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« on: November 07, 2018, 04:09:48 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 11-7-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest
Nov. 7, 2018 · https://patriotpost.us/digests/59333-mid-day-digest
THE FOUNDATION
“It behooves you, therefore, to think and act for yourself and your people. The great principles of right and wrong are legible to every reader; to pursue them requires not the aid of many counselors. The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest. Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail.” —Thomas Jefferson (1775)
https://patriotpost.us/fqd/59332-founders-quote-daily
IN TODAY’S EDITION
Republicans lost the House and yet increased their Senate control.
A Democrat House provides just the foil Trump needs.
The GOP hung on to a majority of governorships.
Daily Features: Columnists, Headlines, Memes, Cartoons, and Short Cuts.
IN BRIEF
So Much for the Blue Wave — GOP Expands Senate Majority1
Thomas Gallatin
More history was made yesterday in the era of Donald Trump. As USA Today reports2, this midterm election result “was the first time since the nation started directly electing senators in 1914 that a party has won control of the House without gaining seats in the Senate.” That’s right — not only did Democrats fail to gain in the Senate but they actually lost ground. Republicans picked up at least two seats and likely four or five; we’re still waiting for the final results in Arizona, Montana, and a special election in Mississippi, as well as Bill Nelson’s futile call for a recount in Florida. So what are the takeaways for Trump and Senate Republicans going forward?
First, any Democrat fever dreams of removing Trump from office are gone. He’s here to stay. We’ll see if Nancy Pelosi and the House Dems are foolish enough3 to follow through on their impeachment threats, as doing so would only prove to be futile.
Second, Democrats’ vile attack4 on Justice Brett Kavanaugh proved disastrous. If Sen. Jon Tester (D) loses in Montana, then every single red state Democrat who voted against Kavanaugh will have been defeated. That is about as thorough a repudiation as it gets.
Third, with the Senate now more firmly in Republican hands, Trump will have even less trouble getting Cabinet and judicial nominees confirmed. The implications for Trump’s lasting impact on the nation’s judiciary into the future are huge, including the Supreme Court with the possibility of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat coming open before 2020.
Fourth, Trump vs. Obama. Once again Barack Obama proved to be more of a liability than an asset to his party. In three of the most hotly contested races, (the governorships of Florida and Georgia, and Florida’s Senate seat) Trump and Obama essentially went head to head in stumping for their respective candidates — and in all three instances the Republican appears to have won. Tiana Lowe of the Washington Examiner notes5, “[Obama] still suffers from fatal hubris. In a campaign speech just two days before the midterm elections, for other candidates, Obama said ‘I’ 73 times, ‘me’ nine times, and ‘my’ seven times.” That sums up his narcissistic personality disorder.
Finally, whether they like it or not, Republicans are now the party of Trump. Both he and the Left insisted this election was a referendum about him, and his focus on and victory in the Senate only solidified his leadership.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/59331-so-much-for-the-blue-wave-gop-expands-senate-majority
Democrats’ House Win Provides Trump a Foil3
Nate Jackson
Get ready for subpoenas, investigations, obstruction, and maybe impeachment6 in 2019, as the one thing the underwhelming “blue wave” did manage to accomplish yesterday was flipping the House to Democrat control. Democrats needed to pick up 23 seats and they’ve gained at least 27. For perspective, however, Bill Clinton lost 52 House seats in 1994 and Barack Obama lost 63 House seats in 2010. By comparison then, 2018 GOP losses are what former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer called “in line with the historical average” and what Demo cheerleaders in the Leftmedia consider a “heartbreaking” disappointment.
In fact, despite not being on the ballot and his party losing the House, President Donald Trump might be the night’s biggest winner. Yes, likely incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to push7 legislation antithetical to the Trump agenda — new gun laws, Demo-friendly changes to ObamaCare, expanded special protections for “LGBTQ” Americans, and legal status for “Dreamers” and no border wall — but those bills will die in the Senate, while Trump will find a willing partner for his desired infrastructure spending.
Most importantly, however, Trump does best when he has a “foil” — an enemy to run against. The #Resistance House Democrats, suffering as they do with Trump Derangement Syndrome8, will fill that role perfectly. Pelosi even mused recently that “subpoena power is interesting … in terms of negotiating other subjects.” She claimed Tuesday night that the midterms were about “restoring the Constitution’s checks and balances on the Trump administration,” as well as that the House’s job will be “stopping the [Senate] GOP.”
Trump didn’t wait to fire back, declaring this morning, “If the Democrats think they are going to waste Taxpayer Money investigating us at the House level, then we will likewise be forced to consider investigating them for all of the leaks of Classified Information, and much else, at the Senate level. Two can play that game!”
That Trump did so little to shore up GOP prospects in the House lends credence to the idea that he’s setting up just the foil he needs for reelection.
Notably, women favored Democrats by 19 points. Democrats were strong in the suburbs with more moderate candidates, though the leadership is still moving ever more to the extreme left. And Democrat Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may remain the “new face9” of the party after her landslide win. Thus, the Demo majority may be difficult to maintain in 2020 — if the GOP narrows the gap with women.
Footnote: One Leftmedia list of “first” female House victors excluded Young Kim, the first Korean-American woman elected to Congress. Why? She’s a Republican.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/59330-democrats-house-win-provides-trump-a-foil
Republicans Maintain Majority of Governorships10
Nate Jackson
All told, Tuesday featured 36 gubernatorial contests across the nation. All but a handful were relatively perfunctory affairs. It was the exceptions that are of particular interest, as is the fact that Democrats netted an overall pickup of at least seven governorships. Still not bad considering that Republicans were defending 26 of 36 posts.
In perhaps the most-watched race in the country, Democrat Socialist Andrew Gillum lost to Republican Ron DeSantis. Florida is a critical bellwether state, and DeSantis’s victory — combined with outgoing Republican Gov. Rick Scott’s win over incumbent Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson — is a welcome sign. And yet there’s a cloud. Also on Tuesday, Florida restored voting rights to 1.5 million felons, who vote overwhelmingly Democrat. Donald Trump won Florida in 2016 by a little over 100,000 votes.
Neighboring Georgia remains uncalled, as Democrat Socialist Stacey Abrams refuses to concede until “every vote gets counted,” but as we go to press, Republican Brian Kemp leads by nearly 100,000 votes out of almost four million cast. Two factors are at play in the race remaining uncalled. First, Georgia law requires the winner to exceed 50%, which Kemp currently does at 50.5%. Abrams is hoping that absentee and provisional ballots will pull Kemp under that 50% threshold and put the two in a December runoff. Second, and maybe more to the point, Abrams’s entire campaign was built on painting Kemp as a racist vote suppressor. As executive director of the New Georgia Project, she worked to flood Secretary of State Kemp’s office with voter registrations and then insisted he was racist11 for working to weed out the fraudulent ones. She’s dedicated to keeping that message going.
Notably, Barack Obama hit the trail for both Gillum and Abrams and appears to have come up empty.
Other notable races include Scott Walker’s defeat in Wisconsin. He won two terms and a recall, but he couldn’t keep the streak alive in a state that isn’t as red as Republicans once hoped. Likewise, Kansas turned blue, as incumbent Republican Kris Kobach couldn’t overcome the negative baggage of Sam Brownback’s administration, and Illinois ousted the worst Republican in the country, Bruce Rauner, opting for unified Democrat control under governor-elect J. B. Pritzker. Yet in the Northeast, Republicans held on in Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont, meaning they still hold four of 10 governorships in the region. And Republican Mike Dunleavy flipped Alaska, even after the incumbent independent dropped out and endorsed Democrat Mark Begich.
Much of the nation’s economic progress depends on state administrations, and Republicans will still control a majority of governorships.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/59329-republicans-maintain-majority-of-governorships |
