On January 20, 2025, we will swear in a convicted felon.
—Jonathan Last, The Bulwark
It's still bracing to read, still hard to absorb, and hardest of all, to accept. Last's quote is followed by mention of the many other obscenities of a D.J. Trump in the White House, his seditionist acts, his blasting of norms, etc. — we know it all by heart.
In short, it's depressing as hell. And some, many or most Democrats are heaving defeat onto their shoulders and thus beating themselves up over the hell about to re-stumble its way into the Oval Office. Nearly as bad is that satanic Don will have both chambers of Congress behind him, or rather, in his pocket.
But here's a little picker-upper for Democrats everywhere.
Yesterday I brought up the presidential election of 1964. You want to talk defeat? Last Tuesday was a popgun going off compared to the explosive magnitude in which Democrat LBJ blew away Republican Goldwater. He did so by a margin of 434 Electoral Votes. (Trump's margin was 86.)
That was but part of the GOP's post-election blues. Democrats picked up well more than 30 House seats (I forget the precise number and I'm too hurried to check) and a couple more in the Senate, enough to give them a supermajority in the upper chamber. From the most obscure, backwater seat in the lower chamber to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., 1964 was a blowout for Democrats.
For Republicans, their defeat was so severe, newspaper columns (voters still read such things back then) speculated that the Grand Old Party might not never recover. This could be the end, they wrote, curtains for the party of Lincoln. Seriously. After a beating like that, the party's future seemed impossibly bleak.
Flash forward two years. Just two years. The Dems lost nearly 50 House seats and three more in the Senate. And two years after that, the United States of America was blessed by the reigning (and ultimately resigning) presence of President Richard M. Nixon.
History can be vicious — especially to the victors. And victories can be damn short.
It is well for Democrats today to keep that in mind. It ain't over till it's over, and unless You-know-who does God-knows-what and kills off the U.S. of A., it sure as hell ain't over.