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US Capitol being punched by red and blue boxing gloves
Shortly after Election Day, we all should have a pretty good idea how difficult it will be for President Biden and congressional Democrats to pass any more legislation for the next two years regardless of how popular it might be with the American people.
What we may not know for some time is how much longer America’s major political parties will remain locked in a bitter struggle over two radically different visions of our future as a democracy.
No one can trust the polls when so many elections around the country in crucial battleground states like Wisconsin are so excruciatingly close. Here’s the only safe political prediction. The results will be mixed. And as good or as bad as the midterms are for either political party, the next test for democracy will begin immediately after the election.
That’s because even if Republicans succeed in regaining a majority in either closely divided house of Congress, they cannot escape the fact that so many of their supporters remain blindly committed to their soundly defeated ex-president who lost re-election by the largest vote in American history.
Election Deniers
Rather than distancing themselves from their defeated president Donald Trump for sending a raging mob to attack Congress to overthrow President Biden’s election, a majority of Republican nominees in the midterms for the House, Senate and top state offices are election deniers themselves publicly questioning whether the 2020 election results were legitimate.
In an analysis of 569 Republican midterm candidates by The Washington Post—53% of the nominees, 291 candidates—were identified as 2020 election deniers challenging the certified election outcome. Most of those Republican extremists, 173, were running in safely Republican districts where they were expected to win. Another 52 were running in tightly contested elections that could go either way.
Wisconsin Congressmen Scott Fitzgerald and Tom Tiffany joined 139 other incumbent House Republicans after the January 6 insurrection voting to disenfranchise millions of legitimate voters in Arizona and Pennsylvania by throwing out those states’ certified electoral votes for Biden.
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Ron Johnson’s Fake Electors
Other state Republican candidates questioning the legitimacy of Wisconsin’s election include gubernatorial nominee Tim Michels who talked about decertifying the election results whether it was constitutional or not, Sen. Ron Johnson who tried to deliver “fake electoral votes” for Trump from Wisconsin and Michigan to Vice President Mike Pence on January 6 and Derrick Van Orden, the homophobic, misogynistic, anti-abortion 3rd District congressional nominee who used campaign funds to travel to Trump’s January 6 insurrection.
The growing House Insurrection Caucus could create as many political problems for Republicans as it does for Democrats and American democracy. That’s because they can be expected to take their marching and rioting orders directly from their ex-president in his nonstop campaign to return to power in 2024 for as long as he likes.
Because the mainstream media stopped helping Trump spread his constant stream of lies to gullible supporters, most Americans who avoid Fox News don’t realize how weird and twisted Trump’s public rallies have become since Trump has openly welcomed the deranged conspiracy theorists of QAnon to join his white supremacist army of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers in one big loony Lollapalooza.
Nazi-Like Salute
Real news reporters began interviewing people at Trump rallies again when word got around Trump was playing the QAnon theme song during his rants prompting crowds to enthusiastically wave one arm in the air pointing a finger in a Nazi-like salute. One woman explained they were pointing to God. “It’s like saying that God’s coming,” she said. Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who’s being banished from office for supporting Trump’s impeachment for attempting to overthrow democracy, has called him their Orange Jesus.
Trump’s most extreme devotees from political fringe groups follow him from city to city like a far-right version of Grateful Dead fans. Many QAnon supporters wear lanyards with a long string of commemorative buttons from every rally they’ve ever attended. Trump claimed several women in North Carolina had earned an invitation to Mar-a-Lago for attending 92 rallies. That could drive anyone mad.
No wonder rally supporters tell reporters Biden died in 2019. They say he was replaced by an actor so the deep state could run the presidency by committee. “You gotta do some research, brother,” one said. Many still expect John F. Kennedy Jr. to reveal he faked his death and plans to run as Trump’s vice president in 2024. They keep picking new dates for the Supreme Court to announce it has overturned the 2020 election and reinstated Trump as president.
It's funny until they try again to violently bring down the government to restore Trump to power. Political extremists are not harmless eccentrics. The FBI warns they’re potential domestic terrorists threatening our democracy. Republicans won’t be a legitimate American political party again until they stop nominating candidates for public office who refuse to accept the results of elections.
