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* Donald Trump. I thought the Democrats' endless yammering about "our democracy" and "fascism" was incredibly stupid, born of desperation, and would be ignored by voters. I was partly right: those themes were stupid, and they were born of desperation. But it turned out that they were not ineffective. To cite just one example, a young woman I know posted a photo of herself at the polls on Instagram, with the text, "I'm voting against fascism."
Contrary to what you might assume, she isn't an idiot. "Our democracy" and "fascism" were code for Donald Trump. At this point, Trump is a giant anvil around the neck of the Republican Party. In many areas, likely most, he is absolute poison. To be associated with Trump is to lose. Pretty much everything he has done in the last two years has been not just ill-advised but massively destructive to the Republican Party and to the United States. He has teased a "big announcement" in the next few days. I hope he announces that he is moving to Bulgaria.
An off-year election is normally a referendum on the president, which is why the out-party nearly always gains. When the Democrats tried to make this year's election a referendum on Donald Trump, I thought they were crazy. Trump is not an office-holder, nor was he on the ballot. How could that possibly work? Well, it did work, and Trump, with his inimitable bad judgment, collaborated fully with the Democrats in putting himself front and center, with disastrous results.
The major exception to last night's gloom was Florida, where Ron DeSantis and Marco Rubio both won crushing victories. Why was that? At least part of the explanation is that Florida was one state where the Democrats couldn't pretend Trump was on the ballot. Ron DeSantis was on the ballot.
