In classic Curbelo fashion, his concession speech was chock-full of the same pie-in-the-sky, smarmy, condescending nonsense that has characterized his tenure in Congress. In conceding, Curbelo called for increased "civility" in politics from both the right and left. He begged the nation to "heal" and "come together" without actually digging into the fact that one side sure seems to be a hell of a lot more violent, racist, and insane than the other.
This is, quiteIn his concession speech, Curbelo says our politics have gotten ugly and violent. He calls for healing and says that many Americans fled countries with brutal political systems, so we should protect our democracy together. https://t.co/LkfxNSK6I8
— Maryann Batlle (@maryannbatlle) November 7, 2018
But as tonight showed, he was still significantly too conservative to succeed in his deep-blue South Florida district. Despite his rhetoric about bipartisanship and civility, he voted in line with Trump's agenda 83 percent of the time. He will perhaps most famously be known for voting for a failed 2017 Obamacare repeal despite the fact that his own district contained one of the highest concentrations of Affordable Care Act beneficiaries in America. He also voted for the 2017 Republican tax cut — and personally benefited from it.
The annoying thing about Curbelo, though, wasn't so much the votes as his personality. He would have been less frustrating had he been some sort of garden-variety weed-whacker-rental-company-owning asshole. Instead, he was the type of jerk who tried to take your