The Four People Most Responsible for the Blue-nami.

 

He’s only #4 on the list,
but Curmie won’t make you look
at the other three.

It’s hardly unprecedented that the party out of power scores big in midterm elections.  What happened this week overwhelmingly significant in terms of numbers, although the Democrats’ capture of both houses of Congress means the numbers really do matter.  What’s more significant is who, specifically, won or lost… and where. 

Democratic Senators-elect include an openly gay man, an indigenous woman, and a Muslim; Governors-elect include a black woman (in Georgia!) and two black men, a Latina, and an indigenous woman.  South Carolina elected a Democratic Senator for the first time in 28 years; in Maine and Texas it had been 38 years; in Kansas, 94 years!  Every statewide elected office in Texas has been in Republican hands for years.  Every one of them just got flipped.  Democrats also took over the majority of the state Board of Education, which Curmie believes is more important than who’s the Agriculture Commissioner.

Republican attempts at mid-decade gerrymandering in multiple states imploded.  Nationally known and long-serving GOP figures like Susan Collins and Greg Abbott lost re-election bids.  There could still be more good news for Democrats in still-to-close to call races in several states.  So, yeah, this one feels more consequential than run-of-the-mill midterm discontent.

The Blue-nami that happened this week is the result of the efforts of literally millions of people who went to the polls and decided to… erm… t’row da bums out.  But there are four people who stand out in Curmie’s mind as the most important individuals.  He lists them here in decreasing order of importance.

#1, obviously, is Donald Trump.  He has engineered cuts to any program or agency that supports or protects everyday people, while pushing for enormous tax breaks for millionaire cronies.  The war with Iran (well, it’s a war when explaining why we can’t fund social programs, although not when challenged on that “no new wars” business) is unnecessary and probably illegal.  That conflict has already cost every American about $1350, not counting the increased costs of gasoline and diesel caused by the closing of the Strait of Hormuz. 

The Epstein files are still tightly guarded despite court orders to release them.  Tariffs are applied and rescinded willy-nilly, the better to manipulate the stock market for 47’s personal gain.  The masked goon squads of otherwise unemployable yahoos are protected at every turn.  He’s completely abandoned our responsibility (yes, responsibility) to protect Ukraine’s borders in order to snuggle up with the never-quite-forgot-he-was-KGB Vladimir Putin.  The list goes on, but you know the litany as well as Curmie does, Gentle Reader,

It’s difficult to pick Trump’s defining characteristic: is it his narcissism?  his dishonesty?  his xenophobia?  his cruelty for its own sake?  his Machiavellianism (to be polite about it)?  Or simply that he’s an asshole for all seasons?

What’s important here, though, is not merely his abysmal performance as President.  He hand-selected candidates like Ken Paxton, Darline Graham, Michael Whatley, and Vivek Ramaswamy.  All lost.  Curmie doesn’t know much about Whatley, so we’ll leave him out of the discussion.  All three of the other are absolutely terrible candidates.  Ramaswamy will get his own paragraph in a moment.  Here’s the thing about the other two: Trump has shown all along that he values sycophancy loyalty more than competence, but he could have chosen stronger candidates by picking names at random from lists of registered Republicans.

Graham showed herself not only to be less than expert, but indeed profoundly ignorant of significant issues.  She didn’t appear to want the job, either.  A stronger person would have said no from the beginning, but of course it was that weakness, the willingness to be led by Trump, that made her attractive to him to begin with. 

It’s not clear whether Trump supported Paxton over incumbent John Cornyn because he liked him or because Cornyn, despite voting with Trump over 99% of the time, had publicly disagreed with him a couple of times.  The fragility of DJT’s ego is indeed awe-inspiring.  But Paxton, who was indicted for bribery, impeached by his own party, made a sweetheart deal to release an admitted pedophile, and has been accused of adultery by his wife (among a boatload of other issues), has so much baggage that even a lot of Texas Republicans couldn’t bring themselves to vote for him.

Would any of these races have turned out differently if the Republicans had fielded a better candidate?  Perhaps not, but it really is pretty difficult for a Republican to lose in South Carolina or Texas, and the presence of the likes of Paxton on the ballot may well have dragged other Republicans down, or led to increased Democratic turnout.  In other words, by putting his finger on the scale in the primary season, Trump proved himself to be not merely a horrible POTUS, but a bad Republican, too.

Elon Musk takes the #2 position on our list.  His contribution to the process was pouring nearly half a billion dollars into Republican coffers during this campaign.  The fact that it didn’t work, and that Musk is only a Texas resident because he was running away from “liberal” California is great fun, but that’s not why he’s on the list.  It is a lovely bit of irony that literally every statewide elected office was just flipped to the Democrats, but what matters here is that he so openly threw literally hundreds of millions of dollars into dark money outlets.  Like all narcissists, however, he can’t keep quiet.  The result is that candidates like James Talarico could target the absurd system that allows a hegemon like Musk to spend more just in Texas this year than the median family (not individual, family) will earn in over 2500 years.

Lots of dark money funded attacks on Talarico’s opponent, Ken Paxton, as well, but Musk seems to have gone out of his way to make himself a target for a campaign that could play on populism as much as politics per se.  So, thanks, Elon, for being just the kind of obnoxious plutocrat the Democrats needed to portray—not inappropriately, mind you—as the driving force of the GOP.

In the third spot is Vivek Ramaswamy.  Curmie has written about him three times: in 2023, he called him an “arrogant twatwaffle who has a raft-load of stupid ideas, but he thinks we shouldn’t recognize that fact because he’s rich” and “a Randian amoral egomaniac and full-fledged wackadoodle who seems think that being even more authoritarian than Trump or DeSantis is the way to go.”

Early in 2024, Curmie wrote that Ramaswamy is “perhaps the only person in the country to challenge Donald Trump for both narcissism and stupidity.”  Later that year, Curmie wondered if Ramaswamy, then announced as co-head (with Musk) of what was to become DOGE, can “really be so stupid that he misses the irony of his disparagement of ‘unelected bureaucrats.’”

You may have guessed that Curmie is not a fan.  Of course, the crowning achievement in VR’s quest for the title of World’s Most Amoral Asshat came late in this election season when he trotted out an ad featuring the biological mother of Dr. Amy Acton, his opponent for the Senate seat in Ohio.  She called her daughter a liar and told people not to vote for her.

Thankfully, that little display of unconscionable inhumanity, the product, no doubt, of a recognition that, to borrow from a Paul Simon lyric, all his wealth won’t buy him (political) health, blew up in his face.  Acton and her brother were removed from her mother’s care when her stepfather was indicted for raping her when she was 12.  The couple fled the jurisdiction before he stood trial.  For the record, her brother backs her allegation. 

Everyone with a conscience—which is to say, anyone by Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, Megyn Kelly, Laura Loomer, et al.—was horrified by the ad, aghast that anyone would stoop so low as to solicit it, film it, or air it.  To intentionally bring up a trauma from 40-something years ago just to score a couple of political points just demonstrates what a despicable excuse for a human being Vivek Ramaswamy is.  It lost him any chance of winning the Ohio governorship.  Good!  Thanks, Vivek.

Equally importantly, it reminded people outside of Ohio of the sole strategy of the GOP.  They have no positive record to run on: there’s a war virtually nobody supports, inflation is moving in the wrong direction, social and financial safety nets are eroding if not gone, etc.  So… let’s throw some shit at the wall and hope it sticks.  Ramaswamy just sorta said the quiet part out loud, and voters across the country saw the Republican Party for what it has devolved into: arrogant, smarmy, and cruel.  Curmie didn’t agree with a lot of GOP policies pre-Trump, either, but there’s no way Reagan or either of the Bushes would stoop to this.

Yes, Curmie is indeed suggesting that the three people who most helped inspire the blue wave were in fact Republicans.  Our #4 position, though, is actually occupied by a Democrat, specifically Zohran Mamdani.  Stacey Abrams and Beto O’Rourke have been getting some plaudits, and Curmie understands the impulse.  But there’s no question in his mind that it’s Mamdani who deserves the highest honors.  He represents the fusion of idealism and pragmatism that has been missing in Democratic politicians for too long.

Unlike his fellow New Yorker Chuck Schumer, Mayor Mamdani recognizes the no letter, however sternly worded it may be, can match actual engagement and actual results.  It’s perfectly reasonable to disagree with some of his political decisions, but Curmie points out that going after predatory landlords or billionaires who aren’t even residents, or penalizing DoorDash for stealing from their employees will play well with a lot of people.  Even more importantly, his policies seem to have worked: it’s a lot harder for Republicans to howl about unsafe cities when the violent crime rates have plummeted under Mamdani’s watch. 

Finally, he has done the things that bring everyone, not just Democrats, together.  No one but irredeemable Islamophobes could argue with his professional handling of the 9/11 commemoration.  He was joyful in his celebration of the Knicks’ first championship since 18 years before he was born.  And he oversaw filling over 200,000 potholes that had been pretty much ignored by previous administrations.  Regular people notice stuff like that.

Significantly, voters who might be wary of supporting someone unlike themselves in demographic profile can look at Mamdami’s success and obvious popularity among New Yorkers and begin to think that maybe voting for a Muslim might not be such a bad idea.  And if that’s true, then maybe the same can be said for a black candidate, a Latina, a Jew, a gay man, an indigenous woman… you get the idea, Gentle Reader.

So, there are the four heroes of the Democratic domination on Tuesday.  There are a couple other folks worth at least a mention.  Honorable mention to John Cornyn, who certainly called attention in the primary run-up to what a horrible person Ken Paxton is.  Paxton and Haley Stevens get dishonorable mentions for what Curmie trusts are obvious reasons.  Under normal circumstances, J.D. Vance would have gotten his own paragraph, but we’ll leave him as a dishonorable mention since no rational person gives a damn what that fabulist buffoon says or does.

Finally, let us all rejoice.  Curmie has watched several hours of television between Wednesday and today (Friday), and has seen nary a political commercial.  There is a God.