Remember that landmark Kennedy quote? "Ask NOT what your country can do for you. Ask what YOU can do for your country."

I wonder if republicans are just so insular in their DC "wisdom" that they accept that over what reality is trying to tell them, or if underlings are just too scared to give their bosses bad news.

I remember the run-up to the 2012 election on FOX. Every pundit said that every poll showed that Romney had it in the bag (except Dennis Miller who said there was a poll out there that had Obama ahead, but he didn't believe it), but it seemed to me they were talking about national opinion polls. Romney's internal polling was showing him winning as well. And while we were anxious here at DU, so many of us had looked at state polls and the number of paths both Obama and Romney had to get to 270, and we were seeing that not only did Obama have more paths, but he was ahead in polls in most if not all of those paths. So barring any kind of trickery, a lot of us felt pretty good on election night. And I think Karl Rove's meltdown about Ohio was due to some trickery he either knew about or helped to engineer not happening - either it just couldn't be done, or the people who were supposed to, "pull the lever," chickened out or wised up and saw that Obama at that point could win without Ohio and decided not to risk getting caught.

The question is now, will republicans move away from whatever it is that's keeping them from getting accurate polls, and if they do, will they actually act on the info they get and try to appeal to more voters. I could see it happening if they need to out-conservative tea-partier primary opponents but not in the general election against a democrat (for instance, republicans are still incredibly tone-deaf about the women issues that helped lay them low in 2012).

TlalocW

According to what I read, and I think the link was somewhere here, the fix WAS in, IN Ohio, THAT night, all ready to go, to flip the numbers to ensure that romney won. Thanks again to a friendly secretary-of-state (jon husted I believe) all set up and pre-arranged and ready to help the rigged game to the finish line. But when the time came, it didn't work. Because Anonymous found out and stepped in, and fucked with the little programming worm or whatever had been put in place to trigger at exactly the right moment. And Anonymous thereby peed all over rove's parade. One variable he had not planned for, that evidently rose up outta nowhere and bit him and husted big time in the ass. Or so the story said. Funny - every time I write jon husted's name, my computer's automatic spell-check steps in and changes husted to BUSTED!!!! ROFL!!!!!!

If so, if it's true, then I REVEL in it! And in Anonymous's contribution as well. If it's true - MAN what utter shrieking nightmares they saved us all from!!!!!

The is a blackboard explanation of how to spend 40x as much money and lose. Just what the poster says about polling makes this interesting to me.

I have so far watched quite a few videos on DU, and read articles elsewhere, that analyzed the reason's for Cantor's defeat, and they have ranged far and wide. They have also ranged from fairly routine and uninspired to those brimming with deep and provocative insights. I would rate this analysis as rather lackluster - not bad, but just a passing grade. It didn't state anything that was not already pretty obvious. I felt like I was a student sitting in a college politics class, and the topic was "Campaign Management 101". Rather boring and prosaic, I'd say.

Perhaps the most insightful and eye opening analysis I saw was that of Thom Hartmann, who did some original digging and research to find out that Dave Brat was professor at a college that was heavily funded by the Koch bros., and who could have owed his professorship to them. Hartmann also pointed out that Brat had right wing talk radio on his side. The subtitle of that video I would call "The Art of Dark Money" - in other words, the Koch bros. and other billionaire funders of the Tea Party are constantly learning and refining and perfecting their art with every election, every race, to perfect the illusion of faux populism, and Dave Brat seems to be a good case in point. Of course, the implications of this are quite unsettling - that manipulating the media and public opinion to create the illusion of populism and democracy without the public ever realizing it is being done is far more efficient and cost effective than having to quash demonstrations, riots and revolutions carried out by a disgruntled and disillusioned electorate.

The koch brother relentless quest for a oligarchy to replace our Representative democracy before both of them fall victim to man's final destiny, (death), is the reason for Eric cantor's political rise and fall. After David Koch 1980 embarrassing defeat for the vice president office , They have successfully brought enough politicians, talk shows and even Television personalities to sway the minds of much of the public. Just as their great grandfather worked with Stalin to bring soviet russia up to speed in oil refinery, thus help bankrolling the soviet empire. The Koch brothers are bankrolling a demise of the american system of government.
Take our country back, is the cry. But their belief is, get the money-get all you can; damn the people, you will be a better politician.
Your conclusion that the electorate is disgruntled and disillusioned is very accurate. This seemly, inhuman position of our fellow americans to vote against their own interests, have been possible because the Koch brother and their counterparts have seized upon one undeniable aspect of our american experience, unadulterated racism. Eric Cantor perceived willingness to give in to a black persident, was completely exaggerated. His demise may have been mainly a function of his own inability to connect with other people beside his com padres.

Thom Hartmann clearly outlines that.

[link:

Thank you for that! It's the perfect description for what is going on! An oligarchy pretending to be for the people by not giving money directly but to all the proper propaganda channels.

Yep, that's the video I was referring to in my previous post on this thread. I just re-watched it, and chills ran up and down my spine, Thom's analysis was so insightful and right on. What struck me with the re-watch was, "For the Koch Brothers, the revolution is just getting started" - a "revolution" that will be straight out of the bowels of hell for the progressive voter and the common man.