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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy does the media keep saying this election was a loss for Democrats? It wasn't
Opinion
Why does the media keep saying this election was a loss for Democrats? It wasnt
Rebecca Solnit
The election swept in a number of women and politicians of color at the state and local level. Yet pundits want to pretend this was an electoral catastrophe.
Sat 6 Nov 2021 06.18 EDT
Pretty much anything that happens to the Democrats is a sign that theyre weak and losing and should be worried, according to the storylines into which mainstream media tends to stuff news. Pretty much nothing, including losing, seems to signify that the Republicans are losers. In so habitually and apparently unconsciously fitting a wide array of new and varied facts into familiar old frameworks, the media shape the political landscape at least as much as they report on it.
Its in the language. The New York Times editorial board thunders that Democrats deny political reality at their own peril and then insists that this election in which a moderate lost is a sign that the party needs to get more moderate. Bloomberg News found a way to make a victory sound like defeat: Phil Murphy clung on to win a second term as New Jerseys governor, surviving by a narrow margin. It was about the same margin by which a Republican won the Virginia governorship, but the language around that was apocalyptic (though Virginia usually elects a governor whos in the other party than the president, and New Jersey which not long ago gave Republican Chris Christie two terms re-elected its first Democratic governor in decades on Tuesday).
According to the Washington Post, which seemed to believe that Virginia was a national referendum on the party: Democrats scramble to deflect voter anger. The verbiage that followed was stuffed with the emotive language of a pulp novel, though it was presented as news: An off-year electoral wipeout highlighted the fragile state of the partys electoral majorities in the House and Senate. But a new round of bitter recriminations threatened to dash Democratic hopes of quickly moving past the stinging defeats. Fragile, bitter, stinging. Wipeout, dash, defeat. It is true that Terry McAuliffe lost, and also true that he was a corporate centrist who, reportedly, ran a lousy campaign; its also true that he is not the Democratic party, and the nation didnt vote in Virginias election.
As for this weeks election, it swept in a lot of progressive mayors of color. The most prominent was Michelle Wu, who won the Boston mayors seat as the first woman and first person of color. Elaine ONeal will become Durham, North Carolinas, first Black woman mayor, and Abdullah Hammoud will become Dearborns first Muslim and Arab American mayor. Aftab Pureval will become Cincinnatis first Asian American mayor. Pittsburgh elected its first Black mayor, and so did Kansas City, Kansas. Clevelands new mayor is also Black. New York City elected its second Black Democratic mayor, and Shahana Hanif became the first Muslim woman elected to the city council (incidentally, New York City and Virginia have about the same population). In Seattle, a moderate defeated a progressive, which you could also phrase as a Black and Asian American man defeated a Latina. A lot of queer and trans people won elections, or in the case of Virginias Danica Roem, the first out trans person to win a seat in a state legislature, won reelection.
More at:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/06/democrats-election-victory-loss-media-republicans
Scrivener7
(51,053 posts)McAuliffe's two point win in the past election and Youngkin's two point win in this one was instructive. Youngkin's was described as a blowout, McAuliffe's was described as an eked out lucky unlikely break.
This was a "normal" election in terms of wins and losses.
It breaks my heart that people still vote for that party of Nazis, but you are right.
Demsrule86
(68,715 posts)work need in order to win the midterms. We need to have someone with experience handling the DNC.
Chille
(193 posts)Seattle Buffalo Portland Long Island
piddyprints
(14,649 posts)Heads, I win; Tails, you lose.
The Democrats can do nothing good and the Republicans can do no wrong when it comes to the MSM. It's pretty frustrating.
I'm guessing that with BIF passing, they'll put a bunch of Republicans on TV to tell the country how we're going into more debt, it's irresponsible, etc. That's just how they're drawn.