Pirate's Cove

This is yet another case of putting opinion in straight news, another case of the Credentialed Media trying to explain things, and another case of the Credentialed Media attempting to protect Democrats. This article is not in the opinion section

How Democrats Suffered Crushing Down-Ballot Losses Across America
In statehouse races, suburban voters’ disgust with President Trump failed to translate into a rebuke of other Republicans, ensuring the party’s grip on partisan mapmaking.

Just a few seats shy of a majority in the State House of Representatives, Democrats in Pennsylvania this year zeroed in on Republican-held suburban districts, where disdain for President Trump ran hot.

One of their prime targets was in the North Hills suburbs outside Pittsburgh, which are home to big brick houses, excellent public schools and “the fastest-trending Democratic district in the state,” according to Emily Skopov, the Democratic nominee for an open seat there, who gamely knocked on the doors of Republican voters in the days before Nov. 3.

She was half right. Joseph R. Biden Jr. carried Pennsylvania’s House District 28, after Mr. Trump had won it by nine percentage points in 2016.

But Ms. Skopov, the founder of a nonprofit group who positioned herself as a moderate, was defeated.

Across the country, suburban voters’ disgust with Mr. Trump — the key to Mr. Biden’s election — did not translate into a wide rebuke of other Republicans, as Democrats had expected after the party made significant gains in suburban areas in the 2018 midterm elections. From the top of the party down to the state level, Democratic officials are awakening to the reality that voters may have delivered a one-time verdict on Mr. Trump that does not equal ongoing support for center-left policies.

“There’s a significant difference between a referendum on a clown show, which is what we had at the top of the ticket, and embracing the values of the Democratic ticket,” said Nichole Remmert, Ms. Skopov’s campaign manager. “People bought into Joe Biden to stop the insanity in the White House. They did not suddenly become Democrats.”

Or, bear with me here, could it possibly be that there was, in fact, lots of cheating that led to Trump losing the general election? Across the country, there percent that voted president only is way, way, way higher than normal. The amount of disqualified mail-in votes is way, way lower than normal. Plus lots and lots of other irregularities. Maybe it all ads up to nothing. Maybe it doesn’t. Does anyone truly believe Joe freaking Biden received 80 million votes for real?

That dawning truth is evident in the narrower majority that House Democrats will hold in Congress next year, and especially in the blood bath that the party suffered in legislative races in key states around the country, despite directing hundreds of millions of dollars and deploying top party figures like former President Barack Obama to obscure down-ballot elections.

This year, Democrats targeted a dozen state legislative chambers where Republicans held tenuous majorities, including in Pennsylvania, Texas, Arizona, North Carolina and Minnesota. Their goal was to check the power of Republicans to redraw congressional and legislative districts in 2021, and to curb the rightward drift of policies from abortion to gun safety to voting rights.

But in all cases, Democrats came up short. None of their targeted legislative chambers flipped, even though Mr. Biden carried many of the districts that down-ballot Democrats did not. It could make it harder for Democrats to retain a House majority in 2022.

Could it be that voters want Trumpism without Trump, as Ann Coulter rather unhingededly put it (nope, not linking her screed)?  Or, could it be cheating?

In the aftermath, moderate Democrats are feuding with progressives over whether policies that excite the party’s base, such as higher taxes to pay for social programs, policing overhauls and a rapid move away from fossil fuels, are a losing message with swing voters. Progressives have responded that moderate candidates aren’t offering voters an affirmative program to improve their lives.

Could it be that people don’t actually want Government in charge of their lives, that they do not want higher taxes, that they do not want Government taking away their use of reliable, affordable, easy to obtain fossil fuels? That people actually prefer the Trump message of reducing government’s role in our lives? Could it be that citizens held their noses about the “clown show”, and actually voted for Trump and Democrats cheated?

“One of the big questions is whether a Trumpist 2024 candidate can be a little bit milder so as to not alienate the suburbs, yet still inspire the low-propensity Republicans to vote at 2020 levels,” said J.J. Balaban, a Democratic strategist in Pennsylvania. “If they can pull that off, it’s going to be a very hard environment for Democrats.”

There’s that. Also, how extreme will the Democrats be over the next two years, leading to more House and Senate and down ballot losses in 2022.

Democrats’ failure to flip any of their targeted chambers means that Republicans will have control next year of 20 state governments that will collectively draw 188 congressional districts, according to one analysis. In a bright spot for Democrats, the party is closing in on a supermajority in the New York Senate. That outcome would help give Democrats control of mapmaking in states with a total of 73 House districts.

Bummer, Dems!