(no subject)

[desh]

I'm not sure I'm comfortable with this. If Webb (D-VA) and Tester (D-MT) hold their leads, then the senate will consist of 49 Democrats, 49 Republicans, an independent who will definitely vote with the Democrats on basically everything (Sanders, I-VT), and Joe Lieberman. Therefore, Joe Lieberman will essentially be the second most powerful person in America. Lots of bills, leadership of committees, and so on will depend entirely on his swing vote.

Comments

Re: better lieberman than red

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

i've been much amused by that for a while. but hey, i didn't pick the red/blue colours as current representation for the repubs/dems. who did, i wonder, and what were they thinking? naw, it probably grew organically out of something silly. but "absurd misnomer"? what's absurd is the idea that tagging an ideology with a colour would be anything but a fleeting gimmick in time. especially red, which is a colour co-opted for so many things because of its vibrancy.

but whatever makes mccarthy rotate faster in his grave is alright by me.

Re: better lieberman than red

[pkzimmer.livejournal.com]

I assume that the colors were assigned sometime after 1848, and am guessing post WWII. Given the historical context, I stand by my claim.

Re: better lieberman than red

[desh]

They've only been around since 2000. And, in fact, I'm amused that the origin of the system has already started to become a lost-to-history sort of thing.

Re: better lieberman than red

[pkzimmer.livejournal.com]

Hah, didn't realize that the official nature of it was that recent. Although, to be honest, it's not surprising that I didn't pay close attention to which colors were used beforehand, since that was the first election I could vote in.