There are not many Democratic Governors and Mayors in red states, but there surely are Republican Governors and Mayors in blue states. I never understood the dynamics of Democrats choosing Republicans in the bluest of states like California, electing Arnold Schwarzenegger. Or New York, electing George Pataki, and New York City, electing and re-electing Rudolph Guiliani and Michael Bloomberg.
I’ve concluded that the American electorate is one that basically votes on their own personal needs, not on serious issues that affect the country’s direction.
For example, in 1980, after eight years of the Michael Manley régime in Jamaica, the electorate rose against the People’s National Party and voted them out in a tidal wave of anger.
The PNP was only able to retain nine seats in the then 60-seat legislature. The PNP retained nine seats arguably because of massive ballot stuffing in the garrison communities of both parties.
Conversely, after the Bill Clinton presidency, which brought prosperity to millions of Americans, the country elected George Bush, a political and personal goofball, instead of electing Al Gore, Clinton’s Vice President.
We all know how that turned out for the United States: massive economic contraction, two illegitimate wars, and the Patriot act resulting in the erosion of rights Americans previously held dear.
Again after the eight years of relative peace and prosperity of the Obama years in which Obama pulled the economy back from the brink of collapse in 2008, the country elected Donald Trump a carnival barking clown and con artiste, forever sullying the majesty and mystique of the presidency.
“Winston Churchill once famously observed that Americans will always do the right thing, only after they have tried everything else.”
I am not so sure there is the intellectual capacity to do the right thing these days.
Other than North Carolina, a red state that elected Roy Cooper a Democrat, there are no red states with a Democratic chief executive. It is important to remember that Barack Obama won North Carolina in 2008, so there is a case that North Carolina may not be as red as some would like us to believe.
On the other hand, Maryland, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Virginia, all blue states, have Republican governors.
Many Democrats and independents fall for the lies that Republicans are for lower taxes because they do not take the time to figure out the math. Republicans do lower taxes for her rich cronies, which is, by default, a tax increase on everyone else.
Yes, these tax cuts have to be paid for by someone, usually the poorest Americans.
The poorest people in the country live in states run by Republicans, and though I am for lower taxes, I am also aware that it requires money to pay for stuff. Democrats and Independents in blue states do not calculate the risk of electing Republicans to run State government while sending Democratic Senators to Washington, DC, to ensure a progressive agenda where all Americans’ rights are guaranteed.
One such risk is that if a Democratic US Senator is incapacitated or dies, the Republican Governor gets to send a Republican to Washington to finish that Senator’s term or until a by-election can be organized.
Vermont is a blue state with two Senators. Democrat Patrick Leahy is 82 ‑years old, and Bernie Sanders is 81 years old.
Any person can fall ill or die at any time. However, Senator Leahy has fallen ill before and is again not feeling well and was taken to the hospital.
If anything happens to Patrick Leahy, Vermont’s Republican Governor Phil Scott will send a Republican to Washington, and Mitch McConnell will be the majority leader. That would effectively mean the end of the Biden presidency legislatively.
And God forbid there is another vacancy on the supreme court; that vacancy would not be filled until there is another Republican in the white house.
Present-day politics requires a sophisticated and informed electorate. The Republican electorate may neither be sophisticated nor informed, but they vote as a monolith. Democrats and Independents claim to be more sophisticated and informed, but when they vote the way they vote by electing Republicans in the Blue States, there is a strong argument against those claims.
.
.
.
.
Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, black achiever honoree, and creator of the blog mikebeckles.com.