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Competition is heating up in the midterm elections, but everyone who cares about democracy should resist the urge to turn the election into a referendum on inflation.
But first, here are three new stories from Atlantic.
more than gas
Last summer, Republicans appeared to face a reversal of political gravity, with Democrats likely to retain a majority in the first midterm elections under a Democratic president. Voters typically drop seats in Congress from a first-term president’s party for a number of reasons. But Democrats have benefited from the Republican leaning toward extremism. Republicans still refuse to abandon Donald Trump and his violent insurrection movement. It’s running a terrible candidate. And like a dog chasing a car, he slammed his nose into the Supreme Court’s bumper. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturn the decision Law vs Wadehas pissed off millions of people.
But fall has arrived, and Democratic candidates are now battling a parade of election deniers, religious bigots and conspiracy theorists that once would have crossed the borders of modern American politics. As a revelation I wrote Some voters still refuse to believe that anything bad happened on that dreadful day. (When police officer Michael Fanone had a heart attack during a riot, one of his Pennsylvania voters told MSNBChe “shouldn’t have been a cop”)
Some of this is the result of Democrat miscalculations.Abortion rights and Donald Trump never won this election alone. Foreign policy is a bright spot for the Democratic Party, but it usually doesn’t matter much in midterm elections. MPs never objected issue and then withdraw A clumsy and nonsensical letter to Joe Biden about calling for negotiations with Russia this week. there is. When Economically — if this Republican Party is in power.
It’s a tough task, but the Republican Party convinces its opponents (particularly Democrats) to internalize the Republican narrative that voters only care about the economy and only party change is possible. is much more difficult. Repair. Ironically, Republican I don’t mind telling the same story except to say that Democrats are responsible for all bad things, including inflation. I don’t go out of my way to suggest anything. GOP’s response to all is gish gallop of terrifying messages about crime, immigration and gun rights trans peopleand for their voters, it works.
For example, remember that JD Vance of Ohio was trying to run something like a moderate primary early on. extremistVance learned his lesson.he started talking “Fallen Liberal” and accepted Trump’s opinion humiliating hugLikewise, it’s not because of gas prices that Kari Lake is running in Arizona advertisement Featuring a homophobic and Islamophobic pastor. Doug Mastriano christian nationalist Because milk is more expensive in Pennsylvania.
Also, Herschel Walker and Rafael Warnock are not in a tight race because Georgia voters think Walker understands the problems of the common people (the problem is that men are their own fathers). (unless you don’t allow children). It’s dangerous to believe that Republican voters want Walker to join, say, the Finance Committee and start proposing solutions to inflation.
But the economy and democratic freedoms that is Voters can understand this if someone bothers to insist. Rather than preemptively apologizing for inflation or trying to undermine Biden’s foreign policy, perhaps Democrats and others who support the Pro-Democracy Coalition will ask whether they want the votes nullified. Ask the Americans and see America finally transform into a democratically challenged country like Turkey. An autocratic president cracks down on his enemies and keeps inflation at 83%. Perhaps they want to be Hungary, a country now beloved by many on the American right, with democracy stalled, inflation hitting his 20%, and teachers marching in the streets. .
Perhaps those of us who believe democracy hinges on the vote can take a page from Ronald Reagan, who defeated and won Jimmy Carter in both economics and foreign policy in 1980. Yet, by 1982, his triumph had fallen to ashes, and single-term predictions had become commonplace. The cold war froze, people were scaredand the economy is in a brutal depressionReagan’s answer was not “I feel your pain” or “It’s the economy, stupid”, but “Stay course”. He asked the populace to stand by his side rather than return to the situation they had just left behind.
The need to stay on course is now even more important. Voters concerned with democracy need to remind their fellow citizens that a Republican majority will not fix the economy or demean the Russian people.Instead, state-level Republicans issue partisans Task to our constitutional process while timid Republicans across the country nod their approval. By 2025, Republicans at the state and national level may be able to ignore election results they happen to dislike.
Believing that voters can only think of one thing at a time is a highly elitist position, especially when Americans have repeatedly proven that they can vote on multiple issues. Reducing everything to inflation and gasoline in 2022 is humiliating and childizing voters, treating them as if they were cows who only cared about the price of feed.But we all need to advocate for democracy When And these blessings remind us that we cannot exist without each other.
Related:
news of the day
- Rishi Snack Official became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and began appointing members to his Cabinet.
- Appeal Court of Russia supported WNBA player Britney Griner sentenced on drug smuggling charges.
- Adidas Finished Partnership with Ye (formerly Kanye West). anti-semitic comments.
dispatch
night reading
Adoption is not the end of a fairy tale
Erika Hayasaki
In America, popular stories about adoption tend to focus on happy endings. The unwanted children became the chosen children. A television reunion years later. From my childhood, movies, books and news, these plot lines about the adoption industry have been gradually ingrained into my subconscious mind.
Afterwards, following a decision overturned by the Supreme Court, Law vs Wade, metaphors proliferated. A photo of a smiling white couple holding a sign that read “We will adopt your baby” quickly sparked online ridicule this summer. , prepares for a possible increase in adoptions in states that have outlawed abortion, but there is limited evidence that the need for these services will increase.
see more Atlantic
culture break
read. If I Survivor YouJonathan Escoferry’s debut collection of linked stories, is a poignant tale of sibling rivalry and touching family tales.
Or try another selection of ours A list of books that show that no one can hurt you like a brother..
clock. series finale of patientis the latest in a group of recent TV shows exploring the dramatic possibilities of confinement.
Isabel Fattal contributed to this newsletter.
