Tag: politics

systlin:

simonalkenmayer:

If you’re discouraged about the election results

Don’t be. You’re hearing media do what it does: harp on one person’s lack of enthusiasm and make it seem that that one opinion is held by thousands.

This race went precisely as I thought it would. Precisely.

And it was absolutely a massive success.

So let me tell you why, so that you feel better and can easily put down the annoying crowing that republicans are going to do, because they managed to cling to a few things.

If the votes fall as I believe they will, the democrats will have retaken the house by some 30 seats. This is impressive and somewhat unique in our country’s history. The GOP, upon taking the house originally, jerrimandered these districts in impressively screwball ways. Wherever that rigging has been overturned, the districts have gone blue. Which is, of course, why they did it. Democrats have the house now, 30ish flips in republican rugged districts. 15 of those being female candidates.

That is absolutely impressive.

A few key candidates to whom many people were paying close attention did not perform as people desired. Abrams, O’Rourke, Gillum. Well…I’m not surprised. Abrams faces absolute state wide fraud. Her opponent being the person also in charge of voter registration, withholding some 50k votes of which 70% were black. Voter intimidation. This is blatant corruption. And yet still…her race was very close. So too with Beto. Ted Crews was a presidential candidate! When he took Texas, he did so with a wide margin. Last night in Texas he was fighting tooth and nail. Gillum’s goobenatorial race for Florida was a figurative dead heat. 99% of the vote in—49% Gillum, 49.7% DeSantis. These are CLASSICALLY and FULLY republican regions in which Trump took the presidency by huge margins. That these races, with all those challenges, were as close as they were PROVES that something unprecedented happened.

3-400% voter turnout increases for a midterm election. Mostly with the youth.

But let’s talk about what it means to have the house.

Now I know you’re probably concerned about the federal judgeships that are about to pop up for consideration, and it’s true that the Senate was needed to stop approvals of those candidates, but…

Control of the house means that Democrats now take hold of some critical committees. These committees are the very ones that will be overseeing corruption allegations. Ways and Means, energy and Commerce, Financial Services, Intelligence, appropriations, foreign affairs, armed services, judiciary, transportation and infrastructure, and…government reform.

How do you feel now?

The worst political fallout of a GOP controlled government, the worst sound bites that weren’t Trump’s, the worst slaps across the face? All came from footage of those very same committees. Those committees now belong to Democrats.

Massive policy shifts also occurred in many classically conservative states—legalizing marijuana votes, Florida giving the vote back to former criminals who’ve served their time thus giving the vote back to a HUGE portion of the African-American Community that has been held in check by a racist and classicist policing method, then there were upsets in many small ways too.

I promise you…this is all excellent and it will have truly important and forceful impact. In 2020, if we can keep that same enthusiasm and rage, the entire government will shift. But that can only happen if we keep moving forward, if the candidates who won keep their noses to the grindstone and push back hard, if you and I and everyone on the ground continues to talk about this and force out bigots and greed.

Do not be discouraged. I promise you…this was an amazing election. Don’t focus on a few bright stars and think that all is lost because they fell. There is a great deal happening here, and one thing I know from being at sea—when a wave is building, there is first a terrifying shift, as the water level begins to build. The ship will begin to dip and then of a sudden, the swell will begin. The ship raises and passengers suddenly realize that the were much higher than before, with an incredible view. Then the wave crests and destroys what’s in its path.

We didn’t see a wave crest tonight. So what. That means it’s a much larger wave than we realized. It will crest in the future. But only if that fluid pressure is maintained.

This is good. It is. So long as everyone keeps working. This is good.

Calm down. Have a glass of champagne. A cup of tea. When they Trumpet all their noise…say nothing. Nothing needs to be said. You’re higher than you were with an excellent view of the ending. So relax. Don’t fret.

Listen to Simon, y’all. Simon is wise. 

Whatever the shit is going on rn in HK

Okay! Here we go

The Legislative Council(LegCo) had their election and had the day where they take the oath a month ago

And due to the intense conflict between the more liberal-minded Hong Kong and Mainland China(more like the Communist Party, but most people say it as the entire Mainland China), some people made a politics party that called for the indepedence of Hong Kong, which the Communist Party is VERY against. If I remember correctly, around four people from that side of politics managed to get into LegCo(70 people), which also meant the Pan-Democrats(most? of them call for democracy) and the Pro-Establishment(most of them support the Communist Party) had near similar places in LegCo

Now, on the day to take the oath, two of the independence party decided to make derogatory remarks about China(note: not the Communist Party, but China), and the pro-establishment had an uproar about it

They took it to court, they used it as evidence to prevent the two from re-taking the oath, and even the government(also very Communist Party sided) decided to get the Communist Party to judge about the section of law that moderated how LegCo members took oath. Which was a major problem because the court was already ruling it

And meanwhile the pro-establishment kept stopping the two from retaking the oath by forcing LegCo to filibustering

Except that a very large portion of their policy during running for the LegCo this year was anti-filibustering because the pro-Democrats were pulling that off for quite a bit of the session last year, and the government yelled a lot about it last year But did jack SHIT about it for the last month

Nothing has been passed for an entire month, and because the Communist Party was going to have their say on the law, there was a protest recently and people threw bricks(it was the second time it happened since 1997, and the first time since that was around January).

Yeah, the classmate had a very good point, in fact

If anything the current reaction to the election is somewhat like being flipped the bird.

In itself, it’s an offensive gesture. To some people it might seem like it’s just a gesture, or even say, banter between people, but to other people who know what the gesture refers to, they’d be at least offended or worried about the implications and circumstances, and in some cases they’d voice out about it.

I guess I can only hope that the fear doesn’t keep amplifying itself to uncontrollable degrees.

herrms:

“haha! don’t blame me!! i voted third party!! hahaha!!” yes i will blame you. you knew you were throwing your vote away. you knew how important this election is and i will hold you accountable. you knew this wasn’t the election to “make a political statement” and you’re just making it more likely that trump will win. so yes, we all do blame you.