Democrats' Midterm Triumph Marks The Ignominious End Of MAGA Culture War
Supporters celebrating victory of Gov.-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms in Atlanta on November 3, 2006
Thrilling as it was to watch Donald Trump, the Congressional Republicans and the MAGA movement defeated in historic style, last week, the even better news that has emerged in the election's wake is that they suffered a sweeping cultural rejection too.
As the midterm results reveal the dimensions of the Democratic victory, it has become clear that its meaning extended beyond blue over red. What the voters declared with their choices in one contest after another, was the end of the MAGA project – again, not just as an electoral phenomenon but as war on American culture. Voters repudiated Trump’s attempted restoration of white supremacy, his routine misogyny, his appeals to phony piety and to nativist bigotry, his worship of money and all the ugliness he has manifested since that trip down the escalator in 2015.
Specific examples of that rejection span the entire map -- from New Hampshire to South Carolina, from Michigan to Mississippi, and from Arizona to Alaska. Some rose to national attention, heavily publicized as “firsts”: Abdul El-Sayed, the first Muslim-American in the U.S. Senate; Gina Hinojosa, the first Latina Governor of Texas; Keisha Lance Bottoms, the first Black female governor (and a truly extraordinary departure for Georgia); Xavier Becerra, the first Latino governor of California; Chris Pappas, the first openly gay man in the U.S. Senate; and Deb Haaland of New Mexico, the first female Native American governor.
Confronted by millions of dollars in openly hateful propaganda designed to scare voters, these rainbow candidates triumphed over prejudice and fear. The vilest Republican appeals were far less effective than anyone anticipated, even with the categories of (white and male) voters usually most vulnerable to those appeals.
But the exceptional cases that made the faces of MAGA fanatics as red as their hats went well beyond that handful. Literally dozens of surprisingly successful candidates, whose races haven’t quite risen to headline status, showed how thoroughly Americans repudiated Trump’s ideology in all its forms.
As women and minorities expanded their political and cultural power, so did other categories inimical to Trumpian idiocy, including scientists, doctors, union workers, veterans, gays and lesbians, and even beleaguered trans people.
In Alabama of all places, a Democratic software engineer will be the first transgender woman elected to the state legislature, flipping a seat in the House of Representatives despite a noxious gender-baiting campaign against her. Arizona chose the first Native American woman for statewide office. Nevada chose its first Black governor and so did Wisconsin. Georgia voters didn’t just choose their first Black and woman governor (while re-electing their first Jewish senator), but they also elected the first Black woman with a science Ph.D. to Congress, Emory University microbiologist Jasmine Clark.
Trump political adviser Roger Stone told us long ago that in politics, “hate is a stronger motivator than love.” His depressing maxim appears to have maxed out, at least for now.
No election victory is ever final and a Republican presidential campaign led by the likes of JD Vance could certainly revive the resentments exploited in Trump’s rise. But Election 2026 reminded us of something we had almost forgotten -- that Americans still can transcend the poisonous and small-minded politics of this president.
Joe Conason is founder and editor-in-chief of The National Memo. He is also editor-at-large of Type Investigations, a nonprofit investigative reporting organization formerly known as The Investigative Fund. His latest book is The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism (St. Martin's Press, 2024). The paperback version, with a new Afterword, is available wherever books are sold.
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- When the Culture Wars Stop Working: MAGA's Growing Disconnect | Times Now ›
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