In the early morning of Nov. 4, 2026, I went to bed, like many Americans, without the nearly 2-year-long affliction of constant oppression and anxiety, and slept “the sleep of the saved and thankful” (as England’s leader, Winston Churchill, said upon America’s entry into World War II).
The midterms gave Democrats their congressional majority that can checkmate Trump’s authoritarian power. Just now, the nation is still enjoying the aftermath of the “blue tsunami,” the “rout,” and the “earthquake” of Nov. 3.
But truth, as stubborn as ever, still reminds me that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
So, for truth’s sake, let’s look at some elementary numbers: On Nov. 3, 56% chose Democrats and 43% were Trumpsters. It’s 56 to 43: In a normal sports metaphor in America, a championship game that ends 56 to 43 is not exactly a “rout.” Nor, as any football or basketball fans would tell you, is the 56-43 final a “tsunami.” Our winner-take-all system in American politics (and sports) happens to allow even a one-point victory to take the whole thing, so that the one-point difference becomes a 100% all-or-nothing verdict in win-loss consequences. Just one vote more than 50 in the Senate gives one side the majority as if it is 100 to 0: the whole thing determined just by one point.
In American politics, a “sea change” from red to blue, or blue to red, can occur with a relatively small number of votes. Thus viewed sociologically, a 56-to-43 ratio, in itself, has little significance in real life: America, as a whole, is about the same as it was before the election.
There is another number to look at: In the 2024 presidential election, Trump received 50% of the votes and won. Two years later, in last week’s midterm elections, Trump’s candidates received 43% of the vote and lost the congressional majority to Democrats. So, between 2024 and 2026, his support declined only by 7%, from 50 to 43. In those two years, what Trump did as president, in full view of the nation, was quite ugly: He habitually lied, enriched himself, his family and billionaire friends, babbled non-sequiturs like a 5-year-old, tormented the powerless and poor of society, and started wars on whims. Still, only 7% of Americans changed their minds about Trump. The idea of “corruption,” the very core symbol of Trumpism, came to the fore only in the final weeks before Nov. 3. Otherwise, voters were motivated by “pocketbook” issues, more than Trump’s immorality and incompetence, which could’ve been easily forgiven with only slightly lowered gas prices.
Just imagine this: Let’s say we randomly select 100 Trump-supporting Americans and send them to hell for a two-year internship. But, lo and behold, when they come back to above-ground America, we find that only seven of them changed their minds about hell and 93 of them still professed their love for the devil who ruled hell and wouldn’t mind living there forever.
Now we can say that, in our political reality, the 7% change between 2024 and 2026 is good enough to return Democrats to Congress and neutralize the worst of the enfant terrible. But this is exclusively a political development, guaranteed only for two years, not a revolutionary change either in American character or social institutions: Apparently, to the majority of Trump supporters, none of the awful things he did in his first two years in power mattered. In a large measure, America remains the same with or without Trump. In matters of right and wrong, most Americans have become incapable of moral rage. Incredibly, in spite of all his hellish corruption, cruelty and stupidity — on full display for two highly publicized years — Trump lost only 7% of his supporters.
NBC called the midterm election a “resounding rejection” of Trumpism. Such a conclusion may be justified only in the political calculus of votes as to which party wins or loses in a particular electoral battle. But there is no moral victory in the midterm result because, even with a Democratic majority, America has not really changed.
We recall that, during his election campaign, Trump floated the idea of public executions for our mass entertainment and promised $5,000 each for our votes if we voted Republican. Their significance is not just that such public spectacles are highly depraved in themselves (as they are), but that Trump truly judges that they are good for Americans. In his view, Americans are like the Roman crowd who loved spectacles and government handouts. He knows that we, as Americans, fear each other more than we do foreign terrorists, and our guns are loaded to kill other Americans. But such an America was created long before Trump; he just made it worse. If anything, the midterm election only highlighted the dark pit into which America had fallen, and from such a depth of moral blindness, we could not recognize the perils of Trumpism — nor could we see those of our own moral fall.
So, what happens to America, once the new Garden of Eden, now so unlivable, and to Americans, once the guardians of ideal democracy, now such self-indulgent consumers? Though exciting and hopeful just now, the Democratic win cannot bring back what is historically lost in America — not easily, not quickly, perhaps not ever.
This is our own historic price for trying to find happiness and civilization in an every-man-for-himself society: There is no way we can sustain our collective moral bearings without succumbing to whoever is stronger or wealthier or smarter, whether a political dictator or a corporate overlord, or even an AI master.
I am losing sleep again.
Jon Huer, retired professor and columnist for the Recorder, lives in Greenfield.