Look, in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a PIG?!

I keep thinking of the old Bill Murray shtick in Ghostbusters, Yes! Real biblical end of the world stuff! Seas boiling, the dead rising, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria! Funny shit, but if you’re a Republican, it’s the current state of your party.

A couple of weeks ago, Alaska held its primary, and at the same time held a special election for departed GOP congressman Don Young’s at large seat. And right from the start, everybody knew it was going to take a while.

Because Alaska decided to go with the worst of all worlds. Most AK votes are by mail due to geography, so ballots postmarked no later than election day had 2 weeks to be received and counted. Then, they went with a jungle ballot, with everybody appearing on the same ballot, but not separated by party affiliation.

Will wonders never cease? Multiple outlets are projecting that Democrat Mary Peltola has won the election over former half term AK Governor, and full term albatross around John McCain’s neck, Sarah Palin. And it was beyond a recount, 51.5-48.plus%. Young held that seat for 50 freakin’ years.

But here’s why this is a flashing red light for the GOP writ large going into November, especially the GOP House. As if it wasn’t cumbersome enough already, Alaska went with rank choice voting for the special election, with each person having 3 ranked choices on their ballot. Peltola was the only Democrat on the ballot.

But Palin had a challenger. Nick Begich. Begich turns out to be Young’s grandson, and there is a history of bad blood between the families. Peltola’s victory was a combination of party unity, luck, and cheap, petty partisan politics.

Early analysis is showing that the bad blood between Palin and Bell definitely affected the race. Begich fans seemed more likely to be monolithic. When Begich failed to make the cut, a sizeable chunk of Begich’s voters backed Peltola, but when faced with his demise, they either left the last choice blank, or crossed over and voted for Peltola. It is likely that this protest vote may have cost Palin the election. Poor baby.

I have been preaching this gospel for months now, and finally we’re seeing some actual proof. It’s why I have never thought the House out of reach in 2022. In both 2018 as well as 2022, the Democrats showed party unity. When a candidate fell by the wayside, he immediately backed the winner, and his followers went along. See Super Tuesday of 2020 when, within 48 hours of Biden’s wins, everybody else bailed out and backed Trump.

This is not your father’s GOP, or even your grandfather’s. In fact it’s not even the GOP anymore. It’s the Trump moderate GOP, and then there’s the MAGA GOP. And the two are totally irreconcilable. And this dooms the GOP, since there aren’t enough of either of them to win a contested election alone.

We already know from 2018 and 2020 that moderate Republicans won’t vote for Trump or Trump inspired candidates. They’ll either cross over and vote Democratic or stay home. But Alaska is indicating that Trombies are just as fickle, if their candidate doesn’t win, then they take their ball and go home.

But here’s the McGuffin. It turns out that MAGAts aren’t just fickle to the GOP, they’re even fickle to Trump! After all, Trump didn’t endorse Begich, he wholeheartedly endorsed Palin for the seat. And yet, when their golden boy came up short, they voted with their feet on Traitor Tot’s anointed one.

With the self demolition of the GOP, including the fact that several allegedly pro Trump candidates are scrubbing their websites of any mention of Trump, this is gonna be one helluva election. Don’t touch that dial.

 

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10 COMMENTS

    • The Alaskan hillbilly took a dive…ok…maybe she was pushed. This is John McCain’s doing. If JFK Jr. is still floating around, you know a man that survived a north Vietnamese prisoner of war camp for years ain’t gonna let a little thing like death stop him. So he’s behind this giving a big thumbs down to Sarah & a big thumbs up to democracy. Thanks solider!!! A TRUE PATRIOT!

  1. Assault Weapon toting Caribou Barbie will be back in November. She lost but only by a few percentage points. Still…

    Two things jump out and you’ve pointed out one of them – there had to have been Begich voters who at some point going through their ranking of choices held their nose and (horrors!) said even a DEMOCRAT was better than Palin! Now, that could cut a couple of ways come November. They might return to their Republican NON-senses and return to the fold and vote for Palin. The other possibility is that other Alaskans will realize what you’ve pointed out, that Palin sucks so bad even a freaking Democrats is preferable and assume that she can be replaced by a non-Palin Republican in two years that Palin will lose by an even bigger margin due to crossover.

    However, there’s another interesting possibility to ponder. Native Alaskans. I for one think they will be fired up in a way they NEVER have been before and will be organizing the shit out GOTV efforts. Keep an eye out. Unless I’m wrong it will be a record setting level (and by a lot) from Native Alaskans in November, perhaps even enough to counter Republicans who did a “Palin protest” in the Special election figuring it would only matter for a few months, when relatively little would be going on in Congress anyway “going home” and voting for Palin. It would be delicious desert indeed to not only see us retain control of the House, but get a cherry on top in the form of Sarah Palin losing. AGAIN!

    11
    • Sounds like a solid bet, Denis. Recall that Lisa Murkowski did an end run around the Tea Party with a write-in campaign several years ago. The Native Alaskans were a big part of that upset victory. They’ll go even further for one of their own.

      10
      • I remembered her pulling off the incredible feat of winning a write-in campaign, but had forgotten that Native Alaskans mobilized in a big way on her behalf. So we know they can get it done when they want to and they’ve never had a better reason than they do now!

  2. I was in AK for a few years after Obama was elected. There were a few Palin bumper stickers but by and large, most of the people I encountered, most of them R’s, couldn’t stand her. I’m surprised she got so many votes this time.

  3. I can imagine one slogan from the bobblehead barbie, THEY’RE COMING TO TAKE YOUR GUNS! You will be eaten by a grizzly bear!

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