Out of the Wilderness
John Caporal
​
The election is over and the Democratic long knives are out! Commentary fills the air about the possible demise of the party and where to go next. Joe Biden was an eloquent statesman who exercised “Profiles in Courage” for withdrawing? Oh wait, the new consensus is that he should have never announced for a second term or withdrawn a year earlier. Pundits said younger voters and disaffected college-educated women will propel us to victory. Not so much! Where were they and why didn’t more vote? And on it goes, from how we abandoned the working class, are taking minority voters for granted and on and on. Stop!! Yes, it was bad but let’s put this into perspective by examining three past elections and their subsequent Congressional elections two years later.
1964 Presidential Election: This was the election after JFK’s assassination. LBJ took 61% of the popular vote, the largest since 1822, to Barry Goldwater’s 39%. The Dems picked up 37 seats in the House. Goldwater took states in the deep South and his home state of Arizona. This majority set the stage for the enactment of the “Great Society” which was a tremendous period of legislative achievement. It looked like the Republicans would become a regional party. And then…
1966 Congressional Election: In the wake of the increasingly unpopular Vietnam war and growing concern about the extent of domestic spending, the Republicans gained back 47 seats in the house and 3 in the Senate (the Dems still held 64!) While the Democrats maintained their majority, it slowed down the Johnson agenda of “guns and butter” and led to…
1968 Presidential Election: In one of the most tragic election years ever, Richard Nixon won a close election over Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace. With the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, the South was disappearing from the Democrats’ control. The GOP also won 5 seats in the House and Senate. Nixon’s issues were crime and Vietnam.
1972 Presidential Election: Nixon won a huge landslide with 60.7% of the vote over George McGovern. He carried every state except Massachusetts. He also lost the District of Columbia. The Senate and House stayed Blue by a small majority. What could go wrong?
1976 Presidential Election: We all know!! Watergate, impeachment hearings, tapes, presidential pardon, inflation, debate problems for Gerald Ford vs Jimmy Carter. Two years earlier the Democrats picked up many seats in both houses as the result of the outcry over the lies and jailing of Nixon administration members and his subsequent resignation. Carter won a close election with 50.8% of the popular vote. It would be the last time the Dems took a majority of the southern states. Carter would go on to lose to Reagan in the next election. Now let’s jump to George W Bush’s re-election.
2004 Presidential Election: “W” won the razor-thin count in Florida approved by the Supreme Court in 2000. After 9-11, he enjoyed a popularity rating in the 90’s! However, by ’04, that was gone. He managed to beat John Kerry with 286 electoral votes and gain a 50.2% popularity rating, the last Republican to hit 50%. Ironically, had Kerry carried Ohio, he would have won the electoral college without a popular mandate. I wonder what the Republicans would have said about that!
By 2006: Democrats had re-captured both chambers with gains of 31 and 6 respectively, as well as governorships. Republicans didn’t take a single seat occupied by a Democrat! Bush’s numbers were in the high 20s!
This led to 2008 and Barack Obama! From this brief summary the message is clear! Do not despair! Our “ass” got kicked pretty good this time but we will continue to work and will be back!
There’s No Going Back
contributed by Carrie Jones
TCDP chair, precinct 362
​
·
Many of us, myself included, fondly remember the days of our pre-Trump “normal” lives, where we could focus on our families, friends, hobbies, and health. We knew that our elected officials would uphold the law, political norms would prevail, and our Democracy was strong.
​
In 2016, reality came crashing in. Unbeknownst to many of us, conservatives had been working for decades to transform our courts, gerrymander our voting districts, and install right-wing politicians in every corner of American society. We Democrats were caught sleeping.
But we have woken up, and a new awareness of the importance of our electoral systems, from local to national, has grown. Right-wing organizations are still infiltrating our government, even supporting candidates in our LTISD school board election and the TCAD election on May 4th. But we now know what’s happening and they can’t hide any longer. Through voter education efforts, we are shining light on their efforts and keeping our folks informed and engaged.
We can’t ever return to the blissful naïveté that we enjoyed years ago. And it’s exhausting and frustrating work to stay informed, but we now know the consequences if we don’t. For each and every election, we must stay vigilant, educate ourselves on the candidates, get involved, and vote in Each and Every Election.
Our future, our children’s future, our grandchildren’s future and our communities’ future depend on it.