There had been plenty of elections in my own lifetime that were disappointing, even plenty since the time when I first became eligible to vote, and participated as one of the young people who got swept up in the 1992 presidential elections. In fact, I was a bit disappointed in those elections at the time, because even though I voted for Bill Clinton in the general election, and was happy when he won, he was hardly my first choice, or second, or third, in the Democratic primaries. Frankly, he was about my last choice, because he seemed somehow a little too...well, perfectly political. Every hair in it's proper place, every word in it's proper place, every exaggerated inflection in tone, with his famous sotto voce. Every position perfectly in it's proper place, with a team of experts who put their fingers to the wind to capture the political mood of the moment in this country, and then to provide their candidate with the best, most acceptable position to appeal to as wide a voting audience as possible. Something about that just made me feel uneasy. And, in fact, it would turn out that Clinton's entire presidency made me feel uneasy, like he was not only more of the same, but actively ensuring that the system would remain very tightly rigged and actively working against the best interests of the American people.
Predictably, Donald Trump took to Twitter to express his thoughts on the election. He described it as a "tremendous success," even though his Republican party lost control of one branch of Congress, the House of Representatives, to the Democrats. A total of 218 seats are needed in order to win control over the House. As of the time of my writing this, the Democrats had already won 222 seats, according to the New York Times (see link below). For the first time, the Democrats have some real levers of political power in Washington with which to actually pose some real opposition to Trump and his agenda. Will they use it wisely? That much cannot yet be said at this point.
What Trump was referring to, of course, was the also predicted Senate race, which Republicans by and large won, picking up stronger control of the Senate. Republicans already controlled the Senate, for all intents and purposes, in every way, with a majority of the 100 Senate seats, at 52. The Republicans managed to flip at least two seats in their favor.
There was some news that I would generally consider good, other than the Democrats winning the House to hopefully restore some semblance of a system of checks and balances within the national government. The biggest, for me, would be Tony Evers win over incumbent Republican governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker, who was seeking a third term as the state's governor. You might remember Walker, right? He was the governor who helped crush unions in his state, when then, as a newly elected governor, he said that he would force workers to pay higher benefit costs on workers. Union workers replied with massive protests that gained national attention. While Democrats went to Illinois in an effort to delay the vote, the Republicans of the Wisconsin legislature sneakily passed the measure effectively forcing the workers to pay those higher wages and, in the process, to weaken collective bargaining. Walker, of course, signed it into law. During his tenure, his stare became the 25th "Right to Work" state, essentially a euphemism for being a union busting state. His party also worked to pass a bill that would eliminate an employee's legal right to at least one day off per week.
He also ran for the White House in 2016, because with those kinds of credentials, he was one of the favorites for corporate sponsors. He championed getting rid of weekends, and used his ruthless, heartless takedown of workers in his state as proof that he was ready for the job, saying:
“If I can take on 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the world.”
So, yeah, I'm really glad that he got his ass kicked last night.
Indeed, there were five gubernatorial elections last night, and Democrats won two (in Oregon and Wisconsin), and Republicans won two (in Georgia and Florida). In Connecticut, Democrat Ned Lamont had pulled ahead in a very tight race, with over 90 percent of precincts reporting.
There were other major headlines from these elections, as well. In Missouri and in Arkansas, voters convincingly approved of raising the minimum wage, with over 60 percent voting in favor of this in both states. Also in Missouri, a measure was passed to allow medical marijuana with a 4 percent tax, with over 65 percent approving this measure. However, voters in North Dakota rejected legalizing marijuana in their state.
Anti-abortion measures designed to challenge Roe v. Wade were passed in Alabama and West Virginia, but a measure to ban funding for abortions was defeated in Oregon. Finally, both Nebraska and Idaho voted to expand Medicaid.
So, a mixed bag, right?
However, there are other bits of news with this election that, I think, needs to get more attention.
One of the major problems with elections is that elected officials have been empowered with the ability to illegally remove people's right to vote. We all already knew that convicts had their right to vote removed, even though the NRA and gun advocates staunchly defend the right for these same people to obtain arms.
Brian Kemp, the new Republican Governor-elect of the state of Georgia, had oversight of the state's elections as Georgia's Secretary of State. This caused some serious controversy, especially when former President and native Georgian Jimmy Carter publicly wrote a letter asking Kemp to step down as Secretary of State and to hand off the responsibilities of overseeing the election to someone else. Kemp did neither, and so he was allowed to purge his state of hundreds of thousands of voters who, not so coincidentally, were unlikely to cast their votes in his favor. Also not surprisingly, and possibly as a result, Kemp won the election yesterday.
This is a controversial process that has become all the rage in this country, and is yet one more thing that undermines confidence in our supposedly democratic process and free elections. When we have elected officials (especially elected officials who's popularity begs the question of how they got elected in the first place), we get the sense that these elected officials are hand picking their voters, when it is actually the voters who are supposed to pick their elected officials. How bad has this trend gotten? Well, take a look at these numbers: 591,000 taken off the voter rolls in Georgia (Kemp obviously had a hand in this, and it should be noted that he won by less than 100,000 votes), 469,000 taken off the voter rolls in Indiana, and 554,000 taken off the voter rolls in Illinois, as well as 90,000 taken off the voter rolls in Nevada, specifically in Las Vegas and Reno.
These numbers I got from Lee Camp's Redacted tonight episode 216 (see the link below). Please watch this video, if you truly want a better idea of what is actually happening in this nation. I have been a fan of his for some time, even though it should be noted straight off the top that this program is fully funded by the Russian government. Why that is, I do not know. But regardless, he makes some very strong points about what is going on in the United States today, and why things just seem so ridiculous. At the beginning of this particular episode, which was first aired on October 19th, he mentions how it really looks like Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg seems to be preparing the groundwork for a White House run, either in 2020 or 2024. And he is apparently very serious about this. because, you know, what this country needs is more billionaires running for high office. It has worked out so well thus far, has it not?
Along with this story, Camp shows how Silicon Valley is basically in bed with our corporate run government, and how they work together to essentially enforce online censorship. Again, I would strongly recommend that you take a look at this particular episode, and check out Lee Camp's Redacted Tonight more generally. It is depressing, to be sure, but it will keep you informed about a lot of what is going on in the United States today, and how our democracy, or what remains of it, is steadily being eroded.
Here is the link to the New York Times 2018 election results page that I used in this blog entry:
2018 Midterm Election Results: Live published by The New York Times, November 6, 2018 (regularly updated throughout October 6th-7th, 2018):
Could Wisconsin's Scott Walker now abolish the weekend? Michael Hiltzik By MICHAEL HILTZIK MAR 20, 2015:
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