The Republicans suffered a more devastating defeat than expected. But the real losers of this election will ultimately be the ordinary Americans.
***
The midterm elections in the USA on November 3, 2026: a cold shower for the oligarchs' fever dreams. The lords of the world, like our highly esteemed tech billionaire Elon Musk, had poured hundreds of millions of dollars from their pocket change into this midterm election to buy the election results. The super-rich naturally invest in politics to secure optimal investment conditions through dependent politicians. A total of almost 12 billion dollars was pumped into this election campaign[1]. The tech oligarchs fabricate public opinion to their liking with newspaper ads, TV commercials, or influencers and bots on the internet[2].
But what was actually supposed to be a calculated distortion of competition has now become a stigma for the political actors sponsored by the oligarchs. They fell one after another. The US citizens chased them away. And they chose people from real life, from real practice. People like Abdul El-Sayed, who had led the Detroit Health Department for years. The Democrats were able to successfully portray themselves as disadvantaged compared to the Republicans. All Democratic candidates repeatedly pointed to the Republicans' funding by super-rich benefactors. Thus, the Democrats managed to not only regain the majority in the Washington House of Representatives but even the majority in the Senate. In addition, the Democrats snatched numerous governorships from the Republicans. Governors are the heads of government of the individual states. If the governors stand in Washington's way, it can really hurt. The loss of power in Texas has particularly hurt the Republicans. The 37-year-old perennial confirmand James Talarico won a Senate seat in Texas for the Democrats for the first time in many decades. His Republican opponent Ken Paxton was hopelessly overrepresented compared to Talarico with 168 million in campaign support from Elon Musk in commercials[3]. But it was precisely with the sponsorship of his rival that Talarico was able to lure his supporters to the polls. It was precisely this interference by the super-rich that also prompted the Texans to make a relatively unknown woman from the Hispanic community, Gina Hinojosa, their new governor.
The super-rich entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswami is already known to us. Ramaswami was supposed to co-lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with Elon Musk. But that didn't happen. Now Ramaswami tried his luck as a candidate for the governorship of Ohio. From his own pocket, he injected about 50 million dollars into the campaign fund[4]. With this, he financed TV spots in which his rival Amy Acton was attacked below the belt[5]. In one of Ramaswami's ads, Amy Acton's mother appeared and claimed that her daughter had always been a liar. Background: Amy Acton had been sexually abused by her stepfather. Acton's mother had tolerated and covered it up. Since early childhood, Amy had not seen her mother again. So, a really terrible story. To exploit something like that and air the family's dirty laundry in public for one's own campaign purposes – that didn't sit well with Ramaswami. Even Republicans condemned this smear campaign. In Ohio, in addition to the aversion to the arrogance of the super-rich, there was now moral outrage. Ramaswami not only lost the election resoundingly to Amy Acton – he also burned through about 50 million dollars.
However, the multimillionaire Rick Jackson in the state of Georgia has really outdone himself. Jackson financed his campaign for the governorship with 222.2 million of his own money. His Democratic opponent, Keisha Lance Bottoms, had to make do with just 11.7 million dollars for the campaign[6]. But even here, the supposed disadvantage turned into an advantage. The Democrat Bottoms won the election with a lead of almost ten percent against Rick Jackson.
Image source
Along with the anger against oligarchs, there was also the defensive battle against the advance of artificial intelligence. The Democrats were also able to leverage this issue for their advantage. Simultaneously with the congressional and gubernatorial elections, votes were held on whether data centers could be built or not. With few exceptions, voters opposed the construction of data centers in their region. The movement against AI data centers is gaining more and more traction in the USA[7]. The voracious data centers are taking away the electricity and water that people in the area absolutely need to live. This means that the bursting of the AI bubble is getting closer. The AI industry has already firmly planned the additional energy capacities. That means: if the data centers don't work out, it will be a massive blow to the AI investors. And the motto of the punk movement, namely "No Future," is turning from a rather playful game into a threatening perspective for the young people who are now pushing into the workforce. They have the justified fear of having to drift through adult life poor and unemployed. No wonder seventy percent of young people voted for the Democrats.
The Real Inspirer of the Blue Tsunami: Donald Trump
This crushing defeat was, of course, primarily caused by someone who didn't even run in the election. Namely, Donald Trump. Most of the people who had swept Trump into the White House with their votes in 2024 were probably not die-hard Trump supporters. They were simply fed up with the compromised liberal establishment under "Sleepy Joe" Biden. Trump had won his election comfortably. In addition, he had both houses of Congress behind him. And with the Heritage Foundation's script, the "Project 2925," he knew exactly what to do and when and where to do it this time. Trump, even more than his predecessors, represented a radical takeover of public offices by the super-rich and their devoted paladins. Unashamedly, the super-rich carried out their strange rituals, scandals, and corruptions right before our eyes. It quickly became clear that Trump and his associates were only interested in self-enrichment. It quickly became clear that the state and the institutions of the common good could not expect any leniency from the super-rich. It quickly became clear that the Trumpists were staging a civil war from above. Among other things, with their notorious foreign police, ICE.
Image: US Senate candidate for michigan Abdul El-Sayed meets voters at Michigan Technological University. October 22, 2025 (CC BY-SA 4.0)
He shamelessly plundered his MAGA fans with his Trump and Melania coin. He turned farmers against him when he casually announced that if domestic beef was too expensive, he could arrange for beef from Argentina at special rates through his vassal Milei. In the midterm elections, Trump preferred to intervene to defame opponents of the Democrats at the lowest level. The Senate candidate from Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed, is "connected to Hamas." If Sayed wants to enter the Senate, he must first be scanned with metal detectors before being allowed in.
However, his recent appearances before the midterms can only be described as political suicide. On November 1, he gave a two-hour speech in Iowa to handpicked MAGA fans that was almost beyond comprehension. Largely incoherently, Trump babbled about the Vietnam War ("I would have ended it in a week!"), the overweight of a Republican candidate, anecdotes from his private life, and much more. He made some very strange contortions and seemed to fall asleep again and again. Then the grand finale. All major TV channels and YouTube channels were invited to Washington for November 2nd. The Great Chairman would give an incredibly important speech. Is Trump now firing his last bullet? Would he announce sensational things?
You think so? Not a chance. Trump ceremoniously opened an artificial lake in Washington that had been closed to the public for a long time. Now this lake has been professionally renovated and cleaned. Trump reported on the renewal of the water pipes, and that the new pipes were initially vandalized and had to be repaired again. Now everything is wonderful. The audience's toenails curled in embarrassment. Trump had now definitively messed up the elections. When oligarchic detachment from reality corresponds with age-related mental decline, the consequences can sometimes be devastating[8].
All the more astonishing that Trump admitted his election defeat and even congratulated the Democrats on their success. However, he had already said before the election that if he lost Congress, he would only be "Mr. Veto" until the end of his term. Then he will mercilessly torpedo all legislative initiatives of Congress with his veto.
Is Everything Going to Be Alright Now?
Unfortunately not. Trump has, at times, dictatorial powers as president. For example, he is allowed to press the red button to launch an atomic bomb solely based on his own decision-making power. No other ruler in the world, no matter how autocratic, is allowed to do that. In this context, the news from the host Tucker Carlson is not very comforting, as insider reports suggest that Trump is indeed considering detonating a nuclear bomb on an Iranian mountain to crack an underground, imagined Iranian nuclear facility[9]. The outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would urge Trump to commit this act of madness.
At the same time, Trump might consider that the new Congress will not convene until next January. Maybe Trump can still etch himself into the history books with such an act by then? Let's hope Trump doesn't exploit the current power vacuum in this way.
Shortly before the election, Democratic Senator from Connecticut Chris Murphy was invited to the White House to be briefed on the Trump administration's military plans. At a forum, he was asked about the briefing. Murphy was not allowed to disclose any details of his briefing. But visibly shaken, he only revealed that the plans for a new offensive against Iran were simply "insane."[10] If that happens, the escalation in the region would be gigantic, and the rule of law would be a thing of the past. Shortly thereafter, Murphy collapsed with a stroke and is currently out of action.
But even if we emerge unscathed from the Trump era, there isn't necessarily a reason to celebrate. If the Democrats were to indeed provide the next president starting in 2028, it would merely be a case of exchanging plague for cholera. Domestically, there might be a few treats for their own clientele. The terror troops of the ICE are likely to be tamed. Federal health subsidies would be paid out again. Otherwise, they are still exactly the same Democrats who were ousted from office by Trump in 2024. The Democrats still advocate for vaccinations, vaccinations until no doctor comes anymore. The Democrats have not subjected the Corona terror to a critical review to this day. The Democrats want to continue the whole charade of wokeness.
And the foreign policy of the Democrats is likely to become really dangerous for the Europeans again. Because then a continuous chain of command from Washington to Kyiv will once again be reestablished. Democrats, including the "democratic socialist" Bernie Sanders, remain passionate Russia haters for whom diplomatic dialog with Moscow is out of the question.
The geostrategic dividing line between Democrats and Republicans is as follows: the Democrats want to militarily defeat Russia, and then take on the final opponent, China. Toward Third World countries, the Democrats generally adopt a somewhat more tactful approach. The Democrats do not want to destroy Iran militarily, but rather gently bring it to its knees through economic sanctions.
In contrast, the Republicans want to buy off Russia and pull it out of the BRICS phalanx. For this, one can threaten and exploit Third World countries in an old colonial manner. For US citizens, neither option is acceptable. About two-thirds of all Americans do not like either the Democratic or the Republican Party[11]. They also do not trust the Political Action Committees that collect money from the super-rich and then strategically distribute it to the right politicians. Particularly hated recently is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) because it has exerted significant influence on Trump's war against Iran[12]. The spotlight of public attention is now on the previously untroubled Israel lobbyists. AIPAC now says it wants to withdraw from financing and promoting politicians. The lobbying will be taken over by a new front organization, namely the United Democracy Project.
So everything continues as before, whether democratic or republican. The encouraging aspect of the development is that a significant number of Americans have seen through this game and no longer want to be treated this way. There have been such moments in the history of the USA. At the beginning of the twentieth century, such a popular uprising was contained by the Progressives under Theodore Roosevelt. After the crash of 1929, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was able to capture the popular uprising of that time in the New Deal.
Whether the current awakening can still be captured by a synthetic movement is to be doubted. Between the ordinary Americans and the super-rich, there are worlds apart. People want neither plague nor cholera. Maybe the Americans will finally find a Third Way. It is to be hoped for them.
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Hermann Ploppa is a political scientist and journalist. Ploppa recently published the book "Der Neue Feudalismus – Privatisierung, Blackrock, Plattformkapitalismus" (The New Feudalism – Privatization, Blackrock, Platform Capitalism). As Amazon does not yet stock the book, it is best to order it from the author at: [email protected]. Visit the author's blog here.
He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Notes
[2] https://hermannploppa.substack.com/p/tech-oligarchs-fabricate-public-opinion?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web&embedding_publication_id=5734834
[7] https://dashboard-production-c2fc.up.railway.app/?utm_source
[8] https://hermannploppa.substack.com/p/trump-stolpert-uber-seine-eigenen?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web&embedding_publication_id=5734834
[10] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9rmfC6I6x4
Featured image is from the author
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