It turns out taking people's rights away matters
11/11/22
Josie's column on the US mid-term elections is here.
Perhaps the greater epochal conclusion is that when the US had democracy itself on the ballot, they chose the quality that makes America great. Candidates selected for no reason other than personal loyalty to Donald Trump did worse than average in the midterms.
I'm cautious about the conclusions to be drawn from election results decided by a couple of percentage points. The Democrats did better than expected but lost some battles. Republican Governor Ron DeSantis​ won big in Florida.
Doing what's popular wins elections. The Democrats were worried they'd focused too much on abortion rights and the fight for democracy, when the biggest issues for voters were inflation and crime. Turned out taking people's rights away mattered. Three in 10 voters said that abortion rights were their reason for turning out to vote, about the same as said inflation.
Perhaps the greater epochal conclusion is that when the US had democracy itself on the ballot, they chose the quality that makes America great. Candidates selected for no reason other than personal loyalty to Donald Trump did worse than average in the midterms.
I'm cautious about the conclusions to be drawn from election results decided by a couple of percentage points. The Democrats did better than expected but lost some battles. Republican Governor Ron DeSantis​ won big in Florida.
Doing what's popular wins elections. The Democrats were worried they'd focused too much on abortion rights and the fight for democracy, when the biggest issues for voters were inflation and crime. Turned out taking people's rights away mattered. Three in 10 voters said that abortion rights were their reason for turning out to vote, about the same as said inflation.
