Bloody Red Election

Bloody Red Election

– By Ed Kociela –

Somehow, it is appropriate that voters awoke this morning to a Bloody Red Moon, a spectacular lunar eclipse that darkened our skies.

As far as omens go, I am sure there are plenty of people on both sides of the political spectrum who look at it as being foreboding.

Foreboding or not, it is a fitting conclusion to an election year that has been bloody from top to bottom and could get bloodier than a MASH unit in a few days if the former president decides to run again. He is, of course, zero for two in the standings, having lost both times in the popular vote. He snuck in the first time with an Electoral College win that was not indicative of the general voting population. To put it into sports terms, he won ugly.

Today’s results promise to be no better; however, they turn.

Because of how whacked our elections have become, I have no confidence in figuring out who wins the roses today and who will be pricked by the thorns. I suspect it will be a little bit of both.

Both sides have made some major tumbles.

The Republicans have marched forward on the backs of a surprising number of candidates who are still election deniers, folks who believe the great cabal manipulated the vote against the man with the blood-red MAGA hat. They put a lot of confidence in a former athlete from Georgia who leads the league in hypocrisy. Then there’s the mess in Pennsylvania, where another failed reality TV star is trying to tip the scales in his favor. A lot of money and celebrity firepower has been expended in that race alone.

The Democrats have done themselves no favors, either.

They bet the farm that voters would care about preserving our democracy. Sadly, it hasn’t been a factor this cycle. They tried to make it a referendum on abortion and women’s rights, but, we have seen that push lose steam, ignoring the rights of half of all voters. They also failed to remember the admonition of Bill Clinton’s brilliant strategist James Cargille, whose mantra was “It’s the economy, stupid,” which gave them back-to-back wins.

The Democrats, with their lily-livered temperament, are already making excuses, saying, “You know, the incumbent party, whoever it may be, usually loses some seats in the House during the midterms.”

Historically that is true, especially in recent history.

However, why concede that fact instead of exploiting it robustly with a determined, sensible strategy? You’ve got to have something more than two former presidents on the stump leading the cheers, along with a retired talk show hostess who created one of the monsters on the bill. They needed a focused attack, a real understanding of the issues that could energize their base while the Republicans did their chest-thumping.

Oddsmakers are telling us the Democrats should hold onto the Senate. The House is another matter, with them needing to nearly run the table to hang on to their advantage. There was a time when political scholars could fairly well predict such things, I’ll leave it to the bookmakers because everything is so topsy-turvy, and they usually have great insight into such things. Students of the game have got to relinquish all of their previous knowledge and experience because it has changed so much that predictions are increasingly difficult to nail down.

Plus, there is also the specter of Donald Trump waiting in the wings. Should Republicans win the House, you will definitely see him enter the 2024 race very soon because a House win for the GOP pretty much grinds the wheels of justice, powering the House Committee on the Jan. 6 terrorist attacks on the Capitol to a halt, making it an issue for the Department of Justice and the local jurisdictions – primarily in New York and Georgia where the most serious investigations of criminal activity by the former president are deeply rooted. Then, of course, it becomes a practical matter of the courts doing their legal thing at judicial speed, which can be agonizingly slow or painfully fast, depending on which table you sit at during trial.

A lot also rests on the lingering embarrassment of a United States Supreme Court heavily stacked by the Republicans with immense personal debt resting on the shoulders of a couple of these GOP puppets who have already shown that they serve the body politic instead of the Constitution, liberty, and democracy. Plus of course, the abhorrent behavior of Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, who has her hands sticky from so many far-right payouts, including some her husband conveniently forgot to include when preparing their tax liability.

As you watch the results trickle in tonight, you will hear how the voters are giving a mandate to one side or the other.

Don’t buy into it.

Regardless of how this plays, you must first understand that what is taking place here is the result of a “Me first” mentality where voters don’t give a whit about the state of the nation, preferring to, instead, vote for whoever lines their pockets the most regardless of the general outcome.

Yes, Americans have become that selfish, that very much self-centered, that the welfare of the nation is secondary to how many toys they can buy while the rest of us be damned.

There has also been a lot of hype regarding this being the most important election of our lifetime.

Sorry, but they are all important, midterm or not because we are the United States, supposedly the beacon of democracy, liberty, and freedom. How we conduct ourselves is supposed to serve as a benchmark for other nations.

We have spent two years trying to rebuild that image in a world that came to look upon us as a laughingstock when our president insulted Una Merkel, Queen Elizabeth II, Emmanuel Macron, Justin Trudeau, and others while sidling up to Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un.

The world will be watching.

How will we respond?

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