I’m a fan of early voting processes, but despite pundits’ projections of final election results based upon early turnouts, I generally doubt that these processes yield different results from those which would have resulted had all voters cast their ballots on Election Day. Even so, this year I’m wondering whether the extended voting process might not make a difference in the statewide races in two states with high percentages of Latino voters – Texas, over 25%; and Florida, over 20%. If polls are at all accurate, the Trump Regime is highly unpopular with Latino voters, and it would seem to be harder for the Regime to effectively deploy ICE to dampen Latino turnout in those states over an extended period than it would be on a single day. I guess we’ll see.
At the time this is typed, President Donald Trump is making concessions to Russia in its war to conquer Ukraine – despite the fact that most Americans and a significant number of Republican Congresspeople detest Russian President Vladimir Putin and strongly favor Ukraine’s battle to maintain its freedom. American abandonment of any strategic assistance to Ukraine at this point may place Ukraine at as much risk of defeat over the next few months as it has faced since the earliest days of the Russian invasion. Obviously there has been and will probably always be speculation as to whether Mr. Putin has specific leverage he wields over Mr. Trump; either way, the fact that Mr. Putin is clearly turning up the pressure on Mr. Trump now, when the President’s concessions to Russia and abandonment of Ukraine can only further endanger Mr. Trump’s own political standing, seems to me akin to a KGB Agent attempting to squeeze the last value from an asset whose utility is quickly coming to an end.
I would submit that American Democracy is currently running as much against Elon Musk and his fellow anti-democratic billionaires (for simplicity’s sake, let’s call them, the “Muskies,” with due apologies to the game fish and a past Madison, WI minor league baseball team 😉), who are injecting billions into Republican campaigns, as it is against Mr. Trump. Indeed, Mr. Trump’s blatantly erratic, corrupt, moronic and anti-democratic behaviors are a greater impediment to the Muskies’ keeping their puppet Republicans afloat than the Democrats.
I doubt that the Muskies will be sad when Mr. Trump departs the scene. Although the President and his Supreme Court appointees have opened the door for them over the last decade, he isn’t beholden to them. One has to credit the Mr. Trump in this respect: he is a self-made politician; nobody paved the way for him; he was able to bottle the smoldering grievance in a notable segment of our electorate angered by the nation’s evolving cultural changes and (understandably) deeply resentful at being left out of the American Dream, own it, and brand it – MAGA; it is him. Mr. Trump does what he wants whether the Muskies like it or not. (Mr. Trump pretty summarily dismissed Mr. Musk from DOGE when Mr. Trump decided Mr. Musk was getting too much press, and obviously didn’t care that Mr. Musk didn’t like the Big Beautiful Bill’s cessation of income tax subsidies for electric cars.) The Muskies recognize that the MAGA faithful march as Mr. Trump commands. So they are biding their time, and doing what they can to ensure supplicant Republicans’ survival for when Mr. Trump is gone.
And – not discounting the damage he is likely to do in the meantime — pretty soon, Mr. Trump will be gone – either in two years, Constitutionally (sooner, if he resigns or is no longer able to conduct his duties); or, from a practical perspective, perhaps as soon as November 4 if Republicans suffer a stinging rebuke on Election Day and surviving Republican officeholders – many of whom reportedly personally despise him – feel that it is finally politically safe to abandon him. While I foresee future Noise speculation as to what might happen to the current coalition between traditional Republicans and MAGAs when Mr. Trump is gone, I am certain of a few things: the Muskies will NOT be gone; the Muskies now understand that there is a willingly gullible segment of our populace who can be made to believe even the most manifestly false propaganda; and that Republicans surviving this cycle upon whom the Muskies have spread their largesse will owe the Muskies much more than they owe Mr. Trump. The anti-democratic threat we will face after this election will not be as easily pinpointed as Mr. Trump has been. Whoever was clever enough to coin the term, “Affordability,” had soon better come up with a catchier term for what we confront than, “Oligarchy.”
That’s for the future. Let’s end on among the happiest of notes, at least for Wisconsinites: Milwaukee will host its first World Series in 44 years this week. I believe that I have mentioned in these pages that TLOML and I attended the fourth game of the 1982 Series, a happy victory and memory in a Fall Classic that ended in a terribly, terribly disappointing manner. Although for much of this century this state has been or close to Ground Zero for our nation’s toxic political division, its citizens are generally well meaning almost to the person. We’ve loved spending our life here. Wisconsinites enjoy life, love our lakes, our fish fries, our brats, our beer, and our sports teams. The most politically opposed among us can sit in a bar and congenially disagree about the ability of Green Bay Packer Head Coach Matt LaFluer … and marvel at the fastball of The Miz. May the Brewers bring a World Championship to Wisconsin for the players, the team, the ’82 team, the city, the state, and its people.
We’ll see what happens.
