37% of Americans voted last Tuesday

According to the News Journal it was the lowest voter turnout since WWII.

Now we've got one party thinking they have a mandate from the majority of the American people. Divide 37% by two and you can see that it only took a 20% vote of all the voters in this country to take control of congress and the house. It's not a mandate but politicians on both sides like to say it is when they win.

The American people should be deeply ashamed of themselves.
Like I said on another thread, more people watched a football game this weekend than voted in our elections on Tuesday.

I'm not complaining because we will get what we deserve every time this happens. The painful part is all the people who did vote have to live with a government divided into two warring parties because only the fringes go out to vote in this country. Even in a presidential election year it's hard to get over 50% of registered voters to vote.
It's just disgusting. The rest of the world puts us to shame.

I guess if more Dems voted they would have won.. Maybe they didn't have a free ride to the voting place and a free cell phone or lunch promised to them....

All I can say is that I voted and, from what I have seen here, most of y'all voted.

You can only do what you can do... no more.

Still, it is sad that so many folks don't vote. 

Think that they are disillusioned and don't vote, or perhaps just don't want to be bothered by civic duty?

GOOD ! they should be ashamed of how bad their previous idiotic votes messed things up.. Let the adults vote !

Dems manage to find rides to the polls every 4 years, they could do it every two years if they cared enough. Not all Republicans voted either, by the way, and not many independents.
I'm not blaming anyone on this forum because we all voted but I do think we should all be ashamed at the turnout we have in our elections.
We can't call ourselves the greatest country on the planet if we don't care enough about this country to even fill out an absentee ballot and put it in the mailbox.
And I don't know about you guys, but I got two absentee ballots, pre-stamped at my house that I didn't even request.

BTW, I don't think the lady in Iowa who was elected because she grew up castrating pigs was elected by a majority of mature adults in her state. That is unless IOWA really does stand for Idiots Out Walking Around.

Eddard wrote:

Dems manage to find rides to the polls every 4 years, they could do it every two years if they cared enough. Not all Republicans voted either, by the way, and not many independents.
I'm not blaming anyone on this forum because we all voted but I do think we should all be ashamed at the turnout we have in our elections.
We can't call ourselves the greatest country on the planet if we don't care enough about this country to even fill out an absentee ballot and put it in the mailbox.
And I don't know about you guys, but I got two absentee ballots, pre-stamped at my house that I didn't even request.

BTW, I don't think the lady in Iowa who was elected because she grew up castrating pigs was elected by a majority of mature adults in her state. That is unless IOWA really does stand for Idiots Out Walking Around.

That sounds like bait for Damaged Eagle, one of our members from the Des Moines area.  DE, I don't think he meant any offense to you.

Many of the ones that vote normally stop on the way home from work to vote, while the non voters don't care enough to vote or work....

Is it better to have a country that requires someone to vote and it's a penalty if they don't??

No way anyone should be forced to vote. Those that keep uninformed of politics or the economy or pending legislation shouldn't vote. Voting a straight ticket is just a lazy cop out . If you really give a damn about your country you should admit you don't have a clue about the issues that affect the country and let those that study and prepare vote.

A Well-Informed Populace Is Vital To The Operation Of A Democracy

I agree.......

I voted and I understand that many fed-up dems voted republican.

Joanimaroni wrote:

I voted and I understand that many fed-up dems voted republican.

Used to think that all should vote but agree with a previous point...not all should!...Some haven't done so well the last couple of presidential cycles....

I agree Teo.... There are many that voted because they were told to vote by a boss, minister, priest, rabbi, parent, union leaders, or someone else that has some sort of influence in their life.. The sad thing is many people have no clue and go to vote anyway..  Last week, I asked 4 college kids a question about quarantines for Ebola and they said "what's that"??  They knew a lot of things about college sports, but nothing about current news or politics..  NO, they did not vote because that's something they were never taught how to do.. They had NO clue about a few politicians.. A asked what they thought about a few of them and they said "Who's that"..

Sadly many vote for the one that promises the most free stuff......

I apologize if I offended Damaged Eagle. Did not imagine that anyone on this forum could possibly be from Iowa. I think the joke refers to the results of some of the caucuses they've held over the years that have come up with the least probable candidates to ever win any national election.

I don't think there were all that many crossover votes though. I'd like to see some stats on that if there are any. A lot of Democrats are disgusted with Obama but I don't personally know any of my Democratic friends that would even consider crossing over. They just did not come out to vote.
Both parties are way too polarized to cross over in this day and time.

And that Obama phone, too!

Joanimaroni wrote:

I voted and I understand that many fed-up dems voted republican.

I threatened to do it, but wound up voting for the best candidates.

I have disdain for folks that vote straight party candidates, without considering the candidate qualifications.

Eric wrote:

And that Obama phone, too!

Yeah. Too bad that free phone stuff started under Ronald Reagan. Check it out on Snopes.

I've voted Republican since I  became a democrat and I try to vote for the person who agrees with me. I voted for Crist when he was still a Republican and he proved to be a decent governor.  I know 99% of y'all disagree with that but it doesn't make it not the truth. I voted for John McCain once before he went crazy.
But I do think that what party a candidate is in tells a lot about the man or woman who is running. I wish Obama would have acted like a Democrat the last 4 years. If he hadn't caved in on nearly every issue out there a lot more democrats would have voted. I honestly believe that.
He's acted like a Republican ever since he was elected and I think if a lot of people were really not blinded by party they could see that.  We wouldn't be adding another 1500 troops back into Iraq if it wasn't so. That's not a democratic idea at all. Neither was giving insurance companies control over the Affordable Care act a Democratic Idea. That one came from Mitt Romney.

What I don't like is folks that always vote for the other party telling Dems why they are disgusted with Obama. It's not because he's such a strong Democrat and gives away everything  to a bunch of welfare cheaters, it's because he's too much like a Republican. Some Republicans should listen to the Progressive radio stations sometimes. They might get a clue about what really happened in this election. They might figure out that the reason they won wasn't because it was a great shift in the attitudes of the American majority.