All I read and hear about Tuesday’s midterm elections is “a huge red wave.” “Panic in New York.” “Blake Masters takes a razor-thin lead.” “Most voters support JD Vance.” “A red wave Tuesday? Final Rasmussen poll: GOP leads congressional vote by 5 points.” “Democrats in trouble.” “Hispanic voters in Arizona, Florida, Texas abandon Democrats.” “Laxalt, Lombard lead Democratic opposition among Hispanic voters.” And so on.
I watched Sean Hannity’s interview with Newt Gingrich on Friday night. I have a lot of respect for Newt. He predicted 54-55 Senate seats for the Republicans, and “20-50” seats in the House. 20-50 is a substantial difference, but probably exact. But it’s not as substantial a setback for the Democrats as we might think; they lost 63 seats under Obama in 2010. It was bad then, but it’s awful now. If I were a Democrat, I would consider losing only “20-50” seats a moral victory. Republicans would still control the House. But 54-55 Republicans in the Senate would be a rout; remember, the GOP is holding Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, and North Carolina, so 54-55 would be huge. 51-52 would be a victory even if McConnell, Murkowski, Romney, Graham and a few other RINOs had held on.
But if Republicans win the House, even a 50-50 split in the Senate, while disappointing, wouldn’t be a disaster because it would need to pass both chambers before the bill could become law. So the Republican-led House would be able to block more of Biden’s agenda. The GOP needs control of at least one chamber of Congress, and it seems very likely that they will win the lower chamber and perhaps the upper chamber as well.
I posted a piece on Townhall a few days ago where I was a little more conservative than Newt, because, well, I’m a conservative, that’s in my bones. I predicted a final vote of 51-52 Republican senators and a 20-30 raise in the House. I think 53-55 senators is possible, with a 30+ raise in the House. Given the state of the country, I don’t see how anyone can vote for any Democrat, but I always come back to the fact that I spent most of my career in higher education, so I know the gloomy state of academia today. I couldn’t teach every student in America; what a shame. I wish I could teach more.
Two things about Election Tuesday scare me. First, so many of the races are so close. Almost every crucial Senate race is so close: Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, New Hampshire, Georgia, all so close. Why? How can Americans look at the country and not murder the Democrats? Hannity and a few other pundits said Friday night that fewer than 100,000 votes in all of those states combined could decide the Senate. Again, how can these races be so close? Well, I hate to be ugly, but one of my long-standing mottos is “never underestimate the stupidity of the American electorate.” That’s certainly the case this year.
Like, how can ANYONE vote for John Fetterman? How did this guy, even before his stroke, get elected to anything? It’s not just that his policies are terrible, but this man is now physically incapable of doing a credible job in the most powerful political body in the world. But the people of Pennsylvania can put him there. That’s completely incomprehensible to me. Anyone, ANYTHING, but a Republican. Well, I admit I feel the same way about the Democrats. But the Republicans didn’t ruin the country the last two years, and they didn’t do it in the four years that Trump was president. Those were four very good years for America. But… these races are so close.
Things look better in Ohio, Wisconsin and North Carolina, where the GOP seems pretty solid to win. But those are “holds,” not “picks.” Still necessary, though.
The second thing that scares me is that so many of the contests are so close that the Democrats will certainly try to cheat and steal as much as they can. And if Blake Masters and Marc Kelly only have a few thousand more votes, who is going to stop the Democrats from “finding” the few “extra” thousand they need? The media certainly won’t pay attention to any irregularities. Indeed, if any Republican challenges the results of ANY election (including the local dog catcher), the Democrats will immediately cry “election denier!” “threat to democracy!” How can this be prevented? Will the courts facilitate? Probably not. Will Mitch McConnell step up to protect his people? Don’t make me laugh. Do the Republicans have a defense to protect free and fair elections? In other words, to protect democracy?
If Democrats are cheating and stealing the election…what can be done about it? The litigation would take years to resolve, and by then it would be too slow.
So, yes. I am a little concerned. More than a little. I do not trust one millionth of one nanometer of the Democrats. They will cheat if they can facilitate it—keeping power, by truthful or dishonest means everything to them, and in Marxist theology, cheating is a legitimate behavior if it keeps them in power. And the Republicans have not impressed me with their powerful defense. Trusting the Democrats to be truthful, to tell the truth, and to do what is right is absolutely the height of buffoonery. I hope the Republicans have a better plan than this to ensure a fair election.
The holidays are coming! My second Rob Conners western novel, A bend in the riveris out now. Honestly, I think it’s much better than my first book, Rushing water. Both are available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Eliva.com. Get a 10% discount on the print version at info@elivapress.com. Also read my other blog posts at thailandialewis.blogspot.com.
