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A Note of Gratitude

by: Daniel Surman

Mon May 02, 2011 at 03:43:29 AM EDT


First off, all of the moderators here at Red Racing Horses would like to thank everybody for an amazing three months! Our traffic is phenomenal for such a new website, and we could not have done it without all of the readers and contributors who visit RRH each day.

This website took some planning to come together: finding front-page posters to religiously post a roundup, buying and building the website, advertising and building a brand, and on and on. We have invested significant time and effort into this work; nevertheless, we are also indebted to another website for our start.

So, we would like to take this moment to thank Swing State Project for helping RRH get to where we are today. Many of us were (and some still are!) avid commenters at SSP, and the editors there were very encouraging of this project. It is apparent that many of our commenters and readers frequent both websites, and the level of crossover between the two is healthy for everybody to minimize their biases. 

Of course, SSP is now moving over to Daily Kos in its daily operations. We wish them all the best in that endeavor, and I for one will still be reading and occasionally commenting on their daily postings. I am confident that David and the other editors are working their hardest to maintain the SSP community at their new address.

Nevertheless, it appears that some have been skeptical of SSP’s move to Daily Kos. For those, I would first encourage you to have a bit of faith and see what happens. However, we would also invite you to take this opportunity to browse our website and see what Red Racing Horses has to offer! We are working to build our niche in the world of horserace politics, and we would like you to be a part of it. It is true that we cover elections and politics from an explicitly Republican perspective; however, we invite readers of all political stripes to participate in our discussions and feel welcome.

Sincerely,

Imperial, BostonPatriot, James_Nola, Right Reformer, Ryan_in_Sepa and SCRep

Daniel Surman :: A Note of Gratitude
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A Note of Gratitude | 65 comments
Here's to many more years!


http://www.theelectionsgeek.blogspot.com
29, Post-Modern, Female, CA-31 (hometown), UT-02 (current)
I love this site and will push it around the net
at a few stops that I visit.

Best wishes.

You guys have class
Thank you.

Some of my best friends call me a "Demoncrat"
Back Seeding
Now with SSP gone perhaps RRH can back seed another version of SSP, I honestly believe there is audience enough for another derivation of that site for those uncomfortable with the Daily Kos & Redstate atmospheres.
How Would That Work, Though?
You'd have to get a list of, say, somewhat moderate center-left types from here and the old SSP/new DKE and then get convince them to start up and moderate a new site.

I guess it'd be possible. But I'm guessing it wouldn't be easy (esp. with DKE now operating in a lot of the same blogspace)...  

[ Parent ]
Center-left
I think we welcome a very broad ideological spectrum here.  Pretty much everyone gets bashed here without too many people getting upset.  I suspect its easier to support a moderate Democrat here than on SSP/DailyKos.  Nobody will be banned for supporting Ed Case here.

27, Republican, PA-6
[ Parent ]
They should be.
Case is an unelectable douchebag.  
[ Parent ]
Wow only 28 minutes
I was waiting for someone to respond.

27, Republican, PA-6
[ Parent ]
I'd vote for Ed Case in the primary
OH SNAP.

23, MA-07, Rockefeller Republican. Christie-Martinez in 2016. Visit me at http://twitter.com/polibeast
[ Parent ]
Couldn't say it better myself
We may be Republicans, but we are very much equal-opportunity bashers with as little tolerance for conservative BS (hey, Trump) as liberal BS. We also try to refrain from outward GOP cheerleading and profane anti-Dem tirades on the front page.

I also disagree with the RedState comparison. I know that James is a former commenter there who took the initiative to start this site in large part because he was sick of it there. The only times I ever read RedState are when I want to know what the Tea Party is thinking, particularly when primaries are coming up.

[ Parent ]
Oh yes
I very rarely commented there, mostly just in elections threads, defending Mike Castle, Jane Norton, Lowden/Tarkanian, Fiorina, etc. I was called a RINO. There were a few guys there who I was usually on the same side as. Not many, and we were drowned out very much.  

Male, LA-06/LA-01 (Home is where the heart is)
Cassidy, Tillis, Rounds, Latham for Senate!  
[ Parent ]
How dare you
Defend pro-life, pro-gun, down-the-line-Republican Jane Norton on a conservative site? Fiorina was also about the most conservative breed of Republican who can be competitive in California (sorry, Chuck DeVore.) Tark was the Tea Party choice before they discovered Angle. You are such a bloody RINO!
[ Parent ]
I know
I apologize to all of my supporters, family, and friends. It was wrong and I am seeking counseling.  

Male, LA-06/LA-01 (Home is where the heart is)
Cassidy, Tillis, Rounds, Latham for Senate!  
[ Parent ]
Banned for defending Romney
I got banned from RedState in 2007 for being too pro-Romney.  

27, Republican, PA-6
[ Parent ]
I had been thinking of such a site
or a nonpartisan version since the DKE move announcement. I might consider setting one up when I am done with classes next week. Some people on SSP showed interest.

http://www.theelectionsgeek.blogspot.com
29, Post-Modern, Female, CA-31 (hometown), UT-02 (current)
[ Parent ]
I would be VERY much interested in this


23, MA-07, Rockefeller Republican. Christie-Martinez in 2016. Visit me at http://twitter.com/polibeast
[ Parent ]
At least today
RRH is not Red State
and DKE is not Daily Kos.

If that changes, then perhaps there will be a market for such a site.

Some of my best friends call me a "Demoncrat"

[ Parent ]
I'm proud of my self
It only took me 2 minutes of wondering "WTF is DKE?" to figure out: Daily Kos Elections!  

Male, LA-06/LA-01 (Home is where the heart is)
Cassidy, Tillis, Rounds, Latham for Senate!  
[ Parent ]
Sorry about that
my instinct here is to use "DKE" instead of the "great orange satanic blob that swallowed SSP" (/snark) in order to minimize the revulsion factor in this audience.

Some of my best friends call me a "Demoncrat"
[ Parent ]
took a glance there
Looks like they are starting to be swamped by the leftist fringe.

26, R, PA-01.



[ Parent ]
In the MO poll diary, no?
And that's ONE dude talking about how McCaskill isn't pure enough to merit his vote. As soon as more start coming in, every diary will derail.
[ Parent ]
Retract previous statements
I gave them the benefit of the doubt, but the fact they did not go crazy policing that diary shows they lack any semblance of control.  I still read SSP occasionally, but I doubt I will visit the site because the good political commentary is buried in whining.

As a general comment, I know progressives exist from reading such forums and attending law school, but do they really exist in the real world?  I read the commentary over there and I wonder, who the hell are these people and where do they live?

Outside of law school, I never met anyone whose as rabid and angry with the world as those people.  Maybe its because I am from a state where the progressives can all fit in two phone booths.

27, Republican, PA-6

[ Parent ]
Oh, yeah. I remember collecting signatures for
OfA in Summer 09 during the HCR debate. Lots of single payer nuts who wouldn't sign.  
[ Parent ]
Wow
I feel sorry for you.

I told someone gathering signatures supporting Planned Parenthood's funding recently I was pro-choice and against their government funding.  Poor dude was very confused.

27, Republican, PA-6

[ Parent ]
this is the reason I support a prochoice republican
over any prolife democrat...in fact a fiscal conservative cannot support for example PP funding...

38, male, Roma ( Italia ), conservative
[ Parent ]
Me too
A pro-life Dem will not always vote against public funded abortions while a pro choice Republican will. That would reduce the number of abortions, and, as a pro-lifer, I believe that pro-choice Republicans, like Capito, did more to try and reduce the number of abortions than pro-life Dems, like Stupak.  

Male, LA-06/LA-01 (Home is where the heart is)
Cassidy, Tillis, Rounds, Latham for Senate!  
[ Parent ]
Manchin and Nelson
they are both up for reelection, they both claims to be prolife and still they voted against PP defunding...

prolife democrats are simply non-existent in my opinion...

38, male, Roma ( Italia ), conservative

[ Parent ]
DavidN's working on it
http://www.dailykos.com/commen...

But there are harsher approaches and there are kinder approaches, and given that we've only just arrived here, I want to give the kinder approach a chance, especially since I've already been having success with it.

As for not ignoring inappropriate comments, well, I've been on this thread like a hawk. I've read every comment here, more than once, and intervened every time it was necessary. I've also sent several private emails. Vigilance is my watchword.



Some of my best friends call me a "Demoncrat"
[ Parent ]
I'm sure he is
I guess I wish him the best of luck.

Of course, I think he banned a bunch of the people here, which let him control his comment. But going into someone else's house and telling them to change is like swimming upriver.

Still, they have good diaries and they often get to news before most people.

26, R, PA-01.



[ Parent ]
I go to school in a liberal city in a liberal state
And still, I haven't met more than a couple people who fit into the angry progressive category. Maybe they just put on a nice face in public and save their anger for blogs, but I've never met someone who considers all Republicans to be racist, sexist, homophobic pigs in real life. Then again, the far right is just as inflammatory as the far left, so it's not like we're a party of angels either.

It has been fascinating to learn the workings of the progressive mind from my time at SSP/DKE. I've been amazed at how I can look at the same news story as the majority of commenters on DKE and summarize it completely differently and come to a very different conclusion. It's also interesting to see where priorities lie among different factions of the left. For example, there are a few male commenters at DKE who make women's advancement their top electoral priority, and will automatically support whatever female is in a race without giving consideration to the other candidates' credentials. I never knew that this line of thinking existed (I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it!), and it's been fun to pick up on different viewpoints like this.

[ Parent ]
Encountered at law school
Law schools seem to attract such people.  I hear people say this not knowing I am a Republican.  After I tell them to tone it done, they crawl back into the sewer they crawled out of.

27, Republican, PA-6
[ Parent ]
I've met only 2 people like that
1 was a former college roommate (freshmen year, 2004).

He was one of those crazy envirokooks that actively bitched at people who pressed the handicap button on the wall to open doors, and people who threw soda cans in the trash (recycling is rather hard in a college dorm). I spent the rest of that year intentionally throwing soda cans in the trash just to watch him fish them out. He went into a depression after Bush was re-elected.

The odd thing is that I'm very conservationist otherwise and have always been. I have no problems with genuine Democrats, but assholes like that tend to hurt their cause.

The other was a rabid planned parenthood abortionist type who spent much of her time railing about the lack of public funding of abortions and anything else to do with abortions.. She also whined about Michael Bloomberg's proposed soda tax and how she would have to shell out $3 a week or something like that; in other words, one of those typical people who wants big government on someone else's dime.

26, R, PA-01.



[ Parent ]
Those sound familiar
I'm involved in PR with the Republicans on campus, and half of what we do is respond to very liberal editorials in school publications. The two most recent were a call for 100% government funding of abortions, and a beauty that referred the the U.S. military as "the world's leading anti-humanitarian organization." I am thankful that the vast majority of real Democrats come nowhere near that line of thinking!
[ Parent ]
Wow,
your school is way more overtly liberal than mine. My school paper's editorials are all about how completely dysfunctional our student government is, and I haven't met a single person here that's truly interested in politics. I thought about joining the paper to write an op-ed column about New England news and politics, but it's kind of hit me that 90% of the readers wouldn't know what I was talking about, and 90% of the rest wouldn't care. But I guess that's a small price to pay for not having to deal with ill-informed stubborn left-wingers.

R, MA-7/MD-7/moving to WV-1
[ Parent ]
It will be intense work for DavidN, JamesL, et al
to keep SSP/DKE on track, if/when more purists come on in. FWIW, I've already "hide rated" (HR) one Kucinich purist. (My trusted user status on DK came back today.)

If I see any personal insults directed against any of you who choose to visit and comment, I won't hesitate to HR them either.

Some of my best friends call me a "Demoncrat"

[ Parent ]
Living by example
That is a great idea... They essentially have a thread with 100 comments maybe 15 serious about the election.

27, Republican, PA-6
[ Parent ]
RedState atmosphere
I am sort of offended by that characterization.  Any claim that this site resembles RedState is meritless.  If anything, we get more complaints because we are not right wing enough.

27, Republican, PA-6
[ Parent ]
RRH is doing well
and you've done an excellent job overall so far.

This particular diary, especially this, illustrates the class from the people who run RRH.

Of course, SSP is now moving over to Daily Kos in its daily operations. We wish them all the best in that endeavor, and I for one will still be reading and occasionally commenting on their daily postings. I am confident that David and the other editors are working their hardest to maintain the SSP community at their new address.

Nevertheless, it appears that some have been skeptical of SSP's move to Daily Kos. For those, I would first encourage you to have a bit of faith and see what happens.

After some reflection, I've decided to --also-- show "a bit of faith" in what David N, etc. are doing with DK Elections.

Some of my best friends call me a "Demoncrat"

[ Parent ]
Give them a chance
Its plausible they will not have as many problems as many fear.  I suspect many DailyKOS partisans do not care about what they cover and will rarely visit.  I kind of think sites like these draw different audiences to start with.  

27, Republican, PA-6
[ Parent ]
The biggest problem for me
is the site layout. I hate having to click open each comment to read it. But so far the content looks like the same old SSP.

R, MA-7/MD-7/moving to WV-1
[ Parent ]
Tech Tip: You can always click
"Expand" in the "Comment Preferences" bar, just before the start of the comments section

or you can set up auto expand in your user profile.

(But for my browser in Linux, "auto expand" leads to a bit of stutter in the browser response. Addressing that problem would probably make for a great section in a future tech article/book [what I do for a living])

Some of my best friends call me a "Demoncrat"

[ Parent ]
Please don't be redstate llike

[ Parent ]
Nicely said
I will also be visiting over there. Like you said in the post, without SSP, there would be no RRH. At least give it a look. Theres too many great people at SSP to let a few wackos ruin it.  

Male, LA-06/LA-01 (Home is where the heart is)
Cassidy, Tillis, Rounds, Latham for Senate!  
Just like any site
Good people and bad people, but when the bad rule you dont bother with. I wish SSP would have allowed more non partisan thought to participate, and I think for the most part they did, with the exception on a few members who held court, like me when I posted on there but when I showed a leaning to the R/Con side, I was ganged up on. Thats what makes RRH such a great site. There is a level of tolerance that wont be found anywhere else on the net as far as election analysis goes. Whether you are L or C you are respected in what you bring to the discourse.  

SC1-Charleston
[ Parent ]
I have to say that this website is better than I thought it would be...
Meanwhile, DKE is not that bad. We had the Kucinich purist in the Daily Digest, and someone refusing to support McCaskill (cause she never votes with Democrats or something?) but besides that SSPers (the good kind) have been drowning out the bad.
.
OMG. That Kucinich purist is such an asshole. I now have a pet nickname: "NiceCalm", because I told him to calm down and be nice. He's no parading around calling me names because I'm a conservative gay democrat in Texas. He's already sent me private messages calling me self-centered and awful.

23, Conservative Gay Democrat, TX-17 (Home) TX-20 (School);  
[ Parent ]
TomP? Yeah, he's been an asshole for longer than
I can remember. He's pretty well-known on DK and has a lot of fans there.  
[ Parent ]
*sigh* This is why I won't be following SSP to DKE.
Even one person like that spoils it.

From suburban Chicago's North Shore, now living on suburban Philadelphia's Main Line. Back home until July.
[ Parent ]
.
I hope you'll reconsider. I'm sure you'll still read the content. :)

23, Conservative Gay Democrat, TX-17 (Home) TX-20 (School);  
[ Parent ]
Of course, I'll still read it. I just don't want to be attacked by those types.
We'll see, I guess.

From suburban Chicago's North Shore, now living on suburban Philadelphia's Main Line. Back home until July.
[ Parent ]
We're pretty good at circling the wagons, I think.

[ Parent ]
Good
You should still comment if you see something worth commenting on. You know there'll be people to back you up (like me).  

23, Conservative Gay Democrat, TX-17 (Home) TX-20 (School);  
[ Parent ]
It does remind me of an urban renewal project
If successful, DKE will be an excellent neighborhood to visit in the middle of the city.

FWIW, one reason why I've not pursued any sort of elective politics is that I have a relatively low tolerance for "those types". I wish I had the opportunity to build up more tolerance for such when I was younger.

Some of my best friends call me a "Demoncrat"

[ Parent ]
I decided to join. I'm now user "IllinoyedR" at DKE.
Illinoyed by Illinois taxes!

From suburban Chicago's North Shore, now living on suburban Philadelphia's Main Line. Back home until July.
[ Parent ]
?
Illinois has the lowest personal tax rate in the country barring those without an income tax...

Great username by the way.

23, Conservative Gay Democrat, TX-17 (Home) TX-20 (School);  

[ Parent ]
Our sales tax in Cook County hit 10.25% at some point! It's 9.75% now. Therefore, I am Illinoyed!
I will also have to pay income taxes for my Senate Page job this summer. I'm not sure if I'd have to pay Illinois taxes for that, but I know I'll have to pay federal taxes :p. Also, my family certainly is effected by Quinn's tax hike... My parents are both doctors, my mom at a hospital and my dad has a private practice, and therefore pay quite a bit with our new income tax hike. I'm fine with my parents paying a fair portion of taxes, but not when Governor Quinn will just waste away the money like a bandage, instead of fixing Illinois' spending problems.

From suburban Chicago's North Shore, now living on suburban Philadelphia's Main Line. Back home until July.
[ Parent ]
Not to be giving tax advice
This is not formal tax advice, but you most certainly will pay Illinois Income Taxes at the end of the year on the earned income as you are an Illinois resident unless you pay another state's income tax.

27, Republican, PA-6
[ Parent ]
I was hoping someone would clarify. I wasn't sure if I'd have to pay DC or Illinois taxes.


From suburban Chicago's North Shore, now living on suburban Philadelphia's Main Line. Back home until July.
[ Parent ]
DC does not have an income tax
But you as a resident of Illinois still have to pay income tax unless its collected in another state.  I used to have to deal with this as a PA resident working on campus in Michigan.  I had to do my Michigan return then do a Pennsylvania return.

27, Republican, PA-6
[ Parent ]
?
Also, you're 17?! Why are you bitching about tax levels!!? lol. I suppose you could be like me and have lots of stock.

23, Conservative Gay Democrat, TX-17 (Home) TX-20 (School);  
[ Parent ]
Our 9.75% sales tax!


From suburban Chicago's North Shore, now living on suburban Philadelphia's Main Line. Back home until July.
[ Parent ]
If you have something to say,
I think people would be willing to listen.
[ Parent ]
Wow
FWIW, one reason why I've not pursued any sort of elective politics is that I have a relatively low tolerance for "those types". I wish I had the opportunity to build up more tolerance for such when I was younger.

I am working on building a tolerance.  I have a difficult time with them and probably would break out into a townhall by mocking them for bitterly clinging to some antiquated notion.

27, Republican, PA-6

[ Parent ]
.
He's awful.  

23, Conservative Gay Democrat, TX-17 (Home) TX-20 (School);  
[ Parent ]
Things didn't seem as bad today...
And yes, I did a quick search of his comments, and ugh.
[ Parent ]
A Note of Gratitude | 65 comments
About
Elections have consequences -- from the race for President to the race for one seat on a city council. The political economist Max Weber wrote that the state possesses a monopoly on the legitimate use of force. But in the United States, the state is divided into myriad federal, state, and local entities. And the elections to fill those entities are the products of the fascinating interactions between campaigns, party affiliations, voter turnout, and the media spotlight. Red Racing Horses analyzes those elections -- from a Republican-leaning perspective -- to keep a close eye on the process of electing officials, and to offer our perspective on the election-related issues of the day. Thank you for visiting, and we hope you'll enjoy the blog.

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