Most Americans and most people everywhere are happy with the election results. Europeans, immigrants who live and work among us, LGBTQ people, minority groups, workers and unionists, university students and scientists, and anyone who loathes America’s far right are looking forward to January 2027 with renewed vigor. As my readers know, I was not hopeful before I saw the results on the morning after election day. But I have a bit more spring in my step and color in my face.
However, I cannot only voice my pleasure; I must also voice the caution I believe is necessary for moving forward. The losers in our 2026 Midterm elections will not be forgiving, silent, unobtrusive, or patient. Will they proceed with increased enthusiasm and force? I don’t know. But I do know without a doubt that Americans who did vote for the Republican candidates in this election, as well as all voters who intentionally sat out the election rather than choose between a Democrat and a Trump ally, are not changing their beliefs and biases to accommodate us. Caution is necessary because moving in a decisive direction that is unpopular with many voters, Republican party leaders, and the American oligarchs necessitates it.
At least four major groups will behave with determined obstructionism:
1 Multi-millionaires and billionaires who personally benefit greatly and without accountability in the consumer/capitalist system.
2 Right-wing evangelical fundamentalist Christians who’ve espoused Christian Nationalism and delight in the power and wealth it brought them.
3 Republican party leaders who’ve shown their neofascist tendencies, befriended Putin, supported Christian Nationalists, knelt to Netanyahu, discovered the ease with which they can seize authoritarian power and demolish democracy, and worked to secure the oligarchs’ power in media, technology, industry, and local governments.
4 White Supremacists. This is everyone from Stephen Miller who sits in the Oval Office with Donald J Trump (the demented old rapist whose mental and physical state is rapidly deteriorating) and as an unelected official wields more power over us than we can imagine…to local private militia groups like The Proud Boys, ICE, and white Christian fundamentalist churches. They’ve become bolder and grown in numbers ever since MAGA, the tech industry, influencers like Turning Point, and right-wing media gave them unlimited public amplifiers and access to legislators, judges, the White House, think tanks, and policy decisions.
Who within these four groups will say, “I respect the voters’ decisions and will work for my causes lawfully, with humble dignity, with empathy for others.”? Perhaps some who jumped on the right-wing bandwagon during the Reagan and Bush eras and most recently when Trump rallies were the place to be and MAGA the cult to belong to. They are the unserious folks who use politics as recreation and business networking.
Perhaps a few who vote Republican no matter who or what…because “guns, God, country.” They rarely participate in civic programs or pay attention to world news -- the uneducated, gullible masses who haven’t read a book since junior high school.
Perhaps some millionaires -- now that Trump’s popularity has dwindled and since they can enjoy financial stability when Dems are in charge -- will spend more time outside the country, on their boats and yachts, in their mountain retreats, on golf courses. They’ll lie low using ketamine and cocaine. They’ll schmooze with Democratic centrists while mocking the Democratic socialists. They can afford to ride out most government changes. The only policies they truly care about are tax rates, interest rates, and zoning laws.
Millions will return to streaming sitcoms and movies every evening and weekend, replacing the steady diet of right-wing rage media they consumed since 2015. They enjoyed quiet evenings and family weekends until MAGA rallies and ‘Wake Up to the Dangers!’ podcasters like Ben Shapiro got them addicted to fury and fear. Only the most hardened will stay belted in the vehemence vehicles – FOX news, OAN, Newsmax, social media, and conservative radio talk shows. Why will they return to pre-2015 normalcy? Because they are sick and closer to death with every day that they feed on false grievances and choleric lies.
Who will pose the greatest dangers, fight harder, obstruct and disassemble and destroy more intensely? Who have always been most willing to cheat, raze, ruin, and kill? Religious sects whose beliefs and passions are rooted in Us Versus Them mentality.
They are unwilling and unable to listen and learn -- when the ideas are unfamiliar, complex, or contradict their own ideas; when the speakers are unfamiliar or represent groups that they fear. Whereas many Republican voters will choose to ride the waves and already know how to mix with The Others, the willfully ignorant who believe that ‘my side is God’s side’ haven’t the skills to do so. They’ve never practiced debate and logical argument; they’ve never analyzed complex writings; they’ve always avoided The Others. The risk of their isolation from the wider communities in which they live will increase. They’ll continue feeding on right-wing propaganda, and the oligarchs who own right-wing media will increasingly feed the willfully ignorant on the grievance-riddled lies they crave.
It is a vicious, self-righteous, power-hungry, terrifying circle-jerk. Oligarchs, Republican party leaders, willfully ignorant Americans, and the podcasters/influencers who care only for fame.
And once again, what is the glue that holds this hodgepodge of right-wing folks together? It is their belief in the supremacy of white people -- the entitled, Blessed, genetically superior, threatened ‘race.’ Willfully ignorant people are fearful of others, as are religious True Believers who believe their God curses and condemns minority groups. White Supremacy is a generational, core, gut belief in how all things Should Be.
Oligarchs and wealthy Republican leaders also believe in White Supremacy…but not because they are afraid of others. They believe in it because the networking they established to uphold their power and wealth thrives on exclusion, cruelty, uniformity, status, their choice of judiciary, and hierarchy. They cannot tolerate any government or institutional policies that threaten the foundations of their power structure.
So, what do we do? We who do not work in legislative chambers or behind powerful doors. We write, organize, participate in community programs, support public education and literacy programs, shun right-wing media and corporations, demand our legislative representatives protect our democracy and the diverse groups who believe in human rights and inclusion, hold politicians and national voices accountable for corruption and dishonesty, support independent and public news media, contact our political leaders, require that all people in powerful positions from classroom teacher to POTUS have good character and follow the laws…
The list is long. You and I have limited time and energy. So, you and I choose one or two things that we can do consistently well. Most important, we cannot accept that our work is done because the 2026 Midterms restored Democrats to seats of power. We know that the forces of White. Christian. Male. Supremacy were not vanquished in the elections.