Midterms in the US reminded me of a popular biblical proverb—”Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” If there were cable TV and the internet when they wrote the Old Testament, the adage would be “unlimited space and time are the workshop of self-deception.”
Opinion polls were wrong again about who was going to vote and why, and the vaunted red wave of Republican victories did not happen. The surveys have fueled a mill of self-fulfilling prophecies among political pundits who abhor a vacuum.
There are many unfulfilled expectations to assess, although only in December will there be a definition of the scenario in which Joe Biden will govern. As in 2020, the senatorial election in Georgia will be crucial for Democrats to retain control of the Senate through the tie-breaking vote of Vice Kamala Harris.
The GOP has failed to sell the theocratic cruelty agenda, and in at least four out of five states that have included abortion rights in proposals, it won protection of the right usurped by the Supreme Court last June. What else didn’t happen?
Donald Trump-blessed clown candidates, such as quack doctor Mehmet Oz, did not please the conservative electorate. But the Republican Party remains dominated by the influence of the former president, who has not stopped giving him defeats at the polls since the midterms of 2018.
Hispanics are not a monolithic segment of the electorate and it is not possible to nationalize the resounding victory they gave to the varnished Trump Ron DeSantis, re-elected governor of Florida.
Biden is not a lame duck, as inaccurate research suggests. When the tally is over and the long-awaited rebuttals from the negationist losers at the polls are over, Biden will have a chance to emerge as the Democratic president with the fewest early midterm defeats since the 1940s. George W. Bush won his first midterms, but in the year following 9/11.
It is not possible to use broad strokes to compose an image of the US political landscape. States must confirm themselves as laboratories for change, for better and for the catastrophic worse, as in efforts to reduce access to the polls. Even in this respect, it was clear that the republican strategy of questioning clean elections and making voting difficult as instruments of minority government was defeated.
Voters want to vote en masse — in person, at extended hours, by mail, and this sacred right of democracy has no party. Unfortunately, the sexes seem to have, because the partisan gap between men and women has widened. The beginning of the poll revealed that 53% of women voted for Democrats, compared to 42% among men, a distance that was certainly widened by attacks on the right to abortion.
It is possible that US political polarization will result in close elections for years to come. Thus, the plans of the Trumpist lunatics who celebrate regaining control of the House may run into the small number of Republican deputies who will form the majority. In the White House, a favorite of comedians for his old age and folklorisms can’t be blamed if he’s smiling and finds in the mirror the image of the most consistent Democratic president of the last half century.
With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
