Povert

It's Pronounced "Pah-vert." You povert.

Election results

The best things about this election being over:

  • My mailbox will be under control. Snail-mail mailbox, that is. It was being choked by huge political mailings.
  • If I watched TV, I’d be happy that all the negative ads are now gone. Negative Ads say that they have our best interests at heart, but Negative Ads attacked every candidate of every persuasion. Negative Ads wants to give candy to terrorists and persecute golfers. Negative Ads also probably molests children and mugs old people. Negative Ads puts the dishes in the dishwasher without rinsing them off first. We just can’t afford to trust Negative Ads. (I’m Joe “Let’s get Negative on Negative Ads” Lillibridge and I approve this message.)
  • I get to snicker about how the Republicans’ stupid stink about immigration completely flopped.
  • I get to be very polite to potentially angry relatives. I could almost be smug, except I have as little confidence in the Democrats as I had in the Republicans.
  • Santorum got canned. Never thought much of that guy.
  • Pelosi will probably be speaker of the house. I don’t care much either way about her, but I know people who foam at the mouth and gesticulate wildly at the drop of her name. So this makes me snicker as well.
  • The Democrats seem to be moving more to the center. At least, significant Democrat winners were closer to the center. Boo to right- and left-wing politics.
  • Split control of the government makes me happy. Slow-moving government makes me happy. Gridlock even often makes me happy. Really. People think I’m kidding when I say that.
  • I’m more annoyed by house representatives than by any other elected officials. So I like to see them get their asses handed to them.
  • Dumbass FOX pundits will finally have someone else besides Bill Clinton to blame for… pretty much anything (did anyone else see Hannity try to blame the Foley crap on Clinton?). Seriously, it’s been 6 years. At least now there will be some novelty to their bullshit.

I was going to list some bad things, but I’m so overjoyed that my mailbox will be usable again that I’ll abstain from bitching.

Update: Oh, and this.

3 Responses to “Election results”

  1. Rob Says:

    Hi. I surfed over from Kelly’s blog. Your political musings are interesting, but I feel obligated to point out one misconception.

    “The Democrats seem to be moving more to the center. At least, significant Democrat winners were closer to the center. Boo to right- and left-wing politics. ”

    I guess part of that depends on what your definition of ‘significant Democratic winners’ are (I think they were all significant) but the real issue is what is being perpetuated as the myth of the conservative democratic takeover. This is the old guard way of thinking and not what happened in actuality. Here are some links that do a better job of laying this out than I can.

    http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/11/8/12431/0402

    http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/11/8/13534/5744

    Why would impeachment talk piss you off? I think the situation this year is much different that the circumstances surrounding the Clinton impeachment…

    -rob

  2. Joe Says:

    Hey Rob —

    I didn’t say that the Democrat winners are conservative, just that they’re more centrist or moderate.

    That’s just my perception. I haven’t really studied all this too closely (the last two presidential elections really burned me out). I guess what I’m saying is that I seriously doubt that we’ll see an extremely liberal congress, despite what some crazy-ass conservatives are saying.

    As for impeachment, it seems like, for the past quarter century or so, every congress tries to impeach every president. Clinton’s impeachment was arguably a disaster for the Republicans.

    To be blunt, I think it’s a waste of time, and I think we’d be better served by a less insanely partisan government. The Republicans (and the shitty Democrat opposition thus far) have, over the past decade or so, managed to basically destroy any confidence I may have had in our government to be dignified and representative. Seriously — for longer than I’ve been of voting age (my first election was 1996), our government’s been bitterly divided, and that’s only been amplified in the last 6 years. It’s tiresome. I’m sick of seeing us (the citizens of the US) get exploited for these jerks’ professions (and it has become a profession rather than a civic duty, if not a stepping stone to lucrative lobbying jobs), and I’m sick of people frequently viewing about 50% of Americans as evil and/or dumb (talking to both conservatives and liberals here).

    Of course, I’m basically a moderate with liberal tendencies who comes from a conservative family, so I have a certain interest in civility between people with different political ideologies. I’ve had relatives say that they love me but don’t like me because of my political views. Which is insane.

    I’m hoping, though, that the Bush administration adjusts to the new congress and is more modest. Second term presidents tend to lean towards the center anyway. Bush has no more elections to worry about and can stop pandering.

    Then again, I realize that I’m probably being too optimistic.

  3. Rob Says:

    Impeachment is not something that should be bandered about lightly and unfortunately due to the events surrounding Clinton I think that it has handcuffed the current Congress in their ability to impeach Bush. I agree; the misuse of the impeachment proceedings for partisan reasons was probably the beginning of the polarization of America. And I think that will ultimately create an artificial ceiling on how the current Congress decides to handle W (should he even be investigated) for fear of creating another divide. Unfortunately, I fear it might come to light that Bush has committed impeachable crimes (one of my extreme left friends has even postulated that Bush should be sent to The Hague for war crimes) and there will be much pussyfooting around the ‘I’ word.

    Watching Bush’s first press conference yesterday, he had a completely different tone about him. He sounded tepid. Scared. Almost like he sensed impending doom. That may bode well for your hopes of reigning in Bush back to at least right-of-center instead of right-of-right but one can’t help but worry how much effect that will have on a man who for so long has brazenly ignored facts and the will of the people he serves, not to mention someone who speaks to God for validation of his occupation in Iraq.

    It looks like the people have finally realized what you stated – that they are being exploited at their own expense. That is why so many of the people being sent to Congress are grass/netroots candidates fueled purely by people power (how many buzzwords in that sentence?). They’ve got the sense now to realize that the stench is coming from both sides of the aisle (see: Joe Lieberman).

    That is why I am optimistic. The people are taking back their country and their beliefs and opinions will be reflected in Congress.

    For now.

Leave a Reply

Povert is proudly powered by WordPress
Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS).