By pink I mean a shade of red with red being the historical color of international socialism, not the confusing and arbitrary assignments in our election maps. Wherever an urban complex exists today, particularly one with a college, you could bet that the prevailing ethos takes a decidedly leftward lurch no matter its location. Going back to the bewildering nomenclature of our election maps, a collectivist “red” partisan can thrive in a conservative “red” state like Montana. Take the durability of “D” Jon Tester in “R” Montana for instance.
The guy is poised on winning another 6-year lease in the Senate. How could it be possible? A bit of hocus pocus and the monolithic leftward lurch in the state’s urban areas is the magic elixir for success. The state won’t go full California but it could move that way incrementally.
You might say that Tester is a paler pink than Maxine Waters (D, Ca.), Nancy Pelosi (D, Ca.), or Kamala Harris (D, Ca.). He dilutes his pink with down-home earthiness. It’s smoke-and-mirrors. The gambit succeeds in Montana by pulling in enough rural to combine with the urban that he owns. It allows him to go NY/California on the big issues like Supreme Court nominations (“no” on Gorsuch, Kavanaugh), tax cuts (“no”), and be an enthusiast in gumming up the works.
And don’t dare dismiss compromises on gun rights since he frolics with people who would be gaga over the repeal of the Second Amendment.
So, Montana ends up with a Kamala Harris-best-buds-for-life all because he looks enough of the part to disguise his pinkish cavorting in the halls of Congress. It’s textbook on how to craft an airy persona for people who don’t have the time for the cable-tv fever swamp.
His opponent, Matt Rosendale, let him get away with it. Rosendale wasn’t on the air till long after Tester had him branded. So, a “red” state will have a senator on good relations with the “red” mob.
RogerG