It is the early morning of Election Day. The red moon is visible in the sky. If this were ancient times, it might be construed as a sign from the gods — an omen of a red wave about to sink the Democratic Party. Though most of the people no longer see omens in such astrological events, it is quite an amazing and amusing coincidence.
Omen or not, it is not shaping up to be a good day for Democrats. History, issues, and polls all suggest a significant victory for Republicans. Most certainly they will win control of the House. I am on record suggesting a GOP takeover of the Senate – although less confident in that prediction. We have not seen a lot of polling or prognostication on the state-based races – for governor, legislature, secretary-of-state, attorney general, and school boards. I am betting Republicans will do well in those races.
In an effort to face weaker opponents – as they perceived them – Democrats spent hundreds of millions of dollars supporting Trump-backed candidates. I think many of them are going to win – as well as all those so-called election deniers.
That will leave Democrats and the folks at MSNBC to explain why the party and the candidates they have branded as the most evil and most dangerous enemies of democracy – a threat to the very existence of the Republic – have won so much support from the American people in a free and fair election.
Amid agonizing expressions of hope, many on the left still contended that abortion and threats to democracy were still viable issues driving voters. NBC even had the threat issue as the number one concern among voters – something no other poll showed.
But the reality was trumping hope. The morning shows were already filled with their excuses. Left-wing commentators and analysts fell back the failure of Democrat messaging – even in the face of the enormous amount of positive coverage the media gave the Democrat issues of abortion, democracy, and the alleged good economic news. They refused to concede that virtually every voter in America has heard the Democrat message – and it was not very convincing,
The hyper hysteria was evident in the raised voices of folks like MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and former Republican National Chairman turned MNBC flunky Michael Steele. Ironically, the causes of Democrat weakness were inconsistent. Some alleged they spent too much time on the Capitol Hill riot and the threat to democracy and others claimed they spent too little time.
Some said the Democrats need to talk more about the economy, crime, and schools. But what could they say? Those were losing issues for Democrats – as was the border.
Democrats never understood that their hyperbolic fear mongering about the end of the American democracy was just too outlandish to even create anxiety – much less fear. They had been pushing the threat issue to the top of their campaign strategy even as polls and trends indicated it was not gaining traction outside the New York and Washington newsrooms. Despite the NBC poll, it never was the voters’ top concern.
Democrats clung to the end with a belief that abortion would tip the scales. As I opined in previous commentaries – abortion is never a decisive election issue. But Democrats continued to push the abortion issue even as the targeted suburban women were shifting to the GOP despite the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
The red wave is likely to reclaim a lot of American political territory and power. Democrats did not blow the election because of poor messaging. They blew the election because of bad policies.
Now … we shall see if that is the case when the results come in,
So, there ‘tis.