More than a year and three months from now — a political lifetime in the rapid-fire, 24/7 modern news cycle — voters will hit the booth for midterm elections, at which time the House and possibly (not likely) the Senate will be up for grabs.
(I considered when I began contemplating this topic a few weeks ago that I should probably hurry up and get it out as soon as possible for the sake of timeliness, then concluded it didn’t matter whether it saw the light of day a year and a half out from the elections, a year out, or six months out; the soundness holds.)
Midterms?
To paraphrase Allen Iverson’s infamous “we talkin’ about practice” rant from back in the day: We talkin’ bout midterms?
It seems that, in the current frenetic news cycle, on Jan. 20, the day after a new president and/or a new Congress assumes office, the media’s focus, in its never-ending quest to avoid covering anything that actually matters, immediately pivots to the next election two years on the horizon.
The most recent round of coverage concerns the administration’s undeniably disastrous handling of the Epstein files — the elusive ones that were once on Pam Bondi’s desk and then didn’t exist at all and are now, having presumably been found in a supply closet, reportedly being vetted for release by the same Pam Bondi — which might impact the midterm vote.
Related: AG Pam Bondi: Still-Unreleased Epstein Files to Be Redacted for ‘National Security’
Via The Washington Post (emphasis added):
At a gathering of some of President Donald Trump’s most devout supporters — young conservatives spending a summer weekend strategizing on how to further the MAGA movement — a cloud hung over the convention center…
The concerns raised at the conference followed days of conservative foment that continued to build over the weekend, fueling anxiety among Trump allies that conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein, widely promoted by Trump and administration officials before they took office, will continue to haunt them.
“This could actually cost Trump in the midterms,” conservative podcaster and former Fox News host Megyn Kelly said, as she spent more than half an hour railing against Bondi. “We can’t lose any of the MAGA base.”…
Former senior White House adviser Stephen K. Bannon, taping his daily podcast from a small stage in the convention center Friday morning, was even more alarmed.
“It’s deeper than Epstein!” Bannon shouted as a crowd gathered around him.
The administration’s refusal to release more on the investigation and Epstein’s potential ties to power, as it had once promised to do, is “not about just a pedophile ring and all that,” he said. “It’s about who governs us.”
“For this to go away,” a fired-up Bannon continued, telling his producers they would have to blow through the scheduled commercial break, “you’re going to lose 10 percent of the MAGA movement. If we lose 10 percent of the MAGA movement right now, we’re going to lose 40 seats in ’26, we’re going to lose the presidency. They don’t even have to steal it.”
All corners of the pundit-sphere are inundated with the narrative: “if X does/doesn’t happen, Republicans might lose the midterms.”
Europe just cut interest rates for the 8th time to just 2%.
— Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) June 9, 2025
Meanwhile, the Fed keeps rates at 4.3% — one of the highest rates in 25 years.
The Fed is sabotaging Trump -- and the economy.
And could hand the Midterms to Democrats. pic.twitter.com/dNkftuCvHP
“If they usurp power, Trump’s agenda is cooked.”
— Tim Pool (@Timcast) July 22, 2025
If Democrats are allowed to weaponize the Epstein case to sway the midterms, we the people will never win again. pic.twitter.com/0JfEEhlwoA
If Trump doesn't indict Comey, Brennan, and Clapper there is a good chance that we could lose the midterms. pic.twitter.com/24BOzTgAXW
— Richard Reeves 🇺🇸 (@rreeves5) July 22, 2025
Related: Outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis: I Don’t Deal With Trump’s ‘[Expletive]’
First of all, how about just advocating a policy agenda for its own sake, on its own merits — because it’s the right moral thing to do in the interest of good governance — and let the rest sort itself out?
Second, however, if politics is merely a blood sport to achieve victory for one team, rendering it no more meaningful than a football game, as so many partisans apparently believe it to be, here’s a novel idea to drive out the vote in the midterms and get the win:
GIVE THE ELECTORATE SOMETHING TO VOTE FOR. DELIVER RESULTS THAT MAKE THEIR LIVES BETTER. THEN TELL THEM WHAT YOU DID AND PROMISE GOOD STUFF IN THE FUTURE.
Deliver, tell the people how you delivered, and don’t sound like a used car salesman while you do it.
There.
I just saved millions of dollars in consultant fees.
Of course, though, the consulting fees aren’t expenses; they’re a feature of the party structure.
Here’s the dirty reality: Unlike football coaches, consultants get paid whether they win or lose. No consultant is ever punished for his failure. In fact, fundraising often increases when the opposition assumes power and the base is mobilized.
And the same goes for media.
Human-potato hybrid Brian Stelter, via the Streisand Effect, inadvertently revealed the truth back in Trump 45 when he got laughed out of a room full of his fellow legacy media hacks when he tried to make the case that his bosses at CNN didn’t actually care that their ratings had exploded under Trump and all of their #Resistance nonsense.
“Everybody here keeps talking about ideology and politics. Money. Money. Money. Donald Trump has been very, very good for baseball. He has been wonderful for the industry,” Ted Koppel accurately assessed. “You can’t do without Donald Trump.”
“We might be up 20%, we might be up 30, we might be up 40%. If we go back down 40%, that’s okay,” Stelter pleaded.
A cacophony of derision ensued.
It’s a dirty game, folks.
Why should any voter care about the midterms until policy action no longer takes a backseat to the grifting racket that is Washington, D.C.?
This is a broken political system beyond all reason.
What happened to #Draintheswamp?
I liked the 2016 Trump who hammered the issue relentlessly.
Bring it back, please.
