What Next?

 It remains unclear what the Democratic margins will be, once vote counting ends. As of this writing, it certainly looks like Scott Colom will win in Mississippi and people in the know think that Peltola has a really strong chance to pull ahead with ranked voting. In the House, they could reach 260 seats. They flipped five governorships.

The thing is, these margins are both amazing and irrelevant. I think there was an unnerving scenario were Democrats had 51 seats in the Senate and were held hostage by Fetterman, or the margins in the House were tiny and they were held hostage by The Squad. As it is, Democrats should unify behind Jeffries and Schumer - despite the incessant butthurt of the people who thought Graham Platner was the key to flipping Maine.

What should the agenda be?

First, and most obvious is to investigate all the corruption. This is one of the things voters were most upset by - even more than ICE killing Americans, apparently. Prices and corruption are politically two sides of the same meme coin. Democrats will likely not be able to pass much of anything, but they need to be able to point to the corruption of Trump and therefore Republicans to win the political argument. 

Second, there might be a few areas were a chastened Republican minority in the Senate works with Democrats to pass some actual laws. AI safety feels like one, maybe some "all of the above" energy policy that resurrects solar and wind. 

Krugman notes that Dems should not pass big omnibus bills, but smaller standalones that can focus attention on obstruction from either Trump or Congressional Republicans. But here's where the large margins don't really matter.

Let's say you can get 60 cloture votes for an energy bill. That's not enough to overcome Trump's veto. Now, Trump let a permitting bill become law without signing it, because he's a pissy little asshole. He might do the same thing with an energy bill or AI safety. Especially if there really are margins to override his veto. The Democrats best lever for policy will be the budget, but Trump will veto that and we will have endless government shutdowns.

How do I know?

Because of the Stephen Miller decision. By replacing Susie Wiles with Nosferatu, Trump has signaled that he's going to be more combative. His initial response was tired resignation, but you can count on Miller to double down on all the cruelty and corruption that voters rejected on Tuesday.

This is why Democrats' control of the investigatory power is really the only power that they have. They can try and pass things around the margins, but it's going to be tough with the lunatic in the Oval Office who has Satan himself whispering in his ear.

Theda Skocpol urges Democrats not to fall into infighting (too late, the so-called Progressive Left is already sniping at people who actually know how politics works). Some dipshit Leftist (I think it was Ryan Grim) said that Trump would totally sign a Medicare extension in return for his ballroom. That's a consistent misunderstanding of Trump that has beguiled leftist populists for ten years. 

Skocpol, too, urges Democrats to pass small, focused bills whenever possible. Messaging bills are going to be the order of the day. 

When it comes to Federal policy, things are not going to get better in January. They just aren't. 

It will be about investigating Trump and Republicans. They aren't going to get smarter. Hell, the Dana White fiasco in illuminative. Susie Wiles was trying to get the Pentagon press secretary, Dana White, to become White House press secretary, since she actually knew how to do the job. Trump fired Wiles, because he only fires women. He then asks UFC CEP Dana White to become press secretary.

This is the level of monumental stupidity and incompetence we can look forward to. Miller is both evil and stupid (they often jump together) and so we will get even worse actions from the White House. Trump is mentally diminished and seemed checked out of any policy except his stupid fucking ballroom and arch. Miller is now effectively president.

We have saved American democracy from a Viktor Orban style dictatorship, but we are not out of the woods yet, and it's important politically that people understand that. 

UPDATE: This speech by Talarico is amazing...but then he promises to tackle problems that he will not be able to solve. That's what worries me about shooting for the moon; what is people expect him to achieve that? What happens when he can't?

Let's hope this new wave of Democratic governors and Democratic state assemblies can make tangible change.