The blue wave may not be as blue as you would hope. Democrats need to keep the pressure on.

I want to preface this by saying this election went exactly as I had hoped (outside of Texas District 23... that one sucked), but overall, I'm pretty satisfied. My state went how I wanted it to (I'm in WV), and the states that needed to flip flipped. The message is clear, but I'm seeing Democrats celebrating like this is somehow a win for them, when it actually signifies something pretty crazy that they don't want to consider just yet.

The biggest, and most likely only, reason the Democrats managed to flip the states that they did is because the Republican Party betrayed its own voters with the MAGA bullshit. They did not win on policy or by convincing people. They won because everyone is mad at the other party.

Far-right figures openly told their followers to vote blue. Nick Fuentes, whose show pulls 500K to 1M views an episode (Daily Beast), had been telling people since March to either skip the midterms or vote Democrat (Newsweek), and on election morning he posted "Get out and vote Democrat today" (The Forward).

And it wasn't just the fringe. JD Vance himself admitted that "many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026" (CBS News). Trump's own voters came out and voted blue. This alone should raise some red flags for you Democrats out there.

This kind of thing can be good in the big election, but for midterms it leaves two years for people to flip on them AGAIN or clarify their true opinions. When you take a look at the policy wins in flipped states, as well as Republican wins in already red states, you can paint the picture.

Ohio and North Carolina both flipped Senate seats to Democrats this year (NBC). You know what else passed? Voter ID. In both. Ohio put it in the state constitution with 65% of the vote (NBC News), and North Carolina passed photo ID for all voters, mail-in and absentee included, with about 60% (NBC News).

The Democrats who flipped red seats are already on the right end of their party. They're moderates, not leftists (Fox News). The one big progressive win, Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan (AP), was a seat Democrats already held, not a flip.

Roughly two DOZEN local proposals to restrict or block data centers passed across 10 states (CNBC). And NBC's exit polls showed that only 26% of voters said the war in Iran was a minor factor or no factor at all in their vote (The Federalist).

The voter ID results alone show what I'm arguing. Democrats won because of conservatives feeling lied to by the MAGA movement, not a rise in progressives converting people to their ideology. This is why, if the Dems REALLY want to win the next presidential election, they need to keep the pressure on. This isn't a win, it's a chance.

There was no rise in progressives or leftist ideas in this country. They won because conservatives have actually gotten more conservative these last two years, so much so that they will vote against MAGA just to send a message, not in hopes of a Democrat winning.

If republicans manage to distance themselves from the MAGA side next election and put up someone young and self-aware, they could still absolutely sweep. 

My advice for dems who actually want to win the presidential? Act sane for 2 years and you guys have it in the bag. You know... as long as you don't run Harris. That would be royally stupid.

wait a minute...