The first midterm election I recall got here within the early days of my curiosity in politics. I turned a Republican concerning the time I turned a Chicago Cubs fan, simply on the finish of World War II, after we lived in a Chicago suburb. As I eagerly scanned the Tribune for information concerning the Cubs, I feel I should have additionally absorbed a few of the paper’s conservative views alongside the way in which. So it occurred that I used to be thrilled by the Cubs successful the National League pennant in 1945 and Republicans capturing each homes of Congress within the midterm elections of 1946. Those seminal occasions turned the muse of loyalties that might final for many years.
In 1945, I used to be at Wrigley Field for one of many video games in a World Series that the Cubs misplaced to the Detroit Tigers. Thereafter, their fortunes declined precipitously, and at size, however my help for the group survived my relocations to the East, and in the end West, Coast. In 2003, I flew from Cape Cod to be rewarded with the catastrophe of the Steve Bartman recreation. By the time the Cubs lastly received a pennant in 2016, I used to be dwelling in California, and my daughter Heather and I flew to Chicago for a World Series recreation towards Cleveland. The Cubs misplaced the sport we noticed earlier than happening to win the Series — after our return to California. Nevertheless, I believe I’m one among only a few who can declare to have attended Cubs video games in two World Series.
For their half, Republicans’ success in 1946 was adopted by the crushing lack of Thomas Dewey to Harry Truman in 1948. Throughout the succeeding years of political victories and defeats, I remained a Republican and finally served within the Nixon and Ford administrations. I don’t recall a lot concerning the many midterm elections in that interval with one exception: 1966.
In 1966, I used to be amongst folks in a small group who gathered with Richard Nixon on the St. Francis Hotel in New York to look at the returns from the midterm elections. Nixon had campaigned vigorously for Republican candidates throughout the nation for one motive: He noticed the 1966 elections as a path to the revival of his political profession, after his losses for the presidency in 1960 and the California governorship in 1962. My presence on the lodge was not as a member of Nixon’s political group however as a sort of reward for the work that I had finished on the case that Nixon had just lately argued earlier than the Supreme Court. Still, I used to be as excited as anybody else.
As the returns got here in that evening in 1966, and Republicans have been doing properly throughout the nation, it appeared that Nixon’s judgment had been vindicated. Enjoying the tv information on CBS, Nixon determined spontaneously to name this system’s host, Walter Cronkite, to take some credit score for the Republicans’ success. We watched with delight as Cronkite out of the blue disappeared and, after a couple of minutes, reappeared. When he returned, Cronkite reported to viewers on the “most unusual” telephone dialog he had simply had with the previous vice chairman — and proceeded to offer Nixon the credit score he searched for the Republican positive factors.
The 1966 midterms turned a significant component in Nixon’s successful the nomination in 1968 after which his election that yr. The relaxation, as they are saying, is historical past, however no matter one makes of that historical past, it’s onerous to disclaim that the 1966 midterms performed a pivotal half in inflicting historical past to unfold the way in which it did.
Will the 2022 midterms be comparably necessary? They could be. And I write that as one who, after a lifetime as a Republican, has been a registered Democrat since November 2020. At that time, it turned sadly obvious to me that, though Trump had been defeated, his poisonous grip on the Republican Party would stay.
The outcomes of the 2022 midterms could also be felt in a number of of 3 ways. First, if Republicans take one or each homes of Congress, the remaining two years of the Biden administration are prone to be a type of political hell: Little or no vital laws will go and Republicans will spend their waking hours making an attempt to research the life out of the administration.
Second, the outcomes could decide the political way forward for Donald Trump, who’s doing his finest to make the elections a referendum on the Big Lie that he was actually reelected in 2020. If that declare is broadly rejected, with the defeat of candidates who’ve embraced it, the wound may very well be politically deadly for Trump.
Third, and probably most necessary, is the destiny of the Republican “election deniers” who’re candidates for places of work, akin to governor or secretary of state, wherein they’d be able in 2024 to manage or affect vote tabulations and certifications. Such candidates have asserted — towards all proof — that the 2020 election was stolen. They clearly intend to steal it again, if obligatory, to elect Trump or, for that matter, some other Republican. Their potential capability to take action constitutes the gravest hazard to American democracy within the historical past of our republic. The 2022 elections are a gateway that have to be firmly shut.
In the meantime, the Cubs are having one other very troublesome yr. Since I’ve now been a Californian for a number of years, the considered transferring my allegiance to the Los Angeles Dodgers sometimes intrudes. But that, I feel, could be much more troublesome than the transformation from Republican to Democrat.
Douglas Parker was a authorities official who served within the Nixon and Ford administrations. He is a lifelong Cubs fan.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com