Smith Dynasty, 4th Day of Hagwinter, 526 M.E. (Castor): In the earliest years of the 1920s, Silas Junior, my grandfather, moved into an apartment at 580 Saint Nicholas Avenue in New York City, home to the, no, who am I kidding? You don't want to hear about that today and that's not what I want to talk about. The Blue Wave actually did materialize yesterday, and wow. Just, wow, man. The wave, the flood, the tsunami, the blue enema, whatever you want to call it, delivered and flipped both the U.S. House and Senate, as well as numerous states, including Georgia. 

Prior to last night's Blue Wave, the united snakes was perilously close to autocratic, one-party rule. The Presidency, the House, the Senate, and the supposedly non-partisan Supreme Court (wink, wink) were all controlled by Republicans. The Stable Genius, that short-fingered vulgarian, still occupies the White House and it may take a generation to change the Court, but last night both the House and the Senate flipped from red to blue. Some races are still being tallied, but as of noon today, the day after the great general erection, the Democrats control 54 of the 100 Senate seats and 232 House seats, fourteen more than the 218 needed for a majority.

Sweet home Georgia, that former member of the old Confederacy, is now officially a blue state - we have two Democratic Senators, one Jewish and one African-American, and a handful of Democratic representatives, including Nikema Williams (my Rep), and Hank Johnson, one of only three Buddhists in Congress. Talk about diversity, we now have a Black woman, Keisha Lance Bottoms, as our new Governor, the first Black woman to be elected as Governor to any state in the Union; and a Democratic Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, and Attorney General. Democrats assumed almost every major office in the state and while the Georgia House and the State Senate are still controlled by the GOP, their majorities are now smaller.

And it didn't stop there. Texas flipped too, and now has a Democratic Senator and a Democratic Governor. In North Carolina, Roy Cooper became the first Democrat elected to the Senate there since 2008, and every single county in North Carolina swung toward the Democrats. South Carolinians rejected the Stable Genius' hand-picked candidate for the Senate, the woefully unqualified sister of the late Lindsey Graham. Democrat Abdul El-Sayed won in Michigan, Susan Collins lost in Maine to a complete political unknown, and the disgusting Vivek Ramaswamy deservedly lost in Ohio.

Democrats won in gerrymandered districts in Florida, North Carolina, Alabama and Texas, denying Republicans the advantage they had hoped for by redrawing district lines. Democrats won where Republican megadonors and billionaire tech oligarchs spends hundred of millions trying to persuade voters not to vote Democratic. They failed.

You know all this already and besides, this isn't a news site, but it just feels so good to say it all out loud. Hooray for our side, we won!, and the other side lost. Bigly.

 

So now the big question is, how will the Democrats blow it this time?

If I may, I'd like to make a couple of recommendations. First, Democrats need to remember that the electorate voted for change, not a return to the same old same-old. I doubt few voters were motivated by a nostalgia for the politics of the Biden Era. To be specific, we don't need and I don't want Chuck Schumer as Senate majority leader or Hakeem Jefferies as Speaker of the House. Let's let those fresh new voices be heard and it's time for some new leadership for a new day. Its time for Ocasio-Cortez to be new Speaker of the House, and while I wouldn't mind seeing Georgia's Jon Ossoff as the new majority leader in the Senate, I'd rather keep him free to run for President in 2028. Perhaps Raphael Warnock, the Senate's de facto spiritual leader? Or Elizabeth Warren, the intellectual leader? Maybe Chris Murphy, assuming his health allows, or Mark Kelly? Really, there's a lot of good options and all are better than tired, old Chuck Schumer and his middle-of-the-road compromises.

Democrats also have to remember that despite last night's victories, there are literally millions of Americans who despite everything in the past two years, still voted red. The Dems need to deliver on good governance and helpful policies to win over the hearts and minds, s well as wallets and purses, of all voters if they want to hang around past the next election cycle.

And finally, there are lessons to be learned from Merrick Garland. The crimes, the corruption, and the unconstitutionality of this Administration are all out there and readily apparent for all to see, and to overlook prosecution under the guise of impartiality is to fall into the trap that got the Stable Genius re-elected in the first place. Release the Epstein files, impeach Hegseth and Kennedy, and of course, the Stable Genius himself. Now that the Dems control both chambers, an impeachment by the House won't automatically lead to an acquittal by the Senate, but they have to act fast before the politics change. Don't be held back by accusations of "Banana Republic" politics and weaponization of Congress.  Hold the fuckers accountable, just like the voters held the Republican incumbents accountable. 

But, wow, what a night!