I always end up exhausted the day after election day. But, as a politics nerd, no matter what the polls state, I’m always glued and fascinated by election results.
Tuesday was no exception, and I find myself particularly exhausted this morning mainly because the results were underwhelming. It seems as though the House will likely have a Republican majority, albeit not nearly as much of a majority as they should’ve given the unfavorability of President Biden.
The Senate seems poised to be in the same position it was before, with yet another Georgia runoff more than likely on the horizon because that’s precisely what the American people want, more election and polling talk. So what does this all mean, you might wonder?
Don’t worry; actor James Woods has the answer.
Only one clear truth emerged from this election: this country is evenly divided and each side thinks the other is literally insane.
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) November 9, 2022
Division And Insanity
Known to tweet out golden nuggets of awesomeness from time to time, James Woods shot out a tweet after the midterms with the following:
“Only one clear truth emerged from this election: this country is evenly divided and each side thinks the other is literally insane.”
I couldn’t agree more. However, I don’t think we necessarily think our fellow voters are necessarily insane, but the candidates we have to choose from might be. Let’s take a look at Pennsylvania, for example.
Polling places in Pennsylvania are running out of paper and voters are being forced to wait hours or simply leave and come back.
This is called disenfranchising voters!
— Brigitte Gabriel (@ACTBrigitte) November 8, 2022
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John Fetterman, who for all intents and purposes should’ve been easy to beat, will be a United States Senator. So am I surprised he beat out TV personality Mehmet Oz?
Do you mean the same candidate that gave a speech in front of a limo used by Adolf Hitler and spoke of how crudites are too expensive in the Biden economy? Shocking that Dr. Oz wasn’t able to connect to the everyday Pennsylvanian with crack-shot campaign moves like those.
The truth that nobody wants to hear is that there was a fair share of Republican candidates who couldn’t land the plane on election night and probably never would because they weren’t the right candidate in the first place. But there is also something larger at play.
RELATED: Report: ‘Knives Are Out’ For Kevin McCarthy After GOP’s Lackluster Midterm Performance
Is Anybody Listening?
Last night the most exciting part of the election coverage was Fox News with their Fox News Voter Analysis breakdown. They polled 90,000 voters on various questions, indicating a more precise illustration of what last night showed.
Fetterman opens the debate:
“Hi. Good night everybody.” pic.twitter.com/lkNPtkoD2l
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) October 26, 2022
Not surprisingly, 75% of those polled are dissatisfied with how the government is working, which has been the general theme from voter polls for months. When asked about their opinions regarding President Biden and President Trump, 58% had an unfavorable view of Biden and 51% unfavorable of Trump.
And while you could argue that this was the midterm and wasn’t an election between Biden and Trump, both Presidents made it an election about the two of them. Which I think explains the lackluster performance of the Republican Party.
When the analysis got into issues, that’s where it gets fascinating; let’s look at three specific areas:
- Abortion – 62% favor national law guaranteeing access to abortion
- Gun laws – 57% prefer stricter gun laws
- Supreme Court – 51% approve of their performance
Now that is interesting. Voters are starting to have slightly more complex feelings about issues than straight down the ballot red or blue team beliefs.
Pendulum
I had a great boss while I was stationed in North Carolina who used to lament that in the military, we often would ‘swing the pendulum too far’ in either direction when needing to course correct. This hope to swing the needle to the right in some dramatic ‘red wave’ was a losing strategy from the get-go.
A better option would’ve been to focus on a long-game approach and aim to push the needle not toward the right necessarily, but toward the voter. Instead, both Democrats and Republicans focused too much on demographics instead of actual voters.
Early this morning, Congressman Kevin McCarthy prematurely and meekly announced that “we are going to take the House back,” adding:
“If you believe in freedom, hard work and the American dream these results prove there is a place for you in the Republican Party. We are expanding this party.”
It’s all well and good to talk of concepts like freedom, hard work, and the American dream – but what voters wanted and needed was an actual unified platform to get excited about.
So how exactly was voting for Republicans going to change the course of our retirement accounts, make us safer, and reign in government overreach?
RELATED: Unnamed Sources, Top Conservatives Blame Trump for Midterm Disaster
It’s not enough to say the other guy sucks; voters want to know precisely what you will do better.
Second GOP source sees below tweet, texts me “Knives are out for Kevin McCarthy, if he is under 225, expect Scalise to make a move quickly for speaker” https://t.co/AQF55yZaGM
— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) November 9, 2022
There Is Hope
Last night proved that President Biden is no uniter; the country is divided. It also confirmed that last night would not bring about the end of democracy as we know it; if anything, it proved our democracy still works rather well.
The House and Senate will represent how our country feels, divided and at odds with each other. However, there was one particular Republican that seemed to get how to inspire constituents.
Governor Ron DeSantis should be feeling pretty damn good today after flipping Miami-Dade County and essentially moving Florida from a swing state to a red state. The Republican Party should be paying attention because what DeSantis has, they should want to bottle up and sprinkle on their future candidates.
It’s not enough to be a candidate that is a minority or a veteran with a shiny bio. It’s also not enough to be a “shock jock” candidate with great media quips, bite-backs, and liberal pundits.
You have to listen to your constituents and have a solid platform. Say what you want about today’s Democratic Party (and trust me, I’ve probably said it), but they have a unified message.
It’s a crazy ideological message, but it’s unified. The Republican message is what? You either must love Trump or hate Trump and Biden is terrible?
RELATED: Report: Rick Scott Could be Gunning for Mitch McConnell’s Leadership Spot
All that does is further divide the country and make us all look at one another like we might be crazy—time to get it together and rally, perhaps behind the guy who actually caused a red wave.
DeSantis blew the competition away while much of the rest of the Republican Party underperformed. What exactly is the argument against DeSantis 2024?
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) November 9, 2022
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