Are Amercans really this stupid,

[Blue_In_AK]

Or could there have been widespread shenanigans? Some of these results are almost impossible to believe.

[shenmue]

1. Could be some of each

[jaysunb]

2. Yes. n/t

[Dont call me Shirley]

3. Both

[maced666]

4. Yea....

Taking it to the streets.....
NOW

[JEB]

5. Don't underestimate the stupid.

[nc4bo]

6. And the really cool thing is, we will never really know.

That's not democracy.

[Kalidurga]

7. Yes

and we documented shenanigans re McConnell and the fake mailers. The polls closing at the regular time even though their was a blackout in a heavy Democratic County in Florida. And of course all the outright lies in campaign ads.

[Blaukraut]

8. Look back to other midterms. It's always been the same shit

The President's party fared badly, with only a few exceptions. So yes, Americans are really this stupid. They want instant gratification, and if they don't get it, vote the bums out. The only bum they ever notice is the one in the spotlight. The President. They can't vote him out, so they go after the next best thing. Those who share his party affiliation in congress.

Dumbassery at its finest. Only in America.

[politicman]

13. bullcrap.

Its not that they want instant gratification, its that they see that the 1%ers have already had the best 6 year period of their lives and they ask if the 1%ers can have such an improvement to their portfolios in this 6 year period, then why cant the normal folks also have that same level of improvement in their ordinary lives.

Be honest with yourselves, the 1%ers have never had such a period in their lives where they have made so much money in such a short period of time and the normal people still have to suffer with working 2 and 3 jobs just to pay the rent, and this has all come about precisely because Obama and his policies have allowed it to happen.

[Qutzupalotl]

23. They didn't invest in the stock market six years ago.

Which is the convenient starting point of your measurement, and the reason for the talking point. The stock market took off again after bottoming out after the recession. That's why the portfolios did better. It's not any particular policy by this president, but it did come as a result of him staving off total economic collapse.

As to income inequality, the rich have been getting dramatically richer for decades but that really took off under Bush. Try again.

[politicman]

25. wake up

The rich have had the best 6 years of their lives.

Corporate profits are at all time highs under Obama, the stock market is also at all time highs, YET the poor and working class have less and less.

So wake up.

[Qutzupalotl]

45. Name one policy of Obama's that caused this.

You can't.

That's because income inequality has been building for a generation, starting with Saint Ronnie and taking off under W.

We can elect candidates that raise the minimum wage and spur job creation, or we can try to rewrite history as you are doing.

[renate]

26. I think you're right

History repeating itself... thus has it ever been with midterms and especially with second-term midterms.

[Blaukraut]

30. Precisely. Which is why I'm pretty sanguine about the whole thing

Voters are stupid, and they always will be. The demographics in presidential years favor the Democrats, so we're looking at a Dem presidency for the foreseeable future, and an ever changing Senate, and periodically changing House. Legislatively speaking, it is getting closer and closer to a permanent stalemate.

[Suich]

43. Been like this since 1946 with every two-term President.

Rachel Maddow covered this last night. Truman, Eisenhower, Reagan, shrub, Clinton and now Obama, work their last two years with an opposition Congress.

I have no idea what happened in all the Governor's races that went to the GOP...Florida, Kansas, Wisconsin...really???



Gutting of the Voting Rights Act by scotus probably had something to do with it.

[LawDeeDah]

9. This is why Storage Wars and the Kardashians are popular.

Yeh, people really are this stupid. That's why I've become a semi-recluse these past years. I can't stand most of them and their bigotries and stupidities.

And when there is an understanding between ALL the media that Obama bad, and Republicans are misunderstood human beings trying to help you (picture Fuck Chodd's pie hole jawing here) there really is little hope. At least that is how I feel tonight.

[Jamastiene]

33. You are not alone.

If I could afford it, I would be a total recluse, or at least almost total. There are a few people I like, but sadly, hardly any of them live around my neighborhood. The stoopid is so strong in this area where I live.

[Logical]

40. +10000000000000000, people are basically stupid. Nt

[Cleita]

10. I have some reservations, but actually I do think they are this stupid and this is why.

We have been talking since the Bush coup in 2000 how inadequate our elections system is. There is no checks or verification of results by unbiased observers. There is so much we can do like use the Canadian system and instant run-off voting, yet no one seems to want to make this happen.

[Rex]

11. Hard to say, the 2000 Selection kinda ruined our faith in elections.

At least those involving the GOP.

[TwilightGardener]

12. They wanted to have a beer with Bush, and so made him President, twice--and he rewarded them

with one disaster after another. So, yes, there is no shortage of stupid, it just went underground for a few years out of shame.

[Puzzledtraveller]

14. the OP title is part of the problem

insinuating everyone is stupid, in my humble opinion.

[Blue_In_AK]

32. But don't you have to admit that the way many of them voted is pretty stupid?

I honestly didn't think they were this stupid until these results started rolling in.

[KingCharlemagne]

15. 70% of Americans believe that angels really exist. So, um, yeah. - nt

[LawDeeDah]

36. At least that's not as stupid as believing in Republicans.

[KingCharlemagne]

42. Touche. American racists voted to cut off their noses to spite their faces. They

will suffer and suffer mightily and probably will never even realize how their racism sabotaqed them.

[WhiteAndNerdy]

16. It's not just Americans.

People in general are apparently this stupid . . . I very seriously doubt it's a uniquely American problem.

[K lib]

20. it just Americans vote against their self interest

[WhiteAndNerdy]

22. I really don't believe that. nt

[immoderate]

44. The American propaganda apparatus takes advantage of what is average intelligence.

And it's enforced by the political apparatus. Some countries (cultures?) have worked around this. Some may be worse, but without US power.

I think that climate denial is uniquely American. Yes, there are crackpots all over, but they rarely control a government. But tremendous resources have been lavished on producing those science deniers. Same with having the worst health care system in the world. Gangsters. But legal.

Remember, everybody thinks they're smart.

--imm

[Half-Century Man]

17. It is the money.

The concentration of power in the hands of the few (This insures the NEEDS of the many are ignored in favor of the WANTS of the very few).

Our government was structured to avoid that (Checks and Balances).

The founding fathers warned us of this, Washington, Jefferson, Madison all warned us about allowing people or organizations to amass too much influence.

[2naSalit]

27. ^^THIS^^

[Zorra]

18. Yes. nt

[J_J_]

19. "impossible to believe" definitely "widespread shenanigans" No doubt

But If we believe the lying corporate media and easily manipulated voting machines that tell us after lying us into wars,

creating massive debts with tax cuts, then hypocritically bashing Dems for all the problems they caused...

that Americans actually turned out to vote in more selfish sociopathic bastards...then yes, I guess we are stupid, but not in the way that you mean.

[jwirr]

21. That is the headlines from the rest of the world tomorrow.

[Codeine]

24. It was perfect storm of bad shit.

It happens. We knocked 'puke heads around in the tail-end of the Pretzeldunce's administration, and we'll do well in '16. Politics is cyclical.

[Baitball Blogger]

28. Count on it.

It has to be big in order to avoid automatic recounts.

[Jamastiene]

29. I honestly think it is a LOT of both. n/t

[DebJ]

31. Elections should not be held this close to a full moon. Zombie apocalypse:

take over by the dead of heart.

[Blue_In_AK]

34. Thank you.

Best answer yet.

[mvd]

35. Some of each likely

Yes Americans it seems will never learn. They get progress in the economy and other things but still go the wrong way. It has a good chance of happening even if we win in 2016. Too many voters are shallow and just vote out the party in power blindly if something they wanted to happen did not. Or they are low information and believe lies. Granted because The President compromised too much and because of Repuke obstruction, the middle class hasn't felt economic benefits like they should. But I'm losing a ton of faith in ever going in a progressive direction for long. We could very well go hard right without much way back except to divide America. We must stand for traditional Democratic values.

Oh and because of the spread between polls and the results, shenanigans could have also been involved.

Very disgusted tonight.

[meadowlark5]

37. I think a bit of both

I think people are so stuck in their ideological ways that they will never deviate. I also think there are people who just don't care anymore. And then there are the less than educated that are easily manipulated with fear. But what I really think is something is being done insidiously with the voting process. With the kind of money available to republicans by the rich who benefit from republicans in office, I think over the past 2 years, a lot of sneaky things have been worked on and put in place to tamper with the votes and do it in an undetectable way.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

39. I have a graduate school friend who is a Georgia Republican Southern Baptist

and quite steeped in that culture (only not racist or tolerant of racism), but very bright otherwise. He knows a lot about computers, and although he probably voted straight R, he does not like machine voting. At all.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

38. Both, as well as disillusionment with the Dems

See my post here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5763134

[Liberal Lolita]

41. Shenanigans and Stupidity - The Perfect Storm

Here in Michigan the pollsters had the Governor's race even. Snyder won by 10%. The local media was asking a pollster how they got it so wrong. I'm not convinced they got it wrong, especially in light of all the blue states that have suddenly gone red. Not to say I haven't encountered plenty of stupid voters.