Radio Free America: Voters rebelled against impunity
Was the mandate from the midterm to lower costs? Yes, kinda. But a wave that large is about something bigger, writes Aaron Kleinman. It’s about the American people seeing how destroying the constitutional order leads to chaos in their own lives. Democrats really have a mandate to crack down on right-wing impunity.
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When your ass gets kicked so bad that White House aides start posting like they’re Yukio Mishima, there’s gotta be a big reason for it. Campaign tactics, political strategy, don’t bore me with that stuff. The American people stood athwart Republicans yelling “shut the fuck up,” and it’s not because of the ads. Instead, the big reason why the country turned on them is that for too long they’ve been acting with impunity.
It’s hard to figure out the exact start of the impunity era. Was it Newt Gingrich becoming speaker? Roger Ailes taking over at Fox News? The Supreme Court deciding the 2000 election for George W. Bush? Barack Obama not going after the big banks or war criminals? In any event, Republicans constantly pushed the limits of what was acceptable within a liberal democracy.
This push coincided with the decline of American civic institutions, rise of high-speed internet, gutting of local journalism outlets and rise of algorithmic feeds telling users exactly what they wanted to hear. Republicans took advantage of it, making it toxic for their base to vote for any Democrat and allowing them to get away with rampant extremism and corruption with impunity.
And for the past decade, Donald Trump has pushed the bounds of impunity with his staggering record of lawbreaking. As long as he could capitalize on his ability to whip a plurality of voters into a frenzy against Democrats across a critical core of states, he could wield power as he saw fit. And as a man who never felt a duty to anyone other than himself, he quickly fell in the thrall of Carl Schmitt thought — that any political actor not aligned with him was invalid. And owing to the Supreme Court’s 2024 decision in Trump v. United States, he can’t be held criminally liable for anything he does.
And voters were fine with it because of Trump’s decades of playing a successful businessman on TV and relatively prosperous first term in office. But functioning markets require stability. As Franklin Delano Roosevelt showed, the government can play a big role in providing that stability through generous social welfare programs and tight regulations. But when it engages in a form of personalist and vindictive rule like Trump, shielded from consequences by the Supreme Court, then it all comes off the rails.
Trump has spent his entire second term rattling markets with his arbitrary and capricious moves. He started with DOGE, which eliminated a number of critical government positions that the private sector relied on. He then singlehandedly implemented tariffs without congressional approval, causing prices to spike further. His fascist and unconstitutional anti-immigrant raids weren’t just a moral abomination; they led to labor shortages in critical industries. And finally, the war against Iran, never sold to the public or authorized by Congress, caused gas prices to spike and his approval ratings to truly tank. How are prices going to be stable if that’s how the country’s run?
So while yes, voters were mad about high prices, they were also mad about the impunity that led to it. They were mad at the spiteful tech giants who could plop down data centers wherever they want, driving up costs for everyone in the process. They were mad at the congressmen who traded stocks while serving in office, making money while passing bills that didn’t help their districts. They were mad that the surest way to make money these days seems to be the ability to wheedle a government contract over gray prime rib at Mar-a-Lago.
And the Democratic Party needs to come up with a political platform that meets this moment if they want to retain its mandate. It can be hard to lower prices through social welfare spending (especially with borrowing costs going up), which neutralizes their favorite policy lever.
But by going after right-wing impunity, by enforcing the rule of law (and by ensuring that the courts will do so as well), by really cracking down on corruption, you can show Americans that you’re working to make the markets function like they’re supposed to and lower the cost of everyday items. Make it so the market can trust the government again.
Once again, “The End of History” author Francis Fukuyama has been vindicated. Liberal democracy is resilient, but it won’t defend itself from people who need something to struggle against. We’re lucky that the current attempt at fascist consolidation has failed, but the conditions for another one still exist. We need to make the aspiring Trumps filling the Republican staffer ranks realize that there are consequences to violating our constitutional order as grossly as their boss has. Thankfully, the voters have given us a mandate to end the age of impunity.
AROUND AMERICA
- Thanks to the thousands of you who watched our Data Not Discourse stream on Tuesday night. If you like that analysis, then good news: I’ll be starting our “What Happened” series next week by going in depth on the midterm election results in all 50 states. Though I’m guessing the Wyoming entry will be shorter than the Michigan one.
- Virginia Foxx of North Carolina looks like she might have lost what legislative Republicans thought would be a safe seat for her when they gerrymandered the state. Sending letters to 10-year-olds saying they’re brainwashed if they support electric cars might’ve cost her some votes!
- Florida was the Republican bright spot by default, as they didn’t lose as many seats there as elsewhere. But at least our old friend Fabián Basabe lost by 8%.
- Congrats to friend of Radio Free America Justin McIsaac for flipping a New Hampshire House district. The people have spoken, and they love Spandex!
- Mylie Biggs, daughter of losing Arizona gubernatorial nominee Andy Biggs, said that she didn’t think women should hold public office. Then, she ran for what was supposed to be a safe Republican state Senate seat anyway. Well, the voters appear to think that one woman in particular shouldn’t hold public office, as she currently trails her Democratic opponent by 1,800 votes as counting continues.
- Republicans actually avoided more losses by not passing a Trump-encouraged gerrymander of the state, as Democrats might have flipped the entire delegation under the proposed lines that sliced Indianapolis up like a pizza.
INTERNET STUFF I LIKED THIS WEEK
So this is where I unfortunately have to note that I went to college with Haley Stevens and donated to her (even hosting a fundraiser for her!) when she first ran for Congress in 2018. We fell out of touch after she won (she didn’t need my broke-ass friends anymore once she was in the House), but I guess it should’ve been a red flag that after she won the election for student body president she quit to study abroad at Oxford?
I don’t have anything to add to what others have said about her actions over the last week other than I think everyone can tell they were done out of narcissism and not principle. Which is why I’m glad that Bluesky user Airplane Ian made me this graphic. And if you don’t get the reference, watch “Detroiters” already!
BOOK CLUB
“Redwood” by Ben MacIntire is a Le Carré novel come to life, exposing the deep, inane bureaucracy at the heart of the KGB and turning Vladimir Kuzichkin’s defection from it into a thrilling chase. You won’t be able to put it down when he finally makes a break for the U.K.
It also gets into deeper ideas about how oppressive life under an authoritarian regime can be, and how that can cause us all to break. Combine that with the great results over the past week, and it’s once again time to listen to Nemik’s manifesto.
HELP US OUT
I’ve got a problem. Democrats won so many elections that I’m having a tough time keeping track of all the Republicans who deserved to lose. Who’s the right-winger in your area whose humiliation deserves greater attention? I’ll try to list the best ones next week. Email me and let me know!
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