AoSHQ The Morning Report
August 5, 2026
If you are an American political junkie and are able to emotionally detach yourself from the process, this is a fascinating time in history to get your fix. Heck, even if you do get a little emotionally invested it's still wild and interesting.In Other News
I worked on my first campaign in 1984. For the next 35 years or so, I was a conservative Republican activist. While there were always some surprises, most of that time just involved the normal ebb and flow of American party politics. I was 3-2 in my first five presidential elections, for example. From a conservative standpoint, the most interesting thing that happened in all of those years was the Tea Party movement. I co-founded the Los Angeles Tea Party, and spent the next few years flying all over the country speaking at rallies and conferences.
Historical trends in politics remained fairly reliable guides for political prognostication through most of the first decade-and-a-half of the 21st century. Then, real estate mogul and reality television star Donald Trump blew everything out of the water.
What's been interesting is watching how many "experts" and pundits from all across the political spectrum still cling to conventional wisdom and the above-mentioned historical trends, despite none of it applying since the night in November 2016 that Trump sent Granny Maojackets back to her box wine breakfasts in Chappaqua.
We're getting close to the home stretch for this year's midterm elections and it is by far the weirdest one of these things that I have been involved in during my adult political life. The Republicans have nominal control of Washington right now. The slim majorities in Congress are often cited as excuses for not getting anything done, but those of us who have been voting Republican for a long time aren't buying it. The GOP has shown time and again that it doesn't play well with the lead.
All of the above means that the Democrats should be looking at bright skies and clear sailing to victory in November, especially in the House. That's what those wacky historical trends tell us, anyway. Oddly, the hive mind party has chosen this year to have a full-on family feud. The fight is between the young commies who proudly let their hammer and sickle freak flags fly, and the Dem elders who agree with all of the commie stuff, but would prefer to be more coy about it so that they can dupe undecided voters.
