Monday open thread: Let's flip this around, shall we?

Well.

We've been through a wonderful time.

I was going to write this blog post a couple of weeks ago. But now seems as good a time as any.

Back then, the received wisdom from our media betters was that Democrats were going down to a crushing defeat. And then the blame game would commence. 

"Progressives cost us the midterms with their radicalism!"

"No, it was you corporate Democrats who weren't bold enough!"

But an amazing thing happened.

Democrats won the Senate. Only Georgia remains, and we're heading into that runoff with 50 seats guaranteed. If we get Senator Rev. Raphael Warnock over the finish line, we'll have 51 seats. The likes of Real Clear Politics were predicting fifty-four GOP seats in the Senate.

And then we have the House. It's still a long slog. But the more feverish of pundits were predicting a gain of fifty seats for Republicans. Now? Either the GOP will have a two-seat majority, or Democrats will hold on for a one- or two-seat majority.

This is a far cry from the "rEd wAvE" which pundits kept shoving down our throats.

But let's flip this around. If a massive Democratic loss was supposed to set off a civil war in the party, what is the loss of a shoo-in GOP victory going to do?

We are already seeing this. People are blaming Donald Trump. Trump's acolytes are blaming Mitch McConnell. Ron DeSantis now leads the GOP field for 2024. Trump's surrogates are promising revenge against anyone who doesn't bend the knee. The crazy lieutenant governor of Virginia is saying that she won't support Trump in 2024. The likes of Lindsey Graham are promising eternal fealty to their orange god. 

Far from a Götterdämmerung for Democrats, this has turned into a Twilight of the Gods for the GOP. You can put all the lipstick you want on this pig, but it's still a pig. President Joe Biden and his Democrats have had the most successful midterms for a party holding the presidency in generations. There's no getting around that. And the Republicans know this. And their base know this.

Now "establishment" Republicans are talking of moving on from Trump. Good luck. Trump is a case of the clap which no penicillin will get rid of. Republicans have had multiple chances to rid themselves of him, beginning in 2015. But his base won't allow them to. If they had voted to impeach him after January 6th, they'd be in better shape. But they are all cowards, and didn't. And now they are stuck with him, one way or the other.

If Democrats hold onto the House, it will be a unified bloc, from Blue Dogs to the Squad. But if the GOP ekes out a two-seat majority? There's no guarantee that it could agree on a Speaker. Kevin McCarthy is mortally wounded. We could very well see Nancy Pelosi cobble together a coalition to keep the gavel in her hands. That's how ridiculous this situation is.

The fact of the matter is this: What feckless pundits were prognosticating as the fate of Democrats is now the fate of Republicans, much to their chagrin. The much ballyhooed GOP civil war is upon us. We should stay out of their way.

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