Zoom out a little to find two fundamental, transformational messages behind voters’ zeal for change in the blue wave that swept the nation in the midterm elections.
Frustrated by high prices for gas, diesel and groceries as well as a cruel, flailing president and an intransigent Congress that has poked at each other instead of working together to help people, voters threw out a lot of bums. In South Carolina, they elected a new Democratic U.S. senator, Annie Andrews, and a new Democratic member of Congress, forcibly retired Navy Admiral Nancy Lacore.
This pair is integral among the new leaders who can get Washington working again for everyday people. But the scores of fresh faces elected in the midterms need to keep the election’s core messages and values in the forefronts of their minds.
First, look at the New Testament theme developed by Democratic Sen.-elect James Talarico of Texas, whose campaign waved “Love Thy Neighbor” placards throughout the fall. He and others, such as the Rev. Adam Hamilton of Kansas, reminded voters that electing thoughtful Democrats with a moral backbone to do the right thing will benefit the nation in multiple ways.
After the returns came in, Talarico spoke about how Americans needed to hug the politics of love, which the Texas Observer viewed as him doubling down on how faith informs his view of public service. He said, “There is no love of God without love of neighbor. Every single person bears the image of the sacred. Every single person is holy.”
It was a striking moral message that Democrats like Talarico and others across the country reclaimed in the national discourse after years of Old Testament fire and brimstone from Republican moral crusaders warning against everything.
Second, voters in South Carolina and Michigan elected doctors to the Senate – pediatrician Andrews and epidemiologist Adbul el-Sayed, respectively. Across the rest of the country, voters tapped several other Democrats with careers in medicine and science.
What’s notable is that the doctors among them keep the Hippocratic Oath (“Do no harm”) as motivators. Like the moral “Love thy neighbor” message, the critical thinking skills behind the oath are second nature to doctors and scientists. This kind of thinking will be a foundation to changes to agencies and policies that harm ordinary Americans. These skills should reframe how Congress deals with the ills of immigration and ICE brutality, harmful tariffs and an ongoing war in the Middle East that saps resources and America’s military.
The bloom of the new Congress offers real hope to Americans from South Carolina to Texas to Alaska for better governance and change that will make things more affordable and work better. Newly-elected members need to keep morally steadfast (“love thy neighbor”) and pierce the lies and obfuscations of the last two years to obliterate the pain caused by the Trump administration (“do no harm”).
Help keep the City Paper free.
No paywalls.
No subscription cost.
Free delivery at 800 locations.
Help support independent journalism by donating today.
