The news had all been bad for the Democrats — until it wasn’t. Recent polling has shown President Joe Biden’s approval drifting downwards and, most worryingly, below Donald Trump’s in five out of six battleground states. This led to the slightly belated realisation among senior party figures that it might have been a good idea to come up with an alternative to an increasingly shaky-looking (in every sense) candidate whose 2020 victory is thought of as a greatly successful compromise. Then came Tuesday.
Enter… women
There was a flurry of gubernatorial, state legislature, mayoral and other local office elections, as well as a series of citizen initiatives. The Democrats greatly outperformed expectations — and it seems to largely have come down to reproductive rights. More than a year after Roe vs Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court and state legislatures set about dismantling access to abortion, voters, even in largely conservative states, have responded.
Andy Beshear, the incumbent Democratic governor in Kentucky, the most crimson red of states, easily beat Daniel Cameron, his MAGA-endorsed opponent. Beshear’s campaign largely centred on painting Cameron as an extremist on abortion.
In Virginia, where Republicans had campaigned on a “moderate” 15-week abortion ban, the Democrats are projected to not only hold their narrow majority in the Senate, but have flipped the House of Representatives, putting up a major obstacle to Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin’s platform.
And in Ohio, which Trump won by eight points in 2020, voters overwhelmingly passed an amendment to the state’s constitution protecting access to abortion care. This is part of a broader trend — before Tuesday’s elections, five of the six states to put abortion measures to the public either voted to strengthen protections or reject their removal.
Whether this has a flow-on effect to 2024 remains to be seen — The Washington Post notes a lot of counties that voted for Trump in 2020 also voted in favour of reproductive rights. Trump has drifted from arguing on the 2016 campaign trail that “there has to be some form of punishment” for women who have abortions to a far more moderate view in recent months.
“If we’re really going to be honest about this, and I consider myself pro-life, but I understand that’s not where the country is,” Fox News’ Sean Hannity conceded on election night. “I have to believe that is an indication that the women in America, suburban moms, want it probably legal and rare and probably earlier than at the point of viability.”
Ivanka’s amnesia
As the results continued to filter in on Wednesday, the final witness testimony of Trump’s fraud trial was taking place. Trump’s daughter Ivanka, testifying as a witness rather than as a defendant on account of the statute of limitations, was the final of 25 witnesses before the attorney-general’s office rested its case. Her performance was far more subdued and polite, though she had a notable selective memory — suffering almost complete amnesia when questioned about the events of a decade ago by the prosecution, while able to recall details in granular detail during the examination by the defence.
The ‘debate’
Oh yeah, these guys. While Trump continues to easily outpace every single one of them, the five “leading” candidates for the GOP nomination in 2024 continue to hold debates. The spectacle has the eerie and quietly heartbreaking quality of an abandoned theme park — a desperation to entertain radiating off the defunct animatronics that no-one visits anymore; predictably this has caused an increasingly unhinged tone.
This is largely led by anti-woke libertarian entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, a man who comports himself as though he would spontaneously catch fire if he wasn’t being paid some kind of attention. He went the Trump route, making fun of Ron DeSantis’ alleged use of lifts in his shoes, attacking DeSantis and Nikki Haley as warmongers, suggesting another wall be built on the border with Canada and — Jesus Christ — calling Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “Nazi”.
Haley, for her part, called Ramaswamy “just scum”, Tim Scott suggested war with Iran, and DeSantis pitched shooting drug traffickers at the southern border “stone dead”. The debate was also — and you’ll be shocked to hear this — just lousy with misinformation.
Are you enjoying the ridiculous clown show that is American politics? Write to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
Enter… women
I regularly lunch with a group of women former colleagues whose ages range from 68 to 82. We all live on the northside of Canberra where Calvary is our “local” hospital. Despite being 100% publicly funded, the hospital was run by a Catholic group until mid-2023 when the ACT government compulsorily acquired it.
None of us is any longer concerned with reproductive health issues. And none of us want our daughters, grand daughters, nieces, neighbours to be subjected to the restrictions our generation was bound by. Plus we all want to be avail ourselves of voluntary assisted dying should that medical need arise.
Given the way the so-called women’s vote was such an influence in the outcome of the 2022 Australian federal election I am surprised that “reproductive rights” has not been recognised as an important issue in other countries. Abbott, Pell, Trump, Johnson – such men telling me how I must live my life? Get a grip.
Absolutely agree
Let’s hope that Marianne Williamson gets to be the first woman president of the USA then. She has been steadily building her campaign success with little to no mainstream media exposure, polling 16% of DEMOCRAT voters as she runs against Biden’s nomination. The poll numbers from afar re Biden’s likelihood of losing to Trump should frighten the whatits out of everyone. As President, Williamson is talking about the kind of changes that would actually address a lot of Trump voters very real concerns. AND she’s a woman who sees the big picture and has deep convictions and integrity. Oh that we should have someone in Australia to address the bullsh… of trickle down economics. Go Marianne!
Between the USA and the UK, we have certainly chosen some great allies to align ourselves with in turbulent times.
And we still think Israel is a pillar of virtue to support without question with their murderous war crimes.
I reckon we should expel the US and Israeli ambassadors immediately for starters, and advise our USUKA partners that the deal will not be proceeding, and we want a refund on donations made so far.
When you consider how Australia behaves, surely it is makes sense why Australia views the USA, UK and Israel of superior morality. Australia is immoral and to consider behaving with a drop humanity leads to successful campaigns of fear, where Aussies embrace fascism to prevent the rise of communism in Australia which isn’t a real threat.
East Timor learned real quick how Aussies are highly untrustworthy to do business with.
“Are you enjoying the ridiculous clown show that is American politics? “
Unfortunately we have some people in positions of influence here is Aus, who have the same distorted view of reality.
US politics is generally a preview of Australia politics. Used to take years for their tactics and talking points to arrive here, now it takes months at most.
Yep. So we get to experience antiquation just a little longer. Yoohoo!
Australians have this talent of looking at what succeeds and fails around the world, only to adopt the monstrous while fearing success.
My favourite was a rebuff to the groups attempting to censor school libraries and school curriculums. It gives me hope that the Right can be defeated in culture war battles at the grassroots.
The impression I get is that it was an off-year election where Republicans campaigned a lot on absurd culture war nonsense (demonising trans people gets you on Fox News but it doesn’t motivate turnout in the conservative base) and attacking reproductive rights (which mobilises the hell out of progressives and anyone else who wants control over their own body). I hope it’s a sign of good things to come but I honestly don’t know how much it says about the next presidential election when the Trump factor is in play. I loathe the man beyond words but he has such a stranglehold on conservative politics there that an election with Trump is a different proposition to one where he’s not on the ballots
And relying on suboptimal poll/noise* i.e. Siena, to fill media space (a year out from elections) to favour Trump over Biden for ‘fair & balanced’ as he is unfairly going through a legal process; happens repeatedly eg. Biden conspiracy….
However, then voters showed the media up for how useless it has become (remember polls predicted a ‘red tsunami’ for ’22 mid terms, that did not eventuate); more ‘push polling’ and hoping for the ‘bandwagon effect’ amongst rusted on RW MSM audiences (stop the drift to Biden by GOP normies)?
*The RW Bulwark discussed the Siena poll, while ignoring the methodological issues, but did see and highlight some crazy, i.e. poll claims that more younger voters favour Trump/GOP over Biden/Dems; Orwellian daydreaming….