I know that we have broken hearts. I know that. I don’t minimize that.
But, I don’t have to be a cheerleader to see the positive things that happened.
Too often, we look at the big races, as if they are the be all, end all.
They are important, but so must positive happened on Tuesday, that we need to go over it.
First things first:
The Democrats won the House of Representatives.
The American Experiment will continue.
The American Safety Net is secure for the next couple of years. We will fight about in 2020,but now, no more worrying about that.
Let’s go to the state levels.
People don’t even realize the elections that will have the most direct impact on their lives.
They might not know it, but the people of Harris County Texas now have a completely Democratic judiciary.
ALL 59 spots in the judiciary went to Democrats, INCLUDING 19 BLACK WOMEN.
You don’t think that these 59 judges are going to have an impact in the largest county in Texas?
Though Florida was a heartbreaker, with Gillum, something happened that can have the serious potential for changing the landscape in Florida.
Remember, nearly one in FOUR eligible Black voters was automatically disenfranchised because of their association with the criminal justice system. Even after they had paid their debt to society, they had to go through an arcane, arbitrary and biased application system for the restoration of their voting rights, and it often didn’t happen. The passage of the referendum on Tuesday changed that, for over 1.4 million people in Florida. You think that a nice bunch of those who will now see their voting rights restored might become Democrats?
Yes, elections matter.
Then, we have the new Democratic Governors that will be there during 2020 redistricting: Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico. This matters, a great deal.
One of the most important legal positions in the state is the Attorney General – the person who SHOULD advocate for the little guy, and fight for the average consumer. It is the State Attorneys General who are leading the fight AGAINST Dolt45 and his Administration, picking up the mantle to defend for what is right. On Tuesday, we got 4 Black Attorneys General: Letitia James of New York, Kwame Raoul of Illinois, Aaron Ford of Nevada and Keith Ellison of Minnesota.
It was also a good night for Medicaid Expansion.
Three states had Medicaid expansion on the ballot and it passed in all three states.
The flipping of the Kansas Governorship to Democrat means Medicaid expansion is coming.
The election of a Democrat in Maine means that finally, the Medicaid expansion that passed by the voters will finally have a Governor that wants to fully implement it.
Nevada wanted to implement a Medicaid buy-in program that was vetoed by the previous Republican Governor. Now that the Governor is a Democrat, that will come back.
The Democratic Governor in North Carolina wants to expand Medicaid, and Tuesday’s results have now eliminated the veto-proof majorities that the Republicans used to hold, so now, Medicaid is on the table once again.
Republicans won the high profile races.
Democrats won the midterm election.
—>Ds won the US House
—>Ds vote margin bigger than Tea Party’s in 2010
—>Rs LOST 333 legislative seats
—>Rs lost 7 governorships
—>Rs lost key 2020 Midwest states in PA, WI and MI.
(h/t @NoahCRothman)
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) November 7, 2018
There is so much to unwrap. What happened in Michigan, what happened in New Mexico, Nevada, New York State, Pennsylvania.
There was good news in a lot of places.
Don’t let the Debbie Downers steal your joy.
We don’t live in the land of ponies and unicorns. There was cold, hard progress that happened on Tuesday. It’s not everything, but it’s a damn good foundation. Now, FINALLY, we are on OFFENSE, going into 2020.