We have to wonder about the poor aide who had to explain to Donald Trump the meaning of the word “shellacking.”
The midterms delivered the most overwhelming rebuke of a political party in over half a century. You have to go back to the Watergate era to witness such a lobsided thrashing. That 1970s walloping, by the way, was because the country suddenly realized that they had twice elected a Republican bigot who was a corrupt lunatic and was leading the nation into disaster.
So based on this history, this shit might happen again circa 2080.
But with hope, the Republican Party is extinct by then. They have certainly set themselves on the road to obsolescence.
For this election cycle, the GOP’s governing philosophy could essentially be summarized as “We will do whatever our orange messiah commands, no matter how illogical, deleterious, or straight-up crazy it is.” This pitch, surprisingly, did not resonate with voters, who grew weary of watching a pampered man-child rhapsodize about himself and his money.
It appears that the irrefutable evidence of widespread corruption finally broke through to voters this time. Even a half-billion dollars of advertising, courtesy of a weirdo trillionaire with a Nazi streak, could not convince Americans that Republicans gave the slightest bit of a fuck about them.
For “a country that barely head-fakes toward democracy anymore,” this election was a reprieve. Of course, everything will not magically be better overnight. The damage wrought by these gleefully reckless sociopaths will take years, perhaps decades to resolve.
But it is possible that the worst is over. Yes, we all thought that in 2020, when Biden won the presidency. I can say Biden won because election denialism is no longer a thing, right? Whew.
In any case, this election feels different because the narcissistic octogenarian has not just been defeated once more. He has been repudiated with zero chance of a comeback. In 2020, there was the lingering fear that he might return to the White House, which of course happened because the worst-case scenario was the default setting for America at the time.
However, in two years, this permanent stain on the nation’s soul will depart the Oval Office, and even Republicans, who have spent years selling their souls and principles in exchange for a fleeting taste of power, will be happy to see him go.
Our raging, blubbering president was never going to run for a third term, despite what your Newsmax-addled aunt and conservative “intellectuals” said, because the Constitution is about as crystal clear as it gets on this issue. It’s a no-go.
As for seizing power, well, if he was going to do that, he would have made his move already. Yes, there were active discussions in the administration about seizing voting machines and declaring martial law when it became clear that Republicans were going to get throttled.
But this was always unlikely, if for no other reason than this gang of incompetents could barely organize a press conference, much less execute a precision coup across multiple states. The death of this particular right-wing fever dream occurred about the time Texas went blue. The sheer magnitude of the electoral ass-kicking made grabbing ballot boxes and claiming fraud a ridiculous, pathetic ploy, and even the most ardent Trumpist had to slink away.
And while many commentators assert that our wildly unpopular chief executive is more dangerous than ever, unleashed by the need for approval and furious at the country, it is more likely that he will just stumble and mumble his way into irrelevance.
He is old now. Trying to take over the country against the will of the populace is way too much fucking work. It’s so much easier for him to golf, blame his yes-men for botching the election, and veto random bills to make himself feel better.
There are no guarantees, and tomorrow we could see ICE thugs arresting Democrats and throwing them into makeshift gulags. But I doubt it.
For the first time in a decade, we can dare to dream that this epoch of idiocy and cruelty is headed for its inevitable, long-overdue demise.
At last.
