In many ways, Tuesday is a make-or-break day for our country. It’s arguably the most important election in its history and will do a lot to determine which direction we go over not just the next four years, but, if Democrats succeed in implementing the structural changes they desire, for decades to come. So, if you haven’t voted already, please do your part tomorrow. If you don’t, I promise you’ll regret it.
If you’re like me and nervous as hell about which way the coin will flip, this column is for you. It’s also for me because I, too, need to reassure myself of the quite possible likelihood that just as everything won’t miraculously be fixed if we win, our country also won’t end if we lose. Probably. OK, I can at least promise you that the sun will rise on Wednesday morning (or Thursday, or Friday, or sometime next week, or whenever our quasi-Third World election system finally determines the final result of this thing).
In truth, things usually aren’t as bad as they seem to be in the middle of a political crisis. Even 2009, when Democrats had the presidency, the House, and a brief Senate supermajority, is barely a memory now (well, other than having to deal with the remnants of Obamacare). Granted, the structural changes Democrats want now would make things much more difficult to recover, but it’s far from a given that they will succeed in implementing them in the first place even with a presidential win.
Let’s go ahead and pretend that the polls are indeed undersampling Democrats (my biggest fear here) and that Trump emerges a loser next week, Kamala Harris is sworn into the presidency in January 2025, and four more years of Democratic rule commence. Oddly, even with those events and an expected House victory for Democrats, Republicans will at least narrowly flip the Senate. That would stave off any attempts to nuke the filibuster, make Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia states, overhaul the voting system, or do most of the ridiculous things they’d like. Anything they do accomplish would have to be done via executive fiat, and thus would be easily reversible when/if Republicans retake power.
Immigration is sadly a much more difficult issue. Sure, they can always be deported, but it’s much tougher once they are already here because not enough of today’s weak and coddled populace have the stomach to do what must be done. But, again, they can always be deported, meaning that theoretically, at least, it CAN be fixed if the people get tired enough of it. And on the bright side, maybe the only way a critical mass of people will get tired enough of it to want to do the hard things is to experience the kind of mass immigration Democrats want us to experience. If that happens, they might not get the reaction they are hoping for.
Even if we lose this cycle, Republicans will likely keep the Senate and/or flip the House back in 2026, and they would be well on their way to making a solid case for a shot at running the whole enchilada in 2028. Because of the typical ebb and flow of politics, the chances for a strong leader like JD Vance or Ron DeSantis to carry Trump’s movement to victory would be significantly better than they would be after four more years of Trump, even if Trump did a solid job by our standards. (This is no dig at Trump. Like it or not, Americans just seem to like going back and forth with the party that’s in power.)
After that massive Obama victory in 2008, Democrats went on a losing streak that would make a White Sox fan blush. From House and Senate seats to governorships to local and state officials, Republicans took advantage of typical Democratic ineptitude to rid the country of much of it. Sure, the Tea Party was itself inept in a lot of ways and many of those victories ended up being wasted, but there’s no reason to think we can’t come back bigger, better, and smarter in 2026 and 2028.
Finally, should all of that fail or fall short, our founders' federalist system ensures a level of protection unseen anywhere else. Just as Blue states have done with federal drug laws, Red states can simply choose in many ways to just do their own thing, the feds be damned. The National Divorce movement would grow, and that would ultimately be a good thing.
If we lose, there will be plenty of time to mourn, worry, and point fingers. I can promise you I’ll be doing plenty of all of that. But there is also no reason to lose hope. While there are still sane people in America, there will always be a reason to believe we can take our country back. And, of course, at the end of the day, we should never forget that God, not us, is ultimately in control.
I want Trump to win with everything that’s in me. Even though I didn’t want him to win the GOP nomination, I’ve done everything I can with what little influence I have to try and make that happen. But if we do lose this battle, don’t let anyone convince you that we’ve lost the war.