Brunswick Beacon, 11.17.22
Republicans are stunned. Red Tsunami? More like a pink puddle. As I write, the House is still in play. Democrats kept control of the Senate and could add a seat. Biden is the only first-term president since FDR to gain governorships. It’s one of the best midterm performances by a president in the last 100 years.
Republicans are pointing fingers and the culprit they’re fingering is Donald Trump. Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post called him “Trumpty Dumpty.” Conservative columnist John Podhoretz wrote: “Toxic Trump is the political equivalent of a can of Raid…perhaps the most profound vote repellant in modern American history.”
Longtime Trump adviser David Urban said, “Republicans have followed Donald Trump off the side of a cliff.” Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said, “It’s a huge loss for Trump…his political instincts are not about the party, they’re not about the country…they’re about him.” Fox News’ Anne Coulter tweeted “You had your chance, with a Republican House and Senate…Shut the [expletive] up, forever.” Ouch!
Trump wasn’t on the ballot, but Trumpism was. Its beating heart is authoritarianism; telling women what to do with their bodies, denying voters what they did with their votes.
Trump’s three supreme court appointees delivered on Republicans’ 50-year vendetta against a woman’s right to choose. The decision was wildly unpopular: 70% of Americans did not want Roe v. Wade overturned. Republicans had long pretended they wanted individual states to decide on abortion themselves. Lindsey Graham and Ted Budd exposed the lie when they co-sponsored a national abortion ban.
Trump’s election-denialism became a litmus test for Republican candidates. Most echoed Trump’s Big Lie. Liz Cheney warned: "If you care about democracy and you care about the survival of our republic…[you] cannot give people power who have told us that they will not honor elections.”
Americans get that. They like deciding for themselves. That’s why voters rejected Trumpism. The choosers chose choice.
Larry Widman
Leland