Special Election - 6th Congressional District (Washington, White: attorney, ranking, working)

[AnsleyPark]

Originally Posted by bryantm3

we all need to take a step back, stop snapping at each other, and look inwards at ourselves. what are we excusing? what kind of behavior do we know deep down is wrong, but we continue to participate in because those around us are doing the same? in short we need to be pulling the planks blinding our own eyes before we criticize the specks we find in others. we have to break this us vs. them mentality. there is no them. there is only us, and like it or not we're all in this boat together.

at the same time we need to start showing humility and really listening to what other people say, even if it hurts. sometimes the truth stings the most, and ego is powerful.

if everyone keeps shouting and no one starts listening, we are only going to continue to descend into this madness and write the terms of our own mutual destruction.

i love all of y'all.

Excellent post, bryantm3!!! Something on which we should all reflect.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by bu2

I can agree with this. But even with that if not for the outrageous national Democratic behavior, Ossoff might have won without a runoff. There was a 43% turnout for a special election which is amazingly high. Ossoff tried to avoid acting like the national Democrats but Schumer, et.al. helped turn out the Republicans as Trump has fired up the Democrats.

That is an excellent point about the 43% voter turnout rate being extremely high for a congressional special election like this. That's because it is not unusual for turnout levels to be as low as 10% or even as low as 5% in special elections like this.

But I don't think that Ossoff was held back from reaching the 50%-plus one mark by anything that Democratic and progressive-aligned groups may have been doing.

If anything, Ossoff seemed to over-perform in the jungle primary by about 5-10 percentage points, likely because of Donald Trump's continued high-profile attention-grabbing antics and provocations.

(...Many polls seemed to show Ossoff in a range of about 37-43 percentage points heading into the jungle primary where he received over 48% of the vote.)

I think that you might be giving the national Democrats (particularly congressional Democratic leaders like US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and US House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi) too much credit for turning out Republicans to vote in the 6th District jungle primary.

I'm sure that fear of congressional Democratic leaders (like Schumer and Pelosi) suddenly having a guiding hand in the political maneuvers of a district where many (if not most) residents and politicos alike take a fierce amount of pride in the area's traditionally decidedly Republican bent likely played at least a somewhat moderate role in helping to turnout the Republican vote in the jungle primary.

But if anything, it seemed to be Donald Trump's very active involvement in the race (with his tweets and comments about the race late in the jungle primary campaign) that helped to motivate and drive Republican voters to turnout to give over 51% of the total overall vote to GOP candidates in the first round.

Just as Donald Trump seems to motivate Democrats, progressives, Independents and moderate Republicans to turnout in extremely high numbers to vote against him, he also seems to motivate loyal Republican and staunchly conservative voters to turnout to vote for him in extremely high numbers (as evidenced by the electoral results of the 2016 Presidential Election).

It is Trump's motivating influence of decidedly conservative voters to turnout at extremely high rates that will make this race tough to win for Jon Ossoff and the Democrats.

But it is also Trump's motivating influence of voters that strongly dislike him and are turned off by his antics that will give Jon Ossoff and the Democrats a much higher chance of pulling the upset and winning this race than they might have had under more normal circumstances against what most likely would otherwise be an extremely viable Republican candidate in Karen Handel who likely would be the very heavy favorite to win this contest going away were it not for the Donald Trump factor.

[bUU]

Originally Posted by AnsleyPark

Excellent post, bryantm3!!! Something on which we should all reflect.

Yes it is, but that's really just the point: As reasonable as what bryantm3 wrote may seem, we've reached a point where the notable opposing viewpoints include one for which doing the opposite of what bryantm3 wrote is the best path forward. Communication leads to understanding, and understanding leads to workable compromise. Lack of communication leads to lack of understanding, and lack of understanding leads to nothing getting done. If what you want is explicitly for literally nothing to get done, then lack of communication is going to best serve your goal.

As bryantm3 said, "really listen... to what other people say". If you do, you can hear this in the strongly libertarian rhetoric that is on the rise, especially on reddit and other venues where there is generally more candor. Those who want nothing to get done realize that cheap and easy measures exist that practically guarantee what they want, and they don't care that it is antisocial. They don't want to care, because caring leads to sub-optimization of their goal.

[arjay57]

I am more than happy to hear what others say, but it doesn't change the fact that I am already 100% right.

[JOinGA]

I am just your average person of moderate means, but there is no amount of money that would turn me into a traitor. Do you think these people with the Russian connections, if proven to be nefarious, willfully betray their country for personal gain or do they engage in mental gymnastics to somehow justify their behavior to themselves? It is beyond my comprehension.


Jon Ossoff has called for a special prosecutor and I believe this is the correct response. At this stage, with the lack of trust in government permeating the populace, shouldn't all of the Republicans want to see their guy cleared if he is innocent? We are finding out who are the true patriots among them.

[ronricks]

Originally Posted by JOinGA

I am just your average person of moderate means, but there is no amount of money that would turn me into a traitor. Do you think these people with the Russian connections, if proven to be nefarious, willfully betray their country for personal gain or do they engage in mental gymnastics to somehow justify their behavior to themselves? It is beyond my comprehension.


Jon Ossoff has called for a special prosecutor and I believe this is the correct response. At this stage, with the lack of trust in government permeating the populace, shouldn't all of the Republicans want to see their guy cleared if he is innocent? We are finding out who are the true patriots among them.

The Clinton's have been doing this going on two Decades now.

[JOinGA]

Originally Posted by ronricks

The Clinton's have been doing this going on two Decades now.

This is not something about which to be so flippant. We are talking about selling out your country to a foreign government in order to win an election. You can really take your but, but Clinton and but, but Obama and bury it, because the current situation stands alone.

[primaltech]

Sally Yates is my hero.

[ronricks]

Originally Posted by JOinGA

This is not something about which to be so flippant. We are talking about selling out your country to a foreign government in order to win an election. You can really take your but, but Clinton and but, but Obama and bury it, because the current situation stands alone.

The problem here is you seem to think it is ok for Bill and Hillary to sell their services to the highest bidder for political pay for play and accumulate tremendous wealth from 'public service'. I am a Democrat whose eyes were really opened up this election to the Clinton's and the shady things they have done over the years which is sad because it was Bill who got me into politics as a teenager during his first term. Up until about 6 months ago I was a 'Clinton Democrat'. Hillary's failures shut the door on that group forever now. Trump won a fair election. As much as I hate that I have accepted it and moved on. Some of you might want to do the same. This Russia stuff is a bunch of nothing. There is no evidence of any collusion. Senators talk to foreign dignitaries all the time. That is their job.

The best thing Democrats can do is start working toward the 2018 midterm and 2020 Presidential elections. I don't have one issue with anything President Obama did. Why would I? You seem to not be able to look at this without any extreme bias.

[Iconographer]

The big winner is this election has already been decided: the Atlanta media market.