It's been nearly a week since the election and there is still no clear winner in the House. A number of races are too close to call out West, as the balance of power in the US House of Representatives lays in California and Arizona. If you wonder why it is taking so long to count these votes, it is because the mail-in ballots keep trickling in. You can only count them as they arrive. This has led to a lot of frustration on the Republicans' part as they see their narrow leads erode in key races, but then it was their Patron Saint Donald who told his followers to vote in person.
I was listening to Charlie Dent on CNN. He's a former Republican US Representative from Pennsylvania. Charlie said there was a time Republicans would have gladly mailed in their ballots but the dynamic changed when Trump insisted that his supporters voted in person and cast unmerited claims of fraud on mail-in ballots. No surprise the overwhelming number of these ballots favor Democrats. In Nevada, Catherine Cortez Masto overcame a 30,000 vote deficit in this Senate race to now lead by more than 6000 votes, much to the chagrin of Trump-endorsed Adam Laxalt.
While Laxalt has yet to concede the race, he has been civil in his response. By contrast, Kari Lake has floated all sorts of conspiracy theories as she falls further behind Katie Hobbs in the Arizona governor's race. The press has yet to call this election. Once a deep red state, Arizona is now blue with Democrats soon to be in control of all the high ranking offices in the state as well as both Senate seats. This was probably the biggest blow to Republicans. They desperately wanted to hold this state as it figures heavily in presidential elections.
Not surprisingly, much of the blame is being cast on Trump. He pushed these election-deniers in the primaries, determined to exercise his will over the Republican Party. As a result, the GOP was left with a lot of suspect nominees who didn't hold up well under the public spotlight. At first traditional Republicans blamed Democrats for helping fund these MAGA candidates in the primaries, hoping to make their job easier in November. It looked for a moment that this risky game might come back to bite the Democrats but in the end it paid off. However, these candidates would not have been there in the first place had not Trump so vociferously endorsed them.
His aim was simple. By putting MAGA candidates in key state positions throughout the country, he hoped to overturn the electoral college in 2024, if necessary, which he had been unable to do in 2020. His supporters wanted to keep this effort under the radar. However, it quickly became public and CNN tracked Secretary of State races for the first time because these are the officials who oversee state elections.
This has proven a valuable position for Republicans in the past. Florida's Secretary of State Katherine Harris played a pivotal role in the 2000 presidential race, certifying the win for Bush before a full recount had been completed. Bush won the presidency as a result. While it eventually turned out that Bush had the votes to win this extremely close race, there was a lot of anger over the way the Florida count was handled.
Now, Republicans will have to fight in 2024 with no clear advantage. Not only did they lose the Secretary of State race in Arizona, but they lost in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin as well. These were all states that had gone for Trump in 2016 but for Biden in 2020. For good measure, Democrats also won in Nevada.
This is why so many Republican fingers are pointing at Trump. Not only did he cost them key House and Senate seat with the highly questionable candidates he endorsed, but state elections as well. Trump isn't one to admit defeat so he is trying to turn the blame on McConnell as the Senate losses are gaining the most attention.
It's a pretty bitter pill for Mitch to swallow. He was hoping he could get the magic 51 senators to block Biden's judicial appointments over the next two years like he did with Obama after the 2014 midterms. This way he could pack the federal bench with conservative appointees if the Republicans won the White House in 2024, as he did during the Trump years. Donald was never anything more to Mitch than a rubber stamp. All the judges were vetted by the Federalist Society with a handful of choices presented to the president so that he felt he was making the decision. In that sense, you really can't blame Trump for the religious conservative judges he appointed to the Supreme Court bench. These were all Federalist picks.
Trump was never the cause of Republican problems. He was just the most visible sign. Barry Goldwater had warned long ago to not let religious conservatives control the Republican Party. However, Ronald Reagan threw the door open when he embraced the Moral Majority of Jerry Falwell in 1980. The GOP was able to cleave off a big chunk of religious conservatives from the Democratic Party, essentially laying claim to the Deep South and Midwest. As a result, they now find themselves totally beholden to this reactionary wing.
It took a long time for Democrats to overcome the loss of these religious conservative states. However, they now appeal to a broad spectrum of voters with their pragmatic message. It also helps that Americans as a whole have come to accept freedom of choice not only in terms of abortion but lifestyle as well.
Still, Republicans came within a hair's breath of gaining the Senate majority and winning key state races. If it wasn't for an unusually large midterm election turnout, we probably would have seen very different results. It is doubtful Republicans will change their messaging. Instead, they will seek more subtle ways to express themselves as they tried with abortion in the closing weeks of the election. For them it is always a matter of tactics.
As the votes continue to roll in, you can say that democracy has won. Every vote counts. Nineteen House races are still too close to call, and therein lies the balance of power in the chamber. Republicans are closer to the magic number of 218 than are the Democrats but in some California races less than 50% of the vote has been tabulated. We probably won't know until the end of the week how this election turns out.
Repukeblicons won the House. After much gloating from Dem party commentators online, they overlooked the fact that they made no effort to win over rural votes. BIG mistake. This along with the gerrymandering the Pukies engage in won the day for the Pukes.
ReplyDeleteThere will be a vote on Dec 6 for the Senate seat in Georgia. Unlike the general election there will be no early voting. This favors the right wing who nominated that moronic jackass Herschel Walker. A clown who can't put two sentences together and who sounds like a drunken preacher who regurgitates some BS he found in a comic book.
Early voting is allowed. No new registrations however. Personally, I don't think there will be much interest in "Sheriff" Herschel now that the Republicans have no chance to gain control of the Senate. I believe Warnock will win.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do agree that the Dems did a very poor job defending their seats in the House. Several California Dem candidates complained that they got no backing at all, and that the New York Democratic campaign leader purposely shunned progressive candidates, resulting in a 6-seat turnover in New York alone. That may very well prove the difference in the House. It seems Dems too were convinced there would be a red wave and focused all their energy on key Senate and Governor races.
Yes, contrary to earlier media reports, the Georgia courts have ruled that early voting is permissible. That should improve Warnock's chances of winning. Let us hope that Dems will be stimulated to get out and vote.
DeleteIt is so sad that RepukebliCONs are against majority rule. Their hatred for democracy and for the USA knows no end.