Harold's Left:
We took one on the chin tonight. No, it does not mean much about how America views Obama. By any count the President is still the most popular politician in America. That being said, there are still some fairly interesting things at play here. Let's take a closer look:
New Jersey -
So we have Corzine, a wildly unpopular governor, up against a pretty likable Republican in Chris Christie. I think most observations were that it was going to be very close, as most of the polls had the two running neck and neck. Christie won for a few reasons. First, Democrats were not enthusiastic about Corzine whatsoever. Why should they be? He is not very personable, he's an ex Goldman Sachs executive and he has raised taxes without really convincing voters of the important benefits there taxes are giving them. This is a little disappointing because New Jersey has droves more Democratic registered voters than Republican. However, in off-year elections like this one, the voting demographic tends to be older, whiter, and more conservative. All things that did not work in Corzine's favor. Add on top of that the fact that Democrats are becoming more and more disillusioned with some of the centrist-grabbing leadership in Congress, and it made for a Christie victory. Plus, a down economy plus being and incumbent general equals failure.
Virginia -
If Bob McDonnell does not horrify you... he should. He's essentially Pat Roberson's manchurian candidate. Here's how the Washington Post describes McDonnell:
ON MORE THAN one occasion, Robert F. McDonnell, the Republican candidate for governor in Virginia, has offered a soporific description of his graduate school dissertation as a "thesis on welfare policy." This is false.
In fact, Mr. McDonnell's study, written in 1989 at age 34 in support of his master's degree in public policy and degree in law, is a full-throated attack on liberals, modernity, the Great Society and inheritance taxes, among other supposed ills, which he linked to and blamed for homosexuality, declining morality and the degradation of the traditional family, along with the proliferation of pornography, out-of-wedlock sex, day care, birth control, pregnant teenagers, divorce, single mothers, working women and feminists.
The thesis is a wistful ode to a bygone 1950s America, when, Mr. McDonnell noted, 70 percent of American families were led by working fathers and homemaker mothers, and "every state in the union made sexual intercourse between unmarried persons a crime." Sounding at times like an Old Testament prophet, Mr. McDonnell wrote that government must discriminate in favor of married couples and against "cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators," for "[t]he cost of sin should fall on the sinner not the taxpayer."
ad_icon
A deeply researched, passionately written manifesto, the thesis posits a detailed Republican strategy to roll back the evils that Mr. McDonnell saw as afflicting American society generally and the family in particular. On the eve of his political career, Mr. McDonnell was a committed and convinced culture warrior of the right.
The article goes on to describe how McDonnell has attempted to re-brand himself as a moderate since 2005. Well, he's governor now, and the guy who believes in nearly everything that we progressives don't is in charge of the a state that went for Barack Obama just one year ago. One of the most important lessons from Virginia is that who is running is as important as anything. Creigh Deeds is about as a weak a gubernatorial candidate as I can imagine. He's from the rural part of Virginia, is a absolutely terrible speaker, and generally weak on the issues (he said he would opt-out of the public option). McDonnell is the opposite. He's got a million dollar smile, can schmooze with the best of them, and looks like a rock star compared to Deeds in any comparison of speeches. Additionally, the same fate that befell New Jersey also ruined Virgina; Democratic indifference toward the election and minorities and young people not showing up at the polls.
New York's 23rd District -
This is one of the only bright spots for progressives nationally. Many of the conservative movement's biggest stars went against the New York Republican Party's candidate Dede Scozzafava and supported Conservative Party candidate Phil Hoffman, a social conservative, who has become the poster child of the movement's belief that they should be sticking to the conservative playbook when electing officials. Despite all of that, and the fact that NY-23 has been a Republican leaning district for over a century, Bill Owens, the Democratic candidate, won the election. This was a win for progressives because it shows that perhaps Republican's belief that they got trounced in 2008 because they were not "conservative enough" may be (and I of course believe is) untrue. Now I just want to know if Joe Scarborough will eat his words after guaranteeing that Phil Hoffman will easily win the seat in NY-23.
Maine's "No on 1" -
This disheartens me more than the sum of everything else that happened tonight. With the loss Maine's "no on 1" initiative, no same-sex marriage provision has ever held up against a vote by the people. I am of the belief that civil rights issues should not be up to the whims of a general vote, or at least it should not be the end all. In some circumstances I do believe a direct democracy is a good thing. However, if we would have left voting rights for African-Americans up to a vote in Mississippi in the 1960's there would have been an easy defeat. This is one of those instances where adhering to the Constitution trumps any vote by the people, unless that Constitution is amended. The 14th amendment cannot and will not be denied, and I am confident that we will see same-sex marriage as a commonality in my lifetime.
Post a Comment 0 comments: