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In reply to the discussion: Here's why I've given up on voting: [View all]bvar22
(39,909 posts)80. Don't you get tired of being perpetually WRONG?
Did liberals really stay home and cause the 2010 rout?
You know what I'm talking about. The claim that a bunch of liberals were so pissed off at Obama that they stayed home and this caused the 2010 rout. It's pervasive. I won't link to examples because it comes up so regularly I see no point singling anyone out.
So I went back to the exit polls and the picture I see shows nothing like that. If you are a proponent of this claim, I challenge you for empirical proof that some set of activist liberals "took their ball and went home" or whatever metaphor you prefer to make Obama's leftward critics appear childish and immature. Inside, the evidence I found that shows this just ain't so.
<snip>
Still the claim that petulant liberals punished Obama to their own detriment is repeated so often with such certitude, I thought I would request to see the proof of it, because I don't see it, in the most obvious place it would appear if it were there, the proportion and voting of actual liberals in comparable elections.
If you have some more complex explanation of how it really happened, I would like to see it, because all I see is the proportion of the voting population calling themselves "conservatives" grew tremendously at expense of those calling themselves "moderates." [font size=3] Either a bunch of moderates became conservatives, or moderates stayed home, or a lot of conservatives who usually stay home came out. Or some combination of those things.[/font] Yet any of those explanations would be tremendously at odds with the "blame the progressives" explanation.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/06/1003805/-Did-liberals-really-stay-home-and-cause-the-2010-rout#
You know what I'm talking about. The claim that a bunch of liberals were so pissed off at Obama that they stayed home and this caused the 2010 rout. It's pervasive. I won't link to examples because it comes up so regularly I see no point singling anyone out.
So I went back to the exit polls and the picture I see shows nothing like that. If you are a proponent of this claim, I challenge you for empirical proof that some set of activist liberals "took their ball and went home" or whatever metaphor you prefer to make Obama's leftward critics appear childish and immature. Inside, the evidence I found that shows this just ain't so.
<snip>
Still the claim that petulant liberals punished Obama to their own detriment is repeated so often with such certitude, I thought I would request to see the proof of it, because I don't see it, in the most obvious place it would appear if it were there, the proportion and voting of actual liberals in comparable elections.
If you have some more complex explanation of how it really happened, I would like to see it, because all I see is the proportion of the voting population calling themselves "conservatives" grew tremendously at expense of those calling themselves "moderates." [font size=3] Either a bunch of moderates became conservatives, or moderates stayed home, or a lot of conservatives who usually stay home came out. Or some combination of those things.[/font] Yet any of those explanations would be tremendously at odds with the "blame the progressives" explanation.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/06/1003805/-Did-liberals-really-stay-home-and-cause-the-2010-rout#
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That is what is so sickening. Rand Paul is against the NSA spying and the drone strikes
quinnox
Jan 2014
#21
I hope you can see that opposing Obama and supporting Paul are two different things
BelgianMadCow
Jan 2014
#132
well, he is wrong to say domestic drones are ok. But he is right to be against the foreign drones
quinnox
Jan 2014
#120
and he only had 60 in the House...for 2 months....not filibuster proof.
VanillaRhapsody
Jan 2014
#45
It wouldn't make any difference....the goal of the actual filibuster is to attempt to
VanillaRhapsody
Feb 2014
#157
It's amazing to me how wishing Democrats were more progressive = "seeing the small picture"
beerandjesus
Jan 2014
#63
The youth votes; it's that the elder brackets counter their votes AND outnumber them
Scootaloo
Jan 2014
#27
I think there will be a lot of write ins if Dems don't get Progressive Candidates to vote for this
sabrina 1
Jan 2014
#22
No, it was Independents who had come out in 2008, who were so disappointed in the Democratic Party
sabrina 1
Jan 2014
#35
Don't you get tired of being wrong? The disappointment of the young voters in
sabrina 1
Jan 2014
#47
By international standards, the Democrats are an odd mishmash of center-right and center-left
Distant Quasar
Jan 2014
#92
Obama was in the White House during the ACA Townhalls, and he left Democratic
Bluenorthwest
Jan 2014
#95
Exactly. And when Grassley flat out lied at public rallies it was left unchecked. n/t
cui bono
Jan 2014
#113
They have to keep hammering away at the lie, if not they admit their corporate politics
TheKentuckian
Jan 2014
#57
Independents... if you live in a state where Independents can't vote in primaries...
NYtoBush-Drop Dead
Jan 2014
#58
I disagree. Nate Silver made it clear that the 2010 problem was left-leaning voters not voting.
broadcaster75201
Jan 2014
#64
True. And his most ardent and vocal supporters are not left-leaning either. n/t
cui bono
Jan 2014
#118
Those that blame the left talk out of both sides of their faces. From one side of their faces they
rhett o rick
Jan 2014
#77
Thank you Manny, that really, really needed to be said. I'm so tired of that old canard,
tavalon
Jan 2014
#99
That is why I am now an independent. I am done being abused. When there is a left leaning
liberal_at_heart
Jan 2014
#136