The chess match between Trump and Putin continues; the Fed hints at a rate cut; Texas redraws their district lines; and the military is gearing up for police work. Our world just keeps on spinning.
Here
in Kentucky, life is good. Everything we
buy just keeps getting more expensive, but I am selling calves at the highest
price ever. The weather has backed down
from the mid-90s with thick humidity to the mid-to-high eighties and cool
breezes. We are mighty dry, but it
always seems to rain one day before it’s too late and pasture/crops do not yet
appear to be suffering much. But…it had better rain soon.
I’ve
been seeing more deer and turkey this spring and early summer than normal; that
should bode well for the upcoming hunting seasons. Our lakes are back to summer pool levels following
our spring floods and lake traffic, both fishing and pleasure, seem to be
picking up a bit. We just might be
lining up for a big-time Labor Day weekend.
Here in my small-town community, we are going through a major traffic
change where conventional intersections with traffic lights are being selectively
replaced by roundabouts. At first blush,
I was reluctant to endorse this change…but after having seen them in action, I
believe the state transportation department knows what they’re doing. They work pretty well. Old heads can
adapt to new ideas.
As
both national political parties begin to seriously engage in their mid-term
election posturing, the news reports seem to have taken on a rather dull and
repetitive tone. It is so predictable: Trump is full of blustering rhetoric and the
Democrats are opposed to anything associated with Trump. To me, the penultimate political question in
play is the speculation about the 2026 mid-terms. Here in Kentucky, we will be electing a U.S.
Senator to replace Mitch McConnell. That
race is shaping up to be an expensive proposition with two known candidates and
one outsider on the Republican side and the door still open for a Democrat
candidate to walk through. To me, the
far bigger issue is the outcome of the upcoming House races. I do believe Trump will be after Kentucky
Republican Representative Thomas Massie’s scalp next year. Another point of interest for me is the
mainstream media’s continuing fascination with our sitting governor’s prospects
in the next presidential election. Andy
Beshear is a horse’s ass and he resides in our state mansion due largely to his
daddy and the incompetence of the state Republican Party, not because of any
redeeming qualities he might possess. The
media folks need to do some homework.
But
Kentucky is small stuff compared to the bigger picture. If Donald Trump is going to continue his
momentum towards accomplishing his agenda, it is absolutely critical that the
Republicans maintain control not only of the Senate…which appears to be a fairly safe bet at this point, but also
of the House…which is not a safe bet
at all. If we consider two things, it
becomes rather obvious how important Congressional control is for Trump. First off, just look at the trouble the
Democrats and their progressive allies in the courts, academia, and the media
have managed to stir up thus far notwithstanding their minority positions. Imagine what they will do if they are in
control of the House. It will no doubt
be a replay of the constant “Get Trump
Any Way You Can” efforts that were so prevalent in his first term. With House control, the Democrats should have
no trouble not only attacking Trump on all sides, but also bringing any
semblance of federal legislating to a screeching halt.
Secondly,
if Republicans can maintain Congressional control, they stand a decent chance
of setting up fairly good prospects for Trump’s successor. That would mean a continuation, by and large,
of Trump’s policies and priorities for another
four-to-eight years. That would
certainly be sufficient time to change the landscape of American politics and
shift the fundamental advantage back to the Republican side. This continuation of the Trump doctrines
would also just precede the upcoming 2030 census, which should favor the
Republican Party in a big way. All
things considered…a good 2026 mid-term for the Republicans could set the stage for long-term control of our federal government
by their party.
Now
this all assumes, of course, that the Trump policies are effective and we find
our nation at peace with a good economy.
Any way you look at it, there is a better chance of that with a
Republican majority in Congress than we’d have with a divided government over
Trump’s last two years in office. But there
is something about the current political climate that puzzles me and I cannot
draw a bead on it. With the Democrat
Party on as low a limb as I’ve seen them in decades, you would think that
national party identification would be dramatically in favor of the Republican
Party. It is not. Yes…there are many signs that it is moving in that direction; but it’s not
there yet. As crazy as the Democrats
have become in their actions, ideas, and priorities…you would think that the
Republicans, or any alternative for that
matter, would be light years ahead on favorability polling. That does not seem to be the case.
Whether
it’s Trump Derangement Syndrome, a much larger slice of the voting public
identifying as more progressive than we might think, or simply people lying to
pollsters…the party identification and favorability numbers that I read still
support the fact that politically, we remain a much divided nation. Hardcore numbers for each party seem to
reside in the 40-45 percent range while the Independents and moderates fill in
the gap between. I have to pose the
questions: Are there really that many crazy people out there who truly support
the Democrats these days? Do the urban
pockets of Democrat strength pose sufficient size to offset the rural tilt
towards the Republicans? My common sense
tells me that there is no way under heaven that 45 percent of voters would
support what we are seeing from the Democrat Party these days; but the numbers do
not appear to support that notion. If
this is true, then the upcoming mid-term elections for House control are surely
up in the air. We must always remember
that House races are localized to a county or a small group of counties; they
are not statewide and they are typically not nationalized.
As
rapidly as Donald Trump has managed to reverse the terrible direction our
nation was taking in so many ways, all of that progress…and promise…could come to an abrupt halt if the Democrats take back
control of the House in 2026. There are many
“shiny object” balls being juggled at
this time, but the one we should keep our eyes on is the one labeled “2026 Mid-Terms”.
Consider,
if you will, some of the situations we find ourselves in as we approach the
mid-term elections…
https://amgreatness.com/2025/08/18/inflation-economy-memo-to-washington-republicans/
https://reason.com/2025/08/22/few-americans-trust-the-federal-government/
https://amgreatness.com/2025/08/23/gaza-part-two-the-global-political-fallout/
https://www.newsmax.com/newsmax-tv/fred-fleitz-russia-ukraine/2025/08/24/id/1223720/
By
the time November rolls around in 2026, will voters remember the realities of
the Biden Administration or will they be caught up in the madness of “no holds
barred electioneering”? Will common
sense and reason prevail at the ballot box or will voters revert to those
stubborn “party identification” numbers I referenced earlier? Given the desperation level we have witnessed
from the Democrats over the last six months and the incredible advancements in
AI and its possible applications towards political campaigns, we are surely
heading towards a national election season like none we have witnessed
before.
https://amgreatness.com/2025/08/25/what-made-the-democratic-party-go-crazy/
https://amgreatness.com/2025/08/21/what-is-the-democrat-alternative-to-trump/
