“No stop signs, speed limit.
Nobody’s gonna slow me down.
Like a wheel, gonna spin it.
Nobody’s gonna mess me around.
Hey Satan, paying my dues.
Playin’ in a rocking band.
Hey mama. Look at me,
I’m headed to the promised land…
I’m on the highway to hell.
Highway to hell.
I’m on the highway to hell.
Highway to hell.
Don’t stop me.”
Boy was I wrong. The Captivating Mrs. Campbell will be happy to regale you with the many times I have been wrong, just last week. But taking that aside, I did not see even a blue wave. But we got a blue tsunami. I am writing this from Kansas early in the morning of Wednesday, November 4th, so there are a lot of returns not complete yet. I didn’t sleep much last night.
However, the overall scale of the disaster for Republicans literally everywhere including the reddest of red states is clear. It is a historic loss, but not unprecedented. Republicans experienced losses like this in 1932 (depression), 1958 (recession and sputnik), 1974 (Watergate), 2006/2008 (Iraq War) and now. Democrats had such losses in 1944 (war), 1984 (Contract with America) and 2010 (ObamaCare).
In the 2010 wipe out of Democrats, and even in their lesser losses in 2016 and 2024, the “red wave” crashed into either the Sierras or the Rockies and the deep blue areas of the west coast and New England were not affected. In this tsunami, there seems to be no red state that was spared a blue surge. Even where Republicans won, their margins of victory were tiny. Almost every seat that Republicans redistricted in states like Texas and Florida stayed with a Democrat and every seat Democrats redistricted in California and other places did exactly as they had planned. If you are a Democrat, you can hide out on the West Coast or new England even in the worst of years. It’s hard to see anyplace for a Republican to hide out this year. The only exceptions might be Oklahoma, Idaho and Utah, which stayed quite red. You will be pleased to know that the fine people of Idaho voted to make the Winchester Model 1873 (the gun that won the west) the official state gun of Idaho, beating out 5 rivals. Try putting that on the ballot in Oregon.
Many are saying that the Trump family’s self-dealing led to an anti-corruption vote in favor of Democrats. I have no doubt that that is true. But in Minnesota, where corruption has been a way of life for the government there and has been exposed for all to see, the sitting Lieutenant Governor easily won a US Senate seat in spite of being one of the architects of the massive fraud and corruption there. Being corrupt is OK as long as you use your corruption to benefit Democrats.
Everyone is running forward with their reasons for the wipeout whether it’s Trump or the war in Iran or ICE or the price of gas or bad candidates or tariffs. The correct answer is all of the above and a whole lot more. You can’t lose this badly on only one thing.
I have one little example very specific to a place like Kansas. If there is a 100% Republican voting block, it is ranchers. The Democrats literally want to ban the consumption of beef or the killing of livestock for food. Trump, attempting to deal with the “affordability issue” allowed the importation of Mexican beef. The price of beef did not go down but Trump violated his own “America First” policy and lost the votes of many ranchers. There are many other similar examples of missteps that led to this tsunami.
We do know that the problem was not money. Both sides had plenty. Republicans did not lose because they were outspent. They weren’t. Here in Kansas, I bet I saw, read or heard a political ad 1000 times (no exaggeration) in the 3 weeks I have been here.
There will be time for more in-depth analysis in a few weeks when the full extent of the damage Is known and the victors start to lay out their agendas. But, here are a few brief observations I have at this point:
We don’t really know how Trump will respond to this, but his nature and history would indicate that he will likely be more belligerent than ever. Remember after Obama’s loss in 2010, he said that he had “a phone and a pen” and he intended to use them to implement his agenda in the face of a Republican Congress. Obama went farther left where he could with his pen and phone after the loss. Trump may go farther right. Democrats have already told Trump and anyone in the administration to “lawyer up”. Some Democrats are calling for intimidation tactics against anyone thinking of working for Republicans and jailing Elon Musk, but not any billionaires who supported Democrats. How do they do a budget or prosecute a war in this political atmosphere?
The Democrat majorities are big enough that they can lose DSA members and still pass stuff. But the DSA is where the energy is. Democrats, being collectivists, tend to work together better than Republicans do. Obviously, Trump is not going to sign a bunch of the stuff they will pass and they do not have the votes to override. “Medicare for All” (socialized medicine a la Canada and the UK) will likely be a major priority.
I am not optimistic about 2028. It is going to be hard to reverse this blue momentum with Trump still in office and a wonderful “boogie man” and target to unify the left and run against. Any Court appointments will need to run a leftist gauntlet for the next 4 years at a minimum. Once the left controls the court, as they do in states like California and Colorado, the written law is ignored and they rule on the basis of what they believe is “just”. In other words, they are just judicial rubber stamp for whatever the governor and legislature want.
Texas is now purple. As of this writing, it looks like Democrats won all the statewide offices in Texas but republicans still control the legislature in Austin. Show me a 2028 map with a Republican winning the White House without Texas. I don’t think that exists.
The Democratic field for president in 2028 is now likely to be massive as many ambitious politicians will believe that they engineered this victory and will be encouraged to run in what is looking like a good year for them. No two term president since World War II has been succeeded by a president of the same party except for George H.W. Bush’s victory following Reagan in 1988 (often considered Reagan’s 3rd term). I still think AOC is in the lead but there is lots of time and there will be lots of opponents.
On the Republican side, Ron DeSantis is looking awfully good right now. It is going to be hard for anyone in the administration to distance themselves from Trump while working for him. For a Republican to have a chance in 2028, they will need to carve out a new Republican vision that separates from Trumpism, but not by too much.
An early look at initiatives around the country seems to indicate that people voted against new taxes, but in favor of more borrowing and spending. People want their cake and to eat it too. They don’t want men in women’s sports and other leftist priorities while still voting for the candidates in favor of such things. Voters support people and seem to ignore the policies of said candidates.
Data Centers were on the ballot in 30 locations and they lost in 29 of them. It is clear that politically, data centers and AI are in trouble as are driverless cars and trucks. Democrats will lead this charge but many Republicans will join the party as the public outcry seems obvious. The Chinese Communist Party is thrilled with this result, which their money helped engineer.
After Trump’s win in 2024, woke was on the decline. It will be back with a vengeance. Corporate CEOs, not wanting to be hauled in front of congressional Democrats, will go back to a pro-transgender, DEI, pro-illegal alien promotion in their companies. Start researching proper use of pronouns, lest you be jailed for using the wrong one. Free speech in America was back (that allows the DSA to speak Jew hatred and communism), but now it will not be allowed on the right. Hating Jews is justified. Suggesting men can’t have babies is hate speech.
I wish I could be telling you about the silver lining here. Some are saying this sets up well for 2028 because if the next 2 years go badly (which they likely will), people will blame Democrats in control of Congress. History says they will not do that and instead will blame the occupant of the White House.
Of course, the new majority Democrats may overplay their hand, go to far and piss off the electorate. We shall see. Could another impeachment of Donald Trump succeed this time? It would pass the House. And they would only need 11 Republicans in the Senate to go along to actually remove him from office. I wouldn’t say that’s likely now, but you can’t rule it out.
The Fourth Turning is here. And right now, moving America into full socialism seems where we are headed. Parlez vous français? Do you know which way Mecca is?
AC/DC is one of my favorite bands from the rock era because they were so tight and rhythms were dead on. We are indeed on a Highway to Hell. Hopefully, we can stop it before we get there.
A lot of what this blog may be about in coming months is preparing ourselves for how our families cope with socialism rising and freedoms declining.
In the end, God is in charge.
Until next time, I remain respectfully,
Congressman John Campbell
Drive Fast & Live Free
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