I now look like an alarmist. I assumed everything done by the Trump administration prior to the midterm elections was designed to swing the election towards MAGA. For that, I don’t apologize. It definitely was. However, I routinely assured readers that the weird shit being done by the administration was just laying the groundwork for post-election fuckery. That fuckery has largely failed to materialize. Mea culpa, etc.

The Democratic Party flipped both the House and Senate and scored other wins in deeply red states, seemingly evidence of voters just being sick and tired of Trump’s bullshit. Trump’s bullshit, however, was generally tied to efforts designed to dismantle everything that makes democracy special, as well as the systems of checks and balances meant to ensure that even the dumbest of aspiring autocrats couldn’t turn the USA into the USSR between election cycles.

The Trump administration is waving the white flag. Not only did Trump’s handpicked “election integrity” enforcer resign immediately after the November Massacre, but the administration no longer seems to have the stomach for setting resources on fire in hopes of subverting the democratic process. We should still reserve a great deal of skepticism and caution, given that there’s still a presidential election on the horizon, but we should take heart in the fact that the administration is no longer willing to defend its most extreme (and most unsupported) allegations about “illegal voters.” (h/t Chris Geidner)”