A Berniecrat almost wins in kansas

One of the reddest districts in the united states, and a progressive democrat almost takes it, was within 1% at one point, before the repubs panicked, and went all in against him pouring money into the race. Seems the most conservative people in the country...aren't so conservative.

Almost don't mean shit

however,

as long as the Democratic party listens to Bernie, they'll be fine (Link)

"So many of our people are giving up on the political process. It is very frightening. In the last presidential election, when Trump won, we had the lowest voter turnout over — in 20 years. And in the previous two years before that, in the midterm election, we had the lowest voter turnout in 70 years," Sanders continued. "We're going to be fighting to see that the Democratic Party becomes a 50-state party. You can't just be a West Coast party and an East Coast party.”

Bernie Sanders is a complete and utter failure. Listening to him would be like tie yourself to a tree yelling I am a hippy.

@AlexKidd5000: Pro-tip: While some topics may somewhat ambiguously toe the line between OT and Political discussion, when your post is literally about politics then OT probably isn't where it belongs.

-Byshop

I didn't even know there was a separate board for politics. Why wouldn't it all be on the same board?

Bernie's problem most of the time, is that he does not fight hard enough. At this point, he has already done his job at getting people informed about what is going on, and how they are not crazy for thinking they are getting screwed. Bernie plays nice with the corporate dems far too often.

OT used to be nothing but politics, which can be a pretty big turn-off to some people.

Care to expound on that idea?

When you consider how tilted the race was against the berniecrat, and how red that district was, the margin was nothing short of astounding.

@R3FURBISHED: good point.

BERNIE SANDERS IS JUST A SJW. Period, he is the proto-sjw. He is the original. Look up a SJW.

Enlightening. Hollow and vapid, but enlightening.

Almost doesn't mean anything, there is no second place in politics.

If you are in a race between two people, and you almost win, that means you lost.

@R3FURBISHED: ALMOST means nothing. If someone that left wing can get that close in a district that red, it's possibly a harbinger of doom for the GOP in the vast majority of the rest of the country that isn't *that* red

The democrats main flaw is their unyielding hatred/self-hatred for white people, which is why a huge chunk of the country would never vote for them. The election of Trump proved that people prefer a yelling buffoon to someone that is actively and ideologically malicious towards your group.

Hopefully next time a democrat will win =P

Correct. His problem is he sells out too easily.

He wasted a lot of time last election.

Such an "astounding" margin and the candidate still is on the outside looking in. Maybe next time.

He lost by only 6.5%...when a repub usually wins by 30% on average against a dem. A sign of things to come.

If democrats losing to republican is a sign of things to come, it's nothing new.

Bernie still sold out btw, why are you still a supporter?

Only the winner gets a prize.

There is going to be a massive group of bernie democrats running for congress next year, and this is a sign of there chances of winning, meaning very good, because people even in the south are willing to vote for true left wing dems.

too short sighted.

A democrat losing in a heavily republican district by only 6.5% is really bad for the GOP. Estes got saved by the rural areas in a lot of the counties he won in that district. Republicans that currently have seats in more urban districts should be panicking right now. The republicans or whoever runs for the republicans next in more urban or less republican or more democratic distirct like KS-2, KS-3, CA-49 and etc should be panicking right now.Republicans also should be really worried about the GA-6, MT-AL,and SC-5 special elections that are going to occur soon.

We aren't worried. We will win.

If you feel the need to turn that lemon into lemonade, sure........I guess. Each and every day we are told the Republicans are so bad yet the supposed better party still lost. Both parties are comprised of morons but maybe, just maybe people are not believing the Sanders rhetoric and I know when that happens the supporters try and find any glimpse of sunlight.

There is a difference between the corporate democrats that are in power now, and only want to screw people over, and the berniecrats aka progressive democrats that are starting to run for public offices right now who are regular people, and who will boot the corporate dems out. People WANT progressives who are real human beings, and not empty suits, aka corporate democrats.

Remember, the dem who barely lost in kansas had ZERO support from the rest of the democratic party, and only a fraction of the money the republican had, that is a VERY GOOD SIGN, it just means if they had more money, and support from the public, they (progressives) can win anywhere. And I predict that the 2018 midterm elections are going to be a bloodbath.

If what you say is true, why didn't Sanders win the nomination of his party? Why didn't the voters vote in the "real" human being? I would have thought they wouldn't have listened to their Democrat warlords.

I live in Kansas and I wouldn't use this result as some sort of predictor nationally. Estes ran a pitiful campaign. He basically ran a couple of tv ads paid for by the republican party, and had a Mike Pence robocaller telling people to get out and vote. He didn't show up to debate or do any real campaigning. Thompson actually tried to win. Yes, the result was a lot closer than expected, but it was really a unique circumstance.

now its turned into a blog about preteens and their kiddy crushes. I think that chases off way more people than politics.

@AlexKidd5000: well the conservatives fake agenda has been exposed. Trump has lied about pretty much everything he said he'd do. Even wants to give hundreds of billions of $$ of tax cuts to the rich while cutting "social" programs that alot of these regular folk rely on. His shady dealings, plus vacation every week to mar a lago to play GOLF, on the tax payer dime. Extra protection money for his wife and kid in NYC. Not to mention, interfering in other countries issues, now trying to start crap with N.Korea. Yeah, even the "slow" republicans would start to feel a little wary about way things are going right about now.

Collusion between the dems, and the clinton campaign, doing everything in there power to stop Bernie. Really despicable things, and even than it was extremely close. And there probably weren't as many people paying attention than. The thing with election rigging/biasing, is that it turns the tide just enough to let the shitty person win, and they worked overtime to screw bernie. But if they push hard enough, they can win despite the election bias.

That may have been the case, I don't know. People must be starting to see how full of shit the repubs are by now.

So, KS is kind of a weird state when it comes to political alignments. Yes, for a little over 20 years its been fairly red. This seems to be due to more of a mix of generalized ideas about the two parties and the religious side of things.

The reality is a very large percentage of voters in KS are some weird mix of libertarian and progressive. The book "Whats a matter with Kansas" does a very good job of highlighting these things. Its not so much that they are red, they simply believe in hard work and being left alone. Historically, KS has actually been more of a progressive state and we see that with many Kansans today. They tend to take pride in these things, wanting to be self made, wanting to earn what you own, they take pride in many Kansans Native American history, etc.

In short, i dont think KS is a very good measuring stick here. Kansans tend to take pride in their states history and most know and credit, how it once was. Its also worth mentioning cities like Lawrence, Manhattan, Hutchenson, Wichita, are actually very democratic cities and are the largest cities in KS.

Bernie supported hillary who he knew sabotaged his campaign. That's called selling out.

The person you're championing for this ideal, doesn't even act in it's interest.

Pathetic.

Hmmm, I understand a bit more now, thanks for the info. Way more diverse of a state than I would have thought.

Watch this speech from the author of Whats a Matter with Kansas, he does a very good job of going over how politically weird Kansas is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNv5eull29k

It is a weird state to attempt to define politically.One of the biggest factors here is there are two major universities in Kansas. Kansas University (Jayhawks. One of the birth places of basketball. Civil rights hub of the midwest.) and Kansas State. So one thing we see happening is 5-10%, depending on the year, of graduates end up really liking the generally peaceful, isolated if you want, farming areas.

This is very appealing to a lot of very liberal hippy types who just want to live a peaceful quiet existence. They mix with the farmers who had never been to college but have very similar views on living a peaceful life of living off what you grow on your land and everyone tries to get along and help one another. One thing i feel people would have a better understanding of if they lived in KS for a while, is the libertarian idea of voluntary taxes. The reality of this idea is that we know it would not work right? But i can see why people who live in KS and are libertarians would get the idea that it could work. This is because everyone is very friendly and many will do anything to help you. They very much believe in being good, honest and helpful people. They want to help and look after their neighbors and community. The last time i was there, a couple years ago, i was visiting my step mother and i brought my (ex)girlfriend who is from NY and she actually got irritated that, in her words, "Every person you meet is nicer than the last" and she seemed and said she felt, very lost because of that. And again this is something Kansans take a lot of pride in and is one of the view things theyll brag about.

As far as diversity goes, here are places that have a population of 70% Mexican. Or one city i lived in was a city that created an economic boom for themselves by actively taking in tens of thousands of Vietnam, Laotian, and Cambodian refugees in the 50s and 60s. There is a massive American Indian population in Kansas (Kansas itself is the name of an Indian tribe). The state is far more diverse than people realize.

All of this is also why people in/from Kansas get irritated with others out of state who just assume they have not experienced other races or cultures. I was born and raised in Kansas, of my "group" there were 3 black guy (one of them my step brother), 2 mexicans, a half Native American half mexican, 3 white guys, two white girls, two black girls (one half sister), a half black half korean girl and a half black half native american girl. My first GF was Laotian, my first long term relationship was with a Mexican and the mother of son is half black half white, That was our little "group" and some of my relationships throughout Jr high and HS. On a personal level for me, all throughout my life ive had people assume that because i was from Kansas, i didnt know anything about other cultures, races, etc. until of course we went further than surface deep and then everyone's always like "oh i didnt know Ks was like that" and you just have to explain that yes, culturally its a diverse and complicated state. But i cant count the number of times ive heard "youre not in Kansas anymore" when doing something silly like going to a Chinatown or seeing a Jamaican parade or something.

Wow, never knew that about kansas. Thanks for informing me, and the video :)

There's a decent chance the republicans lose GA-6 at this point and maybe even MT-AL.They may even lose SC-5 if they are really unlucky since that district was held by a democrat for like 28 years from 1983-2011.You should probably worry a bit.

It used to the same board but someone got the bright idea to split it up since most of the threads in Ot was Trump related.

So now it has it´s own board.

People had free will to vote for whomever they choose. The Republicans were completely against Trump and look what he did.

Yes, the Democrats were completely in the bag for Klinton but as I said, the voters had the ability to listen and conform or do their own thing. For whatever reason they decided the "real" human being was not the better choice when compared with the corporate robot.

Apparently there were a lot of people who were convinced that shillery was the stronger candidate against trump. go figure.

Basically, yeah. OT essentially -was- the politics board there for a while and all other non political discussion was getting drowned out pretty fast. Now we have room for both.

-Byshop

I actually agree with you for once.

Bernie's actions lately have been disappointing. Going on a unity tour with tom perez? what the hell is he doing? trying to sell us the ACA instead of medicare for all? Come on Bernie, you can do better than that.

Yep, I was proud to cast my vote for James Thompson. We almost took it.

Is it better to win or is it better to be right?

Is it better to be unified or to further the divide due to principles?

The ACA isn't what we want but it's something that was realistic at the time. It's progress. A slow progress.

You just admitted it's ok to sell out.

Got it.

I'm surprised at all my fellow Kansans on this thread. Never realized how many there were on this site.

I live in the 4th, and can somewhat agree with a lot of how my fellow Kansans have described/explained our quirky state. Perhaps the only difference in perspective I can offer is coming from an older generation (I'm 52 years old).

Kansas can be somewhat schitzo politically. Every so often we lose our damn minds and elect a democrat governor. But there is still a strong culture of self-reliance, individual responsibility, and Don't Tread on Me in this state. At least in us old geezer's generation ;) And a lot of people here don't look kindly on the sore-loser-temper-tantrum-throwing response the democrats have put on full display since November. We find it unseemly.

I wouldn't put too much stock in this "narrow" margin of victory for Estes. I, for one, didn't do my duty and vote. I was pretty sure Estes would win and just couldn't get too worked up over getting out to vote. Obviously this is purely anecdotal, but I know a lot of folks who were in that boat with me, i.e. Meh, Estes is going to win, and I have other things to do this Tuesday. No way to know for sure, but I'd venture to say if this contest had been on the ballot in November, Estes would have won by a much healthier margin. Not because we didn't know who/what Trump is, but because more people turn out in presidential election years. These special elections tend to draw out the hard core party faithful, and despite being a Red state, there is some pretty tepid support for the establishment republicans here.

But hey, if some of you want to get your hopes up that the country is swinging towards Bernie/Pelosi/Schumer/BLM/Welfare-for-all/Open-Borders democrats, power to ya. I'm betting, and hoping, you're going to be disappointed.

What qualifies you as a berniecrat? Do you have to get run off your platform by little girls and never return or something?