Incomprehensible.

[kentuck]

I simply cannot understand what is going on in the minds of the voters this election?

We did not need any type of stimulus?

Obama is a big-spending socialist?

Healthcare was perfectly fine the way it was?

Sarah Palin is the genius we need to lead this country?

We should have let the banks go under?

General Motors should have been allowed to go under?

We did not need any financial regulations?

Wall Street and 401K's should have been allowed to fail?

Ignorance and anti-intellectualism is celebrated by the Tea Partiers?

We need to cut spending in the middle of the biggest economic downturn in our lifetimes?

We really don't care if foreign countries are buying our elections?

We long for a return to insanity?

[woo me with science]

1. I think it can be boiled down pretty simply.

The economy was bad two years ago. Dems ran on hope and change. The economy is still really bad.

People are desperate and frustrated.

[Cirque du So-What]

2. That mindset makes as much sense

as someone fleeing from a burning house, but they're badly burned. To spite the fire, they run back into the flames. Yeah, THAT'll show the fire alright!

[frazzled]

4. Frustrated is one thing: totally irrational, hateful, and insane is another

Frankly, I'm scared by all the craziness I see, even here sometimes. Bad things happen when populist movements get out of control.

I am having to tune as much of it out as possible. It's just damned unhealthy.

[JohnnyLib2]

3. I've asked several RWers the healthcare and Palin questions.

Tends to be a conversation stopper, as if a taboo had been broken. They go looking for a friendlier audience. Sadly, I don't think your questions get ANY serious consideration

[Overseas]

5. Millions of dollars of right wing PR at work. The Koch Brothers. Dick Armey.

Andrew Breitbart and lots of others.

And the foolish bipartisan games too many Democrats played for too long.

Could have let the president and his cabinet be bipartisan and appeal for Republican support while other Democratic legislators shouted "No, they crashed our economy! Why should we get their support!"

We could have had the president asking for Republican support on healthcare with compromise measures while most Democrats shouted "No! Our constituents have been bankrupted by the Bush Republican economic crash and are being evicted from their homes, we need Medicare for All NOW!"

But instead of using our party majorities in that way-- letting our president reach out for Republican support but keeping the majority of our Democratic legislators shouting to restore good compassionate government safety nets, strong financial regulation, and solid efficient infrastructure again-- we got the foolish public denunciation of those of us calling for long-standing practical Democratic solutions and months of groveling for one or two promised Republican votes.

It worked beautifully for Republican right wingers and their well-funded PR machinery. They took full advantage and poured millions into the project of stirring up crazier and crazier opposition. Achieving their goal of making the Republican monsters who crashed our economy seem like regular guys in comparison to the teabagger crazies. Took the Republicans from 29% support early in our president's term way up to around 40-something now.

What I've learned through all of this is how powerful big money really is. And how powerful it is to own a whole network blasting anti-administration news 24/7.

The Democratic majorities gave the failed disgraceful GOP the chance to appoint judicial activists to the highest court in our land before President Obama even took office. We were all so excited when former boxer Harry Reid promised to filibuster Alito but then he caved in the face of "The Nuclear Option!" and we are now reaping extraordinary penalties for that timidity.

For all the above reasons, I really did hope my Democrats would burst onto the scene demanding 21st Century FDR moves and push some through right off the bat. But our Democratic legislators gave the party of torture, reckless deregulation and right wing judicial activism lots of bipartisan outreach and they used it to obstruct lots of practical, useful legislation. Gave them an inch and they took us miles backward. The former 29% Party gained a lot of ground.

Harry was too chicken to filibuster Alito and here we are after tons of GOP filibusters of pragmatic Democratic solutions to the mess the Republicans left us with, having them blame our president for the high unemployment more stimulus spending could have reduced even further.

And we haven't had a good answer to allowing filibusters to be dispensed with cloture votes instead of requiring Republicans to conduct full filibusters and speak for hours and hours to defeat jobs programs and other positive legislation. Except that we wanted to pass as much as we could and didn't want the delays of the business of government. But a few of those delays at the beginning, letting them filibuster against a public option (a.k.a. cost controls) could have been very useful. Democrats could have spoken out in as many places as possible, calling attention to Republicans filibustering very practical cost control measures to preserve the most expensive and #37 ranking healthcare system in the world.

Yes of course I am going to go vote D again. But I'm really depressed about the power of money and how weak it has made my party. I'm just hoping that the right wing nightmare the GOP is pushing will get all the Obama voters to the polls to fight it back. I just hope the GOP plan to make their disgustingly cruel standard party candidates look decent next to the hard right teabaggers doesn't work and give them more seats to continue their heartless and idiotic destructive obstructionism for two more years.