Making Sense of the Midterms
I'm generally not one for hot takes. And this week's midterm election results are so vast that I've been taking stock of responses from colleagues, analysts, academics and pundits, before formulating my analysis. This is a long one, so strap in, for I've got thoughts. 👇🏾
First... the good: There were SO. MANY. FIRSTS.
(this list is by no means, comprehensive - I'm sure I've missed several firsts)
💥 Michigan's Abdul El Sayed became the nation's first Muslim Senator.
💥 Minnesota's Peggy Flanagan became, the nation's first Indigenous woman Senator.
💥 Georgia's Keisha Lance Bottoms became the nation's first ever Black woman governor of any state.
💥 New Mexico's Deb Haaland became the nation's first ever Indigenous woman governor of any state.
💥 Six transgender and nonbinary candidates won office - many becoming the first in their state.
While I've never been one to laud demographic diversity for its own sake, especially given the traditional Democratic Party's penchant for tokenism, many of the diverse candidates who won races on Tuesday offer a direct repudiation of the flagrant white supremacy that Trump has pushed on the nation. And, many of those who won are NOT Democratic Party careerists, having cut their teeth in movement building.
Oh, and Texas - TEXAS!!! - turned blue! What? Gina Hinojosa became Texas's first ever Latina governor.
(The Democrats' wins also mean that Senator John Fetterman no longer has the power to be an obstructionist in the Senate - for what that's worth.)
The other aspect of this election that is worth celebrating is that President Donald Trump made SO many threats to our ability to cast votes, from sending ICE thugs and seizing ballots in immigrant-heavy districts, to proclaiming he would not accept a Democratic Party sweep, that voters responded exactly in the way they ought to: by showing up in massive numbers. Even Trump - a man who almost never concedes to anything - was too overwhelmed to challenge the results.
And Vice President J.D. Vance was shockingly on point when his post-election analysis implied that his party lost because of Trump's war on Iran, the continued high cost of living, and the US's unflinching support of the genocidal state of Israel. Where he missed the memo was the massive voter rejection of ICE terror in American cities, a repudiation of Islamophobia and, to a lesser extent, transphobia, and a strong desire for a Medicare-for-All program.
Then, the not-so-good... (you knew this was coming)
While we'd like to believe that progressives carried the party's victories, plenty of centrists, including California's Xavier Becerra, who became California's first Latino governor in more than a century, also won office.
California's voters succumbed to billionaire propaganda and voted down a tax on the ultra wealthy while passing protections for their obscene piles of wealth. Outgoing Governor Gavin Newsom's loyalty to billionaires now means he has their allegiance for his likely 2028 presidential run.
Speaking of Newsom and his icky ilk, we are going to see a major replay of the battle between progressives and centrists VERY SOON, as the campaign for the 2028 Presidential race launches in 2027.
Here's the other not-so-good news: The massive wins by the Democratic Party are going to be overseen by the old guard, the lifeless dinosaurs who long enabled Trump's genocidal thirst and issued "strongly worded" statements against the racial and anti-trans terror he unleashed: Chuck Schumer in the Senate and Hakeem Jeffries in the House. Unless there's an internal party reorganization to replace them, these so-called leaders will pocket the wins for themselves and continue to fuel voter disgust in the future at their do-nothing tendencies, squandering the electorate's good will, and potentially swinging the pendulum back toward the GOP in short order.
The big question now is... what will Democrats do with their control of Congress? Will they, as NYC Mayor Mamdani has said, "use that power to deliver change"? But how, if Trump will simply veto every bill? Or, will Dems try to impeach Trump for a third time - which they finally have the numbers in the House and Senate to successfully do, and especially at a time when his popularity is at a historic low?
And finally, a word of warning...
I've seen far too many friends and well-meaning progressives chalk up the Democratic Party wins as a victory in and of itself. THIS IS A MISTAKE. Elections are a symbol of what voters want. We have a representative democracy and the results don't mean we'll actually get what we want. Remember, the Democratic Party has traditionally been the place where social movements go to die.
Demographic diversity in Congress is symbolic and unless we abolish ICE, end aid to Israel, overturn transphobic policies, enact Medicare-for-All, etc, etc, it means very little.
It's thrilling to revel in the "Blue Wave" that swept the nation. But - and I'll say this in all caps - DON'T FALL IN LOVE WITH POLITICIANS.
DON'T. JUST DON'T DO IT. NO MATTER HOW TELEGENIC OR CHARISMATIC they might be. Don't get sucked into the memes of Al Sayed's biceps, the cute dosa-making videos of Talarico, the Obamaesque fawning over Ossof.
Newly elected representatives are not celebrities and we are not their fans. They are our servants and we are their bosses.
Congratulate them on getting picked for the job, remind them it's temporary, and warn them that their performance reviews will be coming up within 2 or 4 or 6 years. Watch for my post-election analysis next week where I'll explore all these issues and more.
THE HOLIDAYS ARE COMING.... ! 🎁 🎁 🎁
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