I’m what happens when a conservative believes the polls. I had wrongly thought that the polls swinging toward the Republicans meant that the polls were undercounting Republican support, as they have from time immemorial. I was wrong. Terribly wrong. (Listen to The American Spectator’s podcast, The Spectacle, to get an idea of how wrong.)

I was more right when I was being my cynical self a couple weeks ago and, on The Spectacle podcast with Scott McKay, wondered if America had gone so tribal that the current economically catastrophic conditions didn’t matter. Both on the podcast and in a piece here, I cited the low unemployment rate of the Keyboard Klass™, which makes up a big part of the electorate. When they have jobs, the world is fine, and so they don’t feel motivated to vote on economic issues, or even crime ones (they’re mostly in the ‘burbs) because they’re comfortable enough. And then there are all the opportunities that Republicans lost. They paid for their laziness.

More than that, though, America is balkanizing. They’re moving with their feet. Conservative people in New York and California are moving to Florida and Texas. They’re getting out of Dodge and that’s making the places they leave behind more Democrat, not less. The people of New York and Illinois and California will continue to drive out the middle class. There will be rich and poor. The poor will be drugged out, homeless wretches and crime will continue to increase. These places should be left to their own devices. Conservatives should take note and they should move to safer havens.

A couple questions: Maricopa County? A mess as usual. The secretary of state there, Katie Hobbs, didn’t recuse herself and no one forced her to, and so the Democrat running for governor is in charge of the elections across the state. Apparently, no one saw a problem with that. We’ll see how the race turns out, but, at this writing, Hobbs is ahead. Kari Lake was 11 points ahead of her in polling. How did that happen??

Harris County, Texas, is a mess, too. The Republican part of the county up north, a planned community called Kingwood, ran out of paper ballots. Now, how does that happen? This is important because a big race in Harris County, the one for county judge, was won four years ago by the AOC of Texas, Lina Hidalgo. She’s incompetent and corrupt. Nearly all her advisers are being indicted. This race was, is crucial. Right now, Hidalgo has a razor-thin margin. Voting has been extended in the county to account for the ballots, but who knows?

J.D. Vance won handily in Ohio. That’s a win for Trump. And that’s about as good as Trump’s picks get.

I hesitate to write the following because writing when tired and irritated is seldom a good idea, but I’m going to say it anyway: I’m sick of Trump. I tire of the lack of discipline. I weary of his histrionics. He alienates too many people and while he has charisma for days, he doesn’t know how to govern.

The arguments that no one has been pilloried, harassed, abused, etc. as Donald Trump has been are all true. He has been treated unfairly and his voters treated with utter contempt. It’s been appalling to see. He’s been sued and defamed. His children have been persecuted and harassed. His house and privacy have been invaded. It is wrong and utterly unfair and contemptible.

There will be no justice for what has happened to Donald Trump. How can there be? He was robbed of his mandate in 2016 and he was robbed of an honest election in 2020. Was the 2020 election swayed by fraud? That will never be known, but the whole of every institution was arrayed against him. His base is rightly livid. They want him to run again. They believe it’s his turn.

If Trump runs, he will not win. Maybe this is another prediction of mine that I’ll be wrong about, but I don’t think so. He’s alienated too many people. The sideswipe on DeSantis the day before the election was gross and, worse, unnecessary. His picks in the primaries stunk, J.D. Vance notwithstanding. Mehmet Oz was a flawed candidate and one I couldn’t fathom. Oz lost to a mentally disabled socialist. It shouldn’t be close.

What is happening in Arizona with Masters and Lake? I have no idea. Lake, especially, ran a great campaign and was way ahead in the polls. Is it close now because of pollster malfeasance? Is it close because of funny business? Is it because Arizona is more Democrat than we know because so many Dem Californians moved there to escape their poor choices in Cali? How could she be up by 11+ points in many polls? I don’t know. Nevertheless, Trumpy candidates are not doing well.

This night is discouraging, but not because Republicans didn’t have as good a night as expected. It’s really because it seems that no level of economic turmoil or inflation or moral depravity is enough to sway people to change their minds. America is fractured now; divided and probably irreparably so. The great sort will continue.

And tomorrow, and in weeks to come, when Joe Biden stops propping up the economy by dumping the U.S. oil reserves to keep energy prices down, all heck is going to break loose. I was hoping that a GOP sweep would bring sanity back, but there will be no GOP sweep and the Republicans can shrug and say they can’t do anything to stop the onslaught that is about to happen.

Suffering is coming. Americans voted for what they’re about to get.

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