This 2022 Midterms Cycle Matters, Our Lives and Freedoms Literally On the Line

Early voting for the 2022 Midterms has already started across several states, meaning we are in the final round of finding out whether America survives the Far Right attempts to degrade our democracy into a nightmare.

Every election cycle, I've been like this: anxious and hopeful and terrified and heartbroken and angry. I haven't felt safe about any election year since 2010, ever since the gaslighting of the Fox Not-News faithful using Tea Party rabble to distort the realities of an Obama administration's efforts to rebuild from the tax-cutting and deregulatory failures and wartime mismanagement of the Dubya years.

And here we are again, on the edge of an election that the polling is telling us is siding just a little bit towards the Republicans gaining some serious wins at the state and federal level that should be impossible in any sane reality, after all the damage trump and his wingnut allies have done and are still doing to the American body politic.

I know, I know: after almost a full decade of getting told how fucked up our nation's political narratives are, and how partisan and deadlocked most voters have become - mostly thanks to that Far Right Narrative overwhelming everyone's senses - I ought to be used to this situation. However, it just unsettles the mind and the soul how broken everyone else around me has to be; in order to view the Republicans' open agenda to destroy democracy, turn women into second-class breeding stock, gut Social Security and Medicare, and break the federal government in order to build a Christianist Fascist utopia dystopia as somehow "normal political campaigning".

/headdesk 

It's no secret what would happen if the Republicans even reach their modest goal of flipping the U.S. House to their control. Not only with the obvious agenda of forcing President Biden to surrender on the Far Right economic goals of nuking Medicare and Social Security, but also with the plan to humiliate Biden by attacking Biden's family especially his son Hunter. 

The Far Right still believes that all of the criminal and civil investigations into donald trump - and on trump's family, who are involved in most of what trump's done the last 20 years - are all partisan attacks on an "innocent" and "clearly great, God-anointed" trump. Never mind there are honest-to-God allegations into trump's illegal misdeeds: To the Far Right, none of those investigations and charges are legal. And so, they must have revenge.

Therefore, attacking Biden - and Biden's family - in the same manner as the attacks on trump is all fair game. There's already been a long investigation into Hunter Biden and his business dealings, which will arguably get dragged up in House Committee sessions meant to embarrass Hunter and by proxy his President dad. We'll even get Hunter Biden's laptop - a key piece of Qanon conspiracy-mongering which the FBI refused to touch because there's solid evidence too many other people have gotten access to it and meddled with its files, as well as the possibility the laptop is a Russian disinfo campaign - shoved down our throats every day of the week by gleeful GOP hacks in both Congress and mainstream media.

The House Republicans are already primed to file Impeachment proceedings on Biden and Vice President Harris, simply for winning the Presidency in 2020. Not only to promote the Big Lie that trump "really won" because of stolen ballots (or fake ballots, or the Ballot Fairy jinxing trump, or...), but in order to override the election results and put a Republican replacement - the House Speaker thanks to the 25th Amendment - in the White House in spite of the 81 million Americans who voted Biden/Harris. Don't be surprised if the Republicans win the House that they put donald trump in as Speaker - it's not a joke, ANYONE could be made Speaker it doesn't have to be an elected Representative - and then force Impeachment votes to oust Biden/Harris every chance they get.

It'll be a big stunt, the constant impeaching, because unless the Republicans win 2/3rds control of the Senate neither Biden nor Harris will get removed. But to the Far Right, humiliating Biden every time will be worth it. Five impeachments, twenty impeachments, fifty impeachments, it won't matter if they stick or not. Making Biden the most-impeached President ever - to undo the historic infamy laid on trump's twice-impeached ass - without just cause will still be worth it, because the GOP will think the history books will ignore the real reasons why (that House Republicans were partisan assholes), they will only see the impeachment counts and deem Biden the "worst-ever" just on that.

And that's all we'll really get in a Republican-controlled House. No reforms, no sensible legislation, no bipartisan dealings. They will attack and obstruct Biden at all costs, even including government shutdowns over the debt ceiling to derail our economy in the belief that those shutdowns will kill any Biden re-election hopes in 2024. The GOP even hopes their efforts to force the U.S. government to default period will work, because it will kneecap a federal government they would love to drown in Grover Norquist's bathtub. And they will never get the blame for it.

If there's any good news this midterms cycle, it's the belief from most polling that the U.S. Senate will stay Democratic. However, there is no guarantee of that. If the Republicans gain control of BOTH houses of Congress, things will get dramatically worse. A Republican Senate will deny Biden ANY further judicial appointments, and even deny him any Cabinet postings if he has to replace a department head. The Republican Congress will pass legislation looking to undo every Democratic gain made under Biden, even the infrastructure bills that promise to rebuild the entire nation. They will seek to repeal (and not replace) Obamacare again. They will pass a national abortion ban, and national bans on transgender rights and medical procedures, and an assault on any education that would dare teach the dangers of racism. They will do this knowing Biden will be there to veto all of it, but even then they will use the threat of shutdown and federal default to get Biden to "compromise" on something that will hurt people to satisfy Republican cruelty.

And Gods help us at the state level if Republicans retain control of most of our states. They're already making women suffer with their anti-abortion laws, and they are looking at ways of making it worse for women. Republican-led states are getting caught defrauding the poor families, or failing to help the citizenry recover after disasters, or allowing gun violence in our schools with nary a concern at the death tolls.

I have some hope that not all of that will happen. Voter turnout for early polling is at 2018 levels, which resulted in a nice Blue Wave for the Democrats. There's evidence from the surprising Kansas voter turnout by women in the primary cycle that suggests a lot of angry women are voting Blue to help restore Roe and abortion rights. Turnout is the one best thing the Democrats have against the GOP onslaught against our entire nation's rights.

So again I implore the plurality of Americans who are registered Democrats: GET THE DAMN VOTE OUT. I implore the majority of Americans who favor the woman's rights to choose: GET THE DAMN VOTE OUT. I implore the majority of Americans who want gun reforms: GET THE DAMN VOTE OUT. I implore the majority of Americans who want more taxation and financial regulation on the wealthy: GET THE DAMN VOTE. And for the Love of GOD, vote Democratic across the entire ballot.

This election matters, more than any other previous election our nation has seen since 1860.

We dare not let the cruelty and greed of the Republican Party to win in any way this year.