YOU COULDA DONE BETTER, BUT I DON'T MIND

There were a bunch of near-miss disappointments, particularly in the South.  Some races, including Arizona’s Senate contest, are still undecided.  But I’m feeling pretty good about the 2018 mid-term elections.

The one thing that absolutely HAD to happen, did happen.  Democrats took back the House of Representatives.  Despite gerrymandered districts designed to favor Republicans, and in the face of blatant race-based voter suppression, Democrats (and independents, and some #NeverTrump Republicans) turned out the vote, and good things happened.  The blue wave was real.

At the state and local level, Kansas kicked Kris Kobach to the curb and elected a Democratic woman as governor.  In addition to Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, and Wisconsin all traded in Republican governors for Democrats; and Dems also flipped seven state legislatures.  That’ll be important when it comes time to redraw congressional districts after the 2020 census.  Florida voted to restore voting rights to convicted felons who have paid their debt to society, which will alter the voter demographics in that key swing state.  And in Kentucky, the awful Kim Davis, that clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, was turned out of office.

What’s next?  Dominoes are beginning to fall.  

Word is that Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions has “resigned” as Attorney General.  He lasted about 12 hours longer than I expected.  Whoever Trump nominates to replace him – someone named Matt Whitaker is now overseeing the Special Counsel’s investigation – will be someone whose loyalty is to Trump, rather than to the United States and its Constitution.  Republicans own the Senate for the next two years, and they can be expected to rubber stamp anyone Trump puts forward. 

But the next critical moves will likely come from Robert Mueller.  With the election over, he can unseal the indictments from his grand juries, and we’ll find out what he’s learned about the Trump-Russia conspiracy to steal the presidency.  Even if Trump’s plans include firing Mueller, it’ll be too late to stop the Special Counsel’s investigation.  When Adam Schiff takes the gavel from crooked Devin Nunes and becomes chair of the House Select Committee on Intelligence in January, Republicans will lose an important pillar of their coverup.

Sadly but unsurprisingly, this election also demonstrated that Donald Trump remains popular with a substantial minority of the American population.  He’s burned every bridge to conventional electoral politics, and he’s gone all in on Deplorability.  The next couple of years aren’t going to be pretty.  But “pretty” stopped being an option two years ago. 

My bottom line is this.  The good guys won a critical battle.  Not as overwhelmingly as I’d have liked, but a win is a win, and I’ll take it.  Now Democrats have two years to absorb the lessons of 2018, choose a standard bearer for 2020, and figure out how to talk to a sharply divided country in a way that will get them to 270 votes in the Electoral College two years from now. 

Last week, someone asked critic Greil Marcus what Democrats should do if they took back the House but lost the Senate.  What he said makes sense to me, and I’ll close with a lightly edited version of his response.

“The first order of business should be to select the best possible, which is not to say previously-in-place, leadership team, with special focus on the whip and his or her team. Then find the least vulnerable to smear attacks and most competent committee heads and their teams. Make sure there is an eloquent, hard-boiled, close to impregnable group of people who will communicate with each other on a regular basis and who can run the place.

“Don’t talk about impeachment. Say it’s the last thing on our minds. (Without prospect of victory in the Senate, which would require proof of treason, if even that would work, it will only leave Trump stronger.) Slowly, but sequentially, begin investigations focused on cabinet members and the administration of government agencies by political appointees (or shadow administrators, as with Veterans Affairs) regarding malfeasance, self-dealing, favoritism, ignoring of Federal law, and other forms of corruption. Undermine the administration as if the game is chess.”

“Introduce strong and powerfully worded bills regarding voters’ rights, health care, citizenship protections, environmental issues, and business regulation. Strongly increase the budget of the IRS and hold hearings on how tax laws are being applied, and to whom. This won’t pass the Senate but they can be a platform in the making. To the degree it’s possible, block anti-Constitutional, base-giveaway, corporate giveaway, self-protective executive orders.”