The primaries gave hope that Americans have had enough of extremists

The headline story from last week’s primaries was the resounding defeat of U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman, the first member of the so-called ultra-left Democratic team to fall to a more moderate challenger.

But the warm results in New York’s 16th Congressional District are far from the only sign of Americans’ fatigue with candidates on the fringes of politics. Donald Trump also had a bad day in office, with losses to three of the candidates he had backed in key Republican primaries.

They included one of the most high-profile Republican contests of the night, the race to succeed Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, who, not coincidentally, is Trump’s most ardent Republican opponent left in office. John Curtis, currently a Utah congressman, handily defeated Trent Staggs, the Trump-backed mayor of Riverton, a suburb of Salt Lake City. Curtis believes action is needed on climate change and is a vocal supporter of Ukraine — positions that are antithetical to Trump’s.

Could the toxic extremist fever that has gripped this nation for years finally be calming down, at least a little?

It will take more days like Tuesday before we conclude that this is what is happening. After all, Trump still leads the Republican race, and his election to a second term would most likely send people back to their partisan corners. But these results are nonetheless positive signs that more and more American voters are coming to their senses and electing people who are willing to work together to solve our problems.

Voters in New York’s 16th District took a step in that direction by sending the pugilist Bowman back to private life. Among other misadventures during his two terms on Capitol Hill, Bowman set off a fire alarm late last year in a House office building, delaying a vote on a funding package that House Democrats wanted more time to consider. He was censured by the chamber on a largely party-line vote (though it shouldn’t have been) and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges, paying a $1,000 fine.

But it was Bowman’s overzealous opposition to Israel—including his outrageous claim that the sexual assaults on Israeli women during the October 7 Hamas attack and its aftermath were a “lie” and “propaganda”—that turned voters off the most. His defeat was more than convincing, by about 16 percentage points.

As usual, Bowman neglected to congratulate the winner, Westchester County Executive George Latimer, in his “concession” speech, and even said this about unnamed Democrats: “We should be outraged when , unfortunately, some so-called Democrats are aligning themselves with radical, racist, right-wing Republicans. ” Please.

Bowman blamed his ignominious defeat on millions contributed by the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee on Latimer’s behalf. AIPAC went after Bowman for good reason, but the truth is he was down double digits in the polls before the pro-Israel lobby spent a dime on him. Voters in Bowman’s district were well aware of who their congressman was before any advertising aired, and they wanted him to be their representative in Washington. As simple as that.

Back in Chicago, we saw the first signs of a reluctance among moderate voters to embrace the extremists who won the election. The failure in March of a referendum supported by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to quadruple the sales tax on real estate over $1.5 million to fund homelessness programs was a blatant vote of no confidence in the progressive management of the city’s affairs.

Like Bowman, Johnson has sometimes justified his policy failures by blaming “right-wing extremists.” Each time he does so, he conveniently evades the reality that large numbers of Democrats reject his policies.

Regardless of their political beliefs, we believe the majority of Americans value problem-solving and results.

If you don’t believe that, we present you with proof No. 1: Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear. He’s in his second term as a Democrat in a state as ruby red as this one. How does he do it? With pragmatism. And empathy. He avoids political name-calling and scapegoating. He responds effectively to crises like climate disasters. He works primarily in cooperation with the large Republican majorities in the Kentucky Legislature. It’s not rocket science; it’s common sense.