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Goodguy  14hr ago (text post)   Edited 11hr ago   4623 thread views

Midterms Megathread

Cause otherwise midterms discussion will be scattered around a bunch of separate Culture War thread posts. And it's nice to have more off-the-cuff rapid reactions in a dedicated megathread.

The first thing I've noticed so far: if the exit polls are correct, Americans are very pessimistic about AI.

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I grew up in Texas before I was in Florida, but 20 points is nuts, is Paxton that bad?

Jesus. Texas going blue in any capacity was a pipe dream for years. Never would've expected this after Trump's 2024 win.

Yes. Paxton is terrible. I’m mostly disappointed Abbott couldn’t outrun him enough to keep an insane socialist who’s never had a job from thé top spot.

Nah, Paxton is a great candidate. He would have been the best Senator in DC. The reason Paxton went down in flames is because the NRSC spent $150,000,000 ruining his reputation to defend Cornyn and then when Cornyn lost anyway 65-35 the Texas GOP then went on a tour to make sure Paxton lost by mobilizing "reasonable conservatives" like Karl Rove and George Bush to denounce Paxton and cutting off Paxton from the donor network. The only reason Paxton has money is because of small donors and Elon Musk spending hundreds of millions of dollars.

Cornyn would have lost even worse. This is the GOP sabotaging the GOP candidate. And in this regard, Abbott is hardly innocent, he just didn't realize this sabotage would cost him the Governor's mansion also. Texas GOP voters should be livid, but it shouldn't be at Paxton.

You think Ken Paxton’s adultery, corruption, and partying with fugitives wasn’t going to come out on campaign in the general? You think Ken Paxton’s going on vacation instead of campaigning would have won him thé election if George Bush had been nicer to him?

Abbott

Outrun

I see what you did there

Judging by Abbott's loss, it doesn't seem to be solely a Paxton problem.

20 points is jaw-dropping though, I agree. They're going to be studying this for a while.

Abbott is a function of Paxton.

maybe it was a bad idea for the Texas GOP to smear poop all over Paxton to defend Cornyn and then stab Paxton in the back after Cornyn lost anyway

and you know who you can thank for that? Your boy Abbott and Cornyn and their posse of grifting morons like Karl Rove

Is your theory that Paxton is actually a principled public servant and not a wildly corrupt whoremonger forced to trot out his own betrayed ex-wife for advertisements?

I did a quick AI Slop search. It seems like paxton himself was a fairly bad dude. Incredibly currupt. Also, looks like hispanic demographic are catching up to texas. Hinojosa ran compaigns in both english and spanish, and accused her opponent of helping out data centers.

Paxton’s corruption record is almost as bad as it can be in practical politics, maybe just short of the gold bars dude.

Mostly though? Texans fucking HATE high gas prices. Despise, more like.

I mostly buy the "gas prices" argument, but current pump prices aren't out of line with plenty of moments in the Biden and Obama years, and even the late Bush administration.

But I'm not sure people were happy with those at the time. Is diesel a big factor? That does seem to be at all-time highs. I also drive an efficient car and don't put that many miles on it.

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