A landslide, but no revolution

Well, the polls in many cases were wrong -- they understated the size of the blue wave.  The Democrats will have at least 54 Senate seats, and possibly as many as 56, since (as I write this) Alaska and Mississippi are too close to call.  They might end up with around 250 House seats.  It's a massive rebuke of Trump and the Republicans.

However, it doesn't offer much hope for real change -- for any progress against the country's fundamental problem of growing concentration of wealth and power in the oligarchy's hands and deepening impoverishment of the masses.  Osborn lost by about six points in Nebraska (independents also lost in South Dakota and Montana), and while barely over half the vote has yet been counted on the California billionaire wealth tax, it is currently losing by 56% to 44%.  So, as I anticipated on Thursday might happen, even this very large win is just an ordinary alternation of power between the two parties, such as we've been seeing back-and-forth for decades while the parasite class kept getting richer at everyone else's expense.  There is no sign here of an economic-populist revolution breaking through the increasing stagnation of our politics in the stranglehold of two parties both dominated by billionaire donors.  As I said on Thursday, we'll probably have to wait another two years for the next opportunity to push for real change within the political system, whatever form that might take.

Moving on down my list of the most important issues, the news on abortion rights is mostly positive.  Virginia and Nevada passed initiatives protecting the right to abortion in most cases; in both states the vote was almost two to one.  Missouri voters rejected an initiative to ban most abortions, 55% to 45%, even though it also included a ban on trans surgeries for minors (which are already banned in Missouri anyway) as a smokescreen.  Idaho, however, rejected a repeal of its abortion ban, 56% to 44%.

Tucker-Carlson-endorsed jihadist sympathizer Abdul El-Sayed won election to the Senate in Michigan.  The miasma of 1930s Germany which has been hanging over the country since October 2023 just got a little thicker and more poisonous.  The continued hysterics about Haley Stevens are astounding.  She's being called things like "traitor", as if a politician owed loyalty to a political party rather than to her constituents -- a graphic example of how the very existence of parties corrupts and perverts politics.

Troy Jackson, running on an economic-populist platform (though much less radical than Osborn's), won in Maine.  This is definitely a positive, but as a member of one of the two major parties, his freedom of action will be much more constrained than Osborn's would have been.

In Texas, Talarico and Hinojosa both won, by twelve and seven points respectively -- not even close.  Most pundits had them winning by a couple of points at best.  Democrats also won other major statewide offices and made gains in the state legislature.  Hispanic voters' anger over the abuses of ICE probably played a big role, but such large wins in a state that has been solidly red for three decades suggest a fundamental shift.  Hinojosa's victory is good news for the anti-data-center resistance, since she made this a major issue.

Trump must take some of the blame here.  If he hadn't imposed the godawful Paxton on Texas as a Senate candidate, the race would at least have been closer -- although given the size of Talarico's margin, even Cornyn probably couldn't have won this.  The same can't be said for South Carolina, where the grossly unqualified Darline Graham lost by barely four points.  If Trump had kept his nose out of it and let the state Republicans nominate a proper candidate, they might have held that seat.  I expect the party's fear and deference toward Trump to decrease quite a bit going forward.  This is also a defeat for arch-oligarch Elon Musk, who spent hundreds of millions to support Republicans in Texas.

Arizona passed a measure banning men and boys from women and girls' sports.  Similar measures are leading in Colorado and Washington, but not enough of the vote is counted yet to be sure of the final result.  The same is true of Colorado's initiative banning trans surgery for minors.

I can't find any results yet for Montana's initiative to prohibit corporations from making campaign contributions.  David Crowley won handily in Wisconsin, defeating Tom Tiffany, who had supported Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election.  Kansas elected a Democratic senator for the first time since 1932.

Here in Oregon, Tina Kotek was re-elected as governor (sigh).  Like Abbott in Texas, she was a big data-center booster until she realized that stance could cost her the election and suddenly changed course.  Unlike in Texas, here it apparently worked.  I guess Oregonians are more gullible than Texans.

It's important to remember what this win doesn't mean.  It doesn't mean that the country as a whole is suddenly OK with identity politics, general woketardia, illegal aliens, or putting male sex criminals in women's prisons.  It means the voters are punishing Trump for his abuses of power, his focus on personal vendettas and quarrels instead of the kitchen-table issues that afflict the masses, and his actually making those problems worse by his tariffs and his Iran war which have further inflated prices -- and they are also punishing the Republicans generally for going along with all this.  Yesterday voter anger outweighed the toxicity of the Democratic party brand, but that does not erase it.

So there you have it -- a landslide, and definitely a win for the country, but no revolution.  The larger-than-expected Democratic majorities in Congress, and the clear mandate they represent, offer a real chance to curb some of Trump's abuses.  There is talk of impeaching the embarrassingly godawful Hegseth, and in his case (unlike Trump), it's conceivable that there might be 67 Senate votes to get rid of him.  Congress might even be able to pass legislation to do some actual good for the people on fuel and grocery prices, "AI", data centers, and so on -- if handled properly, Trump might be persuaded not to veto such measures, or enough Republicans might be brought on board to override his vetoes.  But I see little chance of any serious challenge to the power and wealth of the billionaire parasite class.

Truths and inspirations for 2 November 2026

Normally there would be a non-political image round-up this week, but (a) the election would be too much of a distraction, and (b) I've got too many of these memes accumulated that need to post.  So here is another collection of them.  The usual schedule will resume next week.

If an image is hard to see or read, right-click and open the link in a new tab for the full-size version.

We're getting close to the big day -- there are only 363 days left until Halloween!

[For the link round-up, click here.]

Concerning tomorrow, here's another reminder that polls often are not reliable predictors of what will really happen.  Yesterday Electoral-Vote posted a Nebraska poll showing Osborn losing by 43% to 49%.  The previous poll they found worth including, from October 18, had him winning by 48% to 41%.  I don't think voting intentions really fluctuate that much in less than two weeks, in the absence of some dramatic event or revelation.  The polls you are seeing all over the country could be accurate, but they could be way off.  Anything could happen tomorrow -- don't take your expectations for granted.

Here's a reminder that prediction markets don't mean anything either.

Haley Stevens, it seems is that rare politician who actually has principles as opposed to mere blind loyalty to a political party.  The woketardosphere is predictably enraged, as are party leaders, and her career in Democratic politics is probably over (so long as the party remains the craven Islam-coddling thing it now is) -- but acting on principle instead of running with the mob always carries costs.

Only two of the magnificent seven now remain.....

Here's the source of the data.

I found this on a far-left blog.  The blogger actually said he was offended by it.

This mentality is pervasive in politics these days.  "If you're not 100% on board with our side's program, that means you're the enemy!"  It's setting up a litmus test that only robots can pass.