In an earlier post, I discussed the serious problem that the GOP has with single women who voted by a whopping 67-31% for Obama. Mitt Romney’s suggestion that this was because of president Obama’s ‘gift’ of ‘free’ contraceptives was widely ridiculed but this idea that all single women care about is contraception and abortion is quite widespread. [Read more…]
Within the last half-century, it seems to have become a tradition in American politics for the losing party in a presidential election to distance itself from their candidate. But the vehemence with which Mitt Romney is being urged to leave the stage has been quite remarkable. [Read more…]
Jon Stewart looks at the whining by Bill O’Reilly and Bernie Goldberg following Mitt Romney’s defeat at how immigrants are destroying ‘traditional’ America. Stewart marvels at not only their lack of self-awareness but also their ignorance of history. [Read more…]
Once again we have a flare up of violence in Israel and Gaza. And once again we will have the predictable reactions, with each side accusing the other of starting it first, a pointless argument that can never be settled in a conflict that goes back decades. [Read more…]
Despite some hopes by Republicans that they had managed to close the gender gap, in the final analysis women voted for Obama by a margin of 55-44%. Since women as a whole made up 53% of the voters, this gap has to be of considerable concern to the GOP. [Read more…]
I enjoy a good sex scandal as much as the next person. It is like watching a film or reading a novel, with a plot that is usually easy to follow, involving emotions and motivations that are easy to understand, and that can be viewed dispassionately because it does not affect one personally. What is surprising in real–life sex scandals is the amount of attention paid to the minutest details of something that usually has no serious consequences for anyone other than those actually involved. Of course, reasons will be trumped up (National security! Abuse of power! Need to uphold standards!) to give all this prurient probing a veneer of journalistic respectability. [Read more…]
Before and after the election we saw plenty of business owners whining about how the re-election of Barack Obama would sound the death knell for business and would require them to shut down their businesses or fire people or make them part-time so as to not have to provide them with health care benefits. [Read more…]
The oligarchy is insatiable in its greed. Since 1980, they have enjoyed enormous gains in wealth at the expense of everyone else. In doing so, they were aided by both Republican and Democratic parties but in order to preserve any credibility with its base, the Democratic party had to oppose some of the more obvious money-grabs, such as more tax cuts for the rich or the gutting of regulatory agencies or the elimination of social safety nets such as health care, minimum wage laws, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. [Read more…]
Much of the attention for the Republican losses in the last election has been blamed on the fact that its message has alienated minorities and this has serious long-term consequences given the changing demographics of the US. But Mark Silk points out that there is an another widening gap that should terrify the Republican even more and that is one that strikes at the core of its most loyal voting bloc, the religious voter. [Read more…]