Post-election ruminations

Erik Kain

Erik writes about video games at Forbes and politics at Mother Jones. He's the contributor of The League though he hasn't written much here lately. He can be found occasionally composing 140 character cultural analysis on Twitter.

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19 Responses

  1. North says:

    Good post E.D. but let us libs savor NY-23 for a bit. I didn’t give a damn about that wretched crook Corzine and Virginia has been electing against the incumbent party since the 70’s but I’m feeling genuinely stricken about Maine.Report

    • E.D. Kain in reply to North says:

      Yeah – Maine is a bummer. More on that later.Report

    • Jaybird in reply to North says:

      I’ll save my long essay for E.D.’s upcoming “more on that”.

      The short essay I’d like to write is that Maine totally surprised me and I think they came to a wrong decision that helps no one, protects nothing, and actively harms a number of good people who would benefit from some sort of “official” recognition of their life partnerships.

      A few years back, I asked Marianne if she wanted to get a divorce and then we could get a civil union. You know, in solidarity.

      She asked me why I always brought this stuff up when we were trying to go to sleep.

      As a Catholic, she said that we were already redefining marriage. I was a Protestant (well, atheist if you went by actual beliefs) and we were married in somewhere other than The Church. We are living a child-free lifestyle. We have relatives that don’t consider us “really” married… and yet we cheerfully hug them and talk about our marriage in front of them. So we are pushing the boundaries in our own way, she said.

      Maybe I’ll ask her for a divorce again tonight. Right when we’re trying to go to sleep.Report

      • Bob in reply to Jaybird says:

        Jaybird, sometimes I just want to grab you in cyberspace and give you a big hug. Consider yourself hugged.Report

        • Jaybird in reply to Bob says:

          So I asked her.

          She told me that I should get a tattoo on my hand that said “no, you can’t have a divorce” so that next time something like this happened and I wanted to make some sort of demonstration against the government, I could just look at my hand.Report

  2. M.Z. says:

    There is a temptation to draw too many lessons or the wrong lessons, but I think you got this one right.Report

  3. I generally try to avoid violence, in reality and in dealing-with-politicians fantasy, but am I all that wrong for viscerally responding to that Malkin bit with a desire to introduce my boot to her face?Report

  4. Thank You says:

    Dear Barack,
    Please continue to campaign for Democratic candidates in future elections. The Republicans welcome all your help.
    Thank you.Report

  5. Mark says:

    Re: Hoffman. Have you seen him on TV? He puts the ‘un’ in uncharismatic. I’ve met a lot of politicians in my life, and I seriously think he’s the worst candidate I’ve seen. If you’re going to pick somebody to throw a lot of money at, pick somebody who has a chance…Owens was not a good candidate – mainly because the Dems thought they had no chance to beat a Republican – and they didn’t!

    This was just poor politics by Palin and Armey and their ilk.Report

  6. Reason60 says:

    “Dede Scozzafada may not have been red enough meat for the likes of Sean Hannity or Michelle Malkin, but she might have been just the right shade for northern New Yorkers.”

    My thoughts exactly- there is this enduring myth that if only a “true” conservative were to appear, the masses would lift him aloft and carry him to triumph against the moderate Republicans, who of course are only acceptable to corrupt party hacks.
    The truth is it was the voters in NY-23 who were the moderates; they used to be represented by a moderately liberal Republican, and now will be represented by a conservatively liberal Democrat.
    I would bet money that the voting record of Owens will be remarkably similar to what it would be with Scozzafava, or the one they both replaced (whose name escapes me at the moment).Report

    • JosephFM in reply to Reason60 says:

      Totally agreed. I’ve always been registered as a Democrat, but I’m supporting a couple of Republicans for next year’s state legislative elections, for reasons that are almost entirely local and personal. Erik is 100% right to say that “politics is local – especially local politics,” and it’s honestly strange to me that people don’t get this. They represent your town, your home.

      That said, part of me still hopes that the Senate race here goes the way of NY23, because while I don’t really like any of the candidates, and none are from my area, as is often the case at this level I dislike the Democrat least, but he doesn’t have much of a chance. Of course, neither does Marco Rubio, the Jeb Bush-backed movement candidate, barring something major severing the party leaders from Crist.Report

  7. Ian M. says:

    So we’ve learned that Democrats can win when they have the House, Senate and Presidency in an anti-incumbent down economy if there is no Republican opponent.Report

    • JosephFM in reply to Ian M. says:

      Winning more elections tends to actually be much harder when you already hold so much power. The Republicans only escaped it thanks to 9/11, if you recall.Report

  8. Herb says:

    “Malkin, Beck, Limbaugh, their cronies in politics – the whole gang is going to run the party into a corner and then hit the self-destruct button. ”

    I agree. Which is why I wonder why all the conservatives I know are so in love with Malkin-Beck-Limbaugh type thinking. Maybe this is a sampling problem (ie, I know a lot of braindead conservatives), but I don’t think so. I keep waiting for the enlightened conservatism on display here at the League to trickle down to my conservative friends and family…

    But the viral e-mails in my inbox tell a different story.Report

  9. Cascadian says:

    Good post E.D. The Republicans are going backward quickly. If they’re going to preach devolving National power in favor of the local, they’re going to have actually walk the talk. Not only would this give them credibility, which they completely lack at the moment, it might actually, you know, make for a better party.Report

  10. zilifant says:

    I have a hard time seeing Palin or Bachmann or Limbaugh as “conservative” in any meaningful or principled sense. Retrograde populists, perhaps. Conservatives – not so much.Report