From Behind Enemy Lines – Left and Right

Historically, the Left and the Right have done a dance every four to six years. Things switch around, little gets done, and the government is hobbled by one thing or another. For the past two years, that has not been the case. The Right has had the Presidency, the Senate, and the House, all wrapped up in a pretty bow. We know this, because things have gotten done. We’ve weeded out some (but not all) corruption and fraud. We’ve slowed illegal immigration. We’ve deported many violent criminals. We’ve ended a bunch of stupid things, like regulating plastic straws and funding foreigners studying birds in other countries. We’ve started the process of returning men and women to their biological places (and, as far as I can tell, largely without causing any major harms to folks who really are transgendered and just want to be left alone).  We’ve worked on lowering taxes in some places (but raised them in others). Most importantly, the tariffs have forced American companies to start producing things that we had outsourced to other countries, thereby strengthening our economy.

Despite all this, the Right was *crushed* in this midterm election. I’m curious to find out why this happened. The options, as I see them:

• Republicans didn’t get out and vote, something they’re VERY bad at during midterms
• The current vote shows the public decision in regards to what’s been done with the government (valid, even if I dislike it)
• The split caused by the GOP made for hugely bad optics and left many middle ground voters confused and unsure.

My best guess is the last one, though it could be mixed with the first. I don’t think so, however. It’s also possible for all three of the above to be true at the same time.

The war with Iran has been massively unpopular, even among Republicans and general conservatives. While I agree that Iran should not have nuclear missiles, and I also agree that Islam is causing huge problems that need to be dealt with in our country, we should not have stayed in this war. We should have gone in, struck, and got the fuck out. The six weeks Trump promised us have slid into eight months at this point, with no real end in sight. This was NOT what Republicans voted for; it’s the exact opposite.

Inflation has been hard. There are a lot of items that are still very expensive, and coming into the holidays that’s a hard sell. I know the President doesn’t have any magic way to deal with that, but there are certainly ways Trump could have eased the pain (and without handing out cash… that “offer of $5000 if we sweep the midterms” was crass in my very strong opinion). I have no real issue with the current prices, even though I wish they were lower. But I know how to make “freezer scraping soup” when necessary. Most folks today have no clue. No one knows how to make beans and rice 18 different ways anymore. Soup has gone out of style, unless it’s bougie expensive stuff. If the government had worked on something akin to the Victory Garden idea, offering ideas and help to the people in planting gardens or how to cook cheap meals, I think that would have gone a long way. While Kennedy did some of that, his methods of trying to “reach the people” were pretty off the mark, again in my opinion. He’s been rich long enough that he’s never truly had to scrape, and it reflects in what he cooks. Not enough rice and beans, folks. When my most popular videos on my author TikTok are about cooking cheap meals, the government is not doing enough to educate people.

The tariffs have been a huge loss for many people. I have the ability to look far enough in the future to see how it benefits us, but our government did next to nothing to explain to “the plain folks” how this stuff works. I know, because I was watching for it, and it never arrived. I’m certain part of that is because the people doing it are, frankly, quite old… they know how tariffs work because they’ve seen them used in the past… and “everyone knows” about how they work, right? Wrong. Starting off with a lot of education on how We the People get shafted by every other country on the planet would have been great. Adding tariffs in AFTER that would have caused (hopefully, at least) a wave of patriotism. You have to build the brand first, THEN launch. You can’t launch then scramble to get caught up.

Trump didn’t push the SAVE Act through. That should have been the number 2 priority after getting out of that damn war.

And while I do think there are bunches of very valid reasons for building a ballroom, Trump and team did NOT read the room before doing it. Building something perceived as vainglorious (regardless of who’s paying for it) is never going to go down well when people are suffering in the grocery store and at the gas pumps. The idea was good, but the application was horrendous.

Over on TikTok, someone asked if “real Republicans” would answer a question: When you voted for Trump, did you vote for him to dismantle the Department of Education? I explained that I’m small “c” conservative, not Republican but certainly Republican aligned (especially right now), and definitely not Left… and yes, that is indeed what Republicans voted for, en masse, and happily. And then I explained that, Left or Right aside, the government has (and always will have) the Reverse Midas Touch. Everything the government touches turns to shit. So I want my government to touch as little as possible. When asked what that meant, I said we should have a government that fits inside the Constitution… and we currently do not, and that’s wrong. Even other Right Wingers have been debating me, pointing out things they think are good that are done by Big Gov. My answer is always going to be the same: if the Right can do something with the government, then the Left can also do something. Since the Right and Left are diametrically opposed (moreso now than at ANY other time in history), that means we should not be allowing the government to do much of anything.

Trump had the right idea with DOGE, but he let other people find ways to derail it before it could remove the worst of the bloat from DC. The big ticket that both sides have seemed to want is the idea of term limits for Senate and House… and that hasn’t even been mentioned among the up and coming elected folks.

I’m disappointed today. I wanted to see at least equilibrium. Seeing the blue wave is disheartening. Any further forward movement by Trump will have to be done by EO, and those are easily turned over with a swipe of the magic pen by the next person in office.

With House and Senate in Democrat control, I foresee Trump’s impeachment and removal from office. That leaves Vance, who is a great candidate. But I don’t know if he’s ready. It’s one thing to be VP… it’s quite another to be the President. Don’t get me wrong… I do want him as President. I just don’t know if right now is the correct moment for it to happen. I hope he’s ready. I think he has the ability to find a middle ground that will be less hated by the Left, and only a little hated by the GOP. He’s fairly good at dancing around that line. And he has good ideas, a strong family life, and his family is “diverse” as the Left likes to call it. While it has absolutely nothing to do with how well he does his job, and we know that, the Left DOES care and so we may as well compound on that.

Hegseth, also, is probably on the chopping block. I hate that. I think he’s done more for the US Military in his short time in office than anyone else since the World Wars. I’ve seen so many men and women in uniform truly excited and happy to be there, after years of feeling trodden on.

It’s an emotionally rough day today. Don’t let yourself get dragged into bad conversations. Give yourself space. And don’t get angry… get educated. I mean it! The Right lost… big time. Don’t spend one fucking second whining about it. Go find out why. Figure it out, and then fix it. That is LITERALLY the only way out of this mess.