Mid-Term Elections

While all the results are not yet in as we still don't know if the GOP will control just the House or Senate as well, I thought I would offer some viewpoints anyway.

First, the elections are over. YAH! Although I am still receiving donation requests on my phone for the Georgia Senate runoff (from both sides), the endless stream of TV ads is behind us. In general, another disgraceful political campaign session featuring countless exaggerations and outright falsehoods about the candidates, the majority of which ended with the statement that the ad was not paid for by the candidate, but some other advocacy group. 

I know I am in the majority of Americans who support an end to this part of our campaign cycle. I also feel certain that most voters believe we need to reduce the influence of money in our election process. More money should not equate to more political influence, but clearly it is so today. While the following link only touches on possible solutions to this issue, it does reflect an overall plan which may help.

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-next-greatest-generation.html

Needless to say, requiring all campaigns to spend the same amount of money as provided through our taxes, reducing the time frame for candidates to run their media campaigns (perhaps no more than 6 months), and, most importantly, mandating that election ads address policy, to put it bluntly, no more negative ads, might be a good place to start.

Now, to this election cycle.

The last few elections have produced results not in line with the polls, and this one is doing the same, although with advantage going to the Dems instead of the GOP. What should have been, was predicted by most to be, a red wave, turned into much more a ripple than a wave, and in some areas not even red.

For instance in Pennsylvania where I live, the Democrats retained the governor's house, while also flipping the Senate seat, meaning that both PA Senators are from the Democratic party. Also, the state house, is one flipped seat away from producing a Dem controlled House of Representatives for the first time in 12 years. As of now, 12 seats changed from GOP to Dem in this election with a few to still be decided. In the district I live in, a 12 term GOP incumbent was defeated. Truly, a blue wave for the democrats.

To be more specific, the new governor of Pennsylvania, while certainly no charismatic star won by over 750,000 votes. And the new senator who suffered a stroke earlier this year, won his race by over 230,000 votes. What I am saying is that, in part, they won, not because they were outstanding candidates, but because the alternative was far less palatable. 

In the Senate race, the GOP candidate was not even from Pennsylvania, having just purchased a house in the state in the past year. His main qualification was that he was a TV medical personality, endorsed by that most famous TV personality, the former president. And, being rich, could afford to spend millions of dollars in an attempt to buy the office.  Even worse, the GOP candidate for Governor offered very little policy in his ads, other than Restore America. He openly stated that the pro choice perspective was utter nonsense, and that gay marriage should not be legal. Many prominent Pennsylvania republicans did not campaign for him. As a result, over 230,000 GOP voters who cast a ballot for the Senate candidate did not vote for him.

Clearly, in PA, the quality of the candidates mattered, and I am proud of all who voted in this election, but especially those independents, and voters on both sides of the aisle who made their choice based on that trait. 

And then there is the abortion issue. Both GOP candidates referenced above were pro-choice to the point where abortion was not just a difficult decision by a woman, her doctor and her family but murder. As was the case in a number of other states, including Kentucky and Montana, and Kansas earlier in the year, the decision by the Supreme Court to throw the abortion issue galvanized young and female voters to go to the polls to vote against ballot questions that would have made abortion illegal or in the case of Vermont and Michigan, voted for adding reproductive freedom to the state's constitution.  

For Pennsylvanians in particular who knew that with a GOP controlled legislature and governor, abortion would become illegal, and despite inflation being at a 40 year high, it appears that losing a fundamental right, the right to make basic decisions about one's own body, family, and future, was far more important than high prices, which while obviously extremely annoying, will pass in time. 

In effect, the Supreme Court decision to roll back Roe Vs Wade, helped spur the national red ripple we have just experienced, and the blue wave in Pennsylvania. Here is a link to my thank you to those justices which I posted in August. 

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2022/08/thank-you-supreme-court-justices.html

And then there is the Democracy issue. Among other things said by the Pennsylvania GOP candidate who lost the election for governor was that he would have the power to decertify the votes from any voting machine he wanted, sort of like a mini-king. Now, we all know he wouldn't be targeting votes cast in the rural areas of PA, just the cities, especially Philadelphia, where all the "cheating" is going on. The fact that most of those voters are Black, is just a coincidence, I am sure. Along with the other GOP candidates who openly stated that if they didn't win, it must have been rigged (where have we heard that before?), it has become increasingly more obvious that a sizable portion of the GOP, politicians and electorate, are not interested in winning elections, just in saying they won. 

Again, however, congratulations to the electorate for sending a clear message that telling us you believe our elections are rigged is not the path to being elected. This was especially important in a few secretary of state races, elections that no one ever paid attention to until that certain ex-president tried to pressure the one in Georgia to "find me 11,780 votes". Voters in those states told candidates who vowed to restrict voting access, and to decide for themselves which votes would count to, well, go to he**. Or perhaps to Russia.

Which brings us to the last reason why the GOP under performed in this election cycle. Donald J Trump. Someone, one might say, who is now a 3 time loser, having lost the House in the 2018 election when the democratic party flipped 40 seats to take control of that body, then in 2020, when the Dems won the White House and, the Senate where the VP casts the deciding vote when there is a 50-50 split.

And now, even though the GOP will regain control of the House, it seems pretty clear it is a GOP victory, not a Trump victory. For proof we can look at the results in Georgia where Kemp who Trump did not endorse in the primary, received 200,000 more votes than the Senate candidate, Walker whom Trump did endorse. Fully 10% of the republicans who voted for Kemp did not vote for Walker, a tribute to both candidate quality and the waning influence of the ex-president. 

I have always said that the GOP establishment and powerful conservatives have used Trump as much as he used them, especially in the areas of lowering taxes for the rich and packing the judicial system with Heritage Foundation acolytes. In the former, well, perhaps enough American voters will see that trickle down economics is a myth promulgated by the rich who care more for themselves than America, so that when proposals to require those with more to pay more, those candidates will win more than they lose. Unfortunately, the latter item, a judiciary that is beholden to capitalism even when it harms our economy and our country, will take a bit longer to fix.

In the meantime, let's hope that enough of the GOP will wake up to the fact that Trump is an albatross around their electoral necks. The reality is, we need 2 strong parties to help balance the policies that we need to move forward, and to to help bridge the partisan gap that has been exacerbated by the cult of Trump. If not now, perhaps a 4th loss in 2024 might do it.