Americans take a stand for decency as the GOP red wave turns to dust
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Americans take a stand for decency as the GOP red wave turns to dust, surprising all of us
5-6 minutes Invalid Date
L et’s cut to the chase: The ebullient Republicans who marched into Tuesday’s midterm elections smugly confident they would surf to power on a mighty, nation-sweeping red wave were left high and dry . Why? I’d argue it’s a testament to Americans’ distaste for indecency.
There are still races to be called and we don’t yet know which party will control the House or the Senate, but it was clear by the end of the evening the GOP would come nowhere near the liberal-crushing victories predicted by party leaders and right-leaning pundits.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., conceded that it was “definitely not a Republican wave, that’s for darn sure.” Republican Rep. Mayra Flores of Texas lost to her Democratic challenger and tweeted : “The RED WAVE did not happen. Republicans and Independents stayed home. DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT THE RESULTS IF YOU DID NOT DO YOUR PART!”
Republicans had a perfect storm, until they didn't
Why did this happen? Midterm elections typically favor the party that doesn’t hold the White House, the sitting Democratic president has low favorability numbers, and inflation and food prices are high. It was a perfect storm for Republicans, or so they, the pollsters and the prevailing media narrative thought.
Call me idealistic, but I’ll posit a good number of Americans don’t love it when a political party broadly embraces a bullying figure like former President Donald Trump. Some don’t take kindly to political candidates who deny election results , or those who say they’ll only accept an election that they win . Some don’t like seeing politicians enthusiastic about taking rights away from women, or from married gay and lesbian couples. Some don’t appreciate a party that scapegoats transgender children to score political points, or one that accuses teachers of being groomers or pedophiles.
In Michigan, election-denying Republican Tudor Dixon lost the gubernatorial race, though she refused to concede. In Pennsylvania, Republican Doug Mastriano, who has voiced anti-transgender views , lost the gubernatorial race. We saw it in races large and small – some candidates who embraced extreme views won, but plenty lost, certainly far more than the GOP expected.
Not calling out the worst elements in their party hurt Republicans
Not every Republican candidate did or said these things, of course. But many did, and the extremists who make up a good swath of the GOP base did nothing to hide their cruelty, whether through chants at Trump rallies or hollering outbursts at school board meetings.
Is GOP's 'big tent' shrinking?: Traditional conservatives find themselves without a home
So the fact that such indecent behavior was never broadly condemned by the party at large made a difference. I think voters had to weigh the cost of a gallon of milk against the cost of putting some troublingly unkind people in positions of power, and they decided to take a stand for what’s right, pocketbook be damned.
This isn't just a win for Democrats – it's a win for decency
I’m sure Republicans will still find a way to crow about their far-lower-than-expected gains. Or they’ll place blame for the unexpected losses on “rigged elections” or “bad candidates.” Maybe they’ll even come to their senses and blame Trump, though I doubt it.
But at the end of the day, whatever the precise final outcome, decency and support for democracy found a way to prevail in a noisy, often unseemly time.
And that’s a win for all of us.
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America "woke" up to the threat of getting drunk on MAGA.
"In Pennsylvania, Republican Doug Mastriano, who has voiced anti-transgender views , lost the gubernatorial race."
Why the revision? Abortion sank that nitwit.
America is now truly in the hands of Fascists.
Congrats Democrats.
If Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar gain power, that statement is correct.
Fascism - Wikipedia
Seem's far more like we just avoided a national dip into fascism since the 'red wave' never materialized. There is a reason why fascism is considered "far-right" just like the Trumpublicans and other right-wing conservatives. Only total dumb shit's who apparently invent their own definitions for words that are already well defined would try to claim fascism is a 'left-wing' ideology.
I swear you could drill a hole in some of these heads and pour that definition in but it will just end up in the septic tank
Take a few tokes and chill. Life it to short to get so worked up.
I would suggest not reading his comments to spare yourself some angst. Just trying to help. You seem a bit wound up this morning
Tho I don't live in PA I was glad to see Fetterman beat Oz. They were doing a poll in PA to determine what was the biggest issue for voters. Surprisingly or not abortion was bigger than inflation. Figure that one out, Republicans
I thought of you last night when I heard Huckabee won.
I feel for ya....
I just see her dancing at the end of her dad's strings. He fucked up Arkansas and good! He spent 40 mill on some stupid computer program from Germany to run systems in state agencies. When it failed he had to spend more money to get it fixed.
And then there's his attempt to form 10 super agencies from all the agencies in the state. Instead of starting small he took the 2 biggest and combined them. It was a shit show from the start. Mike Beebe reversed that when he took office, but I see Sarah trying to do something like that
Apparently Oz had a problem where huge numbers of Pennsylvanians somehow noticed he wasn't actually from Pennsylvania.
People in PA didn't fall off the cabbage truck yesterday
It's a 50 -50 country. The results aren't too surprising, particularly in the Senate. Though Marco Rubio being outspent by 20 million and winning by 15% was an insane result. Living in a country that elects a Fetterman is just as insane.
Everyone assumed yet another polling error in the House in favor of the Republicans and Republicans weren't winning plus 10 Biden districts without a polling error. People stayed with their team in the House, where individual candidates matter the least. Republicans will still likely win the House, which is a mixed blessing. May well be better off in '24 if Biden and the Dems control Congress for another 2 years.
The country will carry on as evenly divided as before and nothing much will change for anyone except for the leaders of the parties. Biden will be renominated if he can stand upright, Trump lost influence and DeSantis won big.
The big loser last night was extremism. High profile election deniers lost.
I think though that given the prevalent narrative prior to the election, that because of the economy, inflation, gas prices, crime, immigration and "wokeism" the Democrats would be wiped out, the actual results do represent a pretty big "victory" for the Democrats, and are something that will certainly give the Dems the better national momentum going forward. I would go so far as to say that the right should give up on their predicted House plans for multiple investigations and impeachments. Or that will be the next thing that will blow up in their face.
WE are in a very rare agreement situation John... I don't think this is an approval of either party going forward but it is a rejection of extremism from both sides...
The house is almost certainly going to flip but not by as much as predicted, (the pre-election polling was way off) and the senate looks like it's going to come down to a single four week run off between Warnock and Walker... If Warnock wins, it remains the same 50/50 split, status quo in the senate, if Walker wins the republicans gain one seat control, 51/49....
What I take from it is the people aren't too happy with either party right now.... and they are definitely not liking the direction the nation is going...
But one thing is absolutely true, Trump needs to fade away into the past... he didn't help this cycle and I believe actually hurt the republican party... Well there is one thing that will happen to get Trump out of the spotlight, the January 6th investigation will go away if the republicans gain control...
And that is good for all Americans...
This to me is the most obvious major factor. Hopefully this will shock the GoP into realizing that supporting Trump is net negative for the party.
For some, I would have to say no.
Yeah, it’s this.
It’s perfectly fine to look around and observe that gas and food costs more, or that maybe crime in the cities is up a little, drugs are a concern, we have border issues, and so on. You can always find something wrong, I suppose, and inflation and energy in particular are real problems right now. So blame the party in power and vote for the other guy, right?
But there’s the real problem. Any vote is a choice between at least two people, and you have to look at the alternative.
Today, that alternative - the generic Republican candidate - is increasingly irrational, paranoid, and bigoted. They now openly proclaim that “the church” (their church) should be running the government. They embrace a kind of nationalism that embarrassed them only a few short years ago. They demonize some Americans - not because of their actions impacting others, but because of who or what they are. They actually celebrate taking rights away from people. They claim election fraud without evidence. They accuse people of “grooming children” in a hysterical way that I don’t think we have seen since the Red Scare of 70 years ago.
In short, as a group, Republican politicians are more bigoted, mean, and just plain crazy than they have been in living memory. And a growing number of people don’t want to put jerks like that in charge of anything.
Until Republicans are willing to look in the mirror, that’s not going to change.
I think they are also fundamentally lazy. They jump onto any crazy conspiracy theory without taking the time to research it. And it's easier to be mean than it is to be kind and compassionate.
Good point. Remember when Republicans claimed the post office was stealing mailboxes in order to steal the Presidential election!
Crazy people.
And knowing this, politicians and pundits on the Right advance every one of those absurd conspiracy theories. They know they’re full of shit, but if they can get lazy, non-thinking voters worked up about something, they know they’ll go out and vote. It’s a pretty cynical approach to politics.
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Seems the Dems are happy with inflation, crime, abortion until birth, and open borders.
Thankfully, this midterm travesty should convince Republicans that Trump is political poison
And it seems some people will continue down the same paths...
As if inflation was not a worldwide result of Covid and Putin's War in Ukraine, violent crime was not worse in red state, mostly due to inequality and easy access to guns, two thirds of America did not support reproductive choice and different people had not been both coming to and leaving America for five hundred years...
A VIEW FROM AFAR, BY A NON-AMERICAN
I must say I agree with the author's opinion. I now credit the American voters to be more intelligent than I originally opined elsewhere. However, I've seen a comparison of American politics with football, a sport venerated by Americans, in other words politics has basically two sides and voters will cheer for one side or the other. The roadblock caused by the widening political divide grows more dense, preventing good things from being accomplished. The fact that Herschel Walker has done so well is evidence to me that football is more important to way too many voters than decency and intelligence. They champion a hypocrite over a decent intelligent man just because he was good at playing their favourite sport. I watched him speak and he reminded me of the original movie about Willie Stark that starred Broderick Crawford. IMO his supporters have the brains of a high schooler, and my experience with high schoolers is that they would not vote for the most intelligent student, not the most qualified student, not the most talented student, but the captain of the football team to be the Student Union President. I would hope that in the Georgia runoff, those who originally preferred their independent choice over both major party candidates would prefer the one who is not a hypocrite, and is the more decent and intelligent human being.
The fact that Marjorie Taylor Greene was reelected absolutely dumbfounds me - I would have thought that even HER electorate would be smarter, but as I said elsewhere, maybe her electorate actually believed and were afraid they'd get zapped by an Israeli space laser if they didn't vote for her.
I was elected Student Council President by making a coalition of the nerds, freaks, geeks, artsy types and outcasts. I believe that beating the quarterback and captain of the football team peobably inspired the movie Napoleon Dynamite. The interpretive dance cinched it. Sometimes the tortoise beats the rabbit, the outside gets inside. Trump never represented middle Americans, who tend to be smart hard working realists who can still tell the difference between butter and bullshit...
The Trump voters will eat his crapola on toast.
Obviously you were smarter than the usual high school student.
I just heard on the news that a Judge has declared the student loan forgiveness program unconstitutional. I assume he's a Republican Judge because he held off providing the decision until the voting was over, because I'm sure a lot of student loan borrowers were Republicans, and this news might well have turned their votes in favour of the Democrats.
That doesn't make any sense Buzz.
There is so much happening that to me doesn't make sense, one shouldn't dismiss the possibilities.
The Eighth circuit court of appeals had already put a stay on the program. There's no conspiracy.
A "stay" is not conclusive.
Wtf is that?...