Cheers to the Dumocrats and the Wisdom of Crowds

And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revelers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.

--Edgar Alan Poe

JD Vance says that the Republicans lost the mid-term elections because of the war and their ties to Israel. Of course, it is more complicated than that veiled antisemitic explanation.

I am on record about what I think about the war and the dumpster fire that is the Trump presidency. https://www.awrcounsel.com/blog/2026/7/2/trump-lost-the-war-and-is-corrupting-our-country. The war could have helped the Republicans with a rally around the flag effect, except that they failed to articulate the reasons and then Vance signed a pathetic surrender agreement. I will rephrase Vance’s point to the Republican base -- was was it worth it to lose the House and Senate likely for the next six years so you could allow the Trump syndicate to corrupt our government; chase away our allies; pathetically  threaten military action against Canada, Greenland and Iceland; suck  up to Putin; sell out Ukraine; give tax breaks to the oligarchs;  impoverish common folks by means of falsely low inflation data; and bankrupt our country. My favorite part of the campaign was Trump turning on Fox News for even speaking to the “Dumocrats” and holding his absurd Masque of the Red Death style Halloween Party at his personal Mar-a-Lago Club.

Let’s be real. Mid-term elections are difficult for the party in power. Even Reagan got creamed in 1982, and he was perhaps the most successful Republican president of modern times. But Democratic party victories in the south and heartland are nonetheless surprising. With just a little more money, effort, and better candidate selection, the Dems could have had a near filibuster proof majority and perhaps even a veto override. Coulda, woulda, shoulda….  Such was the power of the blue tide that even the Republican gerrymander sort of backfired.  I thought this would happen at some point. Trump has effectively despoiled, corrupted and destroyed every instrument he has ever touched. He has a remarkable record of losing. The fact that he was able to parlay that kind of record into two terms as the President is itself unbelievable.

So where to next? Every victory has the seeds of its later defeat. And will it even be possible to recobble together our international alliances in 2029?