So another year, another round of elections has happened. Usually I only vote in Presidentials because a) haven’t been that politically minded until a few years ago on a serious level, and b) I tend to forget they’re happening. But there was no forgetting this year, because no one was going to let you forget it, one way or another.

Democrats were screaming for months about a “Blue Wave” that was going to come crashing in and wash away “ebil drumph” and all the racists and evil people away and take back control. This of course started the Right insisting there was going to be a Red Wave instead. I honestly wasn’t sure either wave was going to happen, but it was fun to be along for the ride. And for all I know, there were in fact two waves and they crashed into each other.

From what I can pick up, the Dems are happy because they managed to make some gains in the House, though from what I understand these are in fact small gains that don’t really shift the balance of power much even if it gives them the majority there. And they lost three seats in the senate and Republicans gained greater control of it. If my understanding of US law making is correct, that basically stops the Dems from really doing much of anything except being noisy and irritating. Which they were going to be doing anyways.

Of course this greater senate control suddenly becomes important with the news that the “notorious RBG” has fallen, broken several bones, and is in all likelihood about to kick off the mortal coil and join the choir invisible. Since only the Senate is needed to approve SCJ appointments. Que the screams of angry progressives everywhere.

How much this election has given power vs how much its maintained the stalemate is difficult to say. I’ve heard leftists say that now they have the house, they can crank out accusations, subpoenas, and “impeach drumph,” but on the other hand how viable that actually is I don’t know. I’ve also seen them and folks on the right bemoaning that this is a terrible defeat. With no clear victor, violence by one party against the other is limited, but it makes the sabers rattle harder and each side more determined that violence, not voting, is the only solution to the existence of the other side.

As put by the “Biblebelt witchy mama”

The GOP represents the rich, white, Christian male populous who is trying to hold onto what the country was originally founded as. But that’s not who we are anymore. We haven’t been, socially, that in a long time. It’s about time our government representatives started to catch up. They seem to be doing whatever they can to make folks feel as though their view doesn’t matter. My dear J, high school senior who didn’t vote because all the stuff on TV made him feel like it wouldn’t matter. His little voice doesn’t matter. Their disenfranchisement worked for him this time. I hope I broke through to him for next year. And the year after.

The tides are turning.

Each crashing wave is eroding away the old, jagged rock.

Keep putting drops in the bucket.

Keep the floods flowing.

The grand irony of this being that waves eroding a rock do not make a newer, better rock, they merely make sand buried under the ocean, cast about by the will of the tides with not stability, no future.

As for the GOP only representing rich, white, christian men, this is a statement that could not be further from the truth. The only true parts of the statement is that the GOP represents white men who want the country to remain what it was founded on, but even this is a rapidly changing fact. As stated previously, I lurk around /pol/ and the attitude there is not “we need to save the USA and restore it to its ideals.” Oh no, far from it. The ideal that “all men are created equal,” has been violently disabused from the consciousness of the anons. The idea that all men are in fact equal, and that all peoples can live in peace and equality that sprang fully to life in the 60’s and has been the attempted reality for the last forty to sixty years has proven a lie.

Peace was never an option. The idea that all men are created equal was a white concept, no other race has truly adopted it, even in the USA with decades of programing. And in the last two decades, the Democratic party has proven that an “inclusive and diverse society” does not include white men, or even white people. The GOP isn’t even representative of the views of most people on the right at this point, but it got the votes it did because the USA is a two party system and it was better to vote for the guys who at least don’t want you dead in the hopes they will hold of the folks that do.

The “Witchy mama” also states in that same post.

Not only is the future female, but it is darker and queerer. It encompasses multiple faiths. It is a reflection of the real America. Of my America. Of the nation I love. My nation is not rural white good ol’boys. They’re a part of it, but they’re not the whole store. My nation has some country and has some flavor. Lots of flavor.

But this is just the start. Congress has gone from 20% female to 22% female. The country is projected to go to minority white by 2045. My children will be well into their adulthood in a [hopefully] fully inclusive society. They have friends and classmates from all walks of life. They don’t bat an eye at friends having two dads or their beloved daycare director and her wife. They are being raised in a minority faith in a world of Christians.

From what I can tell BWM is white, as is her family. This is the same woman who thinks her son will never be falsely accused of rape because “she’s raising him better than that,” as if how she raises her son will have any effect on the women around him or their actions. If she thinks her children face a fantastic future as a minority, while herself being a progressive who no doubt often complains about how hard minorities have it, she has failed to buy the very product she is selling, and failed to learn the lessons she has been teaching.

Frankly, if she gets her way I hope she’s ready for a suicided son and a daughter lucky for a life of single motherhood.

In the end, I’m not sure how I feel about this election. It honestly feels like a stalemate, but truth be told Congress and its powers have a limited effect on the future. Executive orders and Supreme Court rulings are going to have a much greater effect, as are what happens shortly at the border between several thousand migrants trying to invade after refusing refuge in Mexico, and several thousand armed soldiers who look like they’re going to have orders to fire at the first sign of violence. It’s also going to depend more on how many left and right wing “solitary actors” we have who decide to “screw the optics, I’m going in.”

I’m not usually one to say “your vote doesn’t count” but to be honest, at this point the votes probably count for only a little. We’re now heading into the stages where the experiment that is our republic is ending and the actions of people are going to determine our future. Will we have Sulla, will we have the Bolsheviks, will we have the National Socialists, will we have the USA or will we have a bunch of balkanized states?

Who can say? A clear victory this election would have likely led to outright rebellions, suppression, and a potential stabilization of the nation for another few decades. Now? We’re going to be lucky if we make it six years before there’s open war.

Then again, peace was probably never an option anyways.

 

 

Hela Bless