The 2022 Mid-Term Election

What a guy!  This says it all!

It’s 48 hours before the polls in Honolulu, Hawaii close for the 2022 mid-term election (this was true when I began to write this post, it’s Election Eve as I put it to sleep, the polls are still open all over).  All we know so far is that we don’t know much.  The polls are predicting a Republican House of Representatives and a Senate that could go either way, Republicans favored by a slim margin.

But we do know some things.  One, after the polls close and the networks begin to show real-time results, Republicans nationwide will be in the lead, because day-of votes are counted first, and Republican voters prefer day-of voting.  Two, Republicans will be calling for an early end to vote counting, as many more Democrats vote early than Republicans.  Trump called for this in 2016, he called for it in 2020, and his minions will have learned his lesson: when you are ahead, declare victory and call for the early end of counting votes.  Indeed, Republicans have already filed suits against counting early voting ballots in some battleground states.

But what is at issue, besides questioning democracy itself?

• Abortion is on the ballot.  Who will decide if a woman may have a legal abortion, early or late in her pregnancy?  The woman and her physician, or the lawmakers in the state of her residence, most of whom are men?
• Inflation is on the ballot.  While inflation is a world-wide phenomenon, and while we are not doing as badly as most countries, and while gas prices can be blamed on OPEC and profiteering fossil-fuel corporations, and the explosion in the price of food on the war in Ukraine, we Americans still like to blame the party in power, or rather the party that sits in the White House: that is, Joe Biden.
• Putin and Zelenskyy are on the ballot.  Believe it or not, many Republicans favor Putin!  Before Pearl Harbor, millions of isolationist Americans proudly wore the German swastika (many of them belonged to the “America First Committee”; the world-famous pilot Charles Lindbergh was one of their leaders), so maybe no great surprise.
• Climate change is on the ballot.  Republicans are making a fetish out of science denial.  And, frankly, too few Americans are making enough noise to make a difference.  Al Gore mockingly called climate change “inconvenient.”  Indeed!
• Immigration is on the ballot.  Republicans want to restrict Southern (Mexican) immigration, but they hate paying higher prices for home-grown produce.
• The Supreme Court is on the ballot.  Republicans want nine conservatives sitting on the bench, while Democrats want the Court expanded to thirteen seats so they can be the 7-6 majority (until Republicans regain power), a dumb idea if ever there was one.
• Education is on the ballot.  Republicans want parents to control what books to ban and what is taught in the classroom; Democrats think that educators are more qualified to make these decisions.  Republicans think that public school teachers are overpaid, and that high school dropout parents are qualified to home school their kids, especially when it comes to questioning the authority of the Bible about anything.
• Health care is on the ballot.  Republicans want to roll back Obamacare, but they have no replacement for it, good or bad.  “Progressive” Democrats want to replace it with Medicare for All, which has its own problems.  In any case, we Americans pay more than anyone else for health care that has very disappointing outcomes (citizens of 45 countries live longer than we do).
• Firearms are on the ballot.  Republicans think the answer to mass shootings is more Americans owning more guns; they believe that the 2nd Amendment was written by God and that gun ownership should be utterly unrestrained.  Democrats think that legislation will put an end to most firearm homicides.

As to “democracy” being on the ballot, ever since Donald Trump questioned the results of the 2020 presidential election (putting aside that he claimed that the only way that he could lose the 2016(!!!) election was by Democrats rigging the election), election denialism has become a thing.  No longer will a certain segment of the population (Republicans) accept electoral defeat, of a president, of a governor, of a senator, of a congressman, of an alderman or a Council member.  If you are a Republican – a MAGA Republican – you never accept defeat, as the only way that you can lose is if the election is stolen, the sworn oaths of election workers be damned, or in Trump’s case, the word of 50 governors, and 50 secretaries of state, and 61 lost lawsuits, including one in front of his own Supreme Court – be damned.  Permanent single-party power before democracy.  Call it autocracy, oligarchy, authoritarianism, or fascism; it is not democracy because the will of the people has no bearing on who will rule (or represent) us.

Why so many decent Americans should worship a man known to be a congenital liar, a business failure who has filed for bankruptcy a half-dozen times, a billionaire who stays wealthy by siphoning campaign donations into his personal accounts, a man who half-jokingly claims to be a “stable genius” while speaking at a 4th grade level well before he ever entered politics, a man who demands total loyalty from all and renders it to none – will be the subject matter of historians’ and psychologists’ books for one hundred years.

As I lay this post to rest, I wish for America a better future than we deserve!

Addendum: Saturday, 11/12/2022

I have no need to write a post-election post.  You have read enough of them and I can't really add anything of substance to what has already been written.  But I can be clear about where I stand.

There was NO bloodbath of Democratic blood.  Democrats seem to have retained 50-50 control of the Senate, and the Republicans may have taken back a dozen House seats, giving them an eight-seat margin over Democrats, hardly a bloodbath.

If there was any shellacking, it was with Trumpian blood.  Many Republicans are asking him to get out of their way, get out of politics, don't run for the Republican nomination for president in 2024.  Some have asked him to wait until Georgia's Senate runoff election determines the Senate makeup more clearly.  Will Trump wait until then?  You know the answer.  Donald John Trump is incapable of retiring from the ring.  He will announce that he is running on Tuesday, November 15th.  Bank on it!

Finally, lest there be any more doubt: Donald John Trump is NOT a Republican, nor is he a conservative.  Proof?  Republicans have had no written platform since Trump ran for president in 2016.

Addendum: Friday, 11/18/2022

Once again, no need to write a post-mortem on last Tuesday's midterm election.  I have no editorial comments to add that you have not already read a dozen or more times.

But, here is what happened with a few random observations.

As this moment, there are 25 Republicans governors and 24 Democratic governors.  Three races flipped to Democrats and one to Republicans.  Alaska will likely end up with a Republican governor but has not been called for technical reasons.

At this moment, there are 50 Democratic senators and 49 Republican senators, with Georgia scheduled for a runoff on December 6th.  Pennsylvania was the only state that flipped, to a Democrat.  So, either 50-50 or 51D-49R.

At this moment, there are 219 Republican Congresspersons and 212 Democratic Congresspersons, with four races uncalled.  This is a net increase of 12 seats for the Republicans.  218 is a majority, so the House is in Republican hands, by less than a dozen seats.  In contrast, the Republicans lost 40 seats in the last midterm election under Trump.

What is clear is that this was not a "bloodbath" or a "red wave" for the Republicans.  Democrats gained two governorships and one senator.

A few personal notes: 

• John Fetterman, the Democratic candidate for governor of Pennsylvania, the fellow who had suffered a stroke just a few months ago and looked unwell during his one debate, soundly defeated Dr. Mehmet Oz, the carpetbagger from New Jersey, who won fame for selling snake oil remedies on TV, by more than 250,000 votes.  
• Josh Shapiro, the Democratic candidate for governor of the same state, whipped his "flawed" opponent by nearly 800,000 votes.   
• Ron DeSantis, the Republican candidate for governor of Florida, and the would-be Republican candidate for president in 2024, beat his opponent, former Republican governor of Florida Charlie Crist, by 1,500,000 votes.
• Gavin Newsom, the Democratic candidate for governor of California, and a possible Democratic candidate for president in 2024, beat his opponent by nearly 2,000,000 votes.  DeSantis and Newsom both won their races by 19 percentage points!
• Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, of Georgia's 14th district, was re-elected by 65.7% to 34.1%.
• Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York's 14th district, was re-elected by 70.6% to 27.5%.
• Representative Lauren Boebert, of Colorado's 3rd district, garnered 554 votes more than her opponent Adam Frisch; that margin was small enough for a recount but Frisch has conceded!  554 votes our of 330,000 votes.  And the Democrat conceded instead of demanding a recount.
• Finally, my favorite.  Kari Lake, the MAGA Republican candidate for governor of Arizona, the would-be candidate for Vice president under Trump in 2024, lost to her Democratic rival by 17,000 votes out of 2,870,000 votes cast; that number is not large enough for an automatic recount, but Ms. Lake has not conceded; indeed, like Trump, she began to claim "rigged" well before the election took place.  And, like Trump, she will be whining about a stolen election until the press stops covering her sorry ass.