I’ve been keeping my head down since the election, in part because I don’t need to see or hear the venting I knew would go along with it. The Beloved Spouse™ is made of sterner stuff and kept me relatively current.
A couple of things are becoming clear to me. Neither are
surprises. Both are disappointing.
Democrats lose pivotal elections because
1.
Low turnout
2.
A tendency to turn on each in a heartbeat.
From the New
York Times:
Counties with the biggest Democratic victories in 2020
delivered 1.9 million fewer votes for Ms. Harris than they had for Mr. Biden.
The nation’s most Republican-heavy counties turned out an additional 1.2
million votes for Mr. Trump this year, according to the analysis of the 47
states where the vote count is largely complete.
Apparently not enough people understood the assignment.
Altogether, Harris lost almost eight million former Biden
voters. I’d like to give Democrats more credit than they seem to deserve for
knowing what was at stake. The only other explanation for the falloff in
Democratic votes is that too many stayed home. Total votes cast were down far
less than the number of votes Harris lost compared to Biden in 2020.
This lends credence to something I have believed since the
riots in Ferguson, Missouri. I was surprised to find a town that was 70% Black
had no Black elected officials, and no more than a handful (One? It’s been a
while) of Black city employees. The only explanation I could come up with was
that Blacks weren’t voting, at least not in sufficient numbers to make a
difference.
My understanding is that this has changed since the riots.
Enough people got pissed off enough to pull the old “I’m not going to put up
with this anymore” and get a government that better reflected their needs and
desires.
I use Ferguson as an example not to pick on Black, but
because what happened there crystallized my thoughts on why Democrats so often
leave elections with unresolved grievances even though registered Democrats
have outnumbered registered Republicans for years. I’m reminded of it every
time I read of how people are adversely affected by some short-sighted or
mean-spirited policy in their state. The power grid in Texas or abortion to
name a couple. If the elected officials who put these things into place get
re-elected the only conclusion I can
draw is that the people of that state are okay with it and should be left to enjoy
the fruits of their decision.
But then we read reports of how a majority of people in the
state are actually against that policy, which leads me to modify the
above statement to:
“the people of that state who could be bothered to get
off their asses and vote are okay with it and should be left to enjoy the
fruits of their decision.
“But what about voter suppression?” What about it? If I knew
I faced the possibility of deportation – and let’s not kid ourselves, they’re
going to deport as many citizens as they can get away with – I’d stand in line
in freezing rain all goddamn night if that’s what it took to vote. I’d check on
my registration status and do whatever I could to vote early or by mail if
those were options.
Focus groups showed that large majorities chose Harris’s
policies over The Orange Menace’s when they were presented side-by-side without
telling people who proposed what. The only explanation for her dismal showing
is that Harris supporters stayed home. They may have had their own reasons for
this but the factor that can’t be ignored is that they just. Didn’t. vote.
So at the risk of being even more of a prick than usual, my
policy for the next four years, upon hearing someone complain about how the
federal government is being run, will be to ask if that person voted.
If they voted for Harris, we can talk. Maybe comfort each
other and discuss what we can do better next time.
If they voted for The Orange Menace, we can still talk. We
may end up arguing, but there can be a conversation.
If they didn’t vote at all, they can tell their story
walking.
The next post talks about the internecine warfare of the Progressives.
No comments:
Post a Comment