The long-awaited and momentous midterms elections have come to an end, and the result is one that most of us have anticipated for a long time. Since the start of Trump’s disastrous Iran war we have written repeatedly about the time crunch that existed: Trump had a limited window to decisively “win” the war and get out, or else it would seep into the midterms as a massive, festering wound, poisoning the Republicans’ chances of victory.
Well, last night, precisely that happened. Trump could not cinch up the war in time, and the result was a bloodbath at the polls. Democrats won in a sweeping “blue wave”, taking both the Senate and House, relegating the remainder of Trump’s presidential term to a contentious lame-duck denouement.
The most telling result from last night was the massive shift of the key 18-29 male demographic—the very same one that should have been MAGA’s most stalwart vanguard:
It was reportedly the biggest such shift of any demographic group.
While I normally don’t enjoy commenting on US domestic politics, this particular election is intrinsically tied to global geopolitics because, let’s be honest, at the end of the day the entire election was decided by one and only one issue: Iran.
Or should I say, Israel.
Iran effectively broke the US’s back, destroying the MAGA regime which tried so desperately to wipe it out on Israel’s behalf....
But the most eye-opening result of the midterms by far was JD Vance’s shocking self-reckoning, which he posted on his official X account.
The candid reflection demonstrates a remarkable self-awareness, and feels like a quiet rebellion against the policies of his boss. Many people had long suspected that Vance was secretly against these foreign entanglements from the start, but was forced to politically support the administration. This appears to be either confirmation of that fact, or an attempt to save face and salvage his own political reputation in order to keep himself in the running for the 2028 Republican nomination, which has taken a big blow given that Trump’s political endorsements have now lost any power they once had...
....The classic problem with all popular leaders is they invariably become victims to their own success. Their popularity goes to their head, and they begin to indulge themselves with the belief that it was their genius and foresight which brought them to prominence, rather than their promises. They then gradually give in to the wiles of the donors, justifying it with the delusion that they know best, and the public will follow them through any abrupt pivot, no matter how skewed from the original promised path.
That is simply not so: Trump broke his campaign promise of no new wars, and the people have noted it. His justification that Iran posed an existential nuclear threat was a patent fraud and a lie. Iran posed no threat whatsoever, nor was it any closer to developing any kind of nuke. The entire narrative was cooked up overnight when Israel saw its generational chance to eliminate its arch-enemy for all time, after the perfect confluence of conditions and impressionable US leadership had formed to create the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Trump betrayed the public mandate, and now his party and his movement will pay for it; it’s as simple as that.
But look at the bright side: The White House gets a glitzy new ballroom out of the deal.
