Roevember?
I remember not so many years ago when an off-year election was just that. It wasn't that important... only all of the Congress is selected and 1/3 of the Senate, and probably the same regarding your state officials such as Governor, Lt. Governor, judges, city councils, county commissioners, and on and on. I've voted in most of these, but surely I missed a few.
Not that important?
Hardly.
And this year, the common refrain that this may be the most important election of our time is sadly perhaps true. Bill Maher, who has been coddling with the right for the last half year has suddenly come to.
This is the it can’t happen to us moment that’s happening to us right now. We just don’t feel it yet
We’re the Titanic right after the iceberg hit and honestly too many Americans just don’t care and won’t even care after it happens because they never followed politics to begin with and were never taught in school what democratic government was supposed to look like, so how sad can they be about losing something they never knew they had?
And even though Maher was right about DJT not leaving office peacefully, he is also wrong a lot. But the truth is, we are on the Titanic, but we haven't forgotten the binoculars and we still have time to avoid the proverbial iceberg.
I'm pretty much an election nut. Back in 2016, at the Clinton Election watch party, I was the one who announced very early that we were in trouble. It made my partner and the host angry. Two hours later, my partner was crying and I was angry. How could this country elect a guy who clearly was a grifter and a narcissistic psychopath? The fact that he was defeated 4 years later was no surprise. The fact that he has arisen from the gates of perdition to once again infect our democracy is a testament to his personality disorder and to the inability of our media institutions to accept the danger of the democracy killing virus that issues out of his every breath and ultimately allow him to return. And clearly, after he led the rebellion to stay in office, the R's in the senate missed their opportunity to take him out when they had the chance.
So, we now have a potential sequel to our own political chain saw massacre and this election is indeed pivotal.
If the R's actually take over the House, it will be bloody. The Jan 6 Committee will stop in its tracks and the crimes of Jan 6 will remain only at the Justice Department. Some of the most dangerous election deniers will be appointed to committee assignments that will make our hair stand up. To marginalize the well deserved impeachments, they will impeach the President that won election by 7 million votes. They will try to impeach the Attorney General for the temerity of indicting their leader and themselves for their assaults on our democracy and their willingness to violate their oaths to the constitution even as the Oath Keepers themselves face trial for their seditious conspiracy.
Michael Moore believes that this November will be remembered as Roevember and well it should be. He predicts that we can still hold the House if we make this election turnout more like an on year election. And remember, he predicted 2016 accurately to the horror of his fans.
With less than a 10 seat D majority, the path to victory is narrow, but turnout could turn the tide of tradition.
In the the 50/50 Senate, the path is more clear. Kelly should hold in Arizona. Nevada is looking better given the early turnout and mail votes coming out of Clark County where 2/3 of all the votes will be cast. And despite the enormous support for Dr. Oz coming from out of state and out of his own pockets, Fetterman will win, especially when considering the coat-tails of Shapiro who is 11 points ahead. That leaves us with Georgia and the abortion loving running back. It will likely go to a run-off and with the D's already at 50, the senate will not be at stake, and Warnock should win. The most recent Marist poll shows him 4 % ahead. Many of the recent polls are crudely disguised R polls used to show movement back to the Rs and as usual, our both sider news organizations took the bate, hook, line, and sinker.
If you wonder why and how our media institutions have failed us in 2022, not unlike the way they did in 2016, remember, reporters may be progressive in their views, but their bosses, the publishers, will always have a conservative bias. And it will take even more crime, corruption, and voter suppression before they realize that their conservative party is no longer a party of conservative tradition, but rather a rabble of power grabbing white supremacist hell bent on making freedom of religion a thing of the past in their Christian Nationalist political sect.
There are other races that are still in play. North Carolina would be a nice surprise but Budd seems to be finishing strong. Same goes for Ohio, with Vance finishing well, thus ending a well run campaign by Ryan.
If the D's keep the senate, we can continue the record breaking pace of judicial appointments as well as not be slowed down by other presidential appointments in the executive branch.
House R's will be a pain though. They may well hold up funding to Ukraine, thus proving that their party is truly pro-Putin. They may hold up the increase in the debt ceiling to force reductions in social security and medicare. This can perhaps be remedied in the lame duck session in December.
And then there are the 300 plus R's that are on the ballot nationwide that deny us all of a legitimate government without any facts or proof of their belief. I guess it's no different than their belief in the almighty. And it's every bit as dangerous. And immune to irony, their climate change denial despite mountains of facts and daily proofs will further endanger the whole world as they attack the IRA.
The famous baseball coach Augie Garrido always told his players that "you can't control what happens out there in the field, but you can control your response to it."
So vote, tell your friends to vote, and drive your relatives to the polls if they ask.
We should remember what Rachel Maddow says in her new podcast Ultra,
We've defeated these MAGA heads before.
As Jerry Garcia spoke back in 1988 about protecting the rain forest, (paraphrased)
"Somebody has to do something,
and its just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us."
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Labels: american fascism, Constitution, culture, political philosophy