Howdy y’all!
We’ve survived the 2022 mid-term elections. Frankly, I’m surprised by a few things:
- FIRST, there wasn’t a mass shooting at a polling place or other widespread violence at polling places, drop boxes, and counting centers. Granted, we’re not completely done with counting centers yet, but my worst fears weren’t realized.
- SECOND, an unpopular president’s party with high inflation saw significant political gains:
- Maybe a senate seat, and certainly not a loss.
- Maybe controlling the House, but only lost by a slim margin.
- Flipping several state legislative houses with a net pick up in Dems majorities.
- Winning key governorships, secretaries of state offices, and other statewide elected officials.
- THIRD, none of the Big Lie spouting anti-democratic non-governing chaos monsters running for statewide office won. None. Incumbents won in the Senate and some challengers or folks running for open seats won in the House.
- AND FOURTH, abortion and other liberal-favored ballot proposals won.
Of course, I’m not surprised that 57% of white people nationwide voted for the fascists, but it wasn’t sufficient to overcome the Democratic coalition of People of Color, women, liberals, and Gen Z voters.
And, that’s the take. That’s the boogeyman that Republican mothers and fathers have been scaring their children with by telling them that it is lurking under their beds and inside their closets and will take them away if they aren’t good and give all their money to the very very rich millionaires and billionaires who feel like they don’t have enough and deserve even more.
Expect the Republicans to double and triple down on it. Expect the for-profit political press to keep bothsidesing and legitimizing Republicans because they live and die by the click, like, and share now, so it’s clickbait for everybody, not just someone else! Every story can be clickbait… (sung to the tune of that catchy 70’s jingle, VD is for Everybody — I know! I KNOW! Not everyone loves that tune as much as I do, but it works here! It WORKS!)
Seriously, think about it. Who has been voting Democratic election in and election out? Which of the demographic groups that make up America have been growing by millions of voters each year? It is the old Republican scare tactic of white people are being replaced by scary Blacks and Browns and ungodly liberal yutes and every damn one of them wants your job, your dog, your husband, and, probably, you life, and if they move in next door — thank you very much Corey Booker! — they’ll give you #COVID19, AIDS, and Ebola (Notice that they all involve capital letters! What more proof do you need?) and sneak over in the middle of the night, cut your head off with a knife, film it, and post it to the Internet where it will go viral and encourage thousands of more heathens to do the same thing, and all because Democrats HATE America for its freedoms.
Because I truly believe there is a dark lining to every silver cloud, we probably only prevailed in the mid-terms because of Dobbs. Overturning Roe v. Wade energized people like no issue has since the Great Depression swept FDR into office for four election cycles. Given our foreshortened attention spans, that’s the equivalent of next week.
They will be back trying to steal the 2024 election using the same tactics that have worked for them since Nixon:
- Dog whistle messaging and overt racism
- Voter suppression through voter ID laws, reduced polling places, drop boxes, and other restrictions to voters
- And, voter subversion or nullification by trying to disallow ballots once they have been cast
The issue isn’t getting Black and Brown people to the vote. It is getting white people to ignore those racist dog whistles. And, the youths to get involved and invested in voting. Youth voters are fickle, just ask Bernie Sanders.
But, the biggest problem is getting enough “independent” white voters to not succumb to the racist scare tactics and vote against Republicans. It took a perfect storm of issues and motivation and messaging to overcome the 57% of white people who voted Republican. They’re betting that it can’t be replicated.
Huzzah!
Jack
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“Some Young Punks Quickie Sauvignon Blanc” by Fareham Wine is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
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Categories: Politics, Quick Thought
The Psy of Life 
Not all. When a Central Oregon progressive dared the unmitigated audacity to challenge, to primary, loosely incumbent Democrat In Name Only “Blue Dog” Kurt Schrader in Oregon’s newly expanded 5th district, over the past 20 years consistently in the top ten most often the top five fastest growing regions in the country, and WIN, the Democrats refused to support her … and handed the district to a trump-sucking Republican. An insurrectionist and election denier. A religious nutball and climate denier.
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Howdy Ten Bears!
Yeah, those are real issues. We didn’t have to lose the House because there are several of those races around the country. That said, on the whole when you add up the numbers nationwide, you get Democrats getting more votes than Republicans. When you add up votes statewide, you get Democrats getting more votes than Republicans even though Republicans win more House districts. If it weren’t for gerrymandering and structural advantages in the Electoral College and the Senate, they wouldn’t win many elections. That’s because the rising demographics of PoC, educated whites, liberals, and Gen Z is going to swamp all of it for the Republicans. It is why they are desperate to establish a single party pseudo democracy.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Reblogged this on cabbagesandkings524 and commented:
Calico Jack – A battle won, but not the war
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It’s true that The Big Lie was a failure this time as the center of a campaign message, but the Big Liars are still not indited and/or getting saddled with huge damage awards in civil cases. Getting that done will, or should be, a major project for the next few years. One key piece of evidence against them is that they virtually all conceded their defeats, indicating that they knew it was a lie all along.
But, for the Democrats as a party, they have two years to Get Things Done for their coalition AND those “independent” white voters. It won’t be easy, especially if they lose the House majority. Part of it will have to be rewarding those few, but necessary, Republicans who may now be freed up to make deals instead of pure obstruction.
There may be some hope to be had in the prospect of Trump and DeSantis engaged in an almost two year MMA cage fight over the MAGA base while ignoring everybody else, and disgusting many.
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Howdy Bob!
The Dems have, unfortunately, lost the House, but not by much. The Republicans, like John Boenher did before, will likely have to make deals with Dems to get legislation passed due to the extremes in the House. The Dems have won a small window to protect democracy and demonstrate that it can govern and deliver for the country.
As always, I’m grateful that we haven’t seen more political violence than we have. I am just waiting for an assassination of a politician. It seems like every day that passes without one, the more likely the next day will have one. Maybe I’m being a bit melodramatic, but I don’t see how in the last fifteen years we haven’t had a major assassination attempt.
Huzzah!
Jack
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The lack of any serious assassination attempt is a bit surprising. One factor seems to be that the FBI has quietly infiltrating and recruiting informants in the most extreme groups, like those clowns in Michigan. Those “lone wolf” types who have acted seem to just go for targets of opportunity, not make a effectively planned attempt on a politician. Still, sooner or later, I expect it will happen, and if/when it does, there will be copy cats as happened in the 60s.
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I’m afraid you’re right there. We’re likely to have an attack on a specific person responding to the violent rhetoric. Hopefully, it is the effectiveness of our security apparatus that has prevented any attempts, but…
Jack
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Somebody out there dreams of being the hero who takes out one of those they see as bad guys. Luckily, most of them have neither the competence nor the opportunity.
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I think, but I don’t know, that one of the single biggest improvements in presidential security since Reagan being shot has been the denial of opportunity.
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Probably so
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