Over the years having spent far
too much time among the far right and the far left; when it comes to politics
I've come believe that both sides view the American electorate with an equal
amount of contempt. It can be summarized cynically but succinctly by saying that
both extremes just them by a different part of Martin Luther King's 'I Have A
Dream'.
The far right thinks the Democratic
Party only judges the electorate by the color of its skin – to wit, the only
reason the Democrats have done so much for minorities ever the Civil Rights Act
is to get them to vote Democrat for the rest of their lives and that these
minorities are so dumb they'll do just that without any insight or cognitive
process at all. The far left chooses to judge the electorate by the content of
their character and judges them based on their lack of education and that their
prejudices in the so-called culture war are the only reason they vote
Republican election after election. (They also tend to thin anyone who votes at
all is a sucker for believing in the system at all, but I've written about that
enough and will again so let's let that go.)
Both extremes have taken radically
different approaches. The right's approach has always been based in manipulating
the process to achieve their end whether it be through gerrymandering, voter purges
or their long endeavor to take over the Supreme Court. The left's approach has
been, more or less, to avoid politics altogether; mostly engaging in protests
and demonstrations that have done much over the year to give Republicans the
power they need to maintain that power. Even
in the last decade as Trump has more or less marched the GOP to fascism they
have done little, if anything, to alter their approach to the threat he faces. Their
demand for a moral imperative more than practical politics as well as an attitude
of 'they need to do this but they won't' has played a small but not inconsiderable
role in the return of Trump to power last year.
As someone who supports many of
the progressive principles but who has made it clear that they have neither the
wherewithal to do the same to the Democratic Party even as they point out how
the Republicans have done the same, I have been frustrated beyond words that
not even Trump's reelection has caused them to change their beliefs or their
tactics one iota in the last year. Yes they engage in massive protest movements,
yes they expressed outrage at Colbert's cancellation and Jimmy Kimmel's
suspension but that is yet another in a long line of the left yet again missing
the forest for the trees. None of this was going to do anything to stop Trump
from doing what he did in his first term and has continued to do in his second;
all it was going to do was play into the hands of his base which has been in lockstep
behind him for a decade.
It has been hard to maintain my
belief that someday our country would move past Trump in the past year not so
much by his actions in the White House but because the left-wing organizations
were still engaging in the exact same tactics they had done during his first
term that had gathered much media attention but didn't change a single voter's
mind about him. There is only one way to send a message to Trump that will register
and yes, it's at the ballot box.
I realize I may sound like a
broken record at this point, but some songs have to be repeated in order for
them to register particularly with the left because they seem unwilling or
unable to grasp it. In a democracy –
which last night proved we still are – there is only one way to send a message
to those in charge and that is through the power of the vote. I do agree with
Churchill it is the worst form of government except for all the others.
Considering the left won't acknowledge the latter part of that statement is
true – and have yet to come up with a viable alternative in all my years of listening
to them – I'm going to stand by Winston on this one.
I knew that any election was the
only way to effectively prove our frustration as well as reminding us we do in
fact live in a democracy. Indeed I've received multiple examples in the past
several months that have given signs that Americans regretting voting for Trump
2.0 within months of his being sworn in.
We overperformed in both of the
Florida special house elections. We won
the Wisconsin Supreme Court race despite all the muscle and money of Musk. In August
we won an Iowa state house seat that hadn't gone Democratic the third one we'd
won in that state this year. The Iowa Republican chair was so alarmed he said
if Republicans didn't be more careful 'the state could flip in 2032." His
words, not mine.
But the clearest sign of America's
frustration with the Donald came last night when several critical elections
happened. And by far they are the
biggest sign that America does have a path forward.
I'm not going to make this article
about the New York City Mayoral race for a simple reason: that's exactly what
the extremists of both parties want last night's elections to be about
and nothing more. The GOP has been doing so ever since Zohran Mamdani won the
Democratic primary last July and watching CNN last night I saw two Republican
commentators testing out that very message in the aftermath of his victory.
(They pretty much had to considering how the rest of the night went.) Their
reason fits into the color of Mamdani's skin and certain parts of the content
of his character. The far left basically wants him to be the face of the party
for that exact same reason and what the right considers a weakness they
consider a strength. I don't want to
give either said oxygen for their arguments because we'll be hearing them ad infinitum
for the foreseeable future. No, I'm going to focus on the other major results
of last night – and some I'm pretty sure all but the most devoted political
operative misses.
First there were the Virginia
elections. Abagail Spanberger was
expected to win last night for the Democrats. The polls expected her to win by
at least a five to seven point margin. Spanberger won by nearly fifteen percent
to become the first female governor of that state in its history.
This victory I should mention had
coattails. Last year through a
concentrated effort the Democrats won a narrow margin in the House of Delegates
with 51 seats. As of this writing they have already flipped ten seats and may
flip another two or three before the votes are all counted. It was the largest
victory for Democrats in the state in decades. Throw in the wins for Lt.
Governor and Attorney General and the Democrats have complete control of a
bellwether state in election results.
New Jersey has an even bigger
success story. Four years ago Jack Citarelli
came within three points of unseating the incumbent Democrat Phil Murphy for
reelection. Running against Mikey
Sherill Citarelli was at a financial disadvantage but the polls appeared to be
close with Sherill only ahead by four points on the final weekend. Sherill won
by thirteen points effectively a landslide.
Not since the 1960s have New Jersey governors elected a governor from
the same party for three consecutive terms.
And considering that Trump endorsed Citarelli in May and Citarelli's
full throated embrace of Trump was critical to his run, this is if anything a
bigger sign that Trump's influence on the voters have dropped.
Both Spanberger and Sherill are
centrists Democrats who came into the House in the blue wave of 2018. They
achieved less notice that AOC and the Squad but their relationship has been
significant. Both made the decision to resign and run for the governors of
their respective states this year and both have won in what could be
landslides. Both women will no doubt be considered for higher office, perhaps
not in three years' but certainly down the road.
The most significant direct rebuke
of Trumpism came with the nearly two-to-one passage of Prop 50 in California.
But there were more important down-ballot races that show in a very clear way
how much Trump's appeal is finally starting to wear off.
In Pennsylvania three retention
elections were given enormous focus by the GOP to remove three Democratic state
supreme court justices, particularly by anti-retention groups. All three
Democratic justices won by around 27 points. The Georgia Public Service
Commission elected its first two Democratic candidates since 2000. Maine
held a referendum on Voter ID and temporary restrictions on dangerous weapons.
By a nearly twenty-seven point margin the voters rejected Prop 1 and affirmed Part
2. Even in deep red Mississippi
Democrats managed to make gains of some note, gaining two seats in the Senate,
and one in the House. The latter ended the GOP's supermajority in that seat,
meaning the Democrats hold in one chamber some power. Considering the closeness
of the 2023 Mississippi governor's race there may be hope for the Democrats deep
in the heart of Dixie.
All of these victories - and there were other ones that happened even
further down ballot I won't go into here - are a bigger and louder message
about how fed up the public is with all things involving the current President
then any mass protest can ever be. And after
a year of despair about how the Democratic Party has completely lost its way,
it is a shot of adrenaline and revitalization and a cause for celebration that
we haven't had a real reason for in one year's time.
To be clear, I have zero illusions
that this will change one thing about how POTUS views the world and only
slightly more that it might change how the GOP thinks. (There are signs of that
elsewhere but I'll save that for another day.) But that is not the point of
this article. The point is that for the first time in a very long time
there is a genuine light at the end of the tunnel that is almost certainly not
an incoming train. It is genuine statistical evidence of just how
limited the vision of Trump and Trumpism has on the electorate across the country.
Those who want to be cynical about how long its taken and how dumb the people
are, go ahead, I have no doubt you will anyway. But for me it is another
evidence of a restoration of my faith, however battered and bruised it has
become, about American democracy.
And for my final example of that,
consider this: last night two women and an immigrant managed to make three
different kinds of history in their states and for their country. Admit, even if in your deep cynicism, your
capacity for amazement that these things can happen in America.
No comments:
Post a Comment