Perhaps the biggest signal that America wants to move back toward the middle in its politics, which would amount to a huge repudiation of everything Trump now stands for, is in how the attention is being focused in these last days before the midterms.
The Democrats have remained well-disciplined in their focus on the economy and what Trump has done to it. Very little attention is being paid to social issues, for example, and almost no one on the Democratic side seems to mind.
At a big Northern Virginia campaign fundraiser in the last week, the subject of marriage equality didn’t even come up, even though it is the subject of a major ballot referendum. The MC of the event probably forgot to mention it, but had he been reminded, he would have added it almost as an afterthought and no one would have gotten in a lather about it either way.
Well, we can all accept that the focus is more on ICE and the Trump administration’s continued absurd abuse of the immigration issue and the painful policy excesses of Hegseth and his terrible Department of War.
In these last days before the election, when many folks are giving a last minute reconsideration to all their choices, this time Trump has done nothing to relieve the drum beat calling for his head and that of his entire regime.
It could be this is because he’s exhausted his options, or it could be because the mechanisms have been quietly put into place for a massive fraud that we won’t find out about until it is too late. I am not the one to predict such things, though we as a nation should have learned by now that, when it comes to Trump, between the options facing us, always expect the worst one.
So, sad to say, I am not optimistic, as much as I would love to be. Trump is not going to concede anything as much as we might be tempted to believe he’ll just take his lumps in stride and book a flight to Pago Pago.
The toughest time in this election cycle is going to be in the period between election day next week and the day just after the New Year when the new congress is due to be sworn in. So, brace yourselves, folks. It is going to get really bumpy.
Our patience is going to be taxed way beyond anything we’ve seen yet, I fear. But if it is sheer exhaustion Trump is relying on to get his way, please don’t fall for it. If we can hold the line through this one, maybe the MAGA movement’s back will be broken for good.
We have that to look forward to, to a return to the halcyon days when Leave It to Beaver was a good thing and we took solace in the little things that life has to offer. After the misery of Trump and the MAGA movement, we don’t ask for a lot even though the needs are definitely still there. We’ll settle for considerably less than we might have a decade ago. We won’t need to rename every street or high school to feel justified, but hopefully we will not abandon the most important things in the ongoing fight for justice and equality.
It will be a time to revisit our priorities as a nation, to see to it we don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, as they say. Yes, if we can break the MAGA fever this election, I think the rewards will be considerable. We can find new ways to embrace one another with affection and not ideological fervor. We will have a chance to reevaluate what matters most in life and to focus on them.
Getting rid of Trumpism means that Putin will soon have to fall, too, and Netanyahu as well. We won’t go too far left but will stabilize as a human people against the latest threat from the right and we will all be the better for it.
