The US just had its midterm elections, and while pollsters predicted that the GOP would win both the House and the Senate, the so-called Red Wave didn’t materialize. Most of the high- profile 2020 election deniers handpicked by former President Trump lost. Republican candidates for governor who enthusiastically promoted Trump’s Big Lie in the battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Arizona all were defeated. Trump’s senate candidates in Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada also lost, allowing the Democrats to retain control of the Senate.
On the surface, the results were good news. But a deeper look doesn’t appear so sunny. For instance, of the 308 candidates who raised doubts about or refused to accept the results of the 2020 election, 185 (60 percent) won. The authoritarian right-wing extremists who comprise the Freedom Caucus (yes, irony is dead) grew their ranks to where they now have 44 members in the House. And while the results seem to be a repudiation of Trump, I’m not sure this will last- he has been counted out several times before. The midterms demonstrated that a sizeable chunk of Americans are still willing to support the wholly false notion that the 2020 election was stolen. Whether they believe that this is true or are simply hoping to use this lie to prevent left-leaning constituencies from voting is irrelevant. Either way, anyone who would vote for an election denier does not believe in democracy. The GOP voter is so poisoned that they do not care a lick about the truth, ethics or competent leadership.
Exhibit A is Herschel Walker. The former football star, running for a senate seat in Georgia, is easily the worst candidate to ever get a major party’s nomination for the US Senate. Walker repeats verbatim Trump's lies about the 2020 election. He cannot answer even basic questions on the issues. Walker's speeches are mostly an incoherent mishmash of biblical nonsense, conspiracies and atrocious grammar. He talked a lot about absentee fathers; then it was revealed that he had three ‘secret’ children who were raised without him. Walker is also stridently anti-abortion, favoring a complete ban with no exceptions; then it was revealed that he urged and paid for two women with whom he had affairs to get abortions. He completely made-up stories about being a police officer, serving in the military and running large, successful businesses. Most disturbingly, he admitted that, among other acts of domestic violence, he held a loaded gun to his wife’s head and threatened to kill her.
In a healthy democracy, any single one of these scandals would have destroyed Walker’s chances. How can anyone with a brain and a conscience vote for this man? Irrespective of party or ideology, a candidate this bad is simply unfit to be voted even dogcatcher and should have been laughed off the ballot. But in today’s Georgia, he received 48.5 percent of the vote and he still has a reasonable chance of winning the Senate seat in next month’s runoff. The current Republican Party has no ideas, no policies and no clue what they stand for. They only care about political power and stoking hatred of liberals. Every issue great and small becomes a weapon in their hands, a chance to demonize their opponents. (The fact that Republicans constantly turn on each other with the same tactics should be instructive to people who think “both sides” are the same. They are not.) There is no bottom to their depravity. Just before the election, Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi’s 82-year-old husband was attacked and badly injured by a deranged man who believed the steady diet of lies he saw on Fox News and right-wing websites. Many Republicans thought this was hilarious and made jokes about it. They also made-up a completely false and denigrating story about the attack to exempt themselves from responsibility and further victimize Mr. Pelosi.
Even if Trump is on his way out, his likely successor is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who cruised to an easy victory in his own re-election. While removing Trump from the scene would obviously help, the only major difference between Trump and DeSantis is that the latter is far more intelligent and organized and is thus a much more skilled demagogue. DeSantis has implemented a sweeping voter suppression law in Florida that mostly targets constituencies that are unlikely to vote for his party. He has put himself at the forefront of the culture wars, passing the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which restricts classroom discussions on homosexuality, and the pathetically named Stop Woke Act, which aims to limit discussions about race and slavery because it makes white people uncomfortable. DeSantis knows full well that almost everything Trump proclaims is false, but he has mastered the ability to use the divisiveness to his own benefit without creating the circus atmosphere that has engulfed the former president.
With divisions this deep and dialogue this polluted, a road back to sanity and civility becomes ever more elusive. A party as bad as today’s Republican Party should be getting wiped out in elections; instead they have a house majority and a 50/50 split in the Senate. There are many conservatives with a conscience, some of whom opposed Trump from the beginning. There are also plenty who whisper their complaints behind the scenes but are too cowardly to say them publicly. It will be up to all these conservatives to find some courage and reclaim their party in the coming year. If they don’t, the 2024 election will be a watershed for American democracy.
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