Shards from the embattled republic: post-midterm election edition

Eventually I may have the strength to share my own, experiential, musings about the election past, but for the moment here are some tidbits I find interesting:

Joyce Vance, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 2009 to 2017 and TV talking head:

We did this. We lived through all of it together, found ways to help, supported each other, and we voted. We ignored the polls that told us we would lose and voted anyhow. No matter how this turns out, we fought for this country. Apparently, a lot of us still think it’s worth fighting for. That’s a good thing, because we’ve still got a lot of work ahead of us! But we’ve seen proof tonight that we can get there if we all work on it. ...We’re in this together...

Walter Shapiro, seasoned political observer and reporter:

A major lesson from 2022: Fundamentals such as historical precedents and presidential approval ratings don’t turn out to be very fundamental after a pandemic, an insurrection, and a runaway Supreme Court overturns abortion rights. The election also reminds Democrats and those of us in the press that it is time to go back to trusting the American people. ... Maybe that isn’t enough to break out the champagne, especially if the Democrats lose the House ... . But it is certainly a powerful reason for liberals to climb down from the window ledge and realize that the future does not automatically belong to Trump and his MAGA minions.

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Field Negro, blogger extraordinaire:

Maybe some of you really do care about democracy.  And maybe, just maybe, you realize that paying a little more for gas --and the food you buy-- is not quite as serious as having your  freedom taken away. 

Now comes the fun part. The right-wingnuts will start to turn on each other, as we all know that the malevolent narcissist living in South Florida had his ego seriously bruised. He has started already. He is now threatening to take his cult and their red hats and totally abandon the republican party.

I, for one, do not feel sorry for the republican establishment. This is what happens when you make a Faustian bargain; at some point you are sure to get burned.

Jamelle Bouie, the New York Times' resident explorer of the patterns of the American past:

I think we are in for another round — or two or three or four — of close, hard-fought elections cycles with no decisive victory or defeat for either party. But something will come; something — whether economic or environmental or constitutional — will shock the system and give one coalition or the other the chance to expand and attempt to win hegemony over the political system.

The question in my mind is which forces in this country are best organized, either for good or ill, to take advantage when that something eventually hits.

Robert P. Jones documents increasing support for legal abortion, even among Republicans:

PRRI’s pre-election American Values Survey and the national exit polls reveal that nearly seven in ten Americans and six in ten midterm voters say abortion should be legal in all or most cases. That is the mainstream view on abortion.

Only about 1 in 10 Americans and midterm voters believe that abortion should be illegal in ALL cases. Most notably, support for complete bans on abortion has fallen dramatically, even among Republicans and white evangelical Protestants...

Dan Pfeiffer, Democratic communications guy:

Going forward, we need to look at electoral outcomes through the prism of MAGA extremism as much as the economy. In the nation and in the key battleground states, there is a pro-democracy, anti-truth majority that will turn out when their freedoms are on the ballot. That is the coalition that won in 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2022.

The 2016 election changed things more than we thought. The repeal of Roe v. Wade, the Big Lie and the violence of January 6th engrained the dangers of MAGA extremism into the American political consciousness. ...

There will be so much more ... but for now I need sleep ...