Midterm elections

I’m a registered Republican in Florida yet the only email offer I received to be a campaign volunteer this season was from the Democrats. Is this a function of Google subverting my Gmail inbox or Republican dysfunction? I have no idea, but I was surprised to get a message on November 4 from “Official Democratic Headquarters” asking me to make phone calls on behalf of Democratic candidates. “With so much on the ballot this Tuesday — from Social Security and Medicare to reproductive freedom and even the future of our democracy — we need all hands-on deck to help Democrats win across the country,” the message read.

Remember the outrage when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis sent 50 Venezuelan asylum seekers to Martha’s Vineyard? Apparently Florida Hispanics, many of whom arrived as asylum seekers themselves, aren’t feeling it. A recent Telemundo/LX News poll finds DeSantis with a seven-point lead over Representative Charlie Crist, and the same margin approves of his relocation of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard. Perhaps even more interesting, while Florida Latinos born in the United States back the decision by four points, Florida immigrants support the move by 11 points and independents by 18 points. DeSantis’s relocation scheme has inspired lawsuits, calls for a Department of Justice investigation, and pearl-clutching indignation in newsrooms across the country.

My friend here in rural Pennsylvania is the director of our local anti-hunger program. It’s orchestrated through the YMCA and has been ongoing for years, mostly providing supplemental food for rural children. But the program started running at full throttle when Covid hit in March 2020, and now, more than two years later, my friend tells me they’re doing about 25 food distributions a month — more than they were doing at the height of Covid. What’s more, he’s seeing twice the number of people lining up for free food, and 85 percent of those people have jobs. “When people think of hunger, they think of poverty,” my friend says.

Amid 40-year-high inflation, dwindling investment portfolios, and 20-year high mortgage rates, the Democratic Party appears most concerned with protecting the abortion rights of rape and incest victims. I live in Florida, and almost every day in recent weeks, I've gotten at least one flyer warning me that one Republican candidate or another wants to “imprison victims of rape.” Last week, I got three different flyers about “extremist Audrey Henson,” a young Republican candidate for the Florida House of Representatives, all concerning her alleged support for criminalizing abortion, even in cases of rape and incest. One featured an image of a book supposedly written by Ms. Henson with the title, “Why I am Pro-Life as a Millennial Woman.

Ron DeSantis and Stacey Abrams have at least a couple things in common: they’re both running for governor of their respective states, and they both recently appeared onstage at big-name concerts. It is there, however, that the similarities end. Country music star Luke Bryan is defending himself for bringing DeSantis on stage over the weekend to raise funds for Hurricane Ian victims. Bryan and DeSantis were raked over the coals on social media following the concert, with users labeling DeSantis an “anti-LGBTQ” and “anti-immigrant” governor and threatening to boycott Bryan. One user expressed fear of “my hard earned money going into the pockets of election deniers and democracy assassins.

Cockburn watched with delight last night as Ohio’s Democratic candidate for US Senate, Tim Ryan, served up an absurd accusation against Republican candidate J.D. Vance — only to have Vance spike the allegation in Ryan's face with the force of Kerri Walsh Jennings. It all started when one of the debate moderators, in a blasé, 1960s Firing Line kind of way, asked Ryan for his opinion of the Great Replacement Theory, which holds that powerful Jews are conspiring to replace white Americans with minorities and foreigners. Ryan said he thinks the theory is nonsense, “grounded in some of the most racially divisive writings in the history of the world.

Friday night brought Georgia voters the sole debate in the contest between Herschel Walker and Senator Raphael Warnock, with the pair meeting on stage at the J.W. Marriott in Savannah. Thanks to Axios, you could play debate bingo if you wanted to, thereby officially informing your friends you have the saddest social schedule imaginable. Debate dodging has been a major feature of the 2022 cycle. In Arizona, Democrat Katie Hobbs has said she's too busy to debate her gubernatorial opponent Kari Lake — who as it happens is far more telegenic than she is. In Pennsylvania, Democrat John Fetterman has agreed to just one Senate debate with Republican Mehmet Oz, with a long series of stipulations about closed captioning and multiple practice opportunities for the setup.

The blue wave cometh — or does it? Contra reports that a cerulean tsunami is bearing down on Congress, RealClearPolitics still projects that the GOP will win the Senate this November, and Tuesday's dismal inflation numbers have only boosted Republican hopes. So...back to the red wave then? Or maybe the red and blue waves will combine into a purple wave, which, in conjunction with a chartreuse wave, will bury Politico's offices in a sea of multicolored futility? Midterm election predictions are always a fool's game, which is why pundits love them. Yet allow this much: the political climate right now is uncertain. And it's into this tense atmosphere that Senator Lindsey Graham has chucked what some are saying could be a game-changer.

Earlier today, I went outside and threw a frisbee at a tree. Then I came back inside and the chyron on CNN read: "VIRGINIA MAN'S FRISBEE GAMBIT COULD BE GAME-CHANGER IN MIDTERMS." Yes, it is political silly season, which is to say election season, which is to say any one of the four seasons. Pundits have been hyperventilating about the 2022 midterms since approximately 1922, so what a delight that we're finally a mere seventy-seven days out. At least this cycle isn't being trumpeted as THE MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION OF OUR LIVES, a moniker that's been applied to every presidential contest since the delightfully sleepy Clinton/Dole showdown of 1996. Think of it: back then, MTV was actually worried about voter apathy! Don't ever tell us '90s kids we have nothing to be nostalgic for.

The eagerly anticipated midterm elections, now in a countdown, will no doubt reveal vast electoral dismay and division. Inflation, recession, crime, and border invasions are half of it. The Democratic-inspired War on Normal is the other. However impressive GOP victories might be, the fifty-year-old progressive hegemon will endure. Identity hustles, handouts, lawlessness, and cultural rot won’t disappear after the midterms. Disparate impact, non-binary fantasies, and Supreme Court oppositionists in primal breakdowns will persist. Beyond November, cunning propagandists with opportunities at thought control unprecedented in human history will seek to discredit their adversaries. Militants will intimidate authorities. The commercial republic and its assets are the prize.