So there was a big election yesterday, with a larger-than-expected ‘blue wave’ of Democratic wins in many states. Most significant midterm election of 50 years, or something like that. I don’t need to summarize the details here, except to note that Trump blames everyone but himself, Vance blames the war, and the usual suspects think voter fraud was involved (or maybe demons).
Some just headlines.
NY Times, today: Midterm Elections Live Updates: Democrats Project Power as G.O.P. Reels in a Reordered Washington (the exact headline keeps changing)
Slate, Jim Newell, today: Democrats’ Catharsis Election, subtitled “After a dystopian decade, Democrats finally, fully got to stick it to the man responsible.”
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The Atlantic, Helen Lewis, today: A Night of Pure Trumpenfreude, subtitled “Finally, the president’s actions had consequences.”
And,
John Scalzi, today: Thoughts From a Tsunami: “Thank you, America, you understood the assignment.”
And this:
TNR, The New Republic, today: Trumpism Is Failing Because It Is Very, Very Stupid, subtitled “The MAGA movement is fully rooted in the promotion of ignorance and demonization of knowledge. That’s why it’s failing now. That’s why it will fail in the future.”
And,
David Pakman podcast, today: Democrats win House and Senate as MAGA in shambles, Trump blames everyone else
And asks, have they learned anything?
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And there’s a whole series of posts on JMG with similar titles.
JMG, today: The Federalist Has Midterms Sadz: It’s All Trump’s Fault
Similarly for LibsOfTikTok (Dems stole the election), Tony Perkins (“We need God”), Laura Loomer (“America is over”), Mat Staver (“Send money now”), Fox & Friends, and perhaps others.
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What I am looking forward to is perhaps a change in tone of the news coverage. We’ve been saturated for the past 2 or 8 or 10 years about all the crazy, outrageous things Trump and his cabinet and MAGA are doing. Will we see less of that, and more coverage of positive, progressive measures that the Democratic Congress passes? The big problem is Trump’s promised vetoes of any such legislation that the new Congress passes. That will make it even more obvious, I think, that Trump especially is regressive and reactionary and destructive.
We’ll see how this works out. Already noted is that Trump, despite the alarmists on his side, will apparently not contest this election. It was too big to steal, they think. At the same time, will the Democratic Congress engage in a series of retribution hearings, or impeachments? If they think twice, they might avoid this. Let them resign instead.
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Finally, a piece from Tuesday’s NYT front page that I tried and failed to find online yesterday. (One problem is that headlines/titles change from print to online, another is the print byline for this is different from the online byline.) I found it today, by searching on “radicalism corruption”.
NY Times, Lisa Lerer, 2 Nov 2026: The Parties Make Their Closing Arguments: ‘This Isn’t Just Red Versus Blue’, subtitled “Republicans, worried about losing control of Congress, are sending dire warnings about the opposing party. Democrats are trying to keep their focus on affordability, corruption and President Trump.”
In print 3 Nov, on the front page, as by Lisa Lerer and Thomas Fuller, with the title “The Final Arguments: Radicalism vs. Corruption”
The print title is what caught my eye. The corruption part is easy. What is it people think is so “radical” about the Democrats? A handful of transgender people playing sports? Let’s see.
I’m going to specifically search this article for things people think are so radical about the Democratic agenda.
Here’s a comment from losing candidate Ken Paxton:
“This isn’t just red versus blue,” Mr. Paxton said on Friday at his own event in Houston. “It’s the America our founders gave us versus something they would never recognize.”
Another from Trump arguing that Democratic candidates would “destroy our country.”
Another:
Mr. Husted has painted a picture of a state under Mr. Brown where borders are open to immigrants, sports are welcoming to transgender athletes, and language is policed to the point that Ohioans have to say “birthing person” instead of “woman.”
“It’s common sense versus crazy,” Mr. Husted said at events last week across the Buckeye State.
And that’s it. Nothing new.
On the first point, why is it a problem that modern society is something the founders would not recognize? Surely that’s true on many points. They would be astounded by the freeing of slaves and women in business and government, too.
On the second. Borders were open to immigrants until about 100 years ago; why has American become so xenophobic? The number of transgender athletes is minuscule. And language policing is also extremely local. Compare Trump’s language directives, about AI/SI. And as always, beware common sense, which only works in limited, familiar situations.
