Wow!

 

by Pa Rock

Ecstatic Camper!

Wow!  That about sums up last yesterday's US midterm election results.  The width and breadth of the Democratic victory are still unfolding, but over all it is just . . . wow!

I got home from my hospital trip to Kansas City early yesterday afternoon and spent the rest of the day getting things caught up at the house, so it was around 7:00 p.m. before I was finally able to park my carcass in front of the television to watch what I hoped would be a very entertaining and uplifting night of election returns.  I wasn't disappointed.  The first story I came across was an unbelievable account of Angie Nixon, a young black woman and Democratic Socialist running on the Democratic ticket for US senator, was about a point behind the incumbent US senator in Florida.

(Angie Nixon wound up losing by 2.7% points, an unbelievably close race in a MAGA swampland like Florida - and if she had been financially supported by the Democratic National Committee or Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee -  Ms. Nixon could have won.  Ken Martin, Chuckles Schumer, and Kirsten Gillibrand made a choice, and now they have to live with it.   Soon others will be making choices regarding them.)

As of this morning Democrats picked up senate seats in Kansas (woohoo!), Iowa, Texas, Maine, Ohio, North Carolina, and South Carolina - with Mississippi and Alaska still being counted.  The current US Senate count is 54 Democrats and 44 Republicans as of next January - and Pennsylvania's flip-flopping John Fetterman will no longer be relevant as a potential spoiler.

One note of interest from last night's results is that Democrats will now have a firmer hold on the Christian religious mantle that Republicans have, in the past, considered to be their personal property.  Rev. Raphael Warnock (Democrat) was re-elected to the Senate last night while continuing to lead the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta (Dr. King's church), and Kansas elected Adam Hamilton to the Senate as a Democrat.  Hamilton founded and grew the largest United Methodist megachurch in America.  Also, Texas elected Democrat James Talarico to the Senate, a Presbyterian Theological Seminarian who is working toward a doctorate in Divinity.  Anyone of those three ought to be able to hold their own with whatever Jesus talk Billy Joe Bob wants to stir into the national discourse.

There was plenty of other good news than just the Senate.  Georgia has its first black female governor with Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms.   A young Democratic Latina woman, Gina Hinojosa, will be the next governor of Texas after defeating odious Greg Abbott who has held the position for 12 years, and New Mexico will have the nation's first female Native American governor (Democrat Deb Haaland), and Minnesota will have the country's first female Native American US Senator (Democrat Peggy Flanagan).

Missouri underwent a Trump-forced political gerrymander last year which backfired bigly.  The state legislature, many of whom think they work directly for Trump, redrew its congressional maps last year in order to force a black Democratic congressman out of office.  The people revolted and got a referendum initiative signed by enough voters to get onto the ballot - and hopefully stop the political gerrymander, but our state's secretary of state stalled the process and tried to hold this year's election based on the gerrymandered maps without letting voters have input on the maps.  The Missouri and US Supeme Courts had to intercede, and finally the measure to do away with the new maps went to the polls yesterday where it passed - and yesterday's election was held based on the boundaries of the original maps.

When that Missouri fiasco started, the show-me state had two Democratic congressmen, one in Kansas City and the other in St Louis, and six Republicans.  The Republicans wanted to change the balance to 7-1 and squeeze out the Democrat in Kansas City. But their machinations backfired, and yesterday not only were the two original Democratic congressmen (both Black, btw) re-elected, but another Republican member of Congress from Missouri was defeated as well, bringing the state's new total to 5-3 in favor of Republicans.  Trying to play with a stacked deck has consequences..

The other big news out of Missouri is that the state's voters AGAIN voted to make and keep abortion services legal in the state.   Missouri voters approved legalized abortion in 2024, but our medieval legislature managed to get it paired with a "transgender issue" and placed back on the ballot this year.    The people of Missouri have now spoken on the abortion issue - TWICE!   Our lobbyist-run legislature needs to sit down and shut up and let the people's will prevail!

My biggest regret regarding the butt-whipping that MAGA forces took yesterday is that Mitch McConnell is apparently not sentient enough to comprehend the carnage that he helped to wreak upon his party - but hey, you can't have everything - but it sure is sweet to occasionally get close to having it all - like Democrats did yesterday.

Wow!