Wow. What a surprising turn of events last night. While the final numbers are not going to be in for at least another month, what we did find out is that the American people value Democracy over their wallets.
It is not out of the ordinary in a mid-term election cycle for the party on the outside to make significant gains in both chambers as voters try to send a message about how they are being governed. It was expected that the GOP would/could see a pick-up of 1-2 seats in the senate and up to 20 seats in the house. Neither happened.
We won't know for another month on the Senate as Georgia will need a runoff election on December 6th to decide that race. Arizona is looking at an extended counting period that might take up to two more weeks and they then expect challenges to be given for recounts which could take another two weeks or so. Finally, Nevada is waiting for the counting of early ballots that are expected to be completed by the weekend so we might know the answer to that race by Sunday. Right now it is 49-48 in favor of the GOP.
In the House races the GOP has a 206-187 lead with a bunch of seats still up for grabs. It looks like they will end up with a tiny majority 5-7 seats. This will be enough for them to take over the chairs of committees where they can start to work their passion of investigating everyone associated with the Democratic party from Biden on down. Will anything actually get done to help us, not very likely. Will they try to hold hostage Social Security and Medicare as we need to increase the debt ceiling? Very likely.
Anyway, none of this is actually my point here today.
What happened last night, and the weeks leading up to last night, with early voting and/or mail in voting, is that the American people looked around at what was happening and how the GOP was willfully boasting about all the things they were going to do, and the voters said, wait one minute on that. We know inflation is high, we know the cost of living is higher than it has been, and we know that crime and immigration are issues, but none of those are important to us right now.
What is important is that we want the right to make our own choices on our reproductive issues. We want the right to have our vote counted fairly and have it mean something and not just be an exercise to make us feel better while somebody decides who wins and who loses. And most importantly we want to get this country back on track and running like a real Democracy should be run.
This was a stunner for the GOP who has made fear, anger, and hate the bedrock of their messaging for six years now. What it should have been for the GOP is an eye opener to them that the former idiot in chief is a major weight around their necks when it comes to getting out the vote. He endorsed around 330 different people for offices around the country. It looks like he will only have about twenty percent of them actually get elected. A major slap in his face that he won't recognize but the party had better wake up to or they will be out of business in one more election cycle.
I had many friends and family telling me that a red wave was coming yesterday and that I should get ready for a whole new world when the Republicans take over. Well, I'm still waiting. I knew deep in my soul that once people had to make that final decision about the direction they wanted this country to head that they would do the right thing and pick the people who are more interested in the country staying a Democracy then those that were hoping for a move towards Fascism. I was right.
This is not to say that we don't still have issues that need to be addressed. Not only does the country have to once and for all get a handle on immigration but it needs to be a solution that will last and that is fair. We also need to fix the mess Congress created with Social Security and Medicare so that those of us of a certain age have the security of these programs to get us through when we need them.
Also, the Democratic Party needs to get their heads out of their asses and stop falling in love with media stars like Beto O'Rourke and Stacy Abrams and others. These people continue to prove they're unelectable. Start paying attention to the Gretchen Whitmer's and Josh Shapiro's of the party since they keep getting elected in states that are 50/50.
The GOP is in such a mess right now that it is going to take years for them to recover. Now is the time for them to once and for all denounce Trump, his minions, and his BS. How many times do they have to get their asses handed to them before they realize he is not their answer? Until they force him to go away and come back to earth one they are going to be an unelectable party.
The country dodged a bullet last night and even those that are avid supporters of the GOP will see in a short time that they were on the wrong side of the issues this time. The rest of us will welcome you back to reality once you take off the blinders and stop only watching, listening to, and reading right wing propaganda. You won't die if you actually watch ABC or CBS news occasionally to see what is really going on.
It is a short two years until the next most important election of our lifetime and we have a ton of work in front of us if we want to actually elect people that are not crazy or stupid or, god forbid, both.