The Red Wave MIA!
Bad Hair Day!
President Trump had a bad hair day after the mid-term election on November 8, 2022 in the United States. The analysts thought that the election would be a 'slam dunk' in favor of the Republicans, so the term 'red wave' was used in the media. Red is the color associated with the Republicans, and it was thought that they would have a landslide victory in the House of Representatives and the Senate. But thinking it does not make it so, and the red wave did not materialize. This is surprising because a new President's party usually loses quite a few seats in its first mid-term election. This has not happened this time, and as I write this, almost a week later, the Democrats will retain their majority in the Senate, and the Republicans will have a small majority in the House of Representatives. Historically speaking, this is a terrible result for the Republicans.
What happened?
Here are a few reasons why the predicted 'red wave' didn't happen:
- As kingmaker Trump chose candidates who drank the 'Kool Aid', with respect to the 2020 presidential election. They claimed that Trump had won, and that election fraud stole the victory from him. Maybe the American public is sick and tired of their lies.
- Trump chose three conservative Supreme Court justices: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. That Court overturned abortion legislation, which gave the mother a federal right to demand and obtain an abortion anywhere in the United States. Thus, the court rendered the decision of Roe vs. Wade void as a direct consequence of those appointments. But according to the 'Pew Research Center', 61% of the population (80% Democrats and 38% Republicans) say they mostly agree with the mother's right to obtain an abortion.
- The Republicans were arguing strongly that Biden was to blame for the current unrestrained inflation in the United States. But the problem is being handled by both the government and the Federal Reserve Bank, with the inflation rate recently decreasing from 8.1% to 7.7%. But, more importantly, the inflation rate is higher in many other countries – almost 10% in the EU and Great Britain, for example. So, the Republicans do not have a persuasive case.
- The Jan 6 committee presented irrefutable evidence to blame former president Trump for the uprising that occurred on January 6, 2021. Trump played a major role in all aspects of the uprising, from the big lie that the presidency was stolen from him ( he began casting doubt on the electoral process as far back as the presidential election he won in 2016), through the planning process, up to the attack on the Capitol itself. Prominent Republicans Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger were some of the members on the committee, and more importantly, most of the witnesses who appeared before the committee were Republicans. That strong evidence may have influenced a lot of Republicans, so that their trust in Trump and the politicians who strongly support him has eroded.
Tide turning?
Recently, Trump's allies have sharply criticized him. Here are a few examples:
"Almost every one of the candidates that Trump supported lost," Chris Christie, the former Republican governor of New Jersey, said on ABC's "Good Morning America." “It's a big loss for Trump. And, again, it shows that his political intentions are not for his party or for the country and for Trump himself."
"Republicans have followed Donald Trump off the cliff," said David Urban, a longtime Trump adviser with ties to Pennsylvania.
Former senator Peter King, a Long Island Republican who has long supported Trump, said, "I strongly believe that he should no longer be the leader of the Republican Party," adding that the party "cannot be his personal cult!”
Parting Word!
I hope that we have now reached the moment of truth, and it is a sign of hope that the majority of the people in the country are choosing democracy over autocracy and choosing the truth over lies. With respect to democracy (though), we shouldn’t count our chickens before they are hatched.
English 
Gaeilge