Rocky Mountain High

[catscradle]

I woke up this morning and Colorado felt a little cleaner. We elected Democrat Governor Bill Ritter by a nice margin and we have a 4/3 democrat majority in the House. No Senators up this time around, but it's currently a split. This means that for the first time in forever, Colorado is leaning blue!

The Marriage ban passed and and Referendum I (giving same-sex couples basic legal rights) failed. I expected the first, but R-I was a serious blow. It was projected to pass. I said this in the last election and I'll say it again - why the fuck are civil liberties put to a popular vote? But 47% of the population of Colorado thought it was a good idea, and that is encouraging. With a friendly government, maybe next time it will pass - or be upheld in the courts.

There are a few Republican strongholds left. Marilyn Musgrave, the Arch-Dipshit of the 4th district, won re-election. As did Tom "The Racist" Tancredo. The good news is, in many places across the country where the Republicans typically held a comfortable lead, the races were tight. We're not only seeing a narrowing of the margin between the parties, we're seeing a fracturing of the Republicans into two camps. There's the old style Republican - the Reaganites - and the Bush-style Neocon. And it looks like the two don't get along. Thank fucking God.

The stranglehold over the three branches is over. The House has been liberated and we can only pray that in the next few hours the Senate will follow.

Comments

[gairid.livejournal.com]

I can't believe Musgrave won...she's a horror, that one. That's a slight damper on what's turned out to be a pretty nice day after Election Day.

[catscradle.livejournal.com]

Musgrave is so far off the charts in her stupidity I'm amazed at the number of people that will still vote for her based solely on party affiliation. I have to assume it's party affiliation as voting for her based on anything else means the 4th district should be quarantined before the virus spreads any further.

Same goes for Mean Jean Schmidt of Ohio's 2nd district, who may actually be dumber than Musgrave. Her opponent, Victoria Wulsin, is quite literally the Albert Schwitzer of Ohio. I read her profile and was AWED by how accomplished this woman is in medicine and humanitarianism. By everything I've read about Schmidt, quite literally, an amoeba could do a better job. Her own people hate her. Looks like she edged out Wulsin by a percentage point. How sad. Though in an area that 80% Republican, it says a lot.

[alighiera.livejournal.com]

There's the old style Republican - the Reaganites - and the Bush-style Neocon. And it looks like the two don't get along.

Maybe this is naive wondering from someone used to having at least four parties in parliament, but - why don't they split the party if there's such a breach? They'd, in all likelyhood, appeal to more voters in total that way since they'd have to compromise less. I keep getting the impression that both Republicans and Democrats are, in essence, several parties rolled into one, and the infighting looks to be almost too bad to be worth it.

[catscradle.livejournal.com]

Many of us would love a multi-party system rather than the bi-party system we have right now. Though technically we do have more political parties (Libertarians, Independant, Reform, Green, Socialists, Communists, etc...), they represent such a small portion of the population that they typically only garner 1% to 10% of the vote depending on the region. Occassionally they win - typically it's a member of the Independant or Reform party. Mostly they function to either send a message to Democrats and Republicans that there are a large group of people out there that are unsatisfied and wont vote for the mainstream, or they run to split a vote. For instance, in this election many of the people who voted for a third party did so because they were disillusioned with their Republican party. It's a way of voting Democrat without actually casting a vote for them.

The problem with the system is that the third parties don't get press coverage unless they're already well known and a possible threat. Also, because the parties are smaller they don't have the money to really compete with machines like the Republicans and Democrats. Until we start putting caps on what parties can spend on campaigns and demand equal air time for all candidates, the system won't change. And unfortunetly, the people in power are Republicans and Democrats who don't want to change the way things are now.

If a party would split into two - say the Republicans and the Neocons broke apart - they'd have less a chance of winning. If you split the vote, the Democrats would emerge as the powerhouse. And vice versa if the Democrats split. It's a way of presenting a united front despite the internal differences. Basically, if you're part of the party, you have a much better chance of getting elected, no matter what your personal beliefs are.

[alighiera.livejournal.com]

I imagine it also doesn't help the small parties at all that the perception would be that a vote for them is, in essence, a lost vote unless there truly is a certain dynamic towards voting for their candidate.

Wouldn't it be the case, though, that if, say, the Republicans split, they might attract more voters in total? I'm just thinking that some Neocons won't vote Republican because of the baggage from the other side, and vice versa. So offering them a split party where the two parts have different levels of influence depending on the distribution of votes might be rather attractive. Though, thinking about it, isn't that what your primaries do?

In the end it could always be a Republican coalition or a coalition of one Republican half with the Democrats.