The Price for Trump’s Machismo

It is women who have ensured a majority in the House of Representatives for the Democrats. Their rise is a reaction to Trump’s contempt.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland are just the most well-known names. It is women who have ensured the Democrats’ victory in the congressional elections. Never before did so many women run for office; never before did so many win.

Disagreement will continue about whether the Democratic wins are enough to speak of a “blue wave” falling over Congress. It is, however, clear that a “women wave” is washing over Washington, breaking one record after another. Would you like examples?

More Women in the House of Representatives than Ever Before

Twenty-eight first-term congresswomen are entering the House of Representatives, more than ever before. The prior record stood at 24 women elected for the first time. That was in 1992, until now the “Year of Women.” The more than 500 female candidates for seats in the Senate and the House of Representatives already set a record.

It is already certain that, all told and cross-party (although the majority are Democrats), at least 92 women will occupy seats in the House of Representatives. Up to now, there have never been more than 84 female representatives out of 435. Henceforth, 38 black women will work in the House of Representatives; that is also more than ever before.

Women are on the rise in the Senate as well. Marsha Blackburn is the first female senator from Tennessee; in Kansas, Laura Kelly beat Kris Kobach, who had received a lot of support from Donald Trump.* In Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer took the governorship and all other important posts went to women.

What Woman Still Votes for Donald Trump?

No statistics about the shift of votes are needed to explain the success of female candidates in the election. In fact, it would require true fantasy and a deep loss of a sense of reality for a woman to go into the election booth at this point in time and vote for the party of Trump – the president who for decades has flaunted his deep bias against all women (save for his mother and daughter), who mocks alleged victims of abuse, who trivializes accusations of abuse or turns them into ridicule.

US Congressional Elections – Multi-Colored, Female, Young

The United States remains a divided country in which heavily populated coastal regions with urban areas around Los Angeles, San Francisco, from Boston via New York to Washington, envelop a rural center in which the level of education is lower, the land all the larger and the fears apparently correspondingly greater.

Demagogue with Celebrity Factor

Trump continues to remain a demagogue with celebrity power who can lay claim to a significant share in the Republican successes in the Senate races. His campaign appearances still have the intended effect and as much as his vain hubris might cause disgust among some, on others, they are like a magnet which draws them to the election booth.

And naturally, equality has not yet been achieved. Women continue to earn less for the same work as men, are more frequently the victims of violent abuse, and have to continue to fight for the credit and appreciation that are taken for granted by men.

But at least it is women like Nancy Pelosi, the new majority leader in the House of Representatives, who will make life difficult for Trump; who will publish his tax returns, hinder the construction of the crazy wall with Mexico and protect Robert Mueller’s investigation.

Trump is paying the price for his medieval machismo in installments. The first came due in these midterms; female American voters will bring the next installment to account in the presidential election two years from now. Then, the nightmare will hopefully end.

*Editor’s note: Laura Kelly defeated Kris Kobach in the race for governor of Kansas, not senator. Nancy Pelosi is expected to run for House speaker and serve as the majority leader when the new Congress convenes in January, 2019.