The red tide never surged but the re-election of numerous brazen careerists and hardline crazies is bad news for the next two years and beyond, particularly since the Democrats have little idea about how to oppose this new breed of politician.
‘It could have been worse.’
That was the prevailing sentiment among left-liberal voters in the US a day or two after the November 8 mid-term elections, in which Republicans picked up seats in the House and state offices but lost the Senate and failed to launch the ‘red tide’ that pundits had been predicting for months. It wasn’t exactly a sigh of relief – more the lightening of a sense of dread; but in comparison to the fears on the Left of a Republican sweep, it could have been worse indeed.
Actually, the major takeaway of this 2022 election season was its strangeness. The campaigns were fought virtually in the dark. There were hardly any public debates, and even when there was one, Republican candidates substituted a litany of catchphrases (or curses) for reasoned arguments. Tom Kean Jr., the Republican winner of a House seat in New Jersey, peppered his one debate appearance with the phrase: ‘My opponent voted with Pelosi 100% of the time’ – invoking the name of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has become such a pariah in the eyes of Republican voters that a deranged citizen broke into her San Francisco home in an attempt to kidnap her, and seriously injured her 83-year-old husband….
After the truth-shower 