Memo To Nervous Nellie Democrats. Just Breathe. We Still OWN The 2024 Issues

The streak continues. The toxicity of Donald Trump led to a 40 point Democratic House blowout in 2018. Never one to rest on his laurels, he turned the 2019 Virginia and Kentucky off year elections. It got Trump bounced in 2020.

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade last year, the GOP’s state legislative drunken frat house kegger had outraged constituents flipping state legislature houses and Governors in critical states. Every ballot initiative to enshrine abortion access passed, and every effort to curtail abortion access failed.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Once again it’s an off year election night in America. There was reason for the Democrats to have hopes coming into tonight, since they had voter performed the 2022 results in all of the off year special elections. But Biden’s stubbornly flagging poll numbers were a concern.

Nowhere was that a bigger potential risk than in Kentucky, where incumbent Democrat Andy Bashear was up for a 2nd term in a deep red state. His opponent, the Kentucky Attorney General, and acolyte of Mitch McConnell, who blithely denied the desperate pleas of the family of Brianna Taylor for justice, and defended the KT legislatures ridiculous 6 week abortion ban, with no exceptions for rape or incest, spent millions of dollars trying to tie Bashear, who was both personally and job performance popular, to an unpopular national Democratic party as well as President Joe Biden.

bashear ran his campaign largely on the unpopularity of the state’s 6 week abortion ban, which his opponent had gone to court to argue in favor of. And so, while abortion wasn’t specifically on the ballot, it was on the ballot. In 2019 Bashear won by a total of 5000 votes statewide. This time, when the race was called Bashear was leading by 6 points. Which tells the Democrats two things. First of all, there’s no reason to turn your back on Biden if you’re a popular incumbent. In fact Bashear gave Biden a nice shout out in his victory speech, touting the progress brought by Biden’s infrastructure law. And second, abortion rights is still an issue that drives voters to the polls, even when it’s not directly on the ballot.

Now let’s look at Ohio. There was a special election in Ohio tonight for no other purpose than whether or not to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution. The GOP did everything they could to queer this up, including pulling a cheap scam to try to change the vote threshold got passage of a constitutional amendment from a simple majority to a 60% majority.

The con job vote in August came a cropper by a 57-43 margin. And the vote tonight passed by a 56-44 margin. Here’s why this is important. Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, the only Democrat in Ohio to hold a statewide office is up for reelection. He now he has three GOP primary opponents, and all three are running on a rabid anti abortion platform! What part of tonight’s election results is so difficult for these quibbledicks to comprehend?

Now let’s move on to Virginia, the third jewel in the Triple Crown. Right now it’s a split government, the Democrats control the Senate, and the GOP controls the House. Once again abortion is on the ballot without being on the ballot. Abortion is legal in Virginia, but if Youngkin can flip the Senate, he wants to ram through a 15 week abortion ban.

The results in Virginia are incomplete at this moment, but it looks like Youngkin is going to have a double dessert of humble pie. The Democrats are on course to retain the Senate, and are poised to at least tie the House, which would force a power sharing agreement, if not flip it completely. So much for Youngkin becoming a late entry into the 2024 GOP presidential campaign.

Please Democrats, relax. Kentucky shows that Biden’s popularity problems are his own, they don’t taint popular incumbents. And the results in Kentucky, Ohio, and Virginia all show that abortion is still critical issue that will drive out voter turnout in 2024.

Here’s why this matters so much. You remember that bullsh*t poll The Ny Times posted yesterday showing Biden losing 5 of the 6 battleground states to Trump, without bothering to acknowledge that all of them were within the margin of error? Well, in 2024 there are a number of states that are going to have abortion rights initiatives on the ballot, including the western swing states of Arizona and Nevada, as well as what could conceivably turn into the toss up state of Florida.

Andy Bashear was right with his shout out for Biden. By spring the full effects of the infrastructure law will be in full effect, and the early effects of the CHIPS Act and environmental expansion laws will too. Israel can’t stay at war with Hamas for a year, their economy can’t handle it, saner heads will finally prevail, one less monkey on his back. The jobs numbers are hitting the kind of mellow groove that will bring inflation down. The augers bid well.

Hey, here’s a thought. Instead of sitting around pissing and moaning, how about you knock on a few doors, register a few voters, make some calls from a phone bank? I’ve always loved the Bruce Willis line from Die Hard, If you’re not a part of the solution, you’re a part of the problem. Stop being a part of the f*cking problem!

I thank you for the privilege of your time.