As come we inch ever closer to what I am I told, ad nauseum, by politicians and their ads, is the end of American democracy, the republic as a whole, and maybe even the very lives of your children. I thought I might share a few thoughts.
I fully expect, as everyone else does, that the Republicans will easily retake the house. I also expect the Senate to ultimately end up in the hands of the GOP. My rational brain says that it'll be a pretty standard mid-term flip against the party in power. My gut says it's going to be a historical shellacking. The Dems will have no one but themselves to blame if it is a blowout. They've failed to do the single most important part of any campaign, paying lip service to your constituents.
Now I would obviously prefer that politicians do more than pay lip service. I’d like them to take citizen concerns seriously, focus on thoughtful solutions, and attempt to build cross party and ideological coalitions to enact those solutions. I also think that’s all about as likely to happen as Kanye amd Kyrie being the named the ADL’s co-men of the year. Failing to reach the lofty goals of basic competency and honesty is now expected from our D.C. dwellers and those aspiring to join their ranks. I do expect them to at least pretend to care though. It's the least they can do. Well close to the least, I suppose. The Dems do seem hell bent on proving there is less they could do.
This time around the Dems have decided to tell the voters, the issues you think you care about, not only are they not important, in fact, they don’t even exist. Gas prices have always been this high and you only know about inflation because the TV. Crime is not an issue and you only think that because Fox news features it. No that's not a man defecating on the sidewalk, it's a hallucination brought on by too much Tucker Carlson. I think regular folk are willing to usually just kinda play along with the game normally, “I know who I’m voting for is full of shit, but at least they pretend to care about the issues important to me.” I suppose in the vernacular of the day, you would say folks want to feel seen. With the Dems obsessive, and obviously insincere, focus on Jan. 6 and “democracy” being on the ballot, they have effectively told huge swaths of the country that are struggling, to fuck off. While normal folks are trying to put gas in their cars, get their kids caught up from two years of no school. All while trying not to get accosted and harassed, car jacked and murdered, or peed on, when they have to go to the wrong area of town. My hope is that the Dems will do some soul searching after the drubbing I expect them to take, but I doubt it. Their arrogance seems to know no bounds. After two years of “trust the experts, and we are those experts” I think they may be starting to believe their own BS, which does not bode well for 2024.