Behind the huddle of blue sweat-shirted teachers grouped round a makeshift microphone where Democrat contender Robert Zimmerman is giving a fiery speech, were another group of teachers, or ex-teachers, trying to drown it out.
“The D in Democrat is for ‘done’! We get it done. We got the infrastructure act passed, we got the reduce inflation act passed, and we saved millions of jobs,” said Zimmerman to cheers. “Until you fired them!” the ex-teachers shot back. They were vaccine refuseniks, blaming the union for failing to defend them when a New York City vaccine mandate came in.
The teachers were in blue “Hochhul for governor” sweatshirts, and cheered and applauded the half dozen speakers with discipline and enthusiasm. The protesters were ragged and a little shabby in “We the people” T-shirts, MAGA red, wrap-around shades, and that essential accessory of such forces, the sun visor. They had a zombie army energy to them, too many badges, signs too weird and hand-coloured. Lose a teaching job in NY, and you’ve been cast into the plaguelands a little.
We were outside a school in Bayside, a bougie burb that really marks the start of Long Island, that vast sprawl. Technically it’s in Queens, but a long way from the streets of row houses, overhead rail and 100-nation neighbourhoods that give Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez her base. This is New York’s 3rd district, Democrat with a retiring member, and Zimmerman, neat grey hair, grey tie, grey suit, like an ’80s indie rocker, a stalwart for the LGBTQIA+ community is the Dems candidate to keep it. He’s on a 3% polling margin, which is not great for a Democrat in New York City, and a measure of how tough the challenge is, especially since, someone notes, the Republican candidate is “crazy”.
This was one of the last stops in a fortnight-long teachers union get-out-the-vote drive across the country, although the bus itself wasn’t here, “snarled in traffic”, and the principals had gone on ahead. The protesters were having great fun with that. “Hey, where’s your bus?” “Zeldin [Republican governor candidate] got 7000 last night! Waddaya got, 30?”
This is New York politics old skool, even in the burbs, where you have half a dozen speakers — councilman, assemblyman, congressional rep, union rep, then round again, five minute speeches saying the same thing in eight different ways: Joe Biden and the Dems did a good job, got a lot of stuff through, it’s not being recognised, go out and get the vote.
The furious energy of an American election can be appreciated when you remember that it’s all happening at once. This is an election for federal and state assemblies, for state governor, for local councils, for judges and weird offices like “supervisor” all at once. It’s a vast pile-on. The competition is huge, the best get chosen, and so the performances are Broadway quality.
The protesters shouted, the speakers baited — “It’s great you can be so loud in the attempt to drown out free speech” — and the PA gave the teachers union the edge, until union head Randi Weingarten, a small feisty woman, took the call, and the microphone died on her. The protesters guffawed, a manic edge in their baiting now, somewhere between red cordial and Kool-Aid. “You’re not going to be speaking at all come Wednesday!” which sounded menacing. They drowned her out, and so the unionists took up the call, bellowing out “Randi! Randi!” as the protesters yelled “You fired us! Fire yourself!” and passing cars honked their horns, for which side it was impossible to tell, and it carried on like this until the police came. The unionists stayed in formation, but a small crowd of their supporters started arguing with the protesters, their broad Queens accents taking to wing. “Waaaadaya gonna dooo, you gonna subhort the pebble who believe in democracy or the anni-seemytes?” “Oh so if I’m anti forced vaccination I’m pro-Trump? Orange man bad is that it?” “Do you support Trump?” “I sure do, but…”
“You’re a Democrat,” I said to one supporter, a man in a neat clipped moustache, David Axelrod lookalike. Asking if you’re a Democrat in Queens proper is like asking if someone is mammalian. “How do you think they’re going?” “Well,” he said carefully, “I’m an optimist at heart. I think we’ll get both houses.” “Oh come on, man,” I said, echoing Biden. “You don’t. No one does.” “Well I’m an optimist …”
Party line stuff, fair enough here, but there is among Democrat and progressive circles an unmistakeable atmosphere of apprehension that is universal, but not much discussed. There’s optimism too, the optimism of the heart. But it’s the optimism that things won’t be as bad as they’re looking. But such optimism involves a fair degree of triage.
No one who’s not in the propaganda business believes the Democrats can hold the house, with their current five-seat majority in a 435-seat chamber. They will lose that many seats in two states, like PA or NY. Those in the know will be overjoyed to hold the Republicans below a 20-seat majority, and happy enough getting it under 25. They are fighting on every front they once considered rock solid, seats in Rhode Island and Connecticut, the suburbs of Philadelphia, California seats, the works.
The reason is, well everything. The sense that the Democrats have been laggard on the economy, while being preoccupied with social issues, is pervasive, and hits every Democrat. Those social issues include the right to an abortion and the survival of democracy, but that cuts no ice with many. Biden was ready to go with the inflation reduction act a year ago. Passed then, it would have had an effect they could brag about. Now, those out stumping can only say lamely that its effects are coming, and they’ll be great! Centrists blame progressives for holding out for a more transformative package, and loading equal opportunity and other measures in. The left blame nominal Democrat Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema for holding it up for months. It’s both and it’s doomed the Dems in the House. They appear to care only about abortion and abstract democracy, the worst possible look.
But it’s the fact that so many Democrats are struggling in the Senate against some pretty freaky candidates that is really giving people the wobbles.
There are contests such as Nevada, where a slick Vegas type, Paul Laxalt, is running for the Republicans, that were always going to be close. Pennsylvania, where the Democrats are trying to win a seat back from the Republicans, was always going to be tough, and still might prove successful. In Arizona, MAGA extremist Blake Masters has benefited from the huge campaign by governor candidate, election-denier, and Trump in high-heel cowboy boots, Kari Lake.
But it’s four Senate races which Democrats hadn’t previously worried about, and which are now line ball, that has Democrats on edge. In New Hampshire, fixture Senator Maggie Hassan was supposed to have no trouble against Don Bolduc, a MAGA election-denier and the latest person to spruik the global “schoolkids identifying as cats” urban myth, until admitting on national TV that he had no proof of the accusation — but not before he had suggested that schools were now “hiding” the evidence.
In Washington, where Democratic Seattle has sufficient weight to heavily offset the state’s Republican rural areas, six-term Senator Patty Murray should be in no danger from military mama bear Tiffany Smiley, but it’s now in the toss-up category. In Ohio, author JD Vance was always going to be the terrible bogus candidate he turned out to be, but he is still running ahead of Tim Ryan, a working-class Democrat who has gone out of his way to distance himself from “woke”, and relentlessly push an economic message.
And in Georgia, the Republican candidate, former football star Herschel Walker, a man who has admitted to holding a gun to a woman’s head, accused of bullying two women into abortions, who has held up a toy shop police badge to show his law and order credentials in a debate, and has spoken of China taking “all the good air” as a reason for high American emissions, will hold his Democrat opponent Senator Raphael Warnock below a majority and force a run-off election.
How was it that Democrats didn’t see this coming? The campaign they’ve run is pretty much like the political failures of Barack Obama around 2009-10, when the Democrats lost their filibuster-proof 60-seat majority in the Senate when the special election to replace the late Ted Kennedy in Massachusetts saw the defeat of a complacent time-serving “my turn” Democrat candidate by a former male nude model who ran a small delivery business, and campaigned in his truck. Not learning from that, they went into the 2010 midterms having failed to sell their policies, to adjust their haughty policy discourse, and to understand the appeal and energy of the Tea Party.
Donald Trump should have taught them something, and maybe he did, and then maybe the defeat of him untaught it.
There are so many possible bad outcomes for Democrats that it’s tough to cover them all. In Wisconsin, the vote is on gerrymandered maps, and may give Republicans a permanent majority despite having minority support, and a chance to permanently set the state Supreme Court as wholly right wing. In Kentucky, the anti-abortion amendment two measure is accompanied by amendment one, which would strip the governor — a Democrat — of power and give it to the legislature, which is MAGA.
In New York, the Republican governor candidate Lee Zeldin is generating an enthusiasm that the Democrats can’t match around the charge that incumbent Kathy Hochul is responsible for a spike in crime through implementing Black Lives Matters preferred policies regarding looser bail provisions and the like. Trouble is here and elsewhere it may be true, and failing to repudiate such measures — as Ryan has — leaves candidates exposed. In California, where Democrats dominate, Steve Bannon and others have organised a drive for Republicans to get elected to school boards, coming in under the radar. There are a dozen more such disastrous situations waiting to unfold.
“Well, I’m an optimist, but… you know I’m a Democrat, but that doesn’t mean I agree with everything they do,” Dave the moustachioed accountant said. Behind us, arguments between the protesters had broken out after a young man in black with a sign saying “Viruses Don’t Exist” had turned up. The Christian anti-vaxxers believe they do, and that the body can defeat them with God’s will, and natural supplements advertised on FOX News, and the dude had a beyond sinister vibe. “The body has a way of dealing with it…” the refrain of the right throughout.
There is no contradiction in life, no gap between ought and is, no invidious choices to be made. The publisher of Harper’s Magazine, John D McArthur, long and lanky and in a brahmin whitish-tan suit, was talking to them, reporter’s pad in palm, writing down their crazy in a looping longhand. He’d had the same idea I had: that this was where you would meet the absolute central Democrat of old, the educated worker, who would nevertheless not be thought of as progressive in our terms.
He’d got stuck talking to people who believed there were quarantine camps under the state government building in Albany (mind you, it is strange).
“I mean I disagree with a whole lot of stuff, most of it actually,” Dave went on, cocking his head to one side. Jesus. Was I actually talking this guy out of his vote? “I mean the cancel culture stuff. I think people are really sick of that… The other side cancels people too, but they don’t get grief for it. But I don’t like it.”
The truth is, no one seems to. I haven’t met a single Democrat on this trip who thinks that everything is fine and dandy, that the settings are right. That is partly out of choosing events like this, where an older, suburban, or Midwest, or flyover or whatever sort of crowd gathers. Even so, it does suggest there’s a lot of people at the centre of the party who are progressive through and through, believed that social and cultural issues would create far more enthusiasm, and have been terribly, terribly wrong, and wrong because their perception is skewed, from being cut off in Progresso World.
We are going to find out soon, but the revelation that Democrats got the electorate wrong may occur as the means of its abolition are elected. Who will lead change in the Democrats if that’s the case? Could the unions do it? I feel an apprehension myself about the vote, because actually I don’t think anyone can, the numbers involved are too large, and the process has taken on an autonomous quality. I can’t even feel a touch of schadenfreude against progressives.
And with Donald Trump having all but announced his 2024 candidacy, this election is a little scary. At the edge of Long Island, a dose of the backstreet brawl, by people who all tumbled out of their SUVs and then tumbled back in again. As they drove off, a cry came from one of the MAGA vans: “Who wants ice cream?”
it’s not just the Democrat’s nightmare, it’s (most) everyone’s nightmare …
even many of those who vote Republican or abstain from voting Democrat will see, in a few short years, what the “anti-elite” GOP is really about – but then it will be too late
and so, as they watch their country spiral into disfunction and collapse, while the GOP and FOX rant and rave about the latest culture war distraction, they’ll realise it’s now too late to change their vote, because the GOP will have dismantled democracy in the US and there are now, no longer any safe ways to change their lives for the better
When you say “the GOP will have dismantled democracy” I assume you are talking about the 20 year effort by the GOP to get local officials elected in every county that runs booths in federal elections. It’s an enormous effort both logistically and intellectually that’s never been attempted before in American civics history.
But if that effort succeeds, and the GOP is able to change the rules of federal elections using locally elected officials, given that the local officials have themselves been elected, isn’t that still an expression of democracy?
If the Democrats had focussed on the same strategy for the last 20 years, and prevailed, wouldn’t that be an expression “democracy” in your estimation?
No, it’s manipulation of the stupid.
We could fix that flaw in democracy by granting brilliant, independent thinkers two votes each, while stupid people who are likely to be manipulated only get half a vote.
How many votes would you get?
Frank, there are many far more efficient ways to fix democracy:
PS: Hours and hours of soft pap prog fun still to be had inventing ever-wilier new excuses for why the world’s super-smart, morally-superior folks are somehow struggling to convince the world’s dumbass moral deplorables to vote how they tell them!
How stupidly stupid and undemocratic all those stupidy dumb-ass stupid-stinky stupid-head Americans must be!
If they think voting Republic is going to improve their lives then yep they are pretty dumb dumbs! But there ya go that is still democracy.
When you’re dirt poor, powerless and relentlessly patronised by the rich and privileged, Beth, ‘dumb’ might be the only dignified option you’ve got left.
Except that most Trump voters are not the dirt poor. So sick of this fake concern for those experiencing poverty by these Trumpist libertarians who would throw them to the Covid wolves, throw them to the conscription wolves, throw them to the unemployment wolves, throw them to the climate catastrophe wolves. (Oh did I hear that Texas, Alabama and Arkansas have just been wiped out by another megastorm? That’s your climate change right thar). The MAGA’s are only about the wealth god, guns and whiteness. That’s it, that’s all there is to them.
Indeed. Reminds me of The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer. This was a satirical film made in the 70s in the UK – David Frost produced it under a pseudonym and Peter Cook, John Cleese and Graham Chapman were involved as writers.
Rimmer comes from advertising and moves into politics, first as an adviser and then as a politician. When he takes power, he says we need more democracy and everyone will be required to lodge postal votes to decide every issue, however trivial.
The voters are exhausted by all this endless hassle, and when Rimmer finally offers citizens relief via a vote to end democracy altogether, giving him dictatorial power, the electorate goes for it, relieved not to have to think about stuff anymore.
So there you have it: a democractic vote to end democracy altogether.
Isn’t that what they do in Switzerland?
No, what they do in Switzerland is allow the people to circumvent political gatekeepers by being able to submit and force a popular vote on legislation.
Some Cantons also allow recall elections, so voters can pre-emptively chuck out politicians they don’t believe are being representative.
I think getting ppl to vote for what they want is fairly important actually. And getting rid of politicians for not being representative.
Good to see that someone else has watched this highly underrated film. Like the Handmaid’s Tale, it has come into its own.
That bar of gold at the oil rig. Literally, comedy gold!
The Swiss vote on everything all the time. They are very stable and pretty happy. Must be all the chocolate, jazz and mountain air
No, it would be a perversion, a corruption, a manipulation, a la Adolf and Josef.
More likely it’s about their gerrymandering and efforts towards disenfranchisement.
Have those elected officials have made it clear that their policy and objective is to make it all but impossible to vote them out ?
Because if people elect a representative to do X, and then they go to do Y and Z that had not been mentioned at any point beforehand, than those are not really things the people have voted for, are they ?
Guy, I subscribe to Crikey for your articles and recall your pieces from the lead up to the Obama with fondness.
But the world has changed – even your insight can’t penetrate the fog of stupidity that’s shrouding American politics.
I guess it’s a toss up between the insane UK and the insane USA – here in Oz insanity appears to have been replaced, as you’ve written, with mild disappointment – at least for the next couple of election cycles.
But there’s something deeper driving this anglo descent into madness – can you articulate it for us mug punters? Is it systemic? Emergent? Coordinated? A huge accident?
America to this observer looks like a nightmare where, as you say elsewhere, decent people with squirrel crossings are somehow choosing actual fascists over tepid progressives. Why?
Totally unrelated question, Nick: are you a post-Rites of Passage mainstream kind of guy, or do you prefer their older, funnier, dykier stuff?
Asking for an ignorant, rednecked, deplorable Seppo mate who’s seriously considering voting Trump.
Que?
You had to be there, brother.
It’s interesting how it seems now that the US’ and UK’s nativist libertarian ‘Anglosphere’ (Oz dodged a bullet), informed by external policy makers e.g. ‘think tanks’, are both shambolic madhouses due to the suboptimal reps or MPs and PR stunts masquerading as policy, with most legacy media in support or averting its gaze.
From the same legacy and other media influence, too many mostly ageing monocultural voters, dominating electoral rolls, are happy to follow, but policies and legislation are not fit for purpose e.g. the 21st century?
In the case of the UK Tory government they now choose PM’s regularly while avoiding voters to try shoving unpalatable policies into action?
Helped along by over the top dog whistling of asylum seekers turning up in leaky boats or the need for a border wall, familiar?
It is familiar – sadly Oz is the template for the latest UK bastardry WRT asylum seekers.
Is it Lynton Crosby behind the current “oh look! A squirrel!” distraction?
Are we beyond falling for the same nonsense again? I really don’t know…
Frustrating to watch the same on Crosby’s influence using as ‘dead cat’, also US nativist NGOs in Tanton Network inc. UK & Oz, influence on media and hoping Oz is ahead of the curve due to diversity in middle and lower end of electoral rolls, with compulsory voting.
The Republicans are simply trying to return the US to democracy as it was initially conceived at the founding of the country: the exclusive privilege of white Christian men of property. Everyone else is either chattel or excluded from society.
Yes. Conservatism is about the rule of society by Aristocrats, with democracy in modern times providing a peaceful method of passing rule from one set of Aristocrats to the next.
Hence the importance they place on trying to ensure the wrong kinds of people aren’t voting.
Sorry to be nitpicky… but it’s Adam Laxalt not Paul Laxalt.
And you can take that with a grain of Laxalt.
Gore Vidal
However, Vidal’s Republican Property Party is denying elections, climate change, and abortion rights, while his Democrat Property Party isn’t.