As more data from the midterm election results comes in, we can now see that abortion was the key issue for many of the voters who turned what might have been a GOP “red wave” into more or less a “hold” for the Democrats.
So it may be helpful to look back on how this happened. The effort by recent Republican presidents to stack the Supreme Court with ideological extremists, rather than jurisprudence experts, backfired when the court struck down protections for abortion a few months before the election.
Until that decision, the expectations on all sides was for a massive GOP win in November. But people all over the political spectrum reacted negatively to the court’s ruling, and that changed everything.
The earliest indication something was afoot politically was the overwhelming defeat of a state initiative to ban abortion in Kansas, one of the reddest of red states.
What is clear now is that a solid majority of Americans not only want to protect a woman’s right to choose, they also hold Republicans accountable for threatening that right.
In that sense, they don’t wish to turn back the clock and they said so loud and clear last Tuesday.
Many legal analysts believe that other rights, such as same-sex marriage, may be at risk if the legal reasoning applied in the abortion ruling is expanded to other cases pending before the court, and some Republicans have said as much.
Accordingly, the credibility of the Supreme Court, though not on the ballot directly, clearly was delivered a body blow on November 8th.
As a consequence, conservatives may wish to hesitate before electing more candidates who would appoint judges intent on rolling back the rights most Americans now take for granted. This may be a new twist on the American revolutionary tradition of “Don’t Tread on Me.” That revolutionary-war-era phrase may have been misappropriated by reactionaries in recent times, but mainstream Americans are now reclaiming it, as Tuesday’s results confirmed.
NEWSLINKS:
How abortion rights swayed results in the midterm election (PBS)
How abortion rights advocates won every ballot measure this year (Vox)
Why Direct Democracy Is Proving So Powerful for Protecting Abortion Rights (Atlantic)
‘My Main, Core Issue’: Abortion Was the Driving Force for Many Voters (NYT)
In election, support for abortion rights was about much more (AP)
US midterm elections 2022: focus on Nevada after Democrat Mark Kelly wins key Senate seat (Guardian)
Democrats increasingly optimistic about holding the Senate (WP)
Is the GOP's Underwhelming Midterm Election Performance Donald Trump's Fault? (WSJ)
Biden Is No Sure Thing for 2024. What About Buttigieg? Harris? Even Whitmer? (NYT)
Biden, turning 80, faces renewed age questions as he weighs reelection (WP)
Did Democrats just have the best midterms by a president’s party in years? (Guardian)
After Months of Stubborn Inflation, Glimmers of Hope Emerge (NYT)
Joe Biden defends US climate action at Cop27 (Independent)
The world may have only nine years to prevent catastrophic warming. Nations will probably burn through their remaining carbon budget in under a decade, unless emissions are drastically cut, a new study found. (WP)
Judge scorches and sanctions Trump lawyers for lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and Democrats (CNN)
Even before the contest in Georgia between Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger Herschel Walker headed for a December 6 runoff, a staggering $262 million had already been spent on the race. Now, political analysts expect the campaigns to unleash an advertising blitz and boost spending to levels approaching the historic runoffs in Georgia two years ago. (Reuters)
Twitter pauses paid sign-ups as fake accounts spread online (WP)
Two Weeks of Chaos: Inside Elon Musk’s Takeover of Twitter (NYT)
Twitter’s content moderation head quits as multiple departures alarm the FTC (WP)
Nearly two weeks into Elon Musk's era of owning Twitter, the chaos hasn't abated. With fake accounts running wild and advertisers flying the coop, here's a recap of where we're at now. [HuffPost]
Twitter Blue signups unavailable after raft of fake accounts (AP)
Twitter's new owner Elon Musk raised the possibility of the social media platform going bankrupt, capping a chaotic day that included a warning from a U.S. privacy regulator and the exit of the company's trust and safety leader. In his first company-wide email, Musk warned that Twitter would not be able to "survive the upcoming economic downturn" if it fails to boost subscription revenue. (Reuters)
Crime and terrorism thriving again in Afghanistan amid economic ruin, warns Kőrösi (UN)
Taliban, Governance: Order and Justice under Afghanistan’s New Powerholders (PRIO)
Top U.S. General Urges Diplomacy in Ukraine While Biden Advisers Resist (NYT)
Alex Jones was ordered to pay $473 million more to Sandy Hook families. The conspiracy theorist and Infowars founder has been sued repeatedly for claiming the 2012 Connecticut school shooting, which left 26 people dead, was a hoax. (WP)
New omicron subvariants now dominant in the U.S., raising fears of a winter surge (NPR)
VIDEO: Watch NASA’s Test of a Flying Saucer-Like Device (NYT)
It turns out that chimpanzees and gorillas can form lasting friendships (NPR)
Man Who Lost Everything In Crypto Just Wishes Several Thousand More People Had Warned Him (The Onion)
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