An Existential Threat to Our Republic

Is an election where we learn nothing

I am a lifelong Minnesota Vikings fan, so I have been bred to live with and accept disappointment. The fact that my beloved team is currently 7-1 on the season does not even raise the hope that my team will ever make it back to the Super Bowl, let alone, win it. Within the Universe, there are just some undisputable absolutes, the speed of light is 670,616,629 mph (miles per hour,) dark matter makes up 85% of space and the Minnesota Vikings will always find a way to lose a game when the championship is on the line. I accept this as fact, so it makes accepting other of life's disappointments much easier, such as the 2022 midterm elections.

When a system is broken, those who care, work diligently to fix it. In the United States, we have a broken system. Our citizens are far more focused on what divides us versus that what unites us. This is not an accident as our political leaders emulate that division on the political gridiron. The Ds and Rs mostly battle between the 40 yard lines while promising faithful fans a Hail Mary victory, if they just reach into their pockets and pony up a little more cash to purchase a key player. The system is broken because our elected leaders want it that way.

As of the writing of this article, (yes, long gone are the days when the United States could determine who won on election night) only six incumbent democrats and three incumbent republicans lost their seats in the House of Representatives. Of the 365 seats defended by incumbents, 98% were reelected. On the Senate side it is looking like no incumbents lost their seats either, however the count continues for Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada and Raphael Warnock in Georgia. The same held true for governors, 31 incumbent governors ran for reelection and as of this writing, 100% were reelected.

In this past election cycle, the two teams set up their game plans to be "an existential threat to democracy." The blue team's game plan called for personal medical autonomy (except for vaccines,) open boarders (except for skilled laborers) and tax the rich (except for the middle class.) The red team went all in on the economy (except for lowering the deficit,) crime (except for offering a solution,) and inflation (except cutting spending.) Both sides claimed that this was the most important election of our lifetime and if the other side won, it would be our last democratic election. For, if the other side won they told us, our nation would descend into totalitarianism.

The hyperbole of the 2022 midterms was as stupendous as former president Trump’s ego and the American people showed up in mass to to let their voice be heard. This was the election where we were going to right the ship by ushering in new leadership. And the result was, was...a big yawn. Worse than that, this past election was sold to the American people as a fireworks extravaganza. We were finally going to see what money, and hard-fought campaigns could do, we were finally going to elect saviors to fix our broken system. But, instead of skyrockets in flight, we got no afternoon delight! The midterm elections were as impotent as our low-T incumbents in the middle of a Viagra shortage. Instead of the grand fireworks election show, we got a few bottle rockets. A couple of quick whizzes with distance pops and disappointing uneventful falls to the ground.

We were sold a "wave" election, the kind where we the American people tell our elected leaders they are going in the wrong direction. We were to send a message to our state and federal bureaucrats that we disagreed with their handling of the Covid lockdowns, to acknowledge the out-of-control inflation, and to stop the unbridled government spending. We, the American people, were supposed to teach our elected officials that going against our wills has consequences, and the ballot box is where that manifestation was to come to fruition.

Based of the overwhelming incumbent reelection this past week. No such lesson has been delivered. There will be no major change in policy. The economy will continue to limp forward under feeble leadership and interest rates will continue to rise strangling businesses and stifling home ownership. And all of these will lead to private sector hiring freezes and layoffs. There will be real suffering and, if our recent election cycle is any indication, the 2024 presidential election, which will start within the next 6 weeks, will be a carbon copy with the red and blue teams battling it out. But in this game, the incumbents are the Harlem Globetrotters and the American voters are the Washington Generals. It will be an entertaining show, but in the end, we all know who will win the game.

If I were a cynic, I would say the Republicans intentionally threw the midterm elections so all of these economic and social realities to come fall squarely onto the Democrat in the White House and majority congress. Because the two ways out of our economic morass is to keep the money printing presses running at hyper speed, thus deflating the US dollar or to let my above predictions play out causing a deep recession if not depression. What political party wants to be held responsible for the later?

Let’s also take stock in a few more lessons not learned because of this incumbent reelection landslide:

• The media industrial complex will not change by dropping their biases and throttling dissent.

• Medical tyranny was not punished as all Draconian lockdown governors were easily reelected.

• Polling agencies have not figured out how to read the electorate and will still bias their results based on political hopes instead of actual voter data.

• Except for Florida, federalism among our states is DOA.

• Election integrity, that so muddied the 2020 results, has not been fixed, and based on the presumptive winners in New York, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia, it does not look like we will fix that anytime soon.

To that end, the nation will, for the second time in two years, wait for a Georgia runoff election for senate to see which party will control that “esteemed” body. The two incredibly flawed men who are in this runoff are absolutely insignificant to this process. The next Georgia junior Senator will be a show battle between the RNC and DNC. To be honest, I believe both parties what to lose control of the senate so they will have cover for the 2024 elections by not having to own the coming economic malaise. Seriously, Warnock and Walker are so insignificant in this runoff election they might as well be a stroke survivor and an Alzheimer patient with a R or D after their name because the men matter not, and the tipping of the senatorial scales is the only thing that matters in this runoff election.

Is it any wonder that no one bats an eye at 70 billion our country has sent to the Ukrainian re-bribery syndicate? Our nation just dumped 17 billion into a midterm election and accomplished absolutely nothing. When a nation can squander that amount of resources to send a message and yet the voters remain more concerned about political affiliations than their individual freedoms, we are a nation devoid of historical context and are in decline. And that reality, my dear readers, is the greatest existential threat to our Republic.

As of five days ago, the Minnesota Vikings’ odds on winning the Super Bowl are +1800. If I had to lay my money on what will happen first, a Minnesota Vikings Super Bowl victory, an American Republic course correcting election or hell freezing over, I am going with the later. Our Creator must have more sympathy for the devil, for at least that which he promises, he preforms!