Using democracy while we still can

Not even the judges know for sure if the courts can hold up against a full-on assault over the next four years. They could use some fortification. Top law firms that once crossed The Donald are now on bended knee. Same with the social media barons. Congressional Republicans of conscience are in hiding.

A reminder to the fretful: There is a midterm election in November 2026 that should flip control of Congress to the Democrats, which would be a major wrench in the Trump-Musk machine’s gears. Republicans control the House 218-215, and the Senate 53-47.

The incumbent party typically loses midterm elections. Not always. We are not in conventional times. But since 1934, the incumbent party lost 28 House seats on average in the midterms. That suggests that Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-NY, will be the next Speaker, a real cold shower on Trump’s power lust.

Trump is doing as much damage as possible while the getting is good. His bash may be over in a matter of months. Consumer confidence has dropped four months in a row. Judges are about to make temporary injunctions against his jihad binding. Polls show that voters like his immigration theatrics but not his performance on the economy. Most are skeptical of using tariffs as a weapon. They don’t like picking fights with Canada or Mexico.

Angry voters are roughing up Congress sheeple and state legislators at town hall meetings, which is why Rep. Randy Feenstra doesn’t hold them. Old folks are fearful about meddling in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and are confused by the chaos coming out of DC. What’s this about leaking plans about bombing Yemen? Most people think Putin is a snake. Why are veterans getting fired from the VA?

These rhinestone cowboys are riding too fast for comfort.

Democrats have made strong showings in recent special elections, including Iowa. They are not a threat to take over either legislative chamber in Des Moines. Republicans hold a 67-33 advantage in the House and a 34-16 majority in the Senate. But they can chip away. Gov. Reynolds will be up for re-election. She is not especially popular but neither is any Democrat. She is vulnerable.

Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican from Red Oak, is probably safe despite a saucy story in ProPublica about her reputed affection for a man, or men, in uniform and how that might affect her judgment on the Armed Services Committee. In this Trump era, one could surmise that voters don’t care about sauciness. They care about Ernst covering their losses on the soybean market for Trump’s trade wars. USDA is working on that.

It is conceivable that Democrats could flip one or two congressional districts in Iowa if the economy tanks hard enough, or if nobody answers the phone at Social Security when the website goes down for four out of the last 10 days, as it just happened. They fired the people who knew how to run the website. Musk is leading Trump to the third rail of American politics — do not mess with Social Security. They can’t resist. It’s such a power trip. Granny must show up at the office in person to prove she has white hair and is deserving. There is no office in Storm Lake. They’re playing with political dynamite.

They must deliver the tax cuts they promised. And, they must lower housing, energy and food costs. Not even Trump can order it so, as a solo act, with a televised parchment signing. There is no end of the bird flu and higher egg prices in sight. How long can you buy down the cost of food staples by shipping in eggs from Turkey? How long can you cut disaster checks to corporate hog outfits that are losing their Asian markets to tariffs? These are the guys who are supposed to take a chain saw to spending.

Those clouds sure look heavy but the sky is not falling.

The courts are holding up, if wobbly. Chief Justice Roberts, after having granted Trump broad immunity to thumb his nose at the justice system, rebuked the president for harassing federal judges. Not all the blue-chip DC law firms are cowering. The press is standing up: Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Steve Jobs, has several billion dollars of free cash flow, owns The Atlantic and appears to be game for the fight over the bumbling leak of bombing plans for Yemen to the publication’s editor, Jeffrey Goldberg.

It will become a fair fight if the loyal opposition takes control of at least the US House. That is where budgets start, and where those painfully enduring hearings are held with subpoena power. Trump can only do so much with the stroke of his own pen. He will be confounded in the Senate once Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has a spine implanted. Trump will not have 60 votes to get much done. That’s a big reason he is swinging his wrecking ball so hard now, while he can. If this economy keeps sucking wind Trump and Musk will get hammered at the polls in 2026. It might even ripple into Iowa.

Art Cullen is the editor of the Storm Lake Times Pilot in Northwest Iowa, where this column appeared. For more columns and editorials, please consider a subscription to the Times Pilot. Or, if you wish, you can make a tax-deductible gift to the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation to support independent community journalism in rural Iowa. Thanks.

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