Victory lap

November 8, 2019

     Tuesday’s election results gave us reason for guarded optimism.  In Virginia, Democrats gained full control of state government for the first time in 26 years (Source:  “Democrats Gain Full Control of State Government in Virginia for First Time in Decades,” by Anna Kaplan, TheDailyBeast.com, 11/5/19).  The impact of that victory cannot be overstated.  Virginia Democrats have pledged to undo Republican gerrymandering and draw fairer districts; to pass gun control measures in the home state of the NRA and to pass legislation ending felon disenfranchisement (Source: “The Blue Wave Hasn’t Crested,” by Russell Berman, TheAtlantic.com, 11/6/2019).  

      The most important and least noted result of Tuesday’s Democratic victory in Virginia is that it will become the magical 38th state to ratify the ERA, getting us closer to finally enshrining the words, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex” in our Constitution. 

     At a time when women’s rights are under fierce attack from retrograde forces, passage of the ERA would put women’s rights on firmer legal footing.  The interpretation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to prohibit sex discrimination is both a relatively recent position and a vulnerable one.  Given the presence of four ultra-conservative ideologues on the Supreme Court who worship at the altar of the late Justice Scalia, they are likely to agree with his “originalist” interpretation that the equal protection clause does not cover sex, (Source:  “Why The Equal Rights Amendment Still Matters,” by Stephanie Russell-Kraft, The New Republic, 6/14/18).

      In Kentucky, Democrat Andy Beshear defeated the execrable incumbent, Matt Bevin, who spent his four year term searching for novel ways to persecute and insult his own citizens.  Bevin, who entered Election Day with a 34% approval rating, spent his tenure working to torpedo the popular Medicaid expansion in favor of a plan that would have raised costs and reduced access, (Source:  “Kentucky’s Medicaid plan already works. Matt Bevin‘s changes just don’t make sense,” by Betsy Davis Stone, Courier-Journal, 10/10/19).

     The nail in Bevin’s coffin, though, was his treatment of the state’s teachers.  Like teachers across the country in red and blue states, Kentucky’s teachers went on strike to protest proposed changes to their pension plan that would have cut their benefits and required them to work longer to receive them.   Bevin responded by accusing striking teachers of “leaving children vulnerable to sexual assault and drug abuse,” (Source: “How Republican Governor Matt Bevin Lost Teachers and Lost Kentucky,” by Katie Reilly, Time.com, 11/7/19).

      We should be careful not to over-interpret Tuesday’s results, in light of Beshear’s razor thin margin of victory and the years of organizing that went into the Democratic triumph in Virginia, Maybe though, Tuesday’s victories are a sign that people are getting tired of being ruled by contemptuous men who treat them with contempt; of elected officials who think that it is their job to dismantle democracy by suppressing the votes of everyone who isn’t white and to punish people unable to get rich in a rigged system.

     Still, Matt Bevin refuses to concede the race and is demanding that votes be recanvassed. Even if Virginia ratifies the ERA, we will have to overcome the 1982 deadline imposed by Congress to get it adopted. In other words, by all means we have earned a victory lap, but we’d better make it quick.