Donald Trump, the Oath Keeper militia and the first two years of the 2020 midterm campaign: the political environment and the polarized environment

But the final hours of this midterm campaign laid bare the polarized electoral environment, the specter of political violence and the possibility of disputed races – all of which have raised the stakes of the first nationwide vote since former President Donald Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election and have augured an acrimonious two years to come.

On the eve of an election in which he is not on the ballot, Trump made it all about himself – even as he claimed he didn’t want to overshadow Republican candidates. At a rally ostensibly for GOP Senate nominee J.D. Vance in Ohio, Trump unleashed a dystopian, self-indulgent dirge of a speech laced with demagoguery, exaggerated claims that America was in terminal decline, and outright falsehoods about the 2020 election. And he laid the groundwork to proclaim he is the victim of totalitarian state-style persecution if he is indicted in several criminal probes into his conduct.

Five weeks before the elections, the country remains in a constant state of rancor that prevented a peaceful transfer of power less than two years ago.

This coincides with painful and far from complete investigations into what happened after the 2020 election. The first day of the trial of five alleged members of the Oath Keeper militia charged with seditious conspiracy heard how they hid from Trump’s mob.

The former President dialed up the hate another notch last week with a social media post that accused Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, with whom he has a strained relationship, of having a “death wish” and flung racism at his wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. Trump slammed FBI agents as “vicious monsters” recently over a lawful search of his Florida home.

One of the ex-President’s top boosters, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, also played into Trump’s politics of fear at his weekend rally in Michigan, claiming that Democrats wanted Republicans dead.

The man was charged with trying to kill the Supreme Court Justice. The same month, New York Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin, who’s running for governor, was attacked by a man at a campaign event. The supposed attacker did not have a political agenda, but it was still a reminder of the vulnerability of candidates on the stump.

A man shot and critically wounded former Rep. Giffords at an event where six people were killed. In 2017, Louisiana GOP Rep. Steve Scalise was badly wounded by a gunman who opened fire at a congressional baseball practice. According to a CNN review of the man’s Facebook, public records and letters to his newspaper, the man hated conservatives and Trump, and he had expressed support for Vermont Sen. sanders. After condemning the shooting as despicable, and stating that the attacker might have been involved in Trump’s campaign, as well as making clear he was against violence of any kind, Sanders was quick to mention that he had never used the kind of inciting language that Trump is known for.

It’s not always possible to trace each attack, or attempted attack, to specific heated rhetoric. But such incidents also mean that politicians cannot claim their words are uttered in a vacuum. The dangers of stoking fear and violence are obvious. The US Capitol insurrection made this clearer than ever. Multiple rioters testified in court cases that they were doing what Trump wanted on that day. Stephen Ayres, who admitted to disorderly conduct in a restricted building, said everyone was following what the former President wanted. The vice chair of the panel said that the Presidentsummoned the mob and assembled the mob and lit the flame of the attack.

It has been difficult to ignore the reality of a weakened presidency, viciousness in political debate, and threat to free and fair elections posed by scores of Republican candidates who are running on a platform of Trump.

Mississippi Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, who chairs the House select committee, on Monday condemned Trump’s social media assault on McConnell and told colleagues in both parties, “We need to be better than this.”

He said in a statement that the former President knows his words could be seen as marching orders and that they could lead to political violence.

The death wish rhetoric is ugly, even by Mr. Trump’s standards. Mr. Trump’s apologists claim he merely meant Mr. McConnell has a political death wish, but that isn’t what he wrote,” the paper said.

The former President appears to implicitly offer his supporters a kind of permission to emulate his incitement. And his tendency to drag others down into the political gutter with him has contributed to a coarsening of the wider political culture, especially among Republicans who have to choose between their political careers and publicly tolerating his extremism.

Republicans often seize upon the rhetoric of key Democratic figures to suggest their supporters are being victimized and targeted. Biden referred to the supporters of Trump as embracing semi-fascism. Intemperate political rhetoric should always be condemned. While an objective viewing of Trump’s speeches and social media posts must conclude that he is an intentional and continuous offending, it is necessary to conclude that this is not an objective viewing.

Part of the reason why is that his own party – some courageous lawmakers aside – almost never steps into condemn him. The chairman of the Senate Republican campaign committee dodged an uncomfortable question from him when he was asked to condemn the post about McConnell.

The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: A Long History of Reconstruction, 1860- 1900, via Scott’s Slap on Dana Bash

The President likes to give people different names. So you can ask him how he came up with a nickname. Scott told Dana Bash on “State of the Union” that he thought he had a nickname for him, before struggling to reorient the discussion about high inflation which Republicans believe will hurt the Democrats in the elections.

“I hope no one is racist. Scott said, “I hope no one says anything that’s inappropriate and that’s the way Trump has intimidated his party through seven years of fury.”

This is the editor’s note. The University of Connecticut has a chair in American History that is held by India’s Manisha Sinha. She wrote “The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: A Long History of Reconstruction, 1860- 1900”, about slavery and abolition in the United States. Her views are expressed here. You can read more on CNN.

We must hope that the midterm elections of 2022 might engender that unusual political wave and resemble the 1866 midterms, when the party in power, the Republicans in this instance, won decisive majorities in both houses of Congress. The two political parties are no longer the same.

The party in power has historically lost midterm elections with a few exceptions. Political pundits have repeated this conventional wisdom this year, with predictions of a November debacle for Democrats.

Things were a bit different recently. The Biden administration succeeded in getting legislative successes, such as the relief of gas prices and student loans, but also in getting the Supreme Court to rule in favor of Trump.

The nation faced a President in 1866, who encouraged political violence. Though in the present case, Trump, unlike Andrew Johnson, is no longer in office. While complaining of persecution, Trump recently signaled support for paranoid QAnon conspiracies.

Johnson called abolitionists and congressional Republicans rather than ex-Confederates “enemies” and “traitors” in his infamous “swing around the circle” midterm campaign tour in 1866. Republican Carl Schurz noted that he had “stimulated the most dangerous reactionary tendencies to more reckless and baneful activity.” These are words that are true today.

The country was threatened by armed paramilitary groups in the past. During the summer of 1866, the Ku Klux Klan attacked freed people and Unionists in Memphis, Tennessee, and New Orleans, as well as other parts of the South. The January 6 insurrection by a violent mob of Trump supporters was as much a wake-up call for the nation as the Memphis and New Orleans massacres. Congressional investigations of these two riots — like the January 6 commission’s hearings — were eye-opening for many Americans.

The Black Codes in the North in 1866 are predicted to be replicated in the future, especially among women who are out-registering men this election. It is an irony of history that the 14th Amendment ratified in 1868 to protect the rights of former slaves is the amendment from which we derive our modern rights, including the right to privacy that legalized abortion, same-sex marriage and the outlawing of gender-based discrimination.

Will there be a replica of 1866 in 12 years? As a historian, as a woman and as a citizen, I can only hope that it does. On emancipation, Southern elites threatened that freed people would swarm the North. Today, Republican Govs. The politicians of Florida and Texas are trying to use migrants as pawns by transporting them to the states of their choice.

Americans need history not just to understand the present but also as a guide to the future. In 1866, congressional Republicans passed the first federal civil rights law. If Democrats can hold the House against all odds and a slightly bigger majority can get rid of the filibuster in the Senate, that victory could lead to federal laws protecting the right to vote and abortion. Then as now democracy is at stake.

The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: A First Historical Assessment of the New York Demonstration of the Super-Democracy

On the day the U.S. Capitol was ransacked, as stunned lawmakers emerged from hiding and police officers were still counting the injured, Representative Lee Zeldin of New York walked into the Rotunda, held up a shaky camera and went live on Fox News.

Donald J. Trump helped inspire the violence that took place after his election loss, which is why other Republican leaders started to distance the party from him. Mr. Zeldin was ready to exonerate him that evening.

The riot that he condemned is more than just about the president of the United States. People on the left have double standards.

As per the author, a professor at Princeton University is a CNN political analyst. He is the author and editor of 24 books, including, “The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: A First Historical Assessment.” If you follow him, you’ll hear about him on the social media platform. This commentary is not a commentary of his own. View more opinion on CNN.

How Election Deniers Can Drive a New Majority of Conservatives and Republicans to the Front-End End: The Case for Donald Trump

A win by the GOP in the midterms would embolden Trump. He has largely escaped accountability at this point. Trump is a viable political figure even though he is the subject of criminal investigations.

Before the election, some pundits argued that the anger of many voters at the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade had faded after five months, and that inflation would blot out most other concerns. The argument was that President Biden was out of touch because he focused a major speech on the dangers of election deniers running for office. But both of those issues resonated.

The implications would be enormous if the GOP got a strong showing. If Republicans are able to wrest control of the Senate and House, this could have a domino effect, with the Republicans cementing their position and leaving Joe Biden with two years to raise debt limits and dodge budget cuts.

The Washington Post has reported that a lot of Republicans running for office are election deniers who don’t accept that Biden won in 2020. A large number of the candidates will win and that could create a path for Donald Trump to be reelected in 2024.

The 2010 elections could turn some of the supporters of election denial into the new Freedom Caucus, which coalesced after the 2010 elections and is now an important part of the House GOP. They could be a driving force in a new majority that pushes anti-democratic policies to the very top of the Republican agenda.

FiveThirtyEight reports that 60% of Americans will have an election denier on the ballot. Among the deniers are some hoping to be secretaries of state, which – if victorious – would allow them to run state elections in coming years.

The Transformation of the Republican Party: From Boltzmann to Clark, from Maryland to Humphrey to President McIntyre

The transformation of the party has been caught in a New York Times Magazine profile. Robert Draper wrote about how as a power broker in the Republican Party, she has moved from being an outrageous bomb thrower to one that is too right leaning for even the most conservative.

The success of the Republican party in the congress will make it seem that Trumpism is not a new phenomenon. Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming is out; Greene is in.

For conservatives, the 1978 election proved a critical moment in the direction of their party. Moderate Republicans like Tennessee Sen. Howard Baker changed their approach to issues as they read the way the political winds were blowing. Baker opposed the Salt II Treaty with the Soviet Union as hardliners took control of the GOP.

Republicans gained six gubernatorial seats, an area where the Republican National Committee had heavily invested. Republicans gained control of 12 state legislative chambers. The most profound change for the RNC was noted by its Chair, Bill Brock.

The numbers were not as important as the inner substance. There were several up-and-coming Republicans, like Gingrich of Georgia, who championed a new generation of brash and aggressive conservatives and rejected the older generation of party leaders who believed in the need to stick to the center.

Republicans like Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi won seats that had been controlled by conservative Democrats for decades. Cochran took the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. James Eastland, one of the most famous opponents of civil rights. In Iowa, Democratic Sen. Dick Clark fell to defeat to abortion opponent Sen. Roger Jepsen, who attacked his opponent as “the senator from Africa” for Clark’s work fighting apartheid. These Republicans emphasized themes such as tax reductions and a stronger stance against communism.

New conservative political organizations were able to exert their power. The National Conservative Political Action Committee, created in 1975 and one of the most important forces of what was being called “The New Right,” helped to unseat several prominent Democrats. Gordon Humphrey, a Republican from New Hampshire, defeated Thomas McIntyre, a Democratic incumbent, thanks to the support of the party’s political action committee.

Surveying the results, Newsweek noted, “Nearly a half century after the dawn of the New Deal, America swung rightward toward Republicanism last week … The real message was that a new agenda for the nation, with a goal of inflation as the priority and tax-and-spend government as the primary villain, was adopted by the voters.

The Republicans are a strong united party and they showed it in the mid-term campaigns. Very little can shake that unity. After Trump left the White House, the party didn’t change in substantive ways and the “Never Trump” contingent failed to emerge as a dominant force. Liz Cheney was among the officials who were ousted from the party.

The anti-democratic theme of the former president was elevated as part of his attempt to overturn a presidential election. His strategy lives on even though he was unsuccessful in doing so.

The midterms are turning into a moment for the Republicans to double down on this direction, reminding voters why conservatives such as Cheney don’t really have much room at the table. There won’t be a turning back in the next election cycles of the new royalty of the party if they win in November.

Trump’s Wannabe: Getting Closer to the Establishment, or Will Trump Come to the White House in November 2024?

It looks like former President Donald Trump is going to launch another bid for the White House. Sources familiar with the situation tell CNN that top aides have a November 14 launch date in mind, and that they were told on Thursday to “get ready”. Trump, it seems, is hoping to be the first person since President Grover Cleveland to win two non-consecutive elections.

While Trump has been hinting at another run for months, the news would certainly send shockwaves through the political world. Trump is arguably one of the most controversial and destabilizing political leader in contemporary US history. His presidency was consequential because of toxicity within the GOP and the Supreme Court decisions like Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

And if Trump announces his candidacy, the Department of Justice is weighing the possibility of announcing a special counsel to oversee two sprawling federal investigations into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his alleged mishandling of national security documents kept at Mar-a-Lago. But that’s unlikely to stop Trump; we’ve seen his relentless attacks on former special counsel Robert Mueller, who oversaw the Russia investigation. It will be difficult to prosecute Trump once he is a candidate. Trump will likely claim that any investigation is just a politically motivated “witch hunt” designed to remove him from the running.

If Trump doesn’t get arrested, he would unleash a ferocious attack on the President, who could still be struggling with a shaky economy and dissent within his own party. After the elections, if election deniers win, Trump will likely use the loyalists who have been in election offices to make sure that his victory is his. Trump will also come to the race having been to this rodeo before, which will mean he can perfect the technique and rhetoric that put him into office in 2016. It is possible that Trump will return to the media conversation as a result of the purchase of Twitter by Musk. Trump has not indicated that he will return to Truth Social, the place that he founded after being banned from the social network.

Of course, the fact that Trump poses a very serious threat in 2024 doesn’t mean he will win. Even if Trump wins their support in crucial swing states, it’s not certain if he can convert many independents and some Republicans. The president who has faced a tough reelection campaign can still find a path to victory.

The Case of Kevin Biden: Defending Democracy Without Impainable Claims and Attacks on the Establishment of Border Security and Integral Investigations

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who is the likely next speaker if Republicans net the five seats they need for the House majority, blamed Democrats for heated political rhetoric as he laid out an aggressive agenda, targeting border security and relentless investigations in an exclusive interview with CNN. The radical members of the conference are already demanding that Biden be impeached, but he didn’t rule it out.

Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Bill Clinton all took to the campaign trail over the weekend, in a sign of the critical stakes and the growing angst among Democrats.

Ex-President Trump, edging ever closer to announcing a 2024 White House bid, will wrap up a campaign he used to show his enduring magnetism among grassroots Republicans, in Ohio, with a rally for Senate nominee J.D. Vance on Monday. In a speech that concluded in pouring rain for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio on Sunday, Trump predicted voters would “elect an incredible slate of true MAGA warriors to Congress.”

The nation is in danger of losing its core values because of Republicans who deny the truth about the US Capitol insurrection and the brutal attack on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, said Biden, who went out to vote with Obama.

It turns out that Biden was right in declaring that democracy itself was at stake in the midterms. It was a strong argument. Trump, and the election-denying extremists he endorsed, helped Biden and the Democrats make that case.

The president will end his effort to stave off a rebuke from voters at a Democratic event in Maryland. He won’t try to help the vulnerable lawmaker in a key race on the final night, which shows his shaky standing in an election that has turned into a referendum on him.

The 2016 midterm elections are going to hell: Are Republicans worried about the economic crisis? An analysis by Ronna Machiavelli, Ms. Joe Biden and Mark Levinson

Republicans predict they will win the House of Representatives on Tuesday – a victory that, if it materializes, would give them the power to throttle President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda and clamp an investigative vise on his White House. The Senate is, meanwhile, on a knife edge with a handful of races in states like Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and Pennsylvania likely to decide who wins the majority.

Republican National Committee chair Ronna Machiavelli predicted that her party would win both the House and the Senate and accused Biden of being oblivious to the economic anxiety among Americans with his repeated warnings about democracy.

But the president warned in a speech in Pittsburgh on Saturday night alongside Obama that Republican concern over the economy was a ruse and claimed that the GOP would cut Social Security and Medicare if they won majorities.

They were all focused on the wealthy getting wealthy. And the wealthier staying wealthy. The middle class is getting stiffed. The poor are affected by the policy, Biden said.

The midterms are the first national vote since the chaos and violence triggered by Trump’s refusal to accept the result of the last presidential election and there are already fears that some Republican candidates may follow his example and try to defy the will of voters if they don’t win. Some, like Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, have already raised concerns about the integrity of the vote.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/07/politics/election-eve-campaigning/index.html

Donald Trump and Kari Lake: What have we learned in the last two months? What can we learn about the next gubernatorial race?

In another development on Sunday, a staffer at the headquarters of Kari Lake, the pro-Trump nominee in the Arizona gubernatorial contest, opened a letter containing suspicious white powder. Lake’s opponent, current Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, condemned the incident as “incredibly concerning.”

On a frenetic final weekend of campaigning, Biden and Obama tried to push Democratic nominee John Fetterman over the line in a Pennsylvania Senate race that represents the party’s best chance to pick up a GOP-held Senate seat. Democrats in Arizona and Nevada could be in for a rough ride because of the intense pressure they are under. The Republicans need to win one seat to take the majority.

The DeSantis bubble has also inflated during a period in which Trump has been relatively absent from the national scene. DeSantis has not yet had to contend with Trump’s peculiar media power, his ability to create noise and spectacle and soak up every moment of media attention. Nor has he been on the other side of a sustained Trump attack. In the 2016 primaries, it is easy to imagine a scenario in which the other Republican candidates gave up on Donald Trump immediately, even if they win the nomination.

The Florida governor turned his ire on Biden, calling him a donkey, and his Democratic opponent, Charlie Crist, “a donkey”, while taking credit for ignoring Washington officials and experts in the face of the swine flue.

As he rallied for Rubio, who is seeking reelection, Trump didn’t repeat his mockery of DeSantis on Sunday but again teased the likelihood of a presidential run. In another sign the next presidential race is stirring, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, who has long eyed higher office, announced he would not join the Republican primary.

Bill Clinton was in New York on Saturday to help out Kathy Hochul. The Empire state should be safe territory for his party but Hochul’s closer-than-expected reelection race against Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin underscores the toughness of the national environment for Democrats.

“I know the average election rally is just ‘whoop dee doo do vote for me,’ but your life is on the line. For young people in the audience, your life is on the line,” Clinton said.

Democrats have failed to take a stance against the referendum on Bidens economic management and presidency, with most polls predicting building GOP momentum that may cause the first term president to lose a classic election rebuke.

If Republicans win back the House, they can impose a vise on Biden’s legislative program and set up a series of perilous political showdowns on spending and raising the debt-ceiling. They are promising a relentless round of investigations and hearings into everything from the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the surge in migrants across the southern border to Biden’s son, Hunter.

The Last Night of Biden’s Midterm Elections: A Times of Hard Times for a Thick Political Brain and For a Hard Winning Campaign

A nation worn down by crises and economic anxiety will vote on Tuesday for an election that will likely cement its divides rather than promote unity.

Elections are often cleansing moments setting the country on a fresh path powered by people freely choosing their leaders – and those leaders accepting the results.

Polls show the economy as the most important issue for voters, who are still waiting for the restoration of normality after a once-in-a-century Pandemic that Biden had promised in 2020, as the cost of living crisis was turned on by the campaign.

There was a lot of news about job losses before the polls opened and that made people jittery about a possible slowdown that could destroy one of the Biden economy’s bright spots, historically low unemployment. Americans are already struggling with higher prices for food and gas and now have to deal with the Fed raising interest rates that could lead to a recession.

The economy would be a perfect example of a democracy working well as a result of the first term of a president. The elections have been a way for the public to express their displeasure with the country.

The run up to these mid-term elections has shown that the nation is more estranged from one another than it was before because both parties seem to think victory for the other is a sign of losing their country.

Tuesday will be a difficult day for Biden. The president did not spend the final hours of the campaign battling to get vulnerable Democrats over the line in a critical swing state. Instead, he was in the liberal bastion of Maryland – a safe haven where his low approval ratings likely won’t hurt Democrats running for office. The venue of his last event underscored his drained political juice as he contemplated a 2024 reelection campaign.

“I think it’s going to be tough,” Biden told reporters. He admitted that life would be more difficult for him if the GOP took control of Congress, as he thinks they will win the Senate.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/08/politics/midterm-fractious-political-environment-analysis/index.html

Nancy Pelosi and Ron Johnson: Fighting for the will of the people in a time of war and defeating re-election politics

Nancy Pelosi vividly remembered the moment she learned that her husband was attacked with a hammer, as she recalled the shadow of violence that has hung over American policies. She also condemned certain Republicans for joking about it.

“In our democracy, there is one party that is doubting the outcome of the election, feeding that flame, and mocking any violence that happens. Pelosi said that that has to stop.

“We will never use impeachment for political purposes,” McCarthy told CNN’s Melanie Zanona. If something is to rise to the occasion, then it would only be used at that time.

And Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, who says he’s in line to be chairman of the permanent subcommittee on investigations if he wins reelection and Republicans take the Senate, said he’d use the power granted him, in what is likely to be a very narrowly decided election, to further crank up the partisan heat in Washington.

There’s something magical about democratic elections, when differences are exposed in debates and fierce campaigns. Until now, there had been a hope that both sides would follow the will of the people.

What Do the Dems Really Want to Happen When We Don’t Need It? Rethinking the 2016 Midterm Election Campaign: An Analysis by Andrea Avlon

Editor’s Note: Frida Ghitis, (@fridaghitis) a former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist. She is a weekly opinion contributor to CNN, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post and a columnist for World Politics Review. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion on CNN.

First, there was no red wave. Predictions of a huge Republican victory at the polls did not materialize. It was a deeply disappointing election for the GOP. It was a disaster for Donald Trump, who was hoping for a Republican majority to help him get the presidential nomination in six years.

That’s because the movement spearheaded by Trump and his election deniers performed much worse than expected. Some Republican victories looked like a rebuke of the anti-democratic actions of Trump and his supporters.

Just two years ago, the party failed to pass a policy platform, instead issuing a statement of loyalty to Trump. After Trump’s election loss, party elites abandoned him, and the insurrection that followed did not bring the party with them. Instead, the majority of Republicans in the House voted to overturn the election and the vast majority of Republican voters clung to the belief that the 2020 election was stolen.

On election night, Trump told an interviewer, “I think if [Republicans] win, I should get all the credit. If they lose, I should not be blamed at all.” The evidence supports that he deserves much of the blame.

“Consider the benchmarks for success in a typical midterm election: the opposition party gains an average of 46 seats in the House when the president is below 50% approval rating, as Biden is. While the final number is still being determined, GOP House gains will be far less than that,” Avlon noted.

They may do it. Rep. Kevin McCarthy may replace Nancy Pelosi as House speaker, but even if Republicans take the House, the Democrats’ performance is little short of amazing. In the first election after 9/11, Biden presided over the best possible performance by the party in power.

The Age of J. Shapiro and the Democratic Candidates: From DeSantis to the 2020 High-Energy Voting Era

In Pennsylvania, Democrat Josh Shapiro soundly defeated Republican candidate Doug Mastriano in the gubernatorial race. Joyce M. Davis wrote about the dangers of Mastrella in the newspaper that serves Harrisburg. “He inflamed racial tensions, embraced Christian nationalism, and once said women who violated his proposed abortion ban should be charged with murder. He is an election denier on top of all that.

Herschel Walker could win the election in December. But anyone who heard him campaign or learned about his past knows he should never have been on the ballot. fame did the trick for Trump. Mehmet Oz had been endorsed by him for the Pennsylvania seat. John Fetterman was a key skill for a political candidate after he suffered a stroke.

If Trump was the big loser of the night, the biggest winner was his top rival for the nomination, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who won in a landslide, and was greeted by supporters at his victory party with chants of “Two more years!” an acknowledgement that his eyes, like Trump’s, are on the White House in 2024.

Republicans are equally enthusiastic about DeSantis, but historian Nicole Hemmer suggested there are obstacles to his potential run for president. The next few weeks will likely be the high point of his presidential ambitions. The spotlight can very quickly become the hot seat, and DeSantis is both untested as a national candidate and as a Trump adversary. Those who see an easy pivot from the era of Trump to the age of DeSantis are likely in for another wave of disappointment, both because of the particulars of DeSantis’ victory and the persistence of Trump’s power.”

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp won reelection in a repeat of his first race. Trump despises Kemp because, like other Georgia officials, he refused to overturn the 2020 vote, despite enormous pressure from the then-president.

Despite his awful showing, Trump plans to declare his candidacy soon. Most Democrats find the prospect hard to stomach, but most Republicans would also like him to just focus on his golf game. He is a threat to the party.

Now, it’s possible that while a violent insurrection could not break the base’s loyalty to Trump, an uninterrupted losing streak could. DeSantis is certainly better positioned than any other Republican in the country to challenge Trump for the nomination, especially since he has attracted broad support from Republican elites and right-wing media. Trump, however, has an exceptional track record against such odds. Which means that the dream of a DeSantis victory in 2024 may prove just as elusive and illusory as Tuesday’s red wave.

But before declaring this the dawn of DeSantis, remember: It is just as likely the next few weeks will be the high-water mark of his presidential aspirations. The spotlight can very quickly become the hot seat, and DeSantis is both untested as a national candidate and as a Trump adversary. There will be a wave of disappointment because of the particulars of DeSantis’ victory and the persistence of Trump’s power.

He has married that political style with a strongman persona. As governor, he has targeted protestors, universities, public health workers and corporations for opposing his policies. He has sent police to round up voters with felony convictions who, confused by the state’s efforts to strip their voting rights after voters reinstated them a few years ago, mistakenly voted in recent elections. He has bent the Florida legislature to his will, whipping up support for anti-gay laws, a new redistricting map and punitive legislation targeting Disney after the company criticized the state’s infamous “don’t say gay” bill.

Such actions bolstered his popularity in Florida, as did his attention to public opinion. He introduced a gas-tax holiday in the month before the election, and focused on effective hurricane relief rather than campaigning in the wake of the recent storm. As a result, he appears to have won not only traditional conservatives in the state but also made more headway with Latino voters and voters in more Democratic areas like Miami-Dade. If it was possible to have Trumpism without Trump, then that’s what it would be like for the right.

But as Sen. Marco Rubio, a one-time frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, knows, neither success in Florida nor success in theory naturally translates into national victory. Some of that is down to Florida. The electorate there has been trending more conservative in recent years, even as the country as a whole has coalesced around center-left policies (note how even many red states now vote for Medicaid expansion, abortion protections and higher minimum wage laws).

Meanwhile, unlike the national party, the Democratic Party in Florida is in tatters, struggling to field and support candidates and to organize and mobilize voters. And Florida has a specific mix of Latino voters that is unlike most other states, weighted heavily toward immigrants from Cuba and Venezuela who respond favorably to DeSantis’s attack on Democrats as socialists.

Donald Trump has an issue with fellow Florida resident. The Dump Trump crowd, though bigger at the moment than at perhaps any time since 2016, does not seem to fully understand how deep and unquestioning the cult of personality around Trump still is within parts of the party.

Pat Toomey is Getting Closer to a Bound on the Future: Opinions of the Week on CNN & Other Platforms

Republican Pat Toomey is retiring from his Pennsylvania Senate seat at the end of the term. But before he goes, he is speaking some hard truths to his party.

But as Toomey’s comments make clear, there is also a group of Republicans who view this as a now-or-never moment with Trump and the party. Either they use what happened in the midterms to push him to the side, or he remains a dominant figure and they just keep losing elections.

On his Truth Social website Friday, Trump declared that he was a Big Victory for his party, even if he was nothing but an unalloyed good.

It is clear that there is at least one part of the Republican Party that believes that and will follow Trump wherever he leads them.

The Point: Toomey can’t be congratulated too strongly for his bravery in speaking out against Trump, given that he has one foot already out the door. But his voice is part of a growing chorus of Republicans suggesting that Tuesday’s election was the final straw for Trump. Will the base voters listen?

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The Story of Silver Blaze: An Existential Issue that Drives Voter Turnout and Preference Education in a Deep Red State

In Arthur Conan Doyle’s story, “Silver Blaze,” Sherlock Holmes investigates the disappearance of a famous racehorse and the “tragic murder of its trainer.” A police inspector asks the detective, “Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”

It was only a little more than a week ago that Republicans thought they’d be savoring a crushing victory – and some Democrats were starting to blame each other for what they feared would be a disaster.

The New Yorker’s Benjamin Wallace-Wells reported November 4 that GOP campaign strategists said their candidates, including those in in competitive Senate races like Walker in Georgia and Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, were “heading for a clean sweep.” Wallace-Wells wrote, “The word that kept coming up in these conversations was ‘bloodbath.’”

People sometimes wonder what it takes to get young people to vote. After the upcoming midterms, they no longer have to guess.

We need to place an issue in front of us that could determine our future. Give us the knowledge that we can have a say about issues that affect us with our votes, and we will turn out in droves.” Hernandez and her fellow Gen Z friends saw abortion as that kind of existential issue.

Students at the University of Michigan waited for over four hours on Election Day to register to vote. There was a palpable sense of excitement and urgency around the election on campus. For many young people, especially young women, there was one motivating issue that drove their participation: abortion rights.”

There was no other age group that was as pro-Democratic as voters over the age of 45 in the exit polls.

According to a law professor, when it came to ballot initiatives, the abortion-rights side seemed to go a perfect five-for-five. “Kentucky, a deep red state, turned away an attempt to say that the state constitution did not protect a right to abortion. Montana’s abortion measure, which threatened to impose criminal penalties on health care providers, was rejected by voters in Tuesday’s referendum.”

John Avlon saw the midterms as “a repudiation of former President Donald Trump’s election lies and at least many of the top-ticket candidates who parroted them.”

“What a relief,” wrote Roxanne Jones. “It finally feels like a majority of voters want to re-center American politics away from the toxic, conspiracy theory-driven rhetoric we’ve experienced over the past several years.”

“Plenty of voters are worried about unchecked progressivism on the left, but they’re even more worried about unchecked extremism on the right,” observed Tim Alberta, in the Atlantic.

“That extremism takes many forms: delegitimizing our elections system, endorsing the January 6 assault on the Capitol, cracking jokes and spreading lies about the assault on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband. One person is embodied by all of that extremism, which so many swing voters rejected on Tuesday: Donald Trump.

Some careers were made and some were not in the election. Wes Moore, who became the first Black governor of Maryland, is a rising star, wrote Peniel Joseph. “A campaign based on championing equal opportunity, compassion for the incarcerated, education for all children, and hope in the future can not only win, but prove infectious enough to spread across the country,” observed Joseph. “Wes Moore’s victory has recaptured some of the magic that has been lost in our politics in the tumult of the past few years. Hopefully, this is just the beginning.”

For Sophia A. Nelson, “the big heartbreak of the night” was the defeat of Stacey Abrams by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp – “a repeat of her defeat to him four years ago, when the two tangled for what at the time was an open seat…”

In Texas, Democrat Beto O’Rourke lost to incumbent Republican Greg Abbott for governor. Nicole Russell wrote that after his third big loss it was time for him to stop running for office in Texas. Beto has been enough for one lifetime. His liberal policies are not welcome in Texas.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/13/opinions/five-lessons-midterms-opinion-columns-galant/index.html

The Sexiest Man Alive: Five Lessons in the Light of Putin’s Crimes in the Cold War (by Sara Stewart)

In a new sign its invasion is faltering, Russia pulled troops out of the city of Kherson, the only regional capital it captured in Ukraine since the February invasion. The architect of the war, President Vladimir Putin, may be able to retain control of his nation for a time despite the debacle, wrote Mark Galeotti. But continuing defeat on the battlefield is going to have an impact: “Whatever happens … Putin tried to establish Russia as a great power on the back of its military strength, and so did his efforts to secure alegacy as one of the nations great state-builders.

Sara Stewart noted that the actor Chris Evans had not aged well despite his award from 1985 where he was first bestowed.

This is a good time to ask about the tradition of People’s Sexiest Man Alive because it was just recently announced.

Think about how silly it is to say anyone is the Sexiest Person in the World. Sexiness, by its very nature, is subjective. People offers its own tastes as if they are everyone’s. They were tacitly saying that by making their subject male, they were not objectifying women. Men can be objects of lust as well. Maybe that was (arguably) a subversive statement in the 1980s, when Playboy, Penthouse and other magazines imposed a misogynist ideal of sexiness at the newsstands. But now? Not a lot.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/13/opinions/five-lessons-midterms-opinion-columns-galant/index.html

The Crown Revisited: Five Leptons Midterms | Column 7: The Conversation About Our Country, Our Nation, and Our Lives

The new season of The Crown depicts the relationship of the royals during the turbulent 1990s, including the divorce of Prince Charles and Princess Diana and the destruction of Windsor Castle.

The show’s storyline about Charles, King, and the Queen’s abdication caused John Major to describe the series as a barrel-load of nonsense. Dame Judi Dench also warned that the series might “blur the lines between historical accuracy and crude sensationalism” as the nation continues to mourn Queen Elizabeth II, who died two months ago.

Without the aid of a journalist, Musk will have to try to fix the social networking site. She’s had enough. “I deleted Twitter on the day Elon Musk became the platform’s new owner,” Jones wrote. “After a mostly dysfunctional 12-year relationship with Twitter that I admit brought some moments of joy, it was time to exercise my freedom of speech to say goodbye and good riddance.”

Data points about rising racism on the internet are generally reinforcing what we know to be true. Like many Black women on the site, I can testify about what it feels like to be harassed and threatened with violence. I have experienced it all. … I’m done. I’ll take my power and my voice and walk in the real world.”

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/13/opinions/five-lessons-midterms-opinion-columns-galant/index.html

Five Lessons After Bill Carter: What Happens When You Don’t Buy a Lottery, And What Would You Do With It?

Bill Carter doesn’t normally buy lottery tickets since it felt like burning a $20 bill on a barbecue grill.

“What’s interesting is how many people, like us, ignore lotteries until they soar to staggering amounts. There is a $100 million prize, but it doesn’t raise eyebrows. It seems like it is too piddling to care. Wouldn’t $100 million change most people’s lives forever?

“Really: What would we do with all that money? After helping the kids, donating, buying several homes, what else should we do? Should we build a money bin like Scrooge McDuck? (Unwise. Money can bring you some, but it isn’t liquid.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/13/opinions/five-lessons-midterms-opinion-columns-galant/index.html

The Man of Steel: Joseph Shuster and the Divorce of Lois Lane, Bethe Ansatz, and Their Relationship to Josephine Siegel

The origin story of the Man of Steel is well known. As pop culture historian Roy Schwartz noted, “In 1934, at the age of 18, (Joseph) Shuster and classmate Jerome Siegel came up with a revolutionary idea: Superman. Siegel described in his unpublished memoir that the newspaper syndicates in the US rejected him because he was too fantastic for children to relate to.

But as Schwartz wrote, Shuster had a relationship with Helen Louise Cohen, a fellow resident of Cleveland, who might have borne a resemblance to Superman’s eventual wife Lois Lane. Shuster sent sketches of Superman along with a drawing of Cohen, as well as letters written in neat script.

Ultimately, she broke it off, choosing instead to marry “a dashing officer, later awarded the Legion of Merit and eventually becoming a colonel in the Army’s 88th Infantry Division.” He would not have been qualified to serve in the military during World War II.

Schwartz said that Cohen told her sons that Shuster was too mild-mannered for her. But she kept his letters and sketches and now the family is sharing them with the world, Schwartz wrote.