Republican Senate Screw-Ups - Ohio

Republicans should have been able to defeat incumbent Senator Sherrod Brown in 2012. Ohio is a purple state, which means it tends to like moderates from either party, rather than those who are on the more extreme edge of their parties. Brown is frequently named as one of the most liberal Senators, which puts him to the left of his state. This gave Republicans an excellent opportunity to pick up the Buckeye state.

Unfortunately for Republicans they chose a rather weak candidate in state treasurer, Josh Mandel. This race is the only on I will be reviewing in which Republican attitude to rape and abortion did not contribute in a major way to why they lost. One of the major reasons for Mandel's poor performance was his "casual relationship with the truth", as Politifact put it, and his refusal to back down. Mandel largely came across as totally inexperienced compared with Brown's 37 years as an elected official.

To be honest another reason for Mandel losing is how he looks. Mandel looks like he's just finished school, despite being 35, which would have put a lot of people off voting for him by thinking he's younger and more inexperienced than he actually is. I know it appears mean of me to bring up how someone looks, but we all know that in politics, image is everything.

Brown went on to beat Mandel by 6% in the November election.

Republican Senate Screw-Ups - North Dakota

I've decided to post about North Dakota first as I believe that the Republican screw-up  was less severe than in other races. The fact that Republicans lost the seat was more to do with the strength of the Democratic candidate, Heidi Heitkamp, than the weakness of the  Republican candidate, Rick Berg. Nonetheless Berg wasn't without fault. Following the Todd Akin scandal in Missouri, the local Fox affiliate in North Dakota decided to ask Berg what his abortion views were.

Berg said that he was pro-life and that the only exception would be the life of the mother, not even rape. This infuriated many North Dakotan women who felt this was a horrible position. When the host asked Berg what punishment women would receive if they had an abortion Berg wouldn't give an answer. He said that the punishment would need to be worked on in a legislative process. Berg seemed to forget that he was running to be part of the legislative process and that he sort of needed to give an opinion. The question made him look weak and a fool.

Berg also took hits because of his extraordinary wealth - he's one of the wealthiest congressmen and that came back to haunt him. He became linked with a property management company with a dubious record.

In the end Berg lost to Heitkamp by only 0.92%, which corresponds to 2,936 votes. It's easy to see how, if he'd just been a little better, he would have won in red state North Dakota.

Heitkamp (left) narrowly beat Berg (right) in the North Dakota Senate Race
source: www.bigstory.ap.org

Why the Republicans Don't Control the Senate

If you'd asked any political pundit in January 2010, they would have told you that Republicans would have control of the Senate by the end of the year, and in 2012 they would expand that lead. It seemed like a logical assumption, Republicans were riding on a wave of popularity in 2010, so were sure to pick up enough seats in 2010. 2012 was going to be a good year also for Republicans as there were a large amount of red state Democrats. So what went wrong? Republicans have only 46 seats to the Democrats' 54 (this includes two independents who caucus with the Democrats). What could have happened to screw up Republican hopes so badly? Well largely Republicans shot themselves in the foot, in several races they chose a candidate who made crazy comments and ended up losing. Over the next few days I will analyse eight Senate races in 2010 and 2012 and explain where the Republicans went wrong in each race. The states I will analyse are as follows:

1. North Dakota - 2012

2. Ohio - 2012

3. Maine - 2012

4. Colorado - 2010

5. Nevada - 2010

6. Missouri - 2012

7. Indiana - 2012

8. Delaware 2010

Gay Marriage Legal in UK

The UK has become the 16th country to legalise same-sex marriage, although the law will only apply to England & Wales. The bill passed its final democratic hurdle on Tuesday when the House of Commons agreed to some minor amendments that were made in the House of Lords. It was given Royal Assent yesterday by the Queen and will go into affect in mid-2014. The bill represents the massive progress made by gay rights in the UK in the last 10 or so years. In 2000 the armed forces removed the ban on LGBT persons serving openly in the military, in 2001 the age of consent was equalised with straight sex (16). In 2005 transgender people were legally allowed to change their gender, gay adoption rights were equalised and civil unions legalised. In 2010 all discrimination protections were extended to LGBT people. This progress already made is the reason why the ILGA rated the UK as the best place to be gay in Europe, with a 77% progress score. This will likely rise in 2014 with the legalisation of same-sex marriage.

In an international context it should be noted that England & Wales has become the 18th jurisdiction to legalise same-sex marriage in 2013. It should be noted that 41 jurisdictions had legalised same-sex marriage prior to 2013. Same-sex marriage is truly becoming an avalanche with Soctland, Nepal and Luxembourg all working on same-sex marriage bills as well as Illinois, Nevada, Hawaii and Pennsylvania. There are also numerous governments worldwide claiming support for same-sex marriage rights.

Zimmerman Found NOT Guilty

If you live in America you will know of the Zimmerman trial, if not then I can only assume you've been living under a rock for the past year and a half. If you are from outside of America you may be wondering why the shooting of a teenager is getting so much media attention considering that in 2012 over 9,000 were killed with firearms in the United States. The reason for all the attention is that people believe that racism played a part.

If you don't know what happened, here's a rundown. Trayvon Martin was a black 17 year old who was staying with his father and his father's fiancée in the fiancée's house. The house was located in a gated community where George Zimmerman also lived. On the night of the 26th of February 2012 Trayvon went out to buy some skittles and iced-tea, on his way home he was spotted by Zimmerman who thought he looked suspicious. Zimmerman called the police to report the 'suspicious figure'. Zimmerman then preceded to follow Trayvon despite the police dispatcher telling him not to. A few minutes later Zimmerman and Trayvon would have a confrontation which would leave Trayvon dead. One witness reported to see Zimmerman on top of Trayvon during the confrontation, another phoned police when she heard screaming; that call has since been released to the public and you can clearly hear the screaming cut short following a gunshot - implying that it was Trayvon screaming.

What really set liberal America off though was the fact that police did not initially arrest Zimmerman. It was made worse when it was revealed that the police had performed a toxicology report on the victim, rather than the perpetrator, and looked into the victim's criminal record, rather than the perpetrator.

Eventually on the 11th of April 2012, Zimmerman was finally arrested and charged with second-degree murder. Today the jury found Zimmerman not guilty.

Racism is alive and well folks, don't be fooled.

Trayvon Martin who was shot and killed
at just 17.
Source: www.wikipedia.org

MPs to Get Pay Rise

Despite an ailing economy, harsh austerity and stagnant or shrinking wages for ordinary people, MPs may get a pay rise. This has infuriated the public who already don't have a lot of respect for MPs and believe that higher wages could encourage corruption. The regulator, which took control of MPs wages in 2010, argues that the rise is worthwhile. The regulator points out that other changes, such as lower pensions, cuts to expenses such as food and taxis, and lower payouts to MPs who lose their seats, negates part of the extra cost to the taxpayer. Nonetheless I believe that this is all disgraceful, you cannot say "we're all in this together" when you are cutting people's wages and then give yourself a 10% raise!

I would argue against high wages for politicians in general as it encourages the wrong kind of people into politics. We want our elected officials to care more about serving their constituents than about how much money they get. When people point out that currently British politicians get paid less than most other Western politicians, that doesn't make me sad, it makes me proud to be British!

Chaos Returns to Egypt

Egypt has been plunged into chaos since President Morsi was deposed earlier this week and much of the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood was arrested. Egypt is split over whether to support the actions of the army, initially Morsi opponents spilled onto the streets, letting off fireworks and cheering with joy. The Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters are distraught and have since poured onto the streets to show their rejection of the army's actions. Some protests have turned violent and over 70 protesters have been killed in clashes with the army and security forces. The next few weeks will be extremely important for Egypt's future as the Muslim Brotherhood continues to protest and the army continues to crack down on them. The army has called for fresh elections to the presidency and parliament and a re-drawing of the constitution.

New elections will give the secularist left a chance to steal the revolution back from the Islamists. The left was totally disorganised at the last election in 2012 with no uniting candidate for President. This meant that the run-off for president was between Ahmed Shafik and Mohammed Morsi. Shafik had been the final Prime Minister under Mubarak and Morsi had the backing of the 85 year old Muslim Brotherhood, so both were considerably better organised than the disorientated left.

If Egypt actually makes it to the next election in a peaceful state then we can only hole that the President Egypt chooses is not an Islamists or a Mubarak crony but rather a force for change.