Purifying No Kings Fire, Followed By the Cleansing Rain Of Voting

The first No Kings protest was nationwide. Five million showed up, with protests in cities and town in every state including red ones. To many of us it seemed like a ‘get engaged’ wildfire had broken out. Another No Kings protest was planned and for me it seemed like while it got advertised their didn’t seem to be as much energy. Boy was I happy to be wrong, when SEVEN million (at least) showed up. In even more rallies!  The question was whether it would translate to the voting booth yesterday. To Trumpty’s dismay it did and “bigly.”  Like a cleansing rain voters came out in record numbers where elections were held and rained all over Trump.

In nature wildfires look awful and they are. It’s tragic when they hit populated areas which we see out west all too often. It seems that way too in non-populated areas like national parks.  Yet just as prairie fires created renewal long ago to the great benefit of buffalo and other species, a wildfire in a national park, even with so many trees and other vegetation destroyed ultimately benefits both wildlife and new tree/plant growth!  My only visit to Yellowstone was after a massive fire. So much of the natural beauty I’d hoped to soak in was a scarred landscape. Yet I still saw abundant wildlife and at least some places that were like what I’d hoped to see. I was comforted knowing in years to come what seemed destroyed would regrow, perhaps even better than before. (Ok, so it helped I also visited Grand Teton just to the south on the same trip)

My point is that No Kings spread like a wildfire into a massive protest against Trump and his GOP enablers. AND it kept going, and as we learned recently growing.  So many millions vented their outrage and while the GOP thought they could write off the first No Kings as a ‘one and done’ deal what happened with the second one SHOULD have been a warning. To Trumpty in particular.

Yesterday votes, opposition votes rained down on Trump and Trumpism from sunrise until well after sundown. A steady, strong rain that washed away any notion that voters, be they in blue, red or purple states like what Trump has done in his second term. And what his supporters in legislatures have done to help prop him up.  The initial talk last night was about three key races that Democrats won and Trump subustitutes/surrogates lost. Mikey Sherrill and Abagail Spanberger racked up HUGE wins in Governor’s races in their respective states. Mamdani won New York’s mayoral race but more importantly topped the fifty percent margin.

Yet for all the talk of that “Trifecta” the wins for Democrats were much broader and more granular than those three races. Newsom’s ballot initiative in California passed with a record turnout for a special election and by a stunning margin. That too got a lot of national attention. However the wins for Democrats go way down the ballot.

In Virginia it was thought quite possible she’d win by double digits. She won by FIFTEEN percent. That state also elected a Democratic Lt. Governor and by well over ten percent. The other top statewide spot, Attorney General was expected to be a nail biter with the GOP incumbent having a good chance at winning over a scandal plagued Democrat. However even with all his baggage Jones delivered us another win, and by a solid five point (plus) margin. However things didn’t stop there. Virginia state Senate races won’t be until next year but in the other chamber, like the U.S. House the whole bunch were up on the ballot.

Democrats didn’t just hold their small majority but INCREASED it by at least 13 seats.  That means a Spanberger administration can if she wants answer GOP gerrymandering in red states beyond Tex-ass with redrawing Virginia’s maps. While not a top line topic till now from what I gather it’s one of those ‘We’ll take a serious look at it’ things to address once Virginia’s new government is sworn in.

For all that, it’s time for the late-night TV commercial “Bui Wait! There’s MORE!” discussion.  In Nebraska an initiative that would allow Republicans there to steal a Congressional seat went down. In Mane a set of restrictions on voting also went down. In Georgia three DEMOCRATS won seats on the commission that regulates energy and therefore utility rates.  See what I mean about ‘granular’ or down ballot?

Also, while it wasn’t a topic in the national news (I only learned about it last night) in Pennsylvania three Democratic state Supreme Court members were facing a statutory (after then years) ‘Retention’ vote. Yes, some states have that with judges. It’s not a race against a specific opponent but simply a question of ‘Shall judge so-and-so retain their seat on the bench?’ question. If the voters say yes the judge (or in this case Justice) stays on. Only if the majority of voters say No will an election to see who will hold the seat be held.

If you recall Pennsylvania was a HUGE legal battleground four years ago. Stealing the vote there was critical to Trump’s mission of staying in office despite getting his fat ass kicked. He appealed every state and federal case and lost them all. It follows that he’d want to get those three Democratic judges kicked out. Again, while it got almost no attention nationally a great deal of money was spent to help Trumpty get both revenge AND a better chance of winning any bullshit lawsuits he might file in the future in the state who’s motto is “The Keystone State.’

Well, while the margins varied by a tenth of a percentage point or two all three of these judges retained their positions by roughly a Two-to-One margin. Suck on THAT Trumpty.  I note again this was one of his revenge missions and while he made not trips there (or anywhere else) to stump for his ‘vote em out’ retribution he did get  personally involved including in direct messaging to voters.  About as many people bought his b.s. as polls show approve of him.

The cleansing rain of the off-year election voting and results leaves a clean landscape where, as in natural areas regrowth can begin. The myth that MAGAs will stick with Trump no matter what has been washed away. Sure, some will go down with the Trumptanic but in significant numbers they are realizing all his promises to them were, if not utter bullshit at best no longer are a concern to him. So it’s natural for them to start saying something like ‘He only pays attention to me/people like me when he wants votes then blow me/us off and works to  help  his rich buddies’ and deciding to stay home on election day is understandable. Better late than never I guess.

The cleansing rain does more than wash away some of the debris. It also soaks invaluable nutrients into the soil.  And so it is here. I’ll write later on about how yesterday was one day and while its fine to enjoy the moment we should even today be setting up for the midterms.  The No Kings message has been a wildfire, and to wear out the metaphor led to a cleaning rain at the ballot box. One that soaked important ‘freedom’ nutrients into the electoral soil. Now our task is to be wise in our actions.  We can help regrowth or ruin it depending on what actions we take or don’t take.

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