Be Careful What You Wish For

 

DATELINE: Kerrville, TX  

     ...because you just might get it.

     While on his farewell tour, Trump told people to pretend as if he was on the ballot. The problem was, people did.

     Yes, Donald Trump wasn't on the ballot last night but, as I'd said at least once or twice, ideologically he was. Because, when you're the guy calling the shots and the economy resembles the ones you'd typically see in banana republics, when people can't afford food and gas, when innocent people are shot and killed on the street, when disappearances and capricious arrests go on, people will tend to take notice and make comparisons to the aforementioned banana republics.

     More than one person, not all Democrats, have said they voted the way they had last night to punish Trump and his wet-legged enablers in the GOP. If someone hasn't already, I'll coin the phrase "hate-voting". Whatever gains he'd inexplicably made with them in 2024, Trump obviously lost young males, Black and Hispanic voters. They counted on their loyalty carrying over to the next election cycle. 

     Last night was historic in many ways than one . For just the second time in a half a century, a political party took control of both chambers of Congress in the same election. And  not only did Democrats do just that last night, but they grabbed, at bare minimum, 43 seats in the house and could potentially grab some more in the Senate (Alaska and Mississippi are still way too close to call).

     That's at least 56 Senate seats and 258 House seats. Chairmanships, subpoena power, possible veto-proof majorities. In short, Republican nightmare fuel.

     If anyone had told me at any time that Democrats would flip- Senate seats in Texas, Iowa, Kansas, North and South Carolina, Maine and quite possibly Mississippi and Alaska on the same night, I'd've had you measured for a strait jacket and booked you into the nearest padded room. And yet, that's precisely what happened.

     There were 22 Republican Senate seats up for grabs last night and just 13 Democratic ones. And the Democrats didn't lose a single one.

     We'd also elected a Latina and kicked Greg Abbott's crippled, Nazi ass out of the Governor''s mansion. We'd elected an African American woman as governor of Georgia. We'd elected the first Muslim senator in US history. Here's what happened at the state level last night:

     New Hampshire: Both the House and Senate (full legislature from R to D).

     Wisconsin: Both the Assembly (House) and Senate (full legislature from R to D; first time that's happened since 2010).

     Michigan: House (moved the state from split to full Democratic legislative control).

     Minnesota: House (previously tied/power-sharing; Democrats regained clear control).

     Pennsylvania: Senate (moved the state from split to full Democratic legislative control).

     North Carolina: House (state moved from full Republican to split control).

     Texas: House (state moved from full Republican to split control; first Democratic House control since ~2002–2003).

     Meanwhile, back at the Cheesecake Factory-on-the-Potomac. Trump had been fed a bunch of bullshit by the likes of Susie Wiles and Natalie Harp about how the Republicans were going to win big last night. Being the gullible old fool he is, he fell for it hook, line and sinker. So, Trump decided to throw a celebration in advance of all the Republican victories by splurging at the Cheesecake Factory (Making Obama the only Black man to ever live rent-free in a Trump property).

     But. according to the Guardian, Trump never came down when he saw the results come in. The right wingers who showed up gradually slunk out of the East Room without even touching the food. Natalie Harp had to literally confiscate Trump's cell phone in order to limit press access to him.

     Now we're enjoying a ton of schadenfreude watching the usual circular firing squad. And it's never once occurred to these democracy-hating psychopaths that maybe the GOP nearly got swept out of existence last night because their policies suck and that their candidates were like the DSM-V come to life.