Ed just asked a question I have been thinking about all day.

[Tennessee Gal]

How can these Republicans vote against what the American people so obviously support in the Buffet Rule and expect to go home and get re-elected?

Yes, Ed, will they get away with this?

[Daniel537]

1. Sadly, they do tend to get away with it.

Voters have a chance to correct their mistakes this Nov., but many of them won't. Sad.

[Cleita]

2. Moreover, he brought up the fact that 72% of Americans want certain laws passed and

Congress ignores them and does the opposite because they have been bought and paid for by the 28% opposition.

[LiberalEsto]

3. Corporate campaign contributions

They can vastly outspend opponents.

[Tennessee Gal]

5. Will even big money help them when they vote repeatedly against what the people want?

Probably and that is such a sad commentary on the state of the voters of this nation.

[Bluenorthwest]

9. Probably? Why? I think the actual facts show that heaps of money do not really help

that much. It is useful to the right that people think it is a magic potion, money in an election, that does not make it so. Last cycle, we can look at two of the largest spending State campaigns in history, Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorino, who plastered the media with ads, spent untold millions and lost to Democrats who spent far, far less and strolled to the win. Same thing on a smaller scale in my district, lots of others as well.
It is useful in terms of understanding the limits of media saturation in politics to look at non political products which are also marketed using mass media. Fact is, many products, films, autos, foodstuffs, get introduced into the market each month which fail to spark interest in spite of enormous ad campaigns and media spending. Think of films. How many of them flop in spite of more commercials than one can count? I think some flop due to the excess marketing. Yes, there is such a thing as 'too much' media. And all players can afford enough. More is not a magic spell. More can do harm. What works it good marketing, not just 'more of it'.
So when fear strikes due to large coffers on the other side, think of Mars Needs Moms or the Edsel or New Coke or any one of dozens of failed, highly marketed products that come out to great fanfare only to get rejected. Happens weekly. Misses are far more common that hits. If simply paying for more ads equaled success for a product, no product would fail. And most products fail.

[TomClash]

4. They will steal it nt

[baldguy]

6. What do you think the GOPs national voter supression campaign is for?

The fewer people allowed to vote, the easier it is for them to stay in power.

[Tennessee Gal]

7. Yep, you are right.

They are locked and loaded for every conceivable opportunity to retain power.

[TheKentuckian]

8. As long as 80-85% or more of the vote is automatic and the remainder fickle and random

then yup.

The parties are too much like a religion or a sports team at this point.

I don't think it matters what either one of them does, 40% are locked in. It is all turnout at this point and neither will budge regardless of policies. The TeaPubliKlans are beyond all hope as they have demonstrated that regardless of personal desires/needs they will adamantly support or oppose the exact same policy strictly depending on the party that puts it forward at the given moment and Democrats are very close to the same pass.

Policy doesn't matter to people unless it bites them so hard on their ass that the thought of sitting makes them cry.

The founders opposed parties for exactly the reasons we are seeing around us, they innately must fail the people and the people fail them by allowing the system to become a game with a team they cheer.

[spanone]

10. i have no idea how these people get re-elected time and time again

and get people to vote against their own best interests

[just1voice]

11. They created torture camps and got away with it, what's stopping them now?

Nothing is stopping them, nobody is jailed or even prosecuted for high crimes such as conspiracy to commit war (WMD lies), lying to Congress (except for Roger Clemens) and torturing people via a myriad of torture camps.

Ed asks the same questions all the time like all TV talking heads do, he's a TV show puppet put on the air so they can make money doing nothing but repeating the same things over and over and over. Republicans and Democrats live in a corrupted system of for-profit everything including the offices they hold, they have no need for providing the American people with what we support.