And then it was over.
Well, not quite; at press time, the Senate race between Florida’s Rick Scott and Bill Nelson appears headed for a recount, Stacey Abrams has yet to concede in Georgia, and various talking heads will be unpacking what it all means at least until, oh, about the time we start ramping up for the 2020 race. But, by and large, the most contentious, toxic and participated-in national midterm election in decades, if ever, is over.
Those talking heads will have vastly differing opinions on what the results indicate about where the country is headed, but one takeaway is unarguable: America remains deeply, deeply divided.
Nationwide, there were some serious indications that some folks are ready for a change. Democrats took governorships in states that went for Trump in 2016, and took control of the House of Representatives. The first Native American and Muslim women were elected to Congress, along with the youngest woman in history to gain a seat, as the House of Representatives turned blue; the first openly gay man to become governor did so in Colorado.
Republicans strengthened their hold on the Senate, though, and not even Beto O’Rourke’s youthful energy and army of progressives could unseat Ted Cruz in Texas. Across the U.S., what people were anticipating to be an overwhelming rebuke of the GOP’s support of President Trump turned out to be proof that many Republicans were perfectly happy with the way things are.
In Florida, the schism persisted. Voters gave the largest bloc of disenfranchised citizens the right to vote since the womens’ suffrage movement. They banned greyhound racing and fracking (along with vaping indoors, and what those two have to do with one another is still anyone’s guess), but Republicans Ashley Moody and Matt Caldwell took the key Attorney General and Agricultural Commission positions, respectively. And, of course, president of the Florida chapter of Donny Trump’s Junior Jingoists, Ron DeSantis, edged out Andrew Gillum, who nearly took the prize anyway despite a campaign that got more help from kids on the ground than it did from the Democratic Party. Meanwhile, those who thought Bill Nelson would have no problem defending his Senate seat against Rick Scott had another think coming.
Locally, it was no different. Pinellas sent the first LGBTQ woman, Jennifer Webb, to the state legislature. Hillsborough stepped up to endorse a better transit plan and more money for public schools. On the other hand, Jeff Brandes easily defended his seat against the eminently qualified and telegenic Lindsay Cross, and noted yacht enthusiast Gus Bilirakis smoked Democratic challenger Chris Hunter.
There might’ve been something of a blue wave, but it was much less powerful than the bluenami most progressives hoped for, and many expected.
A state, and a nation, divided.
The phrase “we/they left everything on the field” was uttered no fewer than a dozen times on Tuesday by candidates and other politicos, including the president himself. It’s a sports term, and it wasn’t the only one employed ad nauseum over the course of the campaigns leading up to Tuesday’s main event. Somehow, we’ve turned politics into a team sport, with superfans on either side, backing their franchise come hell or high water.
The news anchors and commentators and armchair quarterbacks will be arguing for weeks over who actually “won” the 2018 midterm elections. There’s compelling evidence to support either opinion, but when it comes down to it, that’s all they are: opinions.
Because governance is not a fucking sport. And we may ignore that at our peril.
This article appears in Nov 1-8, 2018.