2022 Midterm Election MEGATHREAD

[celedhring]

Seems all the ballot measures to protect abortion access won as well.

Yeah, I'm shocked Kentucky voted that abortion ban constitutional amendment down.  Figured it was a foregone conclusion it'd win.

TN abolished slavery too! It's not all bad 

[OttoVonBismarck]

One of my takeaways from last night is...man, if the GOP could even slightly moderate on a few issues they would be damn near unbeatable. But it seems like they have almost no willingness to do that.

I think Democrats have a much harder problem in terms of trying to "tone shift", because they are an incredibly diverse coalition of interests, so some tone shifts would alienate key constituencies. The Democrats best option is to try and de-nationalize congressional races, which has been I think a better state of affairs for them in the past. That's much harder to do though because it's hard when most people are informed by nationalized forms of media (be it cable news or social), and local media is largely gutted throughout the country.

[Berkut]

One of my takeaways from last night is...man, if the GOP could even slightly moderate on a few issues they would be damn near unbeatable. But it seems like they have almost no willingness to do that.

I don't really agree - or rather, I don't think it is really the point.

The GOP don't have issues anymore, they have anger and personalities. So what is there to moderate on, exactly?

If I was in charge of the GOP, and I wanted to do what you are describing...what would that actually look like? It's not like they have an actual policy to moderate. The only thing I could think of would be immigration, where there is some kind of semblance of an actual policy to moderate.

Abortion maybe? How do you moderate that issue at this point?

Honest questions. And I am asking them because I think it is critical to the optimistically sane future where the GOP somehow moves itself back towards being an actual governing, functioning political body rather then a populist cult front for some pseudo strongman.

[Barrister]

Rats - I thought independent Evan McMullin would pull it off in Utah.

[Josquius]

Agreed.
The problem with "if the republicans were moderate on x they'd win" is its the same sort of thing as "what if Hitler wasn't anti semitic?".
Take that away and he loses all his guiding force and wouldn't be half as successful

Nah, this night is unabashedly good for the Democrats across the board. America has an almost psychotic electorate, prone to voting against the party in power with an almost pathological zeal..

Probably the biggest take away from this is the Democrats seem poised to have a fighting chance to continue to resist the fascist take over of the country. It is still, depressingly, going to be a close fought battle whose outcome is uncertain--but this night's results at least suggest it won't be a blowout.

Thanks. Nice summary which is encouraging.

Whilst I'm a socialist and obviously want an actual left winger with a positive global outlook in charge there, top priority is obviously avoiding a literal fascist to absolutely fuck things up - as a fucked up America is a fucked up world, and in light of climate change, Ukraine, China, etc... It's a critical time for this.

[Sheilbh]

One of my takeaways from last night is...man, if the GOP could even slightly moderate on a few issues they would be damn near unbeatable. But it seems like they have almost no willingness to do that.

Agreed - and I've said before but I think DeSantis is a real risk. More competent than Trump, actually going through the Orbanist playbook of using state power to enforce cultural norms but presents as more of a "normal" politician.

Overall though it seems about as good as it could have gone for the Democrats and as bad as it could have gone for Trump.

I believed he clarified with: "yeah and the immaculate conception is still a pregnancy. I just wouldn't use it to set expectations."

Yeah and also my starting point was if you want to do more politics than just voting, or you want to participate civically joining campaigns about things you care about or parties is a way of doing that. Again I think it's striking that it's elided with "angry slogans" and futility because, in my view, the people who've been campaigning and activists are doing more for American democracy than most - including seeing this result.

I don't think the problem in American politics is angry slogans, or activists, or democratic excess - I think it's the Republican party backing away from the democratic system.

[Sheilbh]

Incidentally total aside - I've always liked Biden (although I was 90% won over by the Onion parody) and I get the issues with him and don't think he should run in 2024....But I think he's building a record as, quietly, a very effective leader.

I think the IRA () is really significant in breaking the deadlock on climate in the US, these midterms, foreign policy with Ukraine and China (plus a bit of industrial policy with chips) - and it strikes me as a pretty impressive record given the votes he has in the House and Senate and the wider context.

[OttoVonBismarck]

DeSantis is by far the most politically savvy of that faction of Republicans. Note that he has essentially stayed out of take any strong public stances on abortion--I should clarify, he is orthodox pro-life as all Republicans are required to be, but he hasn't come out big on post-Dobbs legislation or full bans. The situation with abortion in Florida is complex as there is a State constitutional amendment enshrining right to privacy, and the State legislature has only been pushing a ban at 15 weeks (which FWIW, is more liberal than several countries in Western Europe, for a little frame of reference.) DeSantis seems to know which culture wars actually are net winners and which aren't.

[Jacob]

I assume Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the daughter of Mike Huckabee and Bernie Sanders?

[Barrister]

I assume Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the daughter of Mike Huckabee and Bernie Sanders?

I'm not quite sure who taught you about the birds and the bees, but it might be time for a bit of a refresher...

[Jacob]

I'm not quite sure who taught you about the birds and the bees, but it might be time for a bit of a refresher...

It's 2022 man, a girl can have two dads.

[Savonarola]

Also apparently Trump is threatening De Sanctis with releasing negative info about him if he runs against him for the GOP nomination in 2024. 

He's also got a new witty nickname for him "Desanctimonious;" and has accused Casey Desantis (Ron's wife) of running his campaign.  (I think that's supposed to be a bad thing.  Say what you like about Trump, no one has ever accused Melania of being the brains behind the operation.)

Even stranger, Biden, when here campaigning for Charlie Crist, called Desantis "Trump incarnate."  I'm not sure if Biden believes Trump is incorporeal, or that Trump has transcended to this material plane so that he and his avatar can exist simultaneously; like, say, a meetup between Vishnu and Krishna.

[celedhring]

Trump needs to workshop that DeSanctis nickname, "Desanctimonious" is far too laboured.

[Barrister]

Trump needs to workshop that DeSanctis nickname, "Desanctimonious" is far too laboured.

I like it.

You have to check out this ad he released, which literally says he was sent by God to be a "fighter" for the people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9oTBA-MvZk

You can tell though that Trump himself didn't come up with DeSanctimonius though.

[Josquius]

I dearly hope for a Trump/ De Santis bloodbath that makes de Santis just as thoroughly tainted as the orange man.