CenterlineRight: Understand Precisely Who is “NOT” on the Ballot

Tuesday, November 3, 2026 will be Election Day in America. Early voting in various forms has already commenced in several places and experience has taught us that all will not be settled with the passage of November 3. But at some point shortly thereafter, we will have a newly-elected House for the next two years and one-third of our Senate will be starting on their new 6-year terms. It is fair to say that at this point in time, the partisan control of both bodies is up for grabs.

It may come as a shock to many who only get their news in sound bites from the mainstream outlets, but Donald J. Trump is not on the ballot this year. His term as President will end at 12:00 PM ET on January 20, 2029. While the question of which national party will control the House and Senate for the next upcoming terms is certainly relevant, the reality is that barring the extraordinary outcome of either party gaining a super majority in Congress this November, Congress will be a subordinate player in the political fortune of our nation for 2027 and 2028.

The Democrat Party has sold its soul to the Liberal Progressive Left and is bereft of any character or common sense these days. Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) is deeply imbedded in their bones and it has consumed them with hatred and spite for all things Trump or Republican. Should they gain House control, three things will surely happen. First: Trump will be impeached…perhaps multiple times…with no conviction following in the Senate. Two: No meaningful legislation will occur due to the unlikelihood of Senate approval and the certainty of a Trump veto on Democrat initiatives. Three: Pure and unadulterated chaos will be the daily environment as the Democrat Party leaders battle not only Trump and the Republicans, but also the entrenched factions within their own Party. It will be a daily regimen of Trump Administration investigations and inter/intra-Party drama.

Should the Democrat Party also gain control of the Senate, there will not likely be confirmation of any Supreme Court Justice nominees that Trump might send their way. In fact, essentially all Trump appointee approvals will come to a screeching halt. With control of both Legislative bodies, the Democrats will repeatedly attempt workarounds to foist their partisan will on the Trump Administration…but it will be for naught. The Constitutional reality of power balance will essentially lead to a legislative…and operational…paralysis and stalemate. Should the Republicans hold Senate control, they will continue to approve most…but not all…Trump nominees. However, in addition to serving as a legislative firewall to the foolish product that will be churned out by the Democrat House, they will begin to distance themselves from their lame duck president and focus their Republican Party energies on the upcoming 2028 national elections.

It is regrettable that our national political parties have devolved down to their current states. The Democrats are bankrupted in a policy and moral sense. They have lost all sight of reason and common sense and are simply driven by their quest for power. The Republicans…those not hired by or essentially owned by Trump…have given up on Trump and are simply biding their time to first see how this year’s elections turn out, and then decide how they individually and collectively might improve their chances in the 2028 elections. Much like the Democrats, their primary objective is staying in power and maintaining control.

I have written many times on this site about term limits and the proposal of giving our president a single, six-year term. I deeply wish that this system had been in place for Donald Trump’s first term. I have grown so freaking weary of hearing Trump bloviate about this or that or everything in general. He has finally worn my last conservative nerve plumb in two. Donald Trump was the medicine this nation needed after eight dismal years of Barack Hussein Obama. We were a sick nation and the severity of our illness required a strong antidote. His unique combination of unconventional political leadership and damn the torpedoes management style was probably what was required to jar this nation out the complacency and bewilderment cast upon it by two Obama terms.

But once that fundamental shift was made and a new direction was established, America might very well have been better off with someone other than Trump in the White House. Of course, I am talking about someone other than Joe Biden. Six years would have been just about right for him to have completed his first-term policy initiatives. I say this because as we approach the end of his sixth year as president…I am convinced that his shelf life has expired. Donald Trump has not matured or grown in his service as president. He has become more arrogant, more conceited, more stubborn, more autocratic, more bombastic, and much more difficult to tolerate.

Presented with the unlikely and generous opportunity to serve a second, non-consecutive term as president and complete his policy agenda, he has instead focused evermore inwardly and much as his irrational opponents who are consumed with TDS, he is obsessed with himself. He long ago abandoned any allegiance to his political party, refusing to subjugate himself to any organization. He made the fundamental decision that he would use the Republicans as useful idiots when it served his purpose and toss them away…most times in an unceremonious fashion…when they were not subservient or useful. He hoisted himself on his own petard and all else be damned. The fact that this ascension path of his ego is nearing its zenith is confirmed by the bald-faced stupidity of his most recent rhetoric...case in point: https://nypost.com/2026/10/11/us-news/president-trump-toys-with-renaming-atlantic-and-pacific-trump-ocean/ . In the midst of a mid-term election battle with historically-high stakes, the degree of his self-unawareness and cluelessness is stunning.

Oblivious to how his actions over the last two years might affect the political fortunes of his own party and, logically proceeding, the quality of living standards in America…he has conducted the Iran Conflict as if it were his own personal board game. He did the right thing, but got lost in doing it his way. He did the same thing with his personal tariff crusades that have worn thin with the public over time. His cavalier rhetoric, actions, and attitude have severely hamstrung his Republican Party and greatly diminished its political future. There is no doubt in my mind that Trump is totally consumed not with the future of America and its need for sound and effective policies, but rather with the whims and wishes of his own devilish id, ego, and superego.

For a conservative Independent that is not enthralled with all things Trump, I want to cry to the heavens…Wake up America! Trump is not on the ballot. You cannot give control of our government back to the Democrats. But this is an impossible task. It is spitting into the wind. It is seeking a dry spot in a hurricane. I steadfastly believe that it would be a monumental mistake for our nation to cede control of either legislative body to the Democrat Party. And while I hold out hope that perhaps a moderate Democrat will emerge from the wings and seize the party’s 2028 presidential nomination, I have little anticipation that the Democrat Party will offer up a presidential choice anywhere near the quality of someone like Marco Rubio or Ron DeSantis. But these concerns of mine are not shared by Donald Trump.

He is laser-focused on shaping his legacy over the next 26 months in a way that will somehow place his visage on Mount Rushmore. If the Republican Party’s superior…not perfect, but preferred…policy agenda is to continue into the foreseeable future and our nation is to avoid relapsing into the malaise of Obama/Biden/Liberal Progressive Madness…then voters must somehow figure out a way to tune out Donald Trump and focus on how they want our country to evolve.

Donald Trump is not on the ballot this fall.

He will be gone in January of 2029. We are not electing a President this November. Presidents come and go and their Executive Orders are implemented and overturned; but if we as voters create the possibility of a Democrat Party Liberal/Progressive government occupying both Congress and the White House…we run a very real risk of losing our way, our Constitution, and our very soul as a nation.

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Politics and the Mid-Terms…

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fec-midterm-elections-quorum-campaign-finance-rules/

https://thefederalist.com/2026/10/07/heres-every-major-2026-ballot-initiative-you-need-to-know-about/

https://amgreatness.com/2026/10/07/steve-hiltons-hail-mary-in-democrat-dominated-california/

https://reason.com/2026/10/09/the-midterm-winner-will-be-whichever-party-americans-hate-less/

Be very careful about what you vote for…

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-rise-of-dumb-anti-innovation-job-saving-laws-in-blue-cities-and-states/

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/texas-senate-candidate-talaricos-public-platform-disguises-radical-ideology-and

https://thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/6138825-smith-no-kings-shirt/

Foreign Policy and National Defense…

https://amgreatness.com/2026/10/10/what-does-the-world-owe-the-pax-americana/