Early voting for the 2024 General Election started Oct. 21 for most counties in Florida. (Photo by Jay Waagmeester/Florida Phoenix)
Early voting for the 2024 General Election started Oct. 21 for most counties in Florida. (Photo by Jay Waagmeester/Florida Phoenix)
What do you think is going to happen in the newly drawn "safe Republican" districts when people sick and tired of Trump get to the polls next November?
The Republican election upsets that dominated the headlines on November 4th were pretty big: New York’s Mayor, Governors in Virginia and New Jersey, Democratic Supreme Court Justices in Pennsylvania, not to mention the complete blowout win for Prop 50 in California.
What may have escaped attention however were more local races of mayors in a variety of cities going to Democratic candidates or incumbents. Then further local, county councils. And then we came to a favorite place for the far-right to place its flag, school boards.
The far-right women’s group, so loved by Ron DeSantis for their bigotry and willingness to engage in wanton book banning activity, Mom’s for Liberty, had more than a few school board elections that involved their members.
The the book-banning coffee klatch put out a press release that their members won 17 school board elections. Sounds depressing when you think about it, but what is more important is what their release did not say. All 17 of those candidates were unopposed. The rest of the story is that in the other 31 races where Mom’s for Liberty candidates ran against an opponent, they lost every single one. Can’t imagine why they omitted that from their release
You could get the idea that things are changing in the MAGA world. The people profiting off the bigotry and hatred of that world may not be enjoying the level of agreement with their brethren or sisteren that they once were able to take for granted.
Could it be that the zeal for exclusion and deportation so celebrated by MAGA and their Mini-Van Taliban cheerleaders is wearing thin on those around them? What is the world coming to when a school board candidate running on a platform of book banning gets voted down?
As we should all know, tides turn. The November 4th election rout for Republicans echos this fact very clearly. And frankly, it could not be better news.
When people with a Nazi frame of mind think there is nothing than can prevent them from moving forward in their demonstration of dominance are disappointed, well, that is a bright spot in everyone’s day.
As has been written many times on this site, Nazi and White Supremacist differ only in spelling. But what is even more important is that even people within these ranks can do something unheard of—simply change their minds.
People do this more often than not. One example is the story of Black musician Daryl Davis who has a huge collection of Klan robes given to him by former members. These people all changed their minds. Another more contemporary example is Georgia MAGA Member of Congress, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who yesterday praised the retiring Nancy Pelosi for her stellar record and career.
Taken individually these few incidents are interesting and a bit encouraging. But taken collectively this takes on a much larger aspect.
We are about the embark on the Midterms train, the ride on which will run until November 3rd next year. Many strategic moves are underway already on the Republican side of the tracks to derail as much of that train as possible. Voter suppression efforts have been stepped up. Devout Trumpublican governors are rushing to redistrict their states to stack more Republicans into Congress.
There has been talk of this effort actually backfiring in Texas and these other states. Here is how that might work. The new districts are drawn. The representative count is shifting. But then we will have the Midterms. This means lots and lots of people will vote, not matter how diligent the voter suppression efforts get, the turnout will be enormous. Historically, large turnouts are not good news for Republican candidates.
We all saw what happened in New York—the biggest Mayoral election turnout in decades. Donald Trump is now the most unpopular president in history. The White House issued threats to states who handed out funds to people who needed help buying food. Food costs are going up and up despite Trump’s claims to the contrary. ICEstapo goons are kidnapping people off the streets and tear gassing families and kids. The government is still closed for business and everyone and their farthest cousins know the blame for this is squarely with Trump and his GOP sycophants.
What do you think is going to happen in the newly drawn “safe Republican” districts when people sick and tired of Trump get to the polls next November? My bet is a hell of a lot of them are going to change their minds. It may well come to pass that the “safe Republican districts” Trump is lusting after end up giving him and his supporters the middle finger come November 3rd.
Marty Kassowitz is co-founder of Factkeepers. As founder of Interest Factory and View360, he brings more than 30 years experience in effective online communications, social media management, and platform development to the site. He is a writer, designer, editor and long time observer of the ill-logic demonstrated by too many members of the species known as Mankind. After a long history of somewhat private commentary on a subject he totally hates: politics, Marty was encouraged to build this site and put up his own analyses as well as curate relevant content from other sources.
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