Election 2018

“It’s About Those Guys”

Written by SK Ashby

Will Democrats regain control of Congress after the midterm elections in November?

I don't know. Polls tell us Democrats are favored to retake control of the House of Representative if not the Senate but, as Bob likes to say, don't "get happy." Polls also told us Hillary Clinton was going to win but she ultimately lost because too many white people in the three Midwestern states believed Trump's rhetoric about draining the swamp and the former director of the FBI went rogue just days before the election.

With all of that said, Trump apparently believes Democrats will win and he's already lining up who he's going to blame for it.

Vanity Fair reports that Ivanka Trump advised her old man that he should dump Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and nominate someone who hasn't been accused of attempted rape, and that's interesting, I suppose, but their report also adds that Trump believes Congressional Republicans leaders have hurt them far more than Kavanaugh's confirmation will.

Trump told a friend in the Oval Office last week that it would be Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan’s fault if Republicans lost the House and the Senate, according to a person familiar with the conversation. "This is the election about Ryan and McConnell—it’s about those guys,” Trump said. Trump referred to his 2020 campaign as “the real election.” “It’s pure Trump. He has to come up with a way he’s not responsible if Republicans lose,” a former West Wing staffer said.

The obvious paradox here is that Ryan and McConnell have more or less done whatever Trump tells them to do and they've enabled all of his worst actions and behavior. Our Republican-controlled Congress hasn't even pretended to exercise oversight over Trump's decisions. They won't scrutinize his immigration policy, trade policy, or even his habit of paying himself through his golf courses.

There should be no doubt that if literally anyone else were president right now, Republicans would probably be favored to retain control of Congress.

Trump is a black hole that sucks in all hope and promise. He is the destroyer of worlds; or electoral chances.

I don't want to get too far ahead of things, but I don't think the 2020 election is going to work out the way Trump thinks it will. The 2016 version of Trump was just hypothetical and he won by the skin of Putin's teeth. The 2020 version of Trump will be very real. And that's still two years away. There are so many additional things he can fuck up between now and then.