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from the they're-all-ryan-through-their-smiles dept.
Many media outlets are saying "Paul Ryan Retires" (For example, Vox's original headline.) This doesn't mean he won't still be there until the new Congress is seated in January 2019.
Vox reports:
More and more Republicans are looking at how the 2018 elections are shaping up and deciding they want no part of them--with Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL) just the latest to announce they won't run for reelection this year.
This makes 25 House Republicans and three GOP senators who are calling it quits, not counting several more who are stepping down to run for another political office (or who have already resigned). That's the highest such number[1] for just one party in decades.
Revealingly, only nine House Democrats and zero Democratic senators have so far made the same choice. (Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota resigned due to scandal, but his seat has already been filled by Tina Smith, who will run this fall.) That's a dramatic discrepancy.
Though the explanations offered for these decisions differ, and though many of these GOP-held seats are in no real danger of flipping to Democrats, these retirements are revealing how members of Congress currently view the national political environment. That is: they think there's a real possibility of a Democratic wave.
But the trend is more meaningful even than that. These very retirements could help make such a wave even bigger, because it's generally easier for the opposition party to flip open seats than it is to knock off incumbents.
[...] According to FiveThirtyEight's numbers,[2] the only time in the past 40 years there's been a bigger partisan discrepancy in [the who's not running for reelection stats] was 2008, which turned out to be a Democratic wave year.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 12 2018, @05:26PM (3 children)
I hate Trump all right, but not for any of the reasons you've laid out. I hate him because he's a bully and a real estate developer. In my 60+ years, the lowest form of human I've had to deal with are the developers, they will say whatever they have to say to get their way. Trump is well known to use lawyers that fight dirty, use bankruptcy law to avoid paying his contractors/sub-contractors and push for eminent domain to oust people from their homes. Basically, this type of person will walk all over anyone that happens to be in the way of their grandiloquent plans. And I've hated him since the first time I saw him on Howard Stern, many years ago.
At the same time, it's clear to me that he's pretty clever in his own evil, self-centered way, and of course he has a lot of resources. Before the election I was very concerned that he would beat Clinton, although I'm certain that she would have been the lesser of two evils.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 12 2018, @06:01PM (2 children)
The role of the president is not to be a pal, to you or to any country. He is there to gain advantage for the USA.
Part of the problem with Obama was that he wasn't too comfortable being a bully. When we needed to push other countries around, he would almost always make concessions and try to buy favor. That strategy is only correct on rare occasions. If you try it with Putin or Xi or even Kim, you'll get walked all over.
Sometimes you have to physically shove the prime minister of a minor European country, tweet a threat of nuclear war, walk away from a treaty, or apply huge tariffs.
I would really hate doing business with Trump. I'd hate to be Trump's neighbor. I was happy to vote for him, and I'm glad I did.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 12 2018, @10:15PM (1 child)
And idiots with no morals like you are part of why the US is declining. Abuse the rest of the world too much and they turn against you. We could have gently slid from empire to average country, with no nation claiming the empire title, but nooooo. The US was too greedy, now the entire world is paying the price.
You are gamed by the elites, manipulated into your own downfall, and the elites laugh their asses off watching you cheer them on! Boomers please stop voting, you're obviously incapable of adult decisions what being emotional reactionaries. Just retire and volunteer, leave the nation building to the more capable generation.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 12 2018, @11:48PM
Our economy is booming again. This is not "declining".
The world can turn against us, and that is fine. Of the large economies (we being largest) we are the least oriented toward international trade. We are best able to go it alone.
You seem to desire "no nation claiming the empire title". That should be "no nation able to challenge our empire title".
Accepting defeat is sick. Shame on you for the idea that we would "have gently slid from empire to average country". The only problem with American exceptionalism is that some people spend too much time believing it and not enough time fighting for it. We can and should fight for absolute dominance.
The generation leaving high school right now is abnormally alt-right. You're in for a ride if you think population trends might go in your favor. Part of this is that the young like to change the status quo, and today that pushes many to the right. Part of it is that the average family is far to the right of the average person; this is because liberals don't raise families much.
FYI, I'm alt-right and I have 11 kids. Most are to the right of me. Only one of them, a girl, is even slightly at risk of doing the whole vegan cat lady thing. A bunch of them make normal alt-right people look like leftist cucks.