BOVEE — Election results: What does it all mean?
Like raptors to road kill, the pundits, political parties, propagandists, and partisans are pecking at the recent election results and regurgitating — for the edification of We The People — “what it all means.”
I like to think of myself as more eagle than vulture, but as a compulsive commentator I can’t resist flocking to the freeway feast. So, even if you have had quite enough election post mortem — here goes — the answer to the question: “what does it all mean?”
First, something it doesn’t mean: the Nov. 4 election is not a wholesale rejection of Trump and his policy. The victory for Democrats/Socialists/Communists in New Jersey, Virginia and the Mayor Mamdani win in NYC is not notice that America has turned against Trump.
In NJ there are 800,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans. Trump lost New Jersey in 2024 by more than 250,000 votes — and his opponent was Kamala Harris! As bad as NJ’s new governor-elect may be, she can at least speak something other than unintelligible word salads cackled out with the charm of the original Wicked Witch of the West. Plus, approximately 250,000 people have moved out of New Jersey. Most Garden State refugees are probably Republican-leaning citizens motivated by a desire to escape a place near the nation’s top for highest tax burden and cost of living.
Given New Jersey’s political playing field it is, by undeniable understatement, no surprise that a Democrat won.
The Democrat home field advantage is even greater in NYC. Fact check me on this, but I have heard that the Democrat registration over Republican in the Big Apple is 7-1! How could the winner of the Democrat mayoral primary not win? The Mamdani win teaches that a Democrat candidate who is wildly unqualified, antisemitic, and a proponent of Marxist ideas can win — by 50.4% to 48.7% — over a disgraced unpopular former governor and a political gadfly who probably sleeps in a red beret.
A 50.4 percentage for Mayor Mamdani is not exactly an overwhelming mandate for a Marxist manifesto. The Mamdani coalition includes the usual suspects: old white people trying to relive their glory days of protest in the 60’s and 70’s, and voters too young and/or oblivious to remember the failed promise of a “Free Obama Phone.” Mamdani’s victory may even be evidence that a slim majority of NYC voters are inclined to make decisions based on a masochistic need to suffer. After all, they previously elected Bill de Blasio as mayor and they pay exorbitant rent to live like canned sardines.
Another apparent election victor is Gavin Newsom in California. The Golden State governor successfully hoodwinked voters into approving his gerrymandering plan to fully achieve his goal of a One Party government in California — like the Soviet Union, North Korea and Cuba. This victory virtually guarantees front-runner status to Newsom in his obsessive quest to be the Democrat candidate for president in 2028.
Dating back to the father of our country, George Washington, Americans have known that winning one battle doesn’t guarantee winning the war. Winners of last week’s battle — like Mamdani and Newsom — may prove to be so inept, misguided, destructive, and ultimately unpopular that voters — in 2026 and especially 2028 — will propel candidates with common sense and American values to the winner’s circle. (Think of the boost Trump got from the Biden/Harris years.)
The catastrophic consequences of the policy and performance of this election’s “winners” might leave Mamdani and Newsom and others of their ilk as losers in the long game.
Or, maybe we will all finally get our Free Obama Phone.
Philip S. Bovee is an attorney and writer who has lived in Pahrump since 2023.
