I am not anywhere remotely close to the political left. I see the world completely differently than many who are. In fact, I find the public policy ideas of the far left as dangerous to prosperity and damaging to national morality. Still, as I watched the results of the midterm elections pour in last night, I couldn’t help but feel a little bad for them.
I’ve written before about how the far left is home to those whose god is government. It is the agency that brings hope or dispels it; the institution through which deliverance is achieved or denied. It brings ultimate power, and power is everything. To lose control of it then, is nothing short of apocalyptic. It demands riots, protests, weeping, gnashing of teeth, and a vocal, unrelenting anger. This is precisely what the country has seen of the left since 2016.
But 2018 promised to be the left’s redemption. Yet many liberal progressives are waking up today feeling underwhelmed. Beto lost. Andrew Gillum lost. Bill Nelson lost. Stacey Abrams lost. Almost every red state Democrat who voted with the mob against Brett Kavanaugh lost.
And the U.S. Senate once thought to be in play for a Democrat takeover? Republicans surged so strongly that should another Supreme Court vacancy appear in the next two years, there is no need to woo Lisa Murkowski or Susan Collins in order to confirm Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a staunchly pro-life judge who loathes the legal practice of child sacrifice. Not to mention that Trump’s judicial appointments to lower courts will sail through the confirmation process.
They had been promised a blue wave. Every Cruz tweet for the last four months was followed by thousands of out-of-state, left-wing taunts about his political death. Political twitter was overly populated with names of activists that included a “wave” emoji as a visual representation of their giddy anticipation of a massive Democrat takeover.
Even if the face of a hard truth, their media cheerleaders kept up the harsh ruse. Jim Acosta, who apparently believes himself to be the face of the #Resistance in media tweeted:
> “When the House (but not the Senate) went to GOP under Obama in 2010, it was a big deal. If it switches back under Trump, also a big deal.”
In 2010, Republicans picked up 63 seats. That’s just less than double the amount that Democrats took last night. It was a seismic shift that hadn’t been seen for over six decades. Also in 2010, though they didn’t take the Senate, Republicans gained 6 seats. As mentioned, Democrats lost serious ground in the Senate last night.
And the one shining moment for the left? The takeover of the House of Representatives. I can’t shake this feeling that all things being equal, it ends up being what re-elects Donald Trump in 2020. And here’s why.
Had Republicans held, Trump would have been expected to deliver legislatively – something he really didn’t do the last two years. Now, Republican voters will give him a pass on that. And Trump, who thrives on division, has now been handed the perfect foil – a gavel wielding Nancy Pelosi.
If you don’t think that’s a dream set-up for the Trump trolling that animates his base, look at Pelosi’s performance last night. She stepped behind a microphone and gave the rallying cry:
> “Let’s hear it for more pre-existing medical conditions!”
No honest leftist can say that they want to be on the defending side of that ignorance when Trump gleefully shines the glaring spotlight of his Twitter feed on it.
But it’s not just Pelosi. Each of the House committees will be chaired by establishment Democrats, including Maxine Waters who openly called for stalking and violence against Trump supporters. It’s a metaphysical certitude that this crew will launch a bevy of investigations and political stunts, all of which will go precisely nowhere. The witch hunt will be breathlessly assisted by the media with tantalizing tales of impending impeachment. Impeachment that will never materialize and even if it did, would die in the Senate chamber.
The litany of investigations will be viewed as petulant, pointless harassment by many Americans, including independents. And Trump will play the victim perfectly. I could be totally wrong of course. But I just have this feeling that liberals who are waking up today disappointed in what happened yesterday may have to wait two years before they actually see the worst of it.
