Well, I sure got that wrong.
I was, of course, far from alone on the matter. It appears that I greatly overestimated the character of the swollen Trump electorate from just two years ago. It turns out that much of it was just as fickle – embarrassingly so – as the shallowly cultivated “big-tent-ism” of the nearly extinct “minority party by choice” generation of the Right (compassionate conservativism through TARP and Failure Theater and overt anti-Trumpism) witnessed over much of the previous quarter century. Nationally, it was a disaster.
Here in Texas, it was much worse. A quick look at just the race for Governor informs that the votes for the Democrat increased by more than 50% over four years earlier (from 3.5M then to 5.3M now)…a tally this year that even eclipsed the votes for Harris for President two years ago by more than 10% (4.8M then to 5.3M now). On the Republican side, the votes for Abbott this year nearly matched four years ago (4.4M then to 4.5M now) and didn’t come anywhere near the ~6.4M that came out for Trump two years ago. Truly embarrassing.
Most all of the post-mortems I have perused since Tuesday are shallow and self-serving…not even worth the time to comment on. I am, however, quite bothered by those pushing the “it was the Iran War” as justification. In as much as it was the over emotional narrative cultivated around the lingering effects of the war, it may be true. But if the marginal impact of temporarily elevated oil prices due to this war – a war without tens of thousands of American boots on the ground, without thousands of casualties, and without extended deployments causing hardships for hundreds of thousands of family members on the homefront, that still managed to eliminate the risk of a terrorist state (and exporter of terrorism) from obtaining nuclear weapons that is still less than a year old – was too much of a cherry on top of decades of pathetic elected leadership on budgets and spending (see Bush-Frist, Pelosi, McConnell, etc.), at least a decade and a half of dangerously stupid money policy (see here and here for starters), and the recent exposure of Democrat supported fraud, waste, and abuse of our tax dollars on a scale too massive to be believed (and all performed right out in the open for all to see), then the current accumulation of We the People is the weakest, most pathetic yet and now truly deserves what is coming next. I can only fall back to a common blurb (slightly bastardized from the original for my purposes) that I once used quite often:
“[A] significant and growing portion of the American population [has lost] the virtues required to be functioning members of a free society.” – Charles Murray in Coming Apart (Page 289), 2012
I do fear that exactly the wrong lessons will be learned from this midterm performance. The unknown-unknowns of the days, months, and years ahead are much more complex than the talking class preaching to us today have ever shown they can understand. While I know nothing about the author of the piece linked below (via Instapundit), I think this column summarizes “a” version looking ahead – some based on extrapolating from the accepted narratives of recent times – and is worth putting here for later reference. I just don’t think events to come give a shit about the accepted narratives of recent times: Establishment beware. I pull-quote here liberally – probably too much – for your quick consideration, but please do go read in its entirety:
…as Donald Trump and his GOP go down to ignominious defeat in the Midterms … the greatest ‘joy’ will be felt among those long dominant in America’s key institutions. … Like the aristocrats and churchmen under Cromwell, today’s American elites have been waiting for their moment.
The artless Trump may have used his bully pulpit to attack his opponents, particularly in the media, and forced the academic elite to curb their leftist enthusiasms. Yet in the end, the very forces that have dominated America for decades remain largely intact, despite Trump’s lust for vengeance against those who oppose him. …
…nothing Trump has done has fundamentally altered the almost total subservience of the education system to the ideologies of the left.
Even the corporate elite, notably Wall Street and Silicon Valley, will likely welcome the Restoration with glee. Even though some genuflected to Trump, their hearts were never in it. [philo: I’ll be watching those fluffers at Forbes]… The much-ballyhooed tech shift to the right…turned out to be ‘a mirage’. …
The Restoration, particularly if the Democrats take the White House in 2028, will also enhance efforts to control the media and censor the internet. … Aided by their traditionally progressive allies (Google, Apple, Anthropic, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft), there could be a renewed drive to combat ‘misinformation’, which, as in the Biden years, frequently meant anything that violated the proclivities of the progressive clerisy. …
Looking ahead, a full Restoration will also adopt policies that favour the parts of the country – the Northeast, the West Coast and some pockets of the post-industrial Midwest – that have steadily lagged in job creation and domestic migration. At the same time, moves to squash the energy boom – so vital to keeping the US the world’s strongest economy – will cause pain from Ohio and West Virginia to Texas, Oklahoma and North Dakota, all traditionally pro-Trump states. …
Like the Communist parties of Stalin’s ‘Popular Front’ strategy in the mid-1930s, they beguile gullible liberals, at least until they seize total control. But the outlines of their policy goals are clearly Marxist-adjacent, as Democrats such as former Clinton labour secretary Robert Reich become openly red. …
…the Restoration…will have a repressive agenda for its hated opponents. …they will wage lawfare against anyone who supported Trump and his policies. Michigan senator Elissa Slotkin has openly threatened retributive action against even young people who might want to work under Trump. Others talk openly about ‘re-education’ camps for Trumpistas and massive new waves of lawfare. …
To the DSA, big companies – if they are allowed to exist – are just giant geese to be plucked, sliced and quartered to support their dreams of an ever more expansive welfare state. Their natural constituency comes from the holders of one-third of all jobs tied to government spending.
Creating a viable post-Trump GOP may prove difficult. Many of the party’s most respectable figures, particularly in the Senate, have been driven from office…
Then there is the high probability that Democratic rule will prove itself, at least in the big cities, utterly incapable of effective governance. … Trump may be odious, but it may not be long before people miss his nationalist focus and economic achievements.
As long as the American constitution remains intact and party tyranny limited, we could experience our own Glorious Revolution and a return to sanity.
There is much in there to think about. As for me, a focus on a return to sanity is proper…to hope for a “restoration” to an era resembling America in the immediate pre-Trump times is misguided and a non-starter. I think there are a lot out there in red-county America that still think like me on this…even if they didn’t get off their asses and vote this week. Time will tell.
