The battle is won, but the war goes on
The 2022 Mid-Term elections are over. The people who cared enough to vote have voted. The politicians have said what politicians say when the results are in. The talking heads, also called the pundits, have pondered, pontificated and in some cases, punted. Now what?
The United States of America Survived
On November the 8th, 2022, Americans voted in the mid-term elections. The earth moved on some important issues, but overall things didn’t change much. That’s good for the country.
The much-anticipated Republican Red Wave, turned out to be a drip-drip-drip red trickle. Even so, we’re still a nation bitterly divided.
Crucially, Democracy survived, despite aggressive efforts by the Donald Trump cult to end it, and turn the country into a white supremacy dictatorship.
After significant election losses, many in the Trump cult remain angry, fearful and panicked as they watch the relentless erosion of white domination of American politics and American culture.
A Major Ass-Kicking
Trump’s endorsed candidates, who claimed they believed his Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him, generally got their asses kicked from coast to coast.
It can be argued that one of the most significant Republican ass-kickings happened to faded football star and abortion hypocrite Herschel Walker.
He’s one of the Republican Party’s token blacks. Walker ran for a U.S. Senate seat in Georgia with the endorsement of failed President Donald Trump.
Walker’s battle against incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock went in to a post-election runoff and made national headlines.
In the runoff, Walker lost. It was national news.
One of the post-election political debates is whether Trump’s power over the Republican Party is fading, since so many of his endorsed candidates lost.
Trump relied on his tired rally act even as he announced plans to make another run for President in the 2024 election. As always, Trump is portraying himself as a victim, and as always, Trump’s meddling in politics is always about himself.
For example, Trump whined that Nevada Republican gubernatorial candidate Joe Lombardo failed to call him a “great” President during a debate. Lombardo won decisively without groveling for Trump.
Many analysts think Trump announced his presidential candidacy so early because 1) he craves the spotlight, and 2) he hopes it will keep the Justice Department from indicting him in various criminal investigations. He seems to think being a candidate inoculates him from prosecution. Legal experts say that’s a foolish idea.
The Thrill is Gone
Trump’s announcement of his new presidential campaign left many of his previous cheerleaders less-than-impressed. His announcement that he was running for President again was mocked in Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post with a bottom-of-the-front-page headline which read: “Florida Man Makes Announcement.” Details were relegated to Page 26.
The Post, which used to publish adoring articles about Trump, also mocked the Donald as Trumpty Dumpty. Like Humpty Dumpty of the children’s rhyme, Trumpty Dumpty appears to have had a great fall.
A former Republican senator, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, said on CNBC’s Squawk Box Republican losses in the mid-terms were about three things:
“Trump, abortion and this cult of conspiracy, which a lot of Republicans bought into. And people went to the polls and they actually didn’t vote the economy, they voted people. And as a result, a lot of Republicans lost who shouldn’t have been running to begin with. And I think this hurts Trump fundamentally. I would be very surprised if Trump were the Republican nominee in 2024. And he won’t. He won’t be the Republican nominee in 2024.“
There’s a New Savior in town
Many Republicans view Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as their new savior. Critics say DeSantis is a clone of Trump’s worst traits, without the showbiz skills, and he is unproven in a national campaign.
The mid-terms saw another Republican icon fade in a major way.
Sarah Palin was the Vice-Presidential running mate of John McCain in the 2008 presidential election. She was the hottie of the Tea Party movement. Palin was the prototype, the model, for Trump’s lie-filled, fact-challenged presidential campaign. In the mid-terms, Palin lost her bid to become a Congresswoman in Alaska.
The lawless mob which has taken control of the Republican Party was not deterred by the mid-term losses. They intend to keep harassing and persecuting anyone who isn’t an Anglo-Saxon white male and a blasphemous, phony Christian.
Razor-thin Majorities
When the votes were counted, the Republicans had control of the House of Representatives, but just barely. The Democrats retained control of the U.S. Senate, but just barely. The majority margins for both parties are razor-thin.
Republican Representative Kevin McCarthy desperately, DESPERATELY wants to replace House Speaker Nancy Pelosi now that the GOP controls the House, but a number of Republicans are unenthused about McCarthy.
Time: Not on the side of the Democrats
The Democrats, meanwhile, urgently need to pass some important legislation before the end of the year, when there will be a new Congress with Republican control of the House.
The Democrats need to revise and strengthen federal election laws and the Electoral Count Act to prevent Trump or his authoritarian successor from attempting another coup to overthrow our electoral form of government.
They need to lock-in funding for U.S. support of Ukraine’s struggle against the invasion of Russia. The Ukrainians have shown incredible bravery and courage in fighting the Russian invasion with help from the much of the world, including the United States.
The Democrats don’t have much time to tinker with the Debt Ceiling to keep Republicans from holding the nation hostage through its federal budget.
The White Right wants cuts in Social Security, Medicare, Immigration, aid to Ukraine and a long list of government programs. They intend to hold the federal budget hostage, unless the Dems take action in the time left.
Internal Problems
The Democrats have a number of internal problems, too. They are losing members. A lot of them. Like the Republicans, the Democrats look down their noses at people who don’t share their views.
Around the 1980s, the Democrats turned their backs on the lunch-bucket blue collar working stiffs.
The Democratic Party is now dominated by the so-called Libs, sometimes known as the educated class. They bought into the new gospel preached by the ultra-rich 1% that power and success will belong to those in the so-called Knowledge Economy.
The Libs, who flatter themselves as “progressives”, abandoned the working class to champion minorities of minorities and criticize those who don’t use politically correct jargon.
The term Latinx is an example. It’s a made-up word used by politically-correct liberals to refer to Hispanic people in a gender-neutral way, instead of Latino and Latina. It’s supposed to make trans-gender Hispanics happy.
Democratic strategist James Carville, originator of the famous term, ‘It’s the Economy, Stupid’ says Democrats have to re-learn how to talk like average people, instead of the intellectual snobs who hang out in the faculty lounge:
“We’re communicating with words and language that people don’t understand or that they don’t even use, the term Latinx, 3 percent of the people use that…If you want to persuade people you have to talk the language of the people. You can’t talk the language of the faculty lounge…This kind of jargon language hurts. And it hurts a lot. And it costs us Congressional seats, it costs us state legislative seats…We want to have a big party, we want to be a big-tent party, we want to draw people from around the country, we gotta start acting like it.”
In 1811, a Mediterranean politician named Joseph de Maistre said something that still resonates to this day.
De Maistre said: “A country gets the government it deserves.”
Think about that when you think about the results of the 2022 mid-term election.
Leave a Reply