We here on DU do not represent Americans.

[upaloopa]

That should be obvious this morning.
Seems to me we live on an island here.
For all our telling ourselves how much more intelligent we are compared to the rest of America, it didn't help anything yesterday.
Reality sinks in now.
We can't make it go away.
For me I will turn to some of the good things that still exist. A walk along the beach. A long motorcycle ride. Some good music.
And I will remain possitive thinking there is a better time coming.

[titaniumsalute]

1. We certainly do not represent the US voter

Frankly I'd be surprised if you thought we did. We are a group of people who believe, most in agreement anyway, in a certain platform. But we are a microcosm.

You also have to remember history. Historically the midterms are NOT good to the sitting President. Second, the states that were up for the Senate were pretty stacked RED. Now I agree that some GOV seats were big surprises like Maryland. WTF?

The pendulum will be swinging back in 2016 as the minority and youth vote will be much larger.

[okieinpain]

15. i agree. n/t.

[OrwellwasRight]

17. 2016 is a comforting thought.

Not.

So we can elect another centrist Dem president who won't challenge or fix the status quo and maybe get the Senate back so that we can protect abortion rights but do little else constructive for our economy or the working class. Exciting.

[bowens43]

2. We are the lunatic fringe , we are the left's freerepublic.

[YarnAddict]

5. That's kind of harsh

The Freepers are a bunch of inbred, science-denying, racist idiots.

[Whiskeytide]

6. Well, I suppose we are a bunch of...

... separately descended, science trusting, equality minded intellectuals. Based on the results last night, I'd say that makes us the outlying fringe.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

13. DUers don't trust science when they don't like the results.

It so happens that the evidence lines up with liberal positions more often than conservative ones, so DUers come out looking pro-science.

But when it doesn't - on GM crops, for example, or the likely outcome of the elections just gone, to pick two obvious examples - it doesn't really have much impact on many DUers.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

3. The party system is screwing over the country.

Primaries give us candidates who only appeal to a narrow slice of the electorate, rather than candidates who also appeal to the "independents" who vote in generals.

[Cresent City Kid]

11. And gerrymandering is locking in the results

Every two years is a chance to replace the entire House of Representatives but it doesn't feel that way. Every 20 years, the midterm elections come in the year they do the census as in 2010. Expect gridlock or Republican rule for the rest of the decade.

[okieinpain]

16. yes, yes, yes.. that shit has to be fixed. these crazy ass districts that are being drawn up

need to be done away with. this link is from 2010; [link:http://pjmedia.com/zombie/2010/11/11/the-top-ten-most-gerrymandered-congressional-districts-in-the-united-states/| I'm pretty sure they are even more crazier now.

[OrwellwasRight]

18. Independent is not the same as centrist. Nt.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

21. Exactly. nt

[riqster]

26. We really should have listened to President Washington:

"However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion."

[antiquie]

4. California stayed true blue.

We even defeated the money-is-no-object charter school candidate for Superintendent of Schools.
I love my state.

[upaloopa]

8. Yep I like our blue state with all our quirks.

They say good things start here and move east. Let's hope we catch on with the rest of the country.

[CanonRay]

12. And Oregon as well

we even picked up a state Senate seat.

[leftynyc]

20. So did New York

It's like we live in some sane bubble. I know that imbecile in Staten Island still won with an indictment hanging over his head but now you know why the sane don't go to Staten Island.

[libtodeath]

7. Only in the sense that we vote and too many dont or cant

when they do go to the polls then we win in a landslide.
More people want liberal ideas,we just have to have candidates they want to vote for and will speak out against the rw hate machine and lies.

[MannyGoldstein]

9. Most Americans agree with us on every major issue

We do more research, and there are some scary-smart people her, but we generally hold the same opinions as other Americans on what needs to get done. We differ on how those things get done - but the evidence is on our side. We need to do some teaching.

[upaloopa]

10. Well they sure as hell don't vote like we do.

I don't understand last night if what you say is correct.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

24. That, of course, depends on what issues are considered to be "major"

I met plenty of people who consider the most major issues in America to be deficit spending, America's lack of moral compass, and the threat to their constitutional right to bear arms. Mind that I live in a pretty deeply red state (although they are still counting ballots that we might flip our congressional district blue).

The President was correct 6 years ago -- people are clinging to guns and religion.

I'm in a Facebook group with people who attended my high school in Maryland. We are all now late 40-somethings or early 50-somethings. My school was predominantly white, but had a fair representation of other groups. I can tell you that my one-time classmates who are still in Maryland voted overwhelmingly for Hogan. I think race was a factor, but taxes and Maryland's restrictive gun laws are the reasons they cite. My hope for Maryland is that Hogan, like Erlich before him, will be a one-termer.

[fadedrose]

14. Better times not likely

Look at MSM. News programs on Sunday morning, when most people are asleep or in church, out to lunch, by the time they get home, news is over.

At night, on the network channels, news ends at 7 pm. Everything worth knowing is on all morning and afternoon, Come supper time when folks are home from work, quiz games, comedies, anything but news.

Everyone doesn't have the upper tiers in cable - MSNBC, CNN, even Fox, and they don't have the slightest idea what's going on till they hear about it at work from someone else. CNN now has entertainment shows about call girls, prostitutes, world travelers and eating, eating, eating, forensics, criminal hunts and jail programs, etc., nothing useful in deciding who to vote for....And they show "balanced" news where lies are told and never corrected by the host..

I am very pessimistic about the future because with all the ways one can find out what is happening, people are relying on Twitter and Facebook instead of news that is not controlled by trolls, the Koch brothers, political party players, etc....

[Cleita]

19. Well enjoy the beach. The oil rigs are coming and they will probably fuck up that too. n/t

[nc4bo]

22. Obama won in 08 with a populist message.

Voters responded to it.

What has happened since?

[Ishoutandscream2]

23. Agreed.

K & R.

[Ampersand Unicode]

25. Totally agree

The idiots are running the asylum. We're actually the sane fringe. The lunatics are the majority.

Right now I'm sitting in poli-sci class listening to the prof mourning last night's disaster. I'm on my laptop trying to drown out the painful reality and Googling suicide methods.

Just wait until Net Neutrality dies completely and Big Corporate Media kills D.U. in favor of a "fast lane" for Faux News and The Blaze. I lost my family at HuffPost (to Facebook comments) and will lose my family here too.

The Republicans have taken everything away from me and will probably take everything else away too.

[CrispyQ]

27. I know that, but I didn't think the rest of the country was so fucking out of whack.

[mmonk]

28. I would say the new government doesn't

Represent Americans.

[BKH70041]

29. Understatement of the Year Award

I'll take "Lessons That Will Never Be Learned Even After This" for $100 million+, Alex.

[seabeyond]

30. i do not agree. i think we do. i think we sat at home for different reasons. i think we do

reflect america, more so.

the majority are over 50. the young, the women did not show. they talk the same we talk, and yes, much of what democratic party talks. not all things, so our young, our women do not show.

well fuck it. you do not get all things. i want more to. ask me. i will tell them what to do. BUT... the democratic party certainly address a lot on my list. as with i think, the majority of america