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Every day that passes brings us closer to the midterm elections, when our power as individuals can be brought to bear at the ballot box. And Donald Trump, bless his apparently diseased heart, is helping our cause.
Right now, we are surrounded by a shitshow of practically unknowable proportions. It’s hard to know where to begin. The story of the pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his close relationship with Donald Trump has been in the news around the clock, but we still don’t know it all—it was revealed today by the Wall Street Journal that Trump was told back in May that his name is in the Epstein files by so-called Attorney General Pam Bondi. So, now we know why Bondi did not release the files that were “sitting on my desk right now” back when all the MAGA fans wanted her to.
The whole thing is so tawdry—all those photos of Trump and Epstein together at Mar-a-Lago and at allegedly chic Manhattan parties—and so utterly disgusting that it is difficult to deal with, isn’t it? Getting lost in the flash flood of stories is what it’s really about: a fairly large group of powerful and wealthy men were involved in a conspiracy to rape girls, some as young as middle school age. The word “thousands” has appeared in one story after another to describe the numbers of victims. It is unknowably horrid that the lives of so many girls were not just damaged but ruined by these men and their horrific desires and actions. Some may have committed suicide by now; we will never know. Only one person, Ghislaine Maxwell, has ever been federally prosecuted and given a prison sentence for the years of crimes that were committed. There have been no federal prosecutions of the men who conspired in these horrible crimes. That alone makes the whole thing a stain on our country.
But putting Epstein aside, there is little else that is good news. The Environmental Protection Agency—which should be renamed immediately as the Environmental Destruction Agency just out of simple honesty—has been firing scientists and shutting down research and studies by the dozens. Today it became known that the EDA will repeal its scientific finding that gasses such as methane and carbon dioxide, produced by the actions of human beings, cause excessive heating of the atmosphere and endanger our lives. So there goes that—poof!—as if all the research done into climate change and its effect on the planet had never been done. This alone is enough to cause deep depression among those of us who can remember back to the first Earth Day and the early times of caring about the environment around us.
In other news, the Supreme Court today continued its campaign to allow President Trump to utterly and completely undo every sane thing that that the federal government has ever done for the citizens of this country and people all around the world, for that matter. The Court ruled on an “emergency” basis as part of its so-called shadow docket that Trump can fire the three Democratic members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, a five-member group of federal officials that overlooks the safety of children’s toys, strollers, cribs—anything that might injure children or adults. So, look for a bright, shiny set of “Lawn Darts” at Walmart or Target that you can get for your nieces, nephews or grandkids for next Christmas. Maybe they’ll call this the Irwin Manway ruling by the Supreme Court, after the Saturday Night Live character played by Dan Ackroyd who sold things his company produced for children to play with like “Big Bag of Glass,” which contained shards of broken glass, or “Johnny Switchblade,” a doll that when you pressed on its head, two switchblade knives shot out of its hands. I’m kidding, of course—but only a little. Who knows what the next Supreme Court decision will do? Allow guns to be sold to teenagers because…freedom? Or maybe Trump’s Health and Human Services Department, run by the unhinged Robert F. Kennedy Jr., will be permitted to cancel the flu vaccine for the fall flu season, because…well, because flu vaccines cause the flu. Or something.
Anything is possible with this government that our fellow American citizens voted into existence.
How about just shutting down a few universities because they are insufficiently “conservative” and way too “woke?” Maybe they’ll allow charter schools run by religious organizations to be racially segregated. Or how about building some “birthing camps” to house women in anti-abortion states who are being forced to carry fetuses to term?
I’m sure you could come up with a list of your own nightmares that the unfettered Trump administration might foist upon this country. No insane idea is off-limits. Anything goes, especially with this Supreme Court removing one legal restraint after another and a Congress for which the word “supine” is an inadequate description.
So, what news might help us dig ourselves out of our despair and depression? Well, Senator John Ossoff in Georgia is looking strong for his reelection next year. In North Carolina, the very popular Democratic former governor Roy Cooper will announce on Monday that he will run for the open seat left by the planned resignation of Republican Senator Thom Tillis, giving Democrats in that state a real reason for hope. In New York, Republican Mike Lawler announced that he will not run for governor against Democrat Kathy Hochul and will instead run for reelection in the Hudson Valley 17th Congressional District, delighting Democrats. He is one of the so-called “moderate” Republicans who has voted the way Trump told him to vote and is considered eminently vulnerable next year.
Senator Joni Ernst, the Republican who defended her vote to slash Medicaid from some 10 million needy Americans by telling a town hall that “we’re all going to die,” is considered vulnerable in Iowa, and Democrats are lining up to run against her. In Texas, where the legislature is meeting to draw a new congressional map that will supposedly favor Republicans in November of next year, Democrats are planning to use the Republican redistricting plan as an issue to run on and hope to pick up congressional seats, rather than lose them next year.
Republicans are overreaching from the White House all the way to the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, even in red states like Louisiana, where unpopular Republican policies are creating opportunities at both the state and federal levels.
We’ve been told again and again that elections have consequences. Well, so do insane government policies that will cost lives and produce horror stories by the dozen that Democrats can point to when they are running for local, state, and federal offices in 2026. Trump’s poll numbers are not good, especially around his ICE terrorists and the ever-upward-trending cost of living. A new poll by YouGov and The Economist shows that Trump’s numbers among Gen Z voters, who fled Democrats last year, are tanking. In a poll taken on July 21, Trump’s approval rating among that key group of young voters stood at just 28 percent, a 62-point drop from eight months ago.
I know, I know. Polls this far out from elections, even midterms that tend to favor the party out of power, are not to be relied on. But all is not doom and gloom. Every day that passes brings us closer to the midterm elections, when our power as individuals can be brought to bear at the ballot box. And Donald Trump, bless his apparently diseased heart, is helping our cause. Charlie Pierce in Esquire today called Trump “more unhinged than ever” in his recent ravings about former President Barack Obama, of all people. Trump is increasingly desperate in trying to divert attention from whatever the next Epstein story might be.
Panic does not become him. Trump’s behavior might delight his base, but independents and middle-of-the-roaders, the voters who will make the difference in both 2026 and 2028, are hearing the same insane ravings we are, and my bet is, they’re not impressed.
All we have to do is take the House next year, and we can shut off Trump’s power so that even his Supreme Court will not be able to save him. We can do it. Today may be a shitshow but tomorrow is another day. Chin up. We’ve got work to do.
Lucian K. Truscott IV
Lucian K. Truscott IV, a graduate of West Point, has had a 50-year career as a journalist, novelist and screenwriter. He has covered stories such as Watergate, the Stonewall riots and wars in Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan. He is also the author of five bestselling novels and several unsuccessful motion pictures. He has three children, lives in rural Pennsylvania and spends his time Worrying About the State of Our Nation and madly scribbling in a so-far fruitless attempt to Make Things Better.
You can read Lucian Truscott's daily articles at luciantruscott.substack.com. We encourage our readers to get a subscription.
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