etherealtruth]

12. No shit!

I lived in Fredericksburg (technically Spotsylvania Co.) in the 1990s ...it was really quite something I was one of a handful of Democrats in the area.

I must admit ... we lived in Alexandria, while our house was being built ... Aside from the traffic, I did like that

[CTyankee]

34. I lived in Annandale, way back in the early 80s and I was sickened by the defeat of ERA,

which was key to the amendment's defeat nationwide.

I couldn't get out of that state fast enough and jumped at the chance to move to New England. I love living in CT.

[spanone]

2. the black man in the white house has driven a good portion of the country fucking insane

[hooverville29]

8. That's certainly part of it

[JHB]

25. In much the same way that walking by a flasher 'drives' him to open his coat

Likewise, the political flashers have shucked off whatever was keeping them from exposing themselves.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Start by looking at urban vs rural

That is always a good start

[Roland99]

4. And education/income fall into the mix, too

willful ignorance will be the country's undoing.

[Arugula Latte]

5. This country has too many willfully ignorant, anti-science, anti-intellectual, anti-reason

people who embrace magical thinking, racism and greed and revel in their own stupidity.

[Roland99]

6. The Great White Fight

holding on to their "beloved" heritage.

[RKP5637]

28. Yep, that's part of it, they love racism, bigotry, homophobia and intolerance, and

old boy's clubs.

[kelliekat44]

24. And willfully racist...nt

[JimboBillyBubbaBob]

51. Yeah, really, that says it!

I live in Virginia, have for my last 44 years. I know lots of these folks, they are an interesting lot. There's still lots of them but their numbers are on an eventual decline. The long term looks positive. One day and argument at a time.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. We are seeing population trends that are starting to change

Areas. Since I happen to look at this locally, I find census data fascinating in a perverse way.

[Nay]

7. As I repeatedly said to folks who claim that VA is a solid purple state turning

blue: BULLSHIT. This is a redneck state with a couple of blue areas. The blue areas are filled with DC govt workers and transplants, and some military in Tidewater. It is NOT a purple state. In Obama's historic election, people came out of the woodwork to vote. Now we're back to the regular voters, and they vote Republican.

[barbtries]

10. i blame it on the media

fox is the worst, but i can barely listen to npr anymore - it's taken a hard right turn. they milked that story about the website for at least a week. every time i hear a political story they're bashing the president and quoting republicans without telling the truth of the story: that this entire clusterfuck is the fault of republicans.

it's about unbearable.i've relied on alternative media for years and years but it seems corporate media cannot be stopped, and almost everyone else in the country listens, watches, and believes it.

[tsuki]

11. My Mother's family is from VA. Her first sister was born in 1909, last in '29.

They were New Deal Democrats, basically from the Depression through WWII. They had high school educations. I've seen their report cards, Latin, trig, government.

One Aunt whom I wrote about on DU when she passed once asked me how the family raised so many damned republicans.

My Aunt, all but one, are gone. When she passes, I shall not go there again. It is a foreign place to me. My Aunt laughed and were full of love. My cousins not so much.

I do not wonder how the Cooch gets so many votes. I would bet to a man that my cousins voted for him.

[phylny]

13. We moved here because we've always wanted to live on a lake,

and the lake we live on in Virginia is lovely. That's where the lovely ends.

It's Redneckistan, and even I think the term redneck is an epithet. You can see the stupid ooze out of the pores of people who vote against all their interests every single election. Case in point: Young mother who got WIC, SNAP, and her child got Medicaid excited about Romney becoming president. Stupid ooze. Local parents puzzled about why our county ranks third from the bottom of the Commonwealth. But dammit, no more taxes!

Stupid ooze.

[RKP5637]

30. We used to go hiking and camping in Virginia way back in the 60's. The areas were

beautiful, we used to love driving around Virginia, camping in remote areas, but we would never go back again, now. I still have friends that own property there, they say the place is really RW and full of religious crazies. They are planning on selling and leaving. And they are generational natives.

[Ratty]

45. I've only been to Virginia once

I spent a few days in Charlottesville on business with the university. Charming, beautful town with wonderful intelligent people. Loved the rural character of the neighborhoods. It would be one of the places I might choose to move to after I retire.

Except for the taxi ride from the airport. I was subjected to a constant stream of rightwing, racist craziness by driver. Do I argue with him and get put out by the side of the road. Do I ignore him? Do I nod my head and pretend to sort of agree just to get the ordeal over with as soon as possible? The scary thing was the driver just seemed to assume I agreed with him, like all his passengers think like he does. But that can't be right if your giving rides from the airport, can it? Anyway, I've lived decades insulated in the SF Bay Area and it's easy for people like me to forget what it's like for liberals in other parts of the country.

[Corruption Inc]

14. I voted (D) as always and saw a lot of insane pukes at the polls, as usual

VA repukes are a special type of mentally disturbed people in that they strive towards idiocy and reject all forms of human creativity as they spend their lives constantly chasing mundanity. They are self-deluded for life zombies who think being common, drab and boring are the highest of ideals, all the while supporting every radical racist and criminal that comes along. They contradict themselves every single time they speak and absolutely refuse to admit it as they've dedicated themselves to remaining stupid for eternity.

Sad but true, every single word of it.

[phylny]

52. OMG, you are my new hero.

This is it, every single bit of it.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

15. It is strange. But when is the last time that you heard top-level Democrats talk about traditional

Democratic values in a credible way?

Did the Democratic candidates in Virginia do so?

What are traditional Democratic values? How about, for example, jobs for everyone who wants to work? Is that something that you hear top-level Democrats pushing for? Is that something that the Democratic candidates in Virginia did?

What about a progressive tax system, one that taxes the rich and super-rich at rates than the rates applicable to ordinary Americans?

[Roland99]

17. I didn't follow the campaign there that closely. BUT....

it seems we run into too many Blue Dog/DLC/Third Way/corporatist Dem candidates that run, essentially, an old-school Republican platform minus the pro-life/full deregulation stance. And a bit less Jesus.

The main differentiation now is that the Terrorist Party candidates would scare Hitler or Ayn Rand, herself, and that either keeps moderates at home or brings out people to hold their nose and vote Dem. (Or spits out a 3rd-party candidate to siphon voters)

[Eleanors38]

31. There you have it. A strong party would talk about these things.

[Morphia]

16. What scares me more is that a Democrat like McAwful can actually win

and thanks to lots of cross over of NJ Democrats, Christie won again.

The only thing last nights election proved is that the Third Way DLC Corporate Types are not going away anytime soon. We will even see a strong resurgence of them at the expense of more traditional Democrats.

Well now it is all said and done I hope the people of VA and NJ get what they voted for, I think they will regret their choices but I do not live in either place so I really don't care all that much either.

[nomorenomore08]

18. Yeah, the rabid insane theocrat would've been such a better choice...

[Pretzel_Warrior]

20. bahahaha. taking it hard, aren't you? lol.

The only people not happy about both Virginia and NJ results are die hard conservatives and die hard liberals.

[Morphia]

21. Not taking it hard at all just simply stating the reality

fantasy is fun but reality is for the real world.

Your way is a losing way in the end no matter how you slice and dice it.

If the majority of the democratic party decides to go the way of the corporatist's so be it, I can always choose another party and I am sure many others will too and if not oh well not much I can do about it.

[TheKentuckian]

26. Why are you happy about Chris Christie winning? Fully out of the closet as a righty?

[Pretzel_Warrior]

41. It was poorly worded on my part. It was late...

What I meant was a lot of regular Dems are happy a Dem won Virginia and a some regular GOP are happy their guy won Nj. But partisans on both sides are unhappy about both outcomes.

[Bluenorthwest]

37. Only Republicans are happy to see Republican bigot Chris Christie win in NJ.

This being Democratic Underground, even the rules say we need to support Democrats in elections. Not Moderates of either Party. Democrats, period. We Democrats lost the election in NJ last night. A Repubican homophobe was elected to a second term. This should make any Democrat unhappy.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

39. M point is...at least some Dems are happy with

Overall win by Dems last night including taking a Republican-held governors seat.

[Bluenorthwest]

42. That's not even close to what you said. You said only 'die hards' are not happy with both NJ and VA

results. Both. As a Democrat I am never happy with a lost election, particularly when the victor is a bigoted and ignorant Republican.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

43. Here's my explanation of what I was trying to say

That I replied to Kentuck with earlier

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3989334

[Bluenorthwest]

38. From the website of the Democratic National Committee, Oct 25 2013

In New Jersey, while Chris Christie continues to flaunt his failed record as governor -- slashing education funding, giving tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations, and vetoing equal pay legislation -- Barbara Buono has put forward a strong plan to grow New Jersey's middle-class, improve education and reduce gun violence in our communities.

And in Virginia, while Terry McAullife is focused on creating jobs and expanding opportunity for all Virginians, Ken Cuccinelli continues to push an extreme Tea Party agenda that would limit women's rights -- including one measure that could ban most common forms of birth control.

It's critical that we get your help in these races and every race across the country.
http://www.democrats.org/

[WCLinolVir]

33. What scares me is that people think they can vote and be done with participation. Ain't gonna happen

We need to be pro-active. We want TM to work for us, not against us, so we better be willing to address issues that come up. It is just the reality of the situation. If anybody thinks Cuch/Douche would have only been marginally worse, think again. We have a tool, let's use it!!
And I do not rule out voter fraud, given the exit polling.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

19. some are truly bat shit crazy. others merely look at the party affiliation

and say there is no way they can vote for the opposition so they hold their nose and vote for their candidate with only a vague notion of really how horrible of a person he or she is.

[Chathamization]

22. Well, Cuccinelli was trying to run as a pro-business anti-Obamacare anti-tax type

at least from the ads I saw. The media seemed happy to play along. For example, Politifact said McAuliffe's ad saying Cuccinelli would have made it difficult for a woman to get a divorce was mostly false - because while it was completely true, it also would have made it difficult for men to get a divorce. It seemed like The Post was spending much more time talking about McAuliffe's investments than Cuccinelli's extremist positions.

[a kennedy]

23. It's sounding like that "Libertarian" title is getting popular....

I mean more people calling themselves Libertarian, and NOT independent. JMHO.

[Roland99]

27. and what's weird about self-labelled "Libertarians"

they want a von Mises type of purely free market (bereft of any regulations), hands-off gov't, no deficit spending, and...they're often Fund-A-Mental cases who think Jayzus was a sphincter-pinched asshat of a bigot Republican whose daddy made the world in 7 days.

IOW, they are totally detached from reality.

[a kennedy]

29. a very sick indeed combination.

[hfojvt]

32. maybe our own guy was not that good

Lord knows, I am not a huge fan. An article I read said that "many voters wanted a 'none of the above' option" and that is one reason the Libertarian candidate got so many votes.

Which is something I have wondered about Republican candidates too. I mean, I know some local Republicans who are decent people, and they seem to be very generous, hard-working and knowledgeable. Given that fact, I then look at the lying sack of crap who is our Republican Congresswoman, and I wonder 'why couldn't the Republican Party do better than this?' And I might ask the same about our Governor.

Why can't the political system produce better candidates - for both parties?

[scheming daemons]

35. Nonsense. Unless we get 90%, America is doomed?

Jesus... The defeatism here when we WIN is ridiculous.

[bluestate10]

36. Low turnout. That is why people on this site saying they won't vote or will vote

third party are fucking nuts. Voter turnout was something like 45% in Virginia. You better bet that teabaggers turned out almost 100%. Nothing about Virginia scares me, progressives need to make a fucking habit of voting. I voted yesterday even though there was nothing but local races on the ballot with everyone being unopposed.

[librechik]

40. Gerrymandering? They are really a minority.

Tricks, misinformation, and no-shows are what keep the bad guys in power. We need everybody to vote, like they do in Australia, or get a citation.

[Iggo]

44. We won.

[ohheckyeah]

46. A good place to start

to win people over is by not insulting them non-stop. Yes, I have family members who vote Republican and guess what....they aren't batshit crazy. Misguided, yes, but not crazy. They are nice and good people who don't delve deeply into politics. They graduated from college, work hard, they go to church, they raise their families, and they can always be depended on to help out when help is needed.

We may disagree vehemently about politics but they are my loved ones and I'm sick of all the insults. Good way to drive people away.

[Roland99]

47. My only reference to the voters was "ignorance and hatred" of "family values voters"

I called the candidates "batshit insane politicians"

So, unless your relatives are the ones running for office....


While I tend to agree that one-on-one discussions work best w/o arguing or insulting, calling out the candidates as freaks, extremists, and flat-out insane psychos is more than called for, esp. by the "liberal" media.

[ohheckyeah]

48. Sorry - I replied in general

and you're correct, YOU didn't call them batshit crazy. Plenty of other posters have. My apologies.

[bobGandolf]

49. "...amazing how much ignorance and hatred have become part of "family values voters"

Sure is something isn't it......

[nyquil_man]

50. Off-year election. They get their people out.

It's one lesson we could learn from them.

[Doctor_J]

53. Too right

IMO the VA results are anything but good news. A far right DINO barely beats an insane person. Anyone who takes this to mean the country is moving in the correct direction is as nutty as Cucinelli

[Douglas Carpenter]

54. and more than 45% of Virginia voters voted for EW Jackson -

can you imagine the mentality of someone who votes for E.W. Jackson?