Yesterday was a good day for democracy. Americans turned out to defend our principles from those who denied our right to choose our own leaders. There was little violence, the election appears to have gone smoothly, and there are few claims of “fraud.” As I write tonight, control of the House and Senate is still not clear, but some outlines are now visible.
I attended homecoming events at my husband's college alma mater last week. On two different days, I walked by an on campus voting site that had a line that snaked around one building and past another. Seeing all those young people waiting to vote gave me hope.
Every day I look forward to reading Heather Cox Richardson. Her analysis of today’s events, together with the depth of her historical knowledge, always provides great context. She’s also a great stress reliever when things get tough.
I thought I understood the significance of the election after consuming much news and commentary today. Silly me. I needed Heather Cox Richardson to tie all the seemingly disparate elements together into a cohesive big picture to REALLY understand.
Also, by bringing into sharp focus how severe the gerrymandering has become — and with states even ignoring court rulings ordering fixes — we know that correcting this problem would change everything. It would mean representation in government would far more truly reflect the makeup and desire of the majority of people. As in democracy.
I was a poll worker yesterday… great experience, nice people but a long 14 hour day. I was too tired to look at the national results when I got home but looked at the local results that I cared about.
So a pleasant surprise greeted me in the am. No “red wave”. I had tuned out the polls and pundits and worked hard campaigning for local candidates and hoped that people wouldn’t be drawn into the Republican nonissue hysteria.
A 40 year old friend sent a text about the election and she said that people were not paying attention to “saving” democracy and abortion. They were worried about inflation, paychecks putting food on the table and gas prices.
This text made me think back to the 70s during the Carter area, when I had no money, we had the Arab oil embargo and we were all in long gas lines ( and that was shocking), inflation climbed and then followed by a recession, jobs were hard to come and thinks were looking bleak. In 1980, Ronald Reagan ran, harping about the black welfare queen, trickle down economics, Phyllis Schfally trying to vote down the equal rights admendment and screaming about abortion and murder, the Moral Majority with Jerry Falwell and evangelicals Christians started their long crusade to blur the lines between religion and politics. Many parallels between then and now.
I did not vote my pocket book although the economy was awful because I felt like the Republicans were gaslighting Americans. A lot of people did vote on economic issues and that ushered in Reaganism and the battle for 50 years we have been fighting to keep our rights. And they were slow, plodding and persistent and they have finally succeeded in taking some of them away, like abortion.
Dobbs, the insurrection and the Big Lie, got young people off of Tik Tok long enough to vote for their rights. People want some normalcy and the Democrats and Biden despite the pandemic and inflation are offering that. The Republicans were offering more years of crazy. So relieved that people didn’t buy into the gaslighting.
It was a great day in New Mexico. All three House seats are now held by Democrats. One of the seats was held by a MAGA Republican and was flipped. Our Democratic Governor was re-elected as well as our Secretary of State. So grateful people got out and voted.
"Exit polls from last night show voters in the 18–29 age bracket making up about 12–13% of the vote and preferring Democrats by much larger margins than any other group: as much as 70%."
Republicans got a major if soul-rending boost by pandering to disgruntled ex-Democratic hyper-racists. Democrats may well improve their fortunes by much stronger engagement with the young.
That L. Bobert is losing, albeit by the slimmest of margins, is an early holiday present. If Mr. Frisch takes the day, that’s a huge win … and she can crawl back to the pit of slime from which she emerged.
"I think if they win, I should get all the credit. If they lose, I should not be blamed at all.” That's kind of his whole pathetic life right there, isn't it?
"Gaming the system sets up a structural problem for democracy, of course, but also for the party in power. In safe districts, candidates don’t have to worry about attracting voters from the other party and so worry only about being challenged by those more extreme than they are in the primaries (which are always dominated by the most fervent partisans). The party becomes more and more extreme and can stay in power only by continuing to manipulate the system.
Eventually, though, they become so extreme they lose even members of their own party, as the Republican Party has done since Trump took it over."
I found this the most important concept of the letter, when paired with the recognition that such extremism can only thrive where a party can simply ignore the courts as they did in four states and gerrymander the populace without restriction or consequences. These cases represent a fact: in the USA, a party, which is a corporation, can overtly regulate and overrule the government. Please, don't ever accept this as either a "democracy" or a "representative democracy."
I love that you point out how peaceful the elections have been so far Dr. Richardson. I am of the opinion that getting the Feds out to poll watch and protect people who were harassing helped, as did the fact that there have been trials for the insurrectionists of Jan 6, and many are now doing prison time. This is a testament to Attorney General Merrick Garland, the Department of Justice and the January 6 Committee who took on the brave work of finding out what happened even when facing threats from the Trump camp! It is powerful to see justice happen to people who are unjust! -- This is an exciting day, because even though I knew with the gerrymandering of the states and districts dems could not win as many as they should and need to, I have been pleasantly surprised at how well Dems and democracy have done! It is democracy, and abortion rights have been a part of that, which have driven many people's votes. As I said, the press just lazily says, everyone is voting on the economy as if that means that they cannot consider anything else important, or that they would believe that the economy would be better under Republicans. For every person who voted for an extremist, sane, rational Democrats and Republicans turned Dems, have tried to get out and vote for someone else. I have been a part of this in my state of IL, and now I am urging people to support Rev. Rafael Warnock for the senate seat in Georgia with money and time to the degree that you can. I hope most can give $5 or $10. Millions of those donations will add up. Also, ask everyone you know to give time or money if possible. It is my understanding that Walker, despite being the cretin that he is (either he is too stupid to know he supported the abortions of these women with a check and proud of this stupidity, or he is a liar, but I tend to think he is both), has a war chest of $50 mil. I can easily see people like Ken Griffin, ex-IL billionaire returned home to FL to help groom his buddy DeSantis for the White House, will probably throw some millions his way. Warnock needs all the help he can get. https://www.warnock.senate.gov/
I am hoping that Biden, Obama and Kamala will stump for him in Georgia. Let their KKK stay away from the runoff election in total, since their principals and beliefs should make it untenable to vote for either. ---As for Trump, given that he is not willing to vacate his property of Mar-a-lago when it lies in a zone in danger from Hurricane Nicole, we don't know whether he is going to be around to have any impact on future elections. Right now lots of his former allies in the Republican Party are against him, and he has a lot of legal troubles, so he might be tempting fate on purpose. It appears he is holding off from making his big announcement. ---Still, while DeSantis may have gerrymandered his win in Florida, which I am presuming has lost a lot of voters to the damage from hurricanes Fiona and Ian, Florida is not the USA and the rest of us are not going to be such pushovers for his Russian tactics. DeSantis is also fortunate that Nicole has held off until after the elections, or he might not be looking so good and his constituents might not have the wearwithall to vote at all.
I have suggested that the White House insist on changes to fund the rebuilding of coastal states. My list is something like this:
1) must move people inland when rebuilding
2) should be building floating houses and communities for those who are going to be near the water
3) should insist that everyone rebuilding must have insurance for floods and storms
4) Should insist that every newly build building with any Federal monies be fully carbon free, with sustainable energy built in and sustainable energy grids should be replacing any new infrastructure that is developed.
So, I am feeling much lighter tonight than I have for a long time, although I think we should all be egging the democratic party on to fight the gerrymandering that the Republicans have been given a green light signal from the Supreme Court to do. We should also start thinking of clever ways to thwart the Republican party just as they have become experts in doing this while Democrats were in charge.
Too bad the Dimocraps in New York State Legislature weren't as good as Republicans at doing a big gerrymander. They tried, got their head handed to them by a court, then an independent redistricting map just blew them out of the water with four seats handed over to the GOP today, including Sean Patrick Maloney.
On one hand, this southern Californian likes my second-most-disliked-state (after Texas) getting set on its arrogant ass, but the practical political person is pissed that we now look like we will have to put up with the monkeys throwing their feces at the crowd for 2 years of nothing but Performantive Ignorance.
The NY Democrats thought they could do what DeSantis did in Florida, and all they accomplished was pulling defeat from the jaws of victory.
This Michigander is beyond ecstatic that Michigan turned blue. I have several friends who fought in the fight that made it happen. I am forever grateful to them.
I attended homecoming events at my husband's college alma mater last week. On two different days, I walked by an on campus voting site that had a line that snaked around one building and past another. Seeing all those young people waiting to vote gave me hope.
Every day I look forward to reading Heather Cox Richardson. Her analysis of today’s events, together with the depth of her historical knowledge, always provides great context. She’s also a great stress reliever when things get tough.
I thought I understood the significance of the election after consuming much news and commentary today. Silly me. I needed Heather Cox Richardson to tie all the seemingly disparate elements together into a cohesive big picture to REALLY understand.
Also, by bringing into sharp focus how severe the gerrymandering has become — and with states even ignoring court rulings ordering fixes — we know that correcting this problem would change everything. It would mean representation in government would far more truly reflect the makeup and desire of the majority of people. As in democracy.
I was a poll worker yesterday… great experience, nice people but a long 14 hour day. I was too tired to look at the national results when I got home but looked at the local results that I cared about.
So a pleasant surprise greeted me in the am. No “red wave”. I had tuned out the polls and pundits and worked hard campaigning for local candidates and hoped that people wouldn’t be drawn into the Republican nonissue hysteria.
A 40 year old friend sent a text about the election and she said that people were not paying attention to “saving” democracy and abortion. They were worried about inflation, paychecks putting food on the table and gas prices.
This text made me think back to the 70s during the Carter area, when I had no money, we had the Arab oil embargo and we were all in long gas lines ( and that was shocking), inflation climbed and then followed by a recession, jobs were hard to come and thinks were looking bleak. In 1980, Ronald Reagan ran, harping about the black welfare queen, trickle down economics, Phyllis Schfally trying to vote down the equal rights admendment and screaming about abortion and murder, the Moral Majority with Jerry Falwell and evangelicals Christians started their long crusade to blur the lines between religion and politics. Many parallels between then and now.
I did not vote my pocket book although the economy was awful because I felt like the Republicans were gaslighting Americans. A lot of people did vote on economic issues and that ushered in Reaganism and the battle for 50 years we have been fighting to keep our rights. And they were slow, plodding and persistent and they have finally succeeded in taking some of them away, like abortion.
Dobbs, the insurrection and the Big Lie, got young people off of Tik Tok long enough to vote for their rights. People want some normalcy and the Democrats and Biden despite the pandemic and inflation are offering that. The Republicans were offering more years of crazy. So relieved that people didn’t buy into the gaslighting.
It was a great day in New Mexico. All three House seats are now held by Democrats. One of the seats was held by a MAGA Republican and was flipped. Our Democratic Governor was re-elected as well as our Secretary of State. So grateful people got out and voted.
We must take a deep breath than look towards 2024. That is what the Republicans are doing, we may be sure.
"Exit polls from last night show voters in the 18–29 age bracket making up about 12–13% of the vote and preferring Democrats by much larger margins than any other group: as much as 70%."
Republicans got a major if soul-rending boost by pandering to disgruntled ex-Democratic hyper-racists. Democrats may well improve their fortunes by much stronger engagement with the young.
“I think if they win, I should get all the credit. If they lose, I should not be blamed at all.”
Definitive quote from one of the most childish adults ever to have grown up.
That L. Bobert is losing, albeit by the slimmest of margins, is an early holiday present. If Mr. Frisch takes the day, that’s a huge win … and she can crawl back to the pit of slime from which she emerged.
One of my favorite tweets ever was from Lindsey Graham. I can't believe he hasn't taken it down.
"If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed.......and we will deserve it."
May 3, 2016
https://twitter.com/LindseyGrahamSC/status/727604522156228608?s=20&t=SRqMZVMrSaMmofwC0wnLSA
For the first time I'm starting to feel like we may see Lindsey's prophecy realized soon.
"I think if they win, I should get all the credit. If they lose, I should not be blamed at all.” That's kind of his whole pathetic life right there, isn't it?
"Gaming the system sets up a structural problem for democracy, of course, but also for the party in power. In safe districts, candidates don’t have to worry about attracting voters from the other party and so worry only about being challenged by those more extreme than they are in the primaries (which are always dominated by the most fervent partisans). The party becomes more and more extreme and can stay in power only by continuing to manipulate the system.
Eventually, though, they become so extreme they lose even members of their own party, as the Republican Party has done since Trump took it over."
I found this the most important concept of the letter, when paired with the recognition that such extremism can only thrive where a party can simply ignore the courts as they did in four states and gerrymander the populace without restriction or consequences. These cases represent a fact: in the USA, a party, which is a corporation, can overtly regulate and overrule the government. Please, don't ever accept this as either a "democracy" or a "representative democracy."
Thank you Heather. It’s certainly not the end, but it’s a good start on the road back to democracy and away from authoritarianism. 😻
I love that you point out how peaceful the elections have been so far Dr. Richardson. I am of the opinion that getting the Feds out to poll watch and protect people who were harassing helped, as did the fact that there have been trials for the insurrectionists of Jan 6, and many are now doing prison time. This is a testament to Attorney General Merrick Garland, the Department of Justice and the January 6 Committee who took on the brave work of finding out what happened even when facing threats from the Trump camp! It is powerful to see justice happen to people who are unjust! -- This is an exciting day, because even though I knew with the gerrymandering of the states and districts dems could not win as many as they should and need to, I have been pleasantly surprised at how well Dems and democracy have done! It is democracy, and abortion rights have been a part of that, which have driven many people's votes. As I said, the press just lazily says, everyone is voting on the economy as if that means that they cannot consider anything else important, or that they would believe that the economy would be better under Republicans. For every person who voted for an extremist, sane, rational Democrats and Republicans turned Dems, have tried to get out and vote for someone else. I have been a part of this in my state of IL, and now I am urging people to support Rev. Rafael Warnock for the senate seat in Georgia with money and time to the degree that you can. I hope most can give $5 or $10. Millions of those donations will add up. Also, ask everyone you know to give time or money if possible. It is my understanding that Walker, despite being the cretin that he is (either he is too stupid to know he supported the abortions of these women with a check and proud of this stupidity, or he is a liar, but I tend to think he is both), has a war chest of $50 mil. I can easily see people like Ken Griffin, ex-IL billionaire returned home to FL to help groom his buddy DeSantis for the White House, will probably throw some millions his way. Warnock needs all the help he can get. https://www.warnock.senate.gov/
I am hoping that Biden, Obama and Kamala will stump for him in Georgia. Let their KKK stay away from the runoff election in total, since their principals and beliefs should make it untenable to vote for either. ---As for Trump, given that he is not willing to vacate his property of Mar-a-lago when it lies in a zone in danger from Hurricane Nicole, we don't know whether he is going to be around to have any impact on future elections. Right now lots of his former allies in the Republican Party are against him, and he has a lot of legal troubles, so he might be tempting fate on purpose. It appears he is holding off from making his big announcement. ---Still, while DeSantis may have gerrymandered his win in Florida, which I am presuming has lost a lot of voters to the damage from hurricanes Fiona and Ian, Florida is not the USA and the rest of us are not going to be such pushovers for his Russian tactics. DeSantis is also fortunate that Nicole has held off until after the elections, or he might not be looking so good and his constituents might not have the wearwithall to vote at all.
I have suggested that the White House insist on changes to fund the rebuilding of coastal states. My list is something like this:
1) must move people inland when rebuilding
2) should be building floating houses and communities for those who are going to be near the water
https://www.dw.com/en/floating-homes-in-amsterdam/video-50379661
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka6v92bs4T4
3) should insist that everyone rebuilding must have insurance for floods and storms
4) Should insist that every newly build building with any Federal monies be fully carbon free, with sustainable energy built in and sustainable energy grids should be replacing any new infrastructure that is developed.
So, I am feeling much lighter tonight than I have for a long time, although I think we should all be egging the democratic party on to fight the gerrymandering that the Republicans have been given a green light signal from the Supreme Court to do. We should also start thinking of clever ways to thwart the Republican party just as they have become experts in doing this while Democrats were in charge.
Too bad the Dimocraps in New York State Legislature weren't as good as Republicans at doing a big gerrymander. They tried, got their head handed to them by a court, then an independent redistricting map just blew them out of the water with four seats handed over to the GOP today, including Sean Patrick Maloney.
On one hand, this southern Californian likes my second-most-disliked-state (after Texas) getting set on its arrogant ass, but the practical political person is pissed that we now look like we will have to put up with the monkeys throwing their feces at the crowd for 2 years of nothing but Performantive Ignorance.
The NY Democrats thought they could do what DeSantis did in Florida, and all they accomplished was pulling defeat from the jaws of victory.
This Michigander is beyond ecstatic that Michigan turned blue. I have several friends who fought in the fight that made it happen. I am forever grateful to them.