It has come to this in American politics and it ain’t pretty.
Even with a president who could be the eighth dwarf, “Clueless,” and with a country whose electorate supposedly is angry about inflation, crime, schools usurping parental authority and a porous border, Republicans might only be able to eke out a slight majority in the House of Representatives and would need a minor miracle in late vote tabulation to avoid Democrats taking the Senate.
Many a conservative is wringing his or her hands this morning wondering what happened. It’s not really that difficult to comprehend.
Readers of this blog will recall that I was less than impressed with many Republican candidates, particularly here in Pennsylvania where the governor’s race was virtually conceded when Democrats helped push Doug Mastriano over the top in the Republican primary.
Carpetbagger Dr. Oz similarly was aided in winning his primary race by Democrats who, correctly, thought he’d be easy to run against in the Senate race.
Even when Democrat Senate candidate John Fetterman suffered a stroke and showed poorly in the lone debate, Oz had the lead only in Republican-leaning polls.
Come election time, Fetterman seems to have won a squeaker, meaning Pennsylvania is sending a Clueless Joe clone to Washington, D.C.
We should be so proud.
I never was optimistic about a Red Wave. I thought the House should be won, simply based on mid-term history of the president’s party losing seats. I thought the Senate was a tougher nut to crack and was keeping my expectations down there, despite some outrageous projections late in the campaign that the Republicans would gain an advantage of anywhere from three seats to 11 in the Senate.
I had based my pessimism on factors both local and nationwide.
Begin with my neighborhood, which in my 36 years or so of living here has become a block of leftist-leaners, be they workers in the public sector (schools and government), gays or welfare bums.
I used the unofficial gauge of yard signs to predict bad things for Republicans.
Nationally, I long have pointed out that the Republicans need to make huge gains merely to maintain the status quo considering that public schools and universities are minting fresh classes of mostly leftist voters annually.
In a quote attributed to many, including Benjamin Franklin, but widely disputed now as part of the assault on history, we are reminded that a republic, or democracy, ends when voters realize they can vote themselves money.
Democrats have bought into this purchasing of votes by never meeting a giveaway program they didn’t like. Even now Biden is draining the strategic petroleum reserve in order to suppress gasoline prices and buy votes.
It’s a similar story for student loan forgiveness and recurring stimulus initiatives.
The Democratic motto might as well be Vote For Us And We Will Keep The Handouts Coming.
This runs up against limits in the long run, as evidenced by our burgeoning national debt and rising interest rates. But, it’s fun while it lasts and your average member of the Democratic electorate thinks long-term is the beginning of the next month, when the free money again is direct-deposited.
If the Republicans learned anything from this mid-term election it should be that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is the role model.
DeSantis kept his state’s businesses and schools open when others were bowing to COVID fear-mongering. He has been proud to stand up to Woke maniacs. He’s making serious gains in terms of minority support.
Even as he does all this, DeSantis has shown reserve in his rhetoric when appropriate.
This is the sort of candidate Republicans need to duplicate. Otherwise, their future is as a second-banana opposition party, only occasionally being able to wrest control of the political reins on a national basis.
To repeat the grammatically crude open, that ain’t pretty.
Sam Ross Jr's site 