MAGAs lose

For the record, we voted yesterday. I went only at my wife's insistence. She's not given to outrighteous me, so her devotion to the task was a little unnerving. There was a ballot, but there were no choices. Really.

Up and down the single page, where there were openings, there were only that number of candidates: two new members of the school board? Okay, there are only two names. You could write in candidates all you want, but that's sputten, that's trashing the whole idea. So we went, scratched little circles, didn't write our own names in, fed the ballot in the machine, and left. No lines, no waiting. 

No drama either in the district last night, no late-night parties, no tearful concessions. Voting rolled away on steel wheels. Our participation was a rarity, I'd imagine. Poll workers had a long and quiet day.

Across the country, it was an off-year election. Participation set no records in tons of places, I'm sure. But there were a few hot contests, and I'm glad to report--anti-MAGA that I am--that once again the Dems fared well, better than expectations. 

Fox News likes this story: "Republican on verge of flipping Democratic seat in AOC's backyard," but that story is parked right beside the long face of a former Virginia congressman. The title reads "Former Virginia congressional candidate reacts to Democratic election wins: Not 'what we hoped for.'"

Grins, for MAGAs, were few and grim. Those evil, left-wing radical communist Dems (Trump) are smiling this morning, even giggling, while Christian MAGAs (that's not an oxymoron) are licking their fricking wounds. 

Why? A-b-o-r-t-i-o-n. The line is cliche, but it's so good, pardon the repetition: so when the dog finally caught the car, he hadn't a clue what to do with it. Roe v. Wade went down by way of Trump's hand-picked Supreme team, but abortion didn't, and it's not going to.

In 2008, my grandson, then a kindergartner, crawled into my lap and told me, forthrightly, that Obama was a baby-killer. When good Christians of every age give  their vote to a position on a life-and-death issue that can be spouted by a five-year-old, you can't help thinking the true believers are going to get their due. Abortion is bad, even evil, but there are times. Welcome to the world of nuance. It's bigger than you like to think. 

Yesterday, legalized abortion won big. Republicans lost. Outcomes were "not what we hoped for," if you were hoping Republican. The big story was Ohio, where voters created a constitutional amendment making abortion legal, and the vote was not close. 

Virginia's Gov. Youngkin, who some thought might come riding into the Presidential primaries to sweep the floor, lost both legislative houses to Democrats, suggesting he carried much less appeal than he had or did when he won the election three years ago. Call that vote Democratic too (upper-case D). 

And a new face, a Democratic governor from the deep South, as amazing as that may be, a gov named Andy Beshear, Kentucky, won far more comfortably in a race that he barely won last time around. He beat a man Trump backed. I'm guessing you'll hear the name Beshear bandied about more often now, especially if things get desperate for the aging Pres at the top of the 2024 Democratic ballot.

There was no drama here in our forever Republican neighborhood, but nation-wide the night belonged to the Dems. Sorry, locals.

Oh, for Republicans, the big news--and great news--was our governor throwing her election support to Florida's Gov. DeSantos. That's big. That's huge. That's wonderful. Nothing could be healthier for the American soul than the Big Orange getting squashed into pulp. I'm no Republican, and I don't particularly like DeSantos' silly passions about CRT and LGBTQ; but count me among those who truly believe Trump is an ever-present danger to American life. 

Governor Kim Reynolds, my governor, did a very, very brave thing, and I'm greatly thankful for her wisdom. She's done much, much more than Randy Feenstra and Charles Grassley. She said no to Trump. Praise be.