Republicans Lose Georgia, Won’t Learn the Lessons

Will Republicans learn from their Georgia United States Senate run-off election losses? That seems unlikely.

I had written that it was likely the Georgia races would split, but exit polls suggest Donald Trump tilted the races against the Republicans. Trump cost the party the Senate. Trumpism has seriously damaged the Republican Party. The damage will continue for many years as Republican politicians pander to their voting base.

The Republican candidates reflect an older, white, wealthy, entitled group. The two Republicans running for Senate in Georgia were not the long-term future of the party, but they do represent the party as it is today.

The standard scheduled senate race, Republican David Perdue, 71 years old, faced-off against Democrat Jon Ossoff, 33. I’m over 50, and my libertarian tendencies believe people should be able to vote for whomever they want. I don’t like the idea of term limits or age limits on office holders. Yet, we really need some new faces in governments. Ossoff brings energy and a new perspective.

I disagree with Ossoff on the issues, and I was convinced Perdue would win. Yet, that didn’t happen.

The special election at least offered younger and more diverse choices. Yet, it was still a rich, white businesswoman versus a civil rights advocate. Republican Kelly Loeffler and her opponent are “young” politicians. Loeffler, 50, faced Democrat Raphael Warnock, 51. I assumed Warnock might win, barely, because of his impressive life story and current post as pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King, Jr., served in the same position.

Again, I’m not going to agree with Warnock on many policy issues, but he represents Georgia.

I could not argue any moral case for supporting Perdue and Loeffler, two Senators clinging to Trump. These two Republicans deserved to lose because they would not disavow Trump or his rhetoric. They would not stand up for the truth, and truth matters to me.

I live in Texas and I cannot support Ted Cruz for any reason. Like Perdue and Loeffler, he abandoned conservative fiscal and Constitutional principles too easily. Plus, he was always a social conservative, which I deeply dislike. I oppose the Republican embrace of social authoritarianism, such as the “faith-based” views of Cruz. (He probably has no actual moral compass or convictions, beyond Ted Cruz – making him too much like Donald Trump.)

The Associated Press reports, as of today:

Jon Ossoff (Dem), 50.6% with 2,269,304 votes
David Perdue (Rep), 49.4% with 2,213,950 votes

Special election results:

Raphael Warnock (Dem), 51% with 2,288,483 votes
Kelly Loeffler (Rep), 49% with 2,194,824

The GOP deserved to lose. They will likely gain seats in two years, but did they learn anything? Probably not. There are too many Trumpist embracing nationalism, xenophobia, racism, sexism, and religious intolerance. The Republican Party deserves to lose, time and time again.

Even if I disagree with Democrats, I’d rather have honest progressives in power than hateful, manipulative, authoritarian “conservatives” that represent the worst of our nation. As a libertarian, I never feel great about  my votes. Socially tolerant, fiscally conservative doesn’t win elections. It never did and probably never will.

At least I felt okay-ish with some Republicans. Now, there are few, very few, Republicans I could endorse.

The Republicans are risking eventual marginalization nationally. Georgia, Texas, and Arizona are changing. The GOP changed, too, but in the opposite direction.

Democrats need to realize why they won, too. Trump highly motivated opposition. People were excited to vote against Donald Trump, not for Joe Biden.

The “Biden model” won, which was a cautious center-left campaign. The Black GOTV efforts won. And… #NeverTrump shows up in exit polling. In a close election, that mattered.

The GOP pushed out suburban voters and libertarian-minded voters in urban centers. That’s what data suggest. The party is rural, white, old, and angry.