My Dear America:
Back in 1972 outside of Senator George McGovern's South Dakota Campaign Headquarters on the day after the landslide defeat of McGovern by President Richard Nixon a sign said the following:
IT IS OVER
When the Supreme Court in 2000 declared Al Gore's Election prospects Dead, once again it seemed to Democrats as though the roof had caved in.
Today, once again we have seen the fickle finger of election fate poke Democrats in the eye once again as the Arrogant Bastards in the Republican Party who have continually stalled progress since the election of Barack Obama in 2008 have prevailed in yesterdays elections and have been rewarded for their arrogance and lack of cooperation and respect in the United States House of Representatives and Senate by now having full charge of not only the House of Representatives but also the Senate, as well.
What in the hell is going on in this country? Why are people so stupid that they vote against their own interests time after time after time. It is maddening and frustrating.
The truth is that we Democrats in Pennsylvania don't have as much to bitch about. At least we replaced our awful Republican Governor, Tom Corbett, with a man who looks to me like a light at the end of the long dark Corbett Tunnel.
I spent part of my day at my local Emmanuel Church Polling Place handing out flyers for a congenial and I thought genuinely good candidate named Walter Felton who was running for the Pennsylvania State Senate. Unfortunately Mr. Felton lost his race although he did have a good showing in his race against a long time incumbent Republican who has proved to be unbeatable over many years in office.
While I passed out flyers at my poll I had the pleasure of spending time with Pete Schweyer, a young man that I have known for several years, who was running for the Pennsylvania State Legislature for the first time. Watching Pete meet and greet voters was like watching a young master politician at work. Pete instinctively knew the right things to say and do as he shook hands with and talked with the voters arriving at the polls. Pete had met many of these voters at the polls before when he ran for the Allentown City Council and whether they might have been Democrats or Republicans everyone who was greeted by Pete left the polling place with a good impression of this fine young Democrat. I also enjoyed my talks with Pete when we were both without voters to greet, which was much of the time. I felt as though I was watching an expert politician at work at the Emmanuel Church polling place and indeed I was. Pete Schweyer is a Democrat who is going places. One of the places he is going is to the Pennsylvania State Legislature. Pete beat his Republican opponent in his race by a landslide margin.
Tom Wolf, Pennsylvania's new Governor, might have been responsible for at least some of Pete Schweyer's success but not all of it. Wolf seemed to bring out a far larger number of voters to the polls than normally show up at Pennsylvania Polling Places in off year Pennsylvania elections. Tom Wolf was able to establish himself early on even in the Primary Elections as a Man of the People and since his Republican opponent, Tom Corbett, was a well established man of the Corporations and in particular the Fracking Industry there was a clear choice for Pennsylvania Voters. Wolf won by a hefty margin.
Elsewhere in the country things clearly did not go as well for Democrats as they did for Tom Wolf and Pete Schweyer in Pennsylvania. Certainly efforts to prevent blacks, hispanics and young voters must have had some effect on some of the Congressional and Gubernatorial races in some of the states that had succeeded in trying to limit voting by those voting blocks.
Why things went so horribly wrong for the Democrats is actually not that easy to figure out. The Dems had some very good candidates who were unsuccessful. There were also several candidates who ran away from President Obama and his policies and accomplishments, who might have done better with the President's help. Certainly Tom Wolf was welcoming of President Obama's stumping for him in Pennsylvania and the President's endorsement didn't seem to hurt Wolf.
There were also some Democratic Candidates who just weren't great candidates. Bruce Braley in Iowa and the attractive but dimwitted young lady who ran against Mitch McConnell in Kentucky who would not admit whether she voted for President Obama in the 2012 Election. That was not a good move.
There will be a lot of time in which to second guess this election but what Democrats need to do is to take stock of what went wrong in this election and fix those things that can be fixed by the time 2016 rolls around.
In the meantime the politics of obstruction will continue to go on only this time we won't have the U.S Senate to save the day at the last minute.
President Obama seemed today in his news conference to be unperturbed by the Republican successes. "Republicans had a good night," he admitted but he made clear that although he would consider some reasonable tweaking of the Affordable Health Care Act he would be vetoing any attempts to repeal the act.
In the end the Republicans have proved that with unlimited amounts of unidentified and untraceable money available to fund trash talking television ad campaigns for their candidates they can find enough Americans stupid enough to buy their bullshit and vote against their own individual interests.
As the 2016 Campaign begins it is certainly frightening to view the Republican Presidential Campaign prospects.
Good God. Say it isn't so.
Rand Paul, Paul Ryan, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker to name a few.
Suddenly Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush don't seem so bad.
I think it is likely that Hillary Clinton will Run for President and if she does run I think she will win despite the Republican Venom Machine. I hope so anyway. If she does run and win I think the Republicans will do to her what they have done to Barack Obama, as well as to her husband. They will make her life a living hell. Certainly a lot of things can happen between now and election day, 2016.
Hopefully some of the things that might happen will be better than what happened last night.
As my mother used to say:
"God Bless Us and Save Us."
Sincerely Yours
Jerry Gallagher
While I passed out flyers at my poll I had the pleasure of spending time with Pete Schweyer, a young man that I have known for several years, who was running for the Pennsylvania State Legislature for the first time. Watching Pete meet and greet voters was like watching a young master politician at work. Pete instinctively knew the right things to say and do as he shook hands with and talked with the voters arriving at the polls. Pete had met many of these voters at the polls before when he ran for the Allentown City Council and whether they might have been Democrats or Republicans everyone who was greeted by Pete left the polling place with a good impression of this fine young Democrat. I also enjoyed my talks with Pete when we were both without voters to greet, which was much of the time. I felt as though I was watching an expert politician at work at the Emmanuel Church polling place and indeed I was. Pete Schweyer is a Democrat who is going places. One of the places he is going is to the Pennsylvania State Legislature. Pete beat his Republican opponent in his race by a landslide margin.
Tom Wolf, Pennsylvania's new Governor, might have been responsible for at least some of Pete Schweyer's success but not all of it. Wolf seemed to bring out a far larger number of voters to the polls than normally show up at Pennsylvania Polling Places in off year Pennsylvania elections. Tom Wolf was able to establish himself early on even in the Primary Elections as a Man of the People and since his Republican opponent, Tom Corbett, was a well established man of the Corporations and in particular the Fracking Industry there was a clear choice for Pennsylvania Voters. Wolf won by a hefty margin.
Elsewhere in the country things clearly did not go as well for Democrats as they did for Tom Wolf and Pete Schweyer in Pennsylvania. Certainly efforts to prevent blacks, hispanics and young voters must have had some effect on some of the Congressional and Gubernatorial races in some of the states that had succeeded in trying to limit voting by those voting blocks.
Why things went so horribly wrong for the Democrats is actually not that easy to figure out. The Dems had some very good candidates who were unsuccessful. There were also several candidates who ran away from President Obama and his policies and accomplishments, who might have done better with the President's help. Certainly Tom Wolf was welcoming of President Obama's stumping for him in Pennsylvania and the President's endorsement didn't seem to hurt Wolf.
There were also some Democratic Candidates who just weren't great candidates. Bruce Braley in Iowa and the attractive but dimwitted young lady who ran against Mitch McConnell in Kentucky who would not admit whether she voted for President Obama in the 2012 Election. That was not a good move.
There will be a lot of time in which to second guess this election but what Democrats need to do is to take stock of what went wrong in this election and fix those things that can be fixed by the time 2016 rolls around.
In the meantime the politics of obstruction will continue to go on only this time we won't have the U.S Senate to save the day at the last minute.
President Obama seemed today in his news conference to be unperturbed by the Republican successes. "Republicans had a good night," he admitted but he made clear that although he would consider some reasonable tweaking of the Affordable Health Care Act he would be vetoing any attempts to repeal the act.
In the end the Republicans have proved that with unlimited amounts of unidentified and untraceable money available to fund trash talking television ad campaigns for their candidates they can find enough Americans stupid enough to buy their bullshit and vote against their own individual interests.
As the 2016 Campaign begins it is certainly frightening to view the Republican Presidential Campaign prospects.
Good God. Say it isn't so.
Rand Paul, Paul Ryan, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker to name a few.
Suddenly Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush don't seem so bad.
I think it is likely that Hillary Clinton will Run for President and if she does run I think she will win despite the Republican Venom Machine. I hope so anyway. If she does run and win I think the Republicans will do to her what they have done to Barack Obama, as well as to her husband. They will make her life a living hell. Certainly a lot of things can happen between now and election day, 2016.
Hopefully some of the things that might happen will be better than what happened last night.
As my mother used to say:
"God Bless Us and Save Us."
Sincerely Yours
Jerry Gallagher
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