The only way for any political party to win an election these days is to attract the swing voters, usually those who call themselves independents, of which I classify myself.
The election in Georgia on Tuesday of two senators shows how evenly divided Georgia now is and that reflects what is happening in the nation as a whole. Senator Elect Warnock won by a slim margin and it appears that Senator Perdue may lose by a slim margin, thus giving the Democrats control of the Presidency and Congress.
The Catholic Church and thus bishops, priests and deacons, not to mention Religious men and women (religious orders) should not endorse this, that or the other candidate. The Church collectively does not do so in a democratic society.
So, apart form conspiracy theories which are abundant, how did the Republicans lose what was theirs to win?
My theories:
1. An act of God in the Pandemic. I know, I know, progressive Catholics are wont to attribute plagues, natural disasters and the destruction of peoples and animals to God, but it is very Biblical and we cannot escape it with a Pollyanna theology. We can say God was displease with the President's emphasis on mammon to the neglect of the poor and thus favoring the rich and want to be rich.
2. In President Trump we have a president with personality disorders and an inferiority complex masked by overcompensating his own virtues and abilities. Chaos has reigned in the White House; there has been a tremendous turn-over in the office of the Presidency and many have who have quit or been fired are talking and more of that will come out. The Narcissistic personality and perhaps Obsessive Compulsive Disorder are at work. The denigration of anyone who disagrees with the President by sophomoric name calling and the like and a sophomoric mentality in general may well have turned most swing voters off.
When supporters of the President come off as though they are a part of the Championship Wrestling Crowd and its throw them to the lions coliseum mentality of entertainment, they lose the swing voters who are bit more sophisticated and brought up with manners and etiquette.
3. In Georgia, Senator Kelly Leofler mocked Senator Elect Wornock's Black Baptist Faith and this certainly contributed to the black vote getting out to support one of their own. Also using a scorned former or separated wife in ads was not appreciated by the religious blacks in the south. And there is a failure to understand Black Protestant Theology as it concerns being oppressed and seeing the nation and whites at the root of it. Many progressive whites who might have been swing voters empathize with the black community in the south and many my age and older remember segregation and the racism of the south and how these contributed to the marginalization of the black community.
There is a lesson in here for pro-life Catholics who are very conservative politically. If there is not a consistent ethic of life, welcoming of strangers and migrants and respectful language toward those who disagree with the political right's agenda, Republicans will continue to lose. There is a disconnect for the respect of persons, born or unborn, when a child from Latin America brought here illegally by her parents as an infant and grows up in the USA and as an adult could be deported and threats are made against them that they will be. That is a turn off to swing voters.
As it concerns the Democrats and the more radical elements of it, they will certainly lose if they continue to make abortion, even partial birth abortion and killing a child after a botched abortion a "sacrament" of their agenda. Their pro-choice ideology from a religious and humanity point of view is deadly and will cost them in the future.
Pope Francis is right on abortion, it is a human tragedy even before religious sentiments are brought into it.
22 comments:
There was the slight matter of $2000 relief checks denied for all the "essential workers" who have kept the wheels on society during the pandemic, most of whom who have seen hours and income reduced this year, higher costs for food, additional costs of forced to provide own regular PPE and cleaning supplies (when able to be found) and who have otherwise qualified for ZERO help since they stayed employed.
In short, over the past year, they have received an insulting $1800 aid, and they KNOW who denied them more while otherwise providing them ZERO more help. And then to be told it was because this was a giveaway to rich people, where they know if THAT was the concern, all it would have taken was lowering the ceiling to those huge numbers who live on $40k or $30k or $20k per year while working.
They threw all those people and their votes in the trash, out of touch with who REALLY keeps them in power and what their lives are really like.
AND the Rwpublicans only got all fiscally conservative about giveaways to "rich people" with rwlief checks AFTER bailing out big biz such as airlines which working poor cannot afford to use at all, and AFTER just passing an unread spending bill stuffed with 5ens or hundreds of millions in pork, even to overseas gender equality studies.
And folk wonder why they are losing elections?
Point #2 is well taken. A lot of voters in the state's largest region were tired of 4 years of derogatory language, inflammatory rhetoric and 3 am tweets, like calling some fellow Republicans "stupid". Trump did not need to be a narcissist to get things done like tax cuts and deregulation. For him, using strong language and denigrating opponents---often in his own party---was a first resort, not a last resort. It had worked before in 2016. As Peggy Noonan wrote in the Wall Street Journal a few weeks after the presidential election, if he had shown a degree of moderation in his behavior and temperament...
Trump asking the Georgia of Secretary of State to "find" another 11,780 votes to "win" Georgia did not help, nor did his claims the November outcome here was fraudulent. Well if so, what would be the point of voting this time. Then there were some of his crazy surrogates who said Kemp should be arrested and Pence tried for treason...
Some Republicans are likely to blame Doug Collins for the Loeffler loss---Collins challenged her in the November "Free for all" and came up short but it forced Loeffler to go hard right, which proved costly in the runoff among moderates. Before the November election, she bragged about her 100 percent pro-Trump voting record---but not so much in the runoff. The Collins challenge forced Loeffler to focus on him instead of Warnock in the November election. I guess we can't blame her loss on being Catholic (though she never mentioned that in her ads, instead saying she was a "conservative Christian').
And the ads---far too many and far too negative. Could Republicans have picked someone more current than Fidel Castro to feature in their ads? One ad cited Warnock, while stationed at a New York church, inviting Castro to come by---25 years ago. Castro is still dead from what I know and that would have little relevancy to voters under age 40.
AND Lame Duck President Trump spent 99% of his time in the last month attacking the Republican Governor and Secty of State of Georgia rather than making the case against Ossoff and Warnock.
Thank you, Donald.
Loeffler and Perdue secretly dumping their stocks to profit on the pandemic while publicly telling us COVID-19 was no big deal certainly didn't help. And they never denied this happened; their defense is that it wasn't a crime.
I'm no theologian, but I don't see why God would punish millions of people with a plague because he was angry at Donald. Wouldn't it be fairer and more effective to just strike him with a bolt of lightning? A tsunami striking Mar-a-Lago on New Year's Eve would also work, I think.
Gee. maybe inciting people to violence and trying to overthrow a free election is a bad political strategy. Maybe the people who've been calling Trump a wannabe dictator for five years were right. Maybe people who've made excuses for Trump and supported him over the past five years should be ashamed. Maybe we should all be ashamed.
How nice--Trump says "BS" at a rally today and protesters storm the Capitol. One had a sign "(blank) Biden". You can probably figure what the "blank" was; it would not be suitable for a family audience!
As for Georgia, well the impact of metro Atlanta, home to about 60 percent of the state's total votes, is evident. Republicans win most of the geography in Georgia, but not what matters---the votes. When DeKalb and Fulton Counties report their returns, Republican hopes in Georgia fade quickly. It is metro Atlanta versus the rest of the state...
here is a legitimate question for you.
During any of the left wing assaults on the halls of power, where entrance was forced and things were broken, did the police and NG set up at barracades loaded for combat, was tear gas used inside, and were guns drawn and pointed at protestors at chamber doors, and folk forced to lay down or be shot?
Not that they should not have been, but I do not recall such extreme measures put forward by DC police and guard at those times.
Just asking....
Anonymous 5:07. Yes, they did. Any further questions?
To Anon at 5:07pm. Great question! When the leftist rioters stormed the capitol, disrupted congress, threatened our leaders with guns, smashed windows, vandalized congressional offices, shot someone in the very halls of congress, and forced entire buildings to evacuate due to bomb threats, what did they do to stop it?
Let Me start with point #2 "personality disorders." What comes off to some who view his personality disorder as an inferiority complex, in the political arena I think Trumps past plays an important part. As a NYC real estate developer he spent a good amount of time going before a slew of varied government committees trying to get approval for various building projects. NYC is the place Nancy Pelosi said "a glass of water with a D on it could get elected", meaning that it is a one party town and often a one party state. My point being that Trump hasn't just been fighting Democrats for four years, he has been fighting with them for 50-years. Inferiority complex or just someone who anticipates an argument from the D's? I wont argue with the wrestling mentality of his supporters, they are refereed to more often using the sports term fan. With anything that regards "the poor" Trump is at a disadvantage because he is known to be rich. His desire to build up American manufacturing largely is to improve the lives of the lower income people, but political spin usually paints him as simply arrogant rich. It's a stereotype.
For #3 the Leofler / Perdue problem was that they just argued the Republican platform. They both spoke to their supporters and didn't try to connect to their opponents supporters. They talked about the bad things Democrats would bring, they didn't emphasize the good things that they could deliver. They should have especially emphasized the good they could have done for the low wage earners, and struggling people of Georgia. Trumps success was based on "make America great again." It was a positive message, even if the Democrats tried to demonize it.
Anon 541....REALLY?....and panicked shelter in place orders, folk cowering as if under fire, security with fingers on triggers of weapons pointed at any face which showed at door?...
And past pushing past police barricades, and B&E for entrance, were they assaulting staffers and politicians, throwing/spraying paint, vandalizing statues, starting fires?
Or were they just trying to get past locked doors and have their voices heard?
What WERE they doing worthy of a woman being killed by sloppy gun handling?
Even Republicans are calling this an insurrection, by a crowd which lacked even pitchforks and torches, much less large numbers of armed people.
It was craven panicked politicians is what it was.
Anonymous at 5:07 p.m.:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/protesters-aim-to-bring-one-million-to-march-on-washington-in-largest-blm-demonstration-yet
It is now primarily up to us, the people, to talk to one another—civilly, respectfully, and empathetically—about the issues that brought Trump to power and the issues that drove him from it, and to take the country back from the forces, both domestic and foreign, that have sought to divide us. Several initiatives are underway to facilitate this process. Catholics should be at the center of such efforts.
Trump' "success" was based on a 3-state fluke win in 2016 (Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) and a widely disliked Hillary Clinton. After 2 years of Trump's narcisstic behavior, voters ended GOP control of the House, the party losing about 40 seats, the worst GOP losses since Watergate. That should have been a "Eureka" moment to pivot, cut back on inflammatory rhetoric and tweeting. But he would not do it. Just like Loeffler and Perdue, all they did was pledge unfailing loyalty to Trump, kind of odd given that Trump did not win a majority in Georgia (49.3%). And they paid the price yesterday.
If the violence of today in DC had happened last week, the losses of Perdue and Loeffler probably would have been even greater.
"Make America Great Again"? When did it stop being great? 1968? 1979? 2001? 2009? 2017?
I "held my nose" for Trump but would not do so again if he runs in 2024. I have spoken to several other Republicans who would like Pence, someone who supports Trump's policies without Trump's obvious personal baggage. Voters rejected the messenger, but not necessarily the message.
Anon 708....yes, you can tell how dangerous they are from all the dead and dying who gave their lives defending the building, and the embers of the capitol are stìll smouldering, right? It was "stormed" by this "insurrection" which shows from all the casualities they inflicted...
Oh, wait.....it was security who killed somebody. My bad.
Anon. at 8:00 p.m.:
The female protester’s death is tragic. But now please stop helping to feed the insanity that Trump has brought on this nation and return to sanity as I propose at 7:12 p.m.
And what of the promotion of abortion, infanticide, homosexuality and gender ideology by the left.....talk about disorders.
President Trump was the first president to directly confront the baby killing democrats. That is why we had the russian hoax, Kavanaugh/Barrett persecutions, blm riots and why we are close to civil war. It's all about abortion just as it was all about slavery in 1860. Oh well all empires crumble. The Roman empire was big on homosexuality and abortion too.
Bee here:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1106814743095379
Watch this, and then explain to me again how the Republicans lost by their own politics...
God bless.
Bee
The American Civil War: 1861 - ......
Bee:
I watched the video you linked. I then did some research. Did the gentleman on the video bother to follow up to explain the real reason for the change or has he continued to feed baseless conspiracy theories?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/01/06/fact-check-changes-georgia-vote-totals-due-reporting-errors/6562978002/
I did the research. Why didn’t you?
Some math explaining the "two Georgias"
---Metro Atlanta (29 counties, going from the Alabama line to Lake Oconee on Interstate 20 and from Dawson County to the north to Meriwether County in the south, touching the border between the Atlanta and Savannah dioceses): Ossoff 58 percent, Perdue 42 percent
--The rest of Georgia (other 130 counties combined)---Perdue 61 percent, Ossoff 39 percent
Almost polar opposite voting---but metro Atlanta casts about 50 percent more votes than the rest of the state combined. In fact, the 12 largest voting counties in Georgia (one of which is Chatham-Savannah) cast more votes than the other 147 counties combined.
Perdue won 129 counties to only 30 for Ossoff, eerily similar to 1980, when veteran Senator Herman Talmadge won 130 counties but still lost to Republican Mack Mattingly, because Talmadge---you guessed it---bombed badly in metro Atlanta as a lot of blacks recalled his segregationist past and white liberals were ready to elect someone who was not a good ol boy.
Metro Atlanta has voted Democratic in the last 4 presidential elections, both times for Obama, then Clinton and Biden. Fulton County (which includes most of the city of Atlanta), home to about 1 out of every 9 Georgians, hasn't backed a Republican for president since the 1972 Nixon landslide over George McGovern. Next-door DeKalb County, now over 80 percent Democratic (a county which elected the controversial Cynthia McKinney years ago), hasn't backed a Republican for president since the 1984 Reagan landslide over Walter Mondale. Combined those counties gave Ossoff a margin of over 440,000 votes---about 10 times Ossoff's winning statewide margin.
Thus the "red "era in Georgia is over, and especially so in metro Atlanta overall (though not in every county in metro Atlanta). The question for the rest of this decade is whether the state will remain purple or be heavily blue by the end of it? We will get a test next year when Kemp seeks another term as governor, first likely to have to fend off a challenge from the right, from Trump supporters mad at him for not getting the state's 16 electoral votes awarded to Biden, and then facing a strong challenge from Stacey Abrams, who lost to Kemp by less than a point and a half last time. And Warnock will be seeking a full term (he was elected last Tuesday to finish the last 2 years of Isakson's term). Republicans will have to realize that just running "hard right" will not cut it anymore in terms of winning statewide. Father M. is right, Republican have to reach out to swing voters, even if they are a somewhat small portion of the electorate here.
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