I treated myself to watching Morning Joe on Friday, always the best source of reliable, unbiased reporting. The 7:00 AM segment began with Trump’s numerous proclamations that the “excursion” into Iran has been extraordinarily successful, far beyond his wildest dreams, that it will soon be over, that Iran will cave, and that plummeting gas prices are just around the corner along with lower food prices, housing costs, and lower costs for everyone.
Except for the diehard MAGAs very few Americans are buying that. Donny-boy, we are not idiots.
The mess in Iran is not going to be good for Republicans when the midterm elections happen in about eight months. The cost of living will be a huge issue as will the loss of American lives, if this drags on for much longer. And Democrats seem to be fielding some strong centrist candidates for Congress. Trump right now is the least popular of any U.S. president post World War II at this stage of his presidency. Republicans certainly realize this and are bracing for the worst. If the Democrats were to win back the House, now considered likely, the Trump agenda would hit a brick wall, and his out-of-control second term would be severely constrained. If Trump support in the Senate also were to cave, game over, though this is considered a long shot. Certainly, Trump must realize this, and his constant talk of a successful “excursion” in Iran is Exhibit A that he gets it.
By the way, the definition of an “excursion” according to The Oxford Language Dictionary is “a short journey or trip, especially one engaged in as a leisure activity.” Not exactly accurate for a situation that is likely to make George W.’s Iraq War fiasco seem like a picnic. Some commentators explain he got the word “excursion” confused with “incursion.” I tell you, the dude is not playing with a full deck.
All hopeful for Democrats, except that the Republican majorities might hold because of dirty tricks. It is clear that Trump and his team of sycophants have given up on winning in fair competition and are hard at work on a game plan to steal the election. The initial strategy is to severely limit who can vote. The “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act” in a 218-213 vote passed the House in February but stalled in the Senate due to arguments from Democrats that it would violate voting rights. It would require Americans to show proof of citizenship to be able to register to vote and to have a valid ID in order to cast a ballot. In other words, people would have to show up with a valid U.S. passport or a birth certificate and a government issued ID. Can you imagine the chaos this would cause? How many people who are legitimate U.S. citizens can easily get their hands on their birth certificate? And a lot of legitimate citizens do not have passports.
The act would also ban mail-in voting and restrict voting from transgender people. The Republican thinking I suppose is that people without official passports or U.S. birth certificates or who are transgender are more likely to vote for a Democrat. If they are denied the right to vote, then the Republicans have a better shot at winning. My guess is that constraining the voting lists is just the beginning, the tip of the iceberg.
There probably also are plans to intimidate voters who manage to meet all the requirements and to get to the polls–a heavy police presence, mobs of Proud Boys or other vigilantes surrounding voting lines and shouting threats. Who knows about how they might be tinkering with the voting machines and the vote counting? I am assuming there are people at work here as well–whatever it takes to alter the results.
However, if the Iran War continues unabated and if costs of gas and food continue to rise, the American people will revolt, even many in the Trump base living paycheck to paycheck. The Republicans will pay the price–as indeed they should. The only hope they have to win is to cheat or as some have predicted for Trump to call off the midterms because of a “national emergency.”
Any thoughts about how this movie will end?
I think we will get through it and prevail. We have the primaries going and the states still handle the election. The dems will probably stop the so called SAVE act and even if they don’t, it hurts Republicans at least as much if not more. The problem is that for the next several months the world has to get through this and the suffering as a result is worse that I can imagine. However, we will come out to the other side and begin picking pieces and repairing. I work with so many passionate, energetic, talented, brainy, young people. On Friday many of them organized a walkout demonstration at school to protest everything that’s happening. They are our future and are ready to pull up their sleeves and get to work for kindness, for the planet, and for peace!!