You ever wonder about Marco Rubio? He hardly ever looks happy. He more often looks disgusted and annoyed, or maybe like he has 100 siblings and one of them dies every week.

Maybe this is what happens to a person when they sell their souls to Donald Trump and must keep their mouths shut when Orange Man says something shockingly stupid, which of course happens with such regularity that it’s surprising Marco hasn’t blown a gasket and collapsed into a puddle of his own tears and regrets.

He must get paid well.

The gerrymandering appears to be mostly for naught. The almost half billion dollars Elon Musk sank into races appears to be mostly for naught. This midterm cycle was the predictable repudiation of everything Donald Trump manifests the opposite of—kindness, decency, statesmanship, competence, and appreciation of this nation’s history, to name a minimal few.

It’s also a mandate for Democrats, since the general thinking is that folks aren’t exactly enamored with the donkey party, either. This was another in a continuing series of elections motivated by visceral anti-Trump sentiment.

I just wish that someone would say that alongside the economy or the war in Iran, our dissatisfaction is as much about the widespread rot from Trump on down. These aren’t nice people, not even disciplined and at least trying to do a decent job. They would rather be known as demolition experts with a hankering for enriching themselves and returning to some God-forsaken bygone era.

I really hope people give the Democrats a chance, that the Dems use the power and whatever time they have to tend to genuine need, mend a few fences, and not just try to settle the myriad scores.

Eyes on the prize, which is 2028, when the final nail in the coffin can be driven. At least for a time.

Why can’t I shake the feeling that things are still gonna get ugly? I should be over the moon this morning, seeing that Democrats have taken back both House and Senate.

Trump is of course the wild card in this revelry—what is he going to do now that the writing on the wall has turned into stone cold fact? What messes will he yet try to make? What races will he question, how many wrenches will he throw, and how will judges and courts respond? What bomb have Vought and Miller and Vance and all the billionaires prepared to drop? What’s gonna happen between now and January? And why should we even have to worry about any of this in the first place?!

Good riddance in advance to a soulless, useless Republican Party. And see ya, Mike. Finally.

Kudos to the many who have kept the wolves at bay—district and federal judges, even the Supreme Court; lawyers, people in the streets, conscientious media who still get the word out about how failed and faulty and inept Donald Trump and the rest actually are. The damage could be worse than it already is.

The build-up to today’s elections has been relentless and low-brow and loud, and I can’t wait for tomorrow when the ads go away for at least a little while. In the meantime, 57 million people have already voted, and many more will go to the polls today to, hopefully, give Trump—who told people to vote as if he was on the ballot— a middle finger and reason to consider other work. Like breaking rocks.

That won’t happen, of course, and it remains to be seen if any of these potential upsets in Texas and Kansas and elsewhere actually materialize. Many are holding out hope at this point, reluctant to bite when it comes to what the prognosticators are saying but still willing to entertain the possibility that maybe we get a toe hold on meaningful change.

Trump will be President for another two years, so we can expect a bumpy ride when it comes to signing off on any legislation presented to him. I’m hoping that the Dems, if they do gain control of at least one chamber, don’t waste the mandate and fritter away their time going after people. That would be just the next reminder of the endless cycle of retribution that perpetuates inertia—unless they can show they’re able to walk and chew gum at the same time.

What if Trump had won in 2020? If this had been the case, we’d likely be done with him by now, or at least he’d be back on the periphery or in jail. Meanwhile, we could be starting to repair and restore and pick up the pieces—unless Mike Pence or Don, Jr. or some other nightmarish replacement won in 2024.

If The Donald had prevailed in 2020, he and the Heritage Foundation wouldn’t have had an extra 4 years to ruminate and iron out the wrinkles in their Project 2025 strategy. It still would have been horrendous, but they wouldn’t have had quite the helping of steely resolve nor perhaps wouldn’t have hit the ground running the way they did as soon as Trump was inaugurated in 2025.

As things turned out, Trump and Miller and Vought and the gang had too much time to stew and to plan their dastardly deeds.

Probably a lot of holes in this scenario, if we think about it for a while.