So let's assume for a moment that the two parties are not equal, that they're night-and-day as written. What good is it if the very electoral system, the only way to put one or the other in place, is highly corruptible and historically has been corrupted by Republicans and the right-wing? In other words, the belief that voting in Democrats left and right is a pipe dream if the Republicans can steal it any time they wish.

This past Tuesday only exemplifies what I've been saying for years, and aside from electoral corruption this is the biggest problem: Americans never vote anyone in office; they always vote someone out. And that's because this system, the one you get a 'visceral thrill' from when you participate, never produces quality candidates. Ones that don't lie their ass or or ones that aren't unabashed in their extremist doctrines that appeals to the poorly educated (like those in the south).

Between deplorable candidates and a corruptible system, it's impossible for America to win.

It wouldn't have mattered if the Tea Party existed; the Republicans would have stolen the election anyway, as they've done for decades.

its all a shell game, and i do mean its ALL a shell game. its a testament to the 'murican people's (un)attentiveness, mis-education and monumental apathetic selfish stupidity. i find it disgustingly lame.

People! You have to remember who owns the damn machines we vote on. You cannot trust that this outcome is what actual people voted. How many times does this have to happen before we get it!??? The machines are rigged and so is this political system.

We WERE missing around 14 million young voters in this last bout. It was up to the White House to keep them engaged. Youth does not always connect the dots when young....but they will.

My take is that the Republicans used the Tea Party and the unlimited corporate money they were granted by grace of the Citizens United decision to turn out their base and blanket the airwaves with messages to influence the middle and demoralize the left. The Democrats didn’t even think about their base, focusing on the middle, which they thought would be sophisticated enough to make their own judgments. They weren’t. Last minute efforts to reach the Democratic base were too little, too late, and Jon Stewart’s rally telling us we didn’t deserve our anger didn’t help, either.

Now the Republicans are in mop-up mode. They wish to create the belief that the electorate has repudiated the “leftwing” policies of the Obama administration and wants to return to the conservative fold, by which they mean whatever the corporations want. They are working to put the Tea Party back in the bottle and give the corporations the whole shebang. Corporate Democrats are joining that effort. The people are screwed.

This election was just another step in the Republican march begun after Nixon’s resignation to create a one-party state. They were strong enough in 2000 to engineer a judicial coup to put George W. Bush in the White House. When their appalling policies caused things to crater in 2008, they deftly engineered the election of a Democrat—any Democrat would do—to deal with the crash and be set-up for total defeat in 2012. They are on course.

The Democratic Party only exists because the Republican Party needs it as a foil to create the illusion of choice, just as the corporations create the illusion of choice at the supermarket, the mall, the doctor’s office and all the rest of it.

Even with unlimited corporate cash they only outspent us two-to-one and only managed narrow victories in most of the races they won. The country does NOT want to return to the Republican fold. Not everybody is a dupe and a fool. Obviously we can’t continue to compete against unlimited corporate pockets funding constant, ever more-expensive campaigning. What are we going to do? Third parties are not permitted to succeed any more than the Democrats are. I suspect the Republican Party is also no more than a front group for the tiny bunch of corporatists who are really in charge. Some of them were revealed during this election cycle—the Koch brothers, etc. Surely there are a few more still lurking in the shadows, but it's probably a very small group. The real kicker is it's not really a conspiracy . . . corporations are in competition with one another. They're only cooperating to create the playing field they want to play on, with the rest of us as collateral damage.

Is the United States of America over? I think so. I suspect the time of nation states has ended, supplanted by corporate states without borders. Just like their oh-so-useful terrorists! To the corporate state, religion, political parties, the Constitution, the flag and other national myths are nothing more than tools for controlling the populace.

What the hell are we gonna do?

The corporations are sowing the seeds of their own dissolution. The economies worldwide will tank and the corporations will go crying to the various governments to bail them out only the cupboards will be less than bare. They will have been chopped up for firewood.

And why does the White House have to keep kids engaged? Can't they think for themselves? Don't they see what's happening? Supposedly, kids have finely honed bullshit meters. Did they turn them off? Or are they just brainwashed by brain dead parents?

Everyone, everybody, send a message
to the President.
NO TAX CUTS TO THE RICH
Pass it on!
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

I'm still trying to register the fact that Feingold will not be in Congress. He has been the one person in Congress that I have trusted and believed has had the best interests of the American public in his heart.

I have totally lost my faith in the voters of Wisconsin and the entire US. What happened to Democratic voters who should have turned out and voted - especially the young people. Did they have something more important to do?

I work at an elementary school that is a voting site. A student majoring in education came in and asked me if it was "Grandparents Day" because there were so many "older" people in the building. I said "No. It's election day. And all these "older" people are here to vote. I suggest when you go back to your dorm that you tell all your college friends about who is voting, and make sure you all vote today!" I have my doubts she did.

23:13 — Mary C --My goodness you are an excellent writer as is the article's author, Mr. Pitt!

But alas, at this point, you are right. What the hell are we gonna do, is like asking, what's the meaning of life? The enigmatic question is as elusive as its obvious answer: I don't the f know! Once again you're right, and yes Virginia, we're screwed!

Calling all geniuses. Calling all geniuses. Dire need for geniuses that care to save humanity....

"Calling all geniuses. Calling all geniuses. Dire need for geniuses that care to save humanity...."

Sorry, people like me decided humanity does not qualify as sentient, and therefore is not deserving of rescue from its own demise.

"Seriously, how much exposure to John Boehner and Mitch McConnell can a reasonable populace endure?"

Given the results of the mid-term elections, it would seem the answer is: a whole lot.

These people aren't in office by accident. They want to be there, and the whole lot of people it takes to place such people into office also want them there, the majority of voters not least.

jruss invites us to "Imagine these schmucks [John of Orange and Mitch the Human Turkey] arguing with actual climate scientists about global warming or real economists about the likelihood of debt reduction while continuing two wars and tax relief to billionaires."

I can imagine it, all right, but not with our current corporate media. Especially not now that one of its few liberal voices has been suspended for an indefinite period.

Root cause: Obama. On one side, he resurrected the deep racism that lies just below the surface of our politics. He hes handled that with great dignity and grace. On the other, he deeply disappointed progressives in his thoroughgoing servitude to the power elite and in one of the most striking displays of presidential ineptitude in our history.

The wave of stupidity that swept out Russ Feingold may wash out Obama in 2012. He can never restore what he has squandered. His only hope is that the Republicans advance a candidate so hideous he can squeak by, as Reid did in Nevada.

Thank you, Mainstream Media, for once again obfuscating the real issues and facts, while enabling the freaks and oddballs to take center stage. Bravo.