Will We Ever Vote Again?
It’s a question we should be asking
As the results of the 2024 Presidential Election became clear, and we all began to envision what a second Trump term might bring us, I immediately started seeing online chatter about the mid-term elections in 2026.
I get it. It was a coping mechanism. Many of us were looking for something, anything to give us hope. But I saw it a little differently. I saw it as many of us simply not understanding what had just happened, so at the time, I said so:
After the 2024 election, the GOP won both houses of Congress and the White House, and in the nearly 100 days since Trump was sworn in, we have seen him treat the Constitution like a roll of toilet paper again and again. He wants to be a strongman, a dictator like the men he so admires, and to this point, nothing has restrained him from trying. He hasn’t always succeeded, but he hasn’t always been stopped either. Our institutions are holding, but only just, and the attacks have only begun. But still, I keep hearing about 2026 and how things will change once we get there.
In Russia, which is what Trump wants us to become, Vladimir Putin typically wins elections by ridiculous numbers. In the most recent election, for example, he won almost 89% of the popular vote, and he uses that number to declare to the world that the entire country is united behind him. And for those who don’t know any better, that’s exactly how it looks.
But elections in Russia are neither free nor fair, and they haven’t been legitimate for a very long time. Putin rigs everything, and if you dare to run against him, you’re as likely to fall down an empty elevator shaft as you are to win or even make it to election day. He either jails or kills pretty much everyone who opposes him, and he’ll even cross borders to assassinate opponents if they leave the country. His favorite method for dealing with journalists is to throw them out of fifth story windows. Long story short – oppose him, and he’ll kill you. It’s just that simple.
This is the kind of power Trump wants, and of all the things that could prevent him from achieving it, a change election may be the greatest threat. If he were to lose the House or the Senate or both in 2026, then those bodies could flex some real power, the kind of power that could be very troublesome for Trump and the reich-wing muppets who do his dirty work. Yet no one seems to be talking about it, and I fear that they only will when the time comes to raise campaign cash. And by then, it won’t matter.
For some reason I simply cannot wrap my head around, we are still underestimating Trump and the depths to which he will sink to gain and hold power. I mean, we’re not 100 days in yet, and we’re sending non-criminals to foreign prisons, deporting American citizens (including children), and arresting judges for doing their jobs. Anyone who thinks 2026 will include a free and fair election in America … well, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but it simply ain’t gonna happen if Trump has his way.
We don’t suspect that Trump will manufacture a result in 2026 – we know he will. It’s a certainty. And knowing that as we now do, we have to operate as if.
And so far, we are not.
Brett Pransky is a writer, a teacher, a father, and a husband, but rarely in that order. He spends his days fighting for working families as the Executive Producer of The Rick Smith Show, and his nights trying to fix the world one clever sentence at a time.