Americans will remember Wednesday 4th November 2026 as a day when confidence in their democracy was revived. On Wednesday the results of the midterm elections indicated that the Democratic Party had won a substantial majority in the House of Representatives and a majority in the Senate giving them effective legislative control. This does not mean that they can impeach Mr Trump because that would require a two-thirds majority in the Senate. They will focus most probably on the economy and trying to clean up the mess of Mr Trump’s two years of governance.
The causes of the rejection of his authoritarian dictatorial governance are many: the illegal unconstitutional war with Iran which has caused a cost of living crisis in America and around the world especially in Europe with rising food and fuel prices, interruption of oil from the gulf leading to a 20% decline in the global oil market, the utter disregard for the rights of American citizens resulting in unlawful detentions, the persecution of immigrants lawfully residing in the United States, the lowest level of political discourse ever experienced in any American election with targeted racial attacks on candidates or decimating against them because of their religious affiliations and cultures. None of these transgressions are in any way consistent with true American values as declared by their Founding Fathers or as declared by President Abraham Lincoln. The principle that all men are created equal and no man is above the law are concepts inherited from England-the fundamental underpinning of our Common Law and justice.
Americans defied Trump’s impulsive taunts and threats his attacks on the media, the judges, law firms and universities. Not all law firms rejected his threats some acquiesced promising to give legal advice at discounted rates and major tech companies that paid homage to him with financial gifts. In essence the insidious corruption and bullying became an issue in this election. Against this the people whom Trump, frequently expressed contempt for either by reason of his ignorance or malevolence, chose to reject his policies outright. This was one of the worst results Republicans had experienced in a century.
Credit for Wednesday’s result must go however to those who championed the opposition to Trump’s vindictive policies namely, those who voted for change and those institutions who stood up to him. At last, the Supreme Court drew a line in the President’s autocratic machinations by rejecting his request to set aside twenty thousand ballots in California. Also, the press including the Wall Street Journal and many brave podcasters such as Midas Touch Network, Legal AF and the Court of History who frequently called out Trump’s excesses and futile unmeritorious court actions.
But the people stood up as well in March 2026 at the “No Kings” marches with 3000 marches across the country in 50 states. This was followed nearer the election by the “Get Out To Vote” campaign which had a similar high turnout.
It is perhaps relevant to remember in the context of America the first American president George Washington’s advice in his Farewell Address in 1796 to the effect that:
“The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty. It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus, the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.”
Reflecting on Washington’s warning it can readily be discerned at what Trump has done in his second term to lead his country into a type of frightful despotism undermining public liberty and indeed at the end of his first term inciting an insurrection to overturn the results of an election on January 6th 2021. Clearly, he is someone whom history may conclude was not capable of doing the job Washington did because he has never understood what the job requires.
Challenging Times Ahead
Now that the Democratic Party has won a majority in both houses of the Congress it is incumbent on them to mitigate the damage done to the American economy, rule of law and America’s reputation around the world. According to Professor Michael McFaul of Stanford University and a former US Ambassador to Russia, America has a chance to address the question of empowered monopolies, tax centbillionaires, and take steps to weed out foreign interference in the media and social media platforms. Congress might also want to look at the excesses of those corporations which assume a certain sovereign power to interrupt and interfere with defence equipment which may be detrimental to the security interest of the state.
The challenge is now with the Congress to see whether it can act in accordance with its duties powers and powers as a separate organ of government. However as referred in an earlier op-ed the challenge will be in foreign policy and the risk to Europe that Trump will continue to behave in a manner that is anathema to the fundamental principles of American foreign policy since 1949 and consort with America’s enemies and not its allies. On the other hand, it can change as an imminent jurist, Judge Michael J Luttig, a former Federal Judge, giving a lecture at Michigan State University on 21st October said:
If we summon our moral constitution and our American character and speak truth to our governments untruth, the United States will again be the moral leader of the free world and will long endure as the nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal that was brought forth on this continent by our forefathers 250 years ago. America is calling.
I would also add the free world is calling.
