Well, my prediction of a Blue Tsunami did not come true exactly, but we sure had a nice Rainbow Wave! The Senate remains in the Republicans' hands. But the House was decisively taken over by the left, and a colorful group at that.
Going in, the Democrats needed to flip 23 seats to gain control of the House. They've won 27 seats so far and now have a decisive majority, 225 Democrats vs. 197 Republicans. There are still 13 seats to be determined, including five in California. The Senate held fast to the right, and the Republicans now have 51 seats to the Democrats' 44, with Florida and Arizona still not determined, and Mississippi heading for a run-off. Plus those rascally Independents, Bernie in Vermont and Angus King in Maine.
It was what most pundits expected.
We are happy that the House is now back on left ground. Our system worked; we again have a semblance of checks and balances.
But it's not the numbers that are exciting. It's the people. We just elected the most youngest, most diverse, most colorful group of representatives ever! It was a Rainbow Wave! Just look at all these firsts!
All 19 of the #Houston African American Female Judges up for election WON tonight!— Isaac Hayes III (@IsaacHayes3) November 7, 2018
Congratulations #Houston19 🙌🏾🍾 pic.twitter.com/JJMcEI76JF
And my beloved home-state of New Mexico elected minorities as all three of their representatives. And two of the three are women! And Deb Haaland (D-1) was one of the first two Native American women, along with Sharice Davids, to be elected to national office. About time.
There were many exciting wins for women, but read about this young immigrant woman in Texas, Lina Hidalgo, who pulled off a huge upset in deep red Texas. She beat the Republican incumbent for the job of County Judge in the Houston area, the third-largest county in the Country. The position is not a courtroom judge, but think if counties had mayors. Such a bright star for Texas!
Read more about the women of color who were elected and about all those firsts! And women in general. A record 34 new women won seats in the House, joining the 66 incumbents. Most of them replaced men. It's a wonderful trend. It's one of the biggest positives that has come from the newly-energized left. Someday the House will be half female, as it should be!
Women were the ones to put all these women in power, too! As I predicted in an earlier post, exit polls showed a huge uptick in the number of Democrat women voting. Study those charts, seriously. The future of our country is blue with pink trim!
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| Bill Bramhall |
I'm so proud of us, America!
Americans chose other positive paths.
Gerrymandering not only didn't work, but was decisively put down in four states. Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania all passed laws that cripple gerrymandering.
Californians voted to adopt year-round Daylight Savings Time. It's a long path to it being a reality, but we want it!
Three red states, Idaho, Nebraska, and Utah voted to expand Medicaid. This is big because, not only will more underprivileged citizens have medical coverage, but to my mind, it's a a small step toward universal healthcare. Healthcare showed itself to be the most important issue voters cited this election. We're finally turning the tide on healthcare!
There were some frustrating moments, though.
It was disappointing that Beto O'Rourke couldn't defeat Ted Cruz. He made a great try, though, and he energized progressive Texans. I can't wait to see what is next for Beto!
The Georgia Governor race between Stacey Abrams and Brian Kemp was extremely maddening to watch, with the corrupt Secretary of State Kemp overseeing his own election and actively disenfranchising thousands of voters. The fight isn't over. Ms. Abrams has not yet conceded. I believe that a serious investigation should be done. There is evidence of major wrongdoing from Mr. Kemp, from his purging voter registrations, to keeping voting machines locked in warehouses, to delivering voting machines without power cords. If Abrams can gain a few more votes, the election is destined for a run-off. Otherwise it will go down as one of the most questionable elections in modern times.
Another tight race that may end in a manual recount is Florida's Senate race between Republican Gov. Rick Scott and Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson. Not only are the numbers tight enough to trigger a re-count, but the ballots of Broward County were suspicious for a having a high number of blanks on the Senate line while votes were cast on the Governor line. Ballot design or machine error may be to blame. Oh, Florida! Must you do it again?
In Arizona, the Senate race has not been called between Republican Martha McSally and Democrat Kyrsten Sinema. Nearly half a million votes statewide still need to be counted as of Thursday. Today, Sinema has pulled ahead. Here's hoping she holds on to the lead.
Some California House races that I mentioned in previous posts as being close battlegrounds are still not called. The five house seats still undecided include CA 10, 39, 45, and 48, which I wrote about before.
Now that our election is behind us, the Left has some decisions to make. Now, what?
There has been discussion out there about how far to take our ship to the left. One side says that we need to build bridges and reach out to build a consensus in the center. Nope. We need not do that. We should not do that. The time has come to make a hard left and keep our progressive momentum going. We on the left know that historically, progressive movements have done more to help our country than conservative policies. Our morals drive policy. Morally, we have to wrestle in the mud if we must. We can't stay on the hateful path. We need to strongly call out lies, reject hate and bigotry, and fight hard for what is right. Morally, there is no "center." The people who have felt emboldened to crawl out from their wormholes won't change their bigoted minds, but we can drive them back into the wormholes, and we should. Find your moral compass and let it direct you.
Those on the Right always want to bring up the "intolerance" of the "supposedly tolerant" left. As if intolerance for hate, greed, lies, and oppression were morally equal to their morally corrupt intolerance for groups of people. Yes, we're intolerant. Embrace that moral intolerance, and fight hard! My friend Katie shared this story, and I love it. There's Nothing Virtuous About Finding Common Ground by Tayari Jones. Read it, and read it again. And let it guide you as you reach out to your Members of Congress in the coming months and years.
As we consult our moral compasses, what specifics do we tell our Members of Congress to work on? These are some thoughts:
- Further the Russia Investigation. In March, 2018, the House Intelligence Committee's Russia investigation was suspended. The investigation is poised to re-open, and the House is ready to subpoena some verrryyyy interesting tax returns!
- Protect Mueller's investigation and find out what is in the report. Which, by the way, is reportedly being finalized as I write!
- Protect the Affordable Care Act! We need to tell Congress to undo the damages already done, and to continue working to make this act the best it can be. We should work toward universal healthcare.
- Investigate the border atrocities and reunite the 500 or so children still without their parents.
- Reverse the tax breaks for the rich; support the middle and lower class.
- Investigate Justice Kavenaugh, as well as start impeachment proceedings.
- Start impeachment proceedings against SCROTUS. Some pundits say that probably won't happen, but others like Tom Steyer in this New York Times Op/Ed, say we must. Yes. We must!
We must not play nice. The stakes are too high. Not only must we push hard on a progressive agenda, we must push hard to stop this madman from damaging our country any more. And that means removing him from office. We've talked about impeachment literally from Day 1. Now, we have the power. I'm hopeful that if the Democrats in Congress wuss out on impeachment on what we already have (and we have a lot!), then the Mueller report will have something solid that can't be ignored.
So, fellow Sisters and Brother Resisters, the Senate reconvenes on Wednesday, January 3. The House will start working on Monday, January 8. Be ready to call your Members of Congress. Demand action from them. We have the voices. Use them strongly. They work for us!
The wave is only beginning to crest Let's ride that baby in.
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| Dana Summers |
Keep up the resistance!
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