Although the final numbers are not in yet, the Democrats did surprisingly well, President Joe Biden won big, and so did his form of politics. Meanwhile, Donald Trump and his style of politics dragged the Republican Party to a startlingly unpredicted and almost unprecedent defeat. While the former President will never acknowledge that he bares any responsibility for the failed predicted red tsunami, the American people and most political observers recognize that Trump failed. His style of politics still has millions of followers throughout the country, but the GOP needs quickly to move on or else the Republicans could be wiped out in 2024.
Biden confounded the prognosticators because he ran the country the “old fashioned” way; he governed and let the facts speak for themselves. He arrived at the White House to pick up pieces of the damage Trump had caused having largely mis-handled the pandemic, granting significant tax cuts for the wealthy, and undermining the place of the United States in the world. Biden was slow, methodical, and cautious as he built a classical national consensus around economic incentives, environmental demands, and public trust in Government.
President Biden demonstrated that he was a classical “pol”. He may be no F.D.R. or Lyndon Johnson in his dealings with Congress, but he made the Dems look much better and more constructive in the eyes of the electorate. Admittedly, the President was handed the best domestic issue he could have wanted with the Supreme Court’s decision in the Dobbs case overturning Roe vs. Wade with all three of Trump’s Court nominees supporting the decision. The voters in Kentucky as they had in Kansas as well as in Michigan and around the country repudiated the Trump/Republican message to inscribe abortion bans or restrictions into state laws or constitutions. Despite the fact that Republicans predicted that Americans had to deal with the economy and inflation and had forgotten the abortion issue--younger voters especially stepped forward and rejected abortion restrictions.
The former President and Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy are both in trouble. McCarthy’s comeuppance could come very soon, while Trump will never pull back from a fight which this time he will lose early and often. Governor Ron DeSantis is already ringing Trump’s bell. When Trump starts calling you names and trying ridicule you, one knows he is worried.
The Wall Street Journal editorialized that the Republican Party’s poor showing must be placed on the head of the former President. Rupert Murdoch himself has already indicated that he is ready to remove his empire from the decks of the Trump faithful as his New York Post and even Fox News are rapidly seeking ways to jump ship. The 2024 Republican candidates will be lining up very fast. Trump’s legions will remain loyal, but slippage is already beginning among Republicans who want to return to power in 2025.
Should Trump, as is expected, announce his intention to seek another term in two years and he is indeed denied the nomination, it should not be assumed that Donald Trump—for the first time in his life—will walk off quietly into the night. One need only to recall what Theodore Roosevelt did in 1912 when he mounted an unsuccessful independent campaign to regain the White House as the candidate of the Bull Moose Party. His challenge to the sitting Republican President William Howard Taft, enabled the Democrat Woodrow Wilson to be elected President. Trump’s ego like that of TR could likely impel him to run as a Third-Party candidate, should he seek and fail to gain the Republican nomination.
As for the Congress, control of the Senate may not be known until after the December 8th Georgia runoff. Regardless of how the final numbers in the House develop, either party will have a very slim majority. Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy might actually be removed by his own membership regardless of whether the GOP controls the House or not. His vulnerability adds further evidence to the extent to which the Republican Party needs to re-group—and fast.
Traditional politics won on Tuesday and America’s concern for its pocketbook did not overwhelm a genuine public concern for the future of the nation. The debate is hardly over but one thing became clear. Joe Biden may be old, but this election may well bring him to conclude—assuming Jill agrees—that he has one more round-up left before the horse goes home to the barn.
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