MidTerms: A Bloodletting?

For the Midding Crowd

I have been predicting a Republican victory in the House of Representatives in the MidTerm Elections as a pretty much sure thing --not to mention, a probable victory in the Senate, which is a little “iffier” but becoming more likely by the day as Joe Biden makes the Donald look more and more like a Genius.

A sad state of things.

My prediction is based on an analysis of what you might call fundamentals, rather than the polls, which, as usual, are all over the place.  Of course, I might be wrong –nobody gets it right all the time -- but I do have a better track record than Nate Silver. It’s not that I am smart. I’m not. I’m just an old guy who can’t spell and talks mostly with the two cats that I live with. When it comes down to it, most of my predictions from Obama to Brexit to Trump to Biden have been “no brainers”.

My cats tell me that while media coverage is skewed in favor of the Democrats on issues, including “values” issues such as abortion rights, the US is really a one-party state with the two “parties” really factions of a risible, invisible ruling oligarchy whose members may differ in style and sexual preference but not in primary goals. 

Both parties are out of step with public needs. Or what the nation needs. Their toilet paper may be red, white, and blue but they still use it to wipe their asses.

When in power, neither Dem Donkeys nor Repub Elephants are legitimate in the sense of being representative.  Political animals are just that — animals—not people— and (pun intended) not “House-trained”.

Then again, one must ask who the “people” are in the US of A?

Our owners, the Fab 500, think they are the “people”. “L’etat, c’est moi”. In 1865, we did not get rid of slavery — we expanded it to everybody, except the very rich. We are all black now.-

Changing your vote from one party to another is like deciding whether to wear the black shoes or the brown ones. White ones go only with white suits, which look awful with wine stains.

Neither the Democrats or the Republicans are going to deal with the issues that the public are really concerned about – housing, education, medical care, security and income.  

The public knows that.  They just want a government that doesn’t fuck things up too much for them. 

If you think that it really matters which party is in power, you are sadly mistaken.

“Issues” therefore are irrelevant to who gets elected to what. 

In elections, as in erections, everything gets down to personality, which is more a question of optics.  Kinda like a singles bar.

Who looks good? Hey! It aint love. It aint forever. It’s just a one night or one -term stand.

Forget P&P — Polls and Pundits. Pundits are medicine men. Polls are chants and burning herbs that smell up your tent.

P&P might be relevant if the US were a democracy.  But it’s not. 

An actual, working democracy would require a new constitution to replace the current kluge created in the 18th Century, a huge clockwork thing made up of gears and wheels and levers borrowed from other systems—Anglo Saxon and Native American. Naturally, this tick tock thing neither ticks nor tocks.

It doesn’t even have a transparent and fair electoral system.  As it stands, the US lags behind newer "autocratic regimes" such as Venezuela and Russia (proportional representation in the latter case).

“American” as the nation likes to call itself, despite being just a fraction of the continent, is arguably even less democratic than China, which, as a one-party state, is at least configured to represent human needs as the “People’s“ republic, ruled by what amounts to a Congress of a million members, each of whom has to pass a test to get in.

The only test American politicians pass is the knee-pad test. 

It’s who you know and who you blow.   

So it has come to be that what matters in US elections is how much money you can throw into 15 second ads, which appeal emotionally rather than intellectually.    Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. American “democracy” is to representation as prostitution is to love.

Voters vote for the person who looks best to them and gets them off temporarily.

“Forgive us Father for we have all sinned.”

“No, you don’t have to light a candle to the non-virgin Virgin, just pay your taxes and keep on wanking.”

Smart-ass, dumb-ass jokes aside, the average person is busy with a lot of things more important than any election where his vote is just one of many.

Work, family, recreation, and a good shit are more important than an eight hour wait at the polling station. Or even trying to figure out mail-in ballots.

The average American may have the attention span of a fruit fly, if not similar motivations but let us remember that fruit flies have a place in natural ecologies — and do what they must.

You will notice that YouTube ads allow you to skip in 4 or 5 seconds.  It’s because that's  your basic attention span – just that short a time.   Call it semi-subliminal.  Repeat a 4 second message a few times and it becomes “fact”.  Shall we say “factitious”?   

Does that make you stupid? No — it makes you practical and adaptive. In a state of nature, you need to be able to shift attention rapidly, lest that vine you’re about to step on turns out to be a snake. And you also need heuristics that handle situations often repeated.

No matter — because YOU don’t matter anymore.

As Craig Murray has recently written, the days are over when people go to rallies, and knock door to door to get support to make membership in a political party “relevant”. 

In fact, those who own political parties – the wealthy Few who can buy candidates’ success – don’t want memberships that are too large or too diverse in terms of opinion.  Yes, you’re a a shareholder. But your ten shares don’t amount much compared to Jeff Bezos’ millions.

Party “owners” want tighter control.

They are vampires. You are blood dolls or drudges.

In Florida, if you saw the debate between DiSantis and Crist, you would realize that Crist won handily.  But electorally he will probably lose--despite DiSantis's missteps and his inability to articulate anything like rational policy. 

Crist could be Christ and STILL lose.

He has less than a tenth the campaign funds of his opponent who is cleverly running ads -- not about issues -- but about what a nice guy he is.  Good husband and father, washes the dishes and trims his nose hair.    

The Democrats will try to demonize DiSantis but it won’t work as it does when the US satanizes foreign leaders such as Xi and Putin. Attacks on foreign leaders build on a long, semi-racist tradition which both parties agree on and a majority of the media so that the rightwing New York Post is in bed with”leftwing” WaPo.

Only the alternative media dissent – but, hey, they’re “alternative”, which means they are diverse and you have to therefore choose and think critically.

With the corporate media, they think for you. Your mind is like something you buy in the convenience store. It’s the packaging and the sugar.

Nationally, parties, of course, make efforts to denigrate the "other team”. That is necessary to prove their independence from each other.

Most of the media, CNN, MSNBC, NYT — all the acronyms support the Democrats as the Party of Reason and portray the Republicans as regressive.   

But there is pushback. The Republicans posture as the Party of Values (they love foetuses but would just as soon bin babies) have their own media and they project an image of the Democrats as “unrealistic”, out of touch with the “common man” (preferably rich, “common”) and so on.

Trump upset things.  He was once a Democrat. Then switched to the Republicans, although the they  were suspicious of him. He really has no party -his populism is half way between fascism and democracy, which is not a threat in a country that is subtly fascist but pretends to be democratic—but is not supposed to be so obvious.

In other words, Trump was a maverick embarrassment . We must either demonize him or just laugh him off. Neither really work. Because Trump IS the US of A naked.

Attempts at demonization, especially attempts to keep the Donald from running again, using the DoJ, the FBI and the January 6 FunDay show trials are just partisan and divisive. NOt only do they invite blowback, the also alienate people in the middle -- the "moderate majority" making a comeback for Trump more likely.

For registered Democrats, Trump is Evil, a "thug".  But registered Democrats are a minority. Just blood bags for their vampiric leaders.

 Trump's base on the other hand are to think "the Donald" is their Last Hope, if not a martyr to their cause.  Of course, they are also a minority.  But they are learning to vote by mail, which allows them to come out from the cracks.

People in the middle have other things to worry about than the Donald or Creepy Joe.  They are in the MIDDLE, right.   They can go either way. And Trump has money and backers. And the advantage of being an underdog, who just won’t quit.

Get an undecided voter to click “skip” on the ad after 5 seconds enough times and you can win him/her/ it over, especially if Trollish Trump is running against Slow Joe.

The Midterms are only partly about Joe and Donald of course.  They just set the stage. 

The drama itself (or is it comedy?) will be more about individual personalities – that is,  perceived personality . It takes money it takes shape that perception. Naturally different strokes for different folks and their different political erogenous zones. Costumes are important.  

Expect the Republicans to take the House. In the Senate, the Republicans have an edge – but a slight one.  It is still too close to call.  Else wise, the Republicans will strengthen in State elections.

It’s no-brainer. Internationally, don’t expect much to change. Sanctions will remain. The Ukraine war will go on. The Russians will win, which will save the Republicans from cutting media love-child and whore Zelensky/s allowance. China will keep on growing and developing with sudden breakthroughs in semiconductor technology which American business will want to cash in on. The Rich get richer. YOU get food stamps which don’t buy food.

Who is Julian Macfarlane?

Still trying to answer that question. I am a Tokyo-based journalist and media analyst. I make no money from these articles, but I need your support to keep going. Please subscribe, share, comment and spread the word. These articles are in the public interest: you may copy, quote or reprint in any form. I need your help as others on Substack do. Let’s all help each other. Then we might all survive.