The Thursday Downer

Yes, a post Trump victory downer. 

Okay Trump people and assorted MAGA hats, let's talk. We'll start. 

Calm down. We've seen this before. We've been here before, and the end result was not good. 

We go back, as we often do, to the election of 2004. That year W won 286 electoral votes and 50.7 percent of the popular vote, defeating John Kerry overall by 3 million votes. The GOP retained the house and expanded its lead in the senate by four seats. That night we were glued to the TV and the computer watching the returns come in, and seeing win after win. When W won Ohio he hit 269 electoral votes, it was all over. This was a fun, satisfying night.

W's election was a win on multiple fronts. With talk radio and the emergence of right-blogosphere during the Rathergate scandal, we thought conservatives had overcome the media. We were hooked. We read Hot Air (Captain's Quarters back then), Instapundit, Ace of Spades, Powerline, Belmont Club, Hugh Hewitt, and many others. 

In the airy November of 2004, we believed W and the GOP were set for a period extended dominance, a durable majority in the words of Karl Rove. 

Go ahead. We laugh too. 

Because of ongoing war, Terry Schiavo, Katrinia, W's second term was a mess. The Dems annihilated the GOP in the 2006 congressional elections and annihilated the GOP once again in 2008, giving us Barack Hussein Obama. Barry was very beatable in 2012. But Mitt Romney was the GOP's version of W-Light (who knew such a thing was possible?) and didn't have the guts to get the job done. America suffered four more years of a very strange, untalented, vindictive and bigoted man. Then came Trump who won a surprising but not all that impressive victory. So began the era of Trump. 

Our point is that the great realignment the media is talking about in the aftermath of Trump's reelection may be swept away in a blue wave two years from now. Read this highly relevant piece from Hot Air and calm the fuck down. 

So should we. For us the last few days before the election were nerve-wracking. We had a case of the yips which brought out the doldrums.  Halloween was fine, but we were distracted and maybe even morose at the Friday night Diwali party. We'd been looking forward to the outdoor gathering all week. On Monday and Tuesday we doomscrolled the news and election updates. We've been doomscrolling ever since, though the news hasn't been doomy, not at all. 

Political disappointments have been among the worst moments of our life. We had a dark hour and a half or so when we thought Algore had won the 2000 election. The Supreme Court saving Obamacare was a political gut punch which has stayed with us for a dozen years. We watched helplessly as the Dems stole 2020, sending us into a weeks long funk. As for the 2022 off year disappointment we ran and lifted through the pain.