election 2022: initial thoughts

Places like Florida have reported around 97% of their votes, while other slower, sleepier places are still down around the 50% range. I saw there was some trouble in Maricopa County, Arizona, where a bunch of voting machines all suddenly and suspiciously broke down at once (prompting Scott Adams to wonder whether the machines were all networked). And sure enough, Kari Lake (whom I like) is currently losing in her bid for governor, mainly thanks to the powerhouse blue cities of Phoenix, Tucson, and possibly Flagstaff, which sits right in the middle of a blue voting region. The ghost of RINO John McCain haunts the state.

The GOP looks primed to take over the House of Representatives, as predicted, but the struggle to take over the Senate doesn't seem to be going so well: I'm seeing the numbers currently at 47 Dem, 46 Rep, with the Democrats possibly dominating the Senate even more than they currently do. We'd heard for a while that flipping the Senate would be a long shot, and I was, frankly skeptical when some righties got excited and started gibbering about taking over the Senate, with some even thinking the GOP could end up with up to 56 seats. That wasn't so obvious to me. I think the best-case scenario is that the end results will be the current status quo, i.e., 50-50, with Democrat Kamala Harris as the tiebreaker. But any last-minute gains will probably go to the Democrats thanks to suspicious jiggering as in Maricopa County, and based on some electoral maps, it could even be that, as noted above, the Democrats come away from this election with an even bigger presence in the Senate.

Elsewhere, the GOP seems to be doing well. Florida, of course, went for DeSantis in a 60-40 split, so that's a clear margin of victory for him. Most of the usual-suspect flyover and Southern states are solidly red for the governors' races, with some weird exceptions like Kansas. Coastal states and those bordering Canada are unsurprisingly blue. I do feel sorry for Kari Lake, but she's young enough (not to mention tough enough) that she can reappear to run at a later date—maybe for president! We haven't seen the last of her.

It's always amazing to me how many people, maybe out of fear, maybe out of inertia, will vote for the same stupid politicians and policies over and over again. Pennsylvania looks poised to send incoherent stroke-victim John Fetterman to the US Senate, which is just unbelievable. Are people really that dumb? I guess many of them are. True: I'm not a fan of Mehmet Oz, a media personality who is essentially a liberal masquerading as a conservative. I'm also not the biggest fan of Herschel Walker, who brings along the baggage of a very checkered past. That said, I have to wonder at people who will vote for continued economic self-strangulation and the further diminution of their rights. As Tim Pool repeatedly says, the Democrats these days have gone utterly insane.

So with a predictable spread of governors across the country, no movement—or maybe negative movement—for the GOP in the Senate, and a very likely GOP takeover of the House of Representatives, does all of this add up to a red wave, a red tsunami? I can't say. Probably not. A change in the House is a welcome thing, and it's nice to see DeSantis retain his hold on Florida, with Georgia probably remaining sane, too, by rejecting Stacey Abrams yet again (UPDATE: I see they've called it for Kemp, so no more Abrams). But if the GOP loses more seats in the Senate, then I'd argue the red wave has been blocked. The House, by itself, can be cantankerous, but any hopes of controlling both houses of Congress are, at this point, long gone. So: no impeachment of Joe Biden (for those who wanted that), and very likely no driving-through of GOP bills (that would only be vetoed by the "president," anyway). If this were a red wave, it would clearly be one. If my assessment of the situation is iffy, and it is, then it's certainly not a red wave.

All in all, then: some gains, some losses for the GOP. Same for the Dems. The ship of state will continue to limp forward. If midterms are a referendum on the president, then I don't think the GOP ended up making as strong a statement as it had intended to. It made a statement, to be sure—just not a strong one. But since, like a lot of people, I no longer trust the electoral process, I have no idea what any of this means. The ship limps on, but it feels as if it's sinking.

ADDENDUM: some comments seen at Instapundit:

Well, I didn't think it possible, but things are worse than I thought. I was prepared for Dem fraud to win the day. I wasn't prepared for Dems to win without fraud. The majority of the people really believe this shit. A majority of the people are fine with loss of rights as long as they get their free stuff. There is going to be no revolution because a majority of people are fine with it. Not only didn't enough Republicans win, but it was mostly RINOs. Fighters like Lauren Boebert are gone. All those Trump candidates we cheered winning the primaries lost in the general. The sole bright spot is Florida. Florida is all that remains of the America I once knew.

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Pennsylvania elected a brain-damaged moron.

About 30+% of Americans are the stupidest morons on planet earth.

Like you went into the voting booth and selected a functional retard to represent you in the Senate.

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Some Judgement Day. I felt the same about "shock and awe." Sounds great until you look at the TV with a whole lot of nothing happening.

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The question is:

Why is the GOP incapable of capitalizing on high gas and high food costs? Seriously. Even flatworms turn away from pain, and yet the blue states do not. There should have been no one voting for the Democrats tonight.

ADDENDUM 2: Senate race now showing a tie: 47-47. At this point, though, I think the best the GOP can hope for is 50-50 in the Senate. The dream of 56 seats has been crushed.

ADDENDUM 3: 48-47 now.