Tuesday open thread: Twelve and a half million
Twelve and a half million. That's how many ballots have been counted so far.
The political media delights in chaos. It doesn't care if the chaos for which it yearns will wreak havoc among ordinary people. Competence is boring. The media loves a freak show, and over the past few decades has tried it's damnedest to corrupt the culture. Seriousness and probity are not values they promote. Donald Trump was the political media's apotheosis: a carnival barker who made their lives much easier by giving them easy copy day in and day out.
People like Newsom and Joe Biden are a threat to their business model. Thus, the media pushed the narrative that Newsom was toast, that Democrats weren't motivated, and that Larry Elder would be the new governor. Instead, millions turned out for an off-year special election to make sure that they didn't get their desired wish.
The fact is that the media, like many people, lives in its own bubble. In that bubble, America doesn't exist as a real entity, but only as a background on which they can display their own prowess. They look down on ordinary Americans, both blue and red, as fools to be mocked because they don't have the knowledge they do.
Of course, the media has no more knowledge than, say, I do, or anyone with any understanding of politics and the world. They're nothing special. They're certainly not truth-tellers, but instead are timeservers and apparatchiks. They trade in soundbites and memes, not in deep, explanatory reporting. Taken in by their own biases, they make statements like those around the recall. And when they're proven wrong, they shrug, ignore their errors, and move on to the next topic to get us apoplectic.
Both the media and the GOP should be scared that so many Californians turned out to keep Newsom. Contrary to the pundit cries after the election—which I predicted—that it doesn't matter because California is hyper-Democratic, California is the canary in the coal mine. As goes my state, the rest of the country follows. These same pundits are betting on a GOP takeover of Congress next year. If Democrats are this enthusiastic over a special election, woe betide those making bets on the GOP for 2022. And as it seems that the red states have hit a gerrymandering wall, while blue states like New York are getting ready to decimate GOP seats, the likes of Nate Silver may want to keep their powder dry. They were already embarrassed once by the glee with which they looked forward to Governor Larry Elder.
Do the work, and we win. Ignore people of bad faith. And, as always, dance.