So, the blue tsunami many of us were hoping for has occurred, and continues to unfold. As of now, seven Senate seats have been flipped blue, and there are still two more, Mississippi and Alaska, that could follow. Even if the Dems don't win either of those two, they will hold a 54-46 majority. If they win one more, 55-45, a breakdown that may make it easier to reach the 60 vote supermajority needed to pass legislation, or bring about impeachment convictions.
And, not to look ahead because, hey, two years ago the democratic party was shellacked in the 2024 election, in 2028, when 34 more Senate seats are up for grabs, 18 are currently held by the GOP, including seats in Wisconsin, North and South Carolina, Alaska, Iowa and Kansas, four of which just experienced a flip in this election.
In the House, Dems have already flipped 37 seats (lost one, so net gain of 36) and already have 244 seats won (218 is needed for majority). There are some estimates that the final tally could go as high as a net gain of 50 seats which would translate into a 80 plus seat majority.
And, flying under the radar a bit, the Democrats flipped five governor races with two, Alaska and Kansas, still in process, which means for the first time since 2010 more states will be led by Democrats than Republicans.
Last year I published a post about the 2025 elections, few as they may have been, so I gave that a quick read this morning. Here is a link.
https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2025/11/election-2025.html
As mentioned above, it was only 730 days ago that the Democratic party was in shreds, looking for a message, licking their wounds, etc. What changed?
Well, not to take credit, but I believe the real reason for this change was that the president did not take my advice when elected in 2024, advice I offered across two posts early in his second term.
The first was written in January of 2025. I gave him some pretty specific suggestions as to how he could leave the positive things that began under Biden, inflation down to 3%, stock market hitting all time highs, illegal border crossings slowing, and take credit for them when those trends continued. And, since immigration was Biden's weakest point, make sure ICE taking custody of illegals who were housed in state and local jails was plastered all over the airwaves, thereby keeping his promise of deporting the worst of the worst. Here is a link to that post.
https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2025/01/dear-president-trump-take-win.html
I did a second Take the Win post in May of 2025 in which I lamented that he did not take the advice I passed along in January, especially considering his disastrous tariff policies, not to mention his war on Iran, but I did offer some cogent suggestions as to how he could turn it around. Here is that link.
https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2025/05/take-win-2.html
Sadly, DJT ignored my counsel, instead doubling down on his woeful choices.
In conjunction with the bloodbath at the polls, there is also the subject of accountability.
Again, I have posted twice concerning this in the past, once in April of 2023, and the second time in February, 2024. I just finished reading them, and was struck by the fact that, while I didn't expect accountability to arrive any time soon, I did broach the idea that it might be women who eventually provide the means for that to happen. Here are links to those two posts.
https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2023/04/accountability-finally.html
https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2024/02/accountability-finally-2.html
While there have been countless articles and predictions about the end of the Trump era, mostly incorrect opinions, up until now, in the end it seemed that it was about the economy. So yes, my faith in the American electorate was somewhat restored, as, at the end of the day it was about the struggles of everyday Americans to make ends meet, which, again, illustrates the point I try to make more than any other, that billionaires have no clue how the rest of us live, and so to trust them to make decisions that benefit us is insane. They live in a world far from ours, and, Trump, well he lives in his own world, where he is always right, and, worse, where any criticism of him is criticism of America.
That, right there, is the one thing the pundits like Hannity and Waters and Coulter will never understand, that we are capable of loving America while despising this president and his cruelty and his greed.
Of course, it still irks me that so many people continued to support this president through the cruelty of his immigration policies, his obvious grifts, his incessant lies about the 2020 election, inflation, the Iran war, tariffs being paid by the exporting countries, etc ad nauseam, but hey, at least we drew the line when it effected our wallets. Which, I guess, is all you can expect from a population that has forgotten the definitions of compromise and compassion.
So, what is next?
First and foremost, I would like every Democratic Congressmen to refer to the 2026 election as a mandate from the American people every time they talk about policy and the path forward. When states like Texas, South Carolina, Kansas, and Iowa kick Republicans out of office, in some cases by 5 and 6 percentage points, and when Democrats are returned to office by 15 and even 20 points (like Josh Shapiro in my home state who won by a million votes in a 5 million vote election), that is a mandate from the people.
Second, while I expect multiple investigations into how DOGE ruined parts of the federal bureaucracy through its slash and burn tactics, and into the corruption that seems endemic within the Trump administration, especially all the pay to play schemes that have turned the White House into a whorehouse, and, of course, impeachment hearings against Hegseth (if the president doesn't force him out first, since, after all, someone has to take the blame for the idiocy of the Iran war) and RFK Jr., I emphatically suggest there not be impeachment articles passed against the president. That is the kind of fight that will energize him and ignite his base.
No, instead we need to make him irrelevant.
Now, I know that it easier said than done. I know that the temptation to impeach him for a third time is well deserved, but we need to resist it, not just for the good of the country, but because that is his kryptonite, being ignored. Take out as many of his minions as possible, but leave him to stew in the juices of this ignominious loss. Hey, he may even support getting rid of some of his own cabinet, so focused he will be to blame anyone but himself.
Yes, legislation, good and bipartisan legislation, will die on the resolute desk, but if that legislation is single issue without all the bullshit (or at least with much less) that is added to so many bills in Congress, perhaps even some of his cult will realize that he is all about himself, no one else.
When he speaks, we need to NOT listen. Perhaps the press corps can take turns covering his pressers rather than all of them together because, after all, much of what he says is gibberish, in addition to him being nasty when they ask serious queries.
Perhaps then, after a year of being ignored, some real legislation can be forced on him to sign, especially if those remaining GOP Congressmen and Senators who fear a loss in 2028 will join the Democrats in overriding a veto or two.
Can you imagine, the legislative branch actually standing up to the executive branch?
And who knows, maybe Alito and Thomas will resign and their replacements, while perhaps leaning right, won't be card carrying members of the Federalist Society, or a Project 2025 chapter writer.
Ok, I admit it. For the first time in a while I am hopeful. Perhaps not so hopeful that I will end this post with
And so the Advance Begins,
but no longer, for now, convinced that the decline continues.
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