Photo by Janine and Jen Eden

So it looks like the Democrats had their blue wave — sort of. The House went blue, but the Senate remained in Republican hands. Although the Idiot-in-Chief declared victory, life is about to get more difficult for him now you have Democrats, including his old enemy Rep. Maxine Waters, heading up committees with subpoena powers. (Declaring victory in the face of defeat is an old Trump tactic, according to the 2016 PBS film “The Decision”)

And in typical Trump fashion, the president refused to admit responsibility for losing the House. Instead, he put the blame on Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.

But when you dig deeper into the results you notice a disturbing trend. Republicans still back awful GOP candidates. In Florida, Andrew Gilliam, who was ahead in the polls, lost to Ron DeSantis, a candidate who used the term “monkey up” and was backed by blatantly racist robocalls. In Georgia, Sec. of State Brian Kemp is expected to win the gubernatorial race, even though he presided over massive voter suppression, cut a commercial where he promised to round up illegal aliens and was also supported by racists robocalls. Georgia was also plagued by election irregularities, such as long waits and malfunctioning voting machines. If there was any decency in the universe, the entire Georgia gubernatorial election would be canceled and there would be a revote.

In other elections news, San Diego voters reelected Rep. Duncan Hunter, who’s currently facing an indictment and probably won’t end up serving out his term. Hunter also accused his challenger, Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar, of being linked to terrorism, even though he worked in the Obama White House and had national security clearance. And to cap it all, Iowa voters reelected Rep. Steve King, an open white supremacist who has rubbed shoulders with European neo-Nazis, and was even condemned by his own party.

So what does this tell us? Apparently, Republicans are willing to vote for morally-challenged candidates, as long as they stick to the race-baiting script and follow the party line. It also proves that black candidates have problems winning statewide or national races.

Guardian columnist Cass Mudde says the Republican has adopted Trumpism with all of its ugly flaws.

In 2020, Democrats will count on getting out the vote, and their coalition of progressives, women, people of color and young voters. The GOP will stick to voter suppression and scaremongering, and with Trump’s fanatical, truth-adverse followers, that might be a winning formula.

“The midterms turned out to indeed be a referendum on Trump and “Trumpism,” i.e. a populist radical right combination of authoritarianism, nativism and populism. It was fully embraced by the Republican party and fully rejected by the Democratic party,” he said.

But looking forward to 2020, which will come around fairly quickly, Republican voters just showed us that they will reward politicians for bad behavior. As much as I would like to dismiss the idea, Trump might win reelection.

In 2020, Democrats will count on getting out the vote, and their coalition of progressives, women, people of color and young voters. The GOP will stick to voter suppression and scaremongering, and with Trump’s fanatical, truth-adverse followers, that might be a winning formula.

“Scaring people worked: The Republicans not only held onto power in the Senate, they seem likely to have increased their slim majority in the chamber. Importantly, there will be more Trump Republicans in the Senate,” said Timothy J. Lynch, associate professor in American Politics, University of Melbourne. “Trump looks to be in a better position for re-election than many commentators had believed.”