USA

Democrats are projected to hold onto their narrow Senate majority after Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto eked out a win in Nevada Saturday night, beating back a furious challenge from Republicans who sought to seize on voters’ growing economic and political angst in an effort to upend unified Democratic control of Washington.

It should be clear by this time that popularity has nothing to do with electability. Trump filled rally after rally in state after state with countless, full-house, full-stadium crowds, and such numbers do not lie. There really was a red wave in the midterms, but it was macro-engineered to a trickle, as should have been expected. The scam of  “malfunctioning” voting machines, the shortage of paper ballots, the tsunami of mail-in and late ballots, the temporary closing and slow-downs of polling stations, and so on would have been sufficient to determine an electoral result. 2020 was an early run for 2022, which in turn should be regarded as a template for 2024. I am absolutely sure that the Dems are now, even as we speak, preparing favorable ground for the next presidential election. As Stalin is reputed to have said, “It’s not the people who vote that count, it’s the people who count the votes.” To make Trump responsible for Democrat malfeasance is wholly misguided.

Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert (CO) slightly padded her lead against Democrat Adam Frisch in an unexpectedly tight race to represent Colorado’s Third Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

There was no October Surprise. This should have been obvious. The big surprise was that there was no surprise. Given that a corrupt and cognitively impaired Joe Biden could be elected, it followed that John Fetterman would win his congressional race. The template had already been put in place. Katie Hobbs refused to debate Kari Lake in Arizona and virtually disappeared from the scene. The only reason for such anomalous behavior could only have been that she was already assured of a strong performance in advance, obviating the need to risk facing the public.

The Republicans had a pretty good midterm election despite what pundits are claiming. The GOP must win three of the remaining four Senate races to win control of the upper chamber — a goal well within reach as Republicans lead in Nevada and Wisconsin. And the party is within spitting distance of a House majority.

A progressive bloodbath has merely been delayed

For all their cautious optimism yesterday, a mild Midterms victory may prove the last thing the Democrats need. If they had performed as predicted, the Democrats and their media adjuncts would now be busily dissecting their defeat. But what has to be considered a lost Republican opportunity — gaining little in a country where lifespans are now dropping — also means that the Democrats will be slower to address their weaknesses, and may be forced to accept the unpopular Joe Biden as their leader in 2024.

Red states are growing, while blue states are mired in lawlessness and decline.

Yesterday’s Midterms were not a victory for conservative or progressive ideology, but an assertion of the growing power of geography in American politics. It was less a national election than a clash of civilisations.

Virtually nowhere in blue areas did Republicans make gains. Both the north-east and California – the central players in Democratic Party politics – stayed solidly blue. Even the most well-regarded GOP candidates, such as Lanhee Chen who ran for California state controller, struggled to make inroads in Democratic territory.