Nov 10 JDN 2461355

Last Tuesday’s midterm elections honestly went better than I would have hoped for. Not only did Democrats take majorities in the House and the Senate, but several states attained a “trifecta” of governor, state house, and state senate all controlled by the Democrats—including Texas, which I was utterly shocked to see; they haven’t had a Democratic trifecta in decades. Even Mississippi and Alabama elected a number of Democrats, including a transgender woman in Alabama!

Of course I would have liked to reach a veto-proof 67 seats in the Senate, but that was always a very long shot; Democrats would have needed to win literally every seat that was up for election. (The Democrats had 32 seats not up for grabs, and there were 35 seats up for grabs, so getting to 67 would have required winning all 35. As it is, they won 22 and might win up to 2 more.) This went as well as could be reasonably hoped for, and it’s worth celebrating.

But this is not the end. It is only the beginning.

Now our task is to hold the Democrats accountable for repairing the damage Trump and the Republicans have done, and also for bringing to justice those in Trump’s administration—including himself—who have displayed blatant corruption, venality, and authoritarianism.

This won’t be easy: Without those 67 seats (which we almost certainly weren’t ever going to get), Trump can veto anything the Democrats pass, and will probably do so—but they should pass it anyway, and we need to make that clear to them. Passing popular bills that then Trump vetoes is yet another way to chip away at Trump’s remaining support. And in fact if Trump realizes this, he might even decide to sign some bills he’d rather veto, just to avoid the loss to his popularity. (Trump doesn’t care in the least about the welfare of the country, but his own popularity is one of the few things he does care about.)

There will be self-styled “moderates” and “centrists” who will tell us to let bygones be bygones. This is not centrism. True centrists defend democracy. Trump has clearly shown that he intends to undermine American democracy to serve himself, and he must be fought at every turn.

We should impeach him again, if nothing else. Maybe the Republicans are still too ideologically blinded or too corrupt to actually help us remove him from office, but making him even more historic in his number of impeachments still at least sends a message.

We should also get enough states to finally sign onto the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact to actually make it happen. With Democratic control of Congress and several states gaining Democratic trifectas—including Texas, a huge number of Electoral College votes—it should now be feasible to complete the compact and ensure that future Presidential elections are effectively done by popular vote. This would be a major triumph for “one person, one vote”, and had we done this before 2016, Trump would never have been in office in the first place. (Why do we need Congress? The Compacts Clause. Fortunately, the Compacts Clause does not require a bill to pass—Trump would obviously veto any such bill—but merely “consent of Congress”, which can bypass the President. It’s also possible that the Supreme Court could rule that the NPVIC doesn’t constitute the sort of “compact” intended by the clause, but given the current state of the court, I wouldn’t hold my breath on that.)

Our work is not done.

Protests must continue. Campaigns to call or write members of Congress must continue. We must ensure that the Democrats understand that this mandate we have given them is to undo all the damage Republicans have done, not simply return to a feeling of normalcy.

This is precisely what President Biden failed to do in 2021-2024. Yes, it was a relief to get Trump out of office. But the deeper problems were not addressed. They must now be addressed.

Of course, I don’t expect them to solve all our country’s problems—or even necessarily repair all the damage Trump in particular has done—in two years. But we need them to work as hard as humanly possible toward that goal, now and for as long as it takes to get the job done.