ok, finally caught up, was traveling back from fucking florida which takes half the fucking day. here are some general thoughts after watching coverage, especially watching clips and reading shit from the right about how astounded they are that the red wave didn't actually happen:
-polling needs to change or go away. it doesn't work, it's based on models, previous behavior, stats, and assumes a small number of people can be a moderately accurate template for a large group using some simple math bends. vote tallies are news. how the vote tallies didn't match polling is not news. how past polling got lucky in certain areas is not news. local people who cover and know geographical area is all we should be interested in until early voting starts.
-presidential approval rating is an archaic and completely useless metric. this could be its own thread, but for now i'll just say that plenty of people "disapprove" of biden's job performance but that has very little to do with them going out and voting gop wherever they live. i'm trying to find a use for it but i can't. it was also included on lots of lists...
-and these lists were part of right-leaning pundits investigations to piece everything back together last night/this morning. "crime, biden's approval is in the toilet, inflation is setting records, gas prices, how in the world did this happen?!?" um, ok. first of all, stop listing approval rating, nobody is voting for hershel walker because of biden. they were already going to vote for walker. second, stop listing made-up shit like crime, that you helped make a thing. oh, and also, here's why the "list" doesn't matter:
-republicans don't have issues or policy platforms. it's been a while, and last time they just pointed at trump and said that's our platform. the fuck outta here. the gop decided to play scare tactic games and lean into culture war nonsense for years while the dems tried to win on policy positions and issues. the republicans turned this into a team sport. they universally voted against every single thing that could've helped their constituents, but instead decided this is who they are.
-well guess fucking what? old people died and a lot of 17 year olds turned 18. there are more of us than there are of you, and guess what else? it's not about issues anymore, because you decided you wanted it to be a team sport without first checking the scoreboard. the gop lost races they could've possibly won because they forgot they changed the rules that everyone else is playing by. twitter profiles promoting dems didn't argue about inflation, they didn't explain gas prices, they said vote blue.
but no, now the gop wants to list issues and befuddle themselves about why they lost. well, it's too fucking late for that. they should be happy that the only reason they're taking the house is because of fucked up redistricting and bullshit court rulings on map-drawings. fuck all the way off and take the loss, pussies.