Boy Howdy

What an election cycle. It’s been very heated, with clear racism falling like rain from the mouth of the administration. Literally, Donald Trump spat out the name of Abdul El-Sayed, or more often would pretend he couldn’t pronounce the name, and just mutter “Mohamed, mu-something, Mohamed.”

It frustrates me that the shit we experienced coming from the mouths of the poorly parented in middle school now constitutes political speech at the highest levels. If you’ve never heard me complain about the fall of American intelligence, you need look no further than our sitting president.

Still, I think it is important to say this out loud: you can be stupid, and still be a decent person. I do not believe that we can describe the sitting president that way.

He has done more harm to the United States, and our allies, than any president I can remember. He has damaged our soft power in a way that is incalculable, and has tipped our hand to our enemies when it comes to hard power. He has shown China what the opening strikes of a war would look like, and he and his favorite Major (Hegseth) have diminished our readiness through slapdash attempts to make our military look more like their mental picture of a fighting force, ignoring the fact that we got to where we were purposefully.

A Quick Tangent From My Own Service

A modern fighting force absolutely needs ground pounders and people to put boots to ass for their country, but similarly, we need people to fly drones, perform cyber attacks, and critically, those people don’t need to be able to kick in doors and put boot to ass. Treating the entire Army as though it were the Marine Corps is going to give us a fighting force that is very good at direct engagement, and is poor in all other domains of war. Hegseth is, frankly, bad at his job.

I’ve heard it said, and I agree, that Major is the highest rank you can attain in the Army officer corps while still being incompetent. Never forget that Hegseth only made it as far as Major before he left the service.

My proofreaders tell me this tangent makes the article more disjointed, but I never want to skip an opportunity to remind people how unqualified Hegseth is for his job, and how out of touch he is with modern warfighting.

The Analysis

Democrats can be proud of winning as many seats in Congress as they did, but they have to remember something very, very important: they did not win because people like them. Congress is tied, right now, for the lowest approval rating in the past 60 years - the last time people disliked Congress this much, TVs had just made the switch to color. In 2013, the approval rating was 9% with a 4% margin of error. As of April, 2026, it was 10% with a 4% margin of error.

No, they didn’t win so much as the Republicans lost, and many will be tempted to use this opportunity to take a victory lap. They must resist that urge. Americans turned against the Democrats in 2024, and against the Republicans in 2020 and 2026. The American people are not happy with their government, and are no longer willing to put up with politicians who will not do something to make life better.

The Democrats must take this opportunity to tackle affordability, health care, and the Iran war, in that order.

The Republicans have spent YEARS talking about how lowering our taxes will make our lives better, while glossing over the fact that every dollar we have saved in our taxes has been spent on inflation, healthcare premiums, and increased utility costs through deferred spending.

Metal Fatigue

What do you suppose will happen if members of Congress takes their seats in January, and do not immediately take up the cause of lowering health care costs, fuel prices (or reinstating EV subsidies), and ending the war in Iran? What will happen if they fail to move the ball forward towards any of those three goals? They only have about 18 months to get things done before the next major election cycle starts, and I do not believe that is enough time to fight the executive branch, further their own agendas, and give Americans needed relief. They must pick which of those persuits to spend their time on, and only one of them will help the American electorate immediately, and tangibly.

Supposition time: the entire government is unpopular because none of them have given us what we want, and we continue to elect new people in major swings from left to right, all the while hoping that we will get SOMETHING to make life easier again. Left, then Right, then Left, then Right, all the while bending the apparatus of government back and forth, back and forth. Every oscillation is characterized by Americans demeaning, and in some cases demonizing, their opposition, and those attacks leave real, lasting scars on the populace. Eventually, those scars and cracks, those weak spots in the metal of the apparatus of government, will fail, and the whole thing will come down. I do not need to explain to you what the outcome of that will be, because we have come dangerously close several times during this administration.

The Democrats must take this opportunity to ease the tension and cultural whiplash by fixing the boring problems, instead of trying to overreach and stick it to the Republicans. Yes, it will be emotionally unsatisfying, and it will, at times, feel unfair - why are they called to be the better people?

The answer comes down to timing. Our country, like metal being bent back and forth, only has a finite number of bends to the extremes before it breaks. Every bend introduces more cracks between neighbors and families, weakening our country, our sense of unity, and the sense of “American-ness” that binds us together. If we are to avert that catastrophe, we ALL need to set aside our pet agendas, and start solving problems.