We lost on cultural issues

[liberalpragmatist]

That's what killed us. The problem was we never saw it. We all doubted that gay marriage and cultural issues could win it for Bush. That's why I don't think it's fair to blame Kerry. He decided to take the fight straight to Bush's turf on Iraq, on national security, and it looked like it was paying off. The problem is that NOBODY banked on evangelical turnout being so high and NOBODY banked on so many people voting on "morals and values" when there were so many big issues out there - war, peace, the economy, health care - Kerry won those voters.

Clearly we have some work to do. This wasn't a policy issue - it was a moral issue. I'm not giving up hope, but has the Democratic Party ever had a more heartbreaking result? Clearly we have to figure out (1) how to win evangelical voters without sacrificing OUR moral values, or (2) abandon evangelical voters and figure out how to appeal to the majority that's not the religious right.

[RafterMan]

1. No, we lost on culture

Northerners keep trying to "issueize" culture, but it just doesn't work.

[rockydem]

29. what do you mean?

[RafterMan]

44. I mean people *say* God, Guns, Gays

but they *mean* "the guy I'd like to have a beer with".

If you take all the "right" positions on the former, you'll lose without the latter. If you have the latter, you'll win without the former. People will invent their own excuses for your differences -- half of Bush's supporters are wrong about where he stands on many issues.

Kerry got creamed in the red states not because he was on the wrong side of a checklist of issues, but because he was a foreigner there.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

2. Number2 is very hard to get to.

You would have to get Americans to vote, which is something that cannot be done.

[aden_nak]

3. There has to be a way. Even if we scare them into voting.

Hey, it works for Our Fearless Leader.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Kerry did everything right.

It's the dems that have to find the high moral ground. Yes, you heard me right. It can be done, but you'll have to dig deep.

[Wat_Tyler]

5. If it were me, I'd ditch the evangelicals.

Let's not encourage their behaviour by rewarding them.

[NeoConsSuck]

26. I agree..

every time we try to appease a voting bloc, we move further and further to the right. We start sounding like republican-lites. Why would anyone vote for the lite when they can get the real thing?

If the country is moving further to the right (and it is in my opinion), there is little we can do, other than wait for them to self-destruct.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

36. Push Republicans even more right until they self-destruct. . . . nt

[progressivebydesign]

6. We have NOT lost... can we chill UNTIL the votes are counted?

Unbelievable how quickly people accept the Diebold machines around here.. you'd think that after 3 years of talking about it, people would get it. Exit polls are NEVER that off.. as they were last night. But I guess everyone that is posting on these sad threads are comfortable with 30% of the vote being counted on machines which have NOT been proven worthy, and machines owned by a MAJOR Bush supporter IN OHIO.. who had promised to "do whatever it takes to deliver the votes to Bush*" *actual quote from 2003 at a Bush fundraiser.

[Ohio rules]

8. Ohio is a punch card state

we refused to go with any machinery that didn't give a paper receipt on demand.
An electronic signiture isn't a valid hard copy.

We are not a deibold state

[jtb33]

14. Unfortunately, yes, we have...

...and badly. We lost seats in the senate and the house, and facing reality, with GWB up by over 3 million in the PV, he will win Ohio and the election. :(

[TedsGarage]

7. Republicans equate their party with morality

When I looked at the map, I realized that no Democrat could have won. Too many Republicans believe that voting for their party is a religious and moral duty. The battle lines were drawn four years ago, and nobody budged an inch. This is probably how the 2000 would have turned out if not for the drunk driving story. That kept a lot of evangelical voters home. But since then, Bush has proven he's a moral man by starting a needless war that killed tens of thousands of people, so this time, they had his back.

[Ohio rules]

11. ?

so you are saying you voted republican and not straight dem ticket?

WHo republican did you vote for ?

[forgethell]

9. No, you're wrong.

I've been reading for weeks about the expected high evangelical turnout. So, SOMEBODY saw it coming. Why didn't you? Probably because you don't read enough conservative websites, or ever listen to, say Rush or Sean.

YAAGH, you say? How can you do that? Well, how else do you think we can find out what they are thinking? A lot, a LOT of people on this site automatically discount everything coming from a conservative source. And, of course, a lot of it SHOULD be discounted. But they're not wrong about everything.

For instance, they were predicting a * win, and we weren't. So, who is going to take the oath next year. But, actually, I'm talking about the issues. It's not enough just to say that they are evil and stupid. They say that about us. But, too often, we just leave it there. And they don't. They know WHY they have the 'morals' that they do. Often, it seems to me, that we just 'feel' that something is wrong or evil without being able to really articulate why on a philosophical basis. And they are not 'stupid'. Stupid people don't win elections.

Clearly, we do have work to do. I thought, and I said so before the election, that we need to concentrate on progressive economic issues first. That brings in the socially conservative union, Catholic, etc. vote. The socially progressive issues require massive education and preparation before being installed. You will never bring in the evangelicals without sacrificing our social positions. They wouldn't be evangelicals if you did. But you might educate some of them out of it.

Mainly, though, I think that it was fear of the courts imposing an unpalatable policy on the country that led to this debacle. If you think I am wrong then answer me this: how many of the gay marriage ban amendments passed? I blame the state court ruling imposing gay marriage, lawless disregard of state law by certain local officials, and the federal courts history of overriding state law for this disaster.

[BillZBubb]

10. We sure did, the fundies killed us.

Still, your first sentence is like saying "Everyone believed Iraq had WMD..." It is false. Many of us saw it. Rove bragged about it constantly--he was going to turn out 4 million more fundies this year. The Repugs got gay marriage inititatives in a lot of the swing states. Bush* played to his fundy base. We knew they'd have a big turnout.

We also know those people are fanatics and not moved by reason.

Where most of us erred was in believing our own turnout HYPE. The much talked about youth vote, our GOTV effort, cell phone users not polled, the new registrations, etc.

When I saw the youth turnout was the same 17% as 2000, I knew we were in trouble.

As for your second part, how to win evangelicals: Forget it. We'd have to sell our soul to do it. A much better strategy is to marginalize the fundy fanatics. That will take a long term, concerted strategy to show the public what the fundy threat represents. It can't be done in one campaign, it has to be a core part of Democratic strategy. They are the Taliban and we have to show people that is the case.

[CrashBurnRepeat]

13. I agree

the fundies are lost, they'll never change on the issues. We have to do a better job of identifiying with the swing voters and we missed that chance.
I am actually proud of how well everyone did getting out the vote, despite it not being enough, it was a huge improvement over past efforts.
we have work to do, just remember, the pendulum will swing the other way after the draft hits, taxes go up and people start to find out how bad they've been lied to....

[0rganism]

16. marginalizing fundamentalism....

> That will take a long term, concerted strategy to show the public
> what the fundy threat represents.

Absolutely. For a model, we could follow the way republicans have recaste liberalism as some kind of social plague.

> It can't be done in one campaign, it has to be a core part of
> Democratic strategy.

The republicans planned their moves carefully, took decades to get it juuust right. We will have to wait a while for our Reagan moment.

[Typecast Modulator]

21. Ummm

"They are the Taliban and we have to show people that is the case."

We just spent the last year and a half trying to do just that. Then last night we found out the Taliban ARE the people. Bush and co. were usually open in their barbaric, discriminatory beliefs - and the people DID see and LIKED what they saw.

There is nothing more to show the people. They want fundamentalism.

[chaumont58]

22. I agree with your post, totally

The so called massive GOTV was a fraud. Those that staid home and didn't vote must now take the consequences. The poor and lower middle classes suffer the most from repuke presidencies. The only thing they(the poor) have to offer is their vote. The repukes don't care about their labor, they'll allow more lower wage Mexicans in, and hypocrically cry about broken borders. The repukes want to deregulate everything except the human libido. Well, make that Dem libidoes. IOKIYAAR.

[hinachan]

25. As an observer of politics for 20 years....

<<Where most of us erred was in believing our own turnout HYPE. The much talked about youth vote, our GOTV effort, cell phone users not polled, the new registrations, etc.

When I saw the youth turnout was the same 17% as 2000, I knew we were in trouble.>>

One thing I've learned, since crying my eyes out after volunteering for Mondale/Ferraro in 1984, is that whenever someone tells you not to listen to the polls...don't listen to the person telling you this. The polls ARE right, the pollsters are pros, they're paid handsomely for what they do, and they wouldn't get paid if they didn't do it well. They know who the "likely voters" are, they poll them, and the results don't lie. It was, as many predicted (me included) 2000 revisited.

Yes, there is still a chance K/E could take Ohio. But the fact that it's boiled down to just Ohio is something that shouldn't have happened. But it did. To repost a couple messages I posted to the Smirking Chimp boards:

- - - - - - -

No, I'm not enjoying this. I just want to explain why I said what I did, because it's an important lesson we need to learn.

I don't know how many of you have seen my posts in the past couple weeks, but you'll recall I was cautioning those of you predicting a Kerry landslide. You'll recall that I mentioned having volunteered for the first time for the Mondale/Ferraro ticket, and have followed every election closely since. (My site may be a humor site, but if you look at all the song parodies I've written, you'll see just how closely I've been observing politics for the past 20 years. Not a plug, just a statement of fact.)

The reason I cited for caution in our optimism was that, in 1984, the "polls don't vote, people do" mantra was proven horribly, embarassingly wrong when Mondale lost everything but MN and DC. Yeah, we had the bullshit polls about the cell phone voters, but the real polls indicated all along that it was going to be a close, close race, coming down to one state -- 2000 revisited. I'd said that we wouldn't know who our President was on 11/2, possibly not even till December, depending on how long it takes to (try to) straighten up the mess about the votes cast in said state.

Well, I've never been so UNhappy to be right in all my life. It's all just as I predicted, only in OH instead of FL. The people on CNN expressed amazement that this election was playing out so closely to the predictions, and is so much like the 2000 election. Well, duh, read the freakin' polls!

Lesson learned: Polls DO reflect the electorate. Individuals differ, but statistics repeat. Next time, if you hear on the news that it's going to be a close race, keep the champagne on ice and please don't go around predicting a landslide, because it only gives the Freeper types more to laugh at. Pollsters have been in this business a lot longer than we have; they're pros, they're paid for what they do. We need to take the polls seriously, and learn from them, i.e., what's our candidate doing wrong? (That's on another thread, so I won't go into it here.)

The other lesson I learned from 1984 was...don't get too high on the thought that your guy's going to take it all (just because you see big crowds at rallies), when the polls tell you otherwise. That's a good way to end up taking more Xanax than Laura Bush. Take the pollsters seriously, and you'll save yourself a lot of grief. Take it from one who's been there in 1984 and 1988, let's not go around predicting landslides until our guy has the numbers to back it up.....

- - - - - - -

I'd like to take this opportunity to point out some other things the K/E camp did wrong -- even if they win, sheer incompetence is what brought it to this point. (I.e., Ohio being the deciding factor.)

1) Kerry spent way too much time sucking up to vets. He seems to forget that we have a volunteer army now, which means that the vast, vast majority of people who enlist do so because they're flag-waving ignorant Republican kill-the-ragheads types. I can't remember the location, but on C-SPAN I saw him giving a speech to a group of military types (shortly after Bush had addressed a similar crowd in that city). It made me sick...Kerry was going on and on about this veterans shit, and the crowd was dead silent except for the occasional smattering of applause. (You can imagine, I hope, that Bush got a much warmer reception.) All this sucking up hurt Kerry two ways: First, the vets didn't give a shit and most of them hate his guts, so he didn't win them over. Secondly, it gave the impression that Kerry's stuck in the past, and can't get past Vietnam. A lot of times, he sounded embarassingly like Al Bundy in Married...with Children, boasting about his heroics in high school football, while in his current life he was a lowly shoe salesman. Shit, even John McCain doesn't dwell on Vietnam the way Kerry did...is it any wonder that, when Kerry leans so heavily on that crutch, that it was so easy for Bu$hCo to kick that crutch hard enough to break it with the Smear Boat Vets ads? Moral of the story: OK, you won medals for your service in 'Nam. Now, let's focus on your service as a lawyer and a senator, so we know what the hell you've done since 1971, m'kay? And, if you're such a fighter, WTF did you roll over for so long when the Smear Boat Vets were slicing and dicing you? It makes swing voters think, "If this guy can't hold his own against an opponent in an election, how could he hold his own against our enemies?" You can't let doubts like that creep up in an election this close. It's fatal.

In fact, this election reminds me a lot of 1988, when Dukakis had a lead and ultimately lost it. SNL did a great skit about those Presidential debates, where "Dukakis" said, "I can't believe I'm losing to this guy!" As Kerry's lead dwindled in so many states, I heard that line in my head again and again....

2) John Edwards' mouth is forever writing checks that his ass can't cash. In the primary, when he was saying he could turn his state blue, I nearly puked on the spot. The reason he ran for President was that he knew he couldn't even get re-elected to his old seat in the Senate! In the VP debate, he had a chance to kick Cheney in the balls by calling him on that lie of never having met Edwards in the Senate because he was absent so often. But no, he lets another lie get halfway around the world before truth puts on its boots. How the hell did he win court cases, when he can't even refute such a blatant lie? And this lie helped make people think he didn't have enough experience to be VP. He also should have extolled the virtues of trial lawyers who protect people from slimeballs like Cheney. The theme song of that debate should've been Hall & Oates' "Missed Opportunity".

3) I know this is going to piss off a lot of you, but understand that we have a tendency to preach to the converted...I'm looking at this next issue from the POV of Average America.

Teresa Heinz Kerry sucks. There, I've said it. If Kerry wins, she'll be one of the worst First Ladies we've had. Let me count the ways. There's a fine line between "outspoken" and "obnoxious", and THK tripped over that line and fell sprawling into "obnoxious" long ago.

There was debate about this several weeks ago, but when THK said that storm victims should go without clothes because other things were more important...let's just say that, if Laura Bush had said this, we'd have been screaming for her head on a platter. In a climate like those hurricane-ravaged areas, clothing is every bit as essential as food and water. It was horribly insensitive and inexcusable, and only the most die-hard THK supporters could think otherwise.

Speaking of Laura Bush, THK said in a recent TV profile that she thinks Laura Bush is the best first lady ever, and is her role model as a first lady. At the time, I shouted at my TV, "Hey, bitch, haven't you heard of Hillary Clinton?" (Yes, I'm a Hillary supporter, so please don't say I object to opinionated women. See above reference to the "fine line". I cross that line a lot, but I make sure it's in appropriate places. THK, take note.) Then THK made that infamous statement about Laura Bush never having had a job. Gee, if Laura's your hero, why the fuck don't you know about her work record? Great way to offend every teacher and librarian in the nation.

It seems to me that, no matter how many languages THK speaks, she is still one of the worst speakers I've ever heard...or seen. If Laura Bush is on Xanax, then this broad must be wasted on hardcore sedatives. She talks so damned slow, you fall asleep before she gets to the end of a sentence--except when she's saying something obnoxious like "Shove it", now that comes out clear as a bell. And her appearance...well, it kills me to admit it, but Laura Bush could give this woman lessons in poise and grace. You know you're a skank when you can't even look as classy as a murdering doper like LB. She always looks as if she just woke up from falling asleep in the tour bus, with her hair a matted mess falling into her glazed eyes. Then she gets up on the podium and speaks like a timid little mouse. Honest to God, it's like she's on drugs that haven't quite worn off, every time she makes a speech. In short, THK was a real liability to this ticket. I'm sorry, I know a lot of you will be upset by all this, but I'm just being honest. You need to look at her, not from your POV, but from the POV of a swing voter. And THK doesn't have the class or personality to swing those people in our direction.

And JFK made me sick when he'd get on TV shows and gush over how "outspoken" she was. He should have been telling her to shut the fuck up, at least until he was elected. But no, he acts like her obnoxious statements were cute. They weren't. For all this woman's money, one would think that her family could have afforded to send her to finishing school....

For the record, Elizabeth Edwards would make a great Second or even First Lady. She's down to earth and articulate--a class act. If K/E lose this one, I'm going to miss her.

Sure, Bu$hCo is trying to steal Ohio--but if K/E had taken other states, Ohio wouldn't even be an issue. What I've written may be a bitter pill for everyone here to swallow, and I'm sure I'll get flamed for it because emotions are running high right now. But I need to remind you that I've been observing politics for 20 years--I know what sells, and what doesn't. Instead of getting pissed off at critiques like mine, we all need to learn from these mistakes so that we can take this country back in 2008. Or at least try to get more Dems in office in 2006, to counteract this evil empire.

- - - - - - -

OK, flame me if you like, but after you vent, please re-read my post and let's all try to learn from our mistakes so that our next candidate won't end up either in the courts, or sent packing. Please!

[klook]

12. Can I borrow your time machine?

You've obviously seen several days into the future and determined that after the Florida and Ohio votes are all counted, Bush wins. That's a drag, but I'd love to borrow your time machine and find out about future stock prices, NFL results, etc. Could be very lucrative!

[nodehopper]

15. We "lost" on Diebold issues.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

17. Is electronic voting with no receipt a "cultural issue"?

[smirkymonkey]

35. Apparently.

Fuck this country and the scum that runs it.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JDPriestly]

19. Cultural Issues?

Doesn't this strike a bell? Remember those German cultural issues like Jews, "Lebensraum" (room to live), racial purity, homosexuals, . . . . It's always us versus those others who can never be as good as we are. There is nothing new about seducing a people with "cultural issues." The Republicans just nail a lot of their "cultural issues" on the cross. That's all. The strategy hasn't changed. Exclude, don't include. If you agree with us, if you are like us, you belong, and if you don't agree or are different from us, you have no right to say or be what you are. There is nothing new about this.

[pala1]

20. Darn Right! Just Look At the Gay Marriage Referendums!

Eleven states had direct voter referendums on Gay marriage----and each and every one of them went down in flames. That should tell us something relative to how we ARE NOT connecting with a good portion of the country.

[JDPriestly]

23. We need to look at historical models.

How have people defeated fascism over the years. The examples I know are very discouraging. In the examples I remember, fascists lose only after they start eating the middle-class children of their own followers -- killed either in hopeless military adventures or as s result of political repression. I include Soviet Russia as a fascist state. And think about it, fascism did not lose its hold from some time in the 1920s (I'm not an expert here. Please correct that date if I am wrong) until the late 1980s, and look what's happening now. It's coming back, stronger than ever with Putin. The fundamentalists are no different from any other fascist movement. They just talk church talk.

[davhill]

42. Cromwell's England comes to mind

After the popular dictator died, his movement lost it's steam and people just got sick of Puritanism. The same thing is happening in Iran today. In 1498 Savonarola got burnt to the stake in Renaissance Italy after pushing his fanaticism a little to far. If you consider communism a religion, the cultural revolution in China ran its course. There are probably many other examples I can't think of right now.

[Redneck Socialist]

24. We lost this thing a long time ago

when the Democratic party adopted most every republican economic policy. People look at the two parties and when it comes to economic issues they don't see much difference. All that leaves is social issues for people to make up their mind on. When it comes down to god, guns and gays there are clear differences between the parties. Unfortunately those are the very issues that drive the fundies. They come out and vote on those issues and our side doesn't.

[tngledwebb]

27. Remember, only a quarter of the electorate voted

for Bush, and most did so out of fear and ignorance, not hatred or evil intentions. But BushCo IS truly evil, and more dangerous than any govt in our history, if not the world's. And they have no intention whatsoever of giving up power, even if we are able to prove voting fraud.

[DemCam]

28. I'm going with Bill Clinton and Wes Clark...

The overriding factor that couldn't be overcome in the darkness of that voting booth was Terror.

Bill said it here Sunday and Wes Clark said it Monday. Kerry couldn't convince enough that he could be trusted to stay the course against the terrorists.

It overcame all the other factors, imho.

And may the new Supreme Court Justices turn out to be true justices. I guess this makes me sicker than any other single factor....the longest lasting downside of these miserable times.

[venus]

30. It was obvious to me. Just like the Iraq war vote.

When everyone was saying the large turnout only benefited Dems, I knew that was a wrong assumption. It was obvious if you ever spent anytime on the ground and even a little observant. I'm being hard here because of all of the DU posts that were so stupidly over optimistic. Every time someone posted a differing view they were called a troll or worse.

[HEIL PRESIDENT GOD]

31. The terrifying fact, to me

It's that people actually want and expect the government to "do something" about culture. Culture is, culture arises spontaneously from human existence and interaction.

It scares me a lot that there are people--in fact, people on both sides--who actually believe the United States government should be active in suppressing cultural trends that offend them. Culture is the one really democratic thing around. You can change it by living what you see as a good life, providing an example for others. You can even make art that will move people to see the world the way you do. Every human individual has an equal opportunity to change culture.

Asking your government to change culture is asking for organized barbarism of the worst kind.

[fishnfla]

32. the moral values folks elected a lying dry drunk war-monger

these are the same idiots who believe SH has WMD's and helped OBL. their ignorance is insurmountable

[davhill]

33. Stop making Christians feel threatened by the left

This has a lot to do with things like banning the 10 commandments from schools and courthouses and banning Christmas displays that went up for decades in city parks. It is talking like abortion is good and positive thing for women, instead of a desperate choice. It is using the loaded word marriage when you are really talking about gay rights. Stop talking only within your own circle of progressive friends and find out what is important to your neighbor.

[Az]

40. I have been doing that

And it makes no difference. I have been hanging in fundimentalist sites. There is no appeasement. You are either one of them or you are the enemy. They are at war with tolerance. They eschew tolerance. They will look you in the eye, claim to love you, and then enact laws banning your very existance. They are not threatened by the left. They despise anything not identical to them. They tear each other apart given the chance. They are only joined together politically by their hatred of things that do not at least bow down and give lip service to their creed.

I have been struggling for months to make in roads with these people. And the only thing that matters at the end of the day is whether we swear feality to their beliefs. There is a rigid srtucture of opposition within them. There is no reasoning.

[Iris]

34. So what's the solution? Sacrificing the rights of women and homosexuals?

Is that what it's gonna take? And, if so, what's the point?

[Az]

37. It's war

I have been hanging in some fundimentalist sites lately. This is just the beginning. The bubble thing that George exhibits is exactly the sort of bubble think posessed by millions of fundimentalists.

Belief and reason are so set at odds with each other that the true believers have had to completely divorce themself from reality. But this has given them a new strength. As the Suskind quote suggests they no longer have to play the analysis game. They make up their reality and set it in play. We mired in reality then have to analyze the new lay out and move based on our reasoning. Meanwhile they will have already acted on the next issue.

Reason and logic cannot compete with zealotry and faith. Unfortunately for the planet zealotry and faith are not based in reality and the long term prognosis is bloody. When it comes to leading people they will always side with the person that presents confidence and conviction over the person that shows doubt and conflict. Reality is doubt and conflict. But this is not what they people want.

Thus we are poised at the start of a new dark ages. Science and reason will be pushed to the side. A rush to the end times will take place. Fear of Satan and other nonsense will lead to a rejection of joining together the communities of the world. War and dissent will become the norm. An endless war on the idea of terrorism will become the power base of the zealots.

War is the terror of the rich. We will wage our terror on the poorer nations of the world. Anywhere the zealots fear for their differences will be sought out. Until everyone is converted to their beliefs they will not feel safe. The world will take note of this shift and set itself against us thereby exasterbating the fear of the zealots. They will have their end times one way or another.

[davhill]

38. how about stating them in a non-threatening way

[Iris]

39. And how will we do that? Even the hint of support of women's or gay

rights in the state where I live gets you labeled liberal, immoral, "unChristian" and worse.

[Az]

41. That won't work

Its not a reasoning thing. Its not a rights thing. With the fundimentalists its a with God or not with God thing. They cannot compromise. They cannot bend. They cannot take other points of view into consideration. For doing so in their mind leads to Satan.

[ClassWarrior]

43. We need to reframe the debate.

Read Lakoff.

[Az]

45. You do not understand the enemy

The issues don't matter. Unless you are fighting for exactly their issues you are the enemy. You are in league with Satan. If you supported cracking the big end of eggs first and God said otherwise you would be the enemy. The bible is a big book. They are going to find things to hate you for unless you fall down and do nothing but praise the book with them.

[DARE to HOPE]

46. I agree.

We fought the unChristian "right" in our Lutheran parish in the early 1980s. They do not reason, or love, or know much scripture, really. I believe the movement is a cult, but it has been a threat to the churches as well as to the culture of our country. Sometimes think that the owl worshippers are behind it.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

47. Back to the era of back alley abortions.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

48. These "values" don't put food on the table, medicine in people's bodies,

increase jobs (HELLO OHIO!!!) decrease the deficits, lower your gas prices, help the middle class...THIS IS WHAT FRUSTRATES THE HELL OUT OF ME!!!! This 'culture' is bullshit!

Oh, wait a minute...G-d will provide...OK, sorry, he'll strike me down, but these selfish people who think/vote this way have their heads up their asses and look what they've done...re-elected Mr. Bring-it-On! I'm full of venom today, guys!