The day after the 2022 midterm elections, agreed upon by both parties, yielded the most significant results yet, aside from the previous and, of course, the next election. Never mind the “big red wave” promised by Donald Trump, there was no red wave. Was it red ripples or just a red drizzle? Blue escape? purple rain? Even Fox News declared the result to be nothing more than a pro-Republican “trickle.” Whatever it’s called, President Biden and his Democrats have scored an unexpected political upset by limiting their losses in the House to below average for such elections, and presumably keeping the Senate as well. did. of giving too much national power to the Trumpized Republican Party.
Since his defection in Maralago, the former president’s bitter loser has envisioned the election as both a revenge play and a triumphant prelude to next week’s campaign trail as a formal candidate in 2024. In the days and hours leading up to the vote, he threatened his main rival for the Republican nomination, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, that if the Republicans won the midterms, the glory would belong to him alone. argued that it should. “If they win, I should take all the credit, and if they lose, I shouldn’t be blamed at all. But it’s probably just the opposite.” ‘s Don Jr. suggested where the family thought things were going when he tweeted. afternoon“Blood Bath!!!”
That carnage was unacceptable, and the surprise remains that the Trump family and the Communist Party under their control thought there might have been another way. Historically speaking, Americans don’t like losers. And Trump has amassed what can only be considered a record-breaking loser in another political era: Two referendum defeats made Trump the first sitting president since Herbert Hoover. party lose the White House, Senate and House in just four years. He is the subject of multiple criminal investigations by the Justice Department. A special committee in the House of Representatives is set to release a scathing report that likely puts them personally responsible for the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot. Many of the pre-election pundits who were fixated on predicting a Republican victory focused too much on President Biden’s low approval ratings and not enough on Trump’s even higher approval ratings. showed that it was wrong.
Trump’s refusal to enforce mandatory retirement in 2020 came as no surprise. The most narcissistic politician of our lifetime never walked away gracefully. Even after he became the only president in American history to try to overturn the election results and stay in power, what they did would be the decisive two years later in the 2022 midterm elections. turned out to be one of the most important political factors. In trying to play the role of the Republican kingmaker this year, Trump has succeeded in proving that the country doesn’t want any more outsider or extremist candidates in his own image.Pennsylvania Voters from states to Michigan to New Hampshire rejected the famous Trump supporter who won the primary on the strength of the former president’s words. His tainted brand proved to be magical to Republican supporters and toxic to everyone else.
“Quality of the candidate” has become a political euphemism of the year, a polite term for a band of TV hucksters, election deniers and hypocrites Mehmet Oz, Kari Lake and Herschel Walker, who Trump is party to. claimed to bet on the future of And he demanded that Republicans not only endorse ridiculously unqualified candidates, but also stick to the platform of his own backward obsession with 2020 results. It appears that many, if not all, of the Republican gubernatorial candidates in Mr. Trump’s election lied and refused to say Mr. Biden was legally elected.
Despite his only major rival for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, DeSantis winning a second term as governor of Florida, becoming the first Republican governor in decades, Trump quickly emerged as the top contender for the election. No wonder it was named the loser of the Miami-Dade County. MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Joe Scarborough tweeted, “It’s a nightmare for Trump if Republicans don’t perform well in almost everywhere except DeSantis’ Florida.” by 11 afternoon On election night, this became the new norm. Rapidly superseding the old conventional wisdom of hours ago, DeSantis was still young and wary of upsetting the Trump-obsessed base. By Wednesday, inevitable reports had emerged that Trump was outraged by the results, even accusing his wife Melania of pushing him to endorse a TV doctor who steals Pennsylvania rugs. was. Times Reported by Maggie Haberman. “Toxic Trump in MAGA Meltdown,” crowed the anti-Trump Drudge Report. Of course he was.
Maybe the day after the election is not yet the time for warnings and bickering. This year’s midterm elections marked the best performance for a president’s party in such a midterm election since Republicans actually won seats in both houses of Congress in the wake of his 9/11 attacks in 2002. It looks like
Yet the chances are that the initial Election Night jubilation from Democrats and Trump-skeptic Republicans will prove to be as short-lived as all other times when Trump’s end seemed to be nearing. there is still enough. If, as planned, Trump makes an announcement next week, the party’s primary nominee remains unquestioned.And whether he runs again and wins, there is no doubt that he has radicalized the Republican Party and succeeded in rebuilding it to its destructive and divisive character. Hundreds of Republican election vetoes participated in the vote.Washington Position As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 160 of the 291 leading Republican candidates had won the election. By contrast, few Republicans in Congress are willing to defy the former president on the 2020 election lie. Most were either purged, like former House GOP Speaker Liz Cheney, or chose not to run again.
The Republican Party has enjoyed success throughout the Trump era, and that may continue long after Trump is gone. Florida is no longer a battleground state, but a crimson fort, as DeSantis’ big win shows. So has Ohio, which has been a top US political trailblazer for years. Hispanic voters in recent years have fallen out of favor with Democrats, and if the House predictably loses to Republicans, the Democrats’ poor performance in areas they thought were safe could be a factor. deaf. New York’s Sean Patrick Maloney, the Democratic House campaign manager for the first time in decades, has lost his precinct.
But the biggest issue for Biden and the Democrats right now is that a Republican victory is still a victory, even if it’s not a wave. A certain Jim Jordan is given subpoena powers. That could mean the difference between Biden being able to advance the legislative agenda with the Democratic chairman or being unable to do so with the Republican chairman. , could give more power to the House lunatics, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy would be at his mercy at every whim if he didn’t want to be dethroned by Trump’s extremists. to get a speakership.
So yes, there is a real risk of irrational exuberance from those who argued that Biden would rule 55-50 in the Senate in 2021 with a single-digit majority in the House. What FDR and he learned again on LBJ Tuesday night is that America’s divided is still America’s divided. Democrats avoided a wipeout. But there was no knockout punch to ultimately prove the stupidity of the Republican Trumpian turn. ♦
