Our Batsh*t Country Is Heading Into the Midterms with Barely a Shred of Dignity

It’s nice to see that the World's Oldest Democracy is approaching a semi-historic midterm election with its customary dignity.Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, and the wee donkey, make it stop!I guess we should start with this Five Alarms in Beijing in Michigan that lit up the news well into Monday morning. Rarely do you see anyone immolate their career in such a spectacular fashion as did Rep. Haley Stevens on Sunday. The details are familar by now. Stevens has two mutual obsessions running on the same track and heading straight for each other. First, she clearly hasn't yet gotten over losing the Michigan Democratic primary to Abdul El-Sayed. And second, she seems to be romantically involved with an absolute clown named Jared Turkish.I am unfamiliar with this website, but the reporting here seems fairly solid. From Gongwer:U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, her fiancé, Jason Turkish; her mother, Maria Marcotte; former Gov. Jim Blanchard; Blanchard’s wife, Janet Blanchard; and another couple gathered on Friday night at Beau’s Grillery in Bloomfield Township. The former governor, a longtime friend and supporter of the congresswoman, said Stevens was happy and looking forward to going to a church in Detroit on Sunday to campaign alongside her onetime Democratic primary rival for U.S. Senate, Abdul El-Sayed.So, a lovely evening out, right?Uh ...Then things got tense. Blanchard, in an interview Sunday with Gongwer News Service following the stunning news of Stevens revoking her endorsement of El-Sayed and instead endorsing Republican Mike Rogers, said Turkish, a longtime Democrat who is Jewish and endorsed Rogers last week over El-Sayed’s views on Israel, began chiding his fiancée, Stevens. “He was working her over. The way he was saying it was, ‘Everyone is disappointed in you, they did everything they could to help you and then immediately after you lose the primary, you endorsed him,’” said Blanchard, who was governor from 1983-91 and remains an active voice in the Democratic Party.Blanchard said he pushed back at Turkish on Stevens’ behalf.“I said, ‘Yeah, because she’s a team player. You have to be gracious. Come on,’” he said.Turkish was unmoved, Blanchard said.“He said, ‘I know, but they’re really disappointed in her,’” the former governor recalled.Blanchard said he then pointed out to Turkish that U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly, who is Jewish, is supporting El-Sayed and that Stevens is not Jewish. He questioned how he could hold Stevens to a higher standard than Slotkin.“He was all distraught,” he said. “He was all strung out about Abdul. I let her know, he’s not a good influence.”Stevens’ response? “She said, ‘I’m fine,’” Blanchard said.Narrator: She's not fine.As this crash-and-burn on CNN will attest.Stevens' meltdown should come as no surprise. Apparently, she assured half of Michigan that she would endorse El-Sayed on Sunday. Then she appeared with Republican candidate Mike Rogers at a Black church, arguing that Agent Double-O Soul Rogers would be a boon to minority business. Of course, the questioning was all about her flea-on-a-griddle morning that ended up with her endorsement of the Republican candidate. A press availabilty was disrupted by some guy's yelling, "Traitor!" at her. This caused her to flee the interview, as Sheriff Marge Gunderson once put it. Much of her congressional staff also resigned en masse.Meanwhile, El-Sayed rolled merrily along. Polls are idiotic, and now that the polling industry has become infested with gambling sites and Polymarket foolishness, polls are to be trusted even less. But the numbers seem to indicate that he's even doing better than some of the other high-profile candidates around the country. And it is at least arguable that backlash might fatten his margin. Who the hell knows? The country has been staggering with PTSD since 2015.Of course, any election that involves the president's rampaging around the country making weird mouth noises is going to be a few degrees off the plumb. (And by "making weird mouth noises." I include all of his prepared texts.) But between Vivek Ramaswamy's dragging Amy Acton's mother out of the van in which she was living, to the attempts by Alaskan Democrats to get Mary Peltola elected by using a ploy that had whiskers on it when JFK used it in 1946, this election reeled toward the climax like a drunk on a scooter.There was one solid, unchanging thing about this cycle and that was the performance of the federal judiciary at the lower levels. Just in the past few days, Trump and his DOJ saw their lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal dismissed forever, and they got squashed both in their attempt to segregate 20,000 ballots in California and in their attempt to use the whole Double Dan Sullivan episode to delegitimize any Peltola victory. In that case, Judge Sharon Gleason wrote.“The absence of any explanation from the United States as to how its requested relief could redress its alleged injury while simultaneously maintaining the secrecy of the ballot is telling. ... Requiring the segregation of ballots cast by voters for Daniel J. Sullivan so that these voters can be further investigated by law enforcement is not a remedy that this Court can or should order as it clearly violate Alaskans’ right to a secret ballot.”Not to further harsh the national mellow further, but the real knife fight will occur between November 4 and January 3, when the new Congress is supposed to be sworn in. Anybody who tells you they know what this president will do after a stinging defeat is kidding themselves. Bombing the hell out of Iran is thought to be a sensible option at the White House.For the moment, though, it all is in the hands of American voters, shell-shocked though they may be. At moments like these, I recall the words of the late Rep. Morris Udall of Arizona, whom I spent 1975–76 trying to get elected as president. Mo liked to recall the brief, but pithy, concession speech of a defeated candidate.“The people have spoken, goddamn them.”