The red wave that Republicans spent millions trying to generate in the deep blue sea of relative tranquility failed to materialize in a substantial way. In reality it was more like a ‘red wedding’.
Thankfully, the fear and fake polls didn’t have the effect this time around that the GOP has come to rely on and you can bet there are some angry oligarchs and online apparatchiks screaming at their staffs and screens today.
Fox News and others, including apparently, Elon Musk were counting on a drubbing at the polls for the Democrats. That did not happen and democracy lives to fight another day.
I feel like yesterday’s election was the beginning of the end of the Trump era in the Republican party.
MAGA will live on and find a way to be rebranded in the mold of Ron DeSantis, who drew the redistricting map himself in Florida that helped GOP pick up multiple seats while further disenfranchising predominately black voters in key congressional districts.
A sin in and of itself and something that needs to be examined and addressed within the Democratic party going forward. Gerrymandering is a serious issue and no Republican candidate would truly win on a level playing field and sadly for Florida, that may be a thing of the past altogether. At least for the immediate future.
DeSantis only won by a slim margin of 1.2% by playing the race card against his opponent, former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, for his first term as Florida’s governor in 2018.
He can now claim a mandate as he has surely consolidated power and turned authoritarian vibes mixed with NASCAR sensibilities and xenophobic political stunts into his stock in trade, beating Charlie Christ by a substantial margin.
Florida voters also did the unthinkable and chose Marco Rubio over the tremendously qualified and excellent Val Demings. Who along with Cheri Beasley in North Carolina should absolutely be on the short list should any Biden Administration cabinet or judiciary openings arise in the future.
Look for more ‘DeSantis Country’ flags over Trump ones in the coming months. I saw this for myself on a recent trip to south Florida where the weekly ‘MAGA Swap Meet’ on Saturday afternoon in Key Largo had as many ‘Free State of Florida’ items as Trump as Rambo flags.
DeSantis is turning ‘Florida’ into a national brand, and not the good part.
If he can figure out to close the charisma gap that Trump still holds over him on the national stage he will likely be his party’s nominee in 2024.
That’s the bad news, the good news is that Trump’s kingmaker status has slipped considerable with the loss of Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania.
A candidate very much in the mold of Trump himself, being a TV talk show huckster and blue state-living, almost billionaire, basically pretending to be a red state man of the people.
Donald and Mehmet Oz are guys who live in Palm Beach most of the winter and have been getting manicures for forty years. The fact that they’re telling dudes in pickup trucks wearing Carhart jackets in January how good fracking is gonna be for them and why they really don’t need Obamacare or Social Security is getting old it seems.
Not that there was an outright rejection of the beard bro branding the MAGA/GOP tries to cultivate but there was definitely a slip in the authentic department when faced with a candidate who was undeniably the real thing.
Soon to be Senator Fetterman, looks like the guy you think of when you think of Western and Central Pennsylvania.
Primanti Brothers, and football helmets over Brioni suits and spray tans. In hindsight the stupidity of running ‘Dr.Oz’ will be a punch line for years to come birthing writers room classics like crudité platters and Steeler shout-outs on bye weeks.
Which in western PA is like saying Merry Christmas in March, some stuff you’re just supposed to know, when the Steelers play is one of the those things.
The truth of the matter is that, obvious carpet bagging aside, Mehmet Oz lost his race when he put the woman’s right to an abortion in the hands of ‘local politicians’ during his one and only debate with John Fetterman.
His campaign died in that moment from a self-inflicted fatal wound.
Why this blue wave didn’t seem roll into the neighboring state of Ohio with candidate Tim Ryan up against JD Vance, another Trump charlatan and silicon valley tech bro/slash Yalie novelist and friend of Peter Thiel backed grifter is a mystery.
Most likely the culprit is the lack of funding Ryan got from the Democratic party at a national level. Tim Ryan ran a great campaign and destroyed JD Vance in their first debate so badly that JD literally ran from the press after it ended.
Tim Ryan is exactly the type of candidate the Democratic party should be supporting to break thru the red mirage, and it now most assuredly is a mirage, and the cultural branding of MAGA-ism.
When voters are exposed to the truth we pick up votes with independents and drive young voter turnout. That’s a formula we can build on.
This is the moment to point out the hypocrisy and thin veil of authenticity the modern conservative movement hides behind. The clown car of candidates that seemed to campaign with an air of entitlement bolstered by canned cheers and syrupy anthems at ‘Christian Conservative cum NRA rally’ in Dallas and beyond is not the same thing as answering constituents at the ballot box.
When the grift is so obvious and the substance so thin, in Lauren Boebert’s case to the point of sheer mockery you often lose.
Who among us can forget her galling heckling, along with Marjorie Taylor Greene of President Biden, at last years State of The Union. It was the peak of US Representative as chaos agent and an era which hopefully will come to an end in the not too distant future.
There’s more to come, most assuredly, as MTG and Matt Gaetz and others will be returning to walk the halls of Congress searching for the victims of their next political stunt to avoid process and actual politicking.
But it will be an era that is waning in the face of record turnout from young voters in Tuesday’s election.
There’s a generation of younger voters very aware of the rights being stripped from them and the dangers they face in society based on the GOP’s rhetoric, antisemitism and anti-LGBTQ policies.
From book burning to abortion rights the future will not be determined by the minority of mostly white ‘Christian’ males in the GOP but by the culturally rich and diverse and multi-ethnic country we all want to see and live peacefully in.
The beginning of that era is now, a return to the hope and progress of the Obama years thru to President Biden’s many steps towards an inclusive society with economic opportunity, healthcare and safe housing for all.
Where we can have relief from predatory lending and draconian women’s rights policy’s along with reforms to our criminal justice system like cannabis laws and unfair sentencing guidelines that disproportionally punished minorities.
All of those issues and more have been put into play and hopefully progressive legislation will continue to be passed, albeit not without fierce battles ahead but at least we are still in the fight.
I saw a lot of people getting involved, all over the country in the final weeks of this election. It mattered and it feels like a lot of the hard work of so many has paid-off.
I am grateful for all the time and energy so many were giving, the positivity and enthusiasm of Democrats along with our diversity as a party is our greatest asset.
The more we realize that the stronger we will become. In many ways we are a ‘program of attraction, not promotion’ to borrow a phrase from the recovery community that speaks of selfless service as a panacea for toxicity and compulsion and what better way to counter the Republican narrative than with hope and healing from all the ills our society has had forced upon it.
Former President Obama’s fired up speeches certainly helped and raised the stakes and reminded us of the moral imperative of the moment. It also just plain feels good to do the right thing and I believe the Republicans extremism is starting to catch up with them.
Further evidence of this while be the long awaited House Select Committee’s January 6th Committees report and whatever moves AG Garland is about to make. Hopefully we will see some more bad news for Trump in the coming days, until then, thanks for all the hard work, thanks for reading, and thanks for Voting Blue.
To be fair, Tim Ryan kinda ran on distancing himself from Dems. The folks who accepted help from Biden, Harris, et al fared better than those who did not embrace them. That's on Ryan.
Iowa had a Red Wedding. Check it out. 8-10 years of darkness heading that way.