The polls are about to close for a host of races, the first of the 2022 cycle. And, predictably, liberals are not taking it well. They know Democrats will probably lose the House, given the razor-thin majority—four seats—Democrats had at the start of this recent session of Congress. The spike in crime, sky-rocketing inflation, and economic recession have put more Senate races in play, especially out west. Once seen as safe races for Democrats, Nevada, and Arizona are now up for grabs.
To add to the Democrats’ anxiety, New Hampshire has seen a red surge in the polls, with St. Anslem, the most accurate single-state poll over the past three elections, having Republican Senate candidate Don Bolduc up a point over Democratic incumbent Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH). It could be a red tsunami tonight, and this MSNBC op-ed has one writer being unable to cope with the “bleak reality” of a MAGA-led Congress (via MSNBC):
It is Election Day 2022, and I am not OK. I have not been OK for weeks. The same can likely be said of anyone who both a) thinks that Republicans’ reclaiming a majority in Congress is A Bad Thing overall and b) is misfortunate enough to have a media diet filled with “Democrats gripped with terror” punditry before the midterms.
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I very much doubt, though, that any of us have fully grasped that a GOP-led 118th Congress would be like nothing the country has ever experienced. The political landscape waiting just over the horizon is set to be one of mind-numbing, gut-churning inanity, the kind that becomes a weariness seeping into your bones.
It would be loud and infuriating and built upon an avalanche of cynical, time-wasting garbage. It would be two years of paralysis on the issues that matter the most, punctured only by self-destructive attempts to tear the country down in hope of rebuilding upon the ashes.
You may think I’m exaggerating. After all, most of you reading this lived through the tea party’s rise in 2010. We then somehow survived four years of Donald Trump in the White House. How could anything be worse than the previous decade of Republican-spawned chaos?
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Likewise, when Republicans controlled the White House and Congress early in the Trump era, there was at least some need to pretend to be able to govern. But any new majority in Congress would have the far-right, Trump-loyal wing of the party as its cornerstone. Its members resemble nothing less than the hellish offspring of a troll and a gremlin, expending energy on only two things: owning the libs and tearing the wings off the airplane while in flight.
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And looming over all of this will be Trump himself. It feels beyond masochistic to look ahead to the next election before the votes are even counted in the one before us. But there’s no choice in this case, not when every bit of outrage, every unchecked claim about voter fraud, every attempt to sabotage the U.S. economy will be done with his return to the White House in mind. Because it turns out the only lesson the GOP has learned from the Trump era is that embracing its worst instincts is a gateway to seizing power.
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It's not like Democrats didn’t have the time to pass consistent, meaningful though measured legislative goals. They did—and squandered it trying to roll spending measures that weren’t popular. They failed when inflation was becoming the monkey on every working American’s back, dismissing it as a right-wing noise. Democrats doubling down on trying to make 2022 about abortion rights is classic bubble mentality when every poll, including liberal ones, had economic woes as the top concern for voters. We’ve seen a Democratic-run Congress. It’s been a nightmare, so yes—bring on the ‘MAGA’ wave to reverse the decay.
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