No, the Republicans haven’t cracked the code with the California recall

| 8:00 pm EDT September 15, 2021
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Plenty of pundits have spent today lamenting about how, even though the Republicans failed in California, they now have the blueprint for winning elsewhere. As usual, no explanation has been provided as to how this is supposed to work. Here’s the thing.

If the Republicans had come within, say, five points of taking out Newsom, it would have been a victory for them. They could say “let’s repeat this same formula in a state that’s a bit less blue.” But they lost by what looks like it’s going to end up being about twenty-eight points. If they keep trying like this, they’ll just keep losing.

Some folks will respond to that by saying that the Republicans will just try some other strategy. Okay, that’s true. But this is nothing new. Right wingers have been trying to find new ways to sabotage American democracy since the Civil War. They’re always going to keep trying new stunts. The longer they make the mistake of continuing to use variations of the Trump playbook, the easier it’ll be for us to keep defeating them.