As far as I’m concerned, having Nancy Pelosi as House speaker, and still having to listen to Brian Fitzpatrick say “bipartisan” every other word is a double whammy. But I expected it. He basically ran as a Democrat with an R after his name who wasn’t insane, which contrasted him with the real Democrat who was.
Anyways, I’m not particularly happy or unhappy with the results. Cocaine Mitch will get to pack the federal judiciary with more constitutionalist judges for the foreseeable future which we’ll need if we are to secure the Second Amendment through the courts.
I am very happy to hear from Miguel: “Now, if I am not mistaken, all NRA-endorsed candidates for Executive positions won (we are using the NRA as guide to see who is pro-gun only) and that tells us Gun Rights is not a dead of an issue as they tried to sell, although they almost pulled it.” This was a really important election to win in Florida. They cannot be allowed to push Florida into the anti-gun column, like they have successfully done with Washington. Ballot measures will tend to go to whoever spends the most money, and unfortunately we cannot compete with Bloomberg on ballot fights in a state as blue as Washington.
Glenn Reynolds has some good commentary on the “purple puddle.” Also, from The Hill, “The blue wave ran into Trump’s red wall.“
I can’t tell you how much I love that “Cocaine Mitch” is actually a bit of a term of endearment. I know that it’s probably wise to let it go at some point, but it’s just so incredibly funny.
Ohio had a State-Wide Red Tsunami last night. I am beyond…..Freaking…..Happy….that Mike DeWine, whom was outspent by Richard Jon Corzine Cordray by an almost 3-1 margin (OH GOP overall was outspent by that margin against the Dems), beat him out, alongside the OH GOP sweeping the other Statewide offices, and retaining a 3/4th State Senate and almost 2/3rd majority State House Status, it is likely safe to say that Ohio is no longer a ‘swing-state”, but now a Red State.
Very pleased for you guys in PA about last night as well, seeing that the PA GOP retained both Chambers of the PA State Legislature to keep Tom Jim Florio Wolf in check.
Also, Constitutional Carry is coming to the Buckeye State. And put Iowa in the Red State column too. (Apologize for the rapid posts).
Hopefully, Ohio going to the Red Column gives Trump the ability to make (albeit) longshots at Virginia and Colorado in 2020, potentially locking up Florida as well, and certainly focus on winning Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota in 2020. I think Michigan and Wisconsin are going to be the political bellwethers of 2020, just as Ohio and Florida were in 2008 and 2012.
Nevada, unfortunately seems to have been Californicated as the State. Save for Republican Mark Amondei, Nevada is as of January 2019, run by nothing but Democrats. Same thing unfortunately for New Mexico and Colorado. Very sad what kind of gun bans are coming Nevada’s, New Mexico’s, and Colorado’s way next year. Same for Oregon and Washington, and I am very concerned for Maine, Illinois, and Delaware too.
NRA endorsed Laxalt here in NV and he lost. Previous R gov wrecked the party
Brian Sandoval is a part of that Establishment/Bush Wing of the GOP that needs to go the way of the Dodo Bird…..same thing with John Kasich who was doing everything he could the past 6 months to throw Ohio to the Democrats to spite Trump.
Of course keeping the House would have been great- but the midterms pretty much matched the history average. Having 30+ Republican retirements, plus some dumb candidates, didn’t help. But the Dems are going to play to their insane base, and the House could easily flip back in 2020.
Increasing the margin in the Senate is a big deal. As you said, we’ll need the courts to start protecting the 2A, since we are so divided as a country. Stacking the lower courts is extremely important, given SCOTUS’s desire to ignore it. If Trump can win in 2020, that’ll probably change, since the Senate will be in GOP hands til 2023 at least.
Overall, it could have been a lot worse.
I heard felon voting will now be a thing in FL. That doesn’t bode well for Trump.
Unfortunately the Blue states are poised to get a lot, lot worse. I honestly fear for the upcoming legislative session here in Delaware. We were damn lucky to partially fight off the anti-gunners and bloomberg’s influence last year, and that honestly surprised me.
The Dems now have their majority in the Senate, and with a solidly blue House gone more blue (and Deborah Hudson (R) going full on in support of Mom’s Demand) It doesn’t seem we have any effective way to stop whatever they decide to try and ram through. The Dems don’t care about the people, and they’ll ignore our protestations and screw us, knowing they’ll be safe. I hope there’s a way we can fend off becoming New Jersey, but I don’t see it right now.
Oregon is also definitely in a bad spot. Brown retained the governor’s seat, and now the Democrats have a super-majority in the state senate.
California North, here we come.
Washington State is gonna be rough, as well. I-1639 isn’t necessarily going to kill gun culture in the state, but between it and the previous background check law, it’s. Worse, the same margin remained as I-593’s, despite how badly I-593 was formed and how little it’s been enforced.
I’ve given this a bit of thought over the last couple of days, and I think it’s a mistake to say that Americans love ourselves some gridlock based on the outcome of elections like this.
I only voted for 1/435th of the House this election. I also only voted for 1/100th of the Senate. Other than through donations and voicing my opinion, I have no influence over the remaining 434/435ths of the House or 99/100ths of the Senate.
If I had my way, the House would be at least 55% non-crazy Libertarian, the Senate would have 62 non-crazy Libertarian Senators, and the President and Vice President would be non-crazy Libertarian too. The remainder would be Republican, so that we’d have some push-back to keep the Libertarians from getting too crazy. (After all, the natural State of Libertarian seems to tend to crazy — but then, that may be in part because they are out of power, and have almost no hope of getting into power.)
I’m sure that each and every voter would have similar sentiments, but with different Party affiliations and/or wacky policy preferences.
The fact is, there’s no such thing as “the will of the people” — there isn’t a single true will that is shared by everyone, nor is there any true way for any leader or pundit to be able to measure what that fictional will is, even if such a beast exists.