Anyone else surprised that the Republicans gained in both the House and the Senate?

[chippers21]

I think this is the first time in quite a while that we will have both Legislative branches and the Presidency under one party umbrella. I hope that means they will do good things for the nation and get things done.

[pandybat]

House and Senate gains don't mean all our countrys problems will magically disappear. The elections are over and it's back to the same old crap with a different person making crappy decisions.

[luvmetender]

Originally Posted by pandybat

The elections are over and it's back to the same old crap with a different person making crappy decisions.

No, with the same person making crappy decisions.

[prism68]

Originally Posted by chippers21

I think this is the first time in quite a while that we will have both Legislative branches and the Presidency under one party umbrella. I hope that means they will do good things for the nation and get things done.

I sure hope so!
I'd like to see the judges be appointed, and all the other things that have been held up by Democratic filibusters.
Unfortunately the Republicans still don't have enough to over-ride the filibuster, but they are closer than they have been.

[bobbcat]

I would imagine that the Dems will continue their obstructionist tactics, and the Pubs will continue their typical spineless approach to this. In other words, gov't will continue to grow and become more intrusive, more expensive, and more difficult to scale back.

[chippers21]

LOL

I guess I might have come back with a similar comment to pandy's and luv's if the other side had Kerry and a majority in the House and Senate, but I would hope not.


No one has addressed my question, " Were you surprised that the Republicans gained a majority in the House and the Senate?"

I think many people voted against Kerry with their Bush vote, but I view the outcome of the Senate and House votes AS a mandate for more conservative values.

[prism68]

Originally Posted by chippers21

LOL

I guess I might have come back with a similar comment to pandy's and luv's if the other side had Kerry and a majority in the House and Senate, but I would hope not.


No one has addressed my question, " Were you surprised that the Republicans gained a majority in the House and the Senate?"

I think many people voted against Kerry with their Bush vote, but I view the outcome of the Senate and House votes AS a mandate for more conservative values.

I was surprised, but I do think it ALL comes down to the morality issue. Nearly every 'man-on-the-street' interview I heard was about the issue of abortion or gay marriage. In Florida, it says Bush's high support among Hispanics was due to those reasons. I have also heard that the increase of support this time among Blacks was largely due to moral issues.

[mayor]

Originally Posted by prism68

I sure hope so!
I'd like to see the judges be appointed, and all the other things that have been held up by Democratic filibusters.
Unfortunately the Republicans still don't have enough to over-ride the filibuster, but they are closer than they have been.

1) The Republicans didn't handle the filibuster properly anyhow. Filibusters should continue 24/7, not this ridiculous calling it a day when they want to go home and get in their comfortable beds.

2) It will be a moot point soon. The filibuster rules will be rewritten at the beginning of the next term.

Mayor

[bobbcat]

Those articles I posted links to in the thread "Liberal Pols Out of Touch" cover some likely reasons the Pubs did so well in this election.

[pandybat]

Originally Posted by prism68

I was surprised, but I do think it ALL comes down to the morality issue. Nearly every 'man-on-the-street' interview I heard was about the issue of abortion or gay marriage. In Florida, it says Bush's high support among Hispanics was due to those reasons. I have also heard that the increase of support this time among Blacks was largely due to moral issues.

The relatively high number of voters across the nation (22 percent) who called moral values their top concern may reflect a trend, or may merely reveal an aspect of the culture war that has raged in the country since the 1960s. Bush won by an overwhelming margin (80-18 ) among the moral values voters. But tellingly, Kerry won by an identical margin among voters who cited economic issues as their top concern. And there were nearly as many of them (20 percent) as there were moral values voters.
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I happen to be one of those that voted on the economic issues.

I voted Kerry and for regaining our allies respect and having their assistance in any future 'real' crisis so that we would be safer.
I voted Kerry because I would like to keep what I have left of my civil liberties intact by not allowing any future ammendments to The Patriot Act.
I voted Kerry because I'd rather not see the deficit climb to levels that will eventually kill us in rising interest rates and possibly bring about another depression.
I voted Kerry to help protect the environment.
I voted Kerry because I'd rather not see the government make further intrusions into my bedroom, my reading habits, or my body.
I voted Kerry to seek changes in decreasing our dependance on foreign oil.
I voted Kerry in hopes that affordable prescription drugs would become something that I can consider a necessity and not a luxury when the time comes that I might need them.

Under Bush, we won't be getting any of these things done. Instead we are getting limits on abortion and gay marriages. Whoopdedoo! That's really going to help this country in the long run.

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Moral values means: "We're not about to let this nation go to ****."

Moral values means: "God is on our side."

Which is it??

We have two choices:

To concede the nation to those who believe their way is God's way.

Or to speak more openly about our own moral values: justice, equality, honesty, diversity, consensus-building. Those values include giving more help to the weak, poor and afraid and granting fewer privileges to the excessively comfortable.

Congratulations, George W. Bush.


The mess you've made remains yours to clean up.


The mess in Iraq is yours.


The deficit mess is yours. The health care mess is yours.


The disdain and distrust of the world is yours to fix. A divided nation is yours to heal.


Good luck.

[prism68]

Originally Posted by pandybat

I happen to be one of those that voted on the economic issues.

That is what we all do, vote on the issues most important to us. How you can say improved morality has no affect on our nation is beyond me. Whoopdee-doo?
I happen to think if our society doesn't stop the landslide into the abyss of LACK of moral values- it won't dang matter what society we live in because our families will be in tatters.

ANY society is only as good as the families that make it up.

[pandybat]

Originally Posted by prism68

That is what we all do, vote on the issues most important to us. How you can say improved morality has no affect on our nation is beyond me. Whoopdee-doo?
I happen to think if our society doesn't stop the landslide into the abyss of LACK of moral values- it won't dang matter what society we live in because our families will be in tatters.

ANY society is only as good as the families that make it up.

The economic issues affect families just as much, if not more, than the moral issues. Take the religion out of the issues and see what there is left to deal with. The economic far outweigh the moral.

[mayfly]

This is not a small group of people trying to make others be under their conservative control. Most people in the US wanted this. I think its very ironic that through the media it seemed that the minority was really the majority (for gay marriages, not for morals). Really people are very quiet about their opinions, but they let them be known at the polls.

[prism68]

Originally Posted by pandybat

The economic issues affect families just as much, if not more, than the moral issues.

I disagree with that statement. For instance, my mom was a sharecropper's daughter on a tobacco farm. My dad was an industrialist's son in Detroit.
Although she was truly poverty-stricken growing up, the CHARACTER instilled in her by her God-fearing parents beats the heck out of the MONEY my Grandfather left my dad any day.

I am certainly not discounting economic issues; however, my original point was that I believe Bush WON on morality. So it would seem that the majority of voters that turned out were MORE concerned with the moral stuff.

[mayor]

Originally Posted by pandybat

The economic issues affect families just as much, if not more, than the moral issues. Take the religion out of the issues and see what there is left to deal with. The economic far outweigh the moral.

Couldn't disagree more. This is the philosophy of humanism and materialism. Money is never an ends in itself. It is a means to an end. And by and large, the American people disagree as well.

Bush now has a mandate and I hope he runs with it. I posted my wish list for this term on my blog today.

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The Democrats have been set back an entire generation. 2006 will be more of the same. If the Dems really intend to put Hillary in the White House in 2008, they will continue to crumble.

Mayor