Be Careful What You Wish For

 Be Careful What You Wish For

 

Hard right GOP folks worked for years to get a Supreme Court that would overrule Roe v. Wade and interpret the Second Amendment differently than it had been for a century. They finally got what they wanted only to discover that most Americans did not want either result. What they ended up with is a whole lot of angry voters ready to turn them out of office whenever the opportunity arises. 

 

Democrats have hitched their wagon to reproductive health care unencumbered by governmental interference and common-sense gun law reforms and are finding success at the polls despite low approval ratings for President Biden.

 

The elections in key states on Tuesday showed that voters, especially women voters, have had enough from the hard right. 

 

Ohio voters approved an amendment to their state constitution protecting reproductive healthcare, including contraception and abortion, in the face of determined GOP obstruction and misinformation. First, the GOP controlled legislature tried to make amending their constitution more difficult. The voters said no. Next, the legislature and GOP leaders waged a mean-spirited misinformation campaign spreading lies about what the proposed amendment meant. Finally, GOP operatives dropped 26,000 voters from the rolls to try to defeat the measure. The voters saw through it all and voted to pass it anyway. Former Senator Rick Santorum took to the airways on Wednesday claiming that this exercise in “pure democracy” should be prohibited. Not surprisingly, he no longer holds public office and just comments on Fox News. 

 

Voters in Virginia rejected calls from their GOP Governor, Glenn Youngkin, to give him GOP majorities in both houses of the legislature so he could pass a 15-week abortion ban. Instead, voters returned Democratic pro-abortion and pro-gun control majorities to both houses to make sure Youngkin’s agenda never sees the light of day and causing him to drop his planned run for President.

 

Voters in Pennsylvania elected a liberal judge to their Supreme Court. He ran on an openly pro-reproductive healthcare platform and soundly defeated his MAGA endorsed opponent. 

 

Everytown For Gun Safety notes that 162 members of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America ran for office in this cycle and a majority won. 

 

Today’s GOP is sadly way out of step with American voters on these issues. Now that eight states have passed state constitutional amendments protecting reproductive healthcare, the handwriting is on the wall. Clinging to these issues will certainly hurt them next November.

 

To make matters worse for the GOP looking forward to the 2024 elections, voters are embracing other issues they don’t like and rejecting issues they put forward. 

 

Ohio voters also enacted marijuana legalization in Tuesday’s election despite GOP opposition and efforts to kill the measure. It is interesting to note that more people voted for marijuana legalization in Ohio on Tuesday than voted to support reproductive healthcare.  

 

The extreme hate group Moms for Liberty, often praised by the former president, saw school board election results reject banning books on LBGTQI and racism issues in Pennsylvania, Iowa, Virginia, and Minnesota. 

 

Voters in Virginia elected Danica Roem who is openly transgender to their state Senate. She is the first trans person elected to state office anywhere in the South. She was opposed by a former police detective supported by Gov. Youngkin who openly supports banning transgender athletes from competing on sports teams. 

 

Other states saw Democratic victories in local races as well. Democratic Socialists won several seats on city councils in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. Voters in Philadelphia elected a Black woman as their next Mayor. 

 

All these electoral trends spell trouble for the GOP in the foreseeable future unless they find more popular issues and candidates who are willing and able to govern instead of just breaking things that work.

 

Getting what you wish for sometimes comes back to bite.