On a Red Wave That Never Came
I had my post-Red Wave/Tsunami column pre-written by Sunday November 6th, and it was a doozy. In it, I fricasseed the Democratic Party. By the evening of November 8th, I knew the piece would never be published. I had my hit-piece ducks in a row: inflation, open borders, bleeding Fentanyl and criminal aliens into our midst, an ignominious Afghanistan withdrawal, anthropomorphic climate change hysteria, bizarre gender fluidity theory, January 6th, the injection of racial disharmony into every issue and debate. The wanton, gratuitous destruction of the national energy independence that President Trump achieved, and a boot-heel bureaucratic overreaction to Covid that locked down the economy and stunted the educational and social development of legions of children. I cited a dark Democrat stand against fellow Americans—labeling millions upon millions of voters a threat to democracy. This from a party for whom divisive hoaxes like Russiagate were standard operating procedure.
In the column, I offered sarcastic thanks to the “legacy media,” asserting that due to their ridiculously unbalanced coverage of politics they must be held foundationally complicit in the GOP rout of Biden, Harris, Schumer, and Pelosi. Ditto was my excoriation of the late-night comedians, Stephen “Cock-Holster” Colbert, ratings-trough Kimmel, and nice-guy turned shit-heel Fallon. Quote: “Their hate became fodder for conservative media, leaving no doubt about the degree to which Hollywood and other entertainment elites despise the great, Republican unwashed.” In the end, the great Democrat unwashed forestalled the predicted disaster; who’s getting the last laugh?
Only HBO’s Bill Maher, a Trump-loathing, ardent climate-change believer, seemed legitimately concerned, and warned about the utter disconnect his party was methodically constructing between itself and the “unwoke” populace. Turns out that disconnect wasn’t disconnected enough to squelch disconnected John Fetterman’s election to the Senate. Maher has relievedly admitted that he was wrong.
I’d subsisted for months on a diet of delirious right-wing media anticipation. There was going to be an unprecedented bloodbath. Newsmax commentator Dick Morris was optimistic, and he wasn’t even cautious. If you looked in the “right” places, happy days were on the horizon. Sean Hannity’s gridiron trope about not succumbing to overconfidence, about being “on the one-yard line in a tie game with time running out” proved more accurate than any conservative may have hoped.
In the back of my mind was the nagging thought: what if this comprehensive renunciation of Biden and his destructive agenda somehow fails to materialize? On the other side of the aisle, the abhorrent Democrats were warning that children would die if the Republicans took Congress.
None of this is to deny the magnificent performance of Gov. DeSantis, and the hope delivered by other conservatives. If, as now appears apparent, the GOP captures the House by a bare margin, Biden’s administration will be hobbled. But the midterms 2022 were a letdown and my forecasts—such as Republican renewal in Oregon—were wrong.