Trump Sowed The Seeds For The GOP’s Midterm Debacle

You know, democracy not only survived 2 nights ago, it shone, and for one reason. Because the Democrats, especially President Joe Biden never let them forget what was at risk. Biden took shit from some Democrats for going off message in his prime time address to the nation about the dangers to democracy of the MAGA jackbooted thugs.

But Biden’s message was urgent, necessary, spot on, and it resonated. And by the time people went to the polls 2 days ago, depending on which poll you looked at, the top issue to voters was either The Economy, or the Threat To Democracy. On election day, both MSNBC and CNN had reporters talking to people waiting in line. They asked how long they had waited, and then followed up with How long are you willing to wait to cast your ballot? And more times than I could count the answer was a derivative of, As long as it takes. If this turns out to be our last free and fair election, I wanna be able to tell my grandchildren that I did my part.

And who gifted the Democrats with the most powerful closing argument in history, that we may never have another one of these again? El Pendejo Presidente. Two plus years of The Big Lie, constantly throwing shit at the validity of the electoral process and results, endless brainless conspiracy theories about voting machines controlled by the ghost of Hugo Chavez.

And it was contagious. Brainless Trumptards made no secret whatsoever that their goal in 2022 was to literally rig the GOP controlled legislatures in swing states to let them literally choose their own slate of electors, no matter how the popular vote in the state went. The slavish Trombie who ran for Governor in Wisconsin came right out and told a friendly crowd that If I’m elected Governor, the GOP will never lose another election in Wisconsin! Small problem. He lost this one.

Trump’s arrogance fueled his moronic followers. In vulnerable swing states, GOP election deniers openly boasted of how they would overturn the 2020 election results, and ensure that there would never be a repeat of such an atrocity as a lost election again. And it failed miserably. Especially if the ultimate swing state of Michigan. In Michigan, not only did the Democrats sweep the statewide offices, but the Democrats swept the state legislature for the first time in 40 years. Governor Whitmer now has a clear road to be as progressive as she wants. At the last count I saw, 9 statewide election deniers Trump was counting on for 2024 had gone down, and 5 more were losing their races.

You know, every time I think about it, I can’t help but wonder just how many of the 68% of voters who listed democracy being in peril in polling would have voted differently or just stayed hoe if Traitor Tot hadn’t gifted the Democrats with the threat to democracy message. That one blunder, along with the arrogance that went with it, allowed Biden and the Democrats to build a nationwide coalition crossing all political spectrums to defend our very way of life.

But Trump was so much worse. He’s openly bragging about the 150 slavish election deniers that he returned to congress. Fine. Let him. The simple fact is that almost all of them were in safely gerrymandered GOP districts. When it came to more traditional conservative GOP swing districts, more than 60 Trump acolytes did a face dive. Right now the margin of error for control of the House is +/-6. What if 20 of those swing district candidates had been more moderate GOP candidates? Kreepy Kevin McCarthy would be measuring the drapes in the Speaker’s office.

But here’s the Trump cherry on top of this shit sundae. Starting in 2016, but reaching a foam mouthed frenzy n 2020, Trump indoctrinated his slobbering horde that absentee or mail in ballots were bad, they were rife with fraud. The only way to ensure that your vote counted was to show up on election day and vote in person!

After the Trump meltdown of 2020, GOP controlled legislatures kicked into high gear and made it harder to obtain absentee or mail in ballots. Minority populations are already bred by generations of having to jump through hoops to cast a ballot. It was just another pain in the ass for them. But now, suddenly older, less mobile GOP voters found themselves having to jump through the same damn hoops! How many of therm, especially in a midterm election, just said Screw it! and just stayed home?

And now, for the last nationwide wildcard in the Trump Vote in person on election day! boondoggle. The weather. As we speak, in Nevada, GOP challenger is up by just over 14,500 votes over incumbent Catherine Cortez-Masto. And that’s the best it’s ever going to get for him, since all of the election day vote is in and counted. But there are still some 60-80,000 mail in votes from Washoe and Clark county to be counted, which figure to heavily favor Democrats. That’s why I’m still optimistic about her chances.

But here’s the McGuffin. In order to win statewide, Laxalt needed to scrape every last vote he could find out of the northern and north central cow counties of Nevada to offset Masto’s strength in Clark and Washoe counties. And on election day, we had a bad ass weather front move in from the north. It brought freezing rain, sleet and snow to the northern and north central cow counties, as well as Washoe county. How many cow county Trump supporters who fell for the orthodoxy looked out the window on election day and said Screw this! I ain’t going out in this just to cast a midterm ballot. 

The GOP is boned. Sideways. The axiom they seem to be running under is, Donald Trump. Can’t win with him, and can’t win without him. And that’s certainly true. After all, they lost without him in 2018, they lost with him in 2020, and they lost again without him in 2022. And it’s not like these are preseason games, these are general elections, the political Super Bowl. And if I had a starting quarterback who was 0-3 in the Super Bowl, I’d be looking for a new quarterback.