You cannot divide us, MAGA is here to stay

The Democrats plan of financing weak candidates worked like a charm

Republicans underperformed in these midterms. By a long shot. Historically speaking, an unpopular President like Biden should face at least a 30-seat loss in the House, probably a lot more, and also lose the Senate. Obama got "shellacked" in 2010. So did Trump in 2018. Didn't happen to Biden in 2022. A lot of people are pointing to former President Trump as the GOP's problem.

But that's not the whole story. Would Republicans have done *even worse* in these 2022 midterms without Trump continuing to make his presence felt, holding rallies, and stirring up excitement?

It can't be denied that Trump on the ballot brings in a huge turnout of GOP voters, which gave Trump an unexpected win in 2016, and very nearly enough to win again in 2020 - claiming the largest vote total ever for a sitting President. How many voters who continue to pull the lever for R are doing so out of a sense of loyalty to Trump personally, rather than loyalty to the Republican Party? Probably a large chunk.

But the flip side is this: Trump being on the ballot and/or still unofficially in charge of the GOP *also* brings out a huge surge of people who wouldn't otherwise vote Democratic. Proof? I'm one of those people. I never voted Democrat, until Trump turned the GOP into what it is today. I did not vote for *either* major party in '16 - I didn't like either Trump or Clinton.

But as HRC (also a historically unpopular candidate) went away, and America soured on Trump, the anti-Trump-turnout effect became huge in '18 and '20 and again in '22.

For every Trump fan, there's an equally fervid Trump hater. That's how he is, how he's always been, and how he's always liked it.

Either way, it seems the Republican is in deep trouble. Damned if it ditches Trump, damned if it doesn't.

Didn't mean to go on for that long. Anyway. Thanks for attending my TED talk.

Not just unpopular, but that driven largely by the state of the economy - which is the biggest swayer of votes - as well as crime and other mailaise around since 2020. The backlash at the polls would have been enough to leave any president in a neck brace, as would have materialized under normal circumstances, not this ongoing clown show.

True. The Republican Party is profoundly sick and lost at its core. They sold out to a narcissist whose lack of prior government experience and simplistic slogans were enough to "win" once (the Electoral College, anyway), in '16, but the American people caught on quickly and punished the GOP severely in '18, '20, and again in '22.

The U.S. Senate is still on a knife's edge, and probably will be 50/50 again, but even this overstates Republican support, since so many GOP Senators hail from depopulated states like Wyoming and Mississippi. Democratic Senators represent far more Americans combined.

Republicans look likely to claim the U.S. House by a whisker, with a crucial boost from rampant gerrymandering, but I'm curious to see what the aggregate popular vote total for U.S. House elections nationwide ends up being. My suspicion is that quite a few more ballots were cast for Democratic House candidates. If so, Republicans would claim yet another underhanded anti-democratic "victory."

Despite being a Democrat, I actually don't like the rot at the GOP's core - American democracy would benefit from having two healthy parties that offer attractive competing visions. Instead, voters are given a choice only between the flaming Trump MAGA dumpster fire (unacceptable to most), and whatever the Democrats happen to serve up.

It's really something, things turning out the way they did. Republicans blaming the losses on Trump, I've even Trumpers on this site jumping off the bandwagon, claiming they never voted for him anyways!

If it wasn't for Covid, Trump could have very well won, so they have that to blame. But this time around, circumstances are different, the chips piled up against Biden.
So this rejection signifies people getting bored with the clown show. Can't keep up that level of hyped up drama without it getting to be too draining.

I was really worried before the midterms, that this would be witnessing the setting of the stage for the end of the USA. Now I actually have hope, we're not over yet.

You can pretend that you understand why we support Trump but like the paid media, you are also clueless. MAGA is not going away, deal with it.