A few takeaways from the midterm election results.
I’m happy with the outcome. Republicans have expanded their majority in the Senate, and that means that the caravan of conservative justices will continue to flood the circuit courts and perhaps even the Supreme Court. The Trump Administration is constructing a judicial dam that may just stem the progressive tide should the Democrats retake the presidency in 2020. Many social conservatives took a gamble on Trump because they wanted pro-life and pro-family judges, and that gamble has paid off enormously. The midterm elections ensured that this will continue.
Additionally, it was fascinating to see just how quickly the Democrats abandoned their anti-Kavanaugh crusade. Their nearly universal refusal to mention him on the campaign trail (and you would think that campaigning against someone they smeared as a gang rapist would make for some fiery stump speeches) indicates just how cynical their attempt to kill his nomination really was. If the midterms were a referendum on the success of the Left’s smear job on Brett Kavanaugh, it clearly highlighted just how badly they over-reached. It was especially sweet to see Senator Heidi Heitkamp, who infamously high-fived Chuck Schumer after voting in favor of late-term abortion, lose her seat to pro-lifer Kevin Cramer.
Voters in both Alabama and West Virginia also approved pro-life amendments to their state constitutions. Alabama voted 59% in favor of making it a state policy to protect “the rights of unborn children” and to “support the sanctity of unborn life.” West Virginia voted 52% in favor of the assertion that nothing in the state constitution “secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the state funding of abortion.” These amendments are indicators of strong pro-life sentiments in the two states, and would dramatically curtail—if not ban outright—abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned.
The Blue Wave that commentators predicted never came. The midterms were hardly the resounding repudiation of Trump that progressives were banking on, although the new Democratic majority in the House will certainly result in endless investigations and impeachment attempts. The Republicans have gained power where it really counts (at least from this social conservative’s point of view), with predictable results in Congress. Voters may not love Trump, but the shrill leftism of the Democrats does not seem to be an electoral winner, either.
I very much doubt that they will learn that lesson.
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For anyone interested, my book on The Culture War, which analyzes the journey our culture has taken from the way it was to the way it is and examines the Sexual Revolution, hook-up culture, the rise of the porn plague, abortion, commodity culture, euthanasia, and the gay rights movement, is available for sale here.
