The sole objective in the minds of almost every political strategist, operative, and anyone with a non-elected support position in Washington has been to recapture the majority in the entirety of the legislative branch of government.
Since there is still at least a simbilage of actual representation via population count, though there are some much more complicated shenanigans that typically takes place during every election, the gist of it is that the Electoral College means things have to be changed on a local level in order for there to be real change. Name recognition and education about the facts surrounding an issue are crucial for people to vote the way a particular party wants them to, but in order to do either of those things people have to be paying attention.
Whether you believe crises like the border, the supply chain, and even the kerfuffle over vaccine mandates are a real issue or a manufactured one, if the last two years haven’t done anything else, they’ve made people pay attention. And they paid attention once politics started interfering with their daily lives.
So, with the rising gas prices, empty shelves, and disputes over whether people should be allowed to work (or as some might say, pursue happiness) without taking a vaccine, it has become abundantly clear that everyone needs to pay attention, and according to The New York times, once they did, the people of New York, started to turn red.
The Times reported after elections earlier this month that “New York Democrats were left reeling” once the results of the election became fully ensconced in finality. According to the paper of record, electoral losses started in Long Island at Lake Erie and the Republican Party “showed it could make deep inroads even in one of the country’s liberal strongholds.”
Other areas showed major gains for Republicans, including suburban Nassau County, where Democrats have controlled every major office in the county for years and Republicans were able to county comptroller and district attorney offices for the first time in a decade and a half as well as taking out the incumbent county executive.
Numerous other country races were flipped from blue to red, such as in Albany county and in city government in New York City where Republicans have expanded their presence in the City Council.
The state races in New York were not in much better shape with ballot measures seriously important to Democrats being unexpectedly rejected:
“There’s no way to sugarcoat this: This was a shellacking on a thumping,” Steve Israel, a former New York congressman and onetime chair of the House Democratic campaign arm, said of Tuesday’s results for the party in New York and across the country.
Democratic strategists are trying to put a good face on things, blaming the off-year and low turnout for the election swing, seeming to try to advise their party members that they can once again take over power if they’ll just wait for the general election and toe the line.
The significance of local races, however, is not something to be ignored. Along with it being important to keep the small communities rooted in what the people want, it can be a great indicator of fraud. If state and county electoral votes go consistently to one party and when a crucial election comes along they suddenly go another way, that could be cause for concern (and a serious recount).
It’s also a great reminder that the people of America aren’t necessarily completely ignorant of the right thing to do, sometimes they just have to be inspired to take off work and go do it.