I & I Editorial BoardIf Republicans had any hopes of scoring surprise election victories on Tuesday, they were absolutely crushed. The loss was sweeping.
In New Jersey and Virginia, the Republican candidates did worse than Donald Trump just one year ago. And in Virginia, Democrats picked up at least 10 seats in the state legislature. New York elected its most radical mayor in its history. Californians voted by an almost 3-to-1 margin to redraw the state’s districts to squeeze out five more seats for Democrats.
All of these elections had one thing in common – they were akin to a primal scream about President Donald Trump.
After 10 months of nonstop, fact-free shrieking — that
- Trump is wrecking the economy (the latest GDPNow estimate from the Atlanta Fed shows the economy growing 4% last quarter),
- tariffs would spike inflation (prices rose 3% last month, which is lower than almost any month during the Biden administration),
- the world would devolve into chaos (Trump has resolved more global conflicts this year than Biden or Obama combined),
- democracy is threatened (a claim this week’s elections disproved),
- and that Trump is gutting the federal government (spending is up almost across the board),
— voters in these states turned out to vent. Congratulations.
But so what?
It’s no surprise that Republicans lost these elections. Since 2000, only four Republicans have won statewide elections in Virginia. In New Jersey, only two have done so. Anyone with half a brain — and who was likely to vote for a Republican — had already abandoned New York City for less socialist climes. Other cities that elected Democratic mayors this week haven’t seen a Republican in the mayor’s office in decades. (It’s been 153 since Atlanta had one.) California is a hopelessly one-party state.
And the sad truth is that the people in those areas will suffer from the inept, corrupt, radical leaders they’ve elected.
Plus, the more Democrats hyper-focus on Trump, the more of a disservice they do to themselves. After all, Trump won’t be on the ballot in 2028, and all their claims about the country devolving into an autocracy will be a laugh line. They will have nothing to offer voters, other than hatred of Trump.
Nevertheless, these election losses do matter – and it’s something Trump and his fanbase can’t ignore.
Because there are midterm elections next year that will define the remainder of Trump’s presidency and the long-term viability of the policies he’s enacted.
If Republicans lose control of Congress, it’s not just that Trump’s agenda will be frozen and that he will spend the last two years being investigated by congressional committees and impeached every other day, it’s that none of the gains he made through executive actions will have a chance of being cast in legislative stone. Which means the next president can simply wipe away every one of them.
Our advice to Trump is to take these results as a wake-up call. He needs to focus more on issues that people care about, do a better job of touting his economic record, talk about growth, about opportunity, about jobs, about getting inflation under control. And spend much less time trying to appease his fanbase and troll the left.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
Trump’s boldness reforming messes in our Federal Government and in the Republican Party is admirable. One issue though has caused Republicans to lose many elections.
Their inhumane rigidity against abortion. Trump has to be humane, understanding and encourage independence to make ones own decision. Independence is a firm plank in the Republican Party. Be independent regarding abortion and win elections.
And No, it is not murder. All the unwanted pregnancies will not be adopted. Very few are. Yes, many of the unwanted children are from unintended pregnancies and yes, cities and neighborhoods would better without the unwanted and the resulting, inhumanely abused.
Mr. President, please reform the Party on this, so numerous competent Republican candidates win their elections because of the reform of this issue.
Abortion is an issue for the states to decide. Not Congress, not the Chief Executive. Only 12 states have a total ban on abortion. That’s your battlefield.
I disagree.
The people who voted against Trump aren’t all necessarily stupid-but they are deranged. I think that if it weren’t for the legacy media lying about his record and accomplishments, and his sex-evil and Epstein-evil past then I believe those liberals, moderates and independents would vote for him. As I said they are not all stupid-they have all been infected-by the media-with Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS).
Thus, the media whips them up; they see and hear nothing else but the, for instance, NYT, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC-so they think Trump is a political Freddy Krueger.
The result is that they don’t vote for him because of the media instigated Trump Derangement Syndrome, which the media and political trolls fan like a fire.
I just read Mr Cadwalader’s opinion, below.
I agree, abortion isn’t murder. This is due to the indoctrination and acceptance by our public schools and society. But it is a killing of an unborn child.
I don’t see how others can’t see this. Sonograms actually show this!
If Republicans ever accepted abortions as less than evil, as far as I’m concerned they have sold their souls for the gain of a “win.”
They will, in my opinion, have become Nazis.
I have no notable resume and I am also Jewish (this must be said-and it would be funny if it weren’t so tragic-a great many woman congregants in both my shuls are pro-abortion) so the tragedy of the Holocaust means a great deal to me.
Many humans were lost in the Nazi Holocaust; now there is another Holocaust. Babies, after all, are human too.
“Dems Throw An Anti-Trump Temper Tantrum”
Another day ending in “Y”?
The midterms will be trouble, as they always are for the incumbent party. Republicans will need to turn out in massive numbers, like they did last year, to hold the House and Senate.
Some people need to feel genuine pain before they learn, otherwise they are too busy or too ‘occupied elsewhere’ to care.
They are about to find out.