Midterm elections shattered the MAGA hamster wheel

Though last Tuesday's smashing Democratic victory was unlike anything we've seen in our lifetimes, perhaps the most striking thing is that on the morning after, it all felt so reassuringly normal. The election went forward at all 78,000 polling places. Hundreds of thousands of election workers and volunteers did their jobs. Citizens did theirs. No Immigration and Customs Enforcement goons loitered menacingly at polling places. There was no declaration of a state of emergency. There were no significant claims of cheating, undocumented immigrants voting or late-night ballot dumps. The speaker of the House didn't contrive a way to avoid certifying the victors. No major lawsuits were filed. The polls seemed to be more or less correct.

The victory speeches, at least the ones I saw, were gracious, and the concessions rapid and unambiguous. As the Noah-level flood engulfed Republicans, Donald Trump was asked whether he would accept the results. He said yes. (Though he has, more recently, begun to suggest otherwise.)

This is not the America we've been forced to live in for the past decade. It more resembles the country we feared we had lost just two years ago. For me, the most moving scenes Tuesday night were the temporary memorials to Alex Pretti and Renee Good festooned with "I Voted" stickers. The movement to preserve American democracy has martyrs now — and it has millions of adherents. Or does it? We'll come back to that.

First, though, we deserve some joy along with the relief, and the electorate provided that in spades. The voters freed this country from what has felt, for many years now, like a doom loop. We seemed permanently polarized, trapped in a never-ending cycle of close elections decided by a few swing states, gerrymandered up the wazoo, consuming different news, seemingly living in different realities and goaded by demagogues into senseless hatred. The 2026 election shattered that hamster wheel. True reform is now possible. And some of the worst political actors got what they had coming.

Vivek Ramaswamy, who managed something that no other Republican (despite some valiant efforts) has been able to achieve — namely, to go lower than Trump — was defeated by 8 points in the Ohio gubernatorial race. Elon Musk, who moved to Texas to savor its MAGA musk and spent $450 million attempting to elect the felonious, election-denying philanderer Ken Paxton, was handed his hat (the politest formulation).

Trump's handpicked candidate in South Carolina was defeated by the physician Annie Andrews after a campaign in which MAGA coined the oh-so-witty nickname "Tranny Annie." Bo French, the GOP candidate for the influential Texas Railroad Commission, had the sort of bigoted history that has become table stakes in the Republican Party. In 2023, he posted an online poll asking who was a bigger threat to America, "Muslims or Jews?" In March, he declared that the United States should deport a hundred million people. In September, he followed up with an image of cheering University of Texas football fans who had a bit too much melanin for his taste. "Americans have been displaced by foreigners," French whined. He was "displaced" on the commission by Democrat Jon Rosenthal, who had the support of Republicans Karl Rove, Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker and George W. Bush (who somehow woke up from a decade's snooze). Also in Texas, Brandon Herrera, a YouTube something-or-other who showed off an original copy of Mein Kampf and bragged about membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans, was defeated for Congress by Katy Padilla Stout.

You could go on all day — Greg Abbott is gone, along with Scott Perry (one of the architects of the Jan. 6 attempted putsch). Lauren Boebert joins her rival, Marjorie Taylor Greene, on the outside. And for poetic justice, it's hard to beat Scott Colom's story. A successful Mississippi prosecutor, Colom was nominated for a federal judgeship by President Joe Biden. One of Mississippi's senators, Roger Wicker, raised no objection (by tradition, senators can block nominees from their states). But the other, Cindy Hyde-Smith, refused to issue the required blue slip, and thereby blocked Colom's nomination.

It's a new day, but let's think about whether the results represent a total rejection of Trumpism. As much as I'd like to believe that, I'm afraid we've seen too much in the past 10 years to conclude that with confidence. Americans reelected Trump despite his 2022 call to "terminate" the Constitution to return him to office; despite Jan. 6 and his approval of the mob that attempted to murder his vice president; despite his cordial meeting with a neo-Nazi; despite his theft of highly classified documents; despite his tragic mismanagement of the pandemic that included idiotic musings about injecting bleach; despite his embrace of QAnon cranks; despite his corruption; despite his admiration for Vladimir Putin; and despite his promise of mass deportations.

Americans were OK with all of it until it pinched their pocketbooks. Since the start of Trump's second term, I have rooted for the tariffs to be implemented fully because I figured that that was the only way to make a large majority regret what they'd done in 2024. Voters needed to touch the stove, as they say. I didn't anticipate the Iran debacle, which taught the same lesson.

It's a new day, but Trump's actions and statements in the immediate aftermath of the election should not be misinterpreted as signals of any sort of mellowing. Stalin hid in his dacha for a while after Hitler invaded Russia. Sometimes autocrats need time to lick their wounds. No, Trump can soothe his eggshell ego by rationalizing that Republicans can't win without his golden name — a claim he made on Tuesday night — despite declaring for the previous four weeks that he was on the ballot. Still, he won't lead a mob to the Capitol on behalf of his party. That would be extending himself for others. He doesn't do that.

It's a new day, but we've learned in the past 10 years that key segments of American society do not uphold the law or even basic decency. Trump 2.0 could not have taken the dark turn that it did had key institutions in American society not enabled it. Yes, tens of millions of Americans did reject MAGA and all its ugly works, but they were not a majority in 2024.

Are they now? Probably not. The majority sent a message that it hates the high prices, hates the poorly conceived and arguably illegally waged war in Iran, hates the overreach on immigration enforcement (while liking the closed border) and hates the corruption.

Building on the anti-Trump backlash

Democrats seem to have gotten that message loud and clear, but without the White House, their capacity to make policy is limited — at least for now. Much of what they accomplish before 2028 will be signals of the direction a Democratic government would go. One hopes that most will join Sen.-elect Adam Hamilton in supporting the repeal of most of Trump's tariffs, though that will require some Democrats to abandon an earlier hostility to free trade. They should jump at it. Reducing tariffs is one of the only ways to bring down prices without a recession. And Trump has done Democrats the favor of convincing more than 60% of voters that tariffs are bad. In January, Congress can pass legislation repealing the president's broad tariff authority.

Ending the war on immigrants is not only the right policy morally, it's also practical. Home prices have risen in part because undocumented immigrants represent a significant share of homebuilders. Meatpackers have also been decimated by ICE raids. Trump promised to deport the worst of the worst but instead hounded the hardworking and law-abiding. The result was shameful human suffering and scarcer, pricier new homes combined with higher food prices. Once again, Trump has set the table for Democrats by convincing voters that mass deportation is both a moral stain and a practical disaster. Another layup for Democrats (provided they keep the border under control).

Now the challenge will be to solidify the anti-Trump backlash into permanent reforms that will insulate us from a return to strongman rule.

Fortunately, the Democrats' majority is large enough that we can entertain serious reforms like amending the Constitution to limit the president's power. One place to start is the limitless pardon power, which permits a lawless president to order subordinates to do illegal acts. Another is a constitutional amendment overriding the presidential immunity decision Trump v. United States. Impeachment turned out to be a failure. Constitutional amendment, perhaps?

But above all, we must remind ourselves, perhaps with better civics classes and more focused attention in the culture, of the preciousness of the rule of law, federalism and accountability. Nov. 3 was a great day for the Democrats. It can yet be a turning point in stabilizing our 250-year-old nation.

Mona Charen is policy editor of the Bulwark and host of the “Beg to Differ” podcast.