thats just wild that the election was decided by a margin of a little over 5,000 votes and over twice that number of begich voters picked neither of them (which even if u hate palin u must also not be fond of peltota either)

the psychology of that kind of person fascinates me

would love to see how ranked choice voting would effect a national election w this principle in mind

im curious to see if in the november general election (with the three of them running again) there are a significantly smaller proportion of voters whose ballot ends up being exhausted (i hate the guy who's like "the voters didn't understand" but it is a new system for Alaska)

what were the polls like before this election?

unfortunately not sure but i believe republicans were favored to win in general

looks like there was just one poll, had her losing.

The GOP seriously running an unpopular candidate like Palin and then losing because of it is definitely gonna play out elsewhere in the country

Thank you for all of this

Woke up thinking about the abortion part in particular - so was abortion just supposed to always be some Boogeyman/talking point?

I always thought the GOP winning on that would energize their base but abortion access getting struck down is unpopular so that means getting everyone else energized too which is why the Kansas example is so important

My second thought was why don't Democrats just always run on some form of policy? Is playing opposition that much more lucrative than actually always winning?

Why did so many GOP MFs just take from the bluster and image of Trump instead of the policy part too? It seemed like they worshiped this mf for a long time

Feel like a lot of the answers to these questions are that none of these people on either side actually care or have any feel for people in this country and their needs which I know but there's still a lot I need to learn so I still wanted to ask

Also that last part about no one caring about 2020 election as a voter surprised me - it makes sense because everyone's getting hammered by every day and long term issues that need to get resolved but between Trump's cult of personality/all the warped qanon stuff I really thought this was a single issue thing that still had a hard grip on a significant number of people and their voting decisions

The abortion thing is a complex situation. The problem is that yeah, there are extreme pro-lifers who want all abortion banned, but that's a hugely unpopular position. On the other hand, there's pro-lifers simply satisfied with the Dobbs decision - if they're already satisfied, why would they vote further on that single issue? So with that base out of the way, the voterbase is now split between "more extreme pro-life restrictions" vs "people who think dobbs was a mistake". The issue with the former is that it's insanely unpopular, even among actual pro-life people. Many pro-life people just wanted more restrictive abortion, not it literally being illegal. Similarly, the issue now on the table is how far back do we repeal RvW-related decisions. Griswold? Obergefell? They have a lot to defend and the more they defend the more alienating they seem to the avg swing voter. It also energizes their opposition a lot more.

The Democrat thing is because if they run on actual policy, they actually have to do things We all know Democrats aren't actually a good party. Passing policy in the US requires coalitions. People can win races on policy but then instituting it requires broad coalition which isn't possible. Democrat unity is generally top-down and the top of the party is still and for the foreseeable future is establishment ghouls. Every once in awhile they have a victory (Biden Loan Forgiveness), but it's temporal, because then they swing right back to alienating voters since they're of course still beholden to interests, lobbying, etc.

The GOP thing is very similar. At the end of the day not every politician is actually that smart lol. Like they're just people running and it's a career thing. So they're going to be an amalgamation of eitehr interests/funding/thinktanks, or they're going to be a reflection of what they think is an opportunity to get elected/appeals to voters (or they are just genuinely stupid). Like even someone like MTG currently, can anyone name a single policy of hers beyond harassing her opposition and saying wild s*** on twitter? Policy republicans do somewhat exist (see: DeSantis), but repub policy is almost always based on a reaction to liberal policy elsewhere (i.e. anti-CRT laws or something). Trump kinda came out of nowhere with policy propositions disparate from reactions to other policy but that quickly faded literally even himself once he immediatedly went from campaign->office. Supposedly this is his biggest regret, since he now understands what a coalition actually is.

The last thing about 2020 is just because party voters rarely decide elections unless it's already a guaranteed district. What decides elections is swing voters and there are no swing voters in the world who give a s*** about 2020 or referendums on trump.

@emu didnt get to respond in the Hov thread, but yeah their bs is easy to see through. The same clique you’re talking about gets nasty too but act like their s*** don’t stink. Been told to kill myself by one of them and harassed by another. It is what it is.

Quoting that Mississippi post was wack tho.

Calling him a Marxist 😭😭😭😭

personally as someone who wasn't even in that thread, i'm still offended on behalf of the people there that you called them members the DSA

"Marxism" isn't the issue in Jackson Mississippi. As someone whos close to the area the issues have existed long before this man was mayor. This is YEARS of neglect

Unhinged

Bill Barr coming out against Trump again

@emu ???

That user is banned or muted.

you guys ready for alberta to join the US???

DAY OF RAKE SOON

y’all can take em

Brazy.

Alberta, Mississippi sounds like the most racist area of land to ever exist.