Even If It’s Only a Rebuke
An Opinion Piece by the Editorial Staff
Let’s not deny it. We thought it. We wanted it. We could even see it happening.
We weren’t envisioning a “blue wave” for this year’s midterm elections. We were girding ourselves excitedly for a blue tsunami.
The nation, finally, would be overwhelmed by storms and floods that would virtually wipe clean all the grime, soot, barnacles that have besotted all of us since 2016. It would be a sweet inundation.
But it didn’t happen–well, not as magnificently as we hoped it would, anyway.
The Democrats didn’t take control of both chambers of Congress; in fact, the Republicans gained more Senate seats. President Trump’s predominantly rural, working-class base did not turn against him. Many Trump stalwarts won their elections; even two Republicans who have been indicted for federal crimes kept their posts. The referendum on our commander in chief earned him, as historian and former Republican Max Boot intoned, “a rebuke but not a repudiation.”
We wanted the country to reject the new Republicanism with its race-baiting-family-separating-women-denigrating-immigrant-hating-fear-mongering demagoguery. We wanted America to turn that corner. We wanted it to right itself.
Instead, we are listing, floundering, coming up for air. But not drowning anymore. Waves did come: we caught some, rode some, got replenished by some.
Sure, the big stars of the Democratic Party suffered heartbreaking losses. Beto O’Rourke–no matter his down-to-earth charisma and how many times he chows a Whataburger–could not unseat the incumbent Ted Cruz; Andrew Gillum would have been Florida’s first African-American governor if he got 47,000 more votes than the winner Ron DeSantis; Stacey Abrams, as of this writing, has not conceded her Georgia gubernatorial spot to Brian Kemp but things aren’t looking good–Oprah or no Oprah.
Yet there are reasons for splashing around in quiet joy.
Voter turnout was at a historic high for midterm elections. 113 million citizens cast their ballots on November 6, dwarfing the totals for 2014 (83.3. million) and 2010 (96.5 million). This means many who have been away are back in the game or those who have never played are eager to do so. This resurgence of civic participation can only be a good thing.
Representation, in more ways than one, has been at the forefront of these elections. We are happy to note that 96 women won House races. The previous high was 85. And it seems every victory for women on the 6th was seismic. To wit:
- The first Native American women were elected to office: Sharice Davids (D – Kansas) and Deb Haaland (D – New Mexico)
- Rashida Tlaib (D – Michigan) and Ilham Omar (D – Minnesota) made history by becoming the first Muslim women to be elected to the House
- In Tennessee, Democrat Marsha Blackburn is poised to be the first woman to represent her state in the Senate
- No matter the outcome (it’s a toss-up as of this writing) of the Senate race for Arizona, either Krysten Sinema (D) or Martha McSally (R) will be the state’s first female senator
- The first Hispanic Texan representatives who are women will be Veronica Escobar (D) and Sylvia Garcia (D)
- Kristi Noem (R) was elected South Dakota’s first ever female governor
- Things are shaking up in Iowa: the state elected its first female governor, Kim Reynolds (R), and female representatives, Democrats Abby Finkenauer and Cindy Axne
Some states that Trump won in 2016 have flipped. Wisconsin and Michigan now have Democrats as governors. Sherrod Brown (D) was handily re-elected in Ohio–a state the president won by eight points. Perhaps a trend is seeping through.
Let’s not forget that the Democrats won a majority in the House of Representatives on election night. They haven’t pulled any levers in that chamber for eight long years. After the dust has settled, we might discover that the Dems have gained upwards of 32 seats.
This newfound power might certainly mean more political gridlock but it could also mean so many other things that would tide us over till 2020: more oversight on Trump’s antics; subpoena powers (tax returns, anyone?); protection for the Robert Mueller-led Russia probe; an investigation of whether the current administration violated the Emoluments Clause; a possible end to family separations at the border; relief from threats to dispatch with the Affordable Care Act.
The day after the elections, would-be Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi called for bipartisan efforts to tackle our country’s issues. To jaded ears, this may sound like an empty though conciliatory plea. So let’s agree to be cautiously optimistic.
Let’s not deny it. We want to dream big. We want to hope big. Let’s make it happen.
[Sources: usatoday.com, twitter.com, bustle.com,