New posts begin below this one. We’ll all be in and out as the night goes on, and you can follow us on Twitter here:Athenae, Jude, Scout, Joanie. Doc’s running this shindig, so listen nicely and go to bed when he says. No violence, not even in your funny little jokes.
ON WISCONSIN!
Update: Van closed. Thank you all for being here. Seriously. Thank you all for being here. I was alone in 2004 and it sucked ass.
A.
Sorry I missed the van! Although, given the results, I’m afraid it might have ended in COMPUTER SMASH…
Hang in there badger people. Hang in there the rest of us. The night is still getting darker and it is easier to get through it when you have some like minded souls to converse with.
RP
Roadmaster, the problem being with that, and you are right, is that “they” will have “us” toiling and dying in those same contaminated lands.
a primary did not help. but civic involvement was awesome in its no do-overs. now, can WI have it’s teevee back?
Is this thing on?
Just listened to Barrett concession speech. IDIOT, STUPID, LOSER, LOSER STUPID STUPID FUCKING DEMOCRAT LOSER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jeebus, is there any wonder why Democracy and the Constitution just died tonight, again?
Work together??? Deeply divided???
He should have not conceded, ever. He should not offer an Olive Branch. He should tell his people to fight for what you believe in and don’t expect anything from the gopper scum pigs except shivs in the back. Because I can guarantee you that Walkeristan and Kochistan aren’t going to offer the Dems anything in any way good.
But we fought the good fight.
FUCK.
A – here’s my take:
I’m not saying the GOP cheated, although I’m sure they had the apparatus to do so if necessary.
No, the GOP just had the TV ads, talk radio, mailings, payments for signage, and ground game to ID and GOTV – based on pitting neighbor against neighbor; brother against brother.
They won by salting the soil of their own state. They will reap no economic harvest from these contaminated soils. And those forced to toil on these lands will continue to wither away – or harden into angrier, more bitter sharecroppers.
I’m very sorry, Athenae. It was a good effort.
Even though money was a huge advantage for Walker, and even though a lot of people are (as you posted below) voting to inflict pain on middle class from a misguided belief that austerity is needed to save the state, very early figures lead me to suspect that:
1) Democrats did not turn out ca. a third of people who signed the recall petition,
2) Republicans turned out at extraordinarily high levels,
3) Independents broke for Walker by a high proportion (and that this was a decisive factor)
I also think that Barrett was the wrong candidate (though the only one with the name recognition to have a chance), and that the failure of Democrats to nationalize the election (while Republicans did).
If there’s one key lesson, it’s that liberals need to reach outside of their comfortable enclaves to reach independents. For grassroots campaigns to succeed, there has to be a clear and simple message, and canvassers have to be extraordinary communicators (because most people are afraid that door-to-door people are Jehovah’s Witnesses or magazine salesmen).
Well, what I have seen is early figures, and I could easily be wrong. The pros will have more. But those are some ideas of what to look for.