In a good world, the insurrectionist GOP would have been trounced

Good morning. I’m Paul Thornton, and it’s Saturday, Nov. 12, 2022. Let’s look again on the week in Opinion.

Los Angeles had a traditional election, unburdened by any 2020 election deniers flirting with energy. The identical was true for a lot of California — other than native races in GOP redoubts, and Orange County Republican Rep. Michelle Steel will get an honorable point out for her openly dishonest, anti-Chinese smearing of opponent Jay Chen — a actuality made attainable by the state Republican Party’s marginalization over its reactionary, anti-immigrant politics. As I wrote in final week’s publication, that allowed Californians to placed on an issue-driven election the place a sure ex-president who retired to South Florida performed arguably no position. Hooray for us.

The remainder of the nation had it worse. Just one state over from us, in Arizona, Republican Kari Lake falsely sowed doubt about the vote on election evening and has given no indication she’ll settle for defeat, the place she seems headed as extra ballots are tallied. Also near us, in Nevada, an election-denying Republican is operating about even with the Democrat for secretary of state and will oversee the 2024 vote in that state.

I distinction California with different states to make clear the precariousness of the nation’s state of affairs, even when the “red wave” by which Republicans would decisively take the House and even the Senate didn’t materialize. Yes, by historic requirements, the 2022 midterm was an aberration — the president’s political occasion may have accomplished so much worse. But I’d argue there isn’t a apt historic comparability, with this being the primary nationwide vote for the reason that chief of 1 occasion incited his followers to violently storm the U.S. Capitol. I do know there’s a number of inertia constructed into the U.S. political system — that inertia was why our democratic establishments didn’t merely collapse underneath the load of Trumpism — nevertheless it’s arduous to search out consolation when an insurrectionist-enabling occasion isn’t drummed out of energy and totally marginalized on the first alternative. The projected margin of Republican management of the House, if the Republicans do certainly emerge with management, will probably be razor-thin — however “Speaker Kevin McCarthy” doesn’t precisely sound like democracy defending itself.

The Times’ Editorial Board equally threw some chilly water on the left’s post-election exuberance by the lamenting Trumpism’s continued affect: “This election offers some signs that Trump’s influence on American politics is waning, but his toxic legacy remains enmeshed in our nation’s governance. It’s scary to think about how that power could still be exploited to determine who wins the presidency in 2024.”

So we’ll both write Trumpism’s obituary in 2024, or metal ourselves for extra tumult. Taking the lengthy view, I can solely hope the Republican Party’s open embrace of authoritarianism and racism seems about in addition to it will definitely did for the California GOP after it pushed the anti-immigrant Proposition 187 on us in 1994. Republicans are nonetheless paying for that racist gambit practically 30 years later, and possibly at some point the Trumpist GOP will observe its California faction into irrelevance.

Any day now. …

This wasn’t the post-election day column he had teed up, however Nicholas Goldberg says he was pleasantly stunned by Tuesday’s outcomes. He was anticipating to lament the ragtag bunch of conspiracy theorists and election deniers predicted earlier than Nov. 8 to take management of Washington, however the voters delivered one thing else: a reprieve. The state of affairs isn’t excellent, nevertheless it’ll do for now: “We have to take solace where we can. The big takeaway of the week is that there’s some hope. Trump’s bid to tighten his grip on the GOP, win seats for the hundreds of candidates he endorsed and position himself for 2024 was not terribly successful.” L.A. Times

California’s election outcomes require persistence. That’s a very good factor. We’re nonetheless ready to search out out who would be the subsequent mayor of Los Angeles, and we would not know for some time. That’s a byproduct of mass-enfranchisement in California, the place each registered voter is shipped a mail-in poll, and the objective is to extend participation and guarantee accuracy, not essentially fast outcomes. The editorial board advises persistence. L.A. Times

This isn’t what solidarity appears like. Erin Aubry Kaplan appears on the fury over racist feedback by L.A. City Council members within the context of Latino ascendance in areas of Los Angeles that have been as soon as closely Black: “The moral outrage of the past couple of weeks has been refreshing, the universal admonishing of these Latino politicians for their casual anti-Blackness heartening. But the outrage might be fleeting. The truth is that, until recently, nobody has really seen Black loss — political, but also educational, economic, spiritual— as a crisis that needs to be addressed, even though Black people have been raising their voices about it for decades.” The Atlantic

Gretchen Whitmer deserves the identical consideration as Ron DeSantis. Florida’s governor emerged because the Republican Party’s finest hope for 2024 after the midterms, nevertheless it was the Michigan Democrat who pulled off a extra spectacular feat: Her occasion gained full management of each legislative chambers, one thing that hasn’t occurred for Michigan Democrats in 40 years. “If President Biden decides not to seek reelection, do not underestimate her chances for the Democratic nomination and the White House,” writes Michigan native LZ Granderson. L.A. Times

The largest losers? The GOP and Trump. Jackie Calmes chronicles the previous president’s unenviable report since squeaking out and electoral faculty victory in 2016: “After Trump won the presidency in 2016 (despite losing the popular vote), he’s lost in every election cycle since. The 2018 midterm elections were a referendum on his erratic, divisive record and Republicans lost their House majority. In 2020, he lost reelection and Republican senators their majority. Yes, that’s a fact. After that unprecedented record of losses — House, Senate and White House — a normal party would have divorced him. But of course, the Republican Party didn’t and now we have 2022.” L.A. Times