written 25 October, 2026
published 1 November, 2026
The midterm election is finally here. Many folks will have voted early, as we did two weeks ago, hand delivering to the drop box, ensuring minimal interference from the president. The full results won't be known for some time after the election. Until then, we wait.
While nobody can assure the outcome, I know what I want to have happen: total repudiation of everything the GOP currently seems to stand for. This president is a corrupt, crude, and incompetent bully, the worst in American history. He has enriched himself, while impoverishing all Americans as his random tariffs raise domestic costs. His foolish war of choice has impacted the entire planet. He has removed competent people throughout the government, replaced them with loyalist buffoons.
This is the culmination of a Republican long game, which has been building for decades. A marking point was the decision by the Republicans on the Supreme Court to give the 2000 election to Bush the Younger. The Court then allowed for unlimited cash in the election cycle, and gutted the Voting Rights Act, disenfranchising millions of voters. In a final mockery of democracy, the Court gave the president full immunity from everything. What could possibly go wrong?
Billionaires now have overt control over every aspect of our country: oligarchy, the end phase of capitalism. The government they bought gives them tax breaks, further enriching themselves, leaving no money for health care, food safety, schools, child care, food support, aid to the needy overseas, or much else (except the military), impoverishing all the rest of us. This is not democracy.
A case in point is Elon Musk. Funded by massive federal contracts, he is now a trillionaire. When questions arose about his financial rise to fame, the Justice department began investigations. Just in time, the current president put Musk in charge of "Department Of Government Efficiency", which fired everyone investigating Musk, closing whole departments as it destroyed the government. No efficiency emerged, but Musk keeps getting richer and more powerful.
Musk recently shut off essential military communications in Ukraine, unilaterally setting foreign policy. He has ended his Falcon 9 rocket program, unilaterally threatening essential Pentagon satellite launches. In the 2026 midterms, Musk is the largest donor at $366M, representing 0.0003 part of his wealth.
This kind of political and economic corruption at the top is corrosive, trickling down everywhere. A recent local example is the glossy hit piece sent to voters in Ukiah, accusing the three City Council incumbents of a significant self-serving pay increase, while raising utilities rates for everyone, urging a NO vote, paid for by Rescue California Coalition.
The Mendocino Voice reported the Rescue California Coalition, an Escondido based political action group, received a $5,000 donation from Ukiah businessman, who is ineligible to vote in Council election, but is a vocal member of Mendo Matters, a business group promoting a trio of City Council challengers.
All the candidates had signed pledge to limit expenses to $2,000, but unaffiliated, dark money spending is unregulated, thanks to the Republican Supreme Court. Although the hit piece donation was legal, the mailer lacked integrity or honesty, hiding the source of funds and distorting the details.
The pay increase, the first in 20 years, was unanimous, raising the Council members wages to a fraction of the current minimum wage. The utility rate increases, all made during public meetings, were mostly modest, in keeping with the inflation rate. However, integrity and truth don't matter anymore, only smears and innuendo, in this MAGA infected era.
But I believe, despite apparent partisan divides, most people are honest. Almost everyone realizes that few of us are billionaires, and the government serves real needs for the entire community. The egos of the rich, rooted in the illusion of separation and greed, are not good guidance for a healthy society or economy.
Reality is whole, and we are all in this together, which means war is suicide, made clearer every day with the Iran war. What is true for wars between nations is also true of the unbridled consumptive war on our living planet. Every day the climate impact is forcing itself into the news feed, despite presidential denial and distractions. While there are minimums of material goods essential for health and well-being, stuff can't make us happy. It is an illness to keep craving more, without any awareness of what is sufficient for the moment.
The tide is turning, and I have hope for this election.
