Massive Consequences for Democracy – and Germany

Good morning Mr President,

Are you ready for your daily briefing?

Morning, Ron, Morning… have you… hmm… I mean… have you seen this pen…?

A pen, sir, are you looking for a pen?

Problem One pen, ron, pen! Barack gave it to me!

Ah, Barack’s pen. Yes sir, it is right there on your table.

… eh…? Ahh! … Yes. Barack’s writing Yes Yes. OK… OK, what’s going on?

Mr President, before you begin your briefing, may I switch to German?

Yes, Mr. President, German. Exception only for today. I’m sorry, but this is important.

Hmpf… Germany… that’s tomorrow… give me the pen… ok. Then set it on fire, Ron!

Thank you, Mr President. That too only for today. For once, many people in Germany are listening to what I have to say to you. Or they study together. And thanks to Mr Bezos’ new simultaneous translation earpiece, you can still hear everything in perfect English. Great technology, isn’t it? For today only, from tomorrow everything will be secret again, Sir, I promise. But as you know, today is a historic day. So I thought we’d open the door to the Oval Office and listen to the good old comrades there on the other side of the pond, which I’ll tell you about at your morning President’s briefing.

OK, point one: To this day, you have virtually no power. With Republican election victories in the House of Representatives and Senate, the other side now has a blocked majority, and you know they’ll be using them. Ruthless to be precise. Specifically, it means: domestic You won’t be able to do anything in the two years between now and the presidential election, they will cut money from your budget. And before you object that you might try to negotiate with them, I’d like to be on the safe side: Sure, you could, but it would be a wasted effort. their new majority leader Kevin McCarthy Nancy Pelosi was replaced as speaker. You know, he’s the guy who allied himself with right-wing conspirators and claims to this day that you stole Donald’s election victory. Anyway, he said on “Fox News” this morning, I quote: “From now on, Joe Biden is a dead man, he doesn’t get a cent from us!”

Damned idiot, this Kevin idiot.

Yes, Sir, I know. But unfortunately this is the reality as of now. i will deal with it point two, Then foreign policy Doesn’t look much better. Sure, you are still allowed to travel to summits, G7, G20, state visits, etc. You can still sign treaties—but wherever money is involved, you need Republicans, right, and they’re going to shove you there, too.

Listen, Ron, some of those Republicans are reasonable! They understand that America has to do the job reliably in the world!

Well, Mr President, there are not so many sensible Republicans left after this congressional election. Most either joined Congress on their predecessor’s ticket or are supporters of the Florida governor. Ron DeSantis, He’s hardly better than Donald, as you know. We must face the truth: the situation is dire.

Well, unfortunately nothing good comes from our point of view. I’ll just list the most pressing problems: Ukrainians can no longer take heavy weapons from us, so Putin can arm himself peacefully and start attacking with renewed vigor in the spring. The defense of the nuclear deal with Iran is likely to fall short, which will prompt mullahs to build even more bombs now. To secure NATO’s eastern border, we will probably have to bring back troops sent to Germany, Poland and the Baltic states…

…and we also have to stay out of NATO expansion from now on. Finland and Sweden certainly want to come together, but Turk is stopping it and wants to give only if we donate a lot of fighter planes to him – unfortunately there is no money for that either…

… Speaking of aircraft, our military presence in the Western Pacific wastes huge amounts of money, you should order back the aircraft carriers. Then the Chinese get Taiwan, but it’s like that and…

I don’t want to hear this bad news!

I am sorry Mr Speaker, but this is the position as of today. Well, you shouldn’t be the only one to be shocked. Our friends in Europe probably slept equally badly last night. but guess what? Viewed this way, there is a good side to the whole thing: Europeans will eventually have to take their own security into their own hands. What have we not done for them in the last 80 years! It cost us tens of trillions of dollars! Now they should be able to manage themselves, they always think they know everything better anyway. And now we’re focusing on the Chinese. That’s what Barack would do.

Hmm… well… if you say so…

Yes, I am sure of it, Mr. President. Focus on the essentials, stop getting stuck! Everything is different from today and… oh!

President, I have to apologize, I made a mistake! Today is not even Wednesday morning, it is only Tuesday – Congress elections are not till today! So the race is open, nothing is lost yet!

Goddamn Ron, are you serious?

Yes, Sir, I am!

Then turn off the microphone! What I am telling you right now is very confidential. I have a last minute plan…

So, back to the here and now. You just read: Congressional Elections in the United States – “middle term” It is said – depending on the result there can be far-reaching consequences. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and about a third of the seats in the Senate would be reassigned – in many places in favor of one party in politically-filtered constituencies (see chart). In addition, several states have pending governor’s elections. Referendums and votes are also held in other positions such as public prosecutor. will be crucial for Joe Biden’s Democrats Whether they lose their majority in one or possibly both houses of Congress – the Senate is even more important. Should he lose in both houses, Biden will have to move on “lame duck” Been doing politics with tied hands for two years.