How Abortion Defined the 2022 Midterms

Ask anyone what Mehmet Oz said about reproductive rights during last month’s Pennsylvania Senate debate, and they’ll probably tell you that the TV doctor believes an abortion should be between “a woman, her doctor, and local political leaders.” The truth is, that dystopian Handmaid’s Tale–esque statement did not come verbatim from the Republican’s mouth. But it may have cost him the election anyway. Instead, that catchphrase entered Pennsylvania voters’ consciousness—and ricocheted across social media—via a tweet by Pat Dennis, a Democratic opposition researcher. Dennis’s megaviral post included a clip purporting…

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Trumpism Is Toxic

The Republican Party swaggered into Tuesday’s midterm elections with full confidence that it would clobber President Joe Biden and his Democratic Party, capitalizing on voters’ concerns over inflation and the economy to retake majorities in both chambers of Congress. The question, party officials believed, was one only of scale: Would it be a red wave, or a red tsunami? The answer, it turns out, is neither. As of this morning, Republicans had yet to secure a majority in either the House or the Senate. Across the country, Democrats won races…

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The Obama Nostalgia Show

PHILADELPHIA—Outside the basketball arena at Temple University, a long line of anxious Democrats contemplated their party’s possibly bleak political future, as a brass band played Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off.” That strange juxtaposition of dread and joy seemed to be the theme of Saturday afternoon’s rally at the Liacouras Center. Democrats were happy to hear a closing campaign message from President Joe Biden, and excited to show their support for the Senate candidate John Fetterman, the gubernatorial hopeful Josh Shapiro, and the rest of the Democratic slate. They were cautiously…

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Justice Jackson’s Crucial Argument About Affirmative Action

Yesterday, an hour and a half into the marathon hearings about whether colleges can use race as a factor in admissions decisions, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson began to rub her temples as she looked down at her notes. “We’re entertaining a rule where some people can say what they want about who they are and have that valued in a system,” she said. “And I’m worried that that creates an inequity in the system with respect to being able to express our identity.” Black and Latino applicants would be limited…

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7 Elections Reversed After Ballot Harvesting Scandals

This is an adapted excerpt from Fred Lucas’ new book “The Myth of Voter Suppression: The Left’s Assault on Clean Elections,” now out from Bombardier Books. The paid operatives are sometimes called “ballot brokers.” In Florida, they were known as “boleteros,” and in Texas they were called “politiqueras.” Both of these states passed laws to ban ballot harvesting after significant scandals. H.R. 1, the wish list bill of election proposals that Democrats call the “For the People Act” that failed to pass, would have prohibited state bans on ballot harvesting.…

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The Double-Negative Election

This has become the double-negative election. Most Americans consistently say in polls that they believe that President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats have mismanaged crime, the border, and, above all, the economy and inflation. But roughly as many Americans say that they view the modern Republican Party as a threat to their rights, their values, or to democracy itself. Based on Biden’s first two years in office, surveys show that most Americans are reluctant to continue following the policy path he has laid out. But polls also show no enthusiasm…

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