Midterms

I lost two subscribers on my Substack site this week after I published an "Election Day Special Edition." 

I guess I should not be that surprised, but I thought I was pretty equal in my disdain for both political parties. But some people don't want to hear and read what they don't want to hear and read, and they certainly have the right to have delivered to their inbox what they prefer, so I'll not lose sleep over it. 

I picked up four new subscribers, so I made a net gain of two. 

I have not decided if I will revisit the topic there next week. I know there are those who would prefer I stay away from politics. But I warned everyone that I would go there on occasion. 

Apparently, a "red wave" had been expected, i.e., the Republicans would make big gains and take over the House and Senate. I guess I missed all that speculation and conjecture. I did not know it had been all but a foregone conclusion that the GOP would mop up the floor, so to speak, with their Democratic opponents in most races.

I suspect this is more spin than anything else -- the Democrats saying "look, we're still strong" (even though the margin will still be razor thin and more gridlock is guaranteed).  President Biden said it was "a good night for democracy." 

I agree, but for a reason different from his. He said it because his party did better than expected. I think it's always a good night for democracy when people have been allowed to have a say in how their government is administered, and all of that happens peaceably -- no matter the outcome. 

Maybe I am mistaken about this, but I believe there are more people like me than the pundits and prognosticators realize. I am an independent voter and I vote for the person I wish to be elected. 

When I voted this time, as I recall, I voted for two Democrats and one Republican.  In one race I abstained because I simply could not bring myself to vote for either candidate. 

On election night, the commentators seemed amazed that, in the Georgia governor's race, incumbent Republican Brian Kemp won decisively over Democrat Stacey Abrams, while in the race for the U.S. Senate in the same state, the margin between Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Hershel Walker was so close, with neither receiving 50 percent, that there will be a runoff. 

This did not surprise me at all. Hershel Walker has absolutely no qualifications to be a senator and throughout the campaign had to fight off all kinds of accusations and allegations of impropriety. Had I been voting in Georgia I would have likely done the same thing: voted for Kemp for governor and Warnock for senator (or abstained). 

Had the Republicans had the good sense to nominate someone who had been the least bit qualified, they would probably have easily taken that Senate seat, but for whatever reason, they nominated an ex-football player with a shady past. And a whole bunch of folks in Georgia who might have otherwise leaned toward the GOP decided they just could not swallow that.  

As much as the folks who study and ponder all of this would like to categorize us and put us into neat little boxes, and by doing so predict the outcomes of elections, the fact remains there are those of us who maintain a stubborn independent streak and will not vote along a strict party line.