U.S. voters decide the government needs a shower
National Post, 6 November 2026
Asked what issues were most important, 90 per cent said corruption, about equal with the cost of living
The aquatic metaphors were favoured — it was a Democratic wave, or a blue tsunami, or even a “bluenami.” But American midterm voters were not hit by some external meteorological event. They turned on the water themselves. Millions of Americans stepped into the voting booth and decided that their government needed to take a shower.
That the Republicans would lose, even heavily, was to be expected. It is a historic pattern. And in a democracy, when the governing party insists on ramming down the people’s throats policies that are massively unpopular — tariffs, mass deportations by marauding masked agents, the Iran war, the trade war with Canada — the party will lose. Nevertheless, the scale of the MAGA rejection did shock. The explanation was there in the exit poll results. Asked what issues were most important, 90 per cent (!) said corruption, about equal with cost of living.
The scale of Trumpian corruption, raised to dizzying heights in the second term, had been pointed out by his critics for years. More recently, as the Trump family’s greed and grift became truly gross, even a few supporters would whisper their discomfort. The American people decided that it was time to shout. Enough!
The filth that Donald Trump and his cronies, pardoned criminals, and even cabinet secretaries had brought to the body politic needed to be washed away, scrubbed away, scraped away. And so it was. If the necessary shower needed to be a tsunami, so be it.
The fetid bathwater had to be thrown out, and if a few babies went with it, too bad. That very merry band of brothers long accused of “Trump derangement syndrome” may acidly note that the biggest baby is still in the White House, but they can be excused for their exuberance.
The inner ring of MAGA is chastened, as Americans have registered their verdict upon the vaulting vainglory, the vast venality, the visual vulgarity at the heart of the Trump administration.
Vice-President JD Vance, always quick to tack to the prevailing winds, announced the morning after the night before that the electoral calamity was due to Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran. Trump himself seemed content with that, as Vance was quick to blame it all on Israel, which neatly avoids having to address the politically lethal tariffs and the violence of immigration enforcement. More to the point, it diverts attention from the cataract of corruption.
Blaming the Iran War is the safe option, for the president is clearly bored with the whole thing and has no idea of how to put an end to it. Having his vice-president declare it all a disaster, to be written off as was his customary practice in serial bankruptcy, might offer a sufficient distraction from the more critical allegations of criminal corruption at the core of his presidency.
The American people will not be so easily fooled. Told repeatedly by Trump not to worry about a temporary, modest hit to their pocketbooks due to oil prices and their cascading effects through the economy, voters noticed how the Trump family abused public office to line their own pockets. And they voted accordingly.
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