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Following his brutal drubbing in the midterms, practically the first thing Trump did was double down.
The White House announced that the largely ineffectual Susie Wiles was stepping down as chief of staff to be replaced by longtime Trump advisor and rabid anti-immigrant white nationalist thug Stephen Miller. Miller has been the main force behind the Gestapo-like policy of kidnapping and terrorizing immigrants nationwide. His elevation is widely viewed as an embrace of the worst and most vicious aspects of the repudiated Republican agenda.
No one really thought the midterms would solve America’s fascism problem on their own. Trump is still president, still very powerful, and still spurting evil and hate like a giant constantly rupturing orange boil. Democrats won a massive, crucial, decisive battle in the midterms, but they haven’t yet won the war.
Nonetheless, battles have consequences. And Trump’s decision to continue being Trump doesn’t change the fact that the blue wave is already having real, concrete effects on policy and accountability. More change is needed. But change builds on change, and as such, it’s important to recognize that it is in fact already happening.
Wins on procedure
Democrats do not currently hold office; for the most part, they do not assume their seats till January. Nonetheless, their victory last week was sweeping enough that it has significantly reduced the plausibility of GOP shenanigans in the lame duck period.
First, Sherrod Brown won the Ohio special election to replace vice president and racist ghoul JD Vance in the Senate. While most senators are seated on January 3, Brown should be able to enter the Senate as early as December 15, reducing the Republican advantage to 52-48.
That’s a crucial extra vote if Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito changes his mind and decides to resign in the lame duck period. It also might be important if Pete Hegseth is impeached and there is a vote on removal in the Senate.
Every senator is important; reducing the Republican Senate majority a couple of weeks early makes it more difficult for the GOP to do ugly things before the new Congress shows up. That’s all to the good.
Along those lines, state-level GOP parties have often engaged in antidemocratic shenanigans in the lame duck period. In 2018, for example, Wisconsin state lawmakers, backed by the state’s Republican Supreme Court, rushed through measures to limit the power of incoming Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
Observers worried that Georgia might try to redraw gerrymandered congressional maps this year to benefit Republicans in the lame duck period if Democrats won the midterms. But the scale of the victory — the GOP lost the governor’s race and the state House, as well as numerous other offices — led outgoing Gov. Brian Kemp to comply in advance. He’s stated he will not call a special session of the legislature, and that there will be no new maps.
The Republican Texas Senate, in contrast, probably will decide to restrict the sweeping powers of the incoming lieutenant governor. But even this naked power grab feels significantly less consequential when Democrats won every state office in Texas and flipped the state House. Republicans will still control the Senate, but without the governor’s office or the other legislative chamber, they will not be setting the agenda, even if they reduce the lieutenant governor’s power.
Perhaps most consequentially, the sheer scale of the Democratic victory has undermined Republican efforts to deny election results or steal them.
Despite his insistence that he would follow the rule of law, some Democrats have been concerned that Speaker of the House Mike Johnson — a leading election denier in 2020 — might refuse to seat some Democrats in a close election, holding onto control of the House for Republicans.
Again, though, the scale of the victory has made these concerns moot; Johnson has acknowledged Republicans lost the House and has said he will not run for minority leader, effectively ending his career in leadership. He’s been a poisonous figure, committed to unending Trump sycophancy and lies. His departure is good in itself.
Wins on policy
Democrats cannot start legislating until they are actually seated as legislators. But the prospect of their ascension has already had policy results.
Houston Democratic Mayor John Whitmire announced after the election that the Houston Police Department would no longer contact ICE or detain people on civil immigration warrants. Whitmire had tried to reduce cooperation with ICE earlier in Trump’s second term, but far-right Gov. Greg Abbott had threatened to withhold $110 million in public safety funding if Whitmire didn’t support Trump’s fascist goons.
Whitmire backed down. But now that Abbott has gone down to humiliating defeat, Whitmire no longer has to fear him or his extortion nonsense.
“I do this to begin a healing process, reduce fear and anxiety across our community,” Whitmire said while announcing the new policy. “I also do this knowing that elections matter.”
Democrats have also already won a significant victory on abortion rights in Texas. Attorney General Ken Paxton (who lost his bid for US Senate) had used his office to try to prosecute out-of-state doctors for prescribing abortion medication to Texans. This had a major chilling effect, undermining one of the few paths for care in a state where abortions had become already practically impossible to access.
But now the new Democratic Attorney General-elect Nathan Johnson has said he is going to discontinue these lawsuits. That means doctors no longer need to fear prosecution, and that means that people in the state now have another means to access medical care.
Democrats can do much more to fight for abortion rights once they are in office. But what’s happening in Texas is a powerful message that they’ve already started.
Wins on accountability
The blue wave had barely swept Republicans out to sea before Democratic electeds started to sharpen their subpoenas.
In fact, Sen. Ron Wyden posted just that one word late on election night.
Similarly, Rep. Robert Garcia, incoming chair of the House Oversight Committee, warned Republicans to “Lawyer up!”
Delia Ramirez, a member of the Homeland Security Oversight Subcommittee, posted, “Noem, Markwayne, Miller, Homan, Bovino, what’s up? Clear your schedule.”
These promises of investigation and accountability are good to see — and they have impact right now, not just in the future.
Harmeet Dhillon, the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, announced her resignation almost immediately after the election, which suggests she is concerned about all those Democratic committees. Dhillon notoriously gutted the Civil Rights Office and used her power to threaten universities, election workers, and local officials.
Almost simultaneously, Jason Reding Quiñones, the US attorney for the Southern District of Florida, handed in his resignation. Quiñones was in charge of investigating Obama and Biden-era intelligence officials at the behest of a vindictive president. Like Dhillon, it seems likely he fears that if he persists in office he will further implicate himself in wrongdoing that is now going to be furiously investigated.
Those investigations have already begun. Bennie Thompson, the ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee, sent a letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin demanding that he preserve documents and comply with all earlier requests by December 2. That is, notably, before the new House is seated. Trump’s MAGA henchthugs like Mullin have ignored oversight requests over the past two years.
Now, however, Thompson is going to be in charge, and Mullin knows he better start complying — or else.
There will be more wins
The first few small wins here are in some sense the easiest. Houston’s mayor did not want to cooperate with ICE, and is simply picking up an obvious opportunity. After winning the election, all Sherrod Brown has to do is take his seat on December 15 and he’ll shrink the Republican majority.
These are early skirmishes, and while they are satisfying, they do not begin to address the massive problems the country faces — extricating itself from the Iran war, ending ICE’s reign of terror, reversing Trump’s disinvestment in the social safety net, restoring abortion rights, addressing the horrific consequences of terminating foreign humanitarian aid, dragging corruption into the light of day, and on and on and on.
Nonetheless, every win is a win, and it’s important that this midterm was sufficiently sweeping that people on various parts of the political spectrum are beginning to adjust their behavior accordingly. We haven’t defeated Trump yet. But if we are going to, this is how we would begin.
That’s it for today
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Even though Stephen Miller has gained new power, his horrible racism will keep the opposition fully alert and harden their resolve even more than it is now. Katie will have the difficulty of raising the kids on her own without him. Although they will be allowed to see him behind glass when they go to the prison for visits. Such a good role model for his children!
Across the board, since the election, there has been a palpable change in the commentaries I read. From tentative what ifs to confident so it shall bes. It's exciting to be alive in such a time.