2022 Midterms Election Thread: GOP wins narrow House majority, Democrats hold the Senate. Red Wave fails to materialize.

@horgen: There was that time when a president failed reelection against a half senile grandpa and on top of that lost House and Senate. That one is impossible to top.

I said difficult, not impossible.

I really hope Trump wins 2024. He might not be popular with the left but he's great medicine. The world made amazing progress on global warming while he was president. All he has to do is sit there and talk trash, and drive the rest of the world into anxiety and depression.

Meanwhile biden is president and it looks like were sliding backward as expected.

Nothing drives the left into a frenzy like Trump. God bless the man, hopefully he gets in shape and lives another 50 years. We need him to lead again, possibly get rid of term limits then have Donald Trump Jr take over after 20 years lmao 🤣

Trump 2024, F yeah!

@kathaariancode: that much is Truth.

But democrats should start finding alternatives to Biden, i mean with all the respect that seniors citizens deserve, the guy should simply not be there.

His state of health doesn't allow it.

And its very visible even if people in the media avoid mentioning it.

I am no fan of McConnel, but if they get rid of him they might find themselves drowning in their own shit. GOP might be MAGA, but MAGA is not GOP and there does seem to be a balance right now that keeps MAGA in the "barely able to be taken serious" category, maintained by career GOP politicians.

I mean, have you heard the MAGA politicians talk? They're completely bonkers.

@mrbojangles25: I like the "MAGA" politicians. I like Trump. I'm not a republican. I have disdain for the left. I hate McConnell.

I guess I'm the type of person your talking about?

What you describe as bad I would really love to see tbh.

@nirgal: I don't get why dems are not pushing for a new face. Biden is in a terrible state. He's obviously not a dumb guy but he often has concerning episodes. No disrespect for the elderly but having so many old people in places of power shouldn't happen.

There's this tale of the man that spent so much time among monkeys that he became convinced he was the wisest human alive. There's the danger that having MAGAs as opponents made them overconfident. I don't think Biden has a chance against anyone that's not Trump. Maybe Dems will start funding Trump directly like they did with some MAGAs.

MAGA is dead.

@LJS9502_basic: MAGA FOREVER

😂

Idunno, I think it may have run its course. They've always been unpopular and now the American people have had enough it seems.

Then again, things tend to get worse and more radical. Taliban leads to Al Qeuda leads to ISIL, etc. just like neocons led to the Tea Party which led to MAGA.

We shall see what MAGA devolves into. Might just be a full-blown domestic terrorist organization for all we know. Already kind of heading that way as it is, what with Jan 6 and assaulting the FBI and so on.

@mrbojangles25: well we see things very differently. MAGA is the only option imo. Definitely not going to rely on Democrats for any meaningful change, definitely don't see the establishment right or left doing anything I want to see done.

If you want the worst of the worst... support people like Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell.

They are much more of the problem imo than MAGA.

I agree they are a serious problem, but I don't know if they are worse than MAGA.

It's just all kinds of terrible, all around.

@kathaariancode: exactly against anyone other than trump, Biden would have lost badly and for obvious reasons.

They have to start proposing candidates that have value based on their ideas, not based on not being trump.

Welp, that's game.

Masto projected, Dems got the Senate.

Dems held Senate. MSNBC now projects 216 House seats going to Democrats and 219 to GOP with the current tallies. Given there's some states are still counting I hope there would be two more House seats that can change the lead to Democrats they can keep the House though unlikely I'll still cross my fingers there.

Dems keep the Senate!

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/cortez-masto-defeats-laxalt-nevada-handing-democrats-control-s-rcna54936

Trump is his own worst enemy. Americans aren't interested in supporting a candidate or campaign based on grievance politics and looking to the past. They want to look to the future. You think Trump's campaign isn't going to be predicated (at least partly) on 2020? On the salvaging of his ego and vanity? On seeking revenge for all the perceived wrongs to him? All he's going to harp on about is how he was robbed, how the election was stolen, how he was targeted with "witch hunts".

Perpetually framing himself the victim may enrapture his cult base, but to the majority that he needs to succeed in another primary, people, even Republicans, don't want to hear it. As these midterms (an assured bet if there ever was one) has evidenced. Trump had the benefit of not having his ego wounded in '16, and that's no longer the case. Americans now want DeSantis, who has a clean slate and is now looking forward and to the interests of Americans as they see it, not Trump and to the satiating of his own personal vendettas.

He's done, and he's done because of his own personal flaws. He can announce his candidacy all he wants, but Americans want to move on to their benefit, not Trump's. In his narcissism, that's unfathomable, and it will poetically lead to his defeat.

So glad you're doing this basically cementing Dems win in 2024. Maga forever indeed!

I'm mostly interested in whether certain posters on this board will now commit account suicide. I recall certain people pretty much guaranteeing the red wave. But I imagine that they are cowards like Trump and instead they will alternate between sulking in the corner with their tails between their legs and posting more delusional fantasies.

Trumps a conman, and like all conmen he is a loser that can't win unless he lies, cheats, and steals.

I think Americans realize this now. They thought they had a winner, a successful businessman that wanted to drain the swamp, and all they got was a loser that made things worse.

I don't like politicians and bureaucracy, but that's the job, and we need actual politicians into the job. We should elect better politicians, not unqualified conmen.

@girlusocrazy: Jesus. what an absolute GOP implosion.

how on earth did they manage to snatch defeat like that?!

also, 😆 at people here predicting a gop tidal wave....

A very happy surprise indeed. We'll take it.

This past week has been hugely cathartic for me, I was not at all expecting such a refutation of the GOP and especially Trump. It looks like his spell is finally breaking.

Republicans have again and again rebounded behind Trump, but I'm wondering if this time will be different. Americans are obviously sick and tired of the constant drama and egocentrism of Trump, and Republicans will be forced to turn on him when they realize he's an impediment to their power. I'm curious if he'll even get the nomination now, as everywhere I'm seeing, people are rallying behind DeSantis and condemning Trump. He's damaged goods, and a losing prospect. Yet his allure over the party is immense, so we'll see what happens.

This is going to be interesting to watch, as Trump still holds enough sway over enough voters to ruin Republican chances if they don't kowtow to his wishes and he runs as an independent to strip votes away, ensuring their defeat simply to spite them. Would serve Republicans right, as it's been obvious from the start Trump never cared for America or Americans, but only himself. A painful way to wake up.

Things got pretty low during this election cycle. Hilary called them deplorable, and she's right. What else do you call a politician that publicly supports violence with a hammer against an elderly person. Even if you don't like someone, in the case of Nancy Pelosi is understandable, but there's a line to be drawn.

I haven't liked a lot of what the right has been doing. Redrawing voting lines in such disgustingly obvious ways to favor them. These states need to be dem controlled and all these kinds of actions need to be made illegal.

Not to mention, the worst part of all this is how badly the GOP has been at controlling the budget. They are a turd, and this is the one thing that is absolutely unforgivable in my eyes. They have contributed to the out of control spending, and did it even worse than the dems. In the past they were always thr party of fiscal responsibility. If not for Trump, I would say **** the gop.

The GOP needs to get their shit together and focus on their mandate. I don't care what happens or if the country goes into a recession, tax the shit out of everybody, especially the rich and pay off the damn debt. And make it illegal to go over the budget.

@girlusocrazy:

"But I don't know who knew exactly what to expect."

You raise a really interesting question because if I look at the polls (at least the few I am looking at), the Dems' strong showing really shouldn't be much of a surprise.

NYT Siena polls showed Fetterman winning 49-44 for instance at the end of October. Not exactly spot on, but a respectable margin of error for sure. I wonder if the misses of 2016 and to a lesser degree 2020, have taught us to distrust polls a little too much. It's not just laypeople either as 538's forecast model had Republicans winning control of the Senate.

@espoac: My understanding is that 538's forecast is the result of aggregating polls and then adjusting and weighting based on objective factors (GDP, unemployment etc.) and subjective inputs.

So maybe where they got it wrong in the Senate forecast was in the adjustment and weighting of the raw inputs coming from polls. Just my hypothesis though.

And it is suuuccchh a relief to see these election deniers lose.

Not sure if officially official, but it looks like Democrats have control of the senate after winning Nevada (wow, Nevada? Really? Good job!)

All I have to say is: WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Link

And Trump supporters and GOP sycophants are abandoning ship as well.

Candace Owens suddenly realizes Trump is an asshole though she just sort of sounds like an idiot.

The headline read, "Candace Owens: Trump is Pro-Vax Because He’s ‘Too Old’ to Understand the Internet."

"I’m telling you this personal story because I think it is something that made me for the first-time question him as a person. So, you have an individual who’s spent years defending you, right, and that individual gave you a completely kind and fair interview. You said something yourself that your base didn’t like. And you somehow transformed that into something that I did wrong," Owens said. "That is unacceptable. That is not being a leader. That is not owning things that you did wrong. That’s not owning that you misunderstood something about your base. That’s not growing. That’s not developing.

Trump launches another attack at Mitch McConnell

...the former president began his attack with, "It’s Mitch McConnell’s fault."

He then added, "Spending money to defeat great Republican candidates instead of backing Blake Masters and others was a big mistake. Giving 4 Trillion Dollars to the Radical Left for the Green New Deal, not Infrastructure, was an even bigger mistake. He blew the Midterms, and everyone despises him and his otherwise lovely wife, Coco Chow!"

All I can say about this infighting is...good. Gooooood. Let your hate flow through you!

Also, makes me a little worried. A lot of former Trump supporters are abandoning ship because they think Trump is not radical enough.

If the Tea Party was the Taliban, and MAGA was Al Queda...will the next iteration of far-right extremists become the equivelent of ISIL? More extreme, more violent? It certainl;y makes me wonder.

Trump supports all of that, though.

He supported violence to achieve his goals. He supports winning at any cost, including lying, using disgraceful tactics (including gerrymandering, voter suppression, etc).

Trump is the one that took the GOP in the direction (or, in the case they were heading in that direction already, took them further) you claim to dislike. Don't you get that?

You are right in that Democrats do need to take control. Get rid of Citizens United, get rid of gerrymandering; get rid of all the crap that is sending our country down the drain, and pass measures to make life better for the 90+% of people who's lives are getting worse. The way we run things now is not sustainable, nor is it healthy in just about every single way.

@mrbojangles25: the thing about Trump is, he just needs to be there and talk shit and he exposes the swamp. He asks the right questions about illegal immigration, why did the dems block the wall?? He talks crap about global warming, pulls us out of the climate accord. All of a sudden the entire world gets anxious and starts to pull their weight on carbon emissions. Trump talk shit about China, for causing covid, and now we have tarrifs against them. Trump even promoted the covid vaccine, even though his base was against it. Turds like Candace bitch Owen's always talking about Trump being pro vaccine. He was ALWAYS pro vaccine, he just gave people the choice. Mitch McConnell and his wife coco chow are even bigger clowns.

There were things I didn't like about trump. The only thing being how loose he was with money. He needs to be president in 2024, give dems the senate and house.

Hmm so the far right posters who would de-rail threads by bringing up the midterms, which had NOTHING to do with the threads, are hilariously absent or very quiet in this one.

That bizarre trolling should at least be over now.

I have noticed some far right users here are missing since the midterms didn't turn out the way they wanted.

Here is an example.

You are going to get wrecked in the midterms

In a thread where no one mentioned midterms and had nothing to do with them.

Not going to name names, but he did these kind of posts for months in unrelated threads. That poster is now absent from his thread.

Quite hilarious.

To be fair, midterms have tended to favor the challengers to the presidency because the party "in charge" get's blamed for the problems people are experiencing.

Not saying that makes it right what these people are saying, but I suppose you can't blame them for expecting it.

Flipside of course is it makes the way these midterms went all the more incredible because historical trends would show it favors Republicans.

The American people have spoken, and we have said "we are tired of your shit, MAGA".

God I can't wait to see you in these forums next month 🤣🤣🤣

The creepy ass grommer party is going to get utterly destroyed.

A Senate in Democratic hands clears the path for Biden to keep remaking the courts (nbcnews.com)

Great news,

WASHINGTON — The Democratic Party's stunning hold on Senate control will enable President Joe Biden and his allies in the chamber to do something that has been a low-key success: churning out federal judges without the threat of Republican obstruction.

The Senate majority, inked by a Democratic win in Nevada, gives Biden a clear runway to continue one of his most consequential pursuits: reshaping federal courts with a diverse array of lifetime-appointed liberal judges, including record numbers of women, minorities, former public defenders and civil rights lawyers.

The Senate has confirmed 84 Biden-nominated judges, including Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, and 25 appeals court judges, confirming judges at a faster rate than President Donald Trump had before the 2022 election.

“Senate Democrats have been committed to restoring balance to the federal judiciary with professionally and personally diverse judges,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told NBC News on Saturday night. “With two more years of a Senate Democratic majority we will build on our historic pace of judicial confirmations and ensure the federal bench better reflects the diversity of America.”

@zaryia: So it is official then? I wasn't sure when I read this morning about Nevada.

Time to start undoing all that low-visibility stuff Trump admin did!

Democrats need to seize the ever-loving shit out of this opportunity and not waste it. Appoint judges, undo all the regressive policies, appoint judges, try to overturn Citizens United, institute better voting laws, etc.

We got ~2 years to do it all.

@zaryia: lmao, who wrote that? Silentchief?

1. Tell your base all the time that the elections are fraudulent.

2. Be mad when you didn't get your red wave, because your voters didn't think their votes mattered after all your lying.

1. Tell your base that there will be a red wave, a red tsunami, that the Dems will get smashed.

2. Be mad when you find out your voters didn't think they'd need to vote with victory already so assured.

Why would they overturn Citizens United? They are complicit. All but a few of them like their wealthy donors.

Don't want to shame anyone too badly, so won't go into specifics.

That being said, Ass Grommers sure did better than expected!

GOP will definitely have to adapt to the new voting early norms, the shift to mail in voting and being able to evolve their targeting to them, especially encompassing the apathetic voter. Reliance on day-of voting isn't sustainable anymore in swing states. Current battle now rests in control of the house though, and it'll be interesting to see it all play out.

In California, I was surprised to see the millionaire tax to pay for electric vehicle incentives being defeated. Was disappointed to see prop 31 passing though, I'm not a big smoker by any means, but I do enjoy the occasional cigar. Cigars aren't banned fyi, just flavored tobacco. There's some good brands of cigars that fall under the definition though.

@Stevo_the_gamer: "GOP will definitely have to adapt to the new voting early norms,"

Yet the day people vote doesn't change the numbers. The GOP should try adopting more popular policies instead.

@Serraph105: Why wouldn't the day matter? Especially when things can change in days, weeks, or even within a month? Like say, a really abysmal and embarrassing performance showcasing clear cognitive difficulties in a debate? Or, perhaps, more accusers towards someone running for office? All these things do not exist with a vacuum of space, and with that, comes new dynamics not seen in these numbers in the past.

@Stevo_the_gamer: I guess technically you're mind could change within a week's time, but as long as your candidate doesn't do something crazy like body slam a reporter or try to overthrow democracy tgen it's unlikely that a person's vote will change.

My feeling is that if a thousand people vote and three hundred vote for one person while the other seven hundred vote for the other, it doesn't matter which day the vote was cast, the losing candidate should have supported more popular policies.

I disagree. There's a large group of voters who are not engrained in the identity/partisan tribalism, or are simply independent. Not even including the apathetic voters out there who pay very little attention to the current happenings, but get the occasional briefing on what's what by whatever medium they happen to come across.

their troll farm bosses pulled the plug on their work as it didn't deliver results.

He did that for over a year and it was beyond obnoxious. Even when talking about European politics he brought the US midterms up.

Most voters may be decided, but as we have seen in recent US elections. Even that small fraction of voters matter.

However, you are right in that the GOP will have to change their policies a bit to appeal to the Gen Z vote. The older values are on the decline and have little bearing on Millenials, Zoomers and Alphas. All of which have adopted our own values, which in most cases are more secular and egalitarian.

Unfortuantely, if we see what messages are resonating, the go to strategy may very well be to raise the minimum voting age. Fortunately, hte US has a constitution, so it would be harder to do in the US than it is in say... Sweden.