Those who are still trying to make sense of Tuesday’s election results (and we wouldn’t recommend it; it will just vex your brain) can’t figure out how the Democrats could win such a huge majority, even in red states, when they have consistently taken the 20% side of every 80/20 issue. An early NBC exit poll may offer a clue: it found that people don’t necessarily like the Democrats. Only 38% had a favorable opinion of Republicans, but just 43% had a favorable opinion of Democrats, and 16 percent didn’t have a favorable view of either party.
As we noted yesterday, when voters weren’t choosing a particular politician but instead voting on issues, the Republican side won even in blue states. For instance, Arizona and even Washington state both passed measures protecting girls’ sports from biological males.
The obvious conclusion, and one that even the Democrats should take as a warning (but they won’t): this was an election in which most voters didn’t really vote FOR Democrats, they voted against the party in power, and that happened to be the Republicans. CNN exit polls showed that Trump had only a 38% approval rating, and the #1 concern for voters was “the economy.”