Surf’s Up! Blue Wave On November 7!
The “liberal” mainstream media has been predicting Democratic electoral disaster since Joe Biden was elected president three years ago. The media tells the public that Biden can’t do anything right and that the economy is terrible. After that deeply flawed coverage, the media run polls that sometimes (but not always) verifies their narrative of Democratic doom. The media covers the negative polls for the Democrats and ignores the good ones.
Then a funny thing happened when the people actually voted. The Democrats defied the Republican and mainstream press predictions of a red wave in 2022. Joe Biden and the Democrats had the best mid-term results of any president and incumbent party since 1962. The Democrats picked up a seat in the Senate and 7 governor’s mansions. The Republicans fearlessly predicted they would gain 60 seats in the U.S. House but only emerged with an unworkable and nightmarish four seat majority.
Despite the strong Democratic showing in 2022, the mainstream press and the Republicans continued to predict a Democratic defeat in 2023. The NY Times and CNN trotted out polls just before election day that forecast Democratic doom in 2024. (The NY Times played down a key data point from their poll that indicated a big Biden win in 2024 once Trump is convicted of a felony. Other media outlets simply ignored this finding.)
Despite those pessimistic predictions and bad press, the Democrats shocked the world again on November 7, 2023, routing the heavily favored Republicans. They won a series of key victories across the country that bode well for Biden and the Democrats in 2024.
In ruby red Kentucky, incumbent Democratic Governor Andy Beshear beat Daniel Cameron by a 52% to 47% margin. This is a significant result since Cameron was endorsed by Trump and tried to link Beshear to Biden. Cameron even ran ads alleging that Kentucky is “Trump country.” Nonetheless, Beshear won big despite Biden’s alleged unpopularity.
The Democrats won a landslide victory in reddish Ohio. By a decisive 57% to 43% margin, the voters of Ohio passed a constitutional amendment that codified reproductive rights. This was an amazing result because the Ohio GOP pulled out every procedural trick in the book to thwart the popular will of the people of Ohio and lied to them about the ballot initiative. Even now, the sore losers in the Ohio GOP are scheming to prevent the courts from allowing the new amendment to take effect.
Perhaps the most remarkable result was in Virginia. Mainstream media darling Glenn Youngkin campaigned hard for the Republicans in that state’s legislative elections. The Virginia governor made a 15 week abortion ban the centerpiece of the Republican campaign. The voters rejected Youngkin and the GOP by giving control of both houses of the Virginia legislature to the Democrats. This was a humiliating defeat for Youngkin and the anti-choice cause.
The Democrats had a blue wave on November 7 largely due to the GOP’s extremism and threat to freedom. The Republicans haven’t had a good election night since the Republicans on the Supreme Court threw out Roe v. Wade.
Another factor behind that big win may very well be most Americans’ satisfaction with their own economic situation. According to a Federal Reserve survey in late 2022, 73% of Americans believe their own financial situation is okay or good. Only 18% of Americans believe the national economy is doing well. (The latter finding most likely reflects the mainstream media’s false narrative that the economy is terrible.) If the economy was as bad as it’s made about to be by the press and the GOP, one would think the voters would have punished the Democrats.
The Democratic winning streak in off year and special elections in 2023 continues to rebut the narrative of doom from the press and the GOP. The Democrats over performed in the special elections during the spring and the summer. The Democrats over performed (again) in the November 2023 elections.
What the media and the GOP appear not to recognize is that the 2022 and 2023 elections turned out to be choice elections and not a referendum on Joe Biden. When faced with a choice between a toxic MAGA Republican endorsed by Trump and a Biden Democrat, the voters have chosen the latter. There is an anti-MAGA majority outside of the deep red states.
We had a blue wave on Tuesday. I will take election results over stupid polls everyday, all day. The 2023 election results are an encouraging sign for Biden and the Democrats in 2024. Interestingly enough, the Kentucky governor’s race has predicted the presidential election in the last five cycles.
The country faces a monumental choice in 2024. It’s freedom versus dictatorship. Trump has promised to prosecute anybody who opposes him and to deploy the military to arrest people who protest against him. In addition, Trump plans to round up millions of immigrants and incarcerate them in internment camps. Don’t say you weren’t warned. Like many aspiring dictators, Trump makes no secret of his authoritarian agenda.
Joe Biden may be old but he has an impressive record of accomplishment and America has the strongest economy in the free world. In addition, Biden believes in freedom and democracy.
It’s America or Trump in 2024. Choose wisely.