Following Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s projected win announced Saturday, Democrats will retain control of the Senate. They could solidify their hold if Raphael Warnock defeats Herschel Walker next month in a Georgia runoff.
And control of the House could break Democrats’ way, as well, although this appears less likely given the trajectory of the vote counting thus far.
In any event, predictions of a red tide were, as Mark Twain once observed about erroneous reports of his own death, “grossly exaggerated.”
I’d like to think this is because voters were able to step away from concerns over the economy, compelling and important as they are, and focus on long-term issues, one of which is the preservation of democracy.
It is heartening that so many candidates who embraced false election narratives were defeated in their bids for election-oversight positions. These included aspirants for secretary of state in Arizona, Michigan and Nevada.
Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon told Time magazine, “I hope it means we are closer to breaking the fever.”
However, a Washington Post survey noted that, as of Sunday morning, some 170 election deniers had either won or were projected to win various other posts. And surveys show that an alarming number of Republicans, 67%, still believe that Biden stole the election in 2020.
So, some voters still have a low-grade fever where baseless election fraud is concerned. Others may have thought the issue wasn’t as important when weighing different factors about candidates, including their positions on the economy, the environment or abortion.
Still other voters may have rationalized their choices by saying candidates didn’t really believe claims about election fraud but were saying what they did as a litmus test for a small but still statistically significant number of overall Americans who have bought into such false claims.
Overall, however, the trend toward the MAGA mindset appears to be dwindling as people get on with their lives and recognize the toxicity of the brand.
It seems to me that sensible Republicans, the ones who no longer want to descend into the vile snake pit that the former president amplified in 2016 and 2020, now have a choice.
They can support candidates and policies that are a reasonable reflection of their conservative views. Or they can follow the increasingly unpopular fringe groups that desperately want to drag the party into a never-ending spiral of white grievance and evidence-free conspiracy theories.
The party will be put to the test again this week, as Trump was widely expected to announce his bid for the 2024 presidency. (At press time, he has not.)
Will Republican leaders fall in line behind a man who could not, and has not, committed to one of the basic tenets of American democracy − the peaceful transfer of power? Or will this be the moment when they say enough’s enough?
As one Twitter commentator noted last week, the more extreme members of the Republican party, the ones who rightly should be named RINOs, have been looking for a civil war. Now they may have found one in their own party.
Indeed, the only Red Wave might be the one that splits the Republican party in half.
Reach Chris at chris.schillig@yahoo.com. On Twitter: @cschillig.
Originally published in The Alliance Review on Nov. 16, 2022.
No comments:
Post a Comment