Red and Blue Lies Grudge Match

By Richard Boettger

Democrats have been calling Republican claims the 2020 election was stolen the “Big Lie”  But now they have created a “Big Lie” of their own, of a much different flavor: that the anti-Roe Supreme Court decision was “illegitimate,” and can be overcome by the voters in the next election on November 8th of this year.

I’m not here to take sides, because I think both are wrong.  What is at issue is that both Reds and Blues here have something in common: a large majority of their voters who are deluded.  Seventy percent of Reds think the election was stolen, and an even larger percentage of Blues think there is something wrong with the Supreme Court decision.

I am also not here to say either side is “wrong” on those counts.  I say the shared delusion is that either side can do anything about it.  Reds should realize by now that they cannot change what happened in 2020, Trump is NOT going to be re-installed as President for Life—for God’s sake, they actually STORMED THE CAPITAL on his behalf and got close, but couldn’t quite seal the deal.  For Blues, they think that somehow winning the next election will somehow cause Roe v. Wade to come back.

Okay, for the Blues, their hope is not as impossible as re-doing 2020.  The 2022 election is still four months away, and with inflamed passion, they have made keeping the House and Senate go from flat impossible to a snowball’s chance in hell.  The question in the election will be, who votes more: Reds grateful for their side’s winning the abortion debate, or Blues outraged at having lost it?

Well, here is the Big Truth about the American electorate: they vote far more out of anger and hate than love and gratitude. That’s what lost it for both Hilary and Trump in the last two elections. Normally, whoever wins the Presidency loses Congress badly two years later because the losing side has more hate for the winners than the winning side has love for their Party.

This November, the test will be, who actually goes to the polls?  Red passion is mainly to get Trump back, and he is not on the ballot this year.  Winning Congress doesn’t do anything for them, because outside of getting Trump back and stopping abortion, there is really nothing they want the national government to do for them.  They already won the abortion contest.  Do they really want to get out of their recliners and risk COVID to go wait in line behind a mass of angry Blue voters at their precinct houses, just to somehow say “Thanks” to the Supreme Court?  I don’t think so.

On the other side, impassioned Blues have no other way to show their anger after having lost Roe v. Wade, storming the Capitol not being part of their DNA.  Even picketing Justices’ homes will fizzle in a few weeks, unlike Reds’ picketing abortion doctors every day for decades.  So for Blues, its either the November congressional elections or crying themselves to sleep every night for the rest of their lives.  I see them storming the polls, as it were, but without the “Hang Antonin Scalia!” nooses in their hands.

So for us political junkies, now the November elections will be interesting instead of just watching a brutal ass-kicking, seeing whether Blues lost five or ten Senate seats, and 30 or 50 House seats.  Now, there might be a historical upset, kind of like Trump 2016 in reverse.

I must say I have mixed emotions about this.  As I have written here at length, I have been hoping that a Blue shellacking in 2022 and having the Presidency successfully stolen by the Reds in 2024 is what it would take to get the Blues to secede from the Disunited States of America.  I want to live to see two really happy and much more successful countries, the actual Red States of America and Blue States of America (including Canada, to link the West Coast and Northeast).  The Blues winning this year might keep this bad marriage together, no matter what happens in 2024.  Sigh.  I guess I’ll just have to live with it.

On the up side, I’d like to see that both sides having their own Big Lies could lead to a smidgen of compassion for what the other side is feeling.  That is, Dems, take your pain at the loss of Rod v. Wade and understand that’s how bad most Republicans feel about losing their beloved President Trump.  Reds, try to understand the same about your Blue sisters’ pain at losing their Choice protection. As Rodney King said, “Can we, can we all get along?”  Well, maybe a snowball might have a chance in hell.

[livemarket market_name="KONK Life LiveMarket" limit=3 category=“” show_signup=0 show_more=0]