Will Republicans Learn Anything?

The American people came out hard for abortion rights last night. The GOP is intent on ignoring them.

Photo by Joshua Sukoff on Unsplash

Last night, abortion won big. Everywhere abortion rights were on the ballot, abortion rights won. Several Democratic candidates who ran on abortion squeaked out tight victories, and over and over again, the voters who cast their ballots for them said that abortion was their #1 issue. Today, I have a piece in the Guardian about what Democrats need to learn from this moment, and what they need to do next — which is deliver on their promises to protect and expand abortion rights.

But Republicans — the losers here — have even bigger lessons to learn.

If Democrats had lost big in the midterms, which is what the polls and the pundits (myself included) were predicting, you can bet that the rest of this week would be spent debating how to pick up the pieces and how the party should change. Should Democrats get tough on crime? Have addressed inflation more directly? Emphasized pocketbook issues that affect everyone, instead of emphasizing abortion and so-called “social issues” (as if being forced into early and unwanted motherhood is irrelevant to women’s economic lives)?