GOOOH: Get Out of Our House

Date: November 18, 2010

To: Concerned American Patriots

From: Ed Stanley – GOOOH – Georgia’s 7th District

Re: Every Other Thursday Memo Issue #8 – The results are in

We have all committed much time and effort in getting us to and through the mid-term elections in 2010. The EOTM took a breather 11/04/10 and now the results are here for your reference. The numbers are one thing. Results are quite another. Time to get caught up….

RE-ELECTION RATE 2010 – As we have been predicting, the United States voters (42% turn out, by the way) RE-elected 88% of the incumbents. According to a comprehensive tally by Fox News, there were 435 seats up for election, 338 incumbents were RE-elected, and 49 seats had no incumbent (due to death, retirement, or resignation). There are 97 “new,” non-incumbent people in The House. However, considering that there were no incumbents in 49 seats, the RE-election rate was 87.6% (435 seats less the 49 non-incumbent seats = 386 incumbents. 338 seats won by incumbents is 87.6% of the 386 incumbent seats). Before we are accused of spinning the results into a bigger number than is reality, let us understand that unless they were an incumbent, they couldn’t get RE-elected, of course. So the true RE-election rate is only for incumbents (338 of the 386 incumbents were RE-elected); an 87.6% RE-election rate. The gross figures are 338 of the 435 seats were won by incumbents (78% of the entire House). While these are historic numbers – and they are – please note that about 4 out of 5 of the yahoos that occupied the House BEFORE the election got voted back in. The “results” are not as impressive as one would think listening to the media. The approval rating for Congress was an “F” (about 12%) going into the election. Yet The House pulled out a passing grade of a “C+” (78% of The House was allowed to stay) once the election was tallied. If 4 out of 5 career politicians continue to occupy The House, how much REAL reform can be expected? –YOU do the math.

WHAT ELSE? – The turn over of power (the largest shift from one party to another since 1938 when the Republicans picked up 80 seats on the heels of the New Deal) went well beyond the U.S. Congress. Even though the likes of Rangel (with 80%), Pelosi (80%), Frank (54%) and Hoyer (64%) kept their seats, some less publicized results are worth mentioning. At the state level, there are 7 more Republican governors than there were and Republicans took over the majority in 20 state legislative chambers across America. That is big. For example, for the first time since 1870, the North Carolina state legislature is in the hands of the Republicans. It has been 90 years since the Republicans have had this much power at the state level. These numbers show a more profound change of the political winds than the mid-terms of 1994 when Republican gains were mostly limited to the national stage. But the Republicans did not win and the Democrats did not lose because the Republicans showed up and the Democrats didn’t. No no no. Take for example in the 2006 (the last mid-term) the voters were 36% R / 38% D. In 2010 it was 36% R / 36% D; not enough to cause the dramatic shift we just saw to the Republicans. The real movement makers were the Independent voters favoring Republicans by a margin of 55-40%. Compare this to President Obama’s win in 2008 that show the independents favoring him by 8 points (52 to 44%). Now that is a swing of 23 points – a dramatic shift.

SO WHAT CAN WE EXPECT? – With these shifts in majority what can we expect? Does this “fresh start” for the Republicans translate into real reform in our government? There are no guarantees one way or the other for sure. But imagine – of the 97 “new” members of the House of Representatives being sworn into office in January, how many are party loyal? How many took special interest money? How many are career politicians? The answer to all of these questions is “most if not all of them.” Check them out yourself using the website and let me know if there are any that can honestly say “Not me!” to ALL of those questions. A retraction will be issued promptly.

Our country has “bet it all” once again on the broken party system. As Boortz wrote right after the election, “What if it is governance as usual with a Republican house?.. Where do we turn then?” Good question Neal. Good question. We believe that people didn’t necessarily vote for Republicans but voted against Democrats. We certainly wish the newbies in The House well. But just in case they assimilate too well to the D.C. environs, let’s get busy NOW and give America real reform with 435 GOOOH candidates in 2012. Come get involved NOW, for soon, I fear, it will be too late.