Election losses are no fun

Well, so much for my prediction of "October surprise" published in the month of October 2020 about the election of electors that took place the following month. And so the White House has shifted Presidents and parties, too. Democrats are happy. Republicans are disgusted. My Republican friends on social media now slam President Joe Biden regularly. Talk show hosts who detest Donald Trump now must find other topics to talk about.

While my prediction of "victory formation" for Trump & Co. did not come to pass, my call on carrying Southern states did have some substance. President Biden captured Virginia, as did Hillary Clinton in 2016. But he also colored Georgia blue for the first time since Bill Clinton in 1992. So my position as to Democrats being required to at least carry a Southern state or three to win remains. Even though it seems that the party blows off the South at times. I know it seems like they blow off Tennessee other than Davidson and Shelby counties.

Biden also persuaded Democrats in the battleground states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania to come back to the party after delivering the electoral vote and the White House to President Trump in 2016. These three states could have delivered the Presidency to Hillary Clinton four years ago. Biden was clever in pulling them back in to the Democratic column.

Another statistic of note: Ohio and sixty years. 1960 to be exact. 1960 was the last time the Buckeye state did not vote for the winner. Voters there chose Richard Nixon in 1960 and Donald Trump in 2020.

Tennessee also has historically picked the winner before being safe in the Republican camp since 1996. We voted for Trump, and Trump did not win.

The most telling of exit polls was the one reported by The Tennessean that stated that, even more than in typical years where a sitting President is running for reelection, this was a national referendum on the person in the Oval Office. And people were ready to lose the loud arrogance, constant Tweeting, and questionable facts from President Trump. Most losing Presidential campaigns are not run well, and Donald Trump will probably never regret anything. But he should have been more positive about his record and the resilience of the American people during the COVID-19 nightmare. 

The best patriotic Trump TV ad I saw last spring did not run long. To be sure, a lot of President Trump's constituency likes his outsider, "drain the swamp", "us versus them" angle. But I just don't think it served him well during this last campaign. 

To add to the Republican misery, President Trump's legal action challenging the result of the election may very well have cost his party control of the United States Senate. Focus on the lost Presidential race dominated the thoughts of Republicans and drew attention away from two pivotal U.S. Senate races in the state of Georgia. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock tipped the balance to 50 all, with Vice President Harris able to break ties.

And so, with a tight midterm election coming up in 2022 for control of the Senate, the Republican party had better pick an identity sooner rather than later. In a sense, it will be simple to unite in opposition to President Joe Biden and his agenda. But the party will need leaders to emerge.

James A. Rose

Publisher