Election Results

[Bob Schroeck]

...So, in the NY/NJ area at least, virtually all Democratic candidates won over Republicans.  I also saw that the Virginia governor's race -- which is apparently an important bellwether, and for which Trump did last-minute campaigning -- went to the Democratic candidate, too.  I haven't checked the national news yet this morning to see if this was an overall trend, or just local, but still, anyone want to bet on how quickly the first tweets about voter fraud are going to come from the White House?

[hazard]

You mean those tweets didn't go out while voting was still ongoing?

Someone is really earning their salaries keeping the idiot device from the idiot.

Then again, Trump's not at the White House and presumably kept busy with meetings and PR stuff, so not a lot of opportunity to keep up with the news or tweet. I'd say by early evening or morning in whatever place he's visiting now.

[robkelk]

Which is China, where even he knows (or should know) about being on his best behaviour.

Can one even get a Twitter feed in China?

[DHBirr]

He did get out at least one tweet saying losing was Gillespie's fault because he didn't "embrace" Trump.  (Does his base know he wants men to embrace him?  I thought they objected to that....  <unconvincingly "innocent" smirk>)

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I'm a very forgiving person ... on Lord Vader's terms.  "Apology accepted, Captain."

[Bob Schroeck]

Checking the national news now -- several different outlets, all parts of the political spectrum and that aren't drinking the Trumpade, are calling this a massive Democratic surge.  The Washington Post called it "the best day for Democrats politically since Barack Obama won reelection in 2012" and added "The results across the country represent nothing less than a stinging repudiation of Trump on the first anniversary of his election."

Even members of the GOP are acknowledging this.  Rep. Scott Taylor from Virginia said: 

“I don't know how you get around that this wasn't a referendum on the administration, I just don't."  

John Weaver, an aide to Ohio Gov. John Kasich, had a really wonderful analogy in a tweet he sent out:  

"I'm not gleeful about GOP losing elections. But if you have gangrene in your leg (Trump), chop the sucker off. But 2018 is looming & that is a big chop. #WakeUpGOP." 

He also tweeted:

Another thing GOP candidates: to thine own self be true. Don't go down the path of these nationalist loons and lose both the election & your honor. #TwoPaths

And it looks like just about everywhere positions and offices that have long been safely Republican, sometimes for decades, have gone to Democrats.  And preserving Obamacare seems to have been a motivating issue behind the voter turnout.

Even more interesting, first-time unknown Democratic candidates have unseated well-established Republicans everywhere I've looked so far. Downballot in Virginia, at least 11. Here in NJ, a Republican asshole who reposted a meme about a women's march ending in time for its participants "to get home and make dinner", got bounced out of his seat by a woman who was upset by that and decided out of the blue to run against him. Nonwhite candidates have also been ousting white incumbents everywhere. Hoboken got a Sikh mayor. Seattle just elected an openly lesbian mayor who's also the first woman elected to that position since the 1920s. St. Paul got its first black mayor. Minneapolis got its first transgender council member. The new Lieutenant Governor of Virginia is the first black person elected to a state office in decades.

“This is a tidal wave. It’s hard to … conclude anything other than that Democrats are the current favorite for control of the House in 2018," says David Wasserman, who tracks U.S. House races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

Can one even get a Twitter feed in China?

White House: Trump intends to tweet in China even though Twitter is banned

[Bob Schroeck]

Oh, and this is cool:

Democrat Danica Roem defeated Republican incumbent Robert G. Marshall on Nov. 7 and became Virginia’s first openly transgender elected official.  Marshall is called "Virginia's most socially conservative state lawmaker" by the WaPo, and has actually called himself "Virginia's chief homophobe".

[hazard]

Also, apparently, the first metal band vocalist in Virginia's House of Delegates. She's part of the Cab Ride Home band, apparently.

(Yey Wikipedia).

I'm surprised she succeeded, to be honest, especially in a district that was apparently so strongly homophobic/opposed to the idea that gender and sexuality aren't a simple binary and single option matters that the incumbent profiled himself as Virginia's chief homophobe.

[Bob Schroeck]

At least one analyst has warned that this wasn't so much a pro-progressive/pro-Democratic groundswell so much as an anti-Trump/anti-Republican one. And that for a lot of voters registering their disaffection with the incumbent GOP was far more important than anything else.

[hazard]

Good point.

A really good question would be the results after Robert Mueller completes his investigation. It seems likely that Trump, or at minimum most of his immediate support staff, will be removed from office. Hopefully this will also excise a lot of the Republicans that supported him (there's some interesting things going on there looking from a distance when it comes to the Republican Party's internal politics and connections), but if it doesn't and the current course is continued... Well, if the US public is smart they kick those guys out of office.

I hope that the Democrats manage to lock the loyalties of those new voters down. It'd be hardly perfect, but currently the Democratic Party seems better than the Republican one when it comes to the interest of the American people.

[Bob Schroeck]

Here's an interesting article from The New York Times on the election results.

[Bob Schroeck]

... this one from veteran GOP strategist Mike Murphy:

"Donald Trump is an anchor for the GOP. We got that message in loud volume in Virginia. The canary in the coal mine didn’t just pass out; its head exploded."

[hazard]

He has a way with words, that man.

[Black Aeronaut]

Well shit. Maybe I oughta run for office. God only knows what'll happen.