Y’all made your bed:
Tempers flared at an unemployment office in Louisville, Ky. as the end nears for federally-funded extended jobless benefits.
Local CBS affiliate WLKY captured a bit of the scene on Monday — amid some commotion, a man can be heard saying in a raised voice, “What did you just say to me?”
WLKY reported that “at least two people were escorted out” of the office. With the threat of benefits expiring for 100,000 Kentuckians, WLKY reported, “tempers are flaring.”
It’s the type of scene that contributed to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development’s decision to add armed guards to each of its 36 field offices where workers can file unemployment claims (previously only some of the offices had armed security).
Kentucky just voted Rand Paul into office for six years with 56% of the vote. Here are Rand Paul’s thoughts on unemployment benefits:
Kentucky Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul has a blunt message for the millions of Americans who remain unemployed in the long-term: “Accept a wage that’s less than [you] had at [your] previous job” and “get back to work.”
According to Paul, the issue is “bigger than unemployment benefits” and the Tea Party-backed Senate hopeful made his position on the matter clear in an interview with talk radio host Sue Wylie on WVLK-AM last week.
“As bad as it sounds, ultimately we do have to sometimes accept a wage that’s less than we had at our previous job in order to get back to work and allow the economy to get started again,” Paul explained. “Nobody likes that, but it may be one of the tough love things that has to happen.”
Paul’s advice for the increasing proportion of the long-term unemployed came in response to a question from Wylie on Republicans successfully blocking a measure that would have extended $120 billion in unemployment benefits to jobless Americans in the Senate last week.
Obviously I feel sorry for the people of Kentucky, but it is kind of hard when they continue to vote against their own interests. If unemployment benefits do get extended, it will only be after the GOP secures tax cuts for millionaires. Maybe the people of Kentucky ought to get a damned clue.
Wait until they find out what Rand thinks about their social security checks and tells them they can’t have free scooters from Medicare anymore (although he’ll still keep accepting their medicaid payments for visiting his office). Knowing these folks, they’ll probably pitch a fit and then give him 64% of the vote, because, you know, Charlie Rangel.
srv
The democratic party needs to hire Nelson Muntz.
edmund dantes
It’s almost as bad as Obama letting this person continue to work for him.
I’d love to know who the senior official was.
stuckinred
Race trumps everything.
Bob L
“But this is not the socialism I was voting to stop. I wanted the wasteful kind, you know the stuff that goes to Latinos and Blacks.”
The irony.
I wonder if the Dem’s aren’t deliberately taking the “oh well, leave it for next congress, the people voted, you know” on unemployment extension so the GOP has to make what is for them a devil’s choice; offend the tea baggers by extending their socialism or offended the tea baggers by ending their socialism. Sort of the problem when you base your support on teh crazy.
wsn
You’re missing the point. Having the offices hire security guards is part of their plan for unemployment. Just so long as they are privately, non-monopolized contracted out, of course*. Then they wouldn’t count.
*
BlackwaterXe JV league?Alex S.
Rand Paul would make Lenin smile.
Bobby Thomson
Perhaps it was the president himself. I see no evidence that anyone departed from the script.
Lolis
If the media did a better job explaining what politicians actually believe and how they vote, I would be less sympathetic to red staters. But I am sure a majority of these people have no clue that Republicans have been blocking these benefits for months. Of course some of them probably never vote.
Democrats also suck at getting their message out. They are obviously not fighting for middle class only tax cuts. It does not give these type of red staters a clear choice. I don’t know what the fuck Democrats are up to.
Calouste
OT, but apparently Borat is not the only Kazakhstani who has a better insight of America than most Americans themselves (via the Guardian:
The only nitpick you could have with that is that they forgot an ‘i’ in run.
slag
Nobody could have pre…
Cris
Well, we don’t know which Senate candidate those two people who were escorted out voted for.
Bob Loblaw
Now, now, how do you know that man in Louisville wasn’t one of those unruly negroes you hear so much about? Exactly.
BGinCHI
Maddow had a good piece on the smartest thing Congress could do right now (from the CBO) to help the economy (extend unemployment benefits) and the worst (cut taxes).
But you know, the GOP, and trickle down can’t trickle if it starts at the bottom.
cyntax
I can’t even work up any schadenfraude over this. But this does represent the new normal for the next two years. Of course when things continue to go to hell, the pundits in DC, voters (not just in Kentucky), politicians (both Dems and Repubs) will conclude that the answer is:
More Teabag.
/Christopher Walken voice
Midnight Marauder
For the record, the people of Kentucky (and every other state in this country) had very clear choices before them.
This
was not some surreptitious statement. He made it on Sue Wylie’s radio program. Sue Wylie, of course, being one of “Kentucky’s best-known and respected broadcast journalists.” The woman is even in the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame.
For better or for worse, elections have consequences. Anyone who voted for Rand Paul and now has the unmitigated audacity to complain about not receiving unemployment benefits…I am literally incapable of feeling sympathy for you.
Just Some Fuckhead
I don’t feel sorry for them. There are too many people, generally conservatives, that only understand reality when it punches them square in the face. Next up, take Medicare and Social Security away from Republicans’ most reliable constituency.
General Stuck
You can sell stooopid
but you can’t eat it
WereBear
I agree. But they will blame liberals anyway.
‘Cause that’s what they do.
Martin
@Bobby Thomson: Yeah, I don’t see why Obama wouldn’t want that out there. The 2012 majority of voters aren’t looking for Obama to stick it to the GOP. And in case nobody has bothered to look, polling on the GOP is pretty horrible. The GOP won this year because they got their voters to the polls, not because most Americans agree with them.
So, in the spirit of what John just said, if Democrats don’t want a Republican Congress, get a fucking clue and get your people out to vote as well as the GOP did.
Karmakin
Paul is actually right. In the real world, people actually do look for jobs at or near their old wage level first, and do hold off until they find one.
Of course, that this is really a positive thing for the real economy as a whole as it’s a force that holds/pushes wages up a bit. Where we and Paul differ, is that his primary goal is to lower wages, where our primary goal is to raise wages.
EVERYTHING is a proxy war, it’s all about wages for the working class.
Maude
When Paul say sometimes we…does he mean himself and the squirrel on his head?
simonee
Shorter GOP: Unemployed and/or economically distressed? Look! Soshulism AND black people!
It’s pretty much how it’s always been.
Kathy in St. Louis
People no longer make any effort to vote for the best person. I live in Missouri, and Roy Blunt is my new senator. He’s Tom DeLay’s pal and so mobbed up with lobbyists that both his sons are lobbyists and he’s married to one. He was in the House and never did a damn thing for Missouri. Thus, he was elected by about a 9 point plurality.
People don’t care in Kentucky, Missouri and a lot of other “border” states. It’s the Bible, the GOP and socialism (meaning blacks) that are the big issues. By any right, Blunt should probably be investigated rather than sent to Congress. H.L. Mencken was right. No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.
El Tiburon
Rand Paul-
Hypocritcal Douchebag-
.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/05/14/rand-paul-cut-spending-but-not-medicare-doctor-payments/
I have no sympathy for ignorant people who vote for such transparent hypocrites.
Fuck ’em and feed ’em fisheads.
AlphaLiberal
Republicans are the party of low wages and high unemployment.
Apparently, a number of Democrats find that position attractive. Like the President whose meeting with Repubes today was on deficit, not jobs.
SteveinSC
Newsflash: Pusuing the theme of apologizing for not trying harder and reaching out more positively to Republicans, President Obama announced today that he is joining the GOP. Many of his closest advisors have also expressed a willingness to follow the President in this dramatic move to foster bipartisanship. Rep. Harold Ford expressed the view of many of the presidents closest confidants and supporters when he said: “This will usher in a new period of fellowship and prosperity!”
Carnacki
One thing that might be interesting is to compare the vote by income level for Rand Paul. In WV, those making under $30,000 actually supported Obama. But not enough of the poor and lower middle class voted to make up for the higher incomes voting for McCain.
In this case too, it’s quite possible that the unemployed voted against Rand, but not enough of them voted.
I did a quick search for exit polling data for the race but couldn’t find it in under 30 seconds so I got lazy like an Atlantic business and economics editor.
But I do know we as a people need to do more to encourage the poor and lower income people to vote because everything in the political system is discouraging and disenfranchising except for the wealthiest.
Citizen Alan
@edmund dantes:
Hell, if it were Obama himself speaking off the record, it wouldn’t surprise me. It’s been pretty clear for a while that he takes a perverse pride in the way that he lets Republicans slap him around.
Maody
@General Stuck: This.
@Just Some Fuckhead:
also too, This:
Voting against self-interest, it’s not just for breakfast anymore.
REN
Obama wants to look reasonable. Republicans will be unable to pass anything that he will sign into law,if he’s smart. Keep the high ground and make them do their damage at the margins. They will shoot themselves in the foot sooner or later.
Most of those poor people in Kentucky probably didn’t vote at all, which is actually the main problem.
WyldPirate
@Karmakin:
.
Fixed.
@SteveinSC:
Some friendly advice, Steve. That kind of talk is frowned upon around here.
Davis X. Machina
Hey, they get to keep their guns, right?
Brick Oven Pill
@Citizen Alan:
Obama likes to be slapped around in general. This is also why Michelle has got these toned arms.
WyldPirate
@stuckinred:
Help me out here, stuckinred.
I’m not denying that race is playing some role in the hatred of Obama. You can look at the returns from 2008 and there is a swath running through Appalachia that left turns through Tennessee and runs out through to Oklahoma that went more Republican in 2008 than it did for Bush in 2004.
So I’m with you on some of the race argument.
Where some of you folks lose me when you toss out the race card is the craziness that went on during the Clinton years. And the crazy hatred that was stirred up during ’88 when Dukakis ran (and yeah, I remember Willie Horton ads).
I’m just not getting that the main driver behind all of the Dem hatred from the right is due to race, particularly during the Clenis years.
cermet
@Kathy in St. Louis: Rather …
Now it is more correct.
Carnacki
Expanding on my earlier comment, the $15,000 to $30,000 income level demographic voted for Obama 62 percent to McCain 37 percent in West Virginia in 2008.
In Kentucky (my curiosity overcame my laziness), those making less than $50,000 a year (which I would guess include many unemployed and under employed) went for Conway 59 percent to Paul’s 41 percent.
But here’s where it gets a bit weird and kind of proves Cole’s point. Of the 16 percent who’d lost a job in the past two years, 51 percent voted for Paul and 49 percent for Conway (Link). My guess is that includes many who normally make over $50,000 in income who lost their jobs temporarily, benefited from unemployment and then as soon as they got another job want to go back to not caring about those who need help (See Limbaugh and Beck for two such examples of the “I got my help when I needed it, screw you” crowd) while those currently experiencing the pain voted for Conway.
cermet
@Carnacki: Uh, remember that terroist group, ACORN? That is exactly why the shit eating thugs made that its number one enemy; getting the poor signed up and out to vote are repub-a-thugs worst nightmare.
John O
People with money better have enough of it to build moats, because hungry sick people just don’t give a shit about their problems.
It’s going to happen fast, historically-speaking. Everything happens faster these days. 10 years at this rate?
Also, get off my lawn.
curious
too many
ob-gynsunemployed people aren’t able to practice their tough love thing that has to happen with themselves all across this country.arguingwithsignposts
@Carnacki:
clearly overqualified for a post as B&E editor at The Atlantic.
JPL
The State of GA has pretty much become more conservative under a Governor who has increased unemployment and cut services including funds to public schools. How did the state do this, by blaming the liberals. It did not matter that they were in charge, what mattered is that people believed their bullshit. Oh and they promised to cut taxes, even though they cut services and raised taxes. How did they do that…by blaming the liberals.
My fear is that the rest of the country will follow suit. Now the top 25% owns 87% of the wealth and if the Republicans get their way it will be worse.
We’re screwed!
Turgidson
@Just Some Fuckhead:
They’d blame Obama for that if it happened.
jl
‘ “As bad as it sounds, ultimately we do have to sometimes accept a wage that’s less than we had at our previous job in order to get back to work and allow the economy to get started again,” Paul explained. ‘
To some extent, it depends on what ‘we’ and ‘sometimes’ means.
Paul probably thinks that ‘we’ is his sympathetic term for a few losers among the ‘lesser people’, and ‘sometimes’ means a one time painful adjustment before that old free market magic sweeps us all awash in over consumption material and leisure activity bliss.
And that would be correct if most unemployment is structural, and we are close to a long run equilibrium of aggregate demand and supply, as the free market macroeconomists believe (using intellectually confused and incompetently handled mathematical econ theories, and cherry picked evidence that is not consistently connected to any stably interpreted theory from one month to the next).
I believe (although I am not an official macroeconomist) that ‘we’ will mean a large proportion of the ‘lesser people’, and ‘sometimes’ means every couple of years. And I will be right if most unemployment is cyclical, and we are in for a long depressed part of the business cycle due to a long financially driven deleveraging and debt redistribution process, that produces a lingering disequilibrium between aggregate demand and supply.
I am open for small gentlemanly wagers on this issue.
Looks we are about due for another macroeconomic experiment conducted on the lesser people.
Part of the problem is that ideas do have consequences. As Keynes said, the madmen in authority imagine themselves practical men of affairs, but they are really the intellectual slaves of some defunct academic scribbler.
Part of the problem is that our society is run by a wealthy elite who are steeped in failed political and economic philosophies and theories. I suspect that Obama is part of that elite intellectually, though whether he himself realizes it himself, I do not know.
Krugman has a good column on the issue of failed economic theories today, with links. There is a link to a mediocre WSJ article on the search for ‘new models’ in economics, which contains nothing relevant to the current debate, except the last part on Roman Frydman’s work, which might have some helpful and practical results in the near term.
The Populist
I feel sorry for any poor soul who has to endure this BUT I agree John, they made their bed when they vote for the party that wants them to suffer so a rich guy can buy another car or boat.
I just cannot care at all. If kharma gets me for thinking like this, so be it.
Michael
The Peoples Republic of Louisville is pretty blue despite being in the center of a pulsating crimson pustule on the ass of America.
BombIranForChrist
Good. The greatest revenge you can have on a conservative citizen is to force them to live according to the principles they claim to support. Take away all of it.
Shawntos
Well you can’t really blame the people of Louisville for Rand Paul it is always the one blue spot on the map after an election.
Plus Rand Paul replaced Jim Bunning and our other Senator is Mitch “Turtle” McConnell it was always a long shot to get a Democrat in the mix.
Of course maybe an ad saying that Rand Paul was going to cut unemployment benefits and cripple Social Security would have worked better than Aqua Buddha but who knows.
curious
@Carnacki: let’s put up billboards featuring acorn’s logo above a banner reading “miss me yet?”
stuckinred
@WyldPirate: Without race they just go to the next best issue. I didn’t mean it was the only issue, just the one that trumps them all now.
ps
skip the “you folks”
John O
@JPL:
Yep. Am I the only one who finds our drain circling akin to watching a very slow suicide of a loved one?
I vividly recall trying (and failing) to explain to my generally well educated and compensated colleagues why politics mattered during the go-go ’90’s, and I have since concluded that the only way that 50% of the population is even AWARE of politics is when politics bitch-slaps them into reality, personally.
Heinlein gets a tough go in the blogs I find appealing, but I will always love him just for one (rough) quote: “The human mind’s ability to rationalize is unlimited, mine is no exception.” That’s been inarguably true as validated by my own eyeballs ever since I read it. A long time ago.
Kenneth
This is going to get real ugly and real violent real fast once the Republicans block benefits.
Maybe then people will finally rise up against the banksters and smash finance capitalism once and for all, its either that or the collapse of the USA.
The Populist
@Lolis:
I saw an article recently where dems are getting rarer and rarer in red states due to misperception and “cultural” (read: My daddy votes for cons, so I must too!) beliefs.
You can tell them 100 times that the GOP is using them and they shrug. They deserve to learn the hard way…I hate saying it but what else can I do? I am tired of dialoguing these folks.
The Populist
@Kenneth:
As I said, I don’t care anymore. I am pretty spent on worrying about this crap anymore. The fact people voted out Dem incumbents YET none of the long term GOP incumbents were taken out disheartens me when I hear people tell me that this was all about getting the “insiders” out of Washington.
DonkeyKong
Oy, it’s like watching someone try to cure their headache by pounding a masonry nail into their head while screaming “I hate ni**ers!”. The horror…….the horror.
The Populist
@John O:
You and me both. I am an independent who leans left on many issues and has some of my old conservative beliefs still rattling around (fiscal discipline being the main one). When I tell a con friend that the GOP is too far right, they laugh.
Whatever. If this is what they want for America, I will just put my nose to the grindstone, tune out the nonsense, still vote my conscience and hope the young folks see the b.s. and start to bring us back when they finally see that they HAVE to vote their interests and not for a rich guy who most likely will never trickle ANYTHING down to anybody, ever.
Kenneth
@The Populist:
The Democrats and Republicans are two sides of the same coin–bailouts for banksters, PermaWar, torture, global hegemony, corporatism, “free” trade–they both need to go and the whole rotten structure that is the United States needs to come crashing the f*ck down!
Burn baby, burn! The next decade will make the ’60s look like a walk in the park and bring some much needed change.
Comrade Dread
It won’t help.
People will blame the local government functionary they can see, blame illegals and welfare queens for taking away the money they paid in, and will probably go pull the level for Paul again and again.
The Populist
@BombIranForChrist:
Yep, amen brotha. I care but I am done working to convince a bunch of close minded mouth breathers that they don’t have to be a dem or a liberal…just vote your interests and if it happens to be a guy with a D next to his name, pull the lever.
They don’t/won’t listen or have a rational discussion, so I don’t care if they lose anymore. I can’t…I have my own life and business to oversee and it’s tough to care about people who are clueless after awhile.
WyldPirate
@stuckinred:
I’m having trouble wrapping my head around that completely even now. Especially since there were enough folks to vote to elect Obama in the first place.
I agree that it is far easier to “stir the pot” of hatred with Obama in office. It’s as if the rubes can’t believe enough people existed to vote him into office in the first place.
Hopefully racism is simply the “oar” stirring the pot of hatred now. Oars wear down with use and the stew gets more and different kind of ingredients in it over time to mellow things out a bit.
We humans are certainly tribal beasties, but things have improved a lot in my lifetime. More than I ever expected. They still certainly have a ways to go, though.
kindness
Funny thing about Rand though….he wants to stick it to the unemployed, he wants people to work for less money because America needs them to, but he doesn’t want to reduce Medicare payments to physicians. He thinks doctors deserve the higher level of payment. Curious as his practice was 65% medicare. Another odd thing….out here in California, pretty much most the good physicians don’t take medicare patients. They can’t. They don’t have time for them for what they get paid. A physician who takes medicare is kind of labeled as a shitty doctor……Now that’s a heap of generalization, but I’m just sayin’.
Steve
There’s a lot of glibness here. As Carnacki pointed out, the lower income brackets all voted for Conway. The lazy assumption is that these Southern/Appalachian states are full of nothing but white working-class folks who vote against their economic interests because of social issues. But actually, the exit polls say that white voters making under $50,000 voted for Conway. It’s the white middle- and upper-class folks who vote overwhelmingly for Republicans.
There’s a sort of collective punishment vibe in the air. You, the state, voted for Rand Paul, so you, the state, can suffer the consequences. If Strom Thurmond was trying to roll back civil rights, you wouldn’t say to the black voters of South Carolina, “Too bad, you shouldn’t have voted for him.” So stop with the lazy assumptions already.
SlyFox
You know, sometimes the best way to experience something is to feel it firsthand. If a child doesn’t listen to the parent when their is a fire on the stove, then damnit, maybe the child should burn the fuck outta his hand, that way when Mama brings out the witch hazel, she can ask, “Now do you know why I told you not to do that?” Let it happen folks. Let it happen.
Comrade Dread
@edmund dantes: He is really setting himself up to fail again and again.
If I were a Democrat, I think I’d be screaming and pulling out my hair at this point.
curious
@WyldPirate: there were no 9/12, 8/28, 2/31, or whatever rallies, as far as i remember. nobody screaming (and literally crying!) about taking the country back. no birthers. no puma equivalents.
Nick
@The Populist:
reminds me of an old coworker who told me in 2008 he voted for McCain because his father would disown him if he didn’t, even though he really wanted to vote for Obama.
John O
@Kenneth:
Populist, I tend to agree with Kenneth here. The universe seeks balance, and the Little People ain’t gettin’ nuthin’ back without a little unrest. That’s also pretty clear to me.
So it is, was, and always will be? You’d think we’d figure it out by now.
Of course, I empathized (to some small degree of horror) with Heath Ledger’s Joker.
The Populist
@Shawntos:
Once he’s on the congressional record as opposing this stuff and more people are suffering I can see an opening for a dem. The guy who ran against him (forgot his name) gambled too much on the aquabuddah b.s. instead of hammering Paul on his crazier ideas.
SlyFox
@Nick:
He doesn’t know an old adage called, “Lying”?
stuckinred
@WyldPirate: That’s pretty optimistic but I do agree for the most part.
stuckinred
@Kenneth: Yea yea, the revolution is right around the corner. Rotsa ruck.
stuckinred
We have a mayoral and city council runoff today and the poles just closed. It’s going to be interesting to see which way things go in the people’s republic of Athens!
Nick
@SlyFox:
That’s what I told him, I said “you do realize your dad will never know who you really voted for” and told me he would know he was lying.
SteveinSC
@Comrade Dread:
We can take heart over the fact that we have put a moderate black man in the White House. He is personable, but a disappointing failure as a leader for tough times. We need to face these facts. He has taken a golden opportunity to accomplish important things and pissed them away. We need to look to the future. Given the satisfactory result of Obama’s election, I don’t think the progressive community should feel bad about looking for an alternative and hoping/pressing for Obama to not run again. If the Republicans fuck things up over the next two years, we might be in a position to regain control of the Congress and enact important progressive legislation, but we will need someone who will fight for those goals.
JC
It’s still George Carlin that hit the mark the best, in his “american dream” segment:
“Good, honest, hard-working people, white collar, blue collar, it doesn’t matter what color shirt you have on, continue – these are people of modest means – continue to elect these rich cocksuckers who don’t give a fuck about them. They don’t give a fuck about you, THEY DON’T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT YOU, they don’t care about you, at all, AT ALL, AT ALL.”
That’s the basic truth. What’s the matter with Kansas, shorter and blunter.
EDIT: Although Steve above has a point. But I believe it was a bare majority of modest means voted for Conway, right, in that segment of the population?
SlyFox
@SteveinSC:
And it will be that same moderated black man. The real reliable African American base will keep him in. “Progressives” can do what the fuck they want.
Nick
@SteveinSC: ,
Yes, do that, see how fast African-Americans and young voters beat you down to a pulp.
Go ahead, primary him, and then wonder why the fuck your guy only got 15% of the vote.
cermet
@Kenneth: Don’t believe it – the utterly stupid crackers of the south during the civil war, who had zero to gain by that war, marched off to defend and die in mass for the white elite of the south; as long as they are told they have inferiors (read blacks/browns) who want to take from them (the poor), they’ll swallow any lie, no matter how far fetched. Worked then, working now and will continue to work until these people wake up and realize that those inferiors are their best allies and their friends. Until they break free of the religion (modern Christianity as taught by ministers/priest and other professional liars) of hate, they and all of us, are doomed.
cermet
@Steve: Turn out – far too many didn’t bother to vote, so that part is their fault.
Marmot
God damn that’s some sorry thinking. And from the rest of you. You think those unemployed Kentuckians voted for Rand Paul? I’d be surprised if 50% of them voted at all, much less for the Libertarian-Republican hybrid.
Fact is, folks on the low side of the economic scale don’t vote much, though when they do, it’s Dem. And Dems didn’t vote in this election much overall, either.
Seriously, something is wrong with you when you see people distraught about not being able to pay the mortgage anymore, and your response is “They did it to themselves” — unless you know that for a fact. For shame.
And Stuckinred, will you please change your name to Stuckonracism? It’s your only answer to everything.
Nick
@The Populist:
Jack Conway was his name, and he hammered Paul on his crazy ideas for months. The blogsphere, which conveniently is pretending to have never heard of him, cheered him on at every turn, basking in how he hammered Paul on his crazy ideas.
Then something happened…Paul was still winning the election despite Conway hammering him on his crazy ideas.
Aquabuddah, which blogistan cheered on like it was the new “girl picking daises” ad (als conveniently forgottten) was the Hail Mary because nothing else was working.
Nick
@Marmot: They had a good candidate running who wanted to help them. They chose to stay home instead.
I’m tired of feeling bad for people who keep shooting themselves in the foot.
SlyFox
@Nick:
He won because his name was Paul. We listed various shit on Paul. Everything. He ostracized the media from his campaign, which normally would kill a campaign. Hell, college students, well white college students were enamored with Ron Paul, so they voted for him because he was Paul. Damn the issues. So, do I feel sorry. For the ones that didn’t vote for Paul, but Conway, of course. But for the ones who didn’t have the time to vote or voted Paul, I say kiss my ass.
lol
@Nick:
Something happened alright: Citizens United.
Democrats started closing the gap in races across the country (including Kentucky)… then about four to six weeks out, the flood of unrestricted corporate cash poured through the airwaves and killed the momentum.
The Populist
@Marmot:
Then they need to go out and f-in vote! I don’t care what the excuse is. VOTE.
I have a feeling there are many more Bubba types out there who are proud to vote against their own self interests and it does show in other elections.
Gwangung
Fixed that for you.
Don’t take the black vote for granted…in fact, I’d do some research if I were you.
Bubblegum Tate
I feel that way about an awful lot of people these days.
Midnight Marauder
@Steve:
To be fair, you are talking about a time when black people were literally fighting and dying for the right to even be considered legally eligible to vote, so for that reason alone the comparison is inapt. At the end of the day, there are still significant numbers of working-class whites who will vote against their economic self-interest, even if the slight majority of them cast their ballot for a democratic candidate.
41% of Kentucky voters making less than $50,000 still voted for Rand Paul. This is a lot of fucking people voting against their own economic self-interest. Whites making under $50,000 went 45% for Rand Paul. That is a lot of fucking people voting against their own economic self-interest. 56% of voters without a high school education went for Rand Paul. That is a lot of fucking people voting against their own economic self-interest.
You didn’t have blacks voting against granting themselves civil rights, mainly because they didn’t even have the right to vote for quite a while.
Marmot
@Nick: That’s different from saying they voted in their own gravedigger, which is simply incorrect.
And furthermore, whose fault is it that Dems didn’t come to the polls in droves? I blame the spineless Democratic Party, of course. Hell, the lame duck Congress could have fixed unemployment insurance renewal a long time ago, along with a middle-class-only tax cut, but chose the “safe” route of waiting until after the elections.
But why blame just the Dem party? Ever tried to find your polling location in a hurry when you’ve just moved to a new town? It’s never easy, and our system doesn’t do a thing to keep the populace engaged.
The Populist
@lol:
First we had hanging chads, then we all dealt with Diebold machines spinning elections and now this nonsense. The next time somebody on the right tells me that dem leaning judges are “activists” I will forever point at this Court and laugh hard. The real activists are the ones telling me corporations are people and that 100 years of legal precedence should be overturned because some company can’t funnel tons of cash to a PAC or a candidate.
Argh.
Karmakin
@jl: The technology boom resulted in a massive growth in productivity, which resulted in less need for labor. The economy was about to get to a point where the working class could cash in on the growth spurred by productivity increases. Greenspan raised interest rates to nip this in the bud at the end of the 90’s.
At that point, business started to cash in on the productivity increases. Demand was artificially high due to the real estate/credit card bubble, obscuring the real fundamental issues in the economy. Once these bubbles popped, demand dropped, and the bottom fell out.
Much of the unemployment right now is “structural”, not in the way that economists mean it, but in that even with normal demand, unemployment is going to be higher than we would otherwise expect.
Steps needs to be taken to offshoot productivity gains to ensure that a good portion of them go to the workers.
HRA
“Tempers flared at an unemployment office in Louisville, Ky. as the end nears for federally-funded extended jobless benefits.
Local CBS affiliate WLKY captured a bit of the scene on Monday—amid some commotion, a man can be heard saying in a raised voice, “What did you just say to me?”
WLKY reported that “at least two people were escorted out” of the office. With the threat of benefits expiring for 100,000 Kentuckians, WLKY reported, “tempers are flaring.”
It’s the type of scene that contributed to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development’s decision to add armed guards to each of its 36 field offices where workers can file unemployment claims (previously only some of the offices had armed security).”
JC, I had to get in on this based on the years I was employed by my state dept. of labor, unemployment division.
Tempers flaring is not unusual at all. It was an almost daily event. Being unemployed is not an easy experience for those who need work to survive and support their families. We, too, had armed guards on site and it was 20+ years ago.
When the benefits, extensions and any other programs such as TRA, CETA and WIN had been exhausted by the claimant, we sent them to collect welfare.
Please note I did not read any of the other comments. I will read them now.
The Populist
@Marmot:
I agree with some of this BUT the GOP didn’t make things easier by filibustering or obstructing everything they could get their greedy little mitts on.
Dems are to blame as well for being spineless. Sure, we agree there.
Nick
@Marmot:
Except they had a CANDIDATE who had a spine, and they still didn’t turn out to vote.
The Populist
@Karmakin:
I was listening to Thom Hartmann the other day. He had some fella on named Paukin and he was the former head of the TX GOP. Now, I hate his take on many social things (we need to be more fundamental in our Christian beliefs, etc) but he had one thing I liked: Bring in a VAT for all goods, raw or finished, brought in to the USA. No tax is charged if the item is MADE here. I can see this as a step in the right direction.
The dems can find some compromise on things like this because if it forces companies to open more plants in the USA, we all win.
Marmot
@The Populist: @The Populist:
That may very well be true.
But that’s different from looking at the people who’re getting fucked and saying they asked for it. You actually have to show it to be true, which not one of you sanctimonious folks have yet managed.
flukebucket
“Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.”
Kenneth
@The Populist:
Congratulations, he just came up with the idea of a tariff. It’s nothing new.
The Populist
@Marmot:
I could show you but I just do not have the time to dig up the data and post it here.
I am NOT being sanctimonious. I am just tired…tired of watching folks like Rand Paul win elections when they are clearly anti-working/middle class. He can hide behind “free market” ideals (show me where we have “free markets” in this country?!?!?!?! Too big to fail and monster S-Corps pretending to be small business is NOT free market) yet it’s all bunk.
If dems stayed home and allowed this, I am just as mad at them for it. I do feel bad for anybody suffering BUT I can’t get myself to get worked up anymore in states where the right win over and over and over again.
You mean to tell me there are more rich people in Kentucky than working class/middle class folks?
WyldPirate
@stuckinred:
I try to be on the issue of race. Coming from Tennessee and growing up when I did was an eye opener for me. Lots of mixed messages back in the 60s and 70s hearing the hate all around you from your neighbors and family. Then turning around and going to school with black kids, playing sports and music with them and becoming friends and realizing that they were people with feelings, wants and needs just like me. It was confusing at first and to be frank, you really had to hide it around some of the oldsters that were family and acquaintances.
The military was what really broke the feeling that I had to act a particular way not to draw the disapproval of older family members or acquaintances who still harbored the hate. Basically, it came down to either knockdown dragout verbal arguments or just not speaking anymore.
That’s what a lot of people outside of the South don’t understand about it. People my age–in their early 50s–that grew up there are the first generation that really began seeing blacks as equal in the South. The hate is dying off, slowly, but there is still a lot of it out there, though.
It’s disappearing. Slowly but surely. It takes people you love though, who were never able to get past the hate. And despite the hate they harbor, there is still a lot of good in those folks.
jl
@Karmakin:
I don’t agree with the part of your comment that makes some of the development in the 90s a seem like a conscious plot. But I am naive. But I have worked in finance and dealt with finance types, and some of what looks like malevolence and plotting to others, looks like severe delusion to me, and also an unshakeable faith in a failed world view that enables one to always always be the rightest brightests and wisest person in the room (even if only in hindsight, but that is OK if you can find ways always end up with most of the money no matter what happens).
I do agree with this 100%:
“Steps needs to be taken to offshoot productivity gains to ensure that a good portion of them go to the workers.”
The Populist
@Kenneth:
I hear ya’ but can’t we find something that brings jobs BACK to the USA? I get that it does sound like a tariff but as a GOP hack, they are the guys bragging about free trade and open markets, right? To hear one say that makes me hope that common sense is sneaking back into their brains when it comes to real jobs in this country.
That is all.
Steve
@Midnight Marauder: Sure, there are a significant number of lower-income people voting for Republicans. But people don’t talk in terms of the Republican voters deserving what they get; like this post, they talk the language of collective punishment regarding the voters of Kentucky as a whole. Personally, I feel very bad about the people who are going to suffer because of Republican policies. Knowing that some percentage of those people brought it on themselves doesn’t really help. It’s certainly not something I would go around gloating about.
On a separate note, I think the extent to which Democratic rule makes a huge difference in the life of working-class people is exaggerated. There’s still a big difference between the parties, but if Democrats were out there pushing an FDR agenda I’d feel a lot more perplexed about working-class voters who support the other party. Heck, raising taxes on people making over $250,000 is a controversial position in the Democratic Party.
Marmot
@The Populist: It’s a fact that people vote against their own best interests. I think it’s because of an overly strong sense of group belonging — why would fundie Christians be so dubious of global warming? It sure ain’t doctrine, but they all do that groupthink thing real well. What we’re getting is ochlocracy, rule by the mob.
Nah–I was listing that as a contributing factor. It shouldn’t surprise you or me to learn that a working class Kentuckians turned out at a lower rate than the middle class and rich.
SteveinSC
@Gwangung:
Facile. Try that argument on the republicans who just stormed into the House, they’ll get a chuckle.
And by the way, when you say you’ve fixed my comment, try to do a better job before you crow about it.
Marmot
@Steve:
Exactly.
I remember reading the comments after news on NATO bombings in the former Yugoslavia, where civilians died on some bridge. “Fuck yeah!” said the yahoos, “They voted for Milosevic, so they deserve it! They could have overthown him, but chose not to!” Same shit.
Southern Beale
RE:
More likely, these folks didn’t vote at all in the midterms. The lesson here is when you stay home there is a penalty for your inaction.
SiubhanDuinne
@stuckinred #71:
The only races on my ballot were the two statewide judicial slots. It took 1 hour 55 minutes in pouring rain and horrendous traffic, but I made it to the polls with 5 minutes to spare. The poll waatchers were almost pathetically grateful to see an actual person. (Low turnout? You think? Off-year runoff for unsexy posts in vile weather? — I’m going to treasure my little “I’m a Georgia Voter” sticky badge!)
I vote at every possible legal opportunity. Why I haven’t been called for jury duty, I cannot fathom.
gwangung
@SteveinSC:
What’s amusing is that you think progressives, as a bloc, can lead the rest of the Democratic party. It may be facile, but it’s true; you’re going to have to work WITH other factions of the Democratic party–and primarying Obama ain’t gonna do jack with the African American segment….at least not without a lot more coalition building and work.
You’re coming off as presumptuous—gotta work on that.
Midnight Marauder
@Steve:
I think I would disagree with your (and others) classification as commenters here “gloating” about the economic suffering that is most certainly coming to Republican governed states, or states featuring primarily Republican representation. For the record, this is how I characterized my sentiment at the beginning of the thread:
I understand what you are saying about collective punishment of Kentucky voters as a whole, but where I can’t go down the same path as you is that the numbers indicate that a great deal of lower and middle class Kentuckians cast their ballot for a person who could literally not give a fuck less about them. There is a lot of blame to go around regarding the reasons this country finds itself in the state that it currently does, but I am someone who places a great deal of fault in the ignorance of the electorate themselves.
Yes, the system is constructed in such a way as to flood the airwaves with bullshit propaganda designed to obfuscate and confuse voters. But we live in the Information Age, and that information is widely available to an increasing population of people. A population of people who make a conscious decision to reject that information in lieu of meaningless platitudes, failed ideologies, bigotry, and discredited economic philosophies.
Again, I think it’s less gloating, and more voicing immense frustration at the fact that a population of people continue to cast their votes for a party that has not done anything for them, and will not do anything for them, to improve the overall quality of their life. They’ve watched entire industries and economic infrastructures wilt away, and they have just acquiesced to whatever convenient scapegoat Republicans have tossed before them. And I’m sorry, but I stopped feeling bad for people like that a long time ago.
There are plenty of other people in this country who have a fucking clue and are still being shafted that my heart bleeds for.
Please point out the Republicans who have dedicated their careers to improving the quality of life for the working class in recent years.
Steaming Pile
Don’t try to understand Kentucky. It’ll just make your head hurt, and you’ll understand it less than you did before.
MNPundit
I really hope the guys in the office are saying with a smile:
Well, we can’t give you money because the Republicans don’t want to give you any money because the Republicans think you are lazy.
Odie Hugh Manatee
While I think that people ought to get what they ask for and have even said so myself, the problem with extending this to the realm of politics is that there are plenty of people who did not vote for what they are getting. They voted for the other guy and now are going to suffer due to the stupidity of their fellow citizens. If the person is having difficulties due to the very person they voted in then I am more than happy to point and laugh at their idiocy.
For every story of pain I hear about out there, I would really like to hear about the political leanings of that person who is in pain. Anyone can complain about their lot in life but I want to know if that person warrants my sympathy or ridicule. I can sympathize with ‘hard working person hit with hard times’, there is no problem understanding that. But if the voting habits of that person are what set up the conditions that they now find themselves in then I have little sympathy to give to them.
Life is like a high-swinging trapeze act. You feel safe and secure as long as everything is working right and you are in great shape to perform. However there is the small detail about the possibility of falling when transitioning from one swing to another that has to be addressed. Same if you find that you have to get off of your swing and there isn’t another one to grab on to. If you are wise and opt to spend money for safety nets and air bags to land on, you have a chance to dust yourself off, climb back up and get back to swinging after a fall.
If you decide that safety nets and air bags are too expensive then you may never get up again.
SteveinSC
@gwangung:
And while you’re working on “presumptuous–gotta work on that”, try working on your non sequiturs .
Steve
@Midnight Marauder:
You’re setting the bar way too low for Democrats if this is your best argument that working people should be thrilled to vote for them. More to the point, that argument doesn’t seem to be winning enough working-class votes, so it might be time to find a better one. This whole thread is a big wank about how we need to repeal and replace the electorate.
Linda Featheringill
I think that if the Republicans get their way about a lot of issues, we will all suffer, no matter how we voted and how much we contributed and how much we volunteered.
We are all going to suffer. Well, maybe not all, but a whole bunch of us. This will be due to what the Brits call the “knock-on” effect. Poor people, unemployed people, and the working poor spend every dollar they get. They have to. And if you take away the unemployment benefits, less money will be spent. And the whole economy will shrink.
Midnight Marauder
@Steve:
I’m not going to disagree that Democratic messaging on this issue has been extraordinarily terrible for a long time. However, that fact still remains that the Republican Party does not care about the working class. That said, the Democratic Party needs to blow up its entire messaging operation and start from scratch.
Or that we need a better informed electorate, and that said electorate has an equal responsibility and necessity to adequately inform itself on various important issues; much like political parties have a responsibility to competently educate the populace as to the political realities of the present day.
El Cid
I think that any Republican voter applying for unemployment publicly announce that he is a lazy welfare bum and is a parasite on society and that a poor man never gave nobody a job.
Nick
@Steve:
There are no other arguments.
Will
The people of KY may have voted in Rand Paul, but the people of my hometown of Louisville, KY voted Conway, and re-elected a terrific progressive Congressman, John Yarmuth. This happened in Louisville, not Floyd County. There is a big difference.
Triassic Sands
The people I feel sorry for are the ones who are being victimized by the stupidity of those voting against their own interests.
It’s not like Rand Paul was some stealth candidate who hid all his reactionary beliefs.
I also feel sorry for Democrats who have to choose between Paul and a mediocre to poor candidate like Conway.
ET
I have a friend in Lexington who is off unemployment for about 60 days and it took her almost 2 years to find a job. She was applying for lots but almost never got an interview.
Rand Paul is under the misapprehension that there are a lot of jobs out there but that people just won’t take them. If he stopped sniffing the libertarian glue he would see that is not the case. Of course now that he can spend most of his time in Washington he can be even further removed than he was before.
As for the KY voters – they got what the voted for or what they couldn’t be bothered to vote against. Wonder what would have happened this past November if unemployment expired before the election and not after.
Pococurante
But but… I thought expecting a populace to accept the verdict of an election was collective punishment!
Beffie
Uh, yeah…thanks for telling them that it is their own damn fault except, you know, you don’t actually know who they voted for and even if they did vote republican the impact of their poor choice is felt country wide.
I love the “go work at McDonald’s” ass#@les….they should go to McDonald’s and apply for a job with a degree and 25 years of professional experience. They turn you down because you “won’t stay for the long term”. Same for waitressing, same for grocery clerk. If you are over the age of 50 you WILL be turned down…yes, even at McDonald’s.
Jelebino
Commenting from Australia, so I really don’t have a horse in this race.
However, wouldn’t it be the just and proper thing for the Kentucky unemployed to petition their elected representative Mr Paul to support the extension of benefits, pointing out that they are desperate and that this is a time to take a stand on domestic tranquility and the general welfare, and not on laissez-faire principle?
Surely there’s someone willing to organize such a petition? What? No-one?