The coming Republican Congress: Will Trumpists set the tone?

IT FELT good for the Democrats as long as they lasted, those rising hopes that despite the political and economic environment, including raging inflation and an unpopular Democratic president, they may still have a chance to remain in control of Congress, or at least of the US Senate, after the upcoming midterm elections.

There were indications that some independent (and perhaps Republican) voters would punish the GOP in November in a backlash against the decision by the conservatives-controlled US Supreme Court to overturn abortion rights, or in protest against Republican candidates who agree with the Trumpist notion that President Joe Biden had stolen the 2020 election.

But in almost all the opinion polls that have been taken in the final weeks of the contest for the control of Congress, the Republicans now maintain an advantage and are gaining electoral momentum, as the price at the pump, aka inflation, has become the dominant concern of the majority of American voters. The proverbial independent voter may not have liked the Supreme Court’s ruling on abortion, but what really piques her is the huge bill she has had to pay for her groceries.