ELECTION MOP UP

By Edwin Cooney

By the time this message reaches your inbox, 13 days will have passed since we last went to the polls. A number of events have taken place (including a most interesting response I received from one of you readers) that I believe are worth all of our whiles.

First came the news that President Trump finally dismissed Attorney General Sessions. Whether Mr. Sessions was actually fired or whether he resigned may actually come to matter. Sessions’ replacement, at least temporarily, is Matthew Whitaker who on the one hand insists that the Mueller investigation has gone too far (which has to please his boss), but who also insists that the Supreme Court doesn’t have the right to review legislation. (So much for eliminating Roe v. Wade!) How well do you suppose that will go down in Peoria or Paducah or anywhere else in Trump Nation!

Second, there are the three contested elections in Florida between Governor Rick Scott and Senator Bell Nelson for the U.S. Senate, between Andrew Gillum and Ron DeSantis for the Florida governorship, and two candidates for Florida Agriculture Secretary. Florida voters will ultimately settle the gubernatorial and agriculture secretary races, but the U.S. Senate race is likely out of their hands! Here’s the little known truth about the Scott versus Nelson race for the US. Senate. Should Bill Nelson be declared winner under the laws of Florida, Republicans in the Senate are permitted under Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution to use their majority to declare Governor Scott the winner. This has happened at least twice before. In 1975, after considerable political activity in New Hampshire, the Democratic Senate vacated the 1974 election between John A. Durkin and Louis Wyman allowing New Hampshirites to hold another election that would send Democrat Durkin to the Senate. In 2008, candidate Al Franken appealed to the Democratic Senate to settle his electoral contest with Norm Coleman. Fortunately, Coleman finally conceded the election. Thus, although currently the Scott/Nelson election is before the Florida judiciary, it is likely that it will end up before the majority Republicans in the Senate whether or not the citizens of Florida like it.

Third, as time passes, my babbling brook has become a rather swift stream even approaching “Big River” status. As of election night, Democrats had picked up 28 seats to give them a 5 seat lead in the House. As Tuesday became Wednesday, good news steadily came in for the Democrats. In California,  4 of the 7 seats which Democrats had marked to flip in their favor actually had been flipped as of Thursday, November 15th. Amazingly, Tuesday night’s babbling brook has increased its momentum to the point that it is possible that it will be a formidable political factor for the next two years. Then on Friday, November 16th, came the news that Republican Congressman Bruce Poliquin has just been defeated by Democrat Jared Golden in Maine’s Second Congressional District. Congressman Poliquin was the lone standing Republican member of the House of Representatives in New England. The only prominent Republicans holding high office in New England are Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, Vermont Governor Phil Scott, and Maine’s Senator Susan Collins, all of whom are moderate members of the GOP. Then, came more bad news for Republicans in California when it was announced that Republican Mimi Walters, a two-term Congresswoman, had been defeated by Democrat Katie Porter. This means that three of four House seats in Orange County, California have gone Democratic. As far back as I can remember, Orange County has been a bedrock of Conservatism. 

So, what does it all mean? As I see it, that depends on three factors: President Trump’s reaction to the election, what unfolds from the Mueller investigation, and how the President handles another government shutdown crisis that awaits the end of December. However, there may be a light at the end of the tunnel.

On Wednesday, November 14th, President Trump announced that he would support Democratic efforts to pass significant criminal justice reform. President Trump, as are all presidents, is most effective when he gets out in front of an issue and he appears to be out in front of this one. Democrats and moderate Republicans believe that there are too many people in prison for too many questionable reasons. Two Senators, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa and Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, are pushing penal reform, as seems to be the president. The strongest opponents of penal reform are a set of Conservative Republicans who insist that penal reform is nothing more than the ticket for criminals to get out of jail. This struggle may well have some dramatic and fascinating outcomes. By all means — stay tuned!

Finally, last week I issued a challenge. I asked if anyone who deliberately sets out to control you by fear is someone who respects you.

I received a response from a lady who clearly sees socialistic forces behind the approaching caravan, because she says that up until now she had thought that I was an intelligent person. She asserts that no one who lives or has lived under socialism is happy.

What fascinates me about that observation is the assumption that political (or even religious) ideology is a barometer of intelligence. I wasn’t offended in the slightest by her wonderment, partly because as a youth I believed that all really intelligent people agreed with me politically. However, as I made contact with a wider group of people, I found that I had more in common with political extremists than I did with those of moderate or more indifferent views. Another interesting reality in our ongoing culture war is the number of ideological Conservatives who wonder (out loud too often) if liberals aren’t basically mentally ill. That’s precisely what the Soviets not only wondered about but insisted upon doing something about when dealing with its unhappy constituency. As for happy societies, some months ago I wrote about that very topic. According to “The World Happiness Report,” the world’s ten most happy nations are Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, and Australia. The following aspects of life measured were income GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy,  social support, freedom to make life decisions, trust (the absence of corruption in government), and generosity. (All of these are highly socialistic. We ranked 14th among the approximate 150 nations measured in 2017. By 2018 we’d dropped from 14th to 18th happiest nation in the world.)

I assert that there are too many people who haven’t taken the time to examine what constitutes socialism and what a society without a sense of social purpose would be like!

I love the assertions made by this reader.  They’re even more interesting to contemplate than the significances of recent election returns!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY