10 lessons learned from this election

1. America is diverse. Deal with it.
2. Don't attempt illegal nonsense to subvert the democracy.
3. The electorate did not fall off a turnip truck.
4. Pandering to the "base" is perilous. The Republican Party has a tea party problem because it has allowed itself to.
5. "Trust me" doesn't get it done.
6. If you must pander, do not alienate large chunks of voters in the process. The Republican Party should not have the gender gap and the "race gap" that it has.
7. The system self-corrects.
8. "We've got to fix that." As an aside, President Obama commented Tuesday night on the flaws in our electoral process that produce the enormous lines, disenfranchisement and disillusionment about our democracy. It's not an aside, it's vital.
9. Retail politics still matters.
10. Nate Silver is a freaking genius.

Explanations & elaborations in the article here:
Ten hard lessons from Tuesday | Politics Blog | an SFGate.com blog

Do you agree or disagree?

I agree with every single one of them. I know several self-proclaimed life-long Republicans IRL who tell me they voted for Obama because *this* Republican Party is an embarassingly messy combination of morality policing and lack of transparency. They want less government but they wanted to know exactly which parts Romney would cut, and they want the government to stay out of everyone's bedrooms which the GOP seems to think is its right. And the they recognized that the majority of small businesses won't have *any* business, even with all the tax breaks in the world, if they don't have customers with money in their pockets to pay for those services. It seems this election wasn't about the economy, after all, it was about everything else.

Where to go with this? I would like to ask you how did you feel 8 years ago when Bush won a second term? Would you have been pleased with the attitude "We won, deal with it?" I am sure there were some that had that attitude, but did you appreciate it? There is a ton of hurt and anger on the Republican side of the line right now. You have to remember almost 50% of the country did not vote for Obama and many of them felt passionate about how they were voting for. On my FB wall this morning there is a deep sense of mourning. IMO, it will take nothing short of a miracle to unite the country after such a hateful election.

I guess I just roll with the punches on that Bonita. No, I wasn't excited GWB rec'd a 2nd term but I didn't "mourn" anything or put myself in a depression as I've seen on FB. I find that line of thinking and reaction to be overly dramatic.

I think this map says it all. People that live in these huge urban areas think they know what is best for everyone and the government should take care of you, and people in the rest of the country think people should take care of themselves.

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...30329924_n.jpg

I know many of you do not believe abortion is wrong, or that an unborn baby is a baby. Please pretend with me that you do believe that an unborn baby is a baby. The same as a child that is already born with the same rights as any other child. (I know many do not feel this way, but to get you to see the other side) Then pretend that the newly elected president was in support of slaughtering any child for any reason. Would you not mourn the election of said president? Would you not mourn the death of millions of children over the next 4 years? If the president did not share any of your values? If he fought for everything you felt was wrong? Did not fight for things you felt were vitally important?

As I said before, the country is very divided right now. It will take much to fix that. I do not believe if a candidate was far to the right won, and was open about wanting to ban all abortion for any reason, ban all same sex marriage, and on other conservative social issues, that the liberals on this board would not be deeply upset by the outcome of the election.

10 things I learned on this election

1. Lots of people believe sucking the brains out of a baby is a choice a person can make for someone else.
2. Those making over 250 thousand a year are greedy bastards.
3. It is ok to be a Catholic and say you disagree with the tenants of your faith, but if a Mormon says that he won't legislate all his beliefs noone believes him.
4. We should let anyone into our country.
5. We should work for the government, not the government for us.
6. We need the government for everything, from food, to gas, to healthcare and schools.
7. We shouldn't care that we are working and the government is spending all our money on others that don't care to.
8. War is evil, but ok if you are Obama.
9. Republicans are evil because they spend too much on the election, even though they spent about 1/2- 1/4 of what the Dem nominee spent.
10. The government is the ONLY source of relief for those in need.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rivergallery

2. Those making over 250 thousand a year are greedy bastards.

7. We shouldn't care that we are working and the government is spending all our money on others that don't care to.

---

2. Not only are they greedy bastards but they should be giving all their money to those in 7.

It looks like the financial markets have a lot of faith that Obama is going to fix things. I wonder how he is going to spin all those companies that he told not to send out layoff notices that are now going to have to do massive lay offs.

Post-Election Retreat: Dow Plummets Below 13K for First Time in 2 Months | Fox Business

I also wanted to point out that if you live in an area that went mostly blue, you might be slightly out of touch with how angry the rest of the country is.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Spacers

1. America is diverse. Deal with it.
2. Don't attempt illegal nonsense to subvert the democracy.
3. The electorate did not fall off a turnip truck.
4. Pandering to the "base" is perilous. The Republican Party has a tea party problem because it has allowed itself to.
5. "Trust me" doesn't get it done.
6. If you must pander, do not alienate large chunks of voters in the process. The Republican Party should not have the gender gap and the "race gap" that it has.
7. The system self-corrects.
8. "We've got to fix that." As an aside, President Obama commented Tuesday night on the flaws in our electoral process that produce the enormous lines, disenfranchisement and disillusionment about our democracy. It's not an aside, it's vital.
9. Retail politics still matters.
10. Nate Silver is a freaking genius.

Explanations & elaborations in the article here:
Ten hard lessons from Tuesday | Politics Blog | an SFGate.com blog

Do you agree or disagree?

I agree with every single one of them. I know several self-proclaimed life-long Republicans IRL who tell me they voted for Obama because *this* Republican Party is an embarassingly messy combination of morality policing and lack of transparency. They want less government but they wanted to know exactly which parts Romney would cut, and they want the government to stay out of everyone's bedrooms which the GOP seems to think is its right. And the they recognized that the majority of small businesses won't have *any* business, even with all the tax breaks in the world, if they don't have customers with money in their pockets to pay for those services. It seems this election wasn't about the economy, after all, it was about everything else.

---

I think this is the kind of arrogance that is the propelling force behind the divide in this country.