“We should never despair, our Situation before has been unpromising and has changed for the better, so I trust, it will again. If new difficulties arise, we must only put forth new Exertions and proportion our Efforts to the exigency of the times.” —George Washington (1777)

I prefer to vote in person, and doing so in our community in the Great State of Tennessee, which ensures voter integrity, is a privilege! I am fully aware that generations before my own have sacrificed greatly for this privilege.

Tennessee did not suffer the blue insult across the nation in yesterday’s midterm elections. Conservatives won the governor’s race and maintained our supermajority in the state legislature. We held the contested U.S. Senate seat and hold eight of the nine U.S. House districts.

I wish the same could be said for the rest of the nation.

Notably, however, I did hear anecdotally that our state campaigners knocking on Republican doors to get out the vote were hearing a recurring theme from those voters: We are tired of Trump.

Contemplating the losses, I recalled some wise words from an American thinker I hold in high esteem — a former Marxist who had the intellectual integrity to acknowledge his views were wrong and completely antithetical to American Liberty, human progress, and decency. That would be Thomas Sowell, economist and senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. He wrote boldly about policy and culture, challenging leftist orthodoxies long before other academicians, particularly black professors, would dare touch them.

As a student of American history and a political and national security analyst for decades, I note that those who have most influenced my worldview were once Democrats, as was Sowell. That would include the most influential political figure in my lifetime, Ronald Reagan, who left the Democrat Party in 1962. At the time, he famously observed, “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the party left me.” But the Democrat Party socialists today have surged so far left that President Reagan would not be able to find even a vestigial remnant of the party that left him six decades ago. Demos have fully taken leave of their senses.

For his part, Sowell once asked this question about the lessons of history: “One of the most important reasons for studying history is that virtually every stupid idea that is in vogue today has been tried before and proved disastrous before, time and again. Do we need to keep repeating the same mistakes forever?”

Apparently so, and yesterday’s stunningly bad midterm election results proved that once again.

To be clear, as Grassroots American Patriots, our devotion to American Liberty is a lifelong mission and does not depend on any election cycle.

On the subject of repeating the same mistakes...

Last week, I wrote in “A 2006 Midterm Replay?” about pendulum swings in politics. One of those took an epic swing against Donald Trump this week — despite the Trump administration’s successful efforts to Make America Great Again after the economic debacle it inherited from Joe Biden.

The economy is strong; core inflation, at 2.6%, is the lowest in five years; and income is up, poverty is down, and jobs are plentiful. Additionally, violent crime has nosedived and Trump has secured our borders.

But the Democrat Party socialists made “affordability” their midterm campaign mantra, which dovetails well with their latest socialist rhetoric. As a result, some polls now indicate Demo voters are more favorable to socialism than capitalism, if any of them can actually define either.

The voter poll yesterday certainly proved their affinity for socialist candidates.

So, what happened?

Ahead of yesterday’s election, we were assured by the MSM pollaganda propagators that there was going to be a repeat of the midterm “blue wave” 20 years ago in George W. Bush’s second term.

In 2006, Demos gained 31 seats in the House and six seats in the Senate to take control of Congress. They also won a majority of governorships and took over some state legislatures.

Yesterday, the losses were comparable. As of current returns, Demos gained 29 House seats, seven Senate seats, and five governorships. They are close to picking up two more Senate seats in Alaska and Mississippi, which are just hundreds of votes apart.

A dire warning that these losses were coming was the result of two off-year state gubernatorial elections last year, those of leftist Demos Abigail Spanberger  in Virginia and Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey.

This midterm outcome was, despite his claims to the contrary, a resounding defeat of Donald Trump, who unfortunately made himself the centerpiece of the election.

Over the last two years, Trump failed to make the case for how he reversed the stubborn inflation bomb Biden dropped on consumer goods.

He failed to make his case, if there was one, on the imposition of tariffs, which increased consumer prices and which the Supreme Court ultimately struck down.

He also failed to make his case on reestablishing border security and deporting the “worst of the worst.” It took Trump a year to get his messaging on ICE right, which was too little too late — and it cost Republicans what had been growing support among Hispanics.

And although Trump’s decisive action against Iran has protected the West from the very real and perilous threat of a nuclear attack by the Islamist regime or its surrogates, Trump failed to make his case for stopping that threat.

The Democrat Party and its Leftmedia propagandists convinced voters that they should be more concerned about the price of gas as part of their affordability pitch than about being protected from a catastrophic nuclear threat.

JD Vance certainly affirms that Trump’s failure to make the case on Iran was a major factor. He says consequently: “The main problem was not turnout. The main problem is that many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026.” He added that his go-to pollster warned him, “A lot of Trump 2024 voters were angry and planning to vote for Democrats.”

Trump failed to move the needle on any of these issues. Thus, making himself the centerpiece of this midterm election was a disaster for Republicans.

Trump launched a nonstop cross-country MAGA tour, declaring: “I’m asking you to pretend that I’m on the ballot because when I’m on the ballot, we have, we get almost 50% more votes. And we get even a big part of that or a small part of that. But if we get a part of that, we win in a landslide, and we have to do it. So pretend I’m on the ballot. I really want you to pretend I’m on the ballot.”

That strategy was a disaster for two reasons: The combination of Trump Derangement Syndrome and the Trump Fatigue Factor. Trump triggers and energizes Demo voters with his nonstop barrage of rhetorical insults and dares, while that same rhetoric has increasingly resulted in fatigue among many conservative voters.

Over the last two decades, the political pendulum swings have become more extreme, and those equal-and-opposite reactions since 2008 — Obama to Trump to Biden to Trump — have created the most strident political climate of my lifetime.

The 2016 election of Donald Trump did not create the epidemic of emotional incontinence and resulting fear, anger, and hatred on the Left — it revealed it. But he has ceaselessly thrown accelerant on it.

Indicative of the hatred for Trump was this screed from longtime Democrat strategist James Carville: “I got [Trump Derangement Syndrome], and I want it, and I want it to get worse. If I could take a pill that would help me hate that [MF] more and obsess on him more, I would take that pill. ... I hate the [SOB]. I hate what he’s doing to this country. I’m obsessed with it. ... Our insanity is proof of our sanity.”

And while Trump’s reelection in 2024 was one of the biggest comebacks in presidential history, to be clear, Trump’s victory was due in large measure to Demos completely botching their Biden/Harris ticket, and replacing it late in the cycle with the laughably inept Harris/Walz ticket.

Trump insists his victory was about Trump, but it was very much about his inept opponents — and assuming otherwise has cost Republicans historic losses.

Regarding the division Trump has fomented, political analyst Victor Davis Hanson wrote:

Rarely in American history have the two parties been so far apart or the choice between them so stark. ... Americans are being asked to hand Congress to what has become the most radical major party in U.S. history, as socialists and neo-communists believe they can finally win statewide races across the country.

The result of such stridency is that Demos were empowered to run some of the most radical candidates in political history — and they won.

Topping that list would be Islamist extremist Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, who defeated Mike Rogers by five points. El-Sayed thanked his supporters by speaking first in Arabic. He is very much from the Obama radical mold — a slick and charismatic nobody from nowhere on a meteoric rise with the help of extremists like his biggest fangirl, the far-left Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).

As the election massacre became apparent last night, Trump issued the following declaration: “I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!”

Well, no, on both counts. As noted above, he defeated a completely botched Demo ticket in 2024, and yesterday’s election was absolutely a referendum on Trump — I would argue more his personality than policies.

Trump called the Fox News studio at midnight, and when election night anchor Bret Baier asked him for his reaction, Trump said, “Well, I’m a little bit surprised. I thought they’d do better. We had tremendous rallies. We had about 30 of them. ... So I’m a little bit surprised.”

Asked how he planned to work with a Democrat House and Senate, Trump said: “It’s been done before, as you know, numerous times. It’s the power of veto. It’s one of the stronger powers that a president has. And they’ll send over things that are insane, and I’ll veto them. And after a couple of months of vetoes, they’ll call, and they’ll say, ‘How do we get this stuff done?’ And we’ll work together. I have a lot of friends who are Democrats, believe it or not. I’ve already spoken to some of them.”

When Baier’s co-host, Martha MacCallum, followed up with a question about the influence of Iran on the election, Trump said, “I think a part of it was Iran, but at the same time, people understood the importance of what I’ve done with Iran. I think, historically, it’s going to be much more important than this evening. Because you can’t let the number-one state sponsor of terror have a nuclear weapon. ... Historically, I’ll be judged for having done the right thing, but it gave us an evening that wasn’t pleasant.”

Again, Trump failed to make the Iran case.

Trump praised both his MAGA base and the Democrats, saying, “I think the Democrats did a good job. I really do. They fought hard.” He then added, “I don’t like to consider it a defeat for me. I wasn’t on the ballot. ... But nevertheless, I feel badly for a lot of very good Republicans, a lot of very good Patriots, that lost tonight because for them to lose is a tough thing.”

Again, Trump was absolutely on the ballot.

When Baier pressed him on the significance of the Republicans’ losses, and whether he’d make changes within his cabinet, Trump replied: “It’s just a point in time, Bret, just a point in time. That’s the way it is. There was a mood in the air, I guess.”

When asked by Baier whether he’d accept the results, Trump immediately responded: “Yeah, sure I’ll accept them. Why wouldn’t I accept them?”

Asked if he had any thoughts on who might succeed him, Trump didn’t name names, but he did say, “We have a great bench, a great group of talented people.” He then added, “Congratulations to the Democrats. They did a good job. They’ve been looking for this one for 11 years, and they finally got it.”

So, moving forward, a couple of pressing post-election threats...

First, the increasingly socialist Democrat Party is at risk of being overtaken by the radical Democratic Socialists of America. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Demo contender in 2028, sees the writing on the wall and says the DSA is the Democrat Party’s future: “The DSA, the energy and the desire for bold change, not incremental change, is very much going to be the mainstream Democratic movement. Absolutely. No question in my mind.”

And if you want to project the implications, take a long, hard look at the burning cities in Europe. Those socialists are aligning with the DSA to burn our cities, much as the Demo hate hustlers did in their 2020 “summer of rage riots.”

It is worth noting that political pendulums swing left and right in a functioning Republic — but not so much in socialist states, which is precisely what Democrats are trying to create.

The second most pressing concern — packing the Supreme Court.

Demos are serious about stacking the Supreme Court — and given that they’ve taken control of the Senate this year and are a very real threat to win the White House in 2028, they will attempt to do just that.

According to Kamala Harris, “There’s some structural work that needs to be done, including, we need to expand the Supreme Court.” Oh, and she added, “We need to fight ... for statehood for DC and Puerto Rico. ... We need to revisit the Electoral College.”

Our analyst Douglas Andrews wonders whether either or both stalwart conservative Supreme Court justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, will announce their retirements in the weeks ahead, thereby allowing Trump to nominate and seat their replacements while the Republicans still control the Senate. He adds: “And if there are any vacancies on the federal bench, Trump had better do everything possible to fill them most ricky-tick. Because looking ahead to the next two Senate cycles, the landscape isn’t favorable to Republicans.”

A thought on the biggest winners and losers in this election cycle...

The biggest winner last night was certainly the Democrats, and it was certainly not the American people. But another big winner was the mainstream media, with an estimated $11.21 billion to $11.6 billion on media ads ahead of the election.

And the biggest loser will be Congress itself. As political analyst Dan McLaughlin notes:

Instead of a lawmaking body, Congress is now the world’s largest green room. All anybody seems to do is wait for their next television appearance or viral social-media moment. Even then, they often seem like the studio audience for the Donald Trump Show, there to cheer the president or boo him. Expect Congress to become even more ineffectual and dysfunctional for the next two years. That’s bad for the country and bad for democracy.

Regarding this election outcome, I am reminded of words from one of my favorite founders, Samuel Adams: “Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual — or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.”

Clearly, that standard is far out of reach for the current dumbed-down Demo electorate.

And this warning about elections from founder Noah Webster: “If the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted. ... If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine commands and elect bad men to make and administer the laws.”

Finally, a word of encouragement...

Fellow Patriots, on this and every day of the year, hold the line!

In this 250th year of American Liberty, through the trials we face now, stand fast and firm, and remember, brothers and sisters, who YOU are — who WE are together.

We are, first and foremost, defined by our affirmation of the unalienable Rights of Man, which are irrevocably endowed by our Creator. We are Patriot sons and daughters from all walks of life, heirs to the blessings of Liberty bequeathed to us at great personal cost by our Patriot forebears, confirmed in the opinion that it is our duty to God and Country to extend that blessing to our posterity. We are bound by our “sacred honor” to that end. We will NEVER, NEVER, NEVER give up or give in. Be heartened by the awesome power that has emboldened Patriots from the dawn of our nation, who understood, as George Washington declared, “Our cause is noble; it is the cause of all mankind.”

God is sovereign above all outcomes.

As Ronald Reagan declared, “The greatness of America doesn’t begin in Washington; it begins with each of you — in the mighty spirit of free people under God, in the bedrock values you live by each day in your families, neighborhoods, and workplaces.”

Join me in praying for the Lord’s blessing upon our nation, that good and righteous leaders would rise and prevail so division would be healed and we would be united as Americans.

Please help your Patriot Team hold the line!

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Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776