I'm Afraid I Have No Grand Conclusions That I've Drawn From the Election
so here's a numbered list
What happened on Tuesday looks to me to be more or less a return to the status quo - Democrats overperformed “the fundamentals,” but look to still have likely lost the House, meaning even more gridlock. (And perhaps another debt limit crisis?) I wish I had some overarching analysis to share with you, but I don’t, so here’s a series of fairly-quotidian observations.
Expectations in midterms are everything. The Democrats lost seats in the House, and may likely lose that chamber entirely, but this was also obviously a very good day for Democrats. I told you: don’t expect a lot of brilliant insights from me here.
Trumpism continues to define American politics in many ways. Trumpian candidates appeared to do not great - JD Vance won, but he has a relationship to Trump that’s more complicated than Oedipus’s with Jocasta - but every single Republican Senate candidate had to define him- (or her-, but really him-) self in relationship to Trump. He wasn’t on the ballot, but our country’s political gravity sucks toward him at all times. What’s scary about him is knowing that, for him, nothing else matters - I don’t think he gives a single merciful shit about passing a conservative agenda, so long as people are talking about him. Including - especially - the haters!