The Way To Stop Republican Sabotage Isn’t To Elect MORE Republicans

Tell me again: WHY are so many of you so resigned to helplessly accepting a right-wing takeover?

With three weeks to go until this year’s midterms, armchair soothsayers still insist they know exactly what’s going to happen.

They assume that, because a majority of America is understandably anxious over inflation and the economy, Republican candidates will receive their votes by default.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

I would like to invite you all to watch, or listen to, the following two videos (HERE and HERE). Combined, they clock in at under just 70 minutes.

So take an hour and a half to watch both of these podcast episodes — or, hell, play them in the background while you cook, drive, or do chores.

But if you knowingly succumb to self-fulfilling prophecies, then you have nobody but yourself to blame.

You don’t have to be a “Democrat” to vote Democratic

In a 17-minute segment, Ben Meiselas of the Meidas Touch podcast reads a small cross-section from thousands of responses he has received on Twitter and YouTube. These Americans have written in to tell their stories about how they used to vote Republican — or know other people in their lives who have — but are now voting for only Democratic candidates in 2022.

Some are ex-Republicans who’ve re-registered as Democrats.

Some are ex-Republicans who’ve declared themselves Independents.

Some still consider themselves Republican but are planning to vote Democratic in this election cycle to send the GOP a message to cleanse their party of cultists

Some have shifted from admiring Trump to despising him, as more of his transgressions get exposed.

I encourage you to listen to Meiselas as he reads through several of their testimonials:

Many of these angry voters are military veterans. They appear to be overwhelmingly from older generations.

In the video, Meiselas cites what Ohio senatorial candidate Tim Ryan has labeled as “the Exhausted Majority.” These are citizens who’ve grown tired of the bad behavior exhibited by MAGA followers. They are literally exhausted from the antics of MAGA interfering with any enjoyment of their daily lives.

These are the voters whom we need to turn out, three weeks from now.

The actual “Most Important Election of Our Lifetimes”

Along with this “Exhausted Majority,” we also have a cross-section of voters who, unlike the “Exhausted Majority,” are already predisposed to support many progressive policies. They just haven’t always turned out in high enough numbers during past midterms (or General Elections).

For nearly an hour, Politics Girl Podcast host Leigh McGowan interviews NARAL president Mini Timmaraju. Also hosted on the Meidas Touch channel, they talk at length about how 2022 could be our last chance to prevent democracy from becoming completely extinct.

Timmaraju and McGowan acknowledge the hyperbole from politicians who, year after year, tend to claim the current election cycle is “the most important” one of our lifetimes. Normally, voters are skeptical. It eventually sounds like the candidate who cried wolf.

But these two women outline some of the key factors that make this midterm different from perhaps any in recent history. Even if you don’t share their identities as a progressive or a liberal — I hope you will take an hour to listen to their conversation with an open mind:

First, they bring up the reality that this will be the first major national election following the actual overturning of Roe v. Wade. Prior to that abominable SCOTUS ruling of Dobbs v. Jackson, there was usually a “believability gap” amongst the general public regarding the actual risk to abortion access. It was based on the assumption that Roe v. Wade would never get overturned because Republicans wanted to keep it perpetually dangled in front of their base as a “wedge issue.”

But now, via the Dobbs ruling, fifteen states have opened the floodgates by enacting even harsher laws against abortion access. Even the 15-week abortion bans with some exceptions are too murky in their wording; they still put those medical decisions in the hands of hospital bureaucrats.

Timmaraju predicts that the idea of a “national abortion ban” being floated by some Republicans will only further inflame the ire of pro-choice citizens. She also clarifies some realities about abortion that are understood by those who’ve been through the procedure.

Late-term abortions, points out Timmaraju, are incredibly rare. So-called “infanticide” is legally nonexistent. When an abortion is medically necessary during the second or third trimester, it’s typically an extremely heartbreaking decision for the pregnant woman — putting her under duress.

In Timmaraju’s opinion, Democrats and progressives must stop having a “blind respect” for tradition (e.g. the Senate filibuster, the size of the U.S. Supreme Court itself) when institutions fail our country. She talks about how abortion is an economic issue (rather than purely a social issue), which is why it’s pulling ahead of even inflation as being amongst the top concerns of so many pro-choice voters.

As well as some pro-life voters who nevertheless support reasonable exceptions.

Finally, McGowan cites the recent special elections in upstate New York and Alaska, as well as the abortion referendum during the Kansas primary — all of which took place this past August. Their results pointed to a confluence of support for pro-choice positions.

Agreeing with McGowan about that “bellwether” snapshot, Timmaraju points out how these races, especially the ballot initiative in Kansas, wouldn’t have been won by Democratic turnout alone. Segments of the voting public who were crossover Republicans and unaffiliated voters contributed greatly to these victories.

Republicans hope to hoard power by peddling hopelessness

The points made in these two podcasts are NOT that these midterm races are going to be easy. Rather, Meiselas, Timmaraju, and McGowan are saying that the more competitive districts are winnable.

But that means a critical mass of us, as Americans, need to reject GOP bullshit.

Republicans have literally said that, if they regain the majority, they intend to coerce Biden and other elected Democrats into slashing Social Security and Medicare by threatening to crash the economy.

If that isn’t outright immoral sabotage…what is?

Gen Y, Gen Z, and Gen AA aren’t socially conservative. That’s why the two generations of those three who are eligible to vote have been registering in droves — along with women.

Angry women. Rightfully angry women.

On a personal note: I just don’t believe I’d survive in a post-apocalyptic society that has collapsed. That’s why I refuse to give up.

If you feel differently, I don’t understand what you’re trying to accomplish…other than basking in your own “Dystopian Porn” fantasies.

Nobody is saying that all voters must declare their blind loyalty to the Democratic Party for the rest of eternity. Far from it! I’m a centrist Independent, myself; I can’t guarantee any one political party my vote once we reach the late-2020s.

But, for this year’s midterm elections, voting for Democratic candidates is the only rational option.

If we’re going to build or reimagine a better political system, down the road — then we must preserve the basic foundation for making those changes, today.

Click here to subscribe to my stories.