Update: On the evening of 11/12/2022 the Dems squeaked out enough votes to retain the majority position in the US Senate with 50 seats with the runoff senate seat in Georgia to be held on December 6.  The US House majority party is still too close to call. As per a NYT article, “Every election denier who sought to become the top election official in a critical battleground state lost at the polls.”

Still, for the next 2 years, our US democracy will continue to be in serious jeopardy and those who love the gift of this democracy will have to be vigilant in defending it.

See: Voters Reject Election Deniers Running to Take Over …https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/12

Post the 2022 US elections, GOP MAGA political pundits have been suffering from PTSD as they lost ground for the 3rd election cycle in a row. The predicted “red wave” fizzled, bigtime. Democratic Party candidates overperformed in this midterm election when the party not in the White House normally picks up seats and despite the prevailing winds being against them, like inflation, an unstable economy, rising violent crimes rates, an unpopular sitting president, etc. They lost despite the GOP establishment resorting to every trick in the book such as the GOP dark money donors/ billionaires donating incognito, huge sums to GOP MAGA campaigns, extreme partisan map redistricting, enacting more stringent voting laws, the use of intimidation at the voting poll facilities, etc.

As per an analysis by The New York Times, the partisan redistricting/ gerrymandering of congressional maps after the 2020 census, automatically flipped 5 US House seats from blue to red.

Still, the American voters had the final say. With a loud and clear message, they’ve said, “no way” are GOP MAGAs going cake walk the taking down of their US democracy.

All those GOP MAGA ALEC type dark money corporate donors are delusional if they think that it’ll be an easy gas-lighting process to wage a financial and media campaign to replace the defeated ex-president with a more palatable candidate, like the GOP MAGA Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. There’s no way, that the GOP MAGA ex-president will go quietly into that good night which will become obvious when he announces the commencement of his 2024 presidential bid on November 15, 2022.

This is because GOP MAGA followers of the defeated ex-president have bought into the world of Trumpism, hook line and sinker.  Prior to 2016, most of them didn’t participate in the political system and they didn’t vote. Thus, GOP MAGA voters won’t be easily persuaded to break ties with the leader they’ve come to identify as their champion, voice and hero. To keep these GOP MAGA voters casting their ballots for GOP candidates, they’ll have to be enticed by Trump substitutes who’re willing to deal in “Trumpism,” like taking on the libs, disseminating crazed conspiracy theories, dehumanizing those with opposing policies, inciting violence, lawlessness and chaos. As long as the Republican Party continues to prop up Trumpism within its ranks with or without the ex-president in charge, then most of its candidates exhibiting these behaviors, will continue to lose the majority of votes during elections.

As per 11/10/2022 Atlantic article, “The GOP Is More MAGA Than Ever,” by Paul Wehner:“This (2022 elections) may prove the best midterm performance by the sitting president’s party since 2002,” my colleague David A. Graham wrote.

Part of the reason was the Dobbs decision, which elevated abortion as an issue and energized abortion-rights voters. The New York Times’ Ezra Klein speculated that “negative polarization” helped Democrats; the fear of Republicans prevented the governing party’s normal turnout decline from happening. Preliminary data indicate that he’s correct. The Democratic base showed up, and its coalition held together quite well. Democrats did better among independents than did Republicans. Because of gerrymandering, fewer seats were in play than in the past. And politically, America is fiercely divided. Neither party can dominate the other.

“But the main reason Democrats did well is Donald Trump.”

That the Republican Party has become entrenched in Trumpism is not debatable. This is true whether or not, the defeated ex-president is in charge. Replacing the ex-president with a more polished leader doesn’t change this reality.  Most Americans are now rejecting Trumpism is all its variations.

During the 2022 US election cycle, GOP MAGA elected politicians have come face to face with the future, proving that Americans will stand in the breach to protect our US democracy from devolving into an autocracy. Most US citizens aren’t okay with Trumpism where basic rights are up for grabs; where the truth has no meaning; where the mainstream media outlets holding accountable those in power, are unfairly maligned; where peaceful protesters would be subject to retaliation by police and / or the military; where fair play, following norms, the “rule of law,” is for losers; where those who lose an election, fair and square, can claim fraud, demand multiple recounts, file frivolous lawsuits, incite violence; where getting even with political opponents is a primary endeavor; where spouting hateful rhetoric against minority communities leading to an increase in hate crimes is tolerated and even, encouraged; where science and facts are to be ignored if either gets in the way of achieving their goals; where GOP MAGA politicians exhibit a relentless focus on culture war divisive issues designed to cater to White Evangelical Christians’ sensibilities;  where doing the people’s business ends up in power plays with threats to shut down government, etc., if they don’t get whatever.

The chaotic environment associated with Trumpism sets the groundwork for a fascist autocracy to take hold, where leaders can claim that they have all the answers, that only they can bring order in the midst of disorder, where they can demand absolute loyalty, where political opponents and media critics are jailed, where peaceful protests are verboten, and where the “rule of law” is for suckers.

GOP MAGA corporate dark money donors may want to reconsider spending billions of dollars on GOP MAGA politicians, just to keep losing. Looking for an alternative to the ex-president, while keeping his MAGA voters is a fool’s errand. Simply put, zeroing in on Florida’s Governor DeSantis or anyone else to take on this role as the new “Trumpist in chief” won’t deliver enough elected lawmakers to push forward their big business agendas of lowering taxes on corporations, the ending of government oversight agencies, the elimination of social safety net programs like social security and Medicare, etc. They would prefer an autocracy style of governing instead of our US democracy, as that would make their very unpopular goals more attainable. But the American peoples aren’t buying it.

See: The GOP Is More MAGA Than Ever – The Atlantic

See: The Trump Apocalypse Has Not Been Canceled – The Atlantic …

So, all those GOP MAGA candidates like the Florida Governor Ron DeSantis crowing over their 2022 election wins, please know that in the future, running to be a GOP MAGA president for all US citizens will no longer be a winning strategy as most Americans don’t want to be governed in the same way that’s currently a winning proposition in Florida, Texas, and some other southern states.

As the glass-jawed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis continues to court GOP MAGA folks with Trumpism like shenanigans as he’s been doing in Florida, he’ll lose in a national election. No, he isn’t God and videos taking on this aura will be a turn off.

As per the 11/7/2022 Peoples article, “Ron DeSantis’ Campaign Ad Says He Was Sent by God to ‘Take the Arrows” by Amy Eskind:

“Ron DeSantis appears in a new campaign ad in which the Florida governor, a Republican, is described as being sent by God.”

“The ad that piqued the former president has raised a fair amount of controversy. Mimicking a 2013 Super Bowl ad for Ram trucks, “So God Made a Farmer” — which was inspired by a 1978 speech by the late Paul Harvey — the ad for DeSantis says that on the “eighth day” of creation, God needed a “protector,” so God “made a fighter.” That fighter, the ad suggests, is none other than the Florida governor.”

“It continues, “God said, ‘I need somebody who will take the arrows, stand firm in the wake of unrelenting attacks, look a mother in the eyes and tell her that her child will be in school…'” The ad never says DeSantis’ name out loud but includes a montage of his public and private life.”

In summary, the GOP MAGA Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will end up losing on the national stage if he continues to be an election denier, following in the footsteps of the defeated ex-president.

See: Ron DeSantis follows in Donald Trump’s authoritarian footsteps…https://www.msnbc.com/opinion

Note: This blog was updated on November 13, 2022.