As I noted previously, this election felt different than others. We were battling for the "soul" of the country to a large degree. Would we head more toward autocracy, from which recovery would likely be long, or would the pendulum swing back toward the middle and start us back on the path of a functioning democracy?
Heading into the midterms, it was never really clear what would happen. Sure, there were hopes and dreams that there might be a "blue wave" that would hand at least some control back to the democrats and keep the orange man in check. But it would take all of us to get out and vote to make it happen.
Quick aside: polling was all over the place, I would assume because polling methods have become more political, and don't necessarily ask the right questions or keep up with the way people behave, hiding behind anonymity. So they were no help in understanding what might happen.
Anyway, we - all of us - came through! At a national level, the results could not have been more clear. Senate and House both handed resoundingly to the democrats. Governors and other local elections went to dems all over (and in unexpected places). The gerrymandering efforts brought by the GOP failed spectacularly.
While the orange man talked about "being on the ballot" heading into the election, afterward he told us all that if he had been on the ballot he would have had a resounding victory. And, blamed any - and every - one for the defeats.
But the reality is that this is a middle finger directed AT him.
And don't miss that what happened in Texas was a rebuke of that Musk fellow. He spent a ton (though it's obviously not much to him) to try and get Texas to go how he wanted. And voters thoroughly rejected him.
All of that said, Flori-duh did what Flori-duh does best, and acted stupidly. Apparently the memo that was circulated about a "blue wave" didn't reach the state, so most things went very MAGA. Sure, some of the gerrymandered seats went to the dems. But overall, it was a bit of a failure at the state level. I suppose you can argue that the races were close, and the dems broke the long-standing supermajority in the Florida legislature.
But overall, I take this is a step in the right direction.
