MAGA goons tried to ethnically cleanse America. Instead, Republicans got shellacked. “The historic landslide of Latino voters toward Democrats hit battleground after battleground Tuesday, crumbling the coalition that helped carry President Donald Trump to victory just one cycle ago,” Politico noted. “While the entire country shifted toward Democrats, nowhere shifted as dramatically as predominantly Latino areas. Across the nation Latino voters of all backgrounds … unhappy with the economy and furious over Trump’s immigration enforcement fled the party in droves.”
The worst House speaker in modern times in so many respects. “It’s a swift rise and fall for [Mike] Johnson, often seen as an accidental speaker, who nevertheless drew close to President Donald Trump and led the House GOP during a tumultuous era, with one of the slimmest majorities in modern times,” PBS reported. “Johnson’s sunny assertions that Republicans would defy history in the midterms, as voters traditionally have punished the president’s party in power, failed to hold. Instead, Republicans were trounced as Democrats swept to the House majority, leaving Johnson without a path to power.”
Stabs boss in back, stays on the job. JD Vance publicly broke with Trump, “attempting to distance himself from voters’ clear rebuke of the president as the vice president faces questions about his own political ambitions,” the Associated Press reported. Blaming the war, Vance said, “If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so.” That’s, um, what Trump did, and Republicans got trounced.
This doesn’t seem sustainable if Vance wants Trump’s support for 2028. Vance’s cut-and-run routine “marked an astonishing, if implicit, rebuke of the president he has supported consistently and unequivocally for years, and signals that the Republican Party may suddenly find itself in a new era where competing factions more openly jockey for influence.” Oh, and Vance also blamed Israel for voters switching to Democrats.
This sounds promising. CNBC: “In their first 100 hours after being sworn in, House Democrats plan to bring to the floor bills reinstating the enhanced health insurance subsidies that expired under the GOP-held Congress, and reversing the Medicaid cuts Trump signed into law last year.” They also “plan to push forward a bill that would undo Trump’s sweeping tariffs and reassert Congress’ role in setting import taxes. And they will again vote on legislation to end the Iran war or force Trump to seek congressional authorization to keep it going.”
A good sign for democracy. Elon Musk burned up about $500 million but in “almost every instance, that money failed to buy the richest man in the world the results he wanted,” the Atlantic reported. “This election cycle, Musk appeared to represent almost every faction America has indicated that it is tired of right now. He is the oligarch class, data centers and AI, MAGA politics and cronyism all rolled into one man. … [Voters] rejected Musk’s story of himself as a larger-than-life figure who can use his wealth to turn his every whim into a reality.” Now Democrats must regulate Big Tech.
We pray this is so. “[T]here are significantly more Americans who support than oppose the principles of a pluralistic democracy,” wrote Robert P. Jones. “The question is whether we can galvanize this diverse majority into a political force while there is still time. These midterm elections results indicate that this democracy-supporting majority is finding its feet and its voice.” He added: “I hope we will look back at this moment as the decisive repudiation of our authoritarian drift: the time we collectively decided to put the brakes on the backsliding. May it also mark the beginning of the hard work of accountability and rehabilitation that will allow us to hand them a brighter democratic future.”
Democrats flipped the Texas state House. But that wasn’t all: “The party took full control — both statehouse chambers and governors’ offices — in at least five states where they previously shared power,” the Associate Press reported. “Democrats succeeded in flipping both chambers of the Legislature in Wisconsin, breaking a 16-year Republican majority, and retained the governor’s office. They also won or retained full control of both chambers of the legislatures in Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania and kept the governor’s office — for trifectas in all three. In Nevada, they gained control by winning the governor’s seat and retaining the legislature.”
Dummymandering, indeed. “In Texas, Republicans targeted 5 Democratic incumbents when districts were redrawn in 2025. It looks like Republicans will pick up the 32nd district, but Ds will win in the 15th and 23rd. The Texas gerrymander ended up losing one seat for the Rs,” the Brennan Center reported. “In Ohio, the Republican-led redistricting commission targeted 3 Democratic incumbents. Not only were those incumbents reelected, the Ds are likely to pick up 3 more seats in the 7th, 10th, and 15th districts. This gerrymander lost 3 seats for the Rs.”
This is just amazing. Texas has had Republicans in control for so long as they have governed as far right extremists. There was no other way to go but up. They did it. The redistricting was the straw that broke the camel’s back. In Alabama, districts 2, 7 were under threat of flipping red. Thankfully they didn’t.
Vance may not want Trump's support. Perhaps he is trying to put together a majority in the cabinet to invoke Sec 4 of the 25th Amendment on the basis that Trump is no longer competent mentally to be president. If Trump contested, it is unlikely to meet the 2/3rds vote in both houses of Congress, but it might. This would be effectively impeachment by other means.
Section 4: The Vice President and a cabinet majority (or a body designated by Congress) can declare the President incapacitated. If contested, Congress must resolve the dispute within 21 days with a two-thirds vote.