After losing the Senate seat in one of the reddest States in the Union because they backed a highly flawed candidate, they're now determined to enact a highly flawed, highly unpopular tax give away to the rich. They will pay the price.
Elections are far more often votes "against" than votes "for." It's the reason that Macron was elected in France by a massive majority over Le Pen, but now has approval ratings below Trump. The Senate race in Alabama is proof of this principle. The only Republican fissure it exposed was the one that came between candidate Moore and the good sense to drop out.
6
Republicans have become terrible stewards of our now fragile democracy. Willing to elect a man who claimed life was better under slavery, and plagued by credible complaints of stalking teens for probable sexual purposes. Banned from a mall in Alabama for that particular behavior.
With the tax bill, Republicans unabashedly plan to create an empire of oligarchs and plutocrats, enriching the wealth of their donors. At the mercy of our safety net, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
In a drift to the right, Republicans and their president have made America the outcast of former allies.
Russian sanctions-- passed almost unanimously October, 2017 --remain unenforced by the president, sitting somewhere, allegedly in the ghost town of the state department.
And Republicans are saying nothing about them not being implemented -- and are currently trying to stop the Trump-Russia probe while demeaning the FBI.
8
Trump is calling every bluff the modern GOP ever made. They qualified their lies. he lies without restraint. They were clever swindlers. Trump is a vulgar one.
5
The demise of the Greed Over People (GOP) contingent can't come soon enough.
The gullible deplorables, Evandevilcals and their billionaire hucksters should have their own party.
Moderate Republicans (even the misguided ones, like people who actually believe in the fantasy "trickle down" economics) who actually give a darn about "the small people" need to create a new party or take back the old one.
5
Alabama exposed a great many things.
It exposed 'evangelicals' as hypocrites willing to vote for a racist sexual predator because he might help them with laws to give money to business and get rid of help for the poor and needy.
It exposed Republican political party as the same, unethical hacks who care more about the initial after a name than ANY behavior no matter how heinous.
It exposed the line where SOME lifelong Republican voters won't go past.
34
It exposed 'evangelicals' as willing to put up with any behavior or belief on the part of a candidate as long as he (or she) opposes abortion.
22
[[Alabama Loss Exposes Republican Fissures Amid a Democratic Surge]]
No. Moore was a toxic candidate who energized the democratic base.
Also, just asking, do the Moore supporters get the joke in their "Judge Roy Moore" signs?
Like, they are saying "Support Judge Moore" while I see it as Roy Moore should be judged for his past behavior.
Anyway, it's funny to me.
33
McConnell and Ryan are to blame!!!! Period!!!
8
Nope, Trump, Bannon and the whole tea party movement!!!! Period!!!
9
it was the wife and her vocal description of their lawyer, that was the straw. i can still her that shrill word spoken that way. been quite some time to hear that in the news and not the movies. just saying
21
Let's not forget the buddy with the brothel story.
13
It didnt take a rocket scientist to conclude some things about the GOP who caved to support Moore. Trump didnt, then did, then did again, then denied he did. So much for spine.
The night before the vote Steve Bannon got on the stage in some barn to crow about going to school in Virginia, "the birthplace of the Confederacy". If that wasnt bizarre and coded enough, Mrs Moore spoke to the crowd and dismissively pointed her claw at the "fake news" represented by the American press (who by the mandate of our Constitution are REQUIRED to give news to citizens) at the back of the room, cackling that antisemitism was impossible if you had a Jewish lawyer.
How can you possibly justify coddling this level of ignorance and racism and misogyny if you want to be considered by anyone outside a barn??
35
The loss in Alabama does not reveal anything about Republican fissures, it reveals how a truly unworthy candidate can make Republicans lose their usual enthusiasm as well as to motivate Democrats who normally would sit out special elections to join in. All the Republicans have to do is not nominate silly candidates who repulse normal people.
7
You mean an untrustworthy candidate like Trump?
7
If people are paying attention to their views and the policies they'd inflict on millions of people - most of the candidates are repulsive to normal people.
16
As Details points out, the Republican Party has shown itself to be utterly amoral, vicious and ruthless in doing the bidding of billionaires like Sheldon Adelson. Normal people - whether Democrats, Republicans or Independents - are increasingly outraged by McConnel and Ryan's Trumpist fascism. 2018 is going to be about whether the Grand Old Pedophiles are going to be able to repeal the New Deal. I want to see toothless miners in West Virginia, cynically abandoned by Big Coal, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, vote for that one. First, though, we're going to have to educate rural Americans about the programs that are actually keeping them and their families alive. "Tell the federal government to keep its hands off my Medicare" is indicative of the general level of awareness of these folks.
11
I know we live in an open and free society and voting is a private manner, but anyone who voted for Roy S. Moore is a racist bigot and anti-semite who should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.d
And Republicans have no one to blame but themselves for the inevitable backlash they so richly deserve for supporting such a candidate.
Hear me Mr. Trump?
30
Nowhere is the power of the Devil more evident than in the divisions between those who oppose him, to paraphrase Tolkein's character Gandalf speaking about the devil's analogue Sauron. Seeing these churchy people supporting a perverted and avowed bigot reminds one of how much power the Devil, not any God, has over so many people in politics.
25
I have been struck by this president's idea that he is in office to appease the people who voted for him, while ignoring the needs and interests of those who didn't.
Apparently the great negotiator isn't. Another myth he believes which is contradicted by hard evidence to the contrary.
34
The only way Trump will make America Great Again is to motivate all the non participating voters to vote against the GOP. It seems to be happening. Let the momentum continue until all the disgusting members of the GOP are eliminated from our government. Nowadays, that's pretty much all of them.
14
So a Democrat defeats a pedophile in Alabama by less than a percentage point and they are exulting in victory? That's perfect.
A party of workers would know that they just dodged disaster and would immediately begin to diagnose the machine to see what was so mechanically unsound and would make the necessary changes not only to improve the safety of the operators but also the efficiency of the output.
A party run by rich elitists who make their money with paper just like the 1%?
More of the same-- because a vampire's gonna vampire.
4
In Alabama, pal, and in Virginia, and in Oklahoma. If democrats can make it there, they'll make it anywhere...
12
A state that preferred Trump to Clinton by 28% in last year's election, preferred the Democratic candidate to the Republican one, for the first time in more than 20 YEARS. The electorate swung more than 30% - and with VERY high turnout, almost 3 times the normal turnout (so, no, it wasn't because few voted).
Yep, this is huge. And people and voters aren't machines. But someone inventing a machine would definitely take note when a system that had failed over the last 25 runs suddenly succeeds, even just barely.
17
"Democrats don’t have to be for anything, they just have to be against us.”
Curious language from a party that, once in control of all of Congress and the White House, has acted only to un-do and attempt to un-do the accomplishments of Democratic administrations and lawmakers.
The only thing this party will have accomplished outside of destroying or attempting to destroy progress made by Democrats will be a blatant, naked stealing of money from poor and working class Americans in order to had it over to their donors.
22
It takes a special type of Republican to lose in Alabama. But Roy Moore managed to do it. I don't know what Doug Jones might do in the Senate over the next few years, but I highly doubt that he'll be so lucky as to run against another Republican as flawed as Roy Moore.
9
Lets not pop the champagne just yet, Democrats. You need to clean house first. It's time for a younger coalition to embrace and energize today's youth, while opening up to working class Americans, disaffected uneducated whites in rural areas, and African Americans (you owe them for giving you a seat in Alabama). It's also time to take a position and stand for something as oppose to running against something. Doug Jones beat a very flawed candidate, but had it been someone else running for that empty seat, we wouldn't be having this conversation.
14
"Lets not pop the champagne just yet, Democrats. You need to clean house first."
Let's not hand out sage advice yet, Republican. Your party is exploding into a million corrupt, crazy, anti-American pieces.
14
Affordable health care, quality education, clean air and water, fair and equal treatment for all Americans...... Don't those things count as standing for something?
11
Moore was the candidate chosen and supported by the Republicans. He is not that much of an anomaly. The tea party has run out of gas.
7
Nothing like a "Rift" in the GOP lies and greed.
There are many "fissures" in the brains of our Congress.
1
The age-old problem that dooms every extremist organization (or group of organizations) is that there can be no coherent, adhesive ideology because each extremist has a subjective and unwavering set of beliefs that cannot and will not harmonize with the subjective and unwavering beliefs of others. A power struggle is inexorable.
Any semblance of unity quickly breaks down as the leaders start to kill each other off for dominance.
The more separate and distinct groups that are involved, the quicker they all attempt to eat each other.
The GOP decided to ignore their 2012 Autopsy that called for a kinder, more inclusive Republican party, and enlisted Trump to double down on their image as the party of old, white, wealthy men.
They refused to reform, to sacrifice and took the easy route in their Trumpian bargain.
Instead of learning from history, they are becoming history.
14
How weird, I thought you were describing the Democrats at first.
Pray tell, Dan, where do you get that from? The Democrats were pretty unified in government and passed many significant pieces of legislation, like it or not, while controlling both houses of congress (as they will again next fall). Honestly, this false equivalency stuff is really boring. There is no Trump or Roy Moore in the Democratic party. On a global political scale, Democrats are a centrist, moderate political party that believes in good governance. For example, they do not appoint talk show hosts to run the Dept. of Agriculture or experts in animal husbandry to run the Dept. of Energy. The GOP, on the other hand, has no political parallels in any other advanced nation. It is too extreme, too corrupt and just plain weird. I mean, at least half of its supporters believe in conspiracy theories, for example, about Obama's birth certificate and countless other things. So, give me a break. There is no equivalency between the parties. That's just one of those myths that the GOP has used to manipulate people.
17
They ignored their autopsy, doubled down, and WON. Seems to me that they didn't need to learn anything from history - get it? They WON!!!! They have the presidency, house of representatives, senate, and now most of the judiciary.
History writes that they won, not lost. You seem to be celebrating something that doesn't exist - as if winning a skirmish in Vietnam means that the US won the war. We LOST.
We, as a country, have bought the Brooklyn Bridge over and over again as the republicans lie and cheat and hurt the country, but they win and they win and they win.
Not much to celebrate here.
3
All republicans are unacceptable
14
Let me know if you've heard this before. Before the election, "If Moore wins, this will be an anchor around the neck of Republicans. DJT will have to defend a child molester every day."
Jones won. Good on him. He won with a Herculean GOTV effort. Tried and true Democrat strategy worked. But, just barely. To his credit, the first time Democrat didn't make any serious mistakes. Jones only won by the difference in the write in vote. Some where, Mitch McConnell's finger prints are on this outcome.
I don't know how this will become a Republican route next year. Moore was a deeply flawed candidate. Every news source said he was going to win by a few points. No one said he would lose by 1.5%. Any other Republican would have done at least as well as DJT or better.
It's hard to talk bad about farmers, when your mouth is full. If the RINOs meet Trump half way, how can Republicans NOT pick up seats. The economy is picking up speed by the day. Weekly unemployment is now at 220K and going down. Energy prices are low and slowly falling. A little inflation from now till November, will cause household wealth to rise noticeably. How many Moore's do you think will be on those ballots?
Democrats still have a couple issues. Sex scandles are an ongoing net cost. What is the winning message next year? More regulation, free health care, free internet, more taxes on carbon fuel?
Merry Christmas, ya'll.
2
Every regulation being killed right now by Trump - every last one - was put in place because to solve and prevent problems. As they are removed - just like when bank regulations were removed - those problems come back.
Regulations aren't evil, and yes, health care for all is the standard of the civilized world - funny some are so convinced we can't do it when every other major country can.
7
I disagree with Rep. Dent that the Democrats don’t have to be “for” anything. As long as Democrats continue to be “for” common decency I think that their current winning trend will continue.
20
The populist wing of the Republican electorate will do to the Republicans what the populist wing of the Democratic Party, the Bernie Sanders wing, will do to the Democrats. For the establishment politicians it is all about the money and not the US citizens. In fact, everything but the US citizen because they are the ones that the politicians are getting paid to fleece. Trump is the result of the Obama lack of concern, and someone else will be the result of this administration that did not stick to its populist message but has gone full blown Ryan/McConnell. Both sides of the spectrum are god awful. Warren lying and saying she is an Indian in order to get special career advancement who then pushes immigration to hurt the working American at their job through displacement or lower wages. The Dems are not fighting this colossal tax cut giveaway to the wealthy because their wealthy donors benefit from it. The average American is what both sides are after and siphoning the wealth away from the worker and into the hands of the donor class is the constant goal of the establishment government.
2
Check "politifact.com"or ""Factcheck.org", both organizations that check rumors and questions. Elizabeth Warren did not use her family heritage to gain employment benefits or advantage. She has not proven her family is part Native American, but she believes so because of family stories about it, as many of us think about our families' histories. No college or law school has hired her because of it.
11
Check your facts.
8
I think the NYT should be more balanced, don't you? How can it constantly report that the Republican Party (RP) is in trouble when it controls over thirty of the state governments and the three branches of government?
The RP is more powerful than it has been since the 1920's when it controlled the state and federal governments. Furthermore there is no survey data that suggests that conservatives in the nation are changing their minds about their beliefs. And the 1920 census will continue the gerrymandering so effective performed by the RP since 2010.
The NYT could provide better coverage for everyone if it focused more on the facts than on liberal grief over losing control of the nation.
3
Steve Bannon persists in seeing himself as some Machiavellian chess player moving pieces around the board instead of an unpleasant little upstart wannabe politician.
He should run for office himself instead of creeping around being a pesky troublemaker and thinking he's making a difference !
9
With that face?
10
Nice one DR-- plagiarizing a Donald Trump line. Fighting moral decline with moral decline. Should work.
2
Since Bannon was NOT elected to office, I am incensed that he thinks he has a role to play beyond the power of his single vote.
He is no more qualified to dictate than am I.
3
It couldn't happen to a nicer group...
Thank you to all of those who came out and voted in Alabama; those that normally would have stayed home. You made a difference, and not only in your own state, but nationwide. Your votes count!
21
Unless I’m mistaken Trump was elected by a popular minority. It would therefore seem that the ‘populist majority’ that centrist Republicans are concerned about is, in fact, a false construct. With his approval ratings in the low 30th percentile his popular minority of supporters does not translate into a ‘populist majority’ just a noisy mob that shouts louder then the centrist one.
21
Dems just have to run against accused child molesters for the Blue Wave to wash over red states.
Let’s not get carried away.
7
so we see the increasing rallying cry for dems. it's espousing a vicious and intense hatred for trump and all republicans. "trumpism". an interesting categorization and stereotype. if we had obamaism, I'm sure you would have all said that term was offensive, racist, sexist, hateful, etc...But it's ok to do it against trump and republicans because they are the cause of every evil that exists in the world. so rally behind the hatred. whip it into a frenzy. we need to eliminate them all because they are evil and the cause of all the bad in the country. wait. this sounds familiar, this hate thing. sounds like.....nazism. yeah that's it.
3
Don't forget Texas, where Beto O'Rourke is mounting a credible campaign against Ted Cruz!
6
This debacle was also terrible for the pro life movement. To think that so many people voted for Moore because he was pro life makes he realize that these people really do not think clearly. Their inability to see right from wrong is severely clouded as if they had cataracts and puts in doubt the whole argument against pro choice.
12
antiestablishment conservatives = Those republicans who sense there is some shenanigans going on with the party stalwarts rhetoric yet somehow have not yet realized that the issue is mendacity and promotion of fraudulent concepts that can never work as claimed.
Bannon is just another stalwart using this disaffected group to gain power for himself. He like all republicans could not care less about the people he is dressing down to seem like he is one of.
2
Steve Bannon, destroying the GOP senate a seat at a time since 2016....
8
In the last paragraph, Corry Bliss says, “...we need to nominate strong candidates who can raise money.” How about...”we need to nominate strong candidates who will represent the people.”
18
I'm happy to see pushback at the polls against the troll administration and its alt-right racist and sexist nonsense.
But, I clearly recall the last time Dems had Congress and POTUS. It quickly devolved into blue dog vs progressive infighting. Not as bizarre as what we see now, but still unproductive and a massive squandering of power that was hard-fought to obtain. Yeah, some okay things were accomplished in Dodd-Frank and here and there, but not enough for regular folks to FEEL it.
Mere opposition may work for the time being, but there will need to be a much meatier agenda than that, and I'm not sure I see it.
3
There is. Massive immigration to drive down wages which has resulted in a 500 billion dollar per year transfer of wealth from working US citizens to their employers and investors as a result of the lower wages caused by immigration. This is what the Dems are promising the American worker and they say so. American tech workers, accountants and those in academia, etc. training their lower wage foreign born replacements. American blue collar workers sitting at home while the foreign born that sleep 20 to a house and work for peanuts get the jobs. Who would not want this? Such a mystery, huh. Is it any wonder they voted for Trump? He offerred hope, hope they would not get from Hillary...or Schumer or Pelosi. They lead the charge on the rape of the American worker.
1
John: Ask yourself why Trump has no factory in the USA.
Where is the Ivanka clothing and shoe line made?
NOT America.
Where do the Americans from his rallies who need jobs need to go to work for the Trump clothing biz?? to China or Vietnam
9
" ... Representative Charlie Dent, Republican of Pennsylvania. “ 'And Democrats don’t have to be for anything, they just have to be against us.' ” A new poster boy for chutzpah. After many years of Republicans simply being against Obama, and with Mr. Trump raising "anti-everything-Obama" to a guiding policy. If Mr. Dent said this with a straight face, I take my hat off to his acting chops.
4
In the past, "negative campaigning," was an issue that always received attention and was treated as an issue of importance to voters. In Alabama, the central issues came down to overwhelmingly negative messaging (don't elect a pedophile versus don't elect a liberal baby killer), yet the usual complaints about negative campaigning were absent. That is the new normal and, as Mr. Dent said, the side with the bigger anger and energy wins.
Despite numerous vulnerabilities of objectionable Republican candidates, this ugly style of campaigning does not bode well for the Democrats. The elderly, established leadership of the party have proven time and again that they are almost unable to carry on a sustained effort to label and malign an opposition candidate, let alone commit to a national campaign based on such tactics.
Lost in all of the analysis about the surprising upset of Doug Jones over Roy Moore is the simple fact that he national party operations were largely absent from the opposing campaigns. In fact, toward the end, Roy Moore hardly had a campaign. That allowed Doug Jones to to make an issue of his opponent's grotesque disqualifications for office with little effective push back, yet Jones was very timid in his approach. Had the Washington Post and other media not led the charge against Moore, Jones could have lost. And like Jones, the Democratic Party is poised to lose similar opportunities if they do not invest in leadership that can confidently fight dirty.
4
If the Republicans nominate Kelli Ward here over establishment candidate Martha McSally, she will lose to Kyrsten Sinema, a very strong Democrat.
Hopefully Ward and McSally will continue the ugly Republican civil war in the primary and Trump will once again endorse a loser. Bannon has already gone too far in on Ward to back out now and there are certainly enough hard core base voters here to get her the nomination. Rebekah Mercer and her father are big supporters.
Arizona has the potential to be an almost exact replica of the Alabama debacle for the Republican Party. With the same result as independents, women, students, millennials and Hispanics are energized to vote for Sinema while moderate Republicans do not turn out.
4
I think this piece is getting ahead of itself and overestimating the Democratic enthusiasm. The deep mistrust and resentment between the progressives and establishment Democrats is wider and more destructive than what the infighting at GOP. While the unexpected Democratic win in Alabama was a positive step in the right direction, it spoke more about Roy Moore and the limits of how far a child molester can get in the current political climate, even with the backing of a sitting president. The election of Tom Perez as DNC chair, along with the daily propaganda of NYTimes that paints the likes of Gillibrand and Harris as the heroes, who are undoubtedly positioning themselves to run for POTUS in 2020, just goes to show how tone-deaf the Democrats are. Both of these individuals are unelectable. The former is a Clintonite, a junior Hillary, but without any of the credentials that Hillary possessed. The latter is a pseudo-progressive, who has a shady background, and to be quite frank, nowhere near as smart as she thinks she is. So no, as a centrist who votes Democrat when the right candidate comes along, I'm cautious to declare a sweeping blue tide forthcoming in 2018. I hope I'm wrong.
5
If "Christianity", Judaism and Islamic have many, many flavors, why not political parties? Perhaps a more Parliamentary approach to government would be practical these days, without the House of Lords, of course. Diversity would force cooperation and help to prevent the travesty of tribal politics that is currently destroying our country. ALL Americans deserve a voice - not just Trump's cabal.
3
McConnell warned both Trump AND Bannon about Moore as a candidate and he was not listened to. Trump and Bannon think because they beat Hillary they know all about elections. Maybe, just maybe, they should listen to the guy with the glasses who has been involved with a LOT more elections and understands that crazy candidates with hats and guns do not do as well as say a Mike Pence who quietly wears a suit with a nice haircut and avoids scandals.
2
Orrin Hatch is not "sure he is ready to move on yet"? Seriously, after 7 terms and 42 years in the Senate? He should leave, along with other people who have overstayed their welcomes, like Feinstein and Pelosi. Term limits are not necessarily the greatest idea, and the whole scheme can be gamed like in California, where the same crowd moves back and forth between the two houses of the legislature. But if these geezers can't figure out themselves when they should get out, we may have to force them out.
All of this could have been avoided if Republicans acted in the best interests of the country while they had control of all the levers of power in Washington. If they passed legislation to fix our infrastructure or took seriously the opioid crises or shored up healthcare or raised the minimum wage or helped college students with debt relief or kept any of the promises to clean the swamp. Instead, they rolled up their sleeves and immediately tried to take health insurance from 18 million poorer Americans. When that failed they threw their weight behind cutting corporate taxes. After that, they promise to go after the safety net that has made America the most prosperous nation on earth. Enough people believed that, even though Trump was an outright embarrassment, the Congress would keep him in line and he would learn on the job. Instead the Republicans have acted willfully blind as he hired relatives, incompetents and swamp creatures only Marvel Comics could have made up. They have stood by him through thick-headedness and thin approval ratings. They have looked away as he has dismantled decades of outreach to our allies while embracing, and in some cases doing the bidding of, our enemies. Investors have gotten richer while the rest of us wonder when the next war will commence. The scales are falling from the eyes of those who believed the propaganda or thought there was no difference in the two political parties. This wave can't come soon enough and I hope it's biblical.
94
let's not forget, obama did not do any of the things in 8 years that you are blaming republicans for not doing in the past 1 year.
2
Rick:
I am afraid you have neglected to study the history of the Republican Party and its ultimate goals. One only has to look at the time of the depression when FDR was trying to implement the New Deal ultimately creating social security and other helpful programs in America during a time of great economic distress, he was still fought every step of the way by the Republican Party. Herbert Hoover had a majority in both houses in the late 1920's when it became a laissez faire atmosphere for business and the financial industry and we all remember what happened in 1929. A duplicate of that situation is occurring today, it is only a matter of time before we have another 1929 or 2008 and once again the taxpayer will be left to pick up the tab.
The reality is and starting with the Southern Strategy in the 1960's, the Republican Party has demonstrated that they are nothing more than a pro-business, pro-wealthy, pro-white, anti-democratic, racist party that could care less about anyone outside of their small bubble. Every piece of legislation Trump and his cronies are attempting to pass has been overwhelmingly rejected by the vast majority of the citizens, yet, they still move "full speed ahead".
They must be removed from positions of power as quickly as possible, otherwise, the damage to the countries institutions could be irreparable.
2
This IS the new GOP.
1
In trying to disavow populism in its party, the GOP comes across as hypocritical at best. Seriously, Roy Moore isn't much different from many Republican candidates, except he is without the veneer of decency. Facing the possible consequences of what it has sired, the GOP establishment appears ready to eat its young.
Democrats, for their part, shouldn't celebrate too much; after all, the margin of victory was small despite an exceptionally poor Republican candidate, and voter turnout was low. Some commentators have suggested that candidates of dubious caliber, such as Roy Moore, might become common If so, this indicates that we're in an era of political and social anomie
12
Should not be a surprise, the better candidate won an election. Too many people are short sided voting exclusively along party lines and do not evaluate candidates by their ability, ethics, morals or desire to serve the public good. Dumb. It's shameful that house and senate cannot work bipartisan as result of this mentality. Think for yourself voters and research each candidate. Regardless of color, gender, age, or party, selecting a quality candidate to represent the people results in better government all around.
12
OMG-Press Release-Democracy might actually work?
3
Democratic is not much better, they had forgotten the middle class families and pander to the ultra liberals. For god sake they let a clown like Trump win. Both parties need to pander to their extreme members and work toward the middle for ALL AMERICANS!
4
It was not pandering to the liberals, but pandering to Wall Street and anyone who would wave a dollar bill under their nose.
4
It appears from this well-reported piece, that the McConnell gang's euphoria following the Moore electoral debacle will indeed be short lived. A "wave" mid-term result, in both houses of Congress, leading to total Democratic control may have left the realm of pure fantasy. Is the polling after the Alabama race, in which Trump's approval rating plunged to a new 32% low, the "canary in the coal mine"? This is going to get very interesting in 2018!
18
Senator Shelby needs to update the files. He says Mr. Moore's backers "aren't the face of the Republican Party that I know".
Yeah, they are that face.
The problem is that the GOP has enabled the extremists, the hucksters, and the outright hypocrites for so long now that in the minds of everyone but I guess Mr. Shelby, those characteristics are merged with the GOP itself.
75
Maybe Republicans could think about what's best for the country, and stop looking over their shoulders at what the basest of their base are interested in. Public service means serving the public- ALL of us, not just the Confederate flag wavers, and so-called Christians who wish to demonize their neighbors since they can't burn them at the stake.
In other words, act like patriots, for the best interest of all. If you don't know what the word means, Google it. Assuming you can after net neutrality is repealed.
42
Let me nominate two more Republican seats that are vulnerable: California Representatives (R) Darrell Issa and (R) Duncan Hunter.
Issa's early and strong support of Trump has seriously backfired on him, leading to weekly protests at his local office.
Hunter is embroiled in a campaign finance investigation after some particularly egregious spending decisions. He spent campaign funds to fly his rabbit on a trip.
Issa and Hunter have opponents lining up for the primaries in their own party and well as from the Democrats.
40
If these two and the rest of the California Republican Delegation vote for the tax bill, they are ALL going down in 2018.
Count on it.
Let's enjoy the moment but not to excess. Sassy, the horse, would have made a better and much smarter Republican candidate. Plus, a point and a half margin isn't that great, considering the circumstances. Much better than losing but this is one skirmish and the real war is 11 months away. We must stay angry and replenish our supply of bile every day by paying close attention to how Republican are sticking it to the country. Then, after we win back Congress, the real fun begins!
29
Trumpism is not going to go away because it is a movement with deep financial pockets, that has consciously worked to exploit race, sexual orientation, and xenophobia *for decades before Trump. * Trump is the highest expression of the Koch-Mercer sponsored trend. The only antidote is if the democrats realize that politics is now a full time vocation requiring full time mobilization for the defense of a wide spectrum of ideas: scientific research, access to health care, regulation of credit creation, and many other things. It's not going to go back to "the way it was," say, back in the 1960s, when you could learn in elementary school that the Scopes Monkey trial settled the issue of teaching evolution and we had all moved on. There is no social consensus on science, no social consensus on the need for the state to provide access to the basics needed for survival. If the right wing were Christian Democrats (in the European sense) with an opposition to too much taxes but a commitment to some protection of the poor and unemployed, our politics would be very different. But that's not so. In this country the Christian Democrats are in the Democratic party. The right has an attitude towards government of any kind that trends towards pure nihilism, for social cohesion (Sandy Hook is OK!). If offers pure xenophobia, racism, and sexism for just about everything else, especially economic malaise.
11
Let's not crack open the 2018 champagne quite yet. Dems won in blue states and then beat a shockingly toxic candidate in Alabama. The fissures in the Democratic party are still present and may have been exacerbated when the New York contingent preemptively threw Al Franken out of the Senate. As long as Shumer and Pelosi refuse to make space for other liberals the party can continue to be painted as out-of-touch coastal elites.
61
Yes, it is time for Pelosi and Schumer to step down. But the far left liberals need to understand that they cannot win without moderate progressives candidates. The far left also lives in a bubble sometimes and neglects to factor in the importance moderates and independents.
2
Well, no surprise. Trump is constitutionally incapable of evolving., The Counter-Puncher- in-Chief likes to punch back twice as hard. So we can expect more primitive reactions from the little bully.. More lying. Blaming. Cunning manipulations of his base. Bannon is a similar insecure and bombastic little man. Can't see Trump letting him go..They're the type that kick sand in your face, when they realize they can't build a sandcastle like you can. Their finger-pointing spins will accelerate, but it's unlikely they'll end up facing each other. (Until it gets to "me or you time".) They certainly won't blame the base, who, ironically, are the people who handed them this defeat. (Thanks, Alabama!) Strange that they claim McConnell & the Republican Establishment are totally out of touch and yet blame them for the vote. Sort of goes along w/ blaming the Muslims, the Media, the Dems... Europe...
I'm happy to give Alabama voters the blame!
11
The trump racists are NOT populists! The term has been misappropriated by the crazy white supremacists as camouflage to hide their intent. Once they feel embolden their swastikas will come out as in Charlottesville. Then they will drop the ruse of populist.
32
Republicans are finding out just saying no for eight years leaves you ill equipped to lead. Serves you right.
42
Sorry put a flawed man in you lose. as for the next. We replacing the democrats and republicans who refuse to do their job. We got 50 dems and 20 republicans we looking to push out,since they have no concern about anyone but themselves. already started with the ones who not seeking re election.
1
My side of the political spectrum may be a hodgepodge of conflicting emotions and the occasional rant but at least we appreciate people who aren't similar to us. Some of my friends are black and Jewish too, but unlike a conservative GOP voter, I don't have to tell the world about it.
The GOP has been the party of white conservatives for more than 100 years and as this class of person becomes more and more diluted nationally, the fanaticism becomes greater. But, that attitude will lose to logic and reason. It is inevitable. Flake and Romney know this. Trump appears to know very little.
15
The GOP has been built on a strange collection for years...guns, god gays(anti), reproductive rights (anti), and proclaimed they were the values...the values of ALEC, maybe. Baonnon blew the lid off when he thought his nationalist/racist portion was a real political tribe of values...sure they are part of the new reps, were often part of the dems as well. But in truth they don’t stand for limited government...they stand for the upper 5%. But working people got sold a bill of goods by Faux, and others. The Dems need a clear values message...working families, justice and fairness, the true American Way! Keep it simple....good judgement and real family values. Stop trying to solve all the problems with single fixes that are hard to describe...that’s for later.
9
Please, Republicans, keep listening to the guy who “looks like some dishevelled drunk,” as Rep. Peter King described this supposed svengali of the altright. Bannon may consider himself the new Republican guru but he's the gift that keeps on giving to Democrats. A wise president chooses wise men to advise him, a fool chooses fools, and only a fool thinks he's the smartest man in the room.
49
Alabama's Senate race merely shows again what happens when you run a miserable, fatally flawed candidate for office. Same as what happened to Democrats when they nominated Hillary Clinton to run for President in 2016. How else could a liberal like Doug Jones win in very conservative Alabama? How else could a vulgar barbarian win the presidency? Reading anything more into the election (whether Alabama 2017 or Presidential 2016) is just wishful thinking.
31
While I do agree with your analysis, I would like to point out that the vulgar barbarian would also be fatally flawed in a normal election. In 2016, we had the 1st and 2nd most despised politicians as a choice, we just didn't know which was which.
11
maybe if the media informed its readers rather than be a slave to popular culture, social media and what celebrities are thinking (does that happen?) and doing.
Which district in Western PA is having a special election in March?
Other than telling us it is a "conservative-leaning district in Western PA", readers are left in the dark.
How difficult would it have been to state the specific district?
Is this the face of the new Times after its firing of its editors - sloppy journalism which leaves out important details??
15
Wait until House members from California, New York and other states with income taxes abandon ship on the tax bill. Backing it in its present form will throw them out of office.
25
"Mr. Moore’s backers “aren’t the face of the Republican Party that I know,” he added."
Senator, while they may not be the face of the nation you live in, they are the face of the party you've chosen, whether you care to admit it, or not. The GOP has been building to this since the late '50s, brick by brick, promise by promise. It is the culmination of those actions, combined with a realization by the base that the establishment Republicans (such as yourself) have no intention of making good on some of the more radical promises, that brought us Donald Trump. Please have the honesty to own it.
41
The GOP has no populist wing. They are lying plutocrats and traitors to a man/woman. Their supporters are discovering that now which explains the wave of disaffections from the party of the greedy old plutocrats. Sure Trump still enjoys an 82% approval rating but that is 82% of an ever shrinking pie. Most right minded people don't want to be associated with the insane garbage being perpetrated by this White House anymore. They are switching life long party affiliations rather than be tied to this sorry excuse for a "president". Moderate conservatives are finally on the same page with the rest of us. They just can't fill their minds and bellies with anymore Trumpian swamp water lest they explode.
7
Never underestimate the incompetence of the Democratic Party.
48
True. I'm thrilled about this win in Alabama, but I'm not all that optimistic about future wins. Our Democratic leadership is largely weak, ineffective, and complacent. Schumer and Pelosi are not compelling or strong leaders.
1
“The side that has the energy and anger and enthusiasm usually prevails,” said Representative Charlie Dent, Republican of Pennsylvania. “And Democrats don’t have to be for anything, they just have to be against us.” Yeah, right, Charlie. Kind of like the Republicans acted toward Obama for eight years. It's payback time, baby!
80
I wish I could make a thousand smiley faces :)!
6
Exit poll surveys in AL were not kind to Trump. As many GOP voters disapproved of Trump’s performance as those who approved. That’s in a state that Trump won by 28%.
There’s a lot of room for discussion when you put these numbers together. But it’s possible voters are wising up—and we’ll soon toss Trump and his band of looters into some nearby DC landfill.
11
“And Democrats don’t have to be for anything, they just have to be against us.”
Sounds like the Grand Obstructionist Platform is coming home to roost....
17
It would be wonderful to see this once respectable party pull itself apart for the enjoyment of the very people they seek to steal money and healthcare from. They've accomplished precious little in the last year and Americans should be happy about this fact.
When it comes time to judge the performance of the GOP in this last year, historians will not be kind. Americans will be even less kind. They've failed miserably in everything they've attempted and they've both lost sight of the needs and wants of the people and the job they were elected to do.
21
Keep destroying the country GOP - it's doing great things for Dem numbers in 2018.
We're coming for you.
64
when you are removed from the bench twice can you really be referred to as a Judge?
121
No! A "Two-Time Loser" should be the appropriate, honorary title for Moore the Miscreant.
4
Ever heard of "Kangaroo Court?" Bingo!
1
All the Republican leadership needs to do is replace 75% of their voters, and they'll be just fine.
10
The GOP was fine with itself when it didn't have a GOP member in the White House. Now that they have a majority in the Senate and the House and a GOP president (nominally GOP) their fissures have come to light. It's easy to unite against a person or a thing but carrying out the plans once one is in a position to do so when one has not done the necessary groundwork is harder. The Democrats suffered from the same ailment and did just as poorly.
What will sink the GOP could be its refusal to acknowledge that what it wants to accomplish and what Americans need are not the same things. The GOP wants to eliminate all the safety net programs that might help 95% of Americans when they are out of work, disabled, retired, going to college, etc. But they want to preserve or extend the help government gives to rich corporations and individuals who don't need it. Welfare for the rich doesn't go over well when the majority is paying for it with a diminished income and fewer chances to have a decent life.
"Let them eat cake" is not an answer when they need the basics.
53
The NY Times, Democrats, and some Republicans are dreaming. The pedophile smear killed Roy Moore—nothing more, nothing less.
I think everyone needs to look at the fact that it took Jones calling him a pedophile, calling him a slavery lover, a former president and Vice President robo calling, and a flood of celebrities, to win by almost the exact number as write-in votes.
Yeah, whatever, Trumpism is dead.
21
LOL. I'm thinking its Trump and Bannon who cost him the elections as well as his homophobic and racial slurs. He won the white male and female vote by a large majority--that says to me his sexual deviancy had little impact on white voters.
8
Without spin a top just lays on its side. Try to learn to have some fun with toys like the Democrats are.
1
The fact remains that Alabama is as red as it gets, and turned blue mostly because people are fed up with Trump. If this can happen there it can certainly happen in Mich, Ohio, PA, FL etc. Trump, Bannon and the tea party are destroying the party. I couldn't be happier.
31
Most likely, Republicans have learned that it no longer pays to demonize women and praise slavery, so the GOP will shift most of that hate-mongering and scape-goating back to foreigners, immigrants, refugees, "terrorists" and other bogeymen who cannot vote or do not even exist.
There is zero possibility that Republican plutocrats will abandon their historically successful strategy of dividing and conquering working, poor and other people whose political power depends entire upon collective action.
132
Just as you say: the Republican Party will certainly look for new powerless people to demonize. BUT, after spending the past 50 years demonizing...
...blacks, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, poor people, people on food stamps, elitists, Hollywood, gays, liberals, feminists, Arabs. Muslims. the French, secular people, the media, teachers, professors, college students, union members, undocumented children, community organizers, refugees, the transgender community, people who opposed wars first in Vietnam and then in Iraq, invisible perpetrators of voter fraud, working people who qualify for the earned income tax credit and are therefore "takers," people who wear hoodies, employees of the National Park Service, U.S. Marshals, and IRS, NFL and NBA players and others who think Black Lives Matter, and people who say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas...
...it may just be that the Republican Party will finally run out of targets.
20
"...it may just be that the Republican Party will finally run out of targets."
Don't be so sure. The evangelicals just led the GOP to a stunning, unheard-of defeat in Alabama, so perhaps the Republicans will now re-focus their animosity and decide to persecute Christians. Poetic justice.
2
Be afraid Republican lawmakers, be very afraid, and perhaps put a little thought into how you vote in the coming months.
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