November 20, 2018
Armageddon: Part II is complete, and now we can read the tea leaves. A review of what happened.
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Well, no one ever said that politics in America lacks the passion and conflicting emotions that you see in other countries, like South Korea, Japan, and parts of Europe! Tuesday, November 6th was a continuation of the proxy war that started with Donald Trump's surprise victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016. Pollsters, pundits and former politicians on cable channels were under the belief that the Democrats would regain control of the House, and the Republicans would hold onto the Senate, just barely. Which is what happened. However, depending on where your political allegiances lie, the parsing of the results makes for good copy. The Democrats can claim that winning the House is a check on the agenda of President Trump, while the Republicans can claim that in statewide elections for the Senate, candidates who supported President Trump's agenda won big. Additionally, the GOP can show that Senators who supported and voted for Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court won, while those who opposed it (Senator Heitkamp), lost their election bids. Both parties may be right, and that overall, voters preferred divided government. For the next two years, the House will provide a check on the President's agenda, and open investigations into alleged Russian interference and meddling, and the Republican Senate will confirm more conservative judges onto the federal bench.
Many of the progressive Democratic candidates won impressive and surprising elections. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won her general election race, which doesn't surprise political observers since her district is reliably Democratic. Two native American women won: Deb Haaland (New Mexico), and Sharice Davids (Kansas), who is openly gay as well. Muslim women won notable races, Rashida Tlaib (Michigan) and Llhan Omar (Minnesota), that adds much-needed diversity to the lower House. Most of the impressive winning candidates are pro-immigrant, and they will provide staunch support of immigrants who seek to live in the United States. In fact, I would venture to guess that most of the above-mentioned newly elected women will be given multiple opportunities to go on the Sunday talk shows and push back on Trump Administration policies that affect those who seek asylum and desire to become new immigrants.
I think any proposed legislation or executive orders by President Trump will run into fierce opposition and will have visible platforms to paint President Trump in a negative light. In fact, Mr. Trump needs to be careful about what he does in regards to "immigrant" issue, or a media that is heavily skewed progressive and liberal will roast his actions. Congress will not be able to pass an anti-immigration bill. President Trump's supposed deal-making will have to be in full force. This might be the best time to pass immigration reform, although, that will infuriate his base, which does not want the United States to allow more immigrants into the country.
As usual with Florida's vote counting, trouble brewed. The last time controversy erupted, it was ground zero for a low point in American democracy that was during the recount of Florida's Electoral votes which determined the winner of the 2000 Presidential election for George W. Bush. Two high-profile races, Ron Desantis versus Andrew Gillum for governor, and Governor Rick Scott who defeated Democrat Bill Nelson for the U.S. Senate gave premature victories to Mr. DeSantis and Mr. Scott. Andrew Gillum initially conceded on election night, while Rick Scott just accepted his victory without a concession from Senator Nelson. Both races had seen surprising turns. Mr. Gillum had withdrawn his concession, and took to the media to address his decision, and vowed to ensure all votes are counted. Recently, this weekend, after more votes were recorded, Mr. Gillum realized he was not going to overcome the deficit. Bill Nelson had protested and wanted to see his votes counted as well. After lawsuits and protests, two counties, Broward and Miami-Dade, tallied more votes. Broward County is the epicenter for another round of drama. Both counties eventually gave the race to Rick Scott. Bill Nelson conceded this past Saturday.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio alleged there was vote tampering and obfuscation from election officials with a large number of votes for both races. There were videos (unverified by national media) showing a ballot box in the storage room of a school and another ballot box was shown to be in a car. The county administrator in charge of validating votes, Brenda Snipes, was admonished by a judge for incompetence and who had in the past destroyed old votes in a previous race before they were legally allowed to be terminated. Florida Republicans wanted her removed from her position. However, she is charged with approving and certifying ballots cast for all elections in the state, and some within the GOP feel that Bush versus Gore ghosts could have cropped up again. Ms. Snipes recently stated that she will resign before Governor-elect Ron DeSantis takes office.
At the writing of this blog post, Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams has not "officially" conceded and alleges that all votes have not been counted. The Georgia campaign was tinged with allegations from state Democrats that the current victor, Brian Kemp, used his position as Secretary of State to try to remove voter rolls that favored Democrats. He had done this prior and was forced by a state appeals judge to end that practice and add names to voter rolls that had been removed. This has increased the air of uncertainty regarding American democracy and adds to the lack of trust in American institutions within government and society in general. The vote counting will add to the toxicity of our discourse and adds fuel to the fire of conflict amongst Americans. Perhaps in the future, if a current Secretary of State is running for a statewide or federal race, a law will be passed by the legislature to ensure the perception of fairness and transparency and hand vote counting to someone else?
With the Democrat victory in the House, Nancy Pelosi is poised to become Speaker again, and although her more aggressive and politically posturing members want her to focus on impeachment, she is shrewd enough to know that is not a winning strategy. Democrats Gerald Nadler (NY) and Adam Schiff (CA) will go after President Trump and will look under any rock to sow the perception of impropriety, but Ms. Pelosi knows the key to long-term success and dominance is to remain loyal to the party's wealthy, moderate donors. Additionally, Democrats now share many of the corporate benefactors that Republicans do, so any progressive dreams of Single Payer health care and free college tuition will not gain any traction to become law.
One can fathom that Americans tend to prefer a divided government, especially with a controversial president like Donald Trump. Considering the lack of progress by legislators to pass needed reforms to health care, pragmatic taxation and defense spending, I doubt things will improve. Social media has allowed Americans to withdraw from direct dialogue with each other, and to avoid finding common ground to challenging issues. It will continue to allow citizens to demonize those with whom they disagree. The recent 2018 Midterms was just another battle in the long political war amongst the two major political parties and their supporters. Hopefully, as President Lincoln once stated, we can call to our "better angels" and move America forward.
Many of the progressive Democratic candidates won impressive and surprising elections. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won her general election race, which doesn't surprise political observers since her district is reliably Democratic. Two native American women won: Deb Haaland (New Mexico), and Sharice Davids (Kansas), who is openly gay as well. Muslim women won notable races, Rashida Tlaib (Michigan) and Llhan Omar (Minnesota), that adds much-needed diversity to the lower House. Most of the impressive winning candidates are pro-immigrant, and they will provide staunch support of immigrants who seek to live in the United States. In fact, I would venture to guess that most of the above-mentioned newly elected women will be given multiple opportunities to go on the Sunday talk shows and push back on Trump Administration policies that affect those who seek asylum and desire to become new immigrants.
I think any proposed legislation or executive orders by President Trump will run into fierce opposition and will have visible platforms to paint President Trump in a negative light. In fact, Mr. Trump needs to be careful about what he does in regards to "immigrant" issue, or a media that is heavily skewed progressive and liberal will roast his actions. Congress will not be able to pass an anti-immigration bill. President Trump's supposed deal-making will have to be in full force. This might be the best time to pass immigration reform, although, that will infuriate his base, which does not want the United States to allow more immigrants into the country.
As usual with Florida's vote counting, trouble brewed. The last time controversy erupted, it was ground zero for a low point in American democracy that was during the recount of Florida's Electoral votes which determined the winner of the 2000 Presidential election for George W. Bush. Two high-profile races, Ron Desantis versus Andrew Gillum for governor, and Governor Rick Scott who defeated Democrat Bill Nelson for the U.S. Senate gave premature victories to Mr. DeSantis and Mr. Scott. Andrew Gillum initially conceded on election night, while Rick Scott just accepted his victory without a concession from Senator Nelson. Both races had seen surprising turns. Mr. Gillum had withdrawn his concession, and took to the media to address his decision, and vowed to ensure all votes are counted. Recently, this weekend, after more votes were recorded, Mr. Gillum realized he was not going to overcome the deficit. Bill Nelson had protested and wanted to see his votes counted as well. After lawsuits and protests, two counties, Broward and Miami-Dade, tallied more votes. Broward County is the epicenter for another round of drama. Both counties eventually gave the race to Rick Scott. Bill Nelson conceded this past Saturday.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio alleged there was vote tampering and obfuscation from election officials with a large number of votes for both races. There were videos (unverified by national media) showing a ballot box in the storage room of a school and another ballot box was shown to be in a car. The county administrator in charge of validating votes, Brenda Snipes, was admonished by a judge for incompetence and who had in the past destroyed old votes in a previous race before they were legally allowed to be terminated. Florida Republicans wanted her removed from her position. However, she is charged with approving and certifying ballots cast for all elections in the state, and some within the GOP feel that Bush versus Gore ghosts could have cropped up again. Ms. Snipes recently stated that she will resign before Governor-elect Ron DeSantis takes office.
At the writing of this blog post, Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams has not "officially" conceded and alleges that all votes have not been counted. The Georgia campaign was tinged with allegations from state Democrats that the current victor, Brian Kemp, used his position as Secretary of State to try to remove voter rolls that favored Democrats. He had done this prior and was forced by a state appeals judge to end that practice and add names to voter rolls that had been removed. This has increased the air of uncertainty regarding American democracy and adds to the lack of trust in American institutions within government and society in general. The vote counting will add to the toxicity of our discourse and adds fuel to the fire of conflict amongst Americans. Perhaps in the future, if a current Secretary of State is running for a statewide or federal race, a law will be passed by the legislature to ensure the perception of fairness and transparency and hand vote counting to someone else?
With the Democrat victory in the House, Nancy Pelosi is poised to become Speaker again, and although her more aggressive and politically posturing members want her to focus on impeachment, she is shrewd enough to know that is not a winning strategy. Democrats Gerald Nadler (NY) and Adam Schiff (CA) will go after President Trump and will look under any rock to sow the perception of impropriety, but Ms. Pelosi knows the key to long-term success and dominance is to remain loyal to the party's wealthy, moderate donors. Additionally, Democrats now share many of the corporate benefactors that Republicans do, so any progressive dreams of Single Payer health care and free college tuition will not gain any traction to become law.
One can fathom that Americans tend to prefer a divided government, especially with a controversial president like Donald Trump. Considering the lack of progress by legislators to pass needed reforms to health care, pragmatic taxation and defense spending, I doubt things will improve. Social media has allowed Americans to withdraw from direct dialogue with each other, and to avoid finding common ground to challenging issues. It will continue to allow citizens to demonize those with whom they disagree. The recent 2018 Midterms was just another battle in the long political war amongst the two major political parties and their supporters. Hopefully, as President Lincoln once stated, we can call to our "better angels" and move America forward.
The mid term election results reflect a challenge to President Trump's agenda and hopefully the new Congress will focus on the needs of the American people rather than seek restitution for the issues arising from the failure of the Republican party.
ReplyDeleteThe results of the mid term elections are a challenge to President Trump's policies and agenda. Hopefully, the new Congress will focus on the needs of the American people rather than seek restitution for the faults of the Republican party in overlooking the priorities of the citizens.
ReplyDelete