How We Turn the Tide
Three issues that resonate
I have a a few letters in the hopper. But they aren’t ready. I try to be careful and edit thoroughly. Could be a flaw. Could keep me out of trouble.
In the meantime I just opened this gem from “The Old Curmudgeon”. Jon Margolis is one of my favorite substack authors. This piece is concise and it identifies simply how we are going to take back the Senate and how we are going to turn the tide on this onslaught of authoritarianism. If Congress were to assume it’s rightful place in our government by asserting its Constitutional RESPONSIBILITIES, the Wannabe King could be hobbled. Here is how we “make it so”:
How Democrats Take The Senate
Aug 16, 2025
A great many people, a lot of them smarter and more knowledgeable than your humble servant, believe that the future of democracy in the United States will depend on the outcome of the 2026 midterm elections. (If you want to suggest that there will be no elections next year, feel free to do so in the comments, where I can ignore you.)
Most attention so far has been concentrated on the House, where Democrats need only a few more seats to take over the majority. Republican desperation over that very real possibility may be seen in their efforts to further gerrymander not just Texas, but even Indiana and Missouri. (Missouri, you say, wonderment on your face? Yes.) While it may seem like a more daunting task for Democrats to retake the Senate majority—which would mean picking up at least three of the 33 seats up next year—I suggest that the possibility is well within reach.
The first necessity is—as I’m sure you realize—to believe that it can be done. I’m going to show a way. Maybe not the way, but one way. (I do not propose to handicap individual races here.)
The classical reasoning about midterm elections is that they are always a referendum on the president. If that’s true, then next year’s results are already baked in. Trump is well underwater and it’s very, very unlikely that he can resurface in the next 14 months; indeed, it’s much more likely that his numbers will continue to slide. However, there are a goodly number of presumably safe seats on both sides of the aisle, which will make his personal popularity less important than we might think, unless something really important happens; I won’t speculate on what that might be. Still, Trump’s unpopularity sets a tone, and it is one that Democrats should lean on; at least, it provides a grounding for their candidates.
Midterm elections are also characterized as prime opportunities to attack. Democrats need to ride that to a fare-thee-well. Forget all that stuff about good progressive values to make society better. The object—the need—is to win. It’s time to recall George Patton: “No poor, dumb bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. You win a war by making the other poor, dumb bastard die for his country.” We are in a war, and it’s important to put every Republican on the defensive and to keep them penned there. If we do that, we’ll show that a lot of the conventional wisdom about the midterms is just plain wrong. So, Democrats need to go on the attack, everywhere, and if they do that the results on November 4, 2026 will look a lot better than the punditocracy thinks today.
The platform should be very simple, so that Democratic candidates can repeat the important points over and over and over again:
All Epstein, all the time. “Why hasn’t Senator Claghorn called on the president to order the release of ALL of the Epstein files? What is he afraid of? Does he want to cover up child abuse, or allow others to do so? Even if the courts prevent the release of a few grand jury transcripts, that is absolutely no excuse—none, at all—for holding back the rest of the information. The people of _________ demand to know the whole truth, and they deserve no less. We must remember the victims, and act on their behalf. If Democrats are in the majority in the Senate next year, I pledge to you that starting in January we shall have a full, fair and open investigation to uncover what went on and who was responsible. If that includes Democrats, so be it. I challenge Senator Claghorn to make the same pledge.”
Focus on Trump’s mental state: “We all know that the president’s health, especially his mind, is declining. He is often confused. He frequently does not get his facts right, sometimes embarrassingly so. He said, not once but twice, that he was going to Russia to meet Vladimir Putin. As I’m sure you all remember, that meeting was in Alaska, and Alaska is very much part of the United States. Senator Claghorn knows that, or at least I think he does. The fact is that President Trump’s mind is getting weaker and weaker. I’m sure you’ve seen that. Does Senator Claghorn deny it? If he accepts what we all know to be true, what is he doing about it? This is important. The president controls our nuclear weapons. As Trump will tell you every moment, he thinks the president controls just about every important thing in the government. Does Senator Claghorn agree with that? If he does, does he think that so much power should be in the hands of a man whose mind is going downhill, and fast? Now, the 25th Amendment to the Constitution permits a majority of the cabinet to move the president aside if he cannot carry out the duties of his office. Does Senator Claghorn believe that it is time for the Amendment to be used to protect the American people, and to put Donald Trump on the sidelines? If he doesn’t, are there any circumstances, any at all, in which he would agree that it should be used? We deserve to know.”
Inflation (virtually certain to rise in the next year): “Senator Claghorn may try to deny it, but we all know that inflation is eating away at your savings—if you have been able to save at all—and making it harder and harder to put food on the table and pay your family’s bills. That inflation has its roots in Trump’s foolish and illegal tariffs, which were never going to be paid for by foreign countries and were always going to be on the backs of the American people. Yet Senator Claghorn has never shown the courage to say out loud that those tariffs are a sales tax paid by ordinary Americans on the necessities they have to buy every week. Oh, government bureaucrats, controlled by Donald Trump, may say that inflation is not so bad, but you and I know that prices are only going up, and we are feeling the pain. Why won’t Senator Claghorn level with the people of _________ and admit that? And what is he going to do about it? Please tell us, Senator, as you ask for votes.”
That is a basic outline of a campaign. It’s not poll-tested and it hasn’t been vetted by any consultant, not just because I can’t afford to pay for such shenanigans, but also because I believe that too much of that—too much triangulating—has had a good deal to do with where we find ourselves today.
Even if you think that I am way off base, I hope you will agree that Democrats need to be on the attack from now to Election Day next year. Oh, and threatening Republican control over the Senate will also help to take over the House.
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Please tell your congressional representatives, and everyone you know, that Donald Trump is too damaged to remain in the presidency.
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My concluding thoughts:
1. Inflation (and “Unaffordability” ) should be number one. The impact of tariffs and the Federal government firings have barely begun to impact the typical household.
Unemployment is just beginning to show up in the stats. Food and other expenses are just beginning to worsen. Next shoe to drop? Corporate earnings that will suffer as consumers begin to hold back. Two thirds of the economy is consumer spending.
2. The Epstein issue is easy to keep alive. Why is Maxwell being given preferential treatment? What has she given Trump to achieve new freedoms after being convicted of trafficking in child prostitution?
3. Trump’s decline is far more obvious than Biden’s and certainly ridiculous. He is babbling like an escapee from a lockdown memory unit. He is trying to run the entire world on the fly using information gathered from Fox News. His incompetence and betrayal of basic human values were on display in Alaska. What does Putin have on this guy? Why does an American president smile and welcome a murdering thug - an indicted international criminal - on American soil? Because he is deluded enough to think Putin will give him something. And because it is another distraction from the tragedy of the “Unaffordability/Inflation” issue and the Epstein coverup.
Some may say that taking back the Senate is an unrealistic dream. But keep in mind that “gerrymandering” does not impact Senate elections. Statewide dissatisfaction can deliver some surprising results. More on this soon.
None of these issues are going away. They are growing. They will bury this Fascist Faker.
Thank you Jon Margolis for this strategy and FOCUS.
I’ve read some articles by economists noting that unemployment rates aren’t rising faster because fewer people are in the labor force. Unemployment only counts joblessness among people who had jobs in the first place. So, you’ve got people retiring and exiting the workforce, plus immigrants being paid “under the table” being shipped out of the country.
At some point, there will not be enough people to pick our fruits and vegetables, raising food prices even higher. Will the agricultural industry push back on what ICE is doing?? American citizens aren’t going to take those jobs, and the number of workers is declining.
Great post, Bill! 💙🇺🇸💙