Sometimes, getting the right thing for the wrong reason is good enough.

I don't think this opinion is unpopular. It's unpleasant, but not unpopular imho.

Trump campaigned on low gas prices, low grocery prices, and no more forever wars. Then he launched the war on Iran and all three blew up in his face.

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure the main cause of this blue wave was gas prices.

The last 10 years have proven Americans aren't particularly concerned about their democracy. Gas though....

Americans overall proved the DGAF about corruption, rape and pedophilia. It was the price of gas. They aren't saying no to war and killing children, just if the consequence is expensive gas for their Canyonero.

So if Iran resolves and gas goes back down, they will flock back to the next geriatric pedophile rapist.

It’s not the only reason, it’s a major reason. Hispanic conservatives realized in large enough reasons that being religious and conservative wasn’t protecting them from bigotry, being murdered, deported, being impoverished. Not all of them realized, but enough. Those things combined with cost of living issues, exhaustion from the circus and war.. it all worked together.

It's the economy, stupid.
It always has been and probably always will be. And $6 diesel is just one of the most visible places for people to see and be impacted by it. Republicans don't care about corruption, they see government as always corrupt. Trump is just doing what they believe all politicians do. Republicans support what ICE is doing and are fine with ICE killing people, they will just blame the victim. But they cannot ignore the feeling of impending doom when they are getting to the end of their budget before the end of the pay period, and they are staring down a $200 bill to fill their gas tank. While that may not get them to vote Democrat, it does get them to not vote at all. And that is enough.

I think there is also an angle to investigate about the major growth which has happened in the DFW area. Due to companies and people moving there, that whole areas has been shifting blue. At some point, enough people voting blue in the cities will overwhelm the red rural population for statewide races. And that is only helped by Republicans not showing up at the polls.

I think it’s one of the only reasons any part of the USA flipped.

I've worked as a polling location clerk for the past several elections in TX. Yesterday I saw the most number of first time voters coming in, smiling shyly (and some not knowing how to sign lol) than ever. I also saw many elderly women coming in with their first time voter grandchildren, which stood out to me and made me wonder who brought whom. I suspect we had a record first time voter participation for a mid-term election cycle, and curious to know how much it effected the results.

This is why I'm telling folks not to rush into another impeachment.

Get gas prices down, get food prices down, show real results for people right away.

If you impeach the GOPs can say it was all about Trump.

If you show you can run the country better then they have nothing but hate to sell their people.

This is an opportunity to try to pass things like a federal ban on partisan gerrymandering. That and cost of living items are the two most impactful things they can start with.

Its more like 250-275 to fill up the huge truck, but I generally agree if gas prices weren't this high this election would have been different.

I'll take it, It would be nice if there were things like care and compassion but this is texas we are talking about.

I think prices were a big part of it.

But more than that I think people actually took the time to vote, which is why they will have a Latina governor now.

Downvoted for popularish opinion

This musical short basically covers the feeling for me.

I also think that had a person that many Republicans don't hate had been selected in the primary, then I think Abbott and Cornyn would have been elected to their positions, so I suppose you can thank Trump and his insatiable ego for that.

That said, if in 4 years (so 2 years with buffoon in chief plus 2 years with maybe a Dem president) if conditions can be made materially better, I think there would be better receptivity to Democrats in Texas when it's time to unseat Ted Emergency-Cruise. I think Democrats have to get creative and in certain respects let Trump "feel" like he has a win, end the wars, take on oligarchs, drain the swamp, but give him little prizes and pats on the back as a good boi president, because as much as I hate the guy, he can't run for office anymore. People can compare the domestic terrorism that happened under 2 years of Republican trifecta vs what's to come, the common thread is the party, not Trump. Just DON'T let people's political goldfish brains forget the cruelty Republicans inflicted on them. Investigations on Trump's handlers and cronies can do double duty - keep that fresh in people's minds and keep them away from influencing Trump as much as possible.

I have a 13 gallon JDM diesel van - a 1994 Delica L300. Diesel is almost $8 a gallon in Seattle, where I live. My last fill-up was $102.

Folks here in Texas were definitely sick of hearing about Ken Paxton. I was sick of him years ago, in local politics, and honestly pushing him was a stupid move for the GOP.

If you look at the electoral map, Austin-adjacent counties bucked historical trends in the Senate race the hardest, and I suspect it’s because of the flood of Paxton drama in local news.

Also, I think the Hispanic vote was a massive factor.

Social media (and failed Democrats) really captured them in the Trump cycles (IMO), but recent events were just too impactful to override.

I'm downvoting this, not because I disagree (which I do), but because it's apparently a popular opinion and you also broke rule #1

And you know what, thats fine for now. Now its on the new leadership to improve the life of their constituents to such a degree that it becomes hard to argue with come next election cycle.

One election matters but repeated wins and changes that are in line with the betterment of society are the actual goal. Let the diesel guy Rollin coal with his truck testicles get a taste. We already know they can't picture things without first experiencing it themselves, this is the time.

100%

Though I am kind of glad that, even if it's really only for economic reasons, we're getting a legitimate anti-war movement right now.

The other way of thinking about it was that it was the lie that broke through. They could have believed the other lies, naively or wilfully, but being told that gas was $2 and seeing $6 was the easiest way to pull back the curtain.

I won't argue this.

Fuel prices weren't even mentioned in the majority of political ads here.

All's well that ends well?!

Progress is progress. Should Texas have just remained red instead? At the end of the day, you’re feeling pessimistic because you’re choosing to.

Yes, the terrible people probably have terrible motivations, but I'm taking the win. It takes time and effort to build empathy in people, maybe we can work on that after the crisis has passed, if it does. If it doesn't, the suffering headed their way will develop their empathy for them, since the only way they understand is if it impacts them.

But it's still ok if I care about war and children and corruption and racism, etc, right? I mean economics is pretty much always what drives the election but those other things matter.

I can dig it. Texas Is The Reason, that oil matters at all…

I’m on the fence of whether this is popular or unpopular, because 1. Of course, but 2. Every news outlet is spending massive amounts of space trying to explain multiple factors behind everything and to them, fuel is only one of those economic factors, among the other things you prefaced. Isn’t the answer always “money, dear boy?” Not wrong, but not necessarily unpopular.

But if we invaded Iran and it didn’t cause a huge spike in gas prices I don’t think we would be where we are today

Well yes, because that would imply that the attack on Iran went according to plan. It would have been quite impressive. A lot of the things Trump tried to accomplish would have been popular if he had succeeded, and the voters' problem was the fact that he failed. (It should have been obvious in advance that he would fail, but better late than never, I suppose.)

You're right. It's horseshit that people don't care about faccism when it doesn't hurt them personally, but that's most people. Glad we didn't slide even deeper in to hate yesterday, but people as a whole haven't changed.