"The Sink" QoD for 11/13/2022

Q: What are the takeaways from the 2022 election?

A:
"It is impossible to overstate the absolute debacle the midterms were for the party of Trump-McCarthy-McConnell-McDaniel." Mark Halperin, center-right Washington, D.C. longtime pundit

“We’ve seen the affirmation of the president’s agenda, vindication of his message, and rejection of so many election deniers. The White House is in a pretty good mood.” Anita Dunn, a senior adviser to President Biden

"The American people rejected — soundly rejected — the anti-democratic, authoritarian, nasty and divisive direction the MAGA Republicans wanted to take our country.” Chuck Schumer

Newt Gingrich, shaken by the results on Tuesday, said, "I feel like a guy whose compass is so goofed up I have no idea which way is North."

"it's not just Pennsylvania. You look all over the country, there's a very high correlation between MAGA candidates and big losses."  Sen. Pat Toomey (R)

"Say it with me: Roe. This was inevitable from the day Alito issued his 'back to the 19th century, wenches!' ruling in June. Some media just bought Republican attempts to shift the narrative to inflation and crime." Joy-Ann Reid

"Democracy prevails. It’s a battle, not the war (which is perennial), but the American experiment is in a safer place than it was 24 hours ago." Jon Meacham

My takeaway is that decent people still outnumber the stupid, violent MAGA scum. But not by much!

What frightens me is that all you have to do is wiggle people's rice bowl a little and suddenly, they're more than willing to abandon democracy. That, and the sad fact that so many people bought the horsecrap of "ITZ BIDENZ FAULT!!!" re inflation, the war in Ukraine, bad weather, their diarrhea, etc. We have a sadly misinformed electorate, and so many "news" sources are nothing more than propaganda mills.

Democracy mostly won on Nov. 8. But the margin was terrifyingly small. Sane, decent candidates defeated MAGA loons by margins like 50-49. Won't take much to lose next time.

The narrow victories (and some were *not* narrow) need to be graded on a curve.

Without the MAGA rejection, without the fear of the loss of democracy if 2020 election deniers were elected governors and secretaries of state (none were in swing states unless Lake pulls off a win in AZ which is unlikely but possible), Republicans would have trounced the Democrats as the party out of power almost always does.

Add the issues specific to 2022 that should have made things much worse than a normal midterm for Democrats: The low approval of the current president, the right track-wrong track numbers, the troubling pocketbook issues that usually take precedence over everything else for most voters, and those narrow victories become strong affirmations that democracy is actually alive and well in 2022.

It's not the end of the story. It's not blue skies forever, but it's an encouraging sign.

Summarily, we got our ass whooped.

Well, obviously you have to ask yourselves why...and if you take the easy "answer"--it was Trump--then you'll lose again. The actual answer is that people are genuinely scared of losing their freedoms--the right to vote, the right to privacy (yes...abortion), the right to free speech...and the authoritarian language that the MAGAs are using seems frighteningly familiar to students of history or those who regularly pick up a newspaper. Plus, the sheer awfulness of the candidates the Republicans dangled in front of the public was off-putting in the extreme--and worse than that, signified to the public that they expected their loyalists to "vote the brand," as in, they could put a spoiled cabbage up there and would expect people to vote for it.

Also...each side accuses the other, with some justification, of spending time and money, and wasting ink, on issues no one actually gives a shit about. The Republicans, in the last few years, have become grand champions of this tactic. Mostly because it sort of worked! Youngkin in Virginia, for example, got elected by spreading fear about a phenomenon that didn't exist! Similarly, "replacement theory" and "sooooooocialism" dominate the Republican culture wars arsenal.

Of course, it's been well established that conservative brains are hard-wired differently from normal brains; their fear response is greatly heightened. So for the Republican party, fear-mongering would seem to still be a tried-and-true tactic that they shouldn't forgo. But my take is that the fearful oldsters are dying off and being replaced by younger people whose ideologies are more firmly rooted in reality.

So ya wanna win elections? Quit with the fear-stoking, pivot away from the race-baiting, quit the bald-faced lying, and stop being lapdogs to giant corporations. Don't reflexively, unthinkingly oppose everything the Democrats want (the knee-jerk Republican opposition to Biden's infrastructure bill, which contained MANY things conservatives professed to want, didn't go unnoticed).

Oh, and yes, grab an extra-large wad of Charmin Ultra Soft and wipe the Trump from your asses once and for all. Enjoy the go!

That's your judgemental analysis..which is your prerogative. The moral, cultural, philosophical, commercial, and toilet paper brand choices of the electorate has always been and is in disagreement. Everybody has some necessary adjustments that need to ensue, including you. Presently, I'm not rearranging my beliefs to suit your axioms..I can't and won't; besides, football is on so I'm directing my current attentions fully towards that activity. Have fun with your chosen games. Cheers.

Oh. I wasn't referring to your collective ideology. I was referring to your performative shtick. I have no illusions that the fear-mongering, bigoted, anachronistic-thinking RepubliQ can be retrained. But I do think y'all can change the brand and messaging. For instance, pitch overboard the "IMMERGENTS EEK EEK EEK!" crap and you'll gain five votes for every Texas shitkicker you lose.

Consider that you lost this time because of insistence on ideological purity and yes, fealty to Trump. If you don't stop kidding yourselves that that's what the vast majority of America wants and Trump actually won with 117 percent of the vote, it'll happen again. And again. And again and again and again.

Of course, I'm very hopeful that you guys haven't learned jack shit and will keep your train chugging along, even though the bridge ahead is out. 

Jan 6 wasnt enough to make the Republicans turn away from the Steve Bannon wing of the party..but I'm pretty sure this election is.  And thats a good thing.   

We need a Mitt Romney / Jeb Bush model of the Republican party that actually has ideas and solutions for problems - even if they arent good ones.   

Part of me wants them to stay exactly as they have been. Keep up with the lies, the race baiting, and the compulsory virtue signaling. Keep on bending over for Trump. And keep nominating assholes and idiots.

I'll disagree with PJ.  My take is that Republicans are still married to Trump and that is not going to change until Trump dies or is put in prison. 

Trump is going to announce he is running in 2024 Tuesday.  He doesn't give a crap if it means Republicans will lose the runoff in Georgia. Anybody that arises as a challenger that he feels threatened by will be emasculated by Trump in public with a relentless campaign of public insults. 

Furthermore, even if he would lose the 2024 nomination he would act as a spoiler by running as an independent or simply telling the MAGAs not to vote for the Republican Presidential candidate because the contest was rigged and stolen from him. Republicans can't win without the MAGAs because their policies don't appeal to Democrats or Independents as evidenced by the mid-terms. 

Most elected Republicans understand the dynamic of not being able to win without the MAGAs and will stick with Trump no matter what.  You see most Republican elected officials are spinless cucks. They could have gotten rid of Trump after Jan 6th but none of them were willing to pay the personal price of being voted out of office in the next election cycle because they angered the MAGAs. If Republicans would have had the balls to pay the price back then, they would be all set for 2024. Now they have to wait for Trump to die or be put in prison. 

Most of the non-anonymous commentary I see by elected Republicans and media personalities regarding the mid-terms concludes they lost by not being MAGA enough. They want to replace their current leadership with Gym Jordan and Rick Scott. That doesn't sound like a recipe for success. 

The only way you can make your name as a candidate or a media personality in the Republican party is to be more extreme than the last guy. That's not going to change because too many people are making too much money perpetuating that dynamic. 

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The good news is that Democrats can use the abortion issue in election after election because there will always be a substantial body of Republicans running on a national abortion ban.