Finally, a little peek of sunlight.
In what was billed as the first true test of how voters are viewing the second Trump administration and its abnormal, unconstitutional approach to pretty much everything, it was an absolute bloodbath.
Races in which Republicans were almost certain to win, they lost by double digits. Races that were supposed to be close were laughers. And there was no test on any ballot that Republicans could point to as a sign of hope.
It should be obvious now: This is what all of the gerrymandering is about.
Republican lawmakers all across the country have been redrawing voting maps in an effort to steal votes away from voters in various states and keep control of Congress. They have not been bashful about this outright cheating.
Fortunately for Dems, though, there was another good thing that happened on Tuesday: California voters approved a measure that will allow that state to redraw its maps in such a way that it counters the ongoing Republican cheating. Essentially, with voter approval (a big key), California lawmakers are going to make almost every attempt to cheat by the Republicans in various states null and void.
But while all of this is certainly excellent news – and God knows we could use any ray of hope at this point – the results from Tuesday were both minor in the grand scheme of things, but also potentially very important in terms of what Democrats hopefully learned.
The one big thing they should learn: Working folks are pissed.
That’s what Tuesday taught us. That’s what the election of Zohran Mamdani as New York City’s next mayor should teach us.
That man didn’t win because he promised free stuff. He didn’t win because of hate. He didn’t win because the young voters are stupid. He didn’t win because he made unrealistic promises.
He won because he talked about real, working class problems and provided real, understandable solutions to those problems.
By the way, it is consistently irritating to be lectured after every election win by a racist, a bigot or a zealot that us decent people must now accept the ignorant viewpoints of the racists, bigots and/or zealots and readjust our thinking, but when someone wins an election by daring to cater his messaging to the working class and poor, it’s about handouts. Or it’s about unrealistic promises.
Um, pardon, but if we can give a $6.2 billion tax break to one dude – the same guy who rented an entire Italian city and who is on the verge of laying off 60,000 workers, even after the tax breaks, to make the bottom line look better – then I think maybe stabilizing rents, providing free bus service and pre-k and opening city-run grocery stores shouldn’t be considered unrealistic, Marxist ideas.
It’s like, I don’t know, proclaiming that we in Alabama can’t possibly afford to sustain the SNAP program and let poor people eat because it costs too much, but we can afford to build a couple billion-dollar prisons … to put people in when they get caught stealing food because their kids are hungry.
There’s a reason Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Mamdani have become popular even among folks on the right. Their messaging isn’t about race or gender or any of the other culture war stuff that’s dominating recent elections. They’re not worried about telling you how they’re going to hurt people you hate.
They’re popular because their messages are about how – specifically how – they are going to make your lives better. Through policy changes. Through tax breaks. Through incentives. Through cuts. Through closing tax loopholes. And yes, through properly taxing rich people.
The income disparity in this country is now undeniable. You know it. Things that used to be attainable to folks working a solid 40 hours at a decent job are now far out of reach. It’s no longer about being able to afford things your parents did while working similar jobs. It’s to the point that we can’t afford things that we were buying 10 years ago.
At the same time, we’ve got people literally getting tax breaks to write off the full cost of their private jets and the president is redoing bathrooms, building ballrooms and coating everything in gold at the White House.
America’s working class desperately needs a reset and a push to re-level the playing field. Tuesday was an excellent start for that movement. There was indeed a ray of hope.
Let’s hope it turns blinding.
