The election results show that although a sizable minority of Americans will never defect from Trump, an even larger group seems equally determined to stop Trumpism.
www.theatlantic.com
The midterm-election
results, which appear to have delivered Republicans only modest gains, show that although a sizable minority of Americans will never defect from Trump, an even larger group seems equally determined to stop Trumpism. The existence of this anti-MAGA coalition is essential to understanding not only this election, but also the 2024 race.
“When elections are clearly about Trump and MAGA, MAGA will lose,”
Michael Podhorzer, a progressive strategist, told me. “What Trump did was make a really large number of Americans say, ‘There’s now something really at stake in elections, and it matters more if I go out and vote.’”
…..The signs of pro-democracy voting were largely overlooked. Americans consistently tell pollsters that they worry about Trump’s attacks on elections and institutions. A Reuters/Ipsos poll in September, for example,
found that 58 percent believe the MAGA movement is a threat to the foundations of democracy. But many observers questioned whether that would be a driving force in votes or simply too abstract to overcome economic worries.
With the votes counted, that seems wrong. Not only did election-denying candidates fare poorly, but voters
told the Associated Press that the future of democracy was a top issue for them, trailing only inflation in importance. (Democrats
actually won voters who said the economy was not doing well, according to AP)
Podhorzer argues that analysts have failed to recognize the emergence of a big anti-MAGA coalition that started in the 2018 midterm….. “There’s this new group of voters there because of Trump and MAGA,” Podhorzer said. “That’s changed the equation.”
…. The consistency of the anti-MAGA coalition, which has been a decisive factor in the 2018, 2020, and 2022 elections, should shape the 2024 election. Its existence helps prevent large swings in results, feeding into
the calcification of American politics.
….. These results are not sufficient reason to be sanguine about the state of American democracy. Kevin McCarthy, the likely next speaker of the House, has shown that he is a Trump sycophant. Election deniers won up and down the ballot across the country, and they could wreak havoc. But the midterm shows that many Americans are not just aware of the threat to democracy, but ready to vote based on it.
