For the past several weeks I have been recovering from major spine surgery, which has kept me from writing like I wanted.  But here are some of my accumulated thoughts.

It may take a week or so for the pundits and some Democratic politicians to get over bashing the seven Democrats and one independent who supposedly “caved” to the Republicans to end the government shutdown.  Regardless, I doubt if this will have any effect on the midterm elections next year so long as President Trump’s opponents do not get discouraged and let up pushing back on him and his incompetent administration.  And if Republicans believe this was a win for them, it will be very short lived.   

Why?  Well, during the shutdown Democrats caused most of us to focus on what the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act is doing to damage America’s health care systems.  They also forced Senate Republicans to agree to vote on extending the enhanced subsidies for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a.k.a. Obamacare in December.  This put the onus totally on Trump and his Republican lapdogs in Congress to decide if millions of Americans will lose health care insurance coverage next year.  No doubt, GOP members of the House and Senate dread taking this vote right before the critical midterm election year of 2026.

Adding to Trump and Republican misery this month were the wins Democrats scored in the November 4 elections.  This leads me to believe that voters are beginning to understand that Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress care more about increasing their power than they do about Americans.

No need to rehash the election results but my takeaways from them are very encouraging.  But it was almost a nationwide sweep by Democrats and they won by wide margins.  I believe the most significant of these were in Virginia where Abigail Spanberger will be replacing Republican Glenn Youngkin in the governor’s mansion, big wins were scored in the state’s races for lieutenant governor and attorney general and Democrats gained at least 10 seats in the Virginia House of Delegates. 

The frosting on the November 4 election cake though was the Associated Press survey of more than 17,000 voters in New Jersey, Virginia, California and New York City.  Without delving into the details, this quite comprehensive analysis shows that Democratic candidates had strong support from non-white voters.  This should be a huge positive for Democrats in the midterm elections next year after Trump attracted more Black and Hispanic voters in 2024.

Trump is obviously terrified of losing control of the U.S. House and I was concerned by the gerrymandering he has demanded to create more Republican districts in Texas and other GOP-controlled states.  Some right-wing political strategists, however, are also worried because it will move voters from safe Republican districts to districts currently held by Democrats.  This weakens the Republican districts, which could be a big problem for them in a blue-wave election.  Of course, this is also true for gerrymandering by Democrats, which would be risky in a red-wave election.  But so far, I have not seen any predictions of a Republican election blowout in 2026.

There is another encouraging sign that Trump’s grip on Republican voters is slipping: An Associated Press -NORC survey taken after the election but before Congress reached agreement to end the shutdown shows that only 33% of Americans approve of how Trump is managing the government.  These results are down from 43% in March, which the detailed results show was driven by eroding support from Republicans and independents

Another problem is also seriously weakening Trump’s support with his base.  The MAGA crowd has long demanded that the Department of Justice release the files on Jeffery Epstein’s sexual abuse investigation and Trump promised to do that during the 2024 campaign.  Unlike other promises he made, however, some of his most loyal far-right supporters, like Reps. Margorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert have not forgotten this one and are openly defying him.

Fortunately, Democrats got a subpoena issued to Epstein’s estate by the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee that provided thousands of Epstein’s emails and other documents about his activities.  These are revealing that Trump spent a lot of time at Epstein’s house and “hours” with at least one young girl that Epstein was abusing.  These revelations have put Trump and the White House on the defensive. 

So has the bipartisan resolution demanding that the DOJ release the Epstein files, which is scheduled for a vote in the House next week.  If it passes, which is expected, it must be passed by the Senate, which is doubtful, and signed by Trump, which will never happen.  I believe, however, that much of the Epstein files’ contents will come out, one way or another.

Trump steamrolled his opposition for 10 months by flooding the zone with Project 2025 inspired executive orders.  Still, I believe the Epstein files debacle has stalled the momentum of his coup attempt and he is no longer looking invincible.  Consequently, those he is bullying will be more likely to rebel and his demands will tend to fall on deaf ears, like when Senate Republicans refused his demand to kill the filibuster.  And once people are no longer deathly afraid of Trump, he will have lost much of his power to complete an autocratic coup.

My friends, if we the people keep pushing back hard, we will beat Trump.