Trump wants you to elect Net Neutrality's biggest hater to the Senate

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/05/30/rep-marsha-blackburn.html

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There has never been an administration… that has done what we’ve done

Well, he’s not wrong.

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As I understand it, seats on committees are bought by contributions to the party earmarked in the politician’s name.

Is there anyone tracking those contributions (if they can)? I want to see if her contributors are perhaps JohnVerizon1-9999.

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Well, nearly half of us voted for Trump, so we’ll elect just about anyone. Odds are looking good for Marsha Blackburn.

No “we” didn’t.

Many US citizens didn’t even bother to vote at all, (or they were prevented from doing so) and that’s a huge part of the current problem.

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Elections2018-sm

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Well, nearly half of us voted for Trump

With that kind of math you can get far nowadays.

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It makes perfect sense. End net neutrality and you severely curtail pornography, thereby solving the school shooting crisis. Marsha’s got it all figured out.

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dRumph - “We need Marsha in the Senate to continue the amazing progress and work that we’ve done over the last year and a half. There has never been an administration, and even some of our enemies are begrudgingly admitting this, that has done what we’ve done in the first year and a half.”

Those are almost exactly what he’s saying to promote Jim Renacci here in beautiful Ohio. My do nothing, never answer an email or question, always back dRumph congresscritter in a gerrymandered district from hell.

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Maybe I only count registered voters as relevant to an election’s results?

I’d argue the other way. A bunch of tea party freaks, many who haven’t voted in decades, came out of the woodwork and voted in the circus the GOP called a primary.

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So less than half that voted, anyway.

They voted with those who always turn out to vote, no matter what. The “tea party freaks” you mention wouldn’t have turned the tide their way if liberals hadn’t stopped at the Presidential elections and done nothing.

If liberals had done that back in 2010, 2014, and even 2016—like they should have done—none of this would be germane now.

If Democrats can win in Alabama, they can win anywhere and that includes Tennessee.

indeed. Young voters really didn’t come out in big numbers. And Hillary’s campaign was arrogantly confident. The internal politics of the DNC really was problematic in this election.

But it’s important to realize what we saw. We saw the Democrats fall flat on their face, which isn’t that unusual for them. And more importantly, we saw a huge power shift within the GOP. And by extension their voter demographic.

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To political junkies, maybe so, but the vast majority of voters had no idea. Never forget the election was swung by fewer than 10,000 voted in three key states. Never forget who won the popular vote.

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There has never been an administration, and even some of our enemies are begrudgingly admitting this, that has done what we’ve done in the first year and a half.

This seems like an insult, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he was literally told this by politicians from other countries.

I think there’s two different ways to look at this. In terms of election results, it’s pretty reasonable to believe that America elected Trump fair and square (that is, within the bounds of “fairness” for an American election).

But the flip side is that half of Ameircans voted, well under half of those votes for Trump, half of those didn’t actually want Trump to be president but just didn’t want Clinton to be president.

Both of those things are true, and it doesn’t say a lot for American democracy.

I think it’s embarrassing that Democrats could not win a landslide victory against a known liar, a known misogynist, a charlatan already caught running fake businesses, and who is profoundly disconnected from the needs of the common people. That it was so close should be a wake up call to everyone that half the population dislikes the establishment so much that they would elect someone with so little experience and believe his lies despite him being caught in lies many times over the last few decades.

If you want to go on about how Hillary almost won, and how she got the popular vote. Then I suggest also putting up a Mission Accomplished banner, because it’s the same mentality. A country divided almost 50/50 should not be a source of pride.

It’s largely the same demographic it’s always been—just older. The GOP has evolved gradually away from it’s core, which is why—though well publicized by some high profile folk—defections from the rank and file like mine were relatively rare and unremarkable.

No amount of being evil will ever earn a loss if the opposition only wants to show up if there’s a lawful good unicorn paladin on the ballot. The system rewarded the winner, same as it always does. Being evil isn’t an impediment and doesn’t alter this discussion in any significant way. (Don’t think so? Look at France.)

We’re seeing a lot of pushback against the system itself, and while that may be valid, it still follows that those who controlled what votes were counted prevailed. That’s what needs to be fixed first, not the Electoral College.

The impediments to voting previously mentioned are real, and they’re also the product of those who can vote choosing to do nothing. If you want to fix voting, those who can vote need to show up every time, in greater numbers, even significantly greater numbers.

That Tocqueville quote comes to mind, and I’m going to mangle it, but I contend that nonvoters also got the government they deserved.

But places like Alabama prove that the opposite can be true, too. We can fix this.

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Came for this. Was not disappointed.

More like less than a quarter of us… because only about half of eligible voters vote, and less than half of those voted for Trump.

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This needs to be big and bold in every statement about it. People were dropped from the rolls, were lied to, had polling stations closed or moved to areas far more difficult to get to, had to endure physically punishing line-ups… and it didn’t seem to happen in districts likely to vote Republican.

Had everyone who had been eligible and willing to vote been allowed to vote, we would have seen a much different outcome.

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