A turning of the tide?

It's too soon to say with any certainty, but today is one that is cause for cautious optimism at the very least. I posted the live feed to Cory Booker's record-breaking 25 hour Senate floor speech last night when he had only been on a few hours. At the time I would have had no way of predicting how long he would hold the floor. His action beat the previous record of Strom Thurmond (an old-school segregationist) that went back to the 1950s, who needed to swept into the dustbin of history anyway. This speech was more than a form of performance art. Senator Booker tackled substantive issues throughout the 25 hours and four minutes he held the floor. He was joined by Democratic colleagues along the way - a number of whom asked questions to give Senator Booker's voice a rest. And those questions were substantive. For those who question whether or not the Democratic Party can meet the moment, hopefully this day will offer reason to hope.

There were a number of special elections today. In Florida, two US House seats were up after they were vacated by individuals who were nominated for cabinet positions in the current Trump regime. These seats were in heavily GOP districts, and the incumbents had won by a hair of 30% last November. Today, while the expected outcome happened (GOP candidates win in heavily GOP districts), their Democratic opponents managed to make those elections considerably closer than initially expected. Thirty percent margins were whittled down to maybe 15% margins or thereabouts. In Wisconsin, in spite of Elon Musk's efforts to buy a state Supreme Court seat, the candidate favored by the Democratic Party won easily. It looks like the incumbent for State Superintendent will also win her race. If anyone other than Trump's cult members needed a sign that Musk is simply too radioactive to be of any use in political campaigns, this was it. Musk has once more show piss poor judgment by throwing millions to buy an election (and flouting state election law in the process) with nothing to show for it.

Elise Stefanik who is a representative in New York saw her Ambassadorship nomination pulled because her safe GOP seat no longer appeared so safe. This is a sign that the GOP brass is getting nervous. All of this comes ahead of Trump's big Wednesday announcement of what would be the largest tax increase on American citizens and residents in living memory. Yes, tariffs are taxes, and it is ultimately those of us ordinary folks who end up paying for the tariffs. 

There is a lot that is truly bleak right now, and I would advise against getting our hopes up too high, but I think we're seeing something of an inflection point. The question now is if Democratic leadership and rank and file can build on this momentum moving forward. The fate of our democratic republic hangs in the balance.

 

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