Letters from an American

November 5, 2026
House Democrats plan to shine a light on Trump’s corruption and renew American government to serve the common good, Rep. Jamie Raskin is the incoming chair of the House Judiciary Committee and he plans to use subpoenas and investigations to learn more about Trump’s coercion of law firms, about Todd Blanche’s refusal to produce documents required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and about the DOJ’s persecution of Trump’s perceived enemies, The House Oversight and Reform Committee will focus on the “Trump crime family,” as well as abuses of ICE, The House Finance Committee intends to dg into JP Morgan’s relationship with Epstein, The Democrats also plan to look into the finances behind Trump’s presidential library, Trump appears focused on his legacy, as he pushes to build the arch and takes steps to prevent future changes to the Oval office, MAGA is blaming the election results on the Iran war, but polls indicate that concerns about corruption were foremost for voters, Rep. Thomas Massie plans to force a vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act when Congress returns next week, Massie also plans to force a vote to impeach Pete Hegseth, The election made it clear that Americans do not want more data centers, Tech firms lost billions of dollars in market value because of concerns about the industry, Voters in Montana approved a ballot initiative to stop the flow of corporate money into political campaigns, with more than 65% supporting the measure.
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November 4, 2026
Voters flipped control of both chambers of Congress from the Republicans to the Democrats, A Democratic victory in the House was expected, but in the Senate the outcome was unclear, In the Senate, Democrats flipped seven seats, and the race in Alaska has not been called yet, Even more eye-popping, in another uncalled race, Democratic Senate candidate Scott Colom is ahead of the Republican incumbent in Mississippi, If he wins he will be the first Black senator from Mississippi since Reconstruction, Democrats claimed governors’ seats in five states, and none will be hamstrung by a Republican supermajority in the state legislatures, Voters flipped seats up and down the ballot in states like Texas, Some races were won by 20 points, some as high as 40, The election came off without significant hitches, and the win was, as hoped, “too big to rig,”  The results were a rejection of the Republican ideology that has driven American politics since the 1980s, that some people are better than others and have the right to rule, This took hold in response to the push for equality for women and racial minorities, After sending Democrat Jimmy Carter to the White House in 1976, Americans elected Ronald Reagan who won by attacking the modern American state, Reagan tied racial and gender inequality to economic prosperity, That combination worked until Trump’s second term, The administration's policies have hurt regular Americans, and in the election those Americans came together across the lines the Republicans have exploited, The election is a historic rebuke of the Republican ideology, and the results will turn the focus to Americans’ needs, and on checking Trump and his administration, Trump is a lame duck and he has turned his attention to his DC projects, Meanwhile the Republicans who hope to follow him to the White House are trying to draw lines distinguishing themselves, But for now, Americans have moved on. 
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November 1, 2026
Trump intends to try to steal the 2026 midterm election, He is trying to boost his own popularity, sending e-mail messages extolling the efficiency of the Social Security Administration, His administration is, at the same time, using the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security to threaten local and state election officials, In Alaska, the administration has asked a judge to order election officials to separate all ballots that rank Daniel J Sullivan, who shares a name with the Republican incumbent who is running for re-election, US District Judge Sharon Gleason has dismissed the lawsuit prohibiting the state from certifying any winner in Alaska other than the Republican incumbent, The administration will appeal her decision, Meanwhile Democrats have filed a lawsuit over Alaska’s apparent failure to open at least 18 early voting locations, Trump held a lavish Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago, even as Americans are struggling under soaring oil and gas prices caused by Trump’s war in Iran, At the party Trump acknowledged that a Chinese spy targeted Nvidia’s CEO to obtain information about the company’s advanced AI chips, Trump chose not to do anything about this transfer, Republicans in charge of Alaska’s state government are asking that the administration’s lawsuit be rejected by the court, reiterating that states, and not the federal government, control elections.
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TOctober 31, 2026
Andrew Johnson traveled around the country in advance of the 1866 midterm election, to drum up support for his party, He denounced Congress and called certain Republican members of Congress traitors, and compared himself to Jesus Christ, The Democrats were the party of slavery and secession, and Johnson, a former Democrat who became president in April 1865, after Lincoln’s assassination, opposed the young Republican party’s plans for a future where every man would have the right to the fruits of his own labor,  Johnson pardoned all but about fifteen hundred former Confederates, He refused to endorse Black voting, and by requiring little of the southern States, he guaranteed that the same men who had taken the South out of the Union would be responsible for bringing it back in, They joined Johnson in trying to re-create the world of the Old South, and in each state, through the Black Codes, they guaranteed the dominance of white people in the South, But Republicans had no intention of allowing the South to become more powerful, and Congress refused to seat the South’s representatives, A committee of fifteen members was assigned to come up with a better plan for rebuilding the nation, and introduced the joint resolution that would become the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, Both chambers of Congress agreed to the amendment on June 18, 1866 and sent it to the states for ratification, Johnson hated the proposed Fourteenth Amendment, Johnson told southern politicians to ignore Congress, He set out on a railroad tour to whip up support for Democrats before the 1866 election, But white supremacist violence and everything that Johnson stood for were too much for voters, Rather than turning against the Republicans in the election, voters gave the Republicans a two-thirds majority of Congress, enabling them to override Johnson, and in 1868 the states ratified the Fourteenth Amendment.
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