We Saw It Coming ...
We Saw It Coming ...
What was considered a "red wave" ended up being a red fart. Various "mainstream" news outlets keep saying they didn't see this coming - but, we sure did
Joint Composition | Ellison & Potter
We’re still collecting our thoughts, but we’re eager to share several of them with you as the day after Election Day 2022 continues to present a very encouraging electoral landscape for Democrats. Some takeaways …
Lesson #1: More Black votes + more non-White votes = less white supremacy. That’s an ironclad formula, fam.
Lesson #2: Stop watching cable TV news outlets during elections. In fact, 2022 should be the end of cable TV news channels. While at it maybe take down all forms of paywall access to essential election night coverage as we start having a national conversation about reinvesting in community, and especially Black, Brown, Indigenous and other BIPOC-owned media.
Lesson #3: Stop relying so hard on so many faulty polls. If your gut is telling you something different from the poll, best you go with your gut
Why should this be the end of cable TV news channels (at least as we know them): Because as they keep saying nobody saw this coming, community and localized media in the trenches - like us here at theBEnote and at WURD - saw something coming. Which is why we kept urging people to work harder and see this election all the way through, down to the last and final hour.
Democrats really thrashed Republicans and muted white extremists across the political map. Let’s embrace that as something more than simply good campaigning; that’s good, honest, patriotic, truly American and essential community work that did that. It was work on the side of good against the forces of evil. Let’s, please, stop kidding ourselves into believing this is a “both sides” race. This is not. This is about protecting our homes, our communities, our neighborhoods and neighbors and our country from vile, sinister and anti-American interests who want to take all of our rights away and see many of us disappear. What’s more satisfying than to know we defeated political monsters like that?
Lesson #4: What this brother is saying …
What this brother is saying in response to it …
This all could’ve been a lot worse, but there is still a lot of damage out there to assess. But, this outcome of unexpected Democratic gains in a midterm predicted to go south for them, is what we’ve been talking about all cycle. This is the kind of fight we need to see from Democrats on a regular basis in an era fraught with challenges of this magnitude. Defying-expectations fight. Cracking-conventional wisdom fight. If more Democratic strategists and operatives had actually believed they could defy the usual midterm gloom and actually do things that seem impossible, making necessary pivots and messaging re-takes where needed, we do believe we could have done a lot better than this.
Moving forward: yes, it will hurt to lose the U.S. House. A refreshed House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) - while clearly dispirited by lax results on his side - is going to launch a cold war.
But: the wall held. Democrats do keep the Senate. We were supposed to lose everything, but we held. So while we won't see much get done, we have saved ourselves from so much oblivion, we've made gains across the nation and we sent a clear message of “f*** around, find out.” We bought ourselves two more years to regroup. Don’t waste them.