‘A real problem with winning’: Right wing pundits stunned by ‘major victories’ for Dems
Seventeen years after the historic loss of his U.S. Senate seat, politician-turned-pundit Rick Santorum's comment on Ohio voters' choice to enshrine abortion rights into their constitution and make recreational use of marijuana legal has gone viral.
Not because of any great wisdom it imparted, but because, as many, including Robert Reich, on social media observed, the ultra-conservative former Pennsylvania Republican lawmaker and hard core social conservative activist said the "quiet part out loud."
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"You put very sexy things like abortion and marijuana on the ballot, and a lot of young people come out and vote," observed Santorum, who once "compare[d] pro-choice Americans to Nazi Germany," as ABC News reported in 2012.
“It was a secret sauce for disaster in Ohio. I don’t know what they were thinking,” he added. “That’s why, thank goodness that most of the states in this country don’t allow you to put everything on the ballot. Because pure democracies are not the way to run a country.”
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Democratic state Senator Nabilah Islam Parkes, the first Muslim woman elected to the Georgia legislature, posted the video of Santorum speaking on Newsmax Tuesday night and offered this summation of his comments: "This clip tells you how afraid the Republicans are of the following: 1. Young People 2. Abortion Rights 3. Legalizing Weed 4. A function[ing] democracy."
That video has received over 4 million views in just 12 hours, causing "Santorum" to trend on social media Wednesday.
Former GOP media consultant Matthew Sheffield responded to the Santorum video by saying, "The panic and extremism that's exploded on the right flows directly from them finally realizing that they are a small and overrepresented minority that most people loathe. Their time is ending and they know it. We are going to have pluralistic social democracy."
Santorum was not the only hard core Republican to weigh in on Tuesday's major Democratic wins.
Former Virginia Attorney General and former (and unlawfully appointed) top Trump Homeland Security official Ken Cuccinelli was also on Newsmax, but it was host Rob Schmitt's remarks that were perhaps the most insightful.
“It does seem like the Republican Party generally has a real problem with winning,” Schmitt told Cuccinelli. "We're not doing something right. I think that's very obvious."
Tennessee Democratic state Rep. Gloria Johnson, who is running to unseat U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), responded, writing: "Perhaps because your electeds have no policy ideas, just hate and division."
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Top Fox News pundit Sean Hannity, who reportedly spoke to Donald Trump almost nightly during his term as president, claimed Democrats are "trying to scare" voters when he commented on what The Washington Post is now calling "major victories in Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia" for abortion and abortion rights activists.
"Democrats are trying to scare women into thinking Republicans don't want abortion legal under any circumstances," Hannity said Tuesday night.
Huffpost, reporting on Hannity's remarks, noted: "As many commenters pointed out on social media, the main reason for that perception is probably because it’s true in many cases."
"In Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia, abortion is now banned in almost all circumstances," Huffpost added. "In Georgia and South Carolina, abortion is banned after six weeks of pregnancy. Other states have bans after 12, 15 or 18 weeks."
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