#Midterm Elections

[cormancatacombs]

[Image ID: A screenshot of a Blue Sky post by user Max Berger @ maxberger.bsky.social. It reads,

“Elections matter a great deal in semi-authoritarian regimes—especially the early ones before the authoritarian has destroyed legal institutions and free elections.

The 2026 election is going to matter an enormous amount.”

End of description.]

[somerandomg33k]

You know, this point.......

At this point, I hope the Democrats to lie in the next election. Trump lie about what he would do about the economy. He told a better story.

Now, Trump is a Fascist. He is not better than Kamala. And his policies will be worse for the economy.

But I hope the Democrats will re-learn the lesson that lying during a campaign will help you win. Look at 2020. Biden lied about $2000 checks will be in the mail if the Democrats win both Senate elections in Georgia.

And Liberals are already fine with the Democrats lying about campaign promises. Because several Liberals told me, "I am not surprised we are only getting $1400." So they should lie about how they will fix the economy for the midterms.

[typewriter83]

Back to work we go.

🫶🏻

[racefortheironthrone]

How do you feel about electing the house every four years (presidential years) instead of two?

It is true that the United States is one of the only countries in the world with midterm elections. My understanding is that political scientists really go back and forth about whether this is a good thing - while midterm elections allow for the country to react to the policies enacted in the first two years of the most recently elected government and their outcomes, turnout tends to be significantly lower, which limits the extent to which we're really talking about a new expression of the will of the people.

Moreover, it's my understanding that political scientists worry about whether midterm elections increase the possibility of gridlock due to the tendency for the governing party to lose seats to the minority party - creating more periods of divided government. However, I think it's up in the air whether this tends to shift policy to the left or the right:

2006 saw a massive reaction to the War in Iraq, Bush's handling of Katrina, and Republican sleeze in Congress, shifting control of Congress back to the Democrats for the first time since the Gingrich revolution of the 90s.

2010 saw the Tea Party wave, which led to a persistent shift to the right both in Congress and on the state level. Although the Tea Party's fiscal policies haven't really caught on due to their negative economic effects and political popularity, their destabilizing influence on the Republican establishment certainly has persisted - opening the way for the Trump Republicans and a shift to culture war politics.

2018 saw a massive reaction to the Trump scandals and the Republican attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, breaking the Republican control of government won in the 2016 elections as well as the first major shift to Democrats at the state level since 2010. It also showed a significant shift to the left within the Democratic Party with the election of AOC and the Squad - the first breakthrough for the progressive movement's efforts to challenge establishment Democrats.

Without midterm elections, things would be very different: although Bush being able to muddle through 2006 wouldn't really have changed things because of the way the financial crisis wrecked the Republicans in 2008, the butterflying away of the Tea Party wave would really have changed U.S politics profoundly. The Tea Party wave was unusually significant because of the way it coincided with the 2010 Census and the long-term impact it had on state government - we're only starting to get back some areas that went deep red, and even now huge swathe of the country are dominated by ALEC - so avoiding that shift would really transform U.S politics, especially on social policy.

On the other hand, without the ability to challenge Trump through Democratic control of Congress, U.S policy during the COVID crisis might have been much worse and Trump would definitely have been emboldened to accelerate his campaign of corrupting the Federal government to benefit his personal interests and attack his personal and political enemies. Who knows what would have happened on January 6th if Trump had had two more years of a completely free hand. But then again, if there's no Tea Party wave, does Trump still win in 2016?

So I'm ultimately unsure as to whether midterms are a good thing and it's so momentous a change that I'm a little hesitant to recommend it.

[ivygorgon]

I am ordering my ballots for the year. Reminder for you to do the same: absenteeballotapplication.yourstatehere.gov

Also, what is the best time of year to do this? National Voters' Day, Jan 25?

[creativemedianews]

Advocates call Trump and Republicans' anti-trans ads ‘hate and chaos’

Advocates call Trump and Republicans' anti-trans ads ‘hate and chaos’ #DonaldTrump #gender-affirmingcare

[mexicanistnet]

MORENA's sweeping victories in the midterm elections redefine Mexico's political map, securing 22 governorships. Despite setbacks in Mexico City, the party maintains a majority in Congress. Eyes turn to 2024, with Claudia Sheinbaum leading MORENA and a unified opposition emerging.

[toolatetobesoearly]

I voted today. 🗳️

I didn’t know any of the Supreme Court candidates for my state. We have no info before we’re faced with their names on the ballot. We don’t vote for the justices of the US Supreme Court, yet we are asked to weigh in - with zero information - on someone whose judicial (and possibly, personal) opinion will impact the state and - if this is a springboard - the nation. We deserve more input than what we get after the fact when researching them: did I vote for a good one? Did I miss an opportunity?

Usually, the vote is moot: seven candidates, seven spots. But not this time, not in my district. Seven candidates, six spots. How are we supposed to make an educated decision based on name alone? In my state, they can appear on multiple party lines, so is he really a Democrat? Does she lean Republican? Who knows???

Certain US Supreme Court justices had to get their start somewhere. Did anyone know anything about them when they were down ballot? Or did it even matter: the network will get them nominated and confirmed.

[this-is-me19]

I don’t normally discuss politics but had to share….If half of this is even true, so happy the country is changing. It’s a slow change but better than nothing.

History made by Democrats in the 2022 US Midterm Elections 💙

WES MOORE became the first Black governor of Maryland, as well as only the third Black governor elected in the country.

MAURA HEALEY became the first woman and the first openly gay person elected as the governor of Massachusetts, as well as the first openly lesbian governor in the US.

MAXWELL FROST became the first Gen Z and Afro-Cuban member of the US Congress after winning his race in Florida for the House of Representatives.

SUMMER LEE became the first Black Congresswoman from Pennsylvania after winning her race for the House of Representatives.

JAMES ROESENER became the first transgender man elected to a state legislature in US history in New Hampshire.

BECCA BALINT became the first woman ever elected to Congress from Vermont, as well as the first out LGBTQ person and openly gay person elected to Congress from Vermont.

ANDREA CAMPBELL became the first Black woman in Massachusetts to be elected Attorney General.

ARUNA MILLER became the first immigrant, first woman of color, and first Asian American elected to the Maryland lieutenant governor’s office.

ANTHONY BROWN became the first Black attorney general of Maryland.

ALEX PADILLA became the first Latino elected to the US Senate from California.

(Hit the image limit, so more will be coming in my next reblog ⬇️)

[hansilw]

Voter turnout for the 2022 elections was the second highest for midterms since 2000, and close to half of voters in 2022 cast ballots early or by mail, new estimates from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey show.

[somerandomg33k]

You know .....

I know a friend of mine, a fellow anarchist, is hoping for the Democrats to win back either the House or the Senate in the 2026 mid terms. I understand they have to hope for something to improve in the USA. I just don't trust the Democrats to be able to successfully do so. Not if they continue the same political strategy as before. And even if they do succeed, they are still a Conservative Capitalist Party that doesn't want power once they get it. And so nothing will change. But I guess nothing change is better than Fascistic change. Oh well.

[oneofthosecrazycatladies]

Issues that are super important but don’t often get talked about during election cycles but you should, nonetheless, keep in mind when you vote:

Ending gerrymandering

Ending/reforming the electoral college

Term limits for the Supreme Court

Binding code of ethics for the Supreme Court

Reforming the party system

Campaign finance reform

Too often people only vote for short-term issues and short-term solutions so I want to remind you to think long-term

[worldofwardcraft]

This GOP strategy was a crime.

February 20, 2023

One of the reasons Republicans fared so poorly in last November's elections was that GOPer candidates premised much of their closing arguments on being the party that could tackle crime and keep people safe. Especially when contrasted with the supposedly crime-infested "Democrat-run" big cities.

Conservatives had plenty of reason to think this was a winning tactic. According to numbers released by the CDC, the murder rate in the US exploded in 2020, up 30% from 2019 — the largest single increase in 100 years. And in an October 2022 CBS News poll, crime ranked third, behind the economy and inflation, when it came to "very important issues" worrying voters. Finally, a pre-election Faux News poll reported Republicans holding a 15-point advantage over Democrats on handling crime.

And so it was that Republican candidates around the country — from Adam Laxalt in Nevada to Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania — attacked their Democratic opponents' eagerness to defund the police and inability to combat the imagined crime wave threatening America. In September 2022 alone, GOP campaigns and committees spent $39.8 million on ads focused on crime, with an additional $64.5 million in the first three weeks of October, according to ad tracker AdImpact.

CNN's perennially wrong Chris Cillizza pronounced this strategy "devastating for Democrats."

With less than two weeks left before the midterm elections, momentum is clearly with Republicans in the race for both the House and Senate. And that’s in large part due to a big bet the party made that crime would be a central issue for the public this fall.

Yet many of these crime-busting pols went down to defeat. Why? It's not complicated. Sure, crime was an important issue to voters. But wrapped in their cocoon of ignorance, Republicans failed to realize that abortion rights and dislike of clownish, Donald Trump-endorsed candidates ranked much higher.

Then there was the fact that crime, even in our sin-soaked cities, was not nearly as bad as right-wing hysterics portrayed it. For example, the homicide rate was considerably higher in the 1970s, '80s and '90s. And while crime in 2022 increased somewhat across all states, the largest increases were to be found in rural, Republican-controlled states like South Dakota (+81%) and Kentucky (+61%).

In New York's race for governor, Long Island congressman Lee Zeldin too campaigned on the crime issue. Just weeks before the election, he declared, "There is a crime emergency right now in New York State." Regrettably, like many others last November, he thought a make-believe crime wave would turn into an actual red one.

[uboat53]

How is the Trumpian intellectual movement taking the midterms? Well, it looks like there's three major movements so far:

1) Many of them would like to drop abortion from the movement's ideas, they feel as if it was a dead weight around their necks.

2) There's a powerful debate going on as to whether Trump himself should remain at the center of the movement or whether it's time to move on to another figure like DeSantis.

3) There's a section of the movement that would like to do away with democracy altogether. In particular, many of those Trumpists who subscribe to pro-life absolutism reject the idea that "that government should liberate people to pursue their own visions of the good life" and would rather focus on what they consider to be the "common good… to create a citizenry where people live good lives as defined by scripture and religious doctrine."

This movement is still pretty ascendant in the Republican Party and conservative movement overall, so it's worth understanding where they're headed. This article give a great deal of detail that I don't have space for, check it out.

[stevesothinks]

America Exports Insurrection to Brazil, But Brazil Knows How to Handle It.

Flickr – Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Law Enforcement. Two years ago Donald Trump, refusing to accept defeat in the 2020 election, encouraged his supporters to attack the US Capitol on January 6th, in an attempt to hold onto power. Over these past two years, the foot soldiers who attacked the Capitol, causing mayhem, destruction, and death are slowly being brought to justice.…

[captainjonnitkessler]

I firmly believe that any movement focused on how you *think* people should act instead of how they *actually* act is doomed to failure. In light of that I think it's clear that Democrats have failed to engage voters and drive turnout, and they desperately need a new strategy before 2026.

My sympathy for the absolute children who think it's a candidate's responsibility to get them "excited" about politics in exchange for spending the time to vote one day out of every 1460 instead of viewing being an educated voter as a civic responsibility is at an absolute fucking zero right now