Well, with the general election less than a month away and the freak show this season has become, we could all use a little good news.

The coming liberal takeover of the House and Senate does not appear to be imminent.

Recent polling shows key congressional races have been immune to the influence of Trump, either in races where Republicans are trying to separate themselves from Trump, but also in races where the Republican is hoping to get a boost from Trump. “I think there is a disconnect in most places, especially when the Republican candidate is well known and already well defined,” Ron Faucheux, who runs the non-partisan polling firm Clarus Research Group, told the Washington Examiner.

One likely reason that the cancer of Trumpism has not overtaken the entire Republican brand is because Trump has been more at war against the GOP than the Democrats, quite frankly. Even after winning the nomination, after having the GOP establishment fight tooth and nail to protect him at the convention, and beyond, Trump still maintains he is an “outsider” in the party he represents, and that he is daily victimized by the bullies of the GOP.

Because Trump is running his own party, separate from, but contained within the Republican party, like some virus that infects the body, down ballot Republicans have apparently been able to run their campaigns independent from him.

That had actually been my fear. The North Carolina races are quite tight, and the last thing we need is for a disastrous national campaign to damage our state races.

Double digit gains for Democrats in the House “seem more likely” now than it did a week ago, before the lewd-talk Trump tape was disclosed, Wasserman said. But a Democratic takeover is probably out of reach because only 37 House races are truly competitive, and Democrats need 30 seats to win back the majority. The campaign arm of the House Democrats this week leaked details of a conference call in which they touted new poll numbers showing that the Democratic advantage on the generic ballot has increased, signaling better prospects for their candidates. Wasserman noted that Democrats have indeed boosted their advantage on the generic congressional ballot, “but not by as much as Trump has fallen since mid-September.”

Basically, it’s going to take a tsunami of bad news to flip the House back into Democrat hands, at this point, at least from what all the early indicators have shown.

And in the Senate, Republican prospects have held steady or even improved despite Trump’s October poll plummet.

Richard Burr and Kelly Ayotte (North Carolina and New Hampshire) remain tied in their races, essentially, and in Ohio, a state Trump once led, but not anymore, Senator Rob Portman has a climbed to a 16-point lead.

The real, lingering danger is that Trump’s toxic swill will so disgust and dishearten voters, that they simply refuse to show up on election day, and by doing so, will allow those races to slip away.

A refusal of Republican voters to show up on election day could potentially cost a loss of seats in the double digit range.

This is where I remind everyone to pass the word: Protect the down ballot!

Even if you’re as disgusted as me with the GOP’s refusal to fight Obama with any real veracity for the last eight years, or to stand on principle during the convention and to oust Trump, the notion of allowing liberals to regain control of all checks and balances is still just too dire to contemplate.

Let’s face it. The top of the ticket is wasted, and became so the moment Trump was named the nominee. I’m not ready to throw the baby out with the bathwater, however, so I will be forever in favor of keeping a shadow of conservatism in control in the other government branches.

Besides, SCOTUS, right?